Dungeon Quest Online

Chapter 1: Operation A.I.

Tristen Alexander - Experimental Build #1

20 years prior to launch

    Tristen jolted out of bed from a loud, insistent knocking on his door.

 His mother's voice sounded from behind the closed door, "Tristen, wake up! It's time to get ready for school."

 "Ugh, school already?" Tristen groaned as he waited for a sleep-addled brain to jump-start and the figurative fog of war to diminish.

 "Ha, Ha...," he chuckled to himself. He'd been dreaming about their last encounter in Dungeon Quest.

 Tristen recalled his friends crouched next to that Goblin camp and Aaron nearly panicking as he almost got the group killed. If only he could immerse himself in a fantasy world every day, it would make life so much more interesting. Instead, he had to go to school and sit through biology, mathematics, and history all of which provided no stimulation for Tristen.

 "Ugh," groaned Tristen.

 The only class that intrigued Tristen was Computer class since he loved to create programs. Outside of computer software and programs, he also loved to dabble with gadgets in the machine shop. Many of his other classmates that spent time in the shop worked on some metal project or another. There was a small bench in the back corner Tristen used to work on computers and other electronic gadgets. He often stayed hours after school ended while he worked on projects.

 The current project was an attempt to build an Artificial Intelligence or A.I.. He wanted to use it as the GM for their groups Dungeon Quest games. It wouldn't be a complex A.I., but if he programmed enough data into it, perhaps it would function well enough. The goal was to create an electronic GM so that Tristen could join his friends as a party member for their next game. To create the A.I., there needed to be a voice modulator and a processor that could handle all the pre-built scenarios and characters the group had created. The A.I. could then respond to events based on keywords or triggered phrases.

 The equipment Tristen had at his disposal was an old-school voice modulator that had zero personality. He would need to change that, or he imagined his friends growing bored with it. He would like to have a more modern voice processor, but discarded and outdated electronics lacked the needed design. One day, Tristen planned to have a lab of his own and a team to build technology. Not only did he want to build a better A.I., but Tristen had also thought about building virtual reality technology. He had read about the technology and theories about full immersion into a created virtual space. Most of the designs were clunky and only allowed two senses, sight and hearing, to experience a virtual world.

 One day, he wanted to create a technology that allowed people to immerse themselves in a fantasy world, like Dungeon Quest. For now, He would survive with a cobbled together approximation of an A.I. so he could experience the thrill of adventure with his friends. He hoped to have everything complete before their next game, but he seemed to have an issue with the voice recognition that allowed the A.I. to hear and interpret keywords and trigger phrases.

 Tristen had gone through all the pre-fabricated scenarios, notes, GM responses, every possible combination of success checks and failures, and the phrases he used to moderate the game. He had done all of this on his own because he wanted to keep this project a secret from them. None of his friends had the same fascination and intrigue as he for electronics and computers, anyway.

 Instead, Aaron was a different person outside their little group of friends and was on the junior high football team as a running back, whatever that involved. Sports was not an area of much interest to Tristen, not to mention he was a scrawny little guy that could float away from a stiff breeze. Aaron's involvement in Dungeon Quest was often a mystery to Tristen, and he suspected Aaron would have abandoned his seat at the table if not for Natalia.