The best games to play with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini
Updated
The best games to play with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini are ones built for a text model's strengths. Games where you keep the secret, like 20 Questions with the AI guessing, work out of the box; games where the AI must keep one, like hangman or a whodunit, only work when the answer is fixed before you start. The 39 free games here fix the answer, the rules or the dice in advance, from a sealed mystery like Blackfile to an AI-run tabletop RPG like The Toll at Blackbridge, across 15 shelves.
What games can you play with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini?
Two kinds. The classics where you hold the secret, or where there is no secret, play well from a short prompt; the table and the prompts below cover them. Everything that needs the AI to keep a secret, follow a referee's rulebook or roll a fair die needs more than a one-line prompt, and that is what the 39 free games here are: D&D-style RPGs, murder mysteries, social deduction games, chess puzzles & trainers, creepy horror games, duels, escape rooms, word games, text adventures, survival games, logic puzzles, trivia & quiz games, riddles & lateral thinking puzzles, guessing games & 20 questions, and strategy & simulation games. Each is a game card: one long prompt that holds a game's rules and content, so the AI plays to them instead of improvising. A button on its page opens ChatGPT or Claude with the prompt ready; you send it and the game starts. Any other assistant takes the same prompt. One that can't open links takes the whole card pasted in, which plays 22 of the 39; the other 17 keep their answers in a sealed file on this site and need an app that opens links. All 39 games sit on the 15 shelves below; every title links to its own page and its shelf.
Which classic games work in a chat, and which break?
The test is simple: does the AI have to keep a secret? A chat assistant has no memory outside the conversation you can see. If the answer to a game is never written down, nothing holds it still, and the assistant can settle on whichever answer fits your guesses best. Games where you hold the secret, or where there is no secret at all, play well as they are.
| Game | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Questions (the AI guesses) | Works | You hold the secret and the AI only asks, so there is nothing for it to forget or quietly change. |
| 20 Questions (you guess) | Breaks | The AI never wrote its answer down. It can keep any answer that fits your questions so far, so the reveal is chosen at the end, not the start. Bigger Than a Breadbox seals ten things and their answers first. |
| Geography guessing (find the country) | Breaks | Nothing fixes the country, and every distance or direction it gives you is worked out on the spot, so a wrong one arrives with full confidence. Six Bearings seals the countries and a table of bearings. |
| Hangman | Breaks | Same hidden-word problem: nothing holds the word, so the blanks and misses can be fitted to your guesses, and models read text in chunks, not letters, so the board itself drifts. Slow Thaw seals eight words and prints the board every turn. |
| Wordle-style guessing | Breaks | The same hidden-word problem, plus letter-by-letter feedback that a model reading text in chunks gets wrong. The Word-Hoard seals five words and swaps letter feedback for six fixed clues each. |
| Trivia quiz | Shaky | Fun and fast, but the AI marks its own questions. A confident wrong answer key is the failure to watch for, so check anything you would bet on. Quiz cards seal the key and its sources first. |
| Two truths and a lie (the AI tells them) | Breaks | Nothing fixes which statement was the lie, so it can be chosen after you call, and a "truth" can be invented. The Liar's Almanac seals each lie with sources. |
| Riddles | Shaky | There is a right answer, but nothing holds it still: argue for an alternative and the AI will usually agree with you. Riddle cards seal every answer first. |
| Lateral thinking (yes/no) puzzles | Breaks | The AI makes up the hidden story while you question it, so its answers drift towards whatever fits your last guess. Nothing Uncanny seals each story first. |
| Would You Rather, story chains | Works | No hidden state and no right answer to hold, which is exactly what a chat model is good at. |
| Murder mystery | Breaks | Unless the culprit is fixed in advance, the AI can make whoever you accuse guilty and rewrite the clues to agree. Sealed mysteries hash the answer first. |
| Interrogation (break the suspect) | Breaks | Nothing fixes what the suspect did or which part of their story is a lie, so they fold when pushed or invent a fact to answer you. Under Caution seals the truth and the contradictions first. |
| Chess against the AI | Breaks | The model predicts moves as text and keeps no board, so long games collect illegal moves and vanishing pieces. What AI chess is good for instead. |
| Trail survival game | Shaky | Good at weather and hardship, but its dice are words: a bad day can quietly turn kind, and nothing records the roll it chose. Drover's Autumn prints the whole autumn's dice before you set out. |
| Kingdom or strategy game | Shaky | It improvises every event and plays your rivals as it likes, so a bad decision can be quietly forgiven and the numbers drift. The Steward's Year prints every effect and deals the year from a published tape. |
| Life simulator | Shaky | Good at a life's story, but nothing fixes the next event before it happens, and the numbers do not carry into a new chat. Haddow deals a whole life from a printed tape, with a save code. |
| D&D-style role-playing | Shaky | Great improv, weak bookkeeping: hit points, inventory and rolls drift unless the rules and the state are written out every turn. How a card keeps the GM consistent. |
Game prompts for the classics that work
Paste one of these into a new chat in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. The first three keep the property the table turns on: the secret is yours, or there isn't one. The trivia prompt doesn't, so treat its answer key as the AI's best guess.
