Master of Dungeon vs Character.AI
Master of Dungeon is a free AI text RPG for iOS and Android. An AI Dungeon Master narrates the story, you choose an action or type your own, and dice and skills decide the outcome. Character.AI is a chat app where you talk with AI characters created by the community or by yourself, in text or by voice. It has no built-in rules or dice. In October 2026 its developer started a Chapter 11 sale process; the app keeps running while a buyer is found.
Last updated: 2026-10-27
Feature by feature
| Feature | Master of Dungeon | Character.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Native apps for iOS and Android. | Web browser, an iPhone app and an Android app. Rated 18+ on the App Store and Teen on Google Play. |
| How you play | Each scene offers suggested actions you can tap, plus free text for your own idea. | Free-form chat with one or more characters, plus Scenes (short guided role-play moments) and Stories (branching choose-your-own-adventure runs). |
| Rules and dice | Skill checks with dice against a difficulty; turn-based combat with abilities and equipment. | No rules system, dice, stats or inventory; the character decides how to answer. |
| Character progression | Heroes gain experience, learn skills and keep equipment between adventures. | No player character sheet or progression; you can set a persona that characters talk to. |
| Memory of your choices | The Dungeon Master tracks your hero, inventory and earlier decisions within an adventure; NPCs can react to past actions. | Chat history, 15 pinned memories on the free plan and 30 on paid plans, personas, and automatic Facts plus a Lorebook for c.ai+. |
| Multiplayer | Co-op parties of up to four players invited by link; each round everyone acts and the Dungeon Master resolves the actions together. | Group chats where several users talk with several characters in one room. |
| Content creation | Players create their own adventures and share them with the community. | Users create characters with a voice, greeting and tags, plus Scenes and Stories, and publish them as public, unlisted or private. |
| Price model | Free to play with a daily action allowance; optional action packs from $2.99 add more. | Free with ads and slow mode at busy times. The lite plan costs from $4.99 a month; c.ai+ is $9.99 in the App Store or $94.99 a year on the web and removes ads. |
| Languages | 30 languages, including English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese. | The App Store lists English and 27 more languages; voice calls also work in Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and others. |
| App size | About 84 MB on iOS. | About 271 MB on iOS. |
Facts verified 2026-10-27 against the official site of Character.AI by Character Technologies. Pricing details change; check the official site for current plans.
Is Character.AI a game?
Not in the usual sense. Character.AI is a chat app: you pick a character, write a message and the character answers. Two newer formats add some structure. Scenes are short role-play moments with a goal, written by other users. Stories let you pick two or three characters and a genre, then play a branching choose-your-own-adventure run that you can replay with different decisions.
None of these has a rules layer. There are no dice, no hit points, no inventory and no skill checks, so whether your sword swing lands is up to whatever the character writes next. That makes Character.AI good at conversation and mood, and loose about stakes.
Master of Dungeon is built the other way round. The AI Dungeon Master narrates, but risky actions go through a skill check: your hero's skill plus a dice roll against a difficulty. Combat is turn-based, with abilities, equipment and enemies that have their own moves, and failing a roll changes the story instead of being ignored.
Can you play D&D or an RPG on Character.AI?
You can role-play one. Pick or create a character that acts as a game master and you can run a fantasy campaign in chat. The character keeps track of your health or gold only in its own text, though, so numbers drift, enemies forget their wounds and nothing stops the story from bending to whatever you type.
Master of Dungeon keeps that bookkeeping in the game itself. Your hero has one of four classes, Warrior, Rogue, Paladin or Monk, and a race, and the game stores experience, skills, equipment and inventory outside the story text. The Dungeon Master reads that state before every scene, and heroes keep it between adventures.
Is Character.AI free? c.ai+ and lite explained
Character.AI is free to use. The free plan shows ads, can slow down at busy times and keeps up to 15 pinned memories per chat. The lite plan, from $4.99 a month (prices vary by region), shows fewer ads, slows down less and doubles the pins. c.ai+ costs $94.99 a year on the official subscribe page, with a $9.99 purchase in the App Store, and adds unlimited premium chats, no ads and the full memory suite, including automatic Facts and the Lorebook.
