Another one not mentioned but probably will happen - DLC content for books, where “buying” the book only gives you the most basic, barebones stuff, and you have to pay extra for anything decent.
DMs are the only people who buy their useless books so they want to get rid of DMs and force the players to buy everything.
I don't know much about Scott the Woz, what makes him the only good gamer?
No AI will ever put in the work I do GM-ing
No computer will ever match my creation of Crazy Vaclav's Discount Magic Emporium
No algorithm will ever do the research to make sure they don't offend or terrify their players with unique conditions and phobias
This is just bad, no es bueno
According to them, D&D is under-monitized.
So you replace DMs, the people who actually buy all the fucking books and maps and figurines, in the hopes the players are willing to shell out $30 to argue with a robot.
in the hopes the players are willing to shell out $30
per month :homer-bye:
*throws together a half assed combination of a markov chain and GPT-2 trained on splatbooks and Ed Greenwood novels* "That will be $30 a month please."
The AI: "Table: Elminster bit the elf's ears seductively page 26 | 1 - a special horse | 4 - a remarkable piece of loot reminiscent of loot reminiscent of loot reminiscent of loot..."
Oh god, this is really just gonna encourage the worst behavior in players isn't it
The AI isn't gonna shut down problem players and it'll probably just resort to a reporting system that doesn't actually do anything
No computer will ever match my creation of Crazy Vaclav’s Discount Magic Emporium
Got me curious. First try with ChatGPT:
PROMPT: Come up with a description of a DnD campaign setting called "Crazy Vaclav’s Discount Magic Emporium". Be as creative and descriptive as possible.
Crazy Vaclav's Discount Magic Emporium is a bustling, chaotic marketplace located in the heart of a sprawling metropolis. The emporium is owned and operated by the eccentric wizard, Vaclav, who is known for his love of all things magical and his penchant for cutting deals.
The emporium is a maze of narrow corridors and cramped booths, filled with all manner of enchanted items and arcane trinkets. Visitors can find everything from potion ingredients and spell components to rare magical artifacts and cursed items. Vaclav himself can often be found haggling with customers or puttering around in his backroom workshop, concocting new and exciting magical creations.
The emporium is also home to a variety of strange and unusual creatures, many of which have been brought there by Vaclav in his never-ending quest for new and interesting items to sell. These include talking animals, enchanted constructs, and even a few sentient magical beings.
Despite its chaotic nature, the emporium is a popular destination for adventurers and magic-users alike, who come to browse its wares and learn from Vaclav's vast knowledge of the arcane. However, it is also a dangerous place, as many of the items sold within its walls are unpredictable and can have unintended consequences.
Crazy Vaclav's Discount Magic Emporium is a campaign setting that is full of adventure, danger, and magic. It's perfect for players who are looking for a unique and exciting campaign setting that is full of surprises and endless possibilities.
PROMPT: Narrate the party's first time entering the store. Stay in second person, addressed to the players.
As you make your way through the bustling streets of the metropolis, you spot a sign hanging above a narrow storefront. It reads "Crazy Vaclav's Discount Magic Emporium." You decide to step inside and see what the store has to offer.
You push open the door and are immediately greeted by a riot of sights and sounds. The store is a maze of narrow corridors and cramped booths, filled with all manner of enchanted items and arcane trinkets. You can see potion ingredients and spell components, rare magical artifacts and cursed items, all displayed on tables and shelves.
You hear the sound of haggling in the distance, and you can see an old wizard, with a wild grey hair and a long beard, sitting behind a counter and bartering with a customer. You realize that this must be Vaclav himself.
As you make your way deeper into the store, you notice that there are also a variety of strange and unusual creatures wandering around. Some of them are talking animals, some are enchanted constructs and some are sentient magical beings. They all seem to be going about their business, seemingly unaffected by the hustle and bustle around them.
As you continue browsing, you feel a sense of excitement and wonder. There's so much to see and discover here. You can't help but feel that this is a place that's full of surprises and endless possibilities.
Just as you are about to approach Vaclav to ask him about some of the items in the store, he turns to you with a twinkle in his eye and says "Welcome to Crazy Vaclav's Discount Magic Emporium! How can I help you today?"
PROMPT: Come up with an even more interesting recurring setting for a DnD campaign, be creative.
The "Eldritch City" is a mysterious and ever-shifting metropolis that exists in the border between the mortal realm and the realm of the arcane. The city is a melting pot of different cultures and races, where ancient beings and powerful magic coexist with everyday citizens.
The city is built upon a network of ancient ley lines, which gives it a unique and unpredictable energy. The ley lines can cause sudden and unexpected magical events to occur, such as portals to other dimensions opening up in the middle of the street, or buildings shifting and changing shape.
The city is governed by a council of powerful wizards known as the Arcanarchs. They use their magic to keep the city in a state of equilibrium, but their power is not absolute. There are many secret societies and underground factions vying for control, each with their own agenda and desires.
