Familiar

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Muse Code to Foundry VTT.

Your AI account over MCP, your own API key in the built-in chat, or a model on your own machine. Every route reaches the same 230 tools.

Built-in chat

Paste an API key and start talking to your game.

No server, no terminal, no config files. Live transcription, voice dictation, auto-pilot for NPC turns (D&D 5e), slash commands and drag-and-drop attachments only work here. The /rolled command also works in Foundry's own chat box. A Thinking control lets you set how hard the model reasons, dialled up for hard fights, down for quick lookups.

Chat

• OpenRouter
• Anthropic
• OpenAI
• Google (Gemini)
• Groq
• Mistral
• Together AI
• DeepSeek
• xAI
• Cohere
• Perplexity
• Fireworks AI
• Cerebras
• SambaNova
• NanoGPT
• Local / custom server

OpenRouter unlocks 300+ models on a single key. Local / custom server points the built-in chat at any OpenAI-compatible server you run, from its own Local / Custom settings tab.

Voice

• ElevenLabs
• Cartesia
• OpenAI TTS
• OpenRouter TTS
• NanoGPT TTS
• Custom TTS

Image

• OpenAI (GPT Image)
• fal.ai
• Leonardo AI
• OpenRouter
• NanoGPT
• Custom (OpenAI-compatible)

Transcription

• Gladia
• Deepgram
• AssemblyAI

Use your subscription

Already paying for Claude, SuperGrok or Muse Code? On any ChatGPT plan, Free included, or a Google account? Put it to work.

Connect through the Model Context Protocol and the plan you already have drives the same table from your own client. The monsters take their turns when you ask, every attack and spell checked against the 5e rules. The module ships with an MCP Setup Wizard. Pick your client's card and it hands you the exact text: a config block to paste or a single command, secret included. Every card also carries a Copy help prompt for any AI chat you already have, the free web ones included: it explains, you type. Best for long, multi-step chains. Your model and its reasoning effort are set in your own client, not here.

MCP clients

• Claude Desktop

• Claude Code

• Codex CLI

• ChatGPT desktop app (Codex tab)

• Antigravity CLI

• Antigravity Editor

• Grok Build CLI

• Muse Code

Read the MCP setup guide

Run it local

Your own machine, no per-token bill.

The same built-in chat, pointed at a server you run. Pick a preset, check the URL it fills in, and flip Use for chat on. Your hosted provider stays saved for switching back.

Runners

• Ollama
• LM Studio
• llama.cpp
• LiteLLM
• Any OpenAI-compatible server

The preset list also carries Venice, if you would rather rent the GPU: that route leaves your network and bills your Venice account.

Read the local guide

Your keys, your cost.

Most paid AI modules for Foundry route through their own servers and ration you by the message. Familiar never proxies or marks up anything. Your API keys go straight from your browser to the provider, and over MCP your subscription covers the AI side. Voice, images, music and video bill their own provider keys either way.

See it run a fight, voice an NPC, generate a battlemap.

Each section below is one job Familiar takes off the dungeon master, shown with a clip or screenshot from a live world. Jump to the one you came for.

Combat & Auto-Pilot

On D&D 5e (2024) the AI plays the monsters and a rules engine decides what is allowed. In a live fight it cannot invent a die roll or write damage into a sheet. It cannot drop a condition from nowhere or move past a creature's speed. Leave Auto-Pilot on in the chat's combat bar and every creature no player owns takes its turn by itself, monsters and friendly NPCs alike. Safety caps and turn-by-turn confirmation are there when you want them.

• Every action checked against the rules before it lands
• A refused move is refused out loud, and the AI adapts
• The sheet itself rolls the dice, proficiency and magic bonuses included
• Multiattack, legendary actions, monster reactions; a player's reaction stays theirs
• NPC turns play back to back; off from the combat bar, a turn card, or Ctrl+Shift+X
• Undo the last action when a call goes wrong

Start combat, play the music, and run everyone. Roll for the party and the bandits separately, then play one round.

