Hello, Adventure-Raisers! What a… what a week, eh? First, Sam Riegel’s news (wishing him all the best) which in all honesty is probably a historical event in the little cosmos of TTRPG. And then… and then a major historical event yesterday. It’s a new kind of gravity that I will try not to forget. I hope I can bring you a little levity with this Session 24: AI? Part one

So, when I was brainstorming topics for this weekend I noticed that my husband Orin’s feed lately has been all about reactions to AI, reactions to bots, bots shopping for cheap goods from bots selling cheap goods, etc. And I thought, “huh, I wonder if AI has even tried to touch TTRPGs yet?” and lo and behold, I’m very late to this discussion. There’s enough material here to cover a few installations to the blog, and honestly I want to research it a bit more to give you all the info you could need. So consider this session Part One of the side quest!

Now to be fair, part of the reason I like board games and TTRPGs so much is because I want a break from screens – and it’s hard to have AI without electricity. That in and of itself is a huge reason I want Little Dragon to pick up the hobby. I don’t think screens, and by extension AIs, are inherently evil but I do believe in balance and moderation. Having hobbies that hinge on humanity and flaws and strategy and emotions will always have value. Learning to utilize modern tools will, too. So, what is that balance, and can everyone find it?

What Do I Mean By AI?

First, we need to define what AI really does. At this point, most of what I have looked into is ChatGPT. There is a lot of really helpful information on YouTube about how to program it, and I managed to find a great demo of it from about a year ago here (video by RPGGamer). By all means, check out the full video (pop it on like a podcast (shameless plug to one of my other articles here), the host clearly has experience running those) and he takes you through ChatGPT generating story prompts and characters. And, as he points out, he made that video when ChatGPT had just come out. From what I gather “it’s a learning robot” (The Incredibles) and in theory it’s only gotten better at generating prompts from there. I haven’t had a moment to research this point yet, but one thing I am really interested in is seeing someone solo a one shot with AI as a GM… because just based on the ChatGPT video it seems completely plausible. Comment down below and drop a link if you know of anyone who’s done this!! So that’s one example.

One item I just remembered is PF2E’s unofficial character builder (link) which helps you build and level up your character. Pathfinder has a lot of status effects in game play as well, and it can be tricky to keep it all straight during a combat encounter. But with one tool, my entire character sheet can be recalculated in seconds if needed, and it’s still legible… which is important.

Another great example I came across was actually in another TTRPG blogger’s site (The Dawn of AI in Tabletop RPGs: Revolutionizing the Game Master’s Role by Danny McKeever) where the author also points out the uses of AI in sharing content. Orin and I like watching Game Grumps, and that channel has become so huge they upload a new video almost every day. And while Arin Hanson, host and founder of Game Grumps, is a self-admitted workaholic, there are probably bots actually doing the uploading. Same thing for D&D content. I actually used a free online tool to transcribe the audio recordings of my interview with RedWyrm last week. That didn’t make the interview inauthentic, it just saved me a few hours of my life back so I could go play with Little Dragon and sing ABCs. Nat20 as far as I’m concerned.

Finally, a friend named Salvation (I’ve mentioned him before, he played our Tiefling who made a deal with his devil dad and had to take a few levels in warlock on top of Knowledge Domain cleric) runs a Curse of Strahd campaign right now, and instead of constantly taking notes he has an AI bot transcribe all audio at the table. In all honesty, Orin probably shouldn’t have told me that because now I want him to give me the transcripts so I can read along and pretend my group had a session this week (fake crying), but I have too many hobbies as it is.

What Could It Go Wrong?

There’s a line between “tool” and “crutch”, and, succinctly, it’s about how much you really need it. AI may help make a bad GM better, but could it trip up a good GM and stop him from being great? Yes, absolutely. And I think that’s the area a lot of people are keying in on; as if this new technology may drain the game of its humanistic charm. If you want to play with AI, just play Skyrim or Baldur’s Gate 3, etc.

I do agree that this negative situation, where a GM or even a player basically cyborgs themselves into being nothing more than a voice box for AI and then automates that on the next patch, is definitely going to happen somewhere. But I would also wager that it’s not going to completely take over the genre. My evidence for this is that 300,000+ of us gather in one place every year to endure one another’s body odor (and in my case a crying toddler) just to play these games. And there are several smaller examples of this the rest of the year across the globe. Robots could literally show up to a Con with full intent to take over the world, and nerds will look for the most ragtag team of strangers they can get their hands on to go on an adventure to save the world. Especially if there’s a trophy involved.

One thing that we do all dread, though, are the WOTC bots pushing MTG secret layers…. (The Best MTGO Buy Bots Ranked by David Royale) Shudder. (Though, no real shade if this is a side hustle for you, I get it).

Wrap Up

So, yeah, absolutely go google this stuff you guys, this is a truly fascinating topic, and I just scratched the surface here. I’m not even a software engineer and I’m licking my lips for more automation. Please, please, please come back next week when I’ll cover some more examples of good things AI can do for us, and then I’ll tackle the topic of: how does this introduction to AI impact our kids in the TTRPG world? It’s certainly an interesting new element, right? And the weekend after that will be my final GenCon prep article of 2024, which I am so excited about! See you all there!

And never forget, you’re not on this journey alone!