If you want to write adult fiction and roleplay by typing what happens next, with no scenario to set up first and your chats kept on your own device, the alternative to DreamGen we make is Hemmingway Unlocked. If you came to DreamGen for its long-story editor, its scenarios or its own model family, a story editor such as NovelAI, or DreamGen's models run on your own machine, will suit you better.
Hemmingway Unlocked is our uncensored AI for adults, with open weights and an API that works in SillyTavern. We make Hemmingway Unlocked. What we say about the others comes from their own sites.
What DreamGen is
DreamGen's site calls it AI games and stories. Its docs and terms describe:
- Scenarios. Everything starts from a scenario, which its docs also call a story bible: the plot, setting, style, characters, locations and an opening. Most fields are optional. A chat-based wizard can build one for you, and you can publish yours or use other people's.
- Story mode. An editor where the text sits in blocks you can change. A Continue button writes the next part, instruction blocks steer it, and a Writing Assistant in the sidebar helps you brainstorm and rewrite.
- Role-play mode. A chat with several characters and a narrator, where you play a persona and the AI stops when it is your turn.
- Pictures. Characters can have avatars and scenes backgrounds, and its docs include a guide to image generation.
- Models. Its V2 notes say it added third-party models such as DeepSeek and GLM, and its guides name GLM and Gemma models among the choices. DreamGen also makes its own families, Opus and Lucid, and publishes them on Hugging Face.
- Who it is for. Its terms say you must be 18 or over. They ban illegal content and any sexual content involving minors, fictional minors included.
- Plans. A free tier and paid plans that differ in context length and credits, per its pricing page.
Why people look elsewhere
- Less set-up. Even with most fields optional, a DreamGen session is built on a scenario. Some people only want to type the scene and get a reply.
- Where the work is kept. DreamGen's privacy policy says it stores the stories, role-plays and scenarios you make, and uses them to train models only if you opt in, which is off by default. If you want your chats on your own device and nowhere else, you need a different design.
- The model under them changed. Its notes say version 1 shut down in March 2026 and version 2 brought in third-party models, and its terms promise no particular model stays available. If you liked one model, the only sure way to keep it is to run it yourself.
The options side by side
| Option | What it is | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hemmingway Unlocked | Our adults-only chat and writing app | Adult fiction and roleplay in a plain chat, with chats on your device | No scenario editor, lorebook or images |
| NovelAI | A story editor with a lorebook, and an image generator | Long stories you co-write, with world notes | Built around a document, not a chat |
| DreamGen's Lucid models, run yourself | DreamGen's own role-play and story models, downloaded | Keeping its model family, with nothing sent anywhere | Non-commercial licence, and a graphics card of your own |
| SillyTavern with an API | A front end you install, with no model of its own | Character cards, group chats and your choice of model | Set-up, and your chats go to the API you pick |
NovelAI
NovelAI's site describes a story generator built to write with you, not for you. Its docs describe an editor where you write, press send and the AI continues, with every step kept in an edit history that branches like a timeline. Its Lorebook holds your characters, locations, objects and factions, and adds each entry to what the AI sees when it comes up in the story. Its site says your prompts are encrypted, and it also has an image generator.
If DreamGen's story mode was the part you used, this is the nearest thing here. NovelAI alternatives looks at the story side in more depth.
DreamGen's own models, run yourself
DreamGen publishes two model families on Hugging Face. Its Opus collection describes them as uncensored models for steerable story-writing and role-playing. Its Lucid model card describes a 12B model, a full fine-tune of Mistral Nemo, made for role-play and story writing.
The Lucid card limits use to personal, non-commercial use. It names llama.cpp, KoboldCpp and vLLM for running it locally, offers a GGUF version, and gives presets for SillyTavern. Check the size against your graphics card before you download.
Choose this to keep DreamGen's own models exactly as they are. KoboldAI alternatives covers the local runners, and open models for roleplay covers the set-up.
