RPG Evolution: The AI DM in Action

How might WOTC launch an AI-powered DM assistant?

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

We know Wizards of the Coast is tinkering with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered tools for its multiple properties, including Dungeons & Dragons. But what might that look like in practice?

Interactive NPCs​

Large Language Model (LLM) AIs have been used extensively to create non-player characters of all stripes on Character.AI. It's not a stretch to imagine that Wizards might have official NPCs included as part of the digital purchase of an adventure, with the rough outline of the NPC acting as parameters for how it would interact. DMs might be able to create their own or modify existing NPCs so that the character drops hints or communicates in a certain way. Log outputs could then be available for DMs to use later.

There are several places today where you can create NPC bots powered by AI that are publicly available, although the DM might need to monitor the output in real time to record the conversation. Character.AI and Poe.com both provide the ability to create publicly available characters that players can interact with .

Random Generators​

There are already dozens of these in existence. What's particularly of note is that AI can go deep -- not just randomize what book is in a library, but provide snippets of text of what's in that book. Not just detail the name of a forgotten magic item, but provide stats for the item. For WOTC products, this could easily cover details that no print product can possibly encompass in detail, or with parameters (for example, only a library with books on necromancy).

AI RPG companion is a great example of this, but there are many more.

Tabletop Assistants​

Hasbro recently partnered with Xplored, with the goal of developing a "new tabletop platform that integrates digital and physical play." Of particular note is how Xplore's technology works: its system "intelligently resolves rules and character behaviors, and provides innovative gameplay, new scenarios and ever-changing storytelling events. The technology allows players to learn by playing with no rulebook needed, save games to resume later, enables remote gameplay, and offers features like immersive contextual sound and connected dice."

If that sounds like it could be used to enhance an in-person Dungeons & Dragons game, Xplored is already on that path with Teburu, a digital board game platform that uses "smart-sensing technology, AI, and dynamic multimedia." Xplored's AI platform could keep track of miniatures on a table, dice rolls, and even the status of your character sheet, all managed invisibly and remotely by an AI behind the scenes and communicating with the (human) DM.

Dungeon Master​

And then there's the most challenging aspect of play that WOTC struggles with to this day: having enough Dungeon Masters to support a group. Wizards could exclusively license these automated DMs, who would have all the materials necessary to run a game. Some adventures would be easier for an AI DM to run than others -- straightforward dungeon crawls necessarily limit player agency and ensure the AI can run it within parameters, while a social setting could easily confuse it.

Developers are already pushing this model with various levels of success. For an example, see AI Realm.

What's Next?​

If Hasbro's current CEO and former WOTC CEO Chris Cocks is serious about AI, this is just a hint at what's possible. If the past battles over virtual tabletops are any indication, WOTC will likely take a twofold approach: ensure it's AI is well-versed in how it engages with adventures, and defend its branded properties against rival AI platforms that do the same thing. As Cocks pointed out in a recent interview, WOTC's advantage isn't in the technology itself but in its licenses, and it will likely all have a home on D&D Beyond. Get ready!

 

[MNblockhead]

To be fair, I only did so after myself indulging in the same old debate, which was a mistake on my part.

But, yes,I think we can actually discuss the usefulness and inevitable integration of AI in the TTRPG space.

I want to do some testing with Adobe and Daggerheart, but I need to break up the DH book into 100 page pieces first. I am curious of the Adobe LLM (is it proprietary, or are the licensing something? I don't even know) can actually parsecthe language in the playtest doc enough to summarize and make cheat sheets.

Yeah, the Adobe AI Assistant can be pretty useful, even in its beta state, but the 120 page limit significantly reduces its usefulness for TTRPGs. It would be most useful with massive adventure paths. I would have loved to be able to use Adobe's AI Assistant with the 400+ page Rappan Athuk book. Even with search and bookmarks, jumping around that PDF looking for things is painful. Being able to as the AI to tell me everything about an NPC, with information about that NPC scattered throughout the book, and to get back a nice summary with cite links that let me jump to relevant portions of the book, would have been amazing.

However, it is important to keep in mind, that when you use AI Assistant, you are sending the text of the PDF to Adobe servers. So, there is a lot of documents I would not currently feel comfortable using the tool with.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Thanks for letting me know I'm not entitled to benefit from modern technology. Appreciate it.

You don't get to decide for me what I value or what I think is a good looking picture. Technology changes and, for example, the farming town I grew up in is slowly dying because of advances in technology. I'd rather adapt and do the best I can to make ethical choices (which obviously differ from what you consider ethical) like everyone else.

Typical American, literally sees everything crumble under capitalism and instead of trying to oppose it, looks for someone he can screw over the very same way. You're enjoying "technology" of a scam made by Sillicon Valley techbros solely because you feel you deserve "good looking" art. If you want to remove us humans from creative process in favor of souless crap, I do not feel pity for you once your town dies. You could have done something about it, but instead decided to help ruining other people's lives

I can see the same argument being made against the invention of the photographic camera in the 1800s. But there are even more artists today, because a tool is available that allows for a different type of art to be created, that is suited to a different talent set.