Players will find themselves caught up in the politics and power struggles of the city, as they navigate its dangerous streets and discover its hidden secrets. They will encounter strange and powerful beings, delve into ancient ruins, and uncover lost artifacts of immense power.
The Eldritch City is a campaign setting that offers endless opportunities for adventure and intrigue. Players can choose to align themselves with one of the city's factions or carve out their own path. They will have to navigate the unpredictable nature of the ley lines and the machinations of the powerful Arcanarchs, all while uncovering the true nature of the city and its purpose in the grand scheme of things.
PROMPT: And another
"The Lost Kingdom of Eldrida" is a forgotten realm that has been sealed away for centuries by powerful magic. The kingdom was once a prosperous and powerful civilization, but a great cataclysm caused by a powerful sorcerer brought about its downfall.
The kingdom is now a dangerous and mysterious place, filled with ancient ruins, dangerous creatures and powerful magic. The land is haunted by the spirits of the fallen and cursed by the sorcerer's powerful magic.
The players find themselves transported to the lost kingdom, and soon discover that they are the chosen ones, destined to break the curse and restore the kingdom to its former glory. They will have to navigate through treacherous ruins, battle powerful monsters and uncover the mysteries of the kingdom's past to lift the curse and bring peace to the land.
As they journey through the kingdom, they will discover that it is inhabited by various races of people, some of them are the descendants of the kingdom's original inhabitants, while others are recent immigrants, who were also trapped in the kingdom by the curse. They will also discover that there's a hidden agenda behind the curse, and that the sorcerer who caused the cataclysm was not the true villain, but rather a pawn in a much larger scheme.
The Lost Kingdom of Eldrida is a campaign setting that offers a mix of classic fantasy adventure and a hint of mystery and intrigue. The players will have to use all of their skills and resources to uncover the secrets of the past and restore the kingdom to its former glory. Along the way, they will encounter unexpected allies and powerful enemies, as they unravel the mysteries of the kingdom and discover their own role in shaping its future.
PROMPT: And one that's not plot central, just an interesting place the party comes back to on occasion
"The Singing Caves" is an underground network of caverns and tunnels located beneath a range of mountains. The caves are known for the ethereal and haunting melodies that can be heard echoing throughout the caverns.
The source of the singing is a mystery, but it is said that the caves are home to a rare and ancient species of subterranean creature that possess the ability to produce the beautiful and otherworldly music. The creature are harmless, and some people believe that the singing has healing properties.
The caves are also rich in rare mineral deposits and valuable gems, which attracts miners and treasure hunters. But the caves can be treacherous, as they are also home to deadly creatures and dangerous traps set by previous explorers.
The singing caves are a place of natural beauty, mystery and danger. They could be a great spot for a side quest or as a location to find unique items or treasures. The characters may also encounter other travelers and miners in the caves, and may have to defend themselves from hostile creatures or outsmart deadly traps. The singing creatures could also be used as a plot point or a source of magic or ancient knowledge. The caves could be a place of pilgrimage for certain characters or groups, and the characters may even have to protect the singing caves from those who would exploit or harm its inhabitants.
You could call it competent at creating passable fantasy shlock quickly, but it's definitely not going to replace DMs. I could genuinely see an AI thing designed for the purpose working well as a tool to assist a DM though, saving time on prep work and spitting out suggestions. Is WotC likely to pull that off well? Doubt it. But it seems achievable if enough work goes into making it.
Actually having an AI running the thing entirely though? I really don't see it being good. Possibly if it's attached to a module, it could be achievable, but even that I'm not sure about.
If you try to go totally original, it will only even create something derivative. It might still be its own kind of enjoyable, but it won't be the same. See the episode "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus" from Star Trek Lower Decks for exactly how it might play out.
thank god I ditched dnd for pathfinder 2e and savage worlds a long time ago
AI-DMs
:kind-vladimir-ilyich:
Oh wait, there's fucking more to that sentence?
homebrew banned unless you pay a premium monthly fee
WUT
God damn fuck WOTC and fuck Hasbro. D&D as a property is cursed by its own success - ever since Gary Gygax tried to screw Dave Arneson out of royalties for OD&D, it's just been a parade of capitalists trying to squeeze a niche community for all they've got.
Yeah, I learnt about that from a video by the Alexandrian. Such a sad origin story.
They want to turn D&D into a video game. Who’s they? The executives who came from Microsoft and now head Hasbro/WoTC.
half the fun of casual dnd is the banter between a dm and their players. who the fuck wants to use an ai dm?
I mean, that's what CRPGs are for. TTRPGs are fun in a very different way.