How the engine enforces the rules

Voice, Music & Sound

Familiar speaks the scene it just wrote, the narration in your narrator's voice and each NPC's lines in its own, the moment the text lands. It does that out of the box, and nothing plays or bills until the Voice tab holds a key. Music crossfades to a mood your own playlists already hold, or a new track is composed on your own key when you ask.

• Ask for any line in a character's voice, or a whole scene with a voice per speaker
• Casts a voice for an NPC nobody cast and says which; a speaker chip in the chat names who is talking
• ElevenLabs, Cartesia, OpenAI TTS, OpenRouter, NanoGPT or your own endpoint; a fixed voice per character
• Mood switching follows the location by itself; set it to On request and it waits for you
• A composed track waits in a Familiar Music playlist until you cue it
• A generated sound effect lands in your chat with a Save button that keeps it as a track

Dim the lights, start rain and thunder, and have the innkeeper whisper a warning about the road ahead, in his voice.

Voice and sound

Scenes, Art & Studio

Build the scene by asking and fill it with art. Familiar places it, you direct it.

• Create scenes and spawn tokens from any compendium
• Draw walls, doors and trigger regions; set lighting, darkness and weather
• Generate a battlemap background from a text prompt, or a portrait and item art inline
• On your fal.ai key, animate a still into a looping clip and lay it over the scene as a moving map
• Set Make images to Automatic and it pictures a new place or character as the story reaches it
• Familiar Studio: every image, clip and track in one window, with the cost where the provider reports one; Missing art fills the placeholders in one run

Generate a foggy graveyard battlemap, give me three options, and use the second one as the background.

Inside Familiar Studio

The Chat Window

The window a GM lives in all session. Every thread is a Foundry journal with a full audit log. The campaign's facts sit in a memory bank you can browse, pin and edit.

• Keep typing while it answers; the next message waits its turn
• Edit or delete your message, regenerate a reply; /undo takes back Familiar's newest edit
• Brief, Normal or Detailed replies; five themes, Dark by default, or Auto to follow Foundry
• A new chat picks up the story; a long one folds its older turns into a summary
• Full-text search across journals, characters, scenes, items and transcripts
• Hold Ctrl+Shift+D to talk instead of type; live transcription across three providers saves the session to a Foundry journal

Open the 'Stormpoint Castle' thread and pick up where we left off last week.

How campaign memory works

Characters, Items & Inventory

Build the cast by asking and keep what they carry straight, without opening a sheet. Inspect, update and clone any actor the world already holds.

• Describe a hero, get a built D&D 5e character, run through the advancement window
• Paste a stat block, get a working NPC
• Give, stash and trade items; on D&D 5e it makes change and, when you ask, checks the price first
• Apply and toggle active effects, buffs and debuffs
• Import from any compendium pack; configure player ownership
• Roll on tables for random encounters and loot

Find a CR 3 werewolf in the compendium, drop it into the scene as a boss, and give it resistance to non-silvered weapons.

How a character gets built

Play solo, duet, or with a full group.

However many show up, you get to play. The fewer humans at the table, the more of the world Familiar runs. The dice and every NPC, and on D&D 5e the monsters and the rules too. You take a seat at the game you usually run for everyone else.

• Solo

  Just you You play your character. Familiar runs everything around it: every NPC in its own voice, every monster's turn, the scene, with 2024 D&D 5e rules enforced. You can also play from a player login, with Familiar as your GM. Campaign memory carries the world from one session to the next.

• Duet

  You and one other Neither of you has to be the DM. Familiar runs a D&D 5e (2024) world for both of you: the cast, the encounters, the rulings. You stay players and the story still moves.

