WotC Hasbro CEO optimistic about AI in D&D and MTG’s future

Cadence

Legend
Supporter
On the gaming side, does this bring up a lot of mid-to-high level campaign ideas?

The zombie field workers harvest more, enrich the necromancers, and put the peasants out of work. Let's listen in...

You know if we made it where falling apart zombies could reanimate as skeletons they could go even longer. The part of the spell to just make it work on zombies is hard. What about a bit of the enchantment from ghouls? We could help the peasant families out by buying the corpses; win-win, right? Why are you concerned about what we're doing over here in the necropolis, you elves don't know necromancy like we know necromancy. Also, are you keeping an eye on that land reclamation vine your druids are working on?
 

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jhallum

Explorer
It's funny, there's a use for this AI stuff, but its not what he's thinking (and I'm sure it's not what Perkins would use it for).

We have a campaign log, and I sprinkle in letters from bad guys, and other lore docs into my players occasionally. We use Google's inference engine for Google Docs to sift through the log and associated docs for players to ask questions about lore. We haven't been using it long, but it's been great so far. I heartily recommend it.

If someone at WotC were to take everything lore-related and enter the information into an LLM and allow people to ask it questions about FR lore, it would be a valuable tool for prospective writers and even hardcore fans. I think I'd pay for it if they made it available to fans. Would be fun to see the LLM wrap its head around the contradictions anyway. :D
 

Cadence

Legend
Supporter
It's funny, there's a use for this AI stuff, but its not what he's thinking (and I'm sure it's not what Perkins would use it for).

We have a campaign log, and I sprinkle in letters from bad guys, and other lore docs into my players occasionally. We use Google's inference engine for Google Docs to sift through the log and associated docs for players to ask questions about lore. We haven't been using it long, but it's been great so far. I heartily recommend it.

If someone at WotC were to take everything lore-related and enter the information into an LLM and allow people to ask it questions about FR lore, it would be a valuable tool for prospective writers and even hardcore fans. I think I'd pay for it if they made it available to fans. Would be fun to see the LLM wrap its head around the contradictions anyway. :D

I'm guessing if it was LLM based that it would also be like real-world lore spreading in that it would make up it's own new things (including contradictions) now and then. And if you let it have memory of what it had already spit out I bet a good prompt making bard could get some fun things out of it.
 

eyeheartawk

#1 Enworld Jerk™
I am not convinced that this will always ‘work itself out’, AI is coming in fast, will be much more widespread than anything before it, and I am not sure it gives many options for adapting to it. Sure, some people will have jobs using it, but tens of millions of jobs will become obsolete / redundant and I am not so sure that most of them find something new
This is it. This isn't industrialization killing cottage industry. When that happened people moved to cities and worked in that industry. Here, AI will make people redundant but create no new avenue in which to employ them (at least not in anything resembling a large enough scale). There will be no great migration. It will just be the great elimination.
 

Cadence

Legend
Supporter
This is it. This isn't industrialization killing cottage industry. When that happened people moved to cities and worked in that industry. Here, AI will make people redundant but create no new avenue in which to employ them (at least not in anything resembling a large enough scale). There will be no great migration. It will just be the great elimination.

But then the really rich people at the top will save us all by...

In any event, Avengers Twilight has been a really fun read through 4 issues and I can still (sort of) afford a few comic books a month.
 
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Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
I'm more concerned about job losses on top of tge current climate.

History us more my thing wealth inequality is back to early 20th century levels.

That's my big picture nothing else matters foncern as most other things are linked to it.

A few digital artists missing out sad for them but if it spreads to everything else there's a lot of problems there.
It's definitely already spread to other jobs. I saw a large number of sports writers laid off and replaced with a handful who are using AI to "assist" is writing the same number of articles now.

I know someone who was a webpage programmer who was replaced with someone using AI for the programming of dozens more pages than one person could do in that time.

I used to be a lawyer focused on contracts, and I had a large hard drive full of the best clauses for any type of issue that I had written or essentially traded with other lawyers to aid in writing contracts. If I were doing that job now, it could mostly be done by AI, and I've seen contracts lawyers positions are drying up.

And of course already a large number of customer service jobs were replaced with AI. You can still speak to a human eventually, but a lot of the more basic questions someone would ask about a companies service or products is first handled by AI, which would have been handled by a human just 5 years ago. Eventually even the more advanced questions will be handled better by AI than humans,

AI is spreading very rapidly. It will continue to replace jobs. There is this basic assumption by those who are promoting that, that societies will move to a socialist system where hours for people are reduced, and everyone enjoys the benefits of AI while only having to work part time or not even at all and they get a check from the Government for basic needs, etc.. It's what I called the Star Trek utopian dream above. I don't think it will play out that way, but even if it did, I still think those folks are missing the drawbacks I mentioned earlier which have nothing to do with money and are more about direct harm to humans from AIs growth.
 

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
It's funny, there's a use for this AI stuff, but its not what he's thinking (and I'm sure it's not what Perkins would use it for).

We have a campaign log, and I sprinkle in letters from bad guys, and other lore docs into my players occasionally. We use Google's inference engine for Google Docs to sift through the log and associated docs for players to ask questions about lore. We haven't been using it long, but it's been great so far. I heartily recommend it.

If someone at WotC were to take everything lore-related and enter the information into an LLM and allow people to ask it questions about FR lore, it would be a valuable tool for prospective writers and even hardcore fans. I think I'd pay for it if they made it available to fans. Would be fun to see the LLM wrap its head around the contradictions anyway. :D
We are recording to audio every session right now. Then our DM feeds that audio into a translation service to turn it into text. He then feeds that text into AI and the AI writes a very good summary of everything that happened, and he pastes that into the session notes.

