AI tools for traditional games

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > AI tools for traditional games

Roadie: Jun 30, 2013

Abhorrence posted:

The trick, I have found is to A: don't ask it to do something it has refused to do later in the thread, instead edit the question that made it refuse, and B: explicitly ask it to include a content warning. For whatever reason, it is more willing to write about stuff if it gives a content warning.

The key thing to understand is that it will try to generate stuff that's like its reinforcement training data, and from inference we can tell that the OpenAI reinforcement training data probably has:

- Lots of text of the bot endlessly refusing to concede to arguments about all the "as an AI language model" bullshit
- Some amount of text about "mature" topics with content warnings

# ? Jun 26, 2023 19:46

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# ? May 2, 2024 01:07

Doctor Zero: Sep 21, 2002; Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Megaman's Jockstrap posted:

So I had my first truly negative experience with AI. A player asked to submit some backstory to me and I said sure. I received 3 pages which surprised me greatly as this player is not really that type of table presence. I read it and it was just bland trash about frolicking in the woods near their cabin with their uncle and gathering herbs and poo poo. It wasn't interesting at all, although it did fit the background for a primal/ranger type.

I got suspicious and asked them if an AI wrote it and the answer was yes. They gave ChatGPT some sort of "write a nature background for my character" and it came up with this nonsense. They then sent it over to me. They hadn't even done more than skim it!

So now I have a rule with my players: do not use AI for the connective tissue of your backstory. I'm fine with them using it for names, inspiration, whatever, but the actual connective tissue needs to be players because honestly this loving sucked. It took them 3 minutes to waste 10 minutes of my time.

Or at least they should loving read it. Holy poo poo.

# ? Jun 27, 2023 04:42

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Megaman's Jockstrap posted:

So I had my first truly negative experience with AI. A player asked to submit some backstory to me and I said sure. I received 3 pages which surprised me greatly as this player is not really that type of table presence. I read it and it was just bland trash about frolicking in the woods near their cabin with their uncle and gathering herbs and poo poo. It wasn't interesting at all, although it did fit the background for a primal/ranger type.

I got suspicious and asked them if an AI wrote it and the answer was yes. They gave ChatGPT some sort of "write a nature background for my character" and it came up with this nonsense. They then sent it over to me. They hadn't even done more than skim it!

So now I have a rule with my players: do not use AI for the connective tissue of your backstory. I'm fine with them using it for names, inspiration, whatever, but the actual connective tissue needs to be players because honestly this loving sucked. It took them 3 minutes to waste 10 minutes of my time.

Well you should be using ChatGPT to summarize players' backstories, duh

# ? Jun 27, 2023 05:10

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Actually that gives me an idea.

So one player hasn't read their own backstory?
Be a shame if the party at some point feared being infiltrated by a simulacrum/impostor/whatever. Just saying that not knowing the details of one's own backstory would be kinda sus.

# ? Jun 27, 2023 06:01

trapstar: Jun 30, 2012; Yo tengo un par de ideas.

Doctor Zero posted:

Or at least they should loving read it. Holy poo poo.

To me one of the funnest parts of TTRPGs is writing your characters backstory. I can't fathom why anyone would want to do this.

# ? Jun 27, 2023 07:44

Scornful Sexbot: Sep 24, 2007; Dinosaur Gum

trapstar posted:

To me one of the funnest parts of TTRPGs is writing your characters backstory. I can't fathom why anyone would want to do this.

there is a dude who plays with us who hates having to write a backstory so much that we just let him reuse the same character story every time he dies. I hand-waved it as inter-dimensional quantum leap Sigrid the Barbarian. I think we are on like Sigrid VI now

# ? Jun 27, 2023 12:28

Fuzz: Jun 2, 2003; Avatar brought to you by the TG Sanity fund

Scornful Sexbot posted:

there is a dude who plays with us who hates having to write a backstory so much that we just let him reuse the same character story every time he dies. I hand-waved it as inter-dimensional quantum leap Sigrid the Barbarian. I think we are on like Sigrid VI now

That's a dude I would just fire from my table, goddamn. If you can't respect everyone else's time and effort to put in the bare minimum to participate, you can gently caress off and go do something with other people willing to tolerate your lack of respect.

# ? Jun 27, 2023 14:16

Piell: Sep 3, 2006; Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer; Young Orc

I hate writing backstories, most of the time when actually playing I'll end up playing a character differently than I initially planned it. Anything more than a paragraph or two with a couple NPC hooks for the DM to use if they want to is overkill, IMO

The game is about the game, having five pages of intricate backstory is not really a major component of the game and isn't at all necessary

# ? Jun 27, 2023 14:36

Colonel Cool: Dec 24, 2006

I term I like to use is "actionable backstory". There's a trick to writing concise backstories that provides interesting material for the GM to work with.