SillyTavern with an API
SillyTavern's docs describe a locally installed interface for text models with no model of its own. You connect it to a program on your own computer or to an API, including any OpenAI-compatible one. It has character cards, World Info for lore, group chats and personas, and it is free and open source.
The Lucid card says DreamGen also offers an API with an account and a key, so you can keep DreamGen's models and move to your own front end. Unlocked's API works in SillyTavern too.
Where Hemmingway Unlocked fits
Hemmingway Unlocked is the adults-only side of Hemmingway, at wise.hemmingway.io. It asks you to confirm you are 18 or over, shows you its rules, then asks you to sign in.
- What it writes. Sex between adults, explicit and in full. Dark, violent fiction: horror, war, crime. Roleplay where you set the scene and it plays its part, and ordinary chat. It does not stop a scene to lecture you.
- What it never writes. Anything sexual involving anyone under 18 or an adult playing someone under 18, a real person, animals, family (step, half, adoptive and foster included) or anyone who does not want it or cannot say yes. Never torture or help hurting a real person, stalking, doxxing, harassing or scamming, weapons, explosives, making drugs, harmful software, or help with suicide or self-harm. The full list is in our terms, and every answer has a Report button.
- Where chats live. In your browser, on your device, not on our servers, and never used for training. Each message passes through our servers to be answered and is not kept. Chats do not sync, and clearing your browser's data deletes them.
- Cost. Free to try, with no card. After the trial, memberships start at $9 a month. Its page has the rest.
- API. OpenAI-compatible, at
https://wise.hemmingway.io/v1. You make the key inside Unlocked, in the account menu under API keys, and it needs a membership. In SillyTavern: Chat Completion, then Custom (OpenAI-compatible), then the address and your key. The set-up page has the steps. - Weights. Public, as an adapter on our open-weights model Hemmingway-1. Running it needs a big GPU set-up.
Open Hemmingway UnlockedTry Hemmingway
Where it does not fit
- No scenario editor, lorebook or Continue button. It is a chat, so in a long story you restate the details that matter. For a document with world notes, NovelAI or DreamGen's story mode is closer.
- No character library or builder. You describe the characters in your first message.
- No images or avatars. It writes text only.
- No app-store app. It runs in your browser.
Bringing a DreamGen scenario across
A scenario is text, so it moves. Copy out the parts that matter:
- The setting: time, place and the mood.
- Each character: name, adult age, how they talk, what they want.
- The style: whose point of view, past or present tense, how long each reply should run.
- Where the story stands now, in a few lines.
Paste it as your first message in Unlocked, and end it with the next thing that happens.
How to choose
- Adult fiction and roleplay in a plain chat, with chats on your device: try Hemmingway Unlocked.
- A long story in an editor, with world notes the AI keeps track of: NovelAI, or stay in DreamGen's story mode.
- DreamGen's own models, kept as they are: download Lucid and run it yourself, within its licence.
- Your own front end, with any model behind it: SillyTavern with an API.
Common questions
Is there a DreamGen alternative with a story editor?
NovelAI is the closest named here. Its docs describe an editor where you and the AI take turns, an edit history you can branch, and a Lorebook for characters and places. Hemmingway Unlocked has no editor of that kind. It is a chat.
Can I run DreamGen's models myself?
DreamGen publishes its Lucid and Opus models on Hugging Face. The Lucid card limits use to personal, non-commercial use and names llama.cpp, KoboldCpp and vLLM for running it locally.
Does Hemmingway Unlocked have an API like DreamGen?
Yes. It is OpenAI-compatible, at https://wise.hemmingway.io/v1, and works in SillyTavern. The key is made inside Unlocked and needs a membership; the free trial is for the app. An Unlocked key always reaches Unlocked's model, whatever model name you send.
Can I run Hemmingway Unlocked on my own computer?
Its weights are public on Hugging Face, as an adapter on Hemmingway-1, a 27B model. That takes a strong GPU set-up, about 54 GB for the weights alone at 16-bit. The guide goes through it.