I appreciate that you point this out. You do have to apply and pay a fee for most highly-rated awards (nothing is free today). However, I'm proud to say that we did not apply, rather were nominated (by individuals) and won our category.

We are bootstrapped (indie hackers) who are just trying to build a tool that we have always wanted - and hope others can enjoy as well (along with our victories).

It's a TTRPG OS-level app to enhance your IRL/hybrid game sessions (not a VTT). We bring all the tools you need into a single place and simplify the rules/information of the game you are playing. It helps make the game easier for all players (GM & Players - experienced or new) and inclusive (i.e. colorblind, Austism, ADHD, etc.).

We will be launching v1 soon - but today you can join the waitlist on the website - the site is pretty outdated but we will be updating it soon with a new design.

Nurl is also meant to be game agnostic with features that will also create a platform for publishers/writers to add their own systems. v1 will include support for dnd5e (not 2025 yet), Shiver, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Nightfell, and Shadow scar (RPG day game).

Thanks for the help! I'll ship those updates today.

This is amazing. ✨

Thank you so much for this question Obituary! From my perspective it's not so much about looking up rules not being holistic - rather a blocker to a game session and potentially to the game itself (i.e. some rules are very abstract and require X level of experience...which even then is not reliable). Thus, Nurl instead helps to try and streamline that experience when it needs to happen, doing so in a way that a 13 year old can understand. Of course, it's opt in, so you don't have to use that feature - but speaking from experience (I'm a GM with a hybrid group of 6 players. All are new except one who has been playing for 20 years), it has been an invaluable resource in our group.

The holistic nature being more around character sheets and other tools you need to play a game.

I just want to thank you SW first and foremost for this post and all the questions you have to which I'm delighted to engage. 😊 I wish more people in our community were open to having a safe discussion about this topic.

I'm going to attempt to answer all of your questions, but they may be out of order to hopefully give a better context.

To start, without giving away our IP, I'm happy to say that Nurl does not use GPT - we in fact use a more advanced approach which creates our engine that is made up of different parts to accomplish X thing successfully. This is why the app provides value outside of general purpose AI - it is so much more than just a simple chatbot (i.e. we deconstruct rule and so much more).

Because of this, Nuro has yet to have an issue with accuracy for any feature because we are consistently training our models to prevent it. Nuro is also the engine that is exposed only to support and enhance the games for both the players and GM and not as a "meta-GM". This meaning that Nuro will not be another voice in the argument to over throw a GM or anything like that. I and my group also use the app along with about 100 other people who opted into our Beta Prototype to validate some assumptions - the MVP is the next step on that.

Around eithics and legality, we also have guidelines and a legal council protecting these things. For the most part, training does not occur with user interaction but in other ways under the hood that we control. The only exception is if a user will update their accessibility settings that will make games better in ways there has never existed before. For example, if you are a person with Neurological disabilities, you can update a setting that is relative to your option which will alter how Nuro specifically communicates and displays the UI to you. Thus, Nurl makes TTRPGs more accessible and inclusive than ever before (which I'm really excited about).

We also plan to add a set of features that are relative to groups that use voice chat if they want to opt into them (also excited about these). Regarding NSFW, it is against our Terms and Conditions to upload or abuse Nurl in any way regarding this material to which we will block, remove, report, and take legal action if needed when the Terms have been violated.

Cost is still being determined but it will more than likely not be a subscription. Rather, a usage based plan that matches current standards in the industry. This is a little more complicated because maybe the GM uses Nurl more than Player X. In that scenario, Player X shouldn't be charged a consistent fee because they are using it less. This is also something I'm very passionate about regarding fairness in billing.

Lastly, I appreciate the feedback on the word "proprietary" - note taken.

I hope I was able to answer all your questions with as much detail as I can legally give without giving away our IP? If you feel that I have not, please forgive me. Once again, I really appreciate this conversation and hope Nurl can be a beacon of hope around how to use advanced technology to give the community tools they deserve vs. abusing our creators.