# ? Jun 27, 2023 14:54

Bucnasti: Aug 14, 2012; I'll Fetch My Sarcasm Robes

There's a reason books of tables to generate random backstories exist. Not everyone is a creative storyteller on their own.

# ? Jun 27, 2023 17:30

Leperflesh: May 17, 2007

Hey guys, I've been sick and basically checked out for a week, but I'm poking around now. How's a new OP going? I'd really love to get the stink of Rutibex off of this thread.

# ? Jun 27, 2023 17:37

Fuzz: Jun 2, 2003; Avatar brought to you by the TG Sanity fund

Piell posted:

I hate writing backstories, most of the time when actually playing I'll end up playing a character differently than I initially planned it. Anything more than a paragraph or two with a couple NPC hooks for the DM to use if they want to is overkill, IMO

The game is about the game, having five pages of intricate backstory is not really a major component of the game and isn't at all necessary

Who said 5 pages? Even in a backstory heavy game like CofD or WoD you still only have like a paragraph at most.

If you still can't be assed to write a loving paragraph for a game, then go piss off and play with some other people, in my book.

# ? Jun 27, 2023 21:34

Golden Bee: Dec 24, 2009; I came here to chew bubblegum and quote 'They Live', and I'm... at an impasse.

I like games where backstory is mechanized.

Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Jun 29, 2023

# ? Jun 27, 2023 23:13

Scornful Sexbot: Sep 24, 2007; Dinosaur Gum

Fuzz posted:

That's a dude I would just fire from my table, goddamn. If you can't respect everyone else's time and effort to put in the bare minimum to participate, you can gently caress off and go do something with other people willing to tolerate your lack of respect.

It�s not that bad, he�s just an ENGINEER so he does not possess the capacity to be creative and write. he�s a good friend so we just accept his limitations in D&D as foibles of his character. He�s an active player who does poo poo (otherwise)

# ? Jun 28, 2023 12:22

Megaman's Jockstrap: Jul 16, 2000; What a horrible thread to have a post.

Golden Bee posted:

I like games with where backstory is mechanized.

Traveler rules!

# ? Jun 28, 2023 16:13

BrainDance: May 8, 2007; Disco all night long!

Leperflesh posted:

Hey guys, I've been sick and basically checked out for a week, but I'm poking around now. How's a new OP going? I'd really love to get the stink of Rutibex off of this thread.

Does someone just have to post it? Because, I think it's done?

# ? Jun 29, 2023 00:45

Leperflesh: May 17, 2007

Yup! Post it, we'll link to it from this thread & close the thread, bingo bango

# ? Jun 29, 2023 04:49

Communist Thoughts: Jan 7, 2008; Our war against free speech cannot end until we silence this bronze beast!

A lot of bad DMs just completely ignore all the characters backstory in order to tell the tale of the cursed tiara or whatver they were planning to tell going in, so probably a lot of players don't see the point

When I'm dming I consider everything the players come up with to be the primary source and all my stuff is secondary but a lot of DMs are the opposite

# ? Jun 29, 2023 11:07

BrainDance: May 8, 2007; Disco all night long!

My DM is really good about that, but the DM for our side game, he's just learning to DM so I don't blame him for it but I have this very fleshed out bard and none of it ended up mattering :/

But he's learning so whatever.

My main DM really worked in our backstories with the world as a whole, and we all get "our quests" and stuff. For me and the characters involved in my story he's started going "Braindance, how about you show us what *character* looks like? ” and letting me pull something out of the AI, which has been really cool.

There's been talk of them wanting me to do a one shot with something AI generated. And I do want to do it, I've got some ideas, something very unconventional where the AI conceptually ends up mattering in game. Not just like "you stumble upon and ancient computer, mystical runes engraved with the text 'G P T' upon it" or something lame like that, but, I dunno, I've had some ideas. I thought maybe just something about the concept of "latent space" being central to the game?

But I have to learn how to DM and I don't think I'm the type of person that would be good at it.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 12:16

a7m2: Jul 9, 2012

BrainDance posted:

My DM is really good about that, but the DM for our side game, he's just learning to DM so I don't blame him for it but I have this very fleshed out bard and none of it ended up mattering :/

But he's learning so whatever.

My main DM really worked in our backstories with the world as a whole, and we all get "our quests" and stuff. For me and the characters involved in my story he's started going "Braindance, how about you show us what *character* looks like? ” and letting me pull something out of the AI, which has been really cool.

There's been talk of them wanting me to do a one shot with something AI generated. And I do want to do it, I've got some ideas, something very unconventional where the AI conceptually ends up mattering in game. Not just like "you stumble upon and ancient computer, mystical runes engraved with the text 'G P T' upon it" or something lame like that, but, I dunno, I've had some ideas. I thought maybe just something about the concept of "latent space" being central to the game?

But I have to learn how to DM and I don't think I'm the type of person that would be good at it.

