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!

 

[OB1]

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.

Exactly, and yet an artist will take the camera, and after spending time and effort with it, be able to take pictures that far exceed what a novice can. The same will be true with AI tools. In the hands of someone who has studied art history and worked with it and mastered the tool, it will create pieces far better than someone who just types a few lines of text into the algorithm. And there will be people willing to pay for the images that artist creates.

 

[Oofta]

"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.


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


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


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

[SLOW CLAP] That, was some of the most over the top semi-hysterical hyperbole I have ever seen. Congratulations. My friend generating images for the other player's PCs that we would otherwise not have because we would never pay an artist to generate them is the equivalent of burning houses and feeding children to raptors. Then throw in that virtually everyone around the world is ethically compromised because they rely on capitalism.

I just don't see how you can top that.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Exactly, and yet an artist will take the camera, and after spending time and effort with it, be able to take pictures that far exceed what a novice can. The same will be true with AI tools. In the hands of someone who has studied art history and worked with it and mastered the tool, it will create pieces far better than someone who just types a few lines of text into the algorithm. And there will be people willing to pay for the images that artist creates.

And all artists will tell you if you want real art reference, you should use, ironically, camera. Not other art, and especially not AI. There is no improvement with AI because you're not the artist, you just let this piece of junk chew on stolen work and feel good about it. The art made by AI will always be souless, disgusting piece of junk. No matter how many "featured on art station" will be added to the prompt.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

[SLOW CLAP] That, was some of the most over the top semi-hysterical hyperbole I have ever seen. Congratulations. My friend generating images for the other player's PCs that we would otherwise not have because we would never pay an artist to generate them is the equivalent of burning houses and feeding children to raptors. Then throw in that virtually everyone around the world is ethically compromised because they rely on capitalism.

I just don't see how you can top that.

The world would be better off without the images you generated through stolen artwork being thrown into a machine. Go defend the very thing that is killing your town, capitalism, to someone who cares, and spare me your offended posturing.

 

[LesserThan]

I think a lot of people are in the wrong AI thread. The other one where Hasbro CEO mentioned AI might be better for the art discussion, as an AI DM, is less likely to steal drawings than to replicate this theft attempted by dissolving the OGL, and "teaching" a LLM by the DMs Guild library of products that outsale WotC books by a landslide.

Facebook already has an AI DM, and in a Meta town hall showed off what Mark Lovecraft Zuckerborg called, "Snoppy Dogg AI D&D DM" for his intrduction of their AI RP bot/thing.

 

[Oofta]

The world would be better off without the images you generated through stolen artwork being thrown into a machine. Go defend the very thing that is killing your town, capitalism, to someone who cares, and spare me your offended posturing.

Who's posturing? I accept capitalism is terrible, it's just that the other options are worse. There are things I would like to see changed, primarily having to do with limiting monopolies and oligopolies while balancing the tax burden and a few other priorities. Those are things that are potentially achievable and I do what I can to support those changes, even if it's a long shot. But wishing for a world that doesn't exist and never will? I don't see the point.

Same way I'm not going to shed tears over the fact that we no longer need 90% of the population to keep everyone fed. My home town may be dying but I'd rather accept reality. AI is going to continue to be a part of our lives. We can either accept that and figure how to use it as ethically as possible or pointlessly rant against the inevitable and tell other people that they may as well be mass murderers for using it. I've made my choice.

 

[LesserThan]

Ok - I understand that you do not see any difference in something created by a human, and something created by an unthinking, unfeeling machine. From which I can infer at least a little bit about your view of people if you think these two things have no differences.

There is really no difference when you are not paying for it. Human nor machine makes money from it.

See if you can follow me here in this convoluted example.

You are able to find an artist that can draw a sketch 3x3 and they want $500 for it.

Alternately, you could go to Kinkos and photocopy a color copy of some fantasy magazine cover for a similar image for $1. You did not buy the magazine, just grabbed it near the copy booth.

Either way you will cut the image out and paste it to your character sheet.

No artist nor AI got paid, but you still got your "character portrait".

This sort of thing happened during T$R when there was portrait spots on the sheets, and it ruffled some feathers, but people accepted that for non-commercial use it was going to happen. Kinkos quit of course. But that is how people had art other than stick figures of their characters before online stock image archives etc.

AI DM will likely do this, but every player should not be expected to have to go to DeiantArt or Fivver and pay some diva artist more than they are worth for throw away art, since a TPK is all it takes to make that character art useless.

Artists are not "entitled" to have their works bought. They chose them, and unless commissioned for an agreed upon price, the go hungry. Starving artist anyone?

So for people unwilling to pay because they do not think the price is worth it, they are equally unwilling to pay a human or an unfeeling machine, thus they are equal.

You want to know you will get paid for your efforts, get a job at McDonalds in California, where the law now requires $20 per hour be paid to fast food employees. That is almost triple the nations minimum wage requirement of $7.??.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

There is really no difference when you are not paying for it. Human nor machine makes money from it.

When AI does it, human artist who would be commissioned is LOSING money from it, however.

Same way I'm not going to shed tears over the fact that we no longer need 90% of the population to keep everyone fed. My home town may be dying but I'd rather accept reality. AI is going to continue to be a part of our lives. We can either accept that and figure how to use it as ethically as possible or pointlessly rant against the inevitable and tell other people that they may as well be mass murderers for using it. I've made my choice.

And you contribute by...defending AI, defending current model which allows capitalist pigs do whatever the hell they want with no consequence and helping AI getting better so that it can more effectively strip artists out of means to live because you want a stupid picture you feel entitled to. I see a lot of talking about how people should oppose AI from someone who will gladly steal bread from artists' hands to make himself feel like going with the times. Honestly, I find this pathetic. I don't see more reason to be talking to you.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Exactly, and yet an artist will take the camera, and after spending time and effort with it, be able to take pictures that far exceed what a novice can. The same will be true with AI tools. In the hands of someone who has studied art history and worked with it and mastered the tool, it will create pieces far better than someone who just types a few lines of text into the algorithm. And there will be people willing to pay for the images that artist creates.

Its very obvious that there's a significant difference between someone who has made the effort to know a given AI art tool and what they end up with and what someone like, say, me would end up with, even if there are people in this thread who will deny that. I can't imagine its even more of people who will then do some work in a digital editor, even if they aren't really up to doing digital art themselves.

Edit: the poster a few up has a point; discussion of AI art really is fairly off-topic for this thread. While not quite unrelated, what LLMs can do with text and what digital emulators can do with images aren't really the same beast.

My personal feeling is its going to be a while before you can replace more than the most rote GMs with a digital aid (but, that said, there are some pretty rote GMs out there), but as those who've commented upstream have said, there's already some useful support functions LLMs can serve in GM assistance. The question is whether, say, WOTC has the sense to understand the current limits of the technology or not. I suspect if they're willing to invest a bit, they could make some money selling a "DM's Sidekick".

 

[LesserThan]

When AI does it, human artist who would be commissioned is LOSING money from it, however.

The point is, long before AI, artists werent getting paid by people unwilling or unable to pay either.

AI changes nothing of the world economics or the masses financial power.

You want people to do without juvenile entertainment such as an RPG when they may already have so little, see military people playing TRPGs while deployed, because some overpriced arists thinks they are the next Piccasso?

By the by, Piccasdo died penniless. If he did not, replace his name with one of the other "masters" that did and whose work only gained value after their death.