Oh, interesting! I could definitely see a feature like a Trello board being useful in Nurl for GMs? We already have the other stuff which means the app could "automagically" connect everything for you to create a seamless game session experience. I really appreciate and value that insight and will add it to our backlog.

If you are interested, check out our Group Chat Features which I feel like are relative to this convo. Our Notes Features might also be interesting to you?

Great question! It has a AMA feature - but it's not an AMA. It's more so like a "group hub" for your games if you will? It's also not a VTT - that problem has been solved already.

Nurl aims to support and enhance game sessions for people who still love to play IRL/hybrid game sessions. Having said that, you don't need a rule-set because our proprietary engine Nuro™️ manages all that on your behalf. Basically, using the app should allow you to just focus on the story or playing the game vs. managing the details. As a GM, the last thing I want to do is waste more time "doing stuff" vs. telling the story. The app has helped me go from taking 3 hours to plan my sessions down to 15 minutes (very nice).

We are building the engine to do some really cool things regarding NPCs and custom lore that you can learn more in our blog posts (see both the chat and notes). So, with all that context, it is meant to empower both the GM and Players so changing or learning about anything on the fly has no limits (I can validate that as a GM who does it pretty much in every game session...except fudging dice - if the players can't fudge, I choose not to fudge which makes a more interesting and engaging story IMO).

I hope that answered all your questions? Please let me know if it didn't and what I can do to be more helpful!

Great question! The app is game agnostic out of the box and supports any game in the mainstream. We do support Beam Saber out of the box today. If it is OK with you, I would love to learn more about your expectations of campaign organization since that is relative per GM? Would you be open to setting up 30min for a chat about it and possible user testing of the app features? 100% OK if you are uncomfortable with that.

Ah, interesting. I feel that like it totally possible in a more "Nurl like" way since our location widget contains a place for you to upload a map - so by nature, our engine should be able to connect all those things and (theoretically) make the pins for you. Basically, with Nurl, you should have the option - but shouldn't have to do the work if that makes sense?

I'm going to take note of that and just keep a pulse to see where that idea goes. Thanks so much for the details and stay tuned. 👀

We won't do exports to begin with, but I do have plans for integrations post release where we can. But, if we get enough feature requests to be able to export - we will 100% be happy to build that out.

Totally forgot to mention one of the extensions is a location tracker (which will update in real time on the player side - see website shot, top left side), and if you create a note that uses a location for the title, then the app will add some bonus features because it will know the party is in X location and you have a note related to that location (I'm personally excited about).

So I'm not sure about what you mean by world building notes with map pins, however, I'm very intrigued and interested in learning more. Would you be open to diving deeper in a 1:1 user testing conversation privately where I can understand and see if we can fit it into the release?

Great question! So, we use our engine to do quite a few things for both DMs and players. As a DM, you can use the dashboard to add a bunch of utility extensions similar to what you see in the website screenshot (except that is for a player). This could include everything from your notes, to player stats, reminders, dice roller, location, etc. The extensions will be an open source library, so anyone should be able to eventually build their own and sell them in the app if they wanted to (or not). For DMs we also provide advanced features for the notes (like automagical player dictionaries which means it creates the character dictionary and context for you), encounters view (initiative tracker/encounter manager on steroids) and just be an overall hub for your group. Basically, it will help to streamline the group and game session in a way that hasn't really been explored yet with the goal of just making playing and understanding the games easier.

Long term we will also create a line of physical smart products that will connect to the app - like GM tiles that create a map for you vs. you doing it or buying it, etc.

Ah, and there is also the raw engine itself in a conversational interface that you can use to help plan and execute your sessions. For example, I used to spend about 3 hours planning my sessions and now it only takes me on average about 15 minutes and we do about 4 hour sessions.

And it does support any TTRPG system. I test it every week and so far there is not a system I've found (outside of indie) that I can't create players and run a game with. It's pretty cool.