So now we can read a summary of last session, and then if we have questions about details about where we found something or some other small detail we can check the longer full translation log.

Here is a sample from a prior session. I've redacted some real names, and this is only a partial sample for brevity. But no human typed this. This was purely Google Gemini summarizing from a text dump from automated translation software from a digital recording of our session:

Dungeon of the Mad Mage Session Summary - Detailed Play-by-Play

Date: [Date of session]
Time: 6:57 AM (in-game time)
Location: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Level 11 (estimated)
DM: REDACTED

Characters:

Grumph: Half-orc Order of Scribes Wizard/Cleric (REDACTED)

Beuller: Half-elf Oath of Glory Paladin (REDACTED)

Linnaeus: Halfling Circle of Dreams Druid (REDACTED)

Iryi: Half-elf Sorcerer-Warlock (REDACTED)

Ydraesk: Dwarf Drunken Master Monk (REDACTED)

Henry: Halfling Arcane Trickster Rogue (REDACTED)

Session Recap:

The session began with the party recovering from a recent battle and discussing their next move. They were unsure of their exact location within the dungeon, suspecting they were on either level 5, 6, or 11.

Detailed Play-by-Play:

On-Time Luck Point Question:

Beuller: Recalled his mother's kindness contrasting with his father's cruelty, shaping his sense of justice and balance.

Linnaeus: Shared a story about saving clay fish, but struggled to recall details due to memory issues.

Henry: Remembered a past act of cruelty he witnessed, fueling his desire for vengeance.

Iryi: Described her close relationship with Greg, a fellow adventurer, and their contrasting approaches to risk.

Battle Aftermath:

The party confirmed the death of the Drow gunslinger and priestess.

They looted the Helm of Whispering Winds from the gunslinger and a brooch and music box from the priestess.

Henry considered attuning to the Helm but ultimately decided against it.

Exploring the Cavern:

The party moved into a large cavern with uneven terrain and natural columns.

Grumph used his Book of Shadows to scout ahead, discovering a passageway to the south.

Beuller and Henry heard sounds of movement coming from the south.

Encounter with Mutated Trolls:

Three mutated trolls emerged from the passageway, drawn by the light from Grumph's book.

The party engaged in combat with the trolls.

Linnaeus cast "Produce Flame" and Iryi used "Eldritch Blast" to damage the trolls.

Beuller and Ydraesk engaged the trolls in melee combat, eventually defeating them.

Harvesting and Resting:

Grumph spent 90 minutes harvesting reagents from the troll corpses, acquiring two uncommon reactive reagents and one uncommon curative reagent.

The rest of the party took a short rest, recovering health and resources.

Henry benefited from the Snuggle Beast, gaining additional hit points during the rest.

Scouting Ahead:

Grumph used his Book of Shadows to scout further south, discovering a tunnel littered with bones and skulls of small creatures.

The book detected movement and shuffling sounds coming from around a corner to the right.

Ending Point:

The session ended with the party preparing to investigate the source of the shuffling sounds, likely encountering more creatures in the next session.

Notes:

The party is still unsure of their exact location within the dungeon.

Grumph was unable to benefit from the short rest due to harvesting the troll corpses.

The party acquired several valuable items, including the Helm of Whispering Winds.

The session ended with the promise of combat in the next session.

Questions for Next Session:

What creatures are making the shuffling sounds?

Can the party find the portal to level 6?

Will the party encounter the Drow riders again?

Additional Notes:
... (6 lines left)
 

Faolyn

(she/her)
If I can just type in plain English language "Who is the god of Shadows in the Greyhawk setting?" and have AI respond with "Xan Yae is the Baklunish goddess of Twilight, Shadows, Stealth, and Mental Power. Her symbol is a black lotus blossom. Would you like to hear more details about tXan Yaw, or get details on some other deities that might govern shadows in the Greyhawk setting?" I'd be happy with that tool.
We already have that tool. It's called "the internet."

When I google "Who is the god of Shadows in the Greyhawk setting?"--yes, in plain English--I get numerous links to sites made and maintained by humans, and then when I'm in those sites, a control-F will take me directly to her entry, or to other entries that have words like "shadows" or "darkness" in them. The only benefit of AI here is that you don't have to control-F.
 

Cadence

Legend
Supporter
We already have that tool. It's called "the internet."

When I google "Who is the god of Shadows in the Greyhawk setting?"--yes, in plain English--I get numerous links to sites made and maintained by humans, and then when I'm in those sites, a control-F will take me directly to her entry, or to other entries that have words like "shadows" or "darkness" in them. The only benefit of AI here is that you don't have to control-F.

That was how it felt a few years ago. Now a bunch of the sites for a lot of things look like either the humans weren't focussing very well on what they were writing, or not paying much attention to what ChatGPT wrote for them :-/

Top ten list the other day about comics had the same subject for two different numbers (with just slightly different take on it).
 
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Faolyn

(she/her)
That was how it felt a few years ago. Now a buch of the sites for a lot of things look like the either the humans weren't focussing very well on what they were writing, or not paying much attention to what ChatGPT wrote for them :-/

Top ten list the other day about comics had the same subject for two different numbers (with just slightly different take on it).
I find that unless you are trying to be 100% accurate to the original source material--in which case, you should be consulting the actual source material and not the internet in the first place--you should just get the bits that work the best for your version of the setting. Which is probably not going to be 100% accurate anyway.
 

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