Your AI co-pilot for Foundry VTT.

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.

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, or Gemini over MCP, or any of 28 providers by API key. You install it from the Foundry package browser or a manifest URL, and the first 14 days are free.

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.

Two ways, and you bring your own AI for both. Use the Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini subscription you already pay for 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. The same tools work either way; the difference is where the model runs and who you pay.

Yes, both paths. The built-in chat runs anywhere Foundry does, because the module calls your AI provider straight from the browser. The MCP link works too: the local server runs on your own computer, and your browser connects to it directly, so your hosting provider is never in the path. Run the setup wizard from your hosted game and the config it generates already carries the one extra setting for this, your game's URL in FAMILIAR_WS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS. There's nothing to hand-edit.

No telemetry, no analytics, no calls home. Familiar runs inside your Foundry world; data only leaves when you message your chosen AI provider. Point the Local AI tab at a model on your own machine and even that stops, because the built-in chat talks to your server instead.

Document updates are sanitised, so the AI can't change ownership, permissions, or internal IDs. Destructive operations require confirmation, and the WebSocket connection is authenticated with a shared secret. Keep backups anyway: good practice with or without AI.

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.

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: the built-in chat has a Thinking control you can turn up when a moment earns it, and over MCP that dial lives in your own client.

Yes, that's a main reason it exists. 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. It's how Familiar started: 1-on-1 D&D with my wife.

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 battle map 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.

Yes. 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.

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.

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, and the same portal switches you between monthly and yearly, 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.

Yes, with one honest qualifier. 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.