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, 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. That is what the 39 free games here do, from a sealed murder 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, a referee's rulebook or a fair die needs more than a 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 — a self-contained prompt, engineered so the AI holds its shape instead of drifting. A button on its page opens ChatGPT or Claude with the prompt ready; you send it and the game boots. Any other assistant takes the same prompt, and one that can't open links takes the whole card pasted in instead. 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 beautifully 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 its words first. |
| 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 toward 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. Each keeps the property the table turns on: the secret is yours, or there isn't one.
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, not "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 one rule that matters is the second: 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, 10–20m a round. |
| A whole evening | Blackfile №1: The Vanishing at Larchmont Hall | A 60–90m locked-room case whose culprit 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 | Snap-Apple Night: Halloween Trivia, Twelve Chimes: Halloween Riddles, The Liar's Almanac: Two Truths and a Lie, Slow Thaw: Hangman Without the Gallows, Bigger Than a Breadbox: A 20 Questions Game, Six Bearings: Geography Guessing Game, The Paper Crown: Christmas Quiz, The Third Carol: A Christmas Murder Mystery Game, No Ghost Speaks: A Halloween Murder Mystery Game, Nothing Uncanny: Lateral Thinking Puzzles, Bramblewood, The Toll at Blackbridge, The Severed Spire, The Gilt Horologe | Snap-Apple Night: Halloween Trivia, Twelve Chimes: Halloween Riddles, The Liar's Almanac: Two Truths and a Lie, Slow Thaw: Hangman Without the Gallows, Bigger Than a Breadbox: A 20 Questions Game, Six Bearings: Geography Guessing Game and The Paper Crown: Christmas Quiz seat any number; The Third Carol: A Christmas Murder Mystery Game and No Ghost Speaks: A Halloween Murder Mystery Game seat 8; Nothing Uncanny: Lateral Thinking Puzzles seats up to six; Bramblewood seats up to four; The Toll at Blackbridge, The Severed Spire and The Gilt Horologe seat two. 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. |
Every game in the catalog, by shelf
Tabletop RPG
Original role-playing systems and campaigns your AI runs as game master.
| The Toll at Blackbridge | A one-night Ironquill mystery 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 an Ironquill campaign inside a mile-high tower that sinks an inch a day; your save carries into the chapters to come. |
| The Gilt Horologe | A one-night Ironquill heist inside a living clockwork vault that winds shut behind you, run by your AI game master. |
| Bramblewood | A gentle, all-ages Ironquill one-shot your AI runs as game master: a woodland festival you set right with kindness. |
Sealed Mystery
Whodunits and interrogations whose solution is sealed before you start — the culprit can't change mid-game, and you check the seal after.
| Blackfile №1: The Vanishing at Larchmont Hall | A 1925 locked-room 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 whose every answer and every lie were written and sealed before play, four rounds of evidence, and one accusation you can check against that file afterwards. |
| Under Caution: An Interrogation Game | A ready-made ChatGPT detective game prompt: you cite a statement line or an answer against an exhibit, and a list sealed before play decides each citation, so you can check each one afterwards. |
| No Ghost Speaks: A Halloween Murder Mystery Game | A Halloween murder mystery game for 12 and over, one to eight at one screen: every answer and lie sealed before play, one accusation to check after. |
Social Deduction
Find the liar among NPCs your AI plays, with a committed setup you can verify.
Chess
Fixed-answer puzzles and honest trainers — what AI is actually good at.
| 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 dread one-shots that commit to the scare instead of chickening out — one shift, one night, no one coming.
| Vigil: White Static | A found-footage analog-horror one-shot: digitize 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
Fast hidden-information duels — the answer is sealed before your first move, and you verify it after.
| Deadreckoning | A hidden-fleet naval duel against an AI whose layout is sealed and verifiable. |
|---|---|
| Aqua Regia | A sealed formula-breaking duel against an AI that assays every batch against a locked code and never bluffs. |
Escape Rooms
Locked rooms you read your way out of before the timer — the final code sealed so the room can't move it.
| Cipherhouse | A five-lock cipher escape room whose exit code is sealed before you're locked in. |
|---|---|
| Sluice | Five machines, one chain, and an exit code sealed before the outer gate dropped. |
Word Games
Sealed word games — every answer is committed before the first card turns, so the AI can check you, never move it.