20 Questions (the AI guesses)
Let's play 20 Questions. I'm thinking of something and you have to guess it. Ask one yes-or-no question at a time and number each one. I'll answer yes, no, or sometimes. A guess counts as a question. If you haven't named it by question 20, you lose and I'll tell you what it was. Ask question 1.Pick something specific, a kettle rather than "a kitchen thing", and the AI has to earn it.
Would You Rather
Let's play Would You Rather. Give me one dilemma at a time, two options that are genuinely hard to choose between, with no obviously better answer. After I choose, say in one sentence what my choice gives up, then ask the next one. Keep each dilemma under 30 words.Add a theme after the first line (work, food, time travel) to keep it from wandering.
Story chain
Let's write a story together, taking turns. You write two sentences, then stop; I write the next part. Never decide what my character does, says or feels. End each of your turns at a moment that could go two ways. Begin with a stranger arriving somewhere they shouldn't be.The rule that matters is "Never decide what my character does": it keeps the story half yours.
Trivia quiz
Quiz me with 10 trivia questions on [topic], one at a time, each multiple choice A to D. Only ask questions with one answer that is not in dispute. After each of my answers, say whether I was right and give the correct answer in one line. Keep score and give the total after question 10.The AI marks its own questions, so check any answer you would bet on.
Which one should you play first?
| If you want | Play | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fifteen minutes | The Word-Hoard | Five words sealed before you start, six clues apiece, 10–20 minutes for all five. |
| A whole evening | Blackfile №1: The Vanishing at Larchmont Hall | A locked-room case of 60–90 minutes whose answer is fixed by a published hash before you open it. |
| A murder mystery party | The Third Carol: A Christmas Murder Mystery Game, No Ghost Speaks: A Halloween Murder Mystery Game | Up to eight at one screen, with the AI playing every suspect: the culprit and every lie are sealed before your first question, and you check the seal after. |
| Playing with a kid | Bramblewood, Slow Thaw: Hangman Without the Gallows | All ages, no violence and nothing scary in either: Slow Thaw is hangman with a melting snowman instead of a gallows. |
| A car game or a family table | Bigger Than a Breadbox: A 20 Questions Game | 20 Questions with ten things sealed before the first question: one person types and everyone asks. |
| A geography lesson | Six Bearings: Geography Guessing Game | Eight hidden countries for a class playing as one, with every wrong guess answered by a sealed distance and direction. |
| A family quiz night | Snap-Apple Night: Halloween Trivia, The Paper Crown: Christmas Quiz, The Liar's Almanac: Two Truths and a Lie | The answer key is sealed before the night starts, with a source behind every answer, and the whole table plays at one screen. |
| Playing with friends | Any number: Snap-Apple Night, Twelve Chimes, The Liar's Almanac, Slow Thaw, Bigger Than a Breadbox, Six Bearings, The Paper Crown Up to eight: The Third Carol, No Ghost Speaks Up to six: Nothing Uncanny Up to four: Bramblewood Up to two: The Toll at Blackbridge, The Severed Spire, The Gilt Horologe | Grouped by how many each seats. One person types for the table. |
| Playing against the AI | Deadreckoning, Aqua Regia | The AI's side is sealed before your first move, and you check it afterwards. |
| Something creepy | Vigil: White Static, Low Water | Solo one-shots that commit to the scare. Both are 16+. |
| Something to plan | The Steward's Year: Kingdom Management Game, Haddow: A Life Simulator | Every effect printed and every event dealt from a tape published before you start: the choices are yours and the arithmetic is on screen to check. |
| A text adventure | Meridian House | A fixed map and a three-slot satchel: the door your AI describes is the door that's there. |
13 of these 23 games keep their answers in a sealed file on this site, so they need an app that opens links (ChatGPT or Claude). In Gemini, or any app that can't open links, start with Blackfile №1, Bramblewood, The Toll at Blackbridge, The Severed Spire, The Gilt Horologe, Vigil, Low Water, The Steward's Year, Haddow and Meridian House.
