The story behind Familiar

I'm Ryan. Dad of two young kids, married to my favorite person, and perpetually short on free time.

My wife and I play D&D together, just the two of us, 1-on-1 campaigns. It's our thing. But solo DMing is a lot. You're the storyteller, every NPC, the rules engine, the sound guy, and the atmosphere all at once. I'd be mid-monologue as a mysterious stranger and then have to break character to roll initiative, look up a spell range, adjust the lighting, and find that one tavern ambience track I swore I bookmarked. By the time I got back to the scene, the moment was gone.

I wanted something that could handle the mechanical side of the table so I could stay in the story. Not a replacement DM, a co-pilot. Something I could say "roll initiative for the goblins, dim the torches, and start combat music" to, and it would just... do it. While I kept talking.

So I started building. First it was a handful of tools to move tokens and roll dice. Then I added combat tracking. Then scene management. Then I thought "what if it could also generate NPC portraits on the fly?" and "what if it could voice the tavern keeper?" and that's basically how you end up with 185 tools across 24 domains and 26 AI providers.

It started as a personal itch-scratcher for a dad who wanted to run better D&D games for his wife. It turns out a lot of GMs have the same itch.

What can Familiar do?

Ask your AI to do things that would normally take you minutes of clicking through menus:

"Roll initiative for all the goblins, have them attack the nearest player, and play battle music."

"Spawn two Wolves from the compendium as reinforcements, place them near the forest edge, and add them to combat with initiative rolled."

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

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

"We're done for tonight. Summarize what happened this session and save it."

Familiar exposes 185 tools across 24 domains through the Model Context Protocol. Five core bundles are always available; the rest load on demand when your AI needs them.

Highlights

Installation

Install the Foundry module, pick a provider, and start talking to your game.

If you want to connect an MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, or ChatGPT), you also need the MCP server:

npx familiar-vtt

The MCP Setup Wizard in Module Settings > Familiar walks you through connecting your client step by step.

Compatibility

Connect your AI

There are two ways to connect an AI to your game. Both give the AI the same tools, the difference is where the AI runs and how you pay.

Option 1: Built-in chat (API key)

No server. No terminal. No config files. Just install the module, pick a provider, paste an API key, and start talking to your game.

Familiar connects directly to 26 AI providers across four categories:

This is the right choice if you want the simplest setup, or if you want voice, images, and transcription alongside chat. It is also the only option that supports local models (Ollama, LM Studio) for fully offline play.

Option 2: MCP (your existing subscription)

Already paying for Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini? Put that subscription to work. Connect them directly to Familiar through the Model Context Protocol. Your subscription becomes a DM assistant at no extra API cost.

Familiar supports four MCP clients out of the box:

The MCP server ships as an npm package:

npx familiar-vtt

You do not need to configure each client by hand. The module includes a step-by-step MCP Setup Wizard (in Module Settings > Familiar) that detects your connected client and generates the exact config, just copy and paste.

Which should I pick?

Your keys, your cost

Most AI tabletop tools lock you into their ecosystem. They charge per turn, per credit, or per token, and you're stuck with whatever model they picked for you. Run out of credits mid-session? Too bad.

Familiar works differently. You bring your own AI, whether that is an API key you already have or a subscription to Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini. Familiar never proxies, meters, or marks up your usage. Your API keys go straight from your browser to the provider. With MCP, your existing subscription handles it. There is no middleman, no per-turn limits, and no credits that run out.

Works with what you already have

Familiar works best when there is already great content in your world. The Foundry community has spent years building incredible modules, battle maps, character sheets, compendium packs, and ready-to-play adventures. Familiar does not try to replace any of that. It reads what is already there and uses it.

Those compendium entries with pre-built monsters, spells, and items? The AI pulls from them instead of making things up. That beautifully lit dungeon map someone spent weeks on? The AI can place tokens on it, trigger the right music, and run the encounter. The more content your world has, the better Familiar gets.

Pricing

$3/month with a free 1-month trial so you can try everything before you commit. All features are available during the trial, no restrictions.

Familiar itself costs $3/month. AI provider costs are separate and depend on your usage and chosen provider. A typical D&D session runs roughly $0.50–$3 in API costs depending on the model, or $0 if you use a subscription (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) through MCP or local models through Ollama.

FAQ

Roadmap

Things I'm actively working toward. No promises on timelines.

Module Integrations

Let the AI control the most popular Foundry modules - automated rolls, visual effects, animations, loot, and more.

Ready-to-Play Adventures

Plug-and-play support for published adventures. Import the adventure, enable Familiar, and the AI already knows the story, NPCs, maps, and encounters. Starting with Ember (Foundry's own 500-hour sandbox campaign) and expanding to popular published modules.

Game System Support

Expanding beyond D&D 5e with full system-specific tools (character sheets, combat automation, spell resolution).

Improvements

• Combat AI: smarter NPC tactics, group coordination, retreat behavior, morale
• Voice generation: more natural NPC voices, emotion control, multi-voice conversations
• Built-in chat: conversation memory across sessions, campaign knowledge base, auto-summarization
• Image generation: consistent character portraits across sessions, style presets
• MCP: faster tool execution, better multi-step task handling, richer feedback to clients

Feedback

Join the Discord - bug reports, feature ideas, or just tell me about the weird thing the AI did to your goblin encounter.

License

Familiar is licensed under the PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0. You can use, read, and modify the software freely, but you may not use it to build a competing product. See LICENSE for the full text.