| The Word-Hoard | A sealed word-deduction game: five hidden words, six fixed clues each, and an AI that can only read them out. |
|---|---|
| The Counterfeit Lexicon | A sealed bluffing word game: seven obscure words, three definitions each, the true one hashed 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
Parser-style adventures with a fixed map and a real inventory — the door your AI describes is the door that's actually there.
| Meridian House | Eleven rooms of derelict glasshouse, a three-slot satchel, and thirty-four marks of light to get the tin out. |
|---|---|
| Ravensgate Deep | A parser text adventure in a disused underground transit complex: a fixed map on four levels, a counted lamp, and one way out — up the ventilation shaft. |
Survival
Ration what you carry against a clock that doesn't negotiate — the hazards are dealt from a published tape, not chosen to spare you.
| Bergschrund | A solo descent from 7,400 metres: ration daylight, warmth, food and a body that is already hurt, against hazards dealt from a public d20 tape. |
|---|---|
| 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 keep them in good condition. |
Logic Puzzles
Deduction with one provable answer, sealed before release — the AI checks your reasoning instead of grading it kindly.
| The Ring of Five | A sealed logic grid: five bells, twelve true remarks, fifteen cells, and three smudges before the board is spoiled. |
|---|---|
| The Chairman's Book | A sealed ordering puzzle: seven variety turns, ten enquiries you pay for in minutes, and one submission the court never grades. |
Quiz Night
Quiz nights your AI hosts from a sealed answer key with a source behind every answer — it reads, waits for the table, and rules only from the key.
| 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 mysteries whose answers are sealed before you guess — the AI rules from the file, not from whatever sounds plausible.
| Twelve Chimes: Halloween Riddles | Halloween riddles with answers for kids and families, locked before you guess: twelve originals, three hints each, and a host told to check a sealed list. |
|---|---|
| Nothing Uncanny: Lateral Thinking Puzzles | Six lateral thinking puzzles: ask yes/no questions, 40 a case, and the Editor reads each full answer from a sealed file when the case closes. |
Guessing Games
Guessing games whose answer is fixed before your first question — the AI answers from a sealed card, not from whatever fits your last guess.
| 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, a written procedure for all other questions, each costed answer 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
A kingdom to rule and a life to live, every effect printed and every event dealt from a dice tape published before you start — the AI looks things up instead of making them up.
| The Steward's Year: Kingdom Management Game | An AI text strategy game: rule a small river kingdom for one year by decree, played in your AI chat. |
|---|---|
| Haddow: A Life Simulator | Five years a turn, from age five to as far as ninety: keep body, craft, kin and purse in balance and gather keepsakes, 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; the card, not the model, is what keeps a game consistent. 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 works for every game except the few whose answers live in a sealed file on this site. Saves work the same everywhere. Because a game card is plain text, you're never locked to one app — 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 loads the card, then waits for you to press send. A pasted card plays too. Sealed games referee from their sealed file.
Playing in Claude
A game's link loads the card with web search on, then waits for you to press send. 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; it stays put on any plan once code execution is on under Settings → Capabilities.
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?
These are engineered game cards, not open prompts — the difference is what keeps the AI honest and consistent. A sealed solution means a mystery can't retrofit its own ending; a state ledger reprinted at the end of every reply means an AI game master stops forgetting what already happened, and a printed dice tape it reads in order means it can't quietly re-roll a result it didn't like; a written answer key — every puzzle's solution set down on the card before you load it — means a chess trainer can't confidently teach you a wrong move. Ad-hoc prompting drifts; a designed card holds its shape 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 boots.
Are these games free?
Yes — nothing to buy from us, no signup, no paywall. A game card is a text file on a CDN, so the catalog costs almost nothing to run: there's no upsell at the end of a case and no premium shelf behind the free one, and your saves stay in your own browser rather than on our end. 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 it is not required for any game in the catalog. Dice are the one place a plan could matter, and the games remove it: an assistant that can run code may roll there, and every dice-driven card also ships a printed tape the AI has to read in order, so a roll in any tier is exactly as honest. You can regenerate that tape from its seed yourself on the verify page.
Do these work in Gemini too?
Yes, with one difference at the start. The game card is plain text, so it isn't tied to one app, but if Gemini can't open a game's link, paste the whole card instead (it's on the game's page under "No web access"). That works for every card except the few whose answers live in a sealed file on this site; those need an app that can open links. The compatibility matrix shows what each app currently does with a game's link, a pasted card and a sealed game's answer file.