People who value hand painted portraits can still purchase those (often for a premium as their perceived value is higher), or someone can hire a professional photographer for a portrait, or they can buy their own camera and take it themselves.

AI is just one more tool for humans to express themselves creatively with. Like any tool, it needs to be regulated by the will of the people to ensure it doesn't directly harm (the IP considerations with LLMs and Image generators are a real harm, but the concerns about the employment of artists are not direct harm, imo) but that doesn't mean the tool itself is worthless.

This argument falls apart immediatelly once you realize photography requires skill and doesn't steal someone's paiting to make a disgusting mockery out of it.

 

[Umbran]

What you posted only proved you're having a serious case of Dunning-Kruger....

Mod Note:
And you are having a serious case of, "I have failed to remember that directly insulting someone is apt to get the attention of moderators".

Disagree without being disagreeable. If you cannot be respectful, take your hot take to Twitter or something.

 

[Umbran]

Thanks for letting me know I'm not entitled to benefit from modern technology. Appreciate it.

That argument would hold if all you were benefitting from was technology. But, at this time, the involuntary, unpaid labor of others is involved. That's the thing you aren't entitled to.

 

[Oofta]

That argument would hold if all you were benefitting from was technology. But, at this time, the involuntary, unpaid labor of others is involved. That's the thing you aren't entitled to.

I do agree there are ethical issues with the way data has been fed to AI. But there are ethical issues with, well, just about everything we use in modern life. My friend used an image generator to create something that otherwise simply would not have been created, nor would we have paid for it. It ranks low on my ethical dilemma list.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That argument would hold if all you were benefitting from was technology. But, at this time, the involuntary, unpaid labor of others is involved. That's the thing you aren't entitled to.

This, however, still works on the basis that teaching machines with large amounts of art is somehow intrinsically different than the large amounts of art, music and writing most people who end up doing that intake in the process of learning their art. That distinction is not as clear as some people apparently think it is. That doesn't mean that the line is clear in the other direction either (and certainly there's reason to look it very questionably when someone says, say "Do X in the style of Patrick Nagel") but if people expect to just take it as a given that any use of other art or work for AI training is theft are going to have to do some lifting here if they expect it to be universally accepted.

 

[Oofta]

Typical American, literally sees everything crumble under capitalism and instead of trying to oppose it, looks for someone he can screw over the very same way. You're enjoying "technology" of a scam made by Sillicon Valley techbros solely because you feel you deserve "good looking" art. If you want to remove us humans from creative process in favor of souless crap, I do not feel pity for you once your town dies. You could have done something about it, but instead decided to help ruining other people's lives

Burying your head in the sand just means you don't see the truck coming before it runs you over.

This argument falls apart immediatelly once you realize photography requires skill and doesn't steal someone's paiting to make a disgusting mockery out of it.

It also means that millions of people have photographs that they cherish and enjoy that may or may not be slightly lower quality. But certainly the vast majority would not have been created had a professional photographer been required.

 

[OB1]

This argument falls apart immediatelly once you realize photography requires skill and doesn't steal someone's paiting to make a disgusting mockery out of it.

Great photography requires skill, but an unskilled photographer who is also unskilled at painting can create a far better image using a camera than they can using paint. That's the argument.

As for stealing someone's art, as I mentioned, the IP considerations around the issue are real, and will require level headed discussion and collective will to ensure that it isn't doing harm. I do agree with @Thomas Shey that there is a weird line between how an artist ingests every piece of art they've seen to inform their own output and the way that an image generator does so. Where the line is drawn between stealing, plagiarism and fair use will be a difficult one to determine.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

I do agree there are ethical issues with the way data has been fed to AI. But there are ethical issues with, well, just about everything we use in modern life.

"I should be allowed to set someone's house on fire because many people feed their children to velociraptors." - that's how you sound. Again, "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" is not argument for unethical consumption but against capitalism.

Burying your head in the sand just means you don't see the truck coming before it runs you over.

Climbing a rooftop and rising your sword during a storm, demanding God smites people you look down on, means you get stuck by lightning.

It also means that millions of people have photographs that they cherish and enjoy that may or may not be slightly lower quality. But certainly the vast majority would not have been created had a professional photographer been required.

And even the worst photograph still requires more skill than defecating on real art with AI.

Great photography requires skill, but an unskilled photographer who is also unskilled at painting can create a far better image using a camera than they can using paint. That's the argument.

So you agree that the AI art is garbage and mockery of real art, which requires skill and effort?

 

[Thomas Shey]

Great photography requires skill, but an unskilled photographer who is also unskilled at painting can create a far better image using a camera than they can using paint. That's the argument.

I'd suspect its because a bigger part of the quality of the output comes from the tool. Its not entirely dissimilar to the way that grammar and spelling checkers have raised the floor of how technical-style writing is for those actually willing to use them; back when I was editing (include for things like resume writers) there was a slow but steady improvement in the basic material I was getting from people for that reason.

A painter, on the other hand, just flat out has more heavy lifting to do right out the gate; he either has some training in what he's doing, has picked up a lot from observation and trial and error, has enormous natural talent, or he doesn't. His tools, per se, aren't doing any of the work for him.