Every game in the catalogue, by shelf
The tabletop RPGs run on Ironquill, this site's own rules-light role-playing system; the rest of each line is the game's own summary.
Tabletop RPG
Tabletop role-playing adventures your AI runs as game master: three one-sitting stories and a campaign's first chapter.
| The Toll at Blackbridge | A one-night mystery for one or two players, run by your AI game master: the bridge is owed a thing it was never given, and the river is rising. |
|---|---|
| The Severed Spire | Chapter 1 of a solo or two-player RPG campaign in a mile-high tower that sinks an inch a day; your save carries into Chapter 2 when it is out. |
| The Gilt Horologe | A one-night heist RPG for one or two players inside a living clockwork vault that winds shut behind you, run by your AI game master. |
| Bramblewood | A gentle, all-ages family RPG your AI runs as game master: a woodland festival you set right with kindness. |
Sealed Mystery
Whodunits for one detective or a party of up to eight, plus an interrogation game, each answer fixed before you start.
| Blackfile №1: The Vanishing at Larchmont Hall | A 1925 country-house whodunit: an heiress bolts a glass conservatory from the inside and is not there when the doors come down. |
|---|---|
| Blackfile №2: A Death at the Wyke Hydro | A snowbound 1929 poisoning whodunit: six suspects, one cup of hot milk, and an answer sealed before you start. |
| Blackfile №3: The Long Exposure at Harrowfell | A 1953 observatory whodunit: a death on the dome stair, six suspects who cannot leave the fell, twenty moves, and a culprit sealed before you start. |
| The Third Carol: A Christmas Murder Mystery Game | A Christmas murder mystery game for one to eight at one screen: six suspects, four rounds of evidence, and every line sealed before play. |
| Under Caution: An Interrogation Game | An AI detective game for one: question three suspects and break their stories against the evidence, ruled by a list sealed before play. |
| No Ghost Speaks: A Halloween Murder Mystery Game | A Halloween murder mystery game for 12 and over, one to eight at one screen: five suspects, twelve exhibits, every answer and lie sealed before play. |
Social Deduction
Solo social deduction: question a cast your AI plays and find the one who is lying, chosen before the game began.
Chess
Chess puzzles, endgame drills and an openings coach, every answer written on the card and every puzzle engine-checked.
| Counterplay | Fixed-answer chess puzzles and an openings coach, not a full-strength opponent. |
|---|---|
| The Resumption: Seven Endgames | A timed endgame-technique drill over seven named textbook positions, where anything but the method move ends the board. |
Horror
Solo horror one-shots for 16 and over: one night shift, one night on a lighthouse rock, and nobody coming.
| Vigil: White Static | A found-footage analog-horror one-shot: digitise tapes that don't want to be seen. |
|---|---|
| Low Water | A solo lighthouse-horror one-shot: keep the light burning through one night on the rock. |
Duels
Short one-player duels with your AI: crack a hidden code or find a hidden fleet, both placed before your first move.