I know you know this but when you're starting out there's so much to keep track of, I kinda feel for the guy. I had trouble incorporating that stuff too in the past and I always felt bad in hindsight so I empathize

# ? Jun 29, 2023 12:40

feverish and oversexed: Mar 9, 2007; I LOVE the galley!

everytime I try to talk to people about using chatgpt for gaming everyone says its really boring and sucks etc (I agree to an extent)

I don't use chatgpt to do everything for me. I TELL it what to do. I give it an outline for a scene and tell it to narrate it for me. It works really well at that.

quote:

"I look around for food and roll a weak hit. This ends my first day. I find some sort of food, enter the farmhouse, and retire for the night"

and it gives me

quote:

"As the golden hues of the sunset start to paint the sky, you feel your stomach grumble. The excitement and events of the day have left you famished. You look around, using your foraging skills to find something edible in the wild growth around the property.

Among the overgrowth, you spot something. A small bush, teeming with bright, ripe berries. You carefully pick a handful, the sweet aroma wafting up as you do. It's not a feast, but it's enough to tide you over. You pocket the berries and head towards the house.

Stepping inside, you're greeted by a sight that reflects the outside - a fixer-upper. Dusty furniture, peeling wallpaper, creaking floorboards. But amidst the disarray, you see a home waiting to be loved.

You clear a small space on the wooden table and sit down, unpacking your belongings. The assorted dried bugs, the margarita mix, the day-old bread, and the freshly picked berries. An unusual meal, but a meal nonetheless. As you eat, you look around, imagining what the place could look like, what it could feel like.

You then find a less dusty corner of the house, lay down your coat, and settle in for the night. Despite the hard floor, you find yourself drifting off to sleep quickly, lulled by the distant sounds of the river. It's been a long day, full of new experiences, new people, new beginnings. As your eyes close, you think of what tomorrow will bring, and for the first time in a long time, you feel at peace.

Day 1 in Iron Valley comes to a close, marking the beginning of your new life in this charming town. The adventure has only just begun."

I don't write all this down, its just like...a interactive book for my games. Also it remembered the random poo poo I had in my bag and I ATE IT?? Okay that made me lol. I'll keep that lore.

I think other people believe I'm having it be my whole rear end game master but you can't really do that effectively, but it works well as a sort of "assistant" imo. I do believe this will get better over time but for now this works well for me.

I've also been using it to playtest a oneshot rpg I'm making and that worked to get a feel for how the game might run for someone else, and helped me isolate some rule issues I needed to tweak

# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:40

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Fuzz posted:

That's a dude I would just fire from my table, goddamn. If you can't respect everyone else's time and effort to put in the bare minimum to participate, you can gently caress off and go do something with other people willing to tolerate your lack of respect.

Laughs at u in Jim Bloodguy I, II, III, IV and IVb

If everyone's having fun why on earth is that an issue, some people just wanna turn up and roll some dice.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 21:50

Doctor Zero: Sep 21, 2002; Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

I just got done with a one-shot 5e game, playing a Bard. I tried to use chat GPT to do songs on the spot but the other players really wanted me to come up with original stuff, so I did and even though it was pretty basic they liked it better.

I did do player portraits for everyone using MJ though. They liked that.

# ? Jun 30, 2023 05:46

Megaman's Jockstrap: Jul 16, 2000; What a horrible thread to have a post.

I now have Stable Diffusion doing character studies like it's AAA game (you know, bust portrait straight ahead, bust portrait profile, full body front and back), they lack a bit of coherence but they feel extremely luxurious and the response has been tremendous.

# ? Jul 3, 2023 21:39

Oligopsony: May 17, 2007

IME best practices for using ChatGPT as a creative aid are (1) going for volume, then selecting down, (2) providing examples, and (3) specifying temperature. Most of these are in some way or another about getting the model past its first instinct, which is to go for the most obvious stuff you could create anyway. It's bad at evaluation, but good at just being a workhorse, so if you randomly generate then iterate on the best examples you're in business.

Since we're discussing backgrounds, here's how I might go about that:

quote:

Give me 12 potential one-sentence backstories for a Wood Elf Sorcerer. Each of these should involve some kind of motivation or complication for the character, or introduce an interesting NPC. For example, "they are the inheritors of an ancient family curse, and their magic will kill them unless they find a way to undo it" or "she stole an amulet from a forest grove and now has magic, but the druids are after her" or "magic dragon blood (son of the dragon who's a major villain in the campaign)"

