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by Mike on 30 September 2024
Your brain, fueled by books and augmented with simple tools, is your best resource for preparing and running awesome tabletop roleplaying games.
Many GMs and players say they find a lot of value out of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and other generative AI tools like Midjourney or Dall-E. Who am I to tell them they’re not finding them as useful as they say they are?
But there's a high cost for generative AI.
With this in mind, we can ask ourselves two questions:
Your answers to these questions may be "yes". That's up to each of us to decide and I'm not here to judge. I find LLMs useful for small coding projects but they don't help me with RPGs. They offer the illusion of help, but my best RPG work is the work I do myself.
Creators, companies, and hobbyists of tabletop roleplaying games find themselves on both sides of the generative AI value discussion.
Chris Cocks, CEO of Hasbro (the parent company in charge of D&D) is super excited for AI in D&D, saying:
I play with probably 30 or 40 people regularly. There’s not a single person who doesn’t use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas. That’s a clear signal that we need to be embracing it.
On the other side, Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Press issued the No-AI Pledge:
We don’t use generative AI art, we don’t use AI to generate text for our game design, and we don’t believe that AI is magical pixie dust that makes your tabletop games better.
Among 3,700 players and GMs I surveyed, about 3 in 10 use generative AI when preparing for or playing RPGs. There’s a lot of divisiveness between these groups:
It helps me immensely. I’m the type that’ll stare blankly at a screen for hours before being able to write a single word, so having AI to get things started has helped me in everything.
No, and I never will. Never use plagiarism software.
You already possess the most powerful computer in known existence – available any time to help you generate awesome ideas for your tabletop roleplaying game. Instead of nuclear power, it runs on meat and plants and other garbage like a Mr. Fusion in Back to the Future. It has no monthly fee. It’s not killing creative jobs, stealing the work of millions, literally boiling the ocean, or filling the internet with crap.
Your best RPG tool sits right behind your eyes.
It’s easy to get caught up in the “magic” of large language models but, in my experience, they’re not great for generating game content when compared to reading books and using your imagination.
Our brains – fed with great source material and simple tools like random tables – give us tons of ideas to fuel our games like they have for over 50 years.
We don’t need a data center the size of Ohio to think about our games. Here are some fun brain tricks to help you prepare and run awesome games.
Find more brain tricks in these articles:
Here are other fantastic resources to help you shake up your brain, come up with awesome ideas, and run great games for your friends.
In our always-on world, we seem to be in a constant state of FOMO. Whatever we’re doing now, there are a thousand other things we could be doing instead. Go for a walk. Do some structured daydreaming. Get away from your phone and computer for an hour. Grab physical books. Roll on random tables. Write your notes longhand. Pretend to be Gandalf in the old library of Minas Tirith blowing dust off old tomes to find ancient secrets.
You don’t need a large language model to read books for you and spit out half-truths and nonsense. Dive in yourself, cross-reference things, jot down thoughts, and come up with awesome ideas yourself for the game you’re going to run with your friends.
You are your best large language model.
Last week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Leaving Blanks and Return to Bittermold Keep – Shadowdark Gloaming Session 43 Lazy GM Prep.
Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:
Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:
Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:
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