| Deadreckoning | A Battleship-style hidden-fleet hunt for one: four ships on an 8×8 grid, positions sealed before you start; the AI calls hit or miss and never fires back. |
|---|---|
| Aqua Regia | Mastermind-style code-breaking: find a sealed four-part formula in ten tries from the two counts the AI reads off each trial mix. |
Escape Rooms
One-player escape rooms in your AI chat: five linked locks, and an exit code set before the door shut behind you.
| Cipherhouse | A five-lock cipher escape room whose exit code is sealed before you're locked in. |
|---|---|
| Sluice | A logic-puzzle escape room: five linked machines in a flooding pumping station, and an exit code sealed before the gate dropped. |
Word Games
Word games for your AI chat: name hidden words from clues, spot the real definition, or play hangman with a snowman.
| The Word-Hoard | A sealed word-guessing game: five hidden words, six fixed clues each, and an AI that can only read them out. |
|---|---|
| The Counterfeit Lexicon | A bluffing word game: seven obscure words, three definitions each, and the true one sealed before you play. |
| Slow Thaw: Hangman Without the Gallows | An AI hangman game for kids: eight words sealed before you guess, and a snowman instead of a gallows. |
Text Adventure
Classic text adventures with a fixed map, real objects to carry and a way out that existed before you typed a word.
| Meridian House | A text adventure in a derelict glasshouse: eleven rooms, a three-slot satchel, and daylight for 34 moves to carry one seed tin out. |
|---|---|
| Ravensgate Deep | A parser text adventure in a disused underground station: a fixed map on four levels, a counted lamp, and one way out, up the ventilation shaft. |
Survival
Survival games where you ration warmth, water or a herd's strength, with the bad luck dealt from a published dice list.
| Bergschrund | A solo descent from 7,400 metres: ration daylight, warmth and food against hazards dealt from a published list of d20 rolls. |
|---|---|
| Becalmed | An open-boat drift after a ship's fire: ration the water, choose sail or awning each morning, and get five people to a beach fourteen days west. |
| Drover's Autumn: A Trail Survival Game | A Highland cattle drove to the October fair at Falkirk: pace the herd, swim a sea strait, ford the rivers and bring them in fit to sell. |
Logic Puzzles
Logic puzzles with exactly one answer, set before you start: a logic grid and a pay-for-evidence ordering puzzle.
| The Ring of Five | A sealed logic grid: five bells, twelve true remarks, fifteen cells to fill, and a third wrong entry spoils the board. |
|---|---|
| The Chairman's Book | A sealed ordering puzzle: seven music-hall acts, ten enquiries you pay for in minutes, and one submission that scores only if all seven are right. |
Quiz Night
Trivia nights your AI hosts for one player or a whole table, from an answer key written and sourced before you play.
| Snap-Apple Night: Halloween Trivia | 25 Halloween trivia questions, hosted by your AI for one player or a few teams, with every answer and its source fixed before play. |
|---|---|
| The Liar's Almanac: Two Truths and a Lie | Two truths and a lie with facts: ten rounds, each lie sealed and each truth sourced before you guess. |
| The Paper Crown: Christmas Quiz | 25 Christmas quiz questions and answers, hosted by your AI for one player or a few teams, every answer and its source fixed before play. |
Riddles
Riddles and yes/no lateral thinking puzzles whose answers are locked in before you guess, for families or a group.
| Twelve Chimes: Halloween Riddles | Halloween riddles with answers for kids and families, locked before you guess: twelve originals, three hints each, guesses checked on a sealed list. |
|---|---|
| Nothing Uncanny: Lateral Thinking Puzzles | Six lateral thinking puzzles: up to 40 yes/no questions a case, and the host reads each full answer from a sealed file when the case closes. |
Guessing Games
20 questions and a hidden-country geography game, with every answer written down before your first question.
| Bigger Than a Breadbox: A 20 Questions Game | A 20 questions game where the AI's answer is locked before you ask: ten sealed things, fixed answers to common questions, every spent question logged. |
|---|---|
| Six Bearings: Geography Guessing Game | A geography guessing game: find eight hidden countries from six clues each, and get a sealed distance and direction for every wrong guess. |
Strategy & Simulation
Rule a small kingdom for a year or live a whole life, every effect printed and every event from a published dice list.
| The Steward's Year: Kingdom Management Game | An AI text strategy game where you rule a small river kingdom for one year, one decree at a time. |
|---|---|
| Haddow: A Life Simulator | Five years a turn, from age five to as far as ninety: keep body, craft, kin and purse in balance, every event dealt from a printed dice tape. |
Which assistant is best for playing games?