"Having been touched by a dying Fey spirit as a child, they inherited its magical prowess, but the spirit's enemies relentlessly seek to extinguish its legacy."
"Inheriting a lineage from an ancient, forgotten elven dynasty, they possess forbidden magical knowledge and are pursued by those wanting to seize this power."
"They traded their voice to a mystical creature of the woods for immense magical power, now they must reclaim their voice without losing their sorcery."
"Once a mere woodcarver, they were struck by a bolt of wild magic and given sorcerous powers; now they seek to understand and control this unruly force."
"An ancient tree in their home forest chose them to be its guardian and imbued them with arcane power, yet they struggle with the responsibility of this role."
"Raised by a reclusive, but magical, forest beast, they've been imparted a unique sorcery that leaves both foes and allies puzzled and astonished."
"Being the reincarnation of a powerful elven sorcerer, they have no recollection of their past life, yet are haunted by ominous visions of a darkness they once defeated."
"A prophecy claims they will either save their forest home with their burgeoning magic, or doom it, and they're not sure which outcome is more likely."
"Infected by magical spores from an otherworldly plant, they gained sorcerous abilities and a deep connection to the forest, but must prevent the invasive flora from overtaking their homeland."
"As the illegitimate child of a powerful sorcerer and a woodland nymph, they're torn between their father's demanding expectations of magic mastery and their mother's nurturing connection to the natural world."
"Having accidentally swallowed a relic of the elemental plane of fire, they now wield fiery magic but risk being consumed by the fierce flames themselves."
"They carry a cursed runestone that granted them magic powers, but also threatens to enthrall them to the will of an ancient, malevolent spirit sealed within the stone."

Expand out with five versions of option 10 ("As the illegitimate child of a powerful sorcerer and a woodland nymph, they're torn between their father's demanding expectations of magic mastery and their mother's nurturing connection to the natural world.") Each version should specify, in bullet points, 1) who the sorcerer father is, 2) who the nymph mother is 3) how they came to be together 4) what their current relationship is with each other 5) how the child approaches the situation, and 6) a relationship the child has with someone else

Version 1:

The sorcerer father is Talmorion, an elven archmage with a reputation for his merciless ambition and vast arcane knowledge.
The nymph mother is Lirael, a gentle and nurturing spirit of the Whispering Woods.
Talmorion was seeking ancient spells hidden within the Whispering Woods and was entranced by Lirael's beauty and wisdom.
The couple is currently estranged; Lirael is deeply saddened by Talmorion's pursuit of power while Talmorion feels Lirael doesn't understand his ambitions.
The child, named Lorn, seeks to balance the elemental and arcane power coursing through their veins, hoping to achieve harmony instead of choosing a side.
Lorn has a close bond with an old treant in the Whispering Woods, who serves as a mentor and confidant in their search for balance.

Version 2:

The sorcerer father is Ghendrin, a notorious human wizard exiled for his dangerous and ethically questionable experiments.
The nymph mother is Thaelis, a radiant, jovial spirit of the Sunflower Meadows.
Ghendrin saved Thaelis from a hunter's trap, and they fell in love during his time hiding in the meadows.
After Ghendrin was forced to leave the meadows by the local fey, Thaelis and Ghendrin now secretly rendezvous during the equinoxes and solstices.
Their child, Elysia, seeks to master her inherited magic powers to protect the natural world, while wrestling with the darker aspects of her father's magical legacy.
Elysia has formed a secretive friendship with a young dragon who also feels misunderstood due to its parentage.

Version 3:

The sorcerer father is Edris, a renowned half-elf sorcerer known for his musical magic and bardic talents.
The nymph mother is Lyra, a serene and melancholic spirit of the Moonlit Lake.
Edris charmed Lyra with his enchanting music and shared dreams, and their love blossomed under the moonlight.
Despite their shared love for their child, the couple now maintain a distant relationship, Edris yearning for the wider world, and Lyra bound to her lake.
Their child, Caelen, copes by weaving his parents' disparate worlds into his magic, combining a love for music and nature in his spells.
Caelen has a complex relationship with a rival bard who envies his unique musical magic, leading to a competitive friendship.

Version 4:

The sorcerer father is Aeon, an ancient, time-traveling sorcerer, always appearing youthful and brimming with chaotic energy.
The nymph mother is Virelai, an ageless forest spirit who embodies the tranquility of the ancient grove she inhabits.
Aeon met Virelai during one of his time travels, and they fell in love, sharing moments outside of time itself.
Currently, their relationship is enigmatic, with Aeon visiting Virelai sporadically through different timelines, creating a complex web of encounters.
The child, Kaelis, struggles to reconcile his unpredictable magical inheritance and his tranquil upbringing, attempting to create a stable identity amidst the temporal chaos.
Kaelis has a strong bond with a wise, old owl, the only creature other than his mother who seems to understand his complex existence.

Version 5:

The sorcerer father is Zephyr, a playful and inventive gnome wizard specializing in wind and storm magic.
The nymph mother is Elandra, a quiet and patient spirit of the Wandering Winds Valley.
Zephyr's curious experiments often led him to Elandra's valley, where they shared knowledge and eventually fell in love.
Their relationship is friendly and cordial, with Zephyr visiting the valley regularly with new inventions for Elandra to appreciate.
Their child, Sylphina, is a curious inventor who uses magic to aid her in understanding the natural forces of the world, aiming to integrate her father's creativity with her mother's wisdom.
Sylphina shares a friendly rivalry with a young goblin tinkerer, their competition pushing both to create ever more wondrous and magical contraptions.

