ENnies To Ban Generative AI From 2025

The ENnie Awards has announced that from 2025, products including content made by generative AI will not be eligible for the awards.

Established in 2001, the ENnies are the premier tabletop roleplaying game awards ceremony, and are held every year in a ceremony at Gen Con. They were created right here on EN World, and remained affiliated with EN World until 2018.

The decision on generative AI follows a wave of public reaction criticising the policy announced in 2023 that while products containing generative AI were eligible, the generative AI content itself was not--so an artist whose art was on the cover of a book could still win an award for their work even if there was AI art inside the book (or vice versa). The new policy makes the entire product ineligible if it contains any generative AI content.

Generative AI as a whole has received widespread criticism in the tabletop industry over the last couple of years, with many companies--including D&D's owner Wizards of the Coast--publicly announcing their opposition to its use on ethical grounds.

The new policy takes effect from 2025.

The ENNIE Awards have long been dedicated to serving the fans, publishers, and broader community of the tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) industry. The ENNIES are a volunteer-driven organization who generously dedicate their time and talents to celebrate and reward excellence within the TTRPG industry. Reflecting changes in the industry and technological advancements, the ENNIE Awards continuously review their policies to ensure alignment with community values.

In 2023, the ENNIE Awards introduced their initial policy on generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs). The policy recognized the growing presence of these technologies in modern society and their nuanced applications, from generating visual and written content to supporting background tasks such as PDF creation and word processing. The intent was to encourage honesty and transparency from creators while maintaining a commitment to human-driven creativity. Under this policy, creators self-reported AI involvement, and submissions with AI contributions were deemed ineligible for certain categories. For example, products featuring AI-generated art were excluded from art categories but remained eligible for writing categories if the text was entirely human-generated, and vice versa. The organizers faced challenges in crafting a policy that balanced inclusivity with the need to uphold the values of creativity and originality. Recognizing that smaller publishers and self-published creators often lack the resources of larger companies, the ENNIE Awards sought to avoid policies that might disproportionately impact those with limited budgets.

However, feedback from the TTRPG community has made it clear that this policy does not go far enough. Generative AI remains a divisive issue, with many in the community viewing it as a threat to the creativity and originality that define the TTRPG industry. The prevailing sentiment is that AI-generated content, in any form, detracts from a product rather than enhancing it.

In response to this feedback, the ENNIE Awards are amending their policy regarding generative AI. Beginning with the 2025-2026 submission cycle, the ENNIE Awards will no longer accept any products containing generative AI or created with the assistance of Large Language Models or similar technologies for visual, written, or edited content. Creators wishing to submit products must ensure that no AI-generated elements are included in their works. While it is not feasible to retroactively alter the rules for the 2024-2025 season, this revised policy reflects the ENNIE Awards commitment to celebrating the human creativity at the heart of the TTRPG community. The ENNIES remain a small, volunteer-run organization that values the ability to adapt quickly, when necessary, despite the challenges inherent in their mission.

The ENNIE Awards thank the TTRPG community for their feedback, passion, and understanding. As an organization dedicated to celebrating the creators, publishers, and fans who shape this vibrant industry, the ENNIES hope that this policy change aligns with the values of the community and fosters continued growth and innovation.

 

[Cergorach]

Our AI Overlords will then run the AINNIE Awards...

 

[chuckdee]

I hate that comparison.

Spell checkers and Photoshop were tools to enhance your pre-existing work. Clippy spotted typos and recommended active voice. Photoshop let you fix mistakes, remove blemishes, or blend pre-exising works together.

AI creates the work for you. You don't have to write, draw, paint, compose. The AI does it all. If anything, AI is making us all into editors (making US into Clippy).

It can create the work for you. Every use of AI isn't for this. It's that all or nothing of if you use AI, you're using it unethically that I disagree with.

