Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[prabe]

Sometimes expressed as a sincere inability to conclude other people have both thought through their own positions, and are sincere about them; they pretty much have to assume others either have not thought it through, are working with mistaken priors, or are themselves being disingenuous.

My tranquility improved greatly once I realized everyone else was wrong.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, the "I can't play in X setting because I have to look at a wiki that's more complete than any RPG setting book and then combine that with one of dozens of widely available rulesets" complaint is weird to me.

Its not quite as strange if you assume they either A) Don't want to do the work, or B) Don't have any faith in their personal ability to do it right.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Me to FLGS: Hey, when are you going to have Dragon Delves available to preorder? I want to get the FLGS cover. It comes out in less than a month.

FLGS: You need to order the bundle from Wizards.com.

Me: (baffled noises)

 

[CleverNickName]

One of my friends is making heavy use of AI in his tabletop game, specifically ChatGPT. And worst of all, he uses it at the table, during play, to describe literally everything. In real time, while his players wait for him to type and refine the prompts. One of the players (a friend of mine) recorded a few minutes of their last session and played it for me.

DM: "You open the door? Okay..." (type type type, backspace, type some more) "...okay, here we go." (reading) "The doorway leads to a damp chamber, the walls draped in roots and mold. An atmosphere of foreboding accompanies the oppressive darkness, and your torches sputter against the inky black. From somewhere in the darkness, dripping water can be heard, and a small insect scurries past you just inside the threshold of the creaky wooden door." (stops reading) "Okay, what do you do?"​

​

Players: "Um, we step inside."​

​

DM: "Okay..." (type type type, reading) "The soft earthen floor makes a sucking noise beneath your feet, the mud pulling at your boots like the mouth of a hungry leech. From the center of the room, you see an exit to the north and a second exit to the east, yawning open like the mouths of hungry dragons."​

​

Player: "I roll to investigate." (rolls) "Fifteen?"​

​

DM: "Okay, a fifteen eh?" (type type type) "Okay." (clears throat) "A roll of 15 is an above average result, which is more than enough for you to spot the three goblins hiding just beyond the entryway, obscured by the shadows of the exit. However it's not high enough to...woops, sorry." (stops reading) "You just see the three goblins."​

​

Players: (arguing, talking over each other) "Was it the entry or the exit? Wait, which exit, north or east? I want to investigate too, I might spot what he missed," etc.​

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but hoo boy. I don't think I could take more than ten minutes of that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but hoo boy. I don't think I could take more than ten minutes of that.

Especially since there are whole books and online random generators that can do that in a single click, faster and easier.

But also, "this dungeon is dark and wet" shouldn't require meaningful mental energy from a DM.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Instead of folks fighting here (unless thats the goal...which I think it actually is, but anyway....) just...sit back and write up the content you want, and get it out there.

Kvetch: the LARP

 

[Gradine]

One of my friends is making heavy use of AI in his tabletop game, specifically ChatGPT. And worst of all, he uses it at the table, during play, to describe literally everything. In real time, while his players wait for him to type and refine the prompts. One of the players (a friend of mine) recorded a few minutes of their last session and played it for me.

DM: "You open the door? Okay..." (type type type, backspace, type some more) "...okay, here we go." (reading) "The doorway leads to a damp chamber, the walls draped in roots and mold. An atmosphere of foreboding accompanies the oppressive darkness, and your torches sputter against the inky black. From somewhere in the darkness, dripping water can be heard, and a small insect scurries past you just inside the threshold of the creaky wooden door." (stops reading) "Okay, what do you do?"​

​

Players: "Um, we step inside."​

​

DM: "Okay..." (type type type, reading) "The soft earthen floor makes a sucking noise beneath your feet, the mud pulling at your boots like the mouth of a hungry leech. From the center of the room, you see an exit to the north and a second exit to the east, yawning open like the mouths of hungry dragons."​

​

Player: "I roll to investigate." (rolls) "Fifteen?"​

​

DM: "Okay, a fifteen eh?" (type type type) "Okay." (clears throat) "A roll of 15 is an above average result, which is more than enough for you to spot the three goblins hiding just beyond the entryway, obscured by the shadows of the exit. However it's not high enough to...woops, sorry." (stops reading) "You just see the three goblins."​

​

Players: (arguing, talking over each other) "Was it the entry or the exit? Wait, which exit, north or east? I want to investigate too, I might spot what he missed," etc.​

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but hoo boy. I don't think I could take more than ten minutes of that.

 

[Ryujin]

Even if "get it out there" is just to the people at your table. You don't need to publish anything any further or more than that. I mean, if you want to, do, but you don't need to, to use and enjoy the material.

And it's remarkable how, when you do exactly that, the players help to flesh out the world for you,

 

[Ryujin]

Its not quite as strange if you assume they either A) Don't want to do the work, or B) Don't have any faith in their personal ability to do it right.

In other areas of life, it has struck me that (A) is the most true. Sometimes it's because of limited time but oh, so often not wanting to do something for yourself is just laziness. As one of the founders of a motorcycle street riding group you might be shocked at how many people simply didn't want go out and ride on their own, because then they would have to figure out where to go for themselves. I tried posting maps. Two of my friends and I tried keeping our personal rides private, only to have literally 30+ bikes show up. It was frustrating, to say the least.

 

[CleverNickName]

The worst part for me: when he used AI to interpret the 15 Investigation check for him.