Give me 12 versions of the nymph mother that are more dark and interesting than the examples above (temperature=2.0)

Ravena - A shadow nymph of the Twilight Marsh, she wields the power of nightmares and thrives in places where the moonlight doesn't reach.
Velindra - A blood nymph who haunts the Blood Thorn Forest, her touch can cause plants to shrivel and die, or bloom with deadly, enchanted thorns.
Obsidia - Nymph of the Obsidian Caves, she shapes and manipulates the darkness, and her whispers echo the secret tragedies of the world.
Sylthra - A spectral nymph of the Ghostwood, she exists in both the world of the living and the ethereal plane, her existence a tragic blend of love and loss.
Zephyra - Nymph of the Storm Peaks, she is a tempest of fury and power, summoning storms that reflect her turbulent emotions.
Morwen - An ice nymph from the frozen Wastes of Lorn, her heart is as cold as the icy tundra she presides over, her magic a fierce and chilling force.
Lythalia - A decay nymph of the Dying Glades, she is a symbol of nature's ruthless cycle of life and death, her power capable of rapid growth and ruthless decay.
Eldrissa - Nymph of the Ancient Barrows, she is a silent guardian of the dead and a conduit of ancestral magic, her aura an echo of ages past.
Aurelia - A blight nymph of the Scorched Plains, she is a testament to nature's vengeance, her touch brings forth poisonous plants and her ire, deadly wildfire.
Elys - A moon nymph of the Shadowed Lake, she is a creature of mystery and illusion, her magic as unpredictable and ever-changing as the phases of the moon.
Calista - Nymph of the Gloomfrost Forest, she is bound by a curse that forces her to relive her past mistakes, her presence causing the surrounding flora to bloom with frost.
Threnodia - A dirge nymph of the Mourning Canyons, she sings songs of sorrow and loss that echo through the night, her magic intertwined with grief and mourning.

Write me four versions (with bullet points as per above) of this backstory, using Lythalia (the decay nymph) as the mother

Version 1:

The sorcerer father is Malakar, a necromancer driven by his obsession to overcome death, gaining power through dark and forbidden spells.
The nymph mother is Lythalia, a decay nymph of the Dying Glades, embodying the brutal honesty of nature's lifecycle.
Malakar encountered Lythalia while seeking ancient knowledge of life and death within the Dying Glades, and their bond formed through a mutual understanding of mortality.
Now, Lythalia and Malakar share a complicated relationship, both respecting each other's dominion over decay and death, yet conflicted over the ethics of meddling with life's natural end.
Their child, Morrigan, is a somber individual who attempts to navigate the polarities of their parents' powers, exploring how death and decay can coexist with life and renewal.
Morrigan is guided by an old phantom who was once a great druid; in death, he provides wisdom on maintaining the balance between life and decay.

Version 2:

The sorcerer father is Baelgor, a human wizard notorious for his experiments on the transience and impermanence of life.
The nymph mother is Lythalia, the decay nymph from the Dying Glades, symbolizing nature's ruthless cycle of life and death.
Baelgor was drawn to the Dying Glades and Lythalia in his quest to understand the essence of life's ephemerality and found in her a strange and captivating beauty.
Their relationship is strained; while Baelgor sees Lythalia's decay as a subject of study, Lythalia resents his detachment and his desire to control nature's cycle.
Their child, Faolan, born amidst this tension, seeks to prove that the cycle of life and decay can be respected without being controlled or feared.
Faolan shares a profound connection with a revenant knight, both grappling with the concept of life, death, and what lies beyond.

Version 3:

The sorcerer father is Eldrion, an elven enchanter who traded a part of his immortality for power over time and entropy.
The nymph mother is Lythalia, the decay nymph, an embodiment of the inevitable decline that all life must face.
Drawn to each other by their shared power over endings, Eldrion and Lythalia formed a deep bond amidst the Dying Glades.
Although they respect each other's power, Eldrion's struggle with his fading immortality often puts him at odds with Lythalia, who accepts decay as natural and necessary.
Their child, Elara, born of time and decay, seeks to use her magic to honor the natural cycle and preserve the balance between growth and decay.
Elara forms an unlikely friendship with a timeless spirit trapped in an hourglass, learning valuable lessons about the fleeting nature of life and the beauty of endings.