• Small table

  You and a few The supporting cast runs for you, with the lighting and the music, and on D&D 5e (2024) so do the monsters' turns and the rulings. Nobody steps out of the game to keep it moving. Your players are in it too. The story you read in Familiar's window lands in their Foundry chat. An NPC's line plays on their speakers once a voice key is set. Any of them can ask Familiar a question in that chat, or ask an NPC by name while Any NPC is on.

• Full group

  You DM for four or more The tactical load comes off the GM. You tell the story; on D&D 5e (2024) Familiar handles initiative, the monster turns, and the bookkeeping. You run the scene, not the spreadsheet. One player can't make it tonight? Hand Familiar their character, and on D&D 5e (2024) it plays their turns. At the end, ask for a recap of what happened and save it as a journal for them to read.

It runs the DM's side around you; it never invents the story. Whoever is at the table, the campaign you brought is the spine, and the dice and the maths are always right on D&D 5e (2024). No "you rolled a 47."

Your game system

Familiar is not a D&D-only module: it sits at Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu and Shadowdark tables too. Pick yours and read how a campaign runs there.

• Pathfinder 2e
• LANCER
• Pathfinder 1e
• Warhammer Fantasy 4e
• Call of Cthulhu 7e
• Cyberpunk RED
• Daggerheart
• Savage Worlds
• Shadowdark
• Dragonbane

A co-pilot for the game master who'd rather run the story than the spreadsheet.

I'm Ryan. Dad of two young kids, married to my favourite person, with the free time you'd expect. My wife and I play D&D together, just the two of us, and solo DMing is a lot: the storyteller, every NPC, the rules engine, the sound guy, all at once. Mid-monologue as a mysterious stranger I'd break character to roll initiative or hunt for that one tavern track, and the moment was gone.

I wanted something that could take the mechanical side so I could stay in the story. A co-pilot I could tell "roll initiative for the goblins, dim the torches, and start combat music", and it would. While I kept talking. So I built it, one tool at a time, and ran it at my own table session after session before opening it up. I didn't want to ship another AI that turns your campaign into nonsense the moment it forgets last week.

I priced it the way I would want to buy it: one plan, every tool on from day one. I have nothing else to sell you.

Ryan, working on Familiar

In their own words.

Lines from people running Familiar at their own tables, quoted from the Discord.

• “With how busy life has gotten, I didn't think I'd ever be able to play D&D again. Familiar has allowed me to be a player again. It manages the game faithfully and immersively (with voice!).” Armchair EvokerFamiliar on the DM side, voice on

• “Familiar let me step into an 'assistant-DM' role instead of a full DM one. I can guide and support the session without giving up my own character. We're running Phandelver and Below, and having Familiar handle narration, NPCs, and scene-setting means nobody has to carry the game alone anymore.” D3AD MANS PAR7YPhandelver and Below with a group, ElevenLabs voices, tests beta builds on the Discord

• “Such amazing work to begin with, and so responsive to feedback and bug fixes. I don't think I've ever had a dev for such impressive software troubleshoot with me directly, let alone as quickly as you have.” aakavFoundry in Docker on a headless Linux server, Claude Code

Common questions.

Short answers, with a link to the guide where the detail lives. Anything else, ask in the Discord.

• What is Familiar?

  Familiar is an AI co-pilot for Foundry VTT, the virtual tabletop you run your D&D game in. You connect the AI you already use, such as Claude or ChatGPT, over the Model Context Protocol or an API key, and it runs the dungeon-master side of a published D&D 5e adventure you import: the rules, the dice, the monsters, and the NPC voices. You stay the player and keep the story; Familiar handles the table.

• Is there an AI DM module for Foundry VTT?

  Yes. Familiar is an AI DM module for Foundry VTT: connect the AI you already use and take a seat as a player, while it runs the whole DM side of a published D&D 5e adventure you import, combat, dice, and NPC voices included. Bring Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Muse Code over MCP, or any of 31 providers by API key. You install it from the Foundry package browser or a manifest URL, and a subscription starts with 14 days free. Read the setup guide

• Does the AI actually follow the D&D rules in combat?