Once the card is in the chat, any of the three can run it; what keeps a game consistent is the card. The difference is getting the card in. An app that opens the game's link fetches the card itself. One that can't takes the whole card pasted in, which plays 22 of the 39 games; the other 17 keep their answers in a sealed file on this site and need an app that opens links (ChatGPT or Claude). Saves work the same everywhere: a save is plain text, so you can save a game in ChatGPT and resume it in Claude. The tested compatibility matrix lays out exactly what we see each app do with a game's link, a pasted card and a sealed game's answer file, and the day each cell was checked.
Playing in ChatGPT
A game's link opens a chat with the play prompt written in; press send, and the card loads. A pasted card plays too. Sealed games referee from their sealed file.
Playing in Claude
A game's link opens a chat with the play prompt written in; press send, and the card loads with web search on. A pasted card plays too. Claude shows no chat without signing in, so this rests on a signed-in hand test from 19 Jul 2026. Each game can also be installed into Claude as a Skill from its page: turn on code execution under Settings → Capabilities, then upload it at Customize → Skills.
Playing in Gemini
Gemini couldn't open a game's link when we checked, signed out. Paste the whole card instead: that plays. It didn't reach a sealed game's answer file, so play those in another app.
What makes these better than typing “play a game” into ChatGPT?
A game card writes down the parts of a game the AI would otherwise improvise. A sealed solution means a mystery can't retrofit its own ending. A state ledger, one line of game state reprinted at the end of every reply, means an AI game master stops forgetting what already happened. Where a card reads its dice off a printed tape, the AI can't quietly re-roll a result it didn't like. And a written answer key, with every puzzle's solution set down on the card before you load it, means a chess trainer can't teach you a wrong move with confidence. An open prompt drifts; a card holds the game in place for a whole session.
Frequently asked questions
What games can I play with ChatGPT?
Two kinds. Classics where you hold the secret or there is none (20 Questions with the AI guessing, Would You Rather, story chains) play well from a one-paragraph prompt. Games where the AI has to keep a secret need it fixed first, which is what the 39 free games here do: D&D-style RPGs, murder mysteries, social deduction games, chess puzzles & trainers, creepy horror games, duels, escape rooms, word games, text adventures, survival games, logic puzzles, trivia & quiz games, riddles & lateral thinking puzzles, guessing games & 20 questions, and strategy & simulation games. A button on each game's page opens ChatGPT with the prompt already loaded; you send it and the game starts.
Are these games free?
Yes: nothing to buy from us, no signup, no paywall. A game card is a text file, so the catalogue costs almost nothing to run; there is no upsell at the end of a case and no premium shelf behind the free one. Your saves are text in your own chat, not on our servers. The only thing a session spends is your own assistant's usage.
Do I need a paid subscription?
No. A free tier of ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini is enough to play. A paid plan gives you more usage and longer sessions, which helps with long campaigns, but no game in the catalogue requires one. Dice don't depend on the plan either. The four tabletop role-playing cards roll in the assistant's code tool when it has one, and read a printed dice tape when it doesn't; the dice cards on the survival, strategy and horror shelves read every roll from the tape. Either way the narrator never picks the number, and you can rebuild any tape from its seed on the verify page and check each roll it supplied.
Do these work in Gemini too?
Most of them do: 22 of the 39. A game card is plain text, so it isn't tied to one app: where Gemini can't open a game's link, paste the whole card instead (it's on the game's page under "No web access"). The other 17 keep their answers in a sealed file on this site, so play those in an app that opens links, such as ChatGPT. The compatibility page names them and shows what each app does with a game's link, a pasted card and a sealed game's answer file.