Version 4:

The sorcerer father is Thanos, a dread necromancer who was seduced by the power of death and oblivion.
The nymph mother is Lythalia, the decay nymph, a living testament to the ruthless decay that exists in harmony with life's vibrance.
Thanos and Lythalia crossed paths during a celestial event that weakened the veil between life and death, leading to a complicated love entangled with power, dread, and fascination.
Their current relationship is cold and distant, bound only by their shared interest in death's domain and their mutual child.
Their child, Nyx, born of this cold union, is driven to understand her parents' complex relationship with death and aims to redefine it, seeking to wield her powers to bring comfort to those fearing decay and the end.
Nyx finds companionship with a ghostly hound, a spectral creature that sees both the vibrancy of life and the calm of death, helping her navigate her complicated legacy.

For Version 3 (Faolan), come up three possible versions, each including in one bullet point each 1) a friend or potential love interest who is an ordinary, mundane "level 0 peasant" human, 2) a rival or enemy who is a normal, mundane "level 0 peasant" human, 3) a "trinket" or interesting but not especially powerful magic item, 4) a hobby or interest, 5) a way that Faolan looks or presents himself. Not all of these should be about death and decay, those themes are already present in the character

Version 1:

Faolan shares a close bond with Evelina, a cheerful human gardener who has an incredible talent for making anything grow, reminding him of the vibrancy of life.
He constantly finds himself at odds with Eamon, a reckless lumberjack who seems oblivious to the harm he causes to the forest.
Faolan carries a "Locket of Remembrance," a small trinket that shows the wearer a brief glimpse of a cherished past memory when opened.
Fascinated by the cycle of life and death, Faolan enjoys painting; his works often depict the progression of the seasons.
Faolan usually appears with earth-toned clothing and often has specks of dirt under his nails, his green eyes mirror the depth of the forest, giving him a rugged, yet ethereal look.

Version 2:

Faolan finds solace in the company of Lila, a simple human baker, her warmth and the smell of fresh bread always pulling him towards the hearth and away from his thoughts of decay.
He's continually challenged by Brodrick, a stubborn human farmer who resents Faolan's attempts to teach the village about natural balance, seeing it as meddling in his work.
He possesses a "Talisman of the Dawn," a charm that allows him to conjure a tiny spark of sunlight, providing warmth and a small amount of light.
Faolan has a keen interest in poetry and often finds himself reciting verses about nature, life, and the passage of time to the rustling trees.
With his long, ash-blond hair often braided with twigs and leaves, and a style composed of worn, but comfortable clothing, Faolan has a humble appearance that blends with the woodland landscape.

Version 3:

Faolan has a complex friendship with Alis, a human seamstress whose vibrant and resilient spirit resonates with his desire to understand life's vibrancy beyond decay.
He holds a simmering grudge against Willem, a human miner whose ruthless extraction of the earth's resources shows a complete disregard for nature's balance.
Faolan carries a "Pebble of Echoes," a small stone that, when thrown, can mimic any sound it has heard before, creating brief, ghostly echoes.
Faolan has developed a fascination for cartography, often charting the changing landscape of the Dying Glades and its surroundings as a testament to nature's cycle.
Cloaked in hues of moss and bark, Faolan's attire reflects his environment. His deep-set eyes, a shade of amber, seem to carry an ancient wisdom, adding a sense of mystique to his otherwise youthful features.

None of this is going to win any awards, but I think I've got a more than workable background.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 13:36

Gynovore: Jun 17, 2009; Forget your RoboCoX or your StickyCoX or your EvilCoX, MY CoX has Blinking Bewbs!

WHY IS THIS GAME DEAD?!

Oligopsony posted:

IME best practices for using ChatGPT as a creative aid are (1) going for volume, then selecting down, (2) providing examples, and (3) specifying temperature. Most of these are in some way or another about getting the model past its first instinct, which is to go for the most obvious stuff you could create anyway. It's bad at evaluation, but good at just being a workhorse, so if you randomly generate then iterate on the best examples you're in business.

So you can just say "temperature=2"?

# ? Jul 4, 2023 14:12

Oligopsony: May 17, 2007

Doctor Zero posted:

Or at least they should loving read it. Holy poo poo.

I teach high school and last year was just an avalanche of this - machine-generated papers that had clearly not even been read.

Of course, they have the excuse that they�re forced to do it! Dunno what�s up with faking it in a leisure context.

Gynovore posted:

So you can just say "temperature=2"?

Yup. I�m not sure if it actually works as a temperature control per se as in Da Vinci but it will make the results less obvious. There is a tendency for it to interpret things as, like, �what a stereotypical hippie drug addict would say� at high temperatures, which might be evidence that it�s taking it as an instruction to play a creative and slightly messier character more so than a purely mathematical adjustment, but either way I find it useful.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 14:27

Doctor Zero: Sep 21, 2002; Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Oligopsony posted:

I teach high school and last year was just an avalanche of this - machine-generated papers that had clearly not even been read.

Of course, they have the excuse that they�re forced to do it! Dunno what�s up with faking it in a leisure context.