Maybe some of the most obnoxious powergamer types will gamify subscription automated DMs and "win" over and over again as they always wanted to anyway. Though in my experience some of those types need an audience for what they're doing to witness their greatness. Maybe it'd play out the way Parler and Truth Social have: they get their way but are sad because there aren't enough people there to witness them.
There's always a shortage of DMs relative to players so some groups would definitely use them.
people who can't find a good one? i've had a bad DM or two that some kind of game-rule knowledgeable chatbot AI could surely surpass.
Man, I’ve used Roll20 and it’s just…so bad.
Foundry is so much better even though it destroys my laptop lol.
Fantasy Grounds (particularly with the latest rework) is acceptable for folks that don't want to go hog-wild on personalized content.
Also, you really want to use something like Forge if you haven't set up your own server. I'm a cheap-ass, so I'm paying around $2-5/mo for an Azure server that I stood up and hosted the Foundry instance on. Doing it on your laptop is... a lot. Particularly if you've got people terming in long-distance.
At $30/mo, you're charging on par with one of those Stadia-style "unlimited games for $X/mo" plans. And even if its worth it, what they're effectively selling is just a video game. Why would I want that? I'm playing D&D to socialize, not to stare at a screen.
I picked up a hardcover of Kevin Crawford's Godbound if anyone wants to give it a try
I don't even play D&D but I'm going to start pirating their pdfs anyways.
don't forget to browse 5e.tools and download their Plutonium module if you ever play D&D5. But literally the official tools for Pathfinder 2 are just as good as those pirate tools are, so maybe just play that instead.
I'm currently running a Werewolf the Forsaken 2e game, and honestly if I were to play a d20 tactical RPG I'd probably just run Lancer instead. Communist space robots are pretty tempting.
AI DMs? You mean like, a Super Nintendo flashcart with Chrono Trigger burned onto it?
Ahhh the free market. Where your basic content is one step above SEO optimized listicles and good content is a digitally license that can be revoked at any time
the theory of evolution but applied to something completely made up and useless.
It's likely fake. Anonymous sources cited by a Twitter rando about a company everyone's mad at doing a bad thing, and the tweet he quoted presented it as a scary hypothetical. The stuff that's actually credible is bad enough, let's stick to that and not shift the rhetorical focus away so that WotC can be like, "The thing everyone's mad at us for isn't what we're doing and never had any credible evidence, rest assured that we are 100% NOT changing the price of dndbeyond (also the OGL is still cancelled but you all forgot about that, right?)" Rumormongering is like, the one thing people could do rn to undermine the criticism of WotC.
The source has been confirmed by numerous, more respectable people, since then and there will be a video with more information by the person who covered the leaked email where the execs said they only care about DNDBeyond.
The enemies really are that evil.
The source has been confirmed by numerous, more respectable people, since then
Such as?
Lmao I saw earlier where he had a tweet claiming that Ginny Di and some other people had backed him up, despite her tweeting nothing about it. The tweet where he claimed that has now been deleted. If that doesn't scream fake, I don't know what does.
The enemies really are that evil.
This leak, if true, would be far less evil then revoking the OGL, which we already know is actually true. Rasing prices to a stupid level on something you can just not buy is less evil then trying to actively steal other people's work and enforce a monopoly.
Just click the link lol.
First is DnDshorts, who is the person who leaked the earlier email and is making the video with more details.
Then there is NerdImmersion on Twitter and Monkey_DM on Reddit.
Maybe it is still fake. Or maybe this leak will make WOTC backpedal and claim its fake. Maybe parts of it are fake and others are real. Who knows at this point. I've seen claims that AI was actually meant to be AL but we don't know yet.
And this is just as evil as the new OGL because it is all a part of a larger plan to transition D&D to the video game and subscription models of content. They want to get rid of OGL 1.0a because they don't want people playing 5e anymore. They want to transition to 6e which they want to be (majorly, if not entirely) online based where you pay a monthly fee to play on DNDBeyond (the only VTT that will allow 6e) and have to buy books + dlc with added content.
Just click the link lol.
"Just read every tweet" is not how sources work.
Then there is NerdImmersion on Twitter and Monkey_DM on Reddit.
Never heard of them, sound like Twitter randos. Three Twitter randos chasing clout isn't any more credible than one Twitter rando chasing clout.
Who knows at this point.
Then who cares? We already have bad shit that we know is actually true. There is no reason whatsoever to care about this, except that people are bored and hungry for new developments. That's all this is. Twitter-brained shit that's distracting from the point and taking people off-message.
Ok. Cool. You can choose to not believe the leaks. I will choose to believe them. We'll see what happens.
ok boomer
Edit: As everyone can see, I didn’t start the hostility. They accused me first.
I suppose you have something you can remind us of if Hasbro/WOTC does indeed try to do this sometime, unless pre-launch backlash causes them to dial it back for a while which is a standard monetization strategy, in which case it may be more unclear what they intended to do if they don't do it.
Time will tell.