  The rules it could cheat on, it cannot: dealing damage, dropping a condition, moving past a creature's speed, and faking a die roll all live in code the model does not control, and Foundry's own dice roll every result. The judgement calls, a flanking house rule or a narrative exception, stay yours, and any override the AI makes is written to the chat log. Where a rule is not modelled yet, Familiar flags it and leaves the ruling to you. Read the combat guide

• How do I connect Claude or ChatGPT to Foundry VTT?

  Two ways, and you bring your own AI for both. Use the Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, SuperGrok or Muse Code plan you already have over the Model Context Protocol, and Familiar runs as an MCP server those clients connect to. Or paste an API key into the built-in chat, which also talks to a model you run on your own machine. The same tools work either way; the difference is where the model runs and who you pay. Read the connect guide Claude in Foundry: Desktop or Code ChatGPT in Foundry via Codex Gemini in Foundry via Antigravity Grok in Foundry via Grok Build Muse Code in Foundry: one settings file

• Does Familiar work on The Forge or other hosted Foundry?

  Yes, both paths. The built-in chat runs anywhere Foundry does, because the module calls your AI provider straight from the browser. MCP holds up too, and that link never leaves your desk: the server and the browser sit on the same machine, so your host never sees it. Run the setup wizard from the hosted game and it writes your game's URL into FAMILIAR_WS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS. There's nothing to hand-edit. Hosted play does put a few conditions on the MCP side, browser choice first among them. Troubleshoot the MCP connection

• Does Familiar collect my data?

  No telemetry, no analytics, no profile of your table. Familiar runs inside your Foundry world, and your campaign leaves your machine only when you message the AI provider you chose. Table Chat starts switched on, so a player's @familiar message reaches that provider too, on your key, until you switch it off on the Chat tab. Two requests do leave on their own: a model-list refresh when a world loads, and a licence check that reaches Polar once a week. Neither one takes your campaign with it. Point the Local / Custom tab at a model on your own machine and even the provider traffic stops. Read the local models guide

• Does Familiar ship AI-generated game content?

  No. Familiar ships no game content at all: no adventures, no maps, no compendium packs, no stat blocks, no token art. It is software that connects your own AI to your Foundry world. At your table that AI improvises the chat replies, NPC voices, sound effects, music, images and video clips against your prompt, and what it makes lands in your world, yours to keep, edit or delete. The 5e rules Familiar enforces live in its code as names and numbers, never as copied rules text. Familiar and Foundry's AI policy

• Can the AI break my world?

  Document updates are sanitised, so a routine edit can't reach ownership, permissions, or internal IDs. Anything destructive stops for your confirmation by default, and the WebSocket connection is authenticated with a shared secret. When an edit isn't what you wanted, /undo covers Familiar's changes to a sheet, a journal, a token, a scene or a playlist, coin and folder moves included, and an MCP client undoes through the same record. Not everything is on it. XP, conditions, damage or healing outside a combat action, a level-up, new art on a sheet, an item or a token it moved, and anything it created or deleted are among the changes it can't take back. Keep backups: good practice with or without AI.

• Does it work with game systems other than D&D 5e?

  Yes, with one boundary: the rules engine that referees combat is D&D 5e (2024) only. Everywhere else Familiar names your game system in its first reply and reads your world's own compendium instead of quoting D&D at you. The story, the NPCs, the scenes, the audio, and the campaign memory run there too. See what runs on your system

• Which AI models work best?

  Any current flagship from Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google handles tool-use best; see the "Choosing an AI model" guide for the named tiers. Bring whichever key or subscription you already pay for. Reasoning headroom is what carries a hard combat or a tangled scene. In the built-in chat, Thinking starts on High, and Medium is enough outside a hard fight. Over MCP that dial lives in your own client.

• Can an AI help me run D&D solo?