What do you do with those? Mark them F? Any pushback from parents?

# ? Jul 4, 2023 14:41

BrainDance: May 8, 2007; Disco all night long!

Doctor Zero posted:

What do you do with those? Mark them F? Any pushback from parents?

I had some students last semester that I'm almost certain were extensively using ChatGPT, you take a student who can barely speak or write English suddenly referencing classical literature fluently and you wonder.

But, for me at at least it's been hard because I take plagiarism seriously but I will never accuse someone of plagiarism without basically catching then red handed. I suspect all the AI checkers have a much higher false positive rate than they advertise.

I think that's going to be just as much of a problem in the coming year as students cheating with AI, false accusations. It's going to be a trainwreck, teachers dont all understand the technology and are going to be doing a lot of stuff that comes from that.

You had that professor accuse a whole class of cheating because he took their papers and literally asked ChatGPT "did you write this?", stuff like that.

That and even if the checkers didn't have false positives, they're also very easy to get around. One student, what I believe was going on, he was translating Chinese papers into English with ChatGPT and turning those in. Most machine translation will give you bad English, ChatGPT will give you fluent, good English. And it's not exactly reversible so how do you check? Or just ask the AI to write it in a different style.

What I've heard from other teachers, often you do catch them red handed even though you'd think it'd be easy for them to get away with it, because students are kinda stupid.

I do think some students in my classes might be more cautious, because the "I think this is AI generated is popping up a lot more often in other teacher's classes. And I think it's because everyone sorta knows I'm the teacher that does AI stuff and my students are at least smart enough to think " yeah I'm not gonna get away with it in Braindance's class.

I'm trying to change my classwork too to make using an AI just not practical. That's only going to work for certain subjects though.

I don't know about pushback from parents yet because we haven't had any big blowup of a student getting caught for cheating on something important yet.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 15:50

Oligopsony: May 17, 2007

For me, I was pretty generous:

1) Pull out students to ask if they can explain [thing I think they didn�t write.
2) If they can, great, and I�ll treat it as legitimate; if not, give them a chance to explain their process.
3) If they come clean, thank them for their honesty and see if we can troubleshoot what parts of the process are most aversive, so they can revise and do it right. If not, still insist that they�re going to need to revise it into something they can explain verbally if asked to do so.

At least currently, ChatGPT can�t really do citations (I mean, it can generate text in MLA style, but the examples are hallucinated) and writes in a very recognizable style. I expect both of those to change pretty quickly, though.

Next year I�m going to try to do more communication at the outset, as well as maybe taking a barbell approach (with some assignments being �use AI as much as you want, but the end product needs to be accurate and insightful and something you can explain in person� and more of the others being handwritten.)

(And oops, realize I�ve gotten us off-topic�)

# ? Jul 4, 2023 16:39

feedmyleg: Dec 25, 2004

BrainDance posted:

I'm trying to change my classwork too to make using an AI just not practical. That's only going to work for certain subjects though.

Give them a quiz on the papers they wrote. Everyone gets a custom 4 question quiz on the basics of what they wrote. Sure, it's a lot of effort, but it'll put fear into em for next time.

Also, why not do a unit on AI-Assisted Writing? If they're gonna do it, teach them how to do it well and how to revise using different pointed commands and how to ask for sources and check their veracity? It'll help them see that this isn't a "give command get paper" tool, but can also be a way of creating something much closer to an authored work.

Other teachers might hate you, though.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 17:08

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

feedmyleg posted:

Give them a quiz on the papers they wrote. Everyone gets a custom 4 question quiz on the basics of what they wrote. Sure, it's a lot of effort, but it'll put fear into em for next time.

Also, why not do a unit on AI-Assisted Writing? If they're gonna do it, teach them how to do it well and how to revise using different pointed commands and how to ask for sources and check their veracity? It'll help them see that this isn't a "give command get paper" tool, but can also be a way of creating something much closer to an authored work.

Other teachers might hate you, though.

'How to do AI assisted writing' is what the high school creative writing course I teach morphed into. We're still just making it up, but so far, it's improved my students' critical analysis of writing more than I could have imagined

# ? Jul 4, 2023 19:37

Oligopsony: May 17, 2007

Joesky tax: nobody�s creating maps with ML yet, are they? All the random generators I know of are still handcoded, and using art models for maps isn�t there yet. (If I had more time and technical expertise, maybe I could experiment with a LoRA, but maps are so dependent on compositional details and relationships that I suspect it would be a very steep climb even with an appropriate training corpus.)