Master of Dungeon is free to play with a daily allowance of actions that comes back every day. You can watch a short ad for a few extra actions or buy action packs from $2.99, and an optional Premium subscription adds more daily actions and community quests. Co-op is part of the free game.
Age rules for players under 18
Character.AI's help center sets the minimum age at 13, or 16 in Europe, but the App Store lists the app as 18+. Since late November 2025 users under 18 can no longer have open-ended chats with characters. Everyone goes through age assurance, and accounts found to belong to minors get a reading mode where they can still create characters and scenes and play Stories, but not chat.
Master of Dungeon is rated 9+ on the App Store. Every player gets the same game: an adventure narrated by the Dungeon Master, with actions resolved by the rules.
Memory and playing with friends
Character.AI remembers a chat through its history plus pinned messages, which stay in memory however long the chat gets. Personas tell characters who you are. c.ai+ adds Facts, saved automatically about you and the characters, and a Lorebook of world knowledge, still in beta. Group chats put several users and several characters in one room.
In Master of Dungeon, memory is tied to the game state: the Dungeon Master knows your hero, inventory and earlier decisions, and non-player characters can react to what you did. Co-op parties take up to four players invited by link. Each round every hero picks an action and the Dungeon Master resolves them together, so the party does not need to be online at the same time.
What the Chapter 11 sale means for Character.AI
On 12 October 2026 Character.AI announced that it had started a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process with a court-supervised sale. The company expects the sale to finish by the end of November or early December 2026. It says the platform remains up and running in the meantime, and that it will be wound down if no buyer comes forward to keep it going.
Characters, chats and subscriptions stay with Character.AI, so check its announcements for what happens to them. Master of Dungeon is made by Bitforge, an independent studio, and is not affected.
Who should stay with Character.AI
Stay with Character.AI if you mostly want to talk: open conversation with a favourite character, voice calls, group chats with many characters, or building and sharing characters of your own. It also runs in a browser, which Master of Dungeon does not.
Switch to Master of Dungeon if you want a game rather than a chat: a hero with a class and equipment, dice that can go against you, quests and turn-based fights, co-op with friends, and an AI Dungeon Master in 30 languages.
Who should pick Master of Dungeon
Master of Dungeon fits players who want:
- Playing a game with stakes, dice and a hero that grows.
- Structured adventures with a beginning, quests and combat.
- Co-op adventures with friends.
Who should pick Character.AI
Character.AI fits players who want:
- Open conversation with a specific character or persona.
- Voice calls and group chats with characters.
- Creating and sharing characters.
Questions people ask
Is Character.AI a role-playing game?
Character.AI is a chat app for talking with AI characters. Scenes and Stories add guided and branching role-play, but there are no rules, dice or progression. Master of Dungeon is an AI text RPG with skill checks, turn-based combat and a hero who levels up.
Can Master of Dungeon do character conversations?
Yes, within the adventure: you can talk to any non-player character in your own words, and the Dungeon Master plays them. The conversation is part of a game with quests and consequences.
Which is free?
Both. Character.AI has a free plan with ads, a lite plan from $4.99 a month and c.ai+ at $94.99 a year. Master of Dungeon is free to play with a daily action allowance and optional in-app purchases.
Is Character.AI shutting down?
Not as of 27 October 2026. Character.AI started a Chapter 11 sale process on 12 October 2026 and says the platform is running. If no buyer keeps it going, the company says it will be wound down; it expects the sale to finish by early December 2026.
Can under-18s use Character.AI?
Users from 13 (16 in Europe) can sign up, but since November 2025 under-18s cannot chat with characters; they get a reading mode with Stories and creation tools. Master of Dungeon is rated 9+ on the App Store.