  Yes, that's a main reason it exists, and how it started: 1-on-1 D&D with my wife. Most people who own Foundry are the GM, the one who never gets to play. Familiar runs the rules, the monsters, and the NPCs, and remembers your campaign across sessions, so you can take a seat at your own table, solo or one on one. Name your player login as the Solo Player and switch on Listen to the Solo Player, both on the Chat tab of Familiar's settings. Every plain line you type as that player then goes to Familiar, while your GM window stays open. Read the solo play guide

• Do I need my own campaign to start?

  No. Buy a Foundry-ready adventure (official D&D modules run about $20 to $30, with the maps and lighting already built), drop in a battlemap or two, enable Familiar, and you're playing. Familiar reads the adventure's journals so it knows the story you're about to discover, and pulls monsters and items from your compendia as you go.

• Does the AI play a character on my side?

  Yes. On D&D 5e (2024) Familiar runs the DM's side (the rules, the monsters, every NPC), and it takes an ally's turn beside you too: a friendly NPC runs on auto-pilot like any monster, and you can hand it a full party character to play. In my own weekly campaign, Familiar has played two of the three heroes for months.

• Can my players talk to Familiar?

  Yes, out of the box. Table Chat starts switched on, and Familiar posts a short how-to in the Foundry chat when the world loads and when you switch it on. A message starting with @familiar gets its answer in the same chat. Any NPC no player owns answers in character to its own @name as well, and that Any NPC switch is the one to turn off for a session where a name alone would give the plot away, because Familiar cannot keep a secret it can read. Pin an NPC on its sheet to keep it answering with the switch off, or to hand over a character a player owns. Everything runs in your browser, on your key, and you see every question and every answer. A player's own character follows the approval mode you set; anything wider waits for you, including anything that bills one of your AI providers, and a video clip is never made on a player's turn. The one exception is the answer itself: with a voice provider set, it is spoken on your key without asking, Familiar in your narrator voice and each NPC in its own, and the Table chat switch on the Voice tab turns that off. With no provider on the Chat tab, which is how most MCP setups run, questions wait in a table inbox until your Claude, Codex, Antigravity, Grok or Muse Code session checks the table. Name one player as the Solo Player and that seat plays by your own rules instead. Read the solo play guide

• Does the AI remember my campaign between sessions?

  Yes, in three layers. Your chat threads save as Foundry journals and reopen where you left them. In the built-in chat a bank of campaign facts is injected into every conversation, so what was true last week is still true tonight. A running plot summary carries the story itself. Open the journal called "[Familiar] Campaign Memory" in Foundry to read everything it has stored, and edit or delete anything that came out wrong. Read the memory guide

• How much does Familiar cost?

  $6 a month, $48 a year, or $99 once, and that is the whole price of Familiar. No tiers: every update is included, whichever way you pay. Both subscriptions start with two weeks free. Nothing is metered on our side, no credit balance, no per-message fee, no cap on how often you play. The AI itself is billed by your own provider at list price: a typical session runs $0.50 to $3 in API tokens, and each voice line, image, track or clip is billed on its own (the battlemap page keeps a dated list of image prices). Or no token bill at all: point the built-in chat at a model on your own machine, or drive Familiar over MCP from a Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or SuperGrok plan or a Muse Code subscription. Compare the two routes and what each costs

• How do I cancel my subscription?

  In the customer portal at familiarvtt.com/account. Polar handles the billing as merchant of record, so cancelling happens there: sign in with the email address you paid with. The same portal switches you between monthly and yearly, moves you to the lifetime licence, updates your card, and hands you your invoices. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the period you already paid for. If the portal does not recognise your email, ask in the Discord or mail support@familiarvtt.com. Open your subscription page

• Can an AI run my game as the Dungeon Master?

  Yes. AIs are poor at inventing a story, so Familiar doesn't ask them to. You bring a published adventure with its maps and NPCs, your AI reads it and runs it, and a human can take over anytime. Connect your own AI and it runs the whole DM side with a memory of your campaign across sessions.