AI GMs

[Bill Zebub]

What affect does the constant use of AI have on one's own creativity as we look at the use of the calculator/excel and how for me its diminished my ability to quickly calculate numbers in one's head. Now interestingly one could make a similar claim about using published modules (and their guides on DMsGuild) as opposed to creating something original for one's own game.
I'm just thinking out aloud rather than challenging the use of AI, which I think could be a valuable tool for my own games.

I certainly cannot claim that I set any high bars with my own skills as a GM, but my experience with AI so far has made me feel like my own creativity/originality has been lacking.

My skills as a fiction writer are even worse, but I have been casually writing a story for my sons, and I find my AI Shadowdark sessions are stimulating new ideas for that endeavor as well.

So...while I can't speak to whether AI can help or hinder great writers/GMs, as a non-great writer/GM I feel it really stimulates my creativity.

 

[Morrus]

I feel it really stimulates my creativity.

I'm curious what "stimulates my creativity" means? Could you give us an example or two?

 

[Bill Zebub]

I'm curious what "stimulates my creativity" means? Could you give us an example or two?

Well, some of it is just, "Ooh...I loved how that felt. Next time I'm GMing I'm going to try something like that." Things like descriptions of fights with skeletons, the way the sounds and smells of the dungeon are described, and how an NPC is used to telegraph (or perhaps misdirect from?) danger. I'm not sure if that counts as "creativity" or if it's just co-opting and reapplying ideas. (Or is that what creativity is?)

On a larger scale, I don't know if I can explain direct causality, but in the story I've been writing I've been stuck for a while in how to make part of the plot work. Then, while playing with an AI GM and thinking about storytelling, I suddenly realized that the "essential" parts I was trying to hold onto and fit together were actually a lot smaller parts of the whole than I realized, and that I could let go of certain parts that were creating a log jam while keeping the great bits. As a result I've rewritten (only in outline so far) a bunch of it, and I think it's a lot better now.

Is it a coincidence that after months of feeling stalled the log-jam just happened to break right when I started consciously thinking about how ChatGPT GMs Shadowdark? Dunno.

 

[LordEntrails]

I'm curious what "stimulates my creativity" means? Could you give us an example or two?

I find that I often get "in a rut" creatively. I describe dungeon rooms similar, fights with the same adverbs, tavern keepers with the same appearance, dwarves with the same accent...

It's not that I can't do this differently, and I have various tools like random tables, pre-generated lists etc to help. But AI can be one of those tools because it draws upon a larger database than my conscious mind. Yes, it too can get into ruts. I find it likes to repeat NPC names. But there are things you can do, like instead of just asking for a name description of a tavern keeper, ask for ten, and ask for them to have different flavors, or ask for a specific flavor or style etc.

I rarely take an AI respond verbatim, but I often read through a requested list and use it to spark my creativity. Such as "that's a name I haven't heard in awhile", "I hadn't thought about giving an NPC scarred hands in a few years", "You mean dwarves can have an accent other than Scottish?"

 

[Morrus]

I rarely take an AI respond verbatim, but I often read through a requested list and use it to spark my creativity. Such as "that's a name I haven't heard in awhile", "I hadn't thought about giving an NPC scarred hands in a few years", "You mean dwarves can have an accent other than Scottish?"

I guess maybe we’re using the word differently? I don’t see using a name given to me by (an AI or anyone else) as my creativity. I think that’s why I’m asking what the phrase “stimulates my creativity” means in this context, because that particular example to me is “replaces my creativity”. Creativity, to me, is when I come up with something. So I suppose for me if it were to spark my creativity, its suggestions should then lead me to go on to make something new.

 

[LordEntrails]

I guess maybe we’re using the word differently? I don’t see using a name given to me by (an AI or anyone else) as my creativity. I think that’s why I’m asking what the phrase “stimulates my creativity” means in this context, because that particular example to me is “replaces my creativity”. Creativity, to me, is when I come up with something. So I suppose for me if it were to spark my creativity, its suggestions should then lead me to go on to make something new.

I can see the difference. I would add in the consideration about 'creativity at the table'. So that's where I can see AI add to creativity at the table, descriptions, NPC names etc. I don't personally have any worry about where the ideas are coming from if they are adding enjoyment at the table.

An example where I can see AI sparking my personal creativity might be something more like when I asked Copilot the following: "So in my sci-fi RPG campaign, the characters have discovered an alien race (slitherin) that are preparing to invade the Frontier (the loosely aligned systems across many light years that are mostly peaceful). Help me create some ideas on how the slitherin might start the invasion. And how the party might get further drawn into the upcoming war."

It gave me the requested 5 ideas, none of which were adequate for my needs. But it pointed out some common suggestions; subterfuge, border system attacks, diplomatic subversion, multi-vector blitz, (and #5 useless). I then took a couple of these ideas (which I could have gotten via Google searches, reading books at my local library, or talking with other people) and combined, merged, and extended these into what I'll be doing. Is;

• Fostered political instability via coerced agents,
• Rumors of missing exploration teams and media articles on increased exploration insurance rates
• Usage of lost-tech warp gate that fits in myths available in the canon setting
• Virus attack on various computer systems, including the canon interstellar transport lane buoys.

Some of this I already had in mind (coerced agents). Some of it wasn't suggested by Copilot, but came about as I mulled the ideas about along with open questions I already had. i.e. the multi-vector + canon myth > lost-tech warp gate.

Did I explain that decently?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I guess maybe we’re using the word differently? I don’t see using a name given to me by (an AI or anyone else) as my creativity. I think that’s why I’m asking what the phrase “stimulates my creativity” means in this context, because that particular example to me is “replaces my creativity”. Creativity, to me, is when I come up with something. So I suppose for me if it were to spark my creativity, its suggestions should then lead me to go on to make something new.

But from where does the thing you came up with come? How is getting an idea from AI less creative than getting it from something else you read, or saw on TV, or heard from someone in a conversation (to name a few examples). How does AI being involved suddenly make it not creative?

 

[Morrus]

But from where does the thing you came up with come? How is getting an idea from AI less creative than getting it from something else you read, or saw on TV, or heard from someone in a conversation (to name a few examples). How does AI being involved suddenly make it not creative?

Me using the name of character I saw on TV is not creating either.

 

[zakael19]

I guess maybe we’re using the word differently? I don’t see using a name given to me by (an AI or anyone else) as my creativity. I think that’s why I’m asking what the phrase “stimulates my creativity” means in this context, because that particular example to me is “replaces my creativity”. Creativity, to me, is when I come up with something. So I suppose for me if it were to spark my creativity, its suggestions should then lead me to go on to make something new.

When I think of "spark my creativity" I think of like, literal spark tables. Things that don't really make sense at first because they're deliberately not meant to align perfectly, and so you get to exercise your creativity in making it work.

 

[cbwjm]

When I use something like chatGPT, often it is the act of bouncing ideas off it that sparks my creativity. I get the same spark from conversations from others, reading books, watching shows, etc. You get ideas that you can riff off and build something up for a game and while the AI itself may not provide the answer, it can often help get you where you want to go.