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

'How to do AI assisted writing' is what the high school creative writing course I teach morphed into. We're still just making it up, but so far, it's improved my students' critical analysis of writing more than I could have imagined

Would love to hear more about this (whether here, PM, or a more appropriate thread) and what parts/exercises/framings have been most effective.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 19:46

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

Oligopsony posted:

Joesky tax: nobody�s creating maps with ML yet, are they? All the random generators I know of are still handcoded, and using art models for maps isn�t there yet. (If I had more time and technical expertise, maybe I could experiment with a LoRA, but maps are so dependent on compositional details and relationships that I suspect it would be a very steep climb even with an appropriate training corpus.)

Would love to hear more about this (whether here, PM, or a more appropriate thread) and what parts/exercises/framings have been most effective.

For the maps, midjourney kicks out really good battlemaps actually since v4.

Viking village, top down battlemap, detailed, intricate

For teaching, giving the students samples of AI written text, some uncut and then other samples edited by me, and seeing if they can pick apart the reasons one or the other worked better. Stuff like that. I have also written pieces to mimic ML text and slipped them in to set up a class vs.teacher on whether I'm sneakier or they're more perceptive. That really helped the group dynamic on working together against me and was also really fun for all of us.

Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Jul 4, 2023

# ? Jul 4, 2023 20:50

Kestral: Nov 24, 2000; Forum Veteran

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

For the maps, midjourney kicks out really good battlemaps actually since v4.

For teaching, giving the students samples of AI written text, some uncut and then other samples edited by me, and seeing if they can pick apart the reasons one or the other worked better. Stuff like that. I have also written pieces to mimic ML text and slipped them in to set up a class vs.teacher on whether I'm sneakier or they're more perceptive. That really helped the group dynamic on working together against me and was also really fun for all of us.

You are doing the lord�s work in that class, Humbug, hell yeah

On the Midjourney maps, any particular prompts necessary to get it to generate coherent battle maps, or is it as straightforward as �battle map for d&d 5th edition, lakeside village, densely forested� and go? And do you know how well it handles weirder map prompts, where you want something that isn�t a generic wilderness scene?

# ? Jul 4, 2023 20:55

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

Kestral posted:

You are doing the lord�s work in that class, Humbug, hell yeah

On the Midjourney maps, any particular prompts necessary to get it to generate coherent battle maps, or is it as straightforward as �battle map for d&d 5th edition, lakeside village, densely forested� and go? And do you know how well it handles weirder map prompts, where you want something that isn�t a generic wilderness scene?

I listed the prompt I used for that village

Here's your prompt (plus top down, intricate, detailed)

And here's an outpainted (zoomed out 2x) of one of those maps...

Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Jul 4, 2023

# ? Jul 4, 2023 21:03

Abhorrence: Feb 5, 2010; A love that crushes like a mace.

Oligopsony posted:

For me, I was pretty generous:

1) Pull out students to ask if they can explain [thing I think they didn’t write.
2) If they can, great, and I’ll treat it as legitimate; if not, give them a chance to explain their process.
3) If they come clean, thank them for their honesty and see if we can troubleshoot what parts of the process are most aversive, so they can revise and do it right. If not, still insist that they’re going to need to revise it into something they can explain verbally if asked to do so.

At least currently, ChatGPT can’t really do citations (I mean, it can generate text in MLA style, but the examples are hallucinated) and writes in a very recognizable style. I expect both of those to change pretty quickly, though.

Next year I’m going to try to do more communication at the outset, as well as maybe taking a barbell approach (with some assignments being “use AI as much as you want, but the end product needs to be accurate and insightful and something you can explain in person” and more of the others being handwritten.)

(And oops, realize I’ve gotten us off-topic…)

One thing I've heard of is to have students use ChatGPT to generate a report on topic, then have the student fact check chatGPT.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 21:06

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

I teach 11th and 12th-grade English specializing in Creative Writing; fact-checking gets tricky there. What I can teach is phrasing, pacing, mood, and tone. ML writing does not nail that yet, and the students by seeing what sounds clunky have been learning to spot it in their own work.

Bonus MJ cyberpunk battlemaps...
top down battle map, cyberpunk alley ,night time, intricate,detailed

# ? Jul 4, 2023 21:10

Abhorrence: Feb 5, 2010; A love that crushes like a mace.

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

I teach 11th and 12th-grade English specializing in Creative Writing; fact-checking gets tricky there. What I can teach is phrasing, pacing, mood, and tone. ML writing does not nail that yet, and the students by seeing what sounds clunky have been learning to spot it in their own work.

Oh yeah, the context I saw it in was a history teacher, where fact checking is more reasonable.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 21:15

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# ? May 2, 2024 01:07

feverish and oversexed: Mar 9, 2007; I LOVE the galley!

OpenAi removed the browsing plugin from plus users which I HEAVILY used.

All of my chats where I was using the browsing feature defaulted to 3.5 instead of 4 for whatever reason and boy am I salty about it lmao.

I have to restart all chats to have a better generator behind it and now I'm going to have to do summaries and poo poo and- restarts everything instead

# ? Jul 4, 2023 23:22

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > AI tools for traditional games

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