AI tools for traditional games

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

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

Doctor Zero posted:

Even with all that it�s still a very useful assistant. But it�s not able completely GM anything, at least not yet.

On this topic, one little niche I found it does very well with is little bits like this:

In D&D 5e, what would be a reasonable DC number and applicable skill for [thing a player wants to attempt]?
In D&D 5e, the players approach a scholar named Vril to learn more about how to break a curse. Vril is a curt man who values getting a job done as quickly as possible for maximum reward. Here is how Vril responds to the players, and what he is thinking:

Basically an assistant that needs no appreciable amount of time to think.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2023 21:15

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 08:04

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

I also thought that these tools would be great to narrate something like Ironsworn, but for me it was just an idea -- I'm glad to hear you tried it out and got good results!

# ¿ Jun 19, 2023 19:45

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

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

Dang, those look super cool. Not just in a "great detail and lighting" sort of way but nice and consistent composition.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2023 23:32

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

That's cool, and I really mean those look good :buddy:

There's no little off elements or anything that I can tell, either. Nice job!

# ¿ Jul 12, 2023 04:20

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

Megazver posted:

It's gonna be V20, not V5. Hopefully I've play some of that one as well, eventually.

Initial prompt was "smiling punk latina vampire, clipart, pop art, flat shaded, clean and sharp inking, high contrast chiaroscuro portraits, black palette"

Hot dang, thanks so much for sharing the prompt details. Some of those terms (especially "flat shaded, clean and sharp inking, high contrast chiaroscuro portraits") look like they might be relevant to a project I'm working on, making images that I ultimately draw out using a plotter. Which is something that works much better with vector art, to which this kind of style is suited.

Anyway, this gives me some new thoughts, thanks!

# ¿ Jul 14, 2023 20:22

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

Raenir Salazar posted:

It takes experience to know what sort of references, what sort of description, and how to layout them in such a way to get what you want. It takes a huge time investment of finding and downloading loads of references to figure out how to convey the kind of composite you want the artist to interpret. This whole process to do correctly and reliably sounds a lot like using the ai doesn't it?

I think you've hit the nail on the head in more ways than one. For example, the three-page nonsense low-effort "backstory" mentioned earlier in the thread in a way is in many ways the_problem_with_ai.txt but the thing is that it probably also could be a perfectly fine little backstory with just a better prompt.

Like if I ask GPT-3.5 the following:

quote:

Please write a brief backstory for a D&D 5e character named "Perdin" who is a human druid. Include a past (hermit), choose some sort of conflict or change, which brings Perdin to the city in search of fellow adventurers.

Providing the AI with a basic (basic!) structure goes a very long way to getting better results. I won't quote the entire response in full (it's not super long tho) but here's the main bits:

quote:

Perdin's idyllic existence took a sudden turn when a dark force began to encroach upon his beloved forest [...] Perdin, horrified by the destruction, sought to uncover the source of this corruption and put an end to it.

[...]

During his self-imposed exile, Perdin discovered that the blight plaguing the forest was the result of a malevolent sorcerer [...] Perdin vowed to confront this dark sorcerer and put an end to their destructive ambitions.

Realizing that he could not defeat this powerful foe alone, Perdin made the difficult decision to leave the sanctuary of the forest and seek out fellow adventurers in a nearby city. He believed that a diverse group of individuals, each possessing unique skills and abilities, would be his best chance of success in the face of such evil.

This is a perfectly serviceable backstory IMO.

The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Jul 14, 2023

# ¿ Jul 14, 2023 20:39

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

Doctor Zero posted:

I hesitate to put this in the Solo RPG thread, but I was playing with Claude and it's much better at admitting when it doesn't know something, although not perfect. When it does make up something, it's pretty true to the source material. If you've been disappointed with Chat-GPT for gaming, maybe try it.

(Note, there are lots of references to the Crusaders, but it's clearly not familiar with the contents of an obscure 40 year old RPG. Can't fault it.)

But I asked it about Ironsworn and it understood most of the basics, but it clearly didn't know the book text of the world Truths. HOWEVER what it did generate was loving rad and would fit perfectly in the setting.

Thanks for sharing these, I haven't used Claude at all and these results are pretty intriguing!

# ¿ Jul 20, 2023 19:35

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

Raenir Salazar posted:

If anyone has written any neat write ups or more specific guides, if you can make a link to the post I can add it to the Guides section. I'll wait a couple of days and then DM Leper for guidance on whether they should post it, or if I could, or if someone else wants to etc.

Looks great but I noticed the VN Style Cutscenes! section is missing its images.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2023 03:18

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

poo poo, that hits the Dark Sun aesthetic beautifully.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2023 21:10

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

Megaman's Jockstrap posted:

Use SDXL to make unsettling crime scene photos for your favorite 1930s Lovecraftian game. Makes a great landing page.

Oh hey that's pretty neat.

Also I just wanted to share this

# ¿ Aug 1, 2023 00:07

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

Kestral posted:

Also stumbled across this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckyhwy0Aui4

Lovely comparison of a ton of artists' styles as recognized by SDXL. For someone like me who has an idea of what they want something to look like, but often struggles with describing it in a way the model will understand, this is a phenomenal reference.

Here's a big visual one (not a video) sort of along similar lines: https://rikkar69.github.io/SDXL-artist-study/

Got that tip from the AI Art Weekly newsletter (which is a wonderful resource in itself)

# ¿ Aug 7, 2023 00:14

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 08:04

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

Goddam, that's a cool tool! Here's one I made. A little clunky, but incredible to think I provided a basic prompt (and a source image, of course) and blammo.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2023 08:12

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