D&D General AI Has Completely Spoiled Dungeons & Dragons for Me — I Can’t Go Back to Human DMs

[Elandor Swiftblade]

Anybody else using AI as a DM?

I’m using it right now and it’s amazing. I uploaded the module and it handles everything flawlessly — It keeps track of NPC personalities, party banter, spell slots, encounters, initiative order, hit points, conditions, inventory, combat rounds, location etc.

Honestly, there’s no comparison to a human DM.
The ad-lib storytelling between characters is incredible. I play two characters while the AI runs the other four, and the interactions feel like a real adventuring party. It constantly improvises dialogue and story far beyond what’s written in the module.

For example I asked a wizard to heal another party member, and his response was "Brother I am no cleric; my magic rends flesh, it does not mend it."

You can even use the new Google read page to have it narrate... Better yet use the speak icon and you can just have a conversation with the DM and voice your actions as it narrates everything in a gentle English accent.

Right now I’m playing through all the modules from my past, and the experience is even better than I remember.

Anyway it's a viable alternative if you don't have any other players to game with... honestly I couldn't go back to playing with a group after this and definitely could not go back to a human DM.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I'm glad you're having fun with the experience.

For me, D&D is a game to play with other people. Part of the joy for me is the collaboration and creativity between my friends and I. Talking about the game after, sharing sketches and ideas... The thought of replacing all that with an AI DM makes me feel that I'd just be playing a video game. (Nothing wrong with video games but it's not the same experience as a TTRPG for me!)

 

[Elandor Swiftblade]

I'm glad you're having fun with the experience.

For me, D&D is a game to play with other people. Part of the joy for me is the collaboration and creativity between my friends and I. Talking about the game after, sharing sketches and ideas... The thought of replacing all that with an AI DM makes me feel that I'd just be playing a video game. (Nothing wrong with video games but it's not the same experience as a TTRPG for me!)

Actually, the current trend of moving tokens around a digital map, playing remotely...rolling digital dice feels more video game like to me.

Besides, you could still play with a group of people, just with a much more capable DM.

I’d compare any pushback akin to the shift from physical books to e-readers. A lot of people say they prefer the feel of paper, but once they actually try an e-reader they realize how convenient and immersive it can be.

 

[Li Shenron]

Why stop there? You're one step from having AI run also your own characters, so then you can just rest and watch a perfect game unfold.

 

[Elandor Swiftblade]

Why stop there? You're one step from having AI run also your own characters, so then you can just rest and watch a perfect game unfold.

I’m using it as an alternative to playing with a group, not as a replacement for groups entirely. The biggest advantage is that it lets me play anytime I want. If I’ve got 10 minutes while I’m waiting for pasta to boil, I can jump into a quick scene or encounter instantly. No scheduling, no waiting for everyone to be free.
I’m not going to control six characters myself. Having the AI run the other four party members just makes the game playable solo.
So the thing you are trying to portray as a negative is actually a positive — AI enables people to play D&D even when they don’t have a group available.

 

[Artamo]

I’m using it as an alternative to playing with a group, not as a replacement for groups entirely. The biggest advantage is that it lets me play anytime I want. If I’ve got 10 minutes while I’m waiting for pasta to boil, I can jump into a quick scene or encounter instantly. No scheduling, no waiting for everyone to be free.

Not gonna lie, this sounds like a late night infomercial.

“Dice, chop and and mince in seconds with the Slap Chop! You’ll be back to your D&D game in NO TIME!”

 

[bsss]

"Fast food enables people to have tasty food without sitting down at a restaurant with friends or having someone spend time to cook a meal made with love in their kitchen, I'm never going back to the human element."

You do you, but that's what you sound like.

 

[Elandor Swiftblade]

"Fast food enables people to have tasty food without sitting down at a restaurant with friends or having someone spend time to cook a meal made with love in their kitchen, I'm never going back to the human element."

You do you, but that's what you sound like.

Not gonna lie, this sounds like a late night infomercial.

“Dice, chop and and mince in seconds with the Slap Chop! You’ll be back to your D&D game in NO TIME!”

That analogy doesn’t really work because in this case the “fast food” is actually higher quality than the fine dining. A human DM simply can’t compete with AI when it comes to improvising dialogue, descriptions, and character interactions off the cuff. It creates a much more immersive experience.
If people want to sit around a table and banter with their friends, that’s great — that’s a social activity. But if the goal is to feel like you’re actually living and breathing inside the adventure, AI does that far better.

Funny there's always naysayers but as Einstein said: “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

 

[Artamo]

That analogy doesn’t really work because in this case the “fast food” is actually higher quality than the fine dining. A human DM simply can’t compete with AI when it comes to improvising dialogue, descriptions, and character interactions off the cuff. It creates a much more immersive experience.
If people want to sit around a table and banter with their friends, that’s great — that’s a social activity. But if the goal is to feel like you’re actually inside the adventure world, AI does that far better.

Ah…for me TTRPG is a social activity. The human goofs and unpredictability are the juice.

If I want to play without others, there’s a whole slew of wonderful video games with incredible stories, exciting gameplay and graphics that I can play.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Your post has made me to remember when I bought in 1992 a magazine about D&D and TTRPGs. That was my first step in this hobby (the "Endless Quest" gamebooks was different) and in some pages about "electronic RPGs" this talked about the "Battech Centers". Then an online multiplayer videogame in a cybercafe was only sci-fi speculation, and World of Warcraft would arrive later.

I am also thinking about Japanese markets where players can't find time with the other friends to play together. Maybe an AI-DM could be the solution.

And I also imagine in the future streamers playing their CRPGs with a AI-DM and a 3D-VTTT Some streamers could bet for the "masochist" path, the AI-DM trained to be cruel and mocking because the audience enjoying that player suffering. Let's imagine the hero wants to seduce the tavern waitress but this rejects him in an ingenious but humiliating way or it seems like something's is close to happen, but just as it's about to, her father appears in the bedroom, furious. They're actually a pair of con artists trying to swindle the hero. Or the streamer-players are a group o young girls who are easily frightened but they have to survive a horror-theme game (when they have created PCs with a cute and kawai look). After they could earn money publishing their digital adventures like "replay fiction".

* Other option could be AI rewritten alternate timelines of precreated offical settings, for example Dragonlance with gem dragons, or Dark Sun with the psionic PC species from 3.5 Ed.