D&D General Todd Kenreck Let Go from WotC

[Remathilis]

picked a bad example there…

AI haven't yet met the ability of humans to screw things up.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

The president of Hasbro has expressed interest, WotC and it's creatives have not. They explicitly have an AI ban.

They are also hiring new designers so clearly they are not being replaced yet. This is just fearmongering right now, as nothing suggests they plan to get AI writing or art in the books.

I wouldn't call it fearmongering. A business is all about maximising profits: increase revenue, reduce costs. Writing modules has a bit of paint-by-numbers to it. Will an AI-generated module be incredibly innovative? Maybe not. Will it be good enough to sell? Realistically, yes.

You'd need (in my opinion) some sort of skeleton team to review the output before it went to market, but I think this is a very realistic near future scenario.

The biggest hurdle would be public backlash i.e. we ain't buying it. As time goes on, and AI-generated content becomes more publicly acceptable (on its own, not a bad thing), this hurdle grows shorter.

 

[Steampunkette]

Mindquake​

3rd-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Area: 20-foot-radius sphere
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous

You unleash a mental shockwave that ripples through the minds of creatures in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point you choose within range. The wave overwhelms their senses and cognitive cohesion, causing searing pain and confusion.

Each creature in that area must make an Intelligence saving throw. A creature takes 6d6 psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. On a failed save, the creature also suffers disadvantage on the next Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn, as its mind struggles to reorient.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.

AI.

Who would know the difference?

I didn't even do a quick pass over it. Didn't even have to format it. That's just how the engine spat it out. Give it to an Editor to maybe change Enchantment to Evocation... or not.

 

[Umbran]

Only if people find out and can prove it's AI work.

Imagine that someone pirates a WotC work years from now. Hasbro/WotC takes them to court.

The accused then points to WotC's public statements about embracing AI. The issue of the work's provenance then becomes a matter for discovery in the case.

WotC will have to provide names and dates and payment records for the people who did the work, and the people could be called to bear witness to doing the work, to prove WotC has standing to bring the suit.

You figure people who didn't get paid are going to perjure themselves for Hasbro?

 

[Umbran]

AI.

Who would know the difference?

Now, ask it to write an entire book for you.

 

[Steampunkette]

Now, ask it to write an entire book for you.

What is a player supplement book but a series of spells, archetypes, magic items, etc?

Have it write a hundred different spells, 30 magic items, a new archetype for every class, 15 new feats, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Then ask it to write an introduction to the archetypes section. And an introduction to the spells section. And an introduction to the feats section. On and on and on.

"Write a Book" and "Write TTRPG Material that goes into a book" are a wide gulf. But you get a book out of either path, in the end, with a lot less overhead than you might otherwise.

 

[Steampunkette]

Here is a bit of insight on how TTRPG books are written:

When I work for EN Publishing or Purple Martin Games or DM Sarah or whomever else wants to hire me (nudge nudge wink wink) I am not told "Write a book"

I am told "Write up some backgrounds within 2,000 words." Or "Write up a class within 10,000 words" or something similar. I have a specific, explicit, target and a word-count limit.

I do my work. I turn it in, I get paid, the employer takes my work and adds it to everyone else's work and that's how you get a TTRPG book. The work of 20 designers is compiled, item by item, into the final book.

WotC doesn't need to tell ChatGPT to "Make a Book" to save a boatload of cash on designers and writers. They just need individual components of a book they can then copy-paste from one format into another.

Whether that copy-paste is coming from Google Docs, .RTF or .DOC files, or some other digital source. It all gets copy-pasted together into a manuscript that then gets made into a PDF and a Book.

Will they still need editors? Sure. Will they still need artists? Sure. Will they still need someone to handle Layout? Absolutely.

But every job they can cut saves them money. It's why companies do layoffs in the first place.

 

[Umbran]

What is a player supplement book but a series of spells, archetypes, magic items, etc?

Then go ahead and make one. See how it goes.

Have it write a hundred different spells, 30 magic items, a new archetype for every class, 15 new feats, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Generative AI has issues with maintaining context for more than about a paragraph. So, you will have to do the work of guiding it into a cohesive whole...

Then ask it to write an introduction to the archetypes section. And an introduction to the spells section. And an introduction to the feats section. On and on and on.

So, you personally have to ride herd on it through that whole process. And you and a editor are going to have to go over it with a fine toothed comb to make sure you catch it when it wanders into talking about how peppermint kills vampires....

And now we have to find yout if paying you is actually cheaper than paying a designer.

Generative AI for business is useful for generating repetitive boilerplate prose, like chatbot responses. It ain't too hot at doing cohesive long form over scores of pages. It takes so much oversight for the blaster that the benefit is questionable, when you include the reputational hit if you are found out.

 

[Steampunkette]

Then go ahead and make one. See how it goes.

I've written two, Umbran.

Or do you mean an AI book? No. I'm not an ethically bankrupt corporation, I'm a designer.

Generative AI has issues with maintaining context for more than about a paragraph. So, you will have to do the work of guiding it into a cohesive whole...

No. You don't. Just tell it to fill out a format and it fills out a format. Do it as many times as you need to to get all the material you need, and then you don't have to pay 20 designers 10 cents a word to write 120,000 words.

So, you personally have to ride herd on it through that whole process. And you and a editor are going to have to go over it with a fine toothed comb to make sure you catch it when it wanders into talking about how peppermint kills vampires....

If you tell it "Write a Book" yeah. It'll wander. If you tell it "Write a 3rd level spell that deals psychic damage in an AoE" it'll produce Mindquake or something else.

And now we have to find yout if paying you is actually cheaper than paying a designer.

Paying me is paying a designer...? But paying one editor and a Chat GPT subscription is cheaper than paying one editor and 20 designers.

Generative AI for business is useful for generating repetitive boilerplate prose, like chatbot responses. It ain't too hot at doing cohesive long form over scores of pages. It takes so much oversight for the blaster that the benefit is questionable, when you include the reputational hit if you are found out.

Again, writing a TTRPG book is a lot different than writing a novel.

 

[bedir than]

But possible benefit would there be for him to tell the public they were thinking of using AI as an output service?

it would make stock go up and right. investors seem to love that