 

[Starfox]

Next up, no word processors? My main use of AI is as an automated editor, checking spelling, grammar. Yes, I sometimes ask it for ideas, but that's a very random process that has to be seriously vetted. An AI by itself produces crap. If you are afraid this will win any prizes, you have a very low opinions of humans and unrealistically high abut AI.

 

[Distracted DM]

Next up, no word processors? My main use of AI is as an automated editor, checking spelling, grammar. Yes, I sometimes ask it for ideas, but that's a very random process that has to be seriously vetted. An AI by itself produces crap. If you are afraid this will win any prizes, you have a very low opinions of humans and unrealistically high abut AI.

Are you referring to spellcheck as AI, or are you saying you run your work through chatgpt etc and ask it to make it nice for you? An AI by itself can produce things that are not-crap, because it was made with a whole lot of (stolen) things, including not-crap.

 

[Starfox]

I use it as a language checker, sometimes I adapt what it suggests, sometimes not, and often I juggle it back and forth until satisfied. It is better at the rules of English than I (not a native speaker) am, but is repetitive and unimaginative and needs constant, detailed inputs.

I've had the AI propose reasonable concepts, such as 12 events for say a travel route, and half of them are decent. But asking it to develop them in detail doesn't really work. You must constantly supervise and doctor what an AI writes.

 

[Clint_L]

I used it to do preliminary planning for our Europe trip last summer. It was great for giving me the general gist of things.

 

[Cergorach]

It's that all or nothing of if you use AI, you're using it unethically that I disagree with.

I wonder how dedicated people are to your convictions?

What about programmers using AI, AI trained on others code (without permission). This forum uses XenForo, what if the programmers there used AI in their writing code for this forum software? There are some good indicators that this is the case for ~year... Will you stop posting and reading on ENworld because of this?

In my experience people will do stuff as long as it's convenient, but when it really starts to impact their lives (and or income) they tend to haw and thaw, often claiming that one thing is not the same as another...

 

[Distracted DM]

What about programmers using AI, AI trained on others code (without permission). This forum uses XenForo, what if the programmers there used AI in their writing code for this forum software? There are some good indicators that this is the case for ~year... Will you stop posting and reading on ENworld because of this?

That's an... interesting....... way of trying to pose that question.

How about a different example: Reddit made some controversial changes to their API ~~a year or two ago. I stopped my monthly Reddit gold subscription and uninstalled the app. I still occasionally use it on the old.reddit site, but it made me get back into forums- that's actually why I started posting on EN.

So yes, I moved my attention and money elsewhere.

 

[PvtTommyAtkins]

Fair enough. My point is more in response to those who seem to see AI as the Ultimate Evil, which while in some ways it may be (follow the money) in other ways it - at least the art side of it - opens up whole new worlds of creative possiblities to those of us who have ideas but no talent.

This is the very concern I have with it. I have no talent for art, I wish I did. I can play around with AI and make something that is most people would say is objectively better than what I can draw with my own hands. The thing is though after playing around with AI you see the sameness of it. It produces a lot of mediocrity. When people try to monetize that we flood the market with mediocrity. In a small market like the RPG space there is already complaint about good stuff getting buried in the noise of everything else. With AI there is just that much more noise to have to filter through.

 

[chuckdee]

I wonder how dedicated people are to your convictions?

What about programmers using AI, AI trained on others code (without permission). This forum uses XenForo, what if the programmers there used AI in their writing code for this forum software? There are some good indicators that this is the case for ~year... Will you stop posting and reading on ENworld because of this?

In my experience people will do stuff as long as it's convenient, but when it really starts to impact their lives (and or income) they tend to haw and thaw, often claiming that one thing is not the same as another...

Not sure why you quoted mine, as I'm not one of the all or nothing. I just said I disagree with someone using AI unethically. Ethics are a funny thing - I personally think they are on the person doing the action and only my own ethics are on me. So I won't use AI that I don't know the providence of for paid work. So I'm not one that you should be asking this question.