ChatGPT has been a lifeline for me as a GM with little spare time to prep and far too grand ambitions for the scale and scope of (D&D) campaign I want to run. I’m curious how other GMs have found ChatGPT and similar AI tools useful or helpful in running their own games. I’ll share my own workflow below as a comment, and I hope others find it useful. I’m especially interested in any ChatGPT prompts you have found worthwhile, and you can see some of my own prompts in the examples I’ll share shortly.
So, far and away the greatest utility I have found for ChatGPT is in two areas:
- Brainstorming ideas like a random generator or book of tables. ChatGPT can be especially helpful with brainstorming ideas if your campaign doesn’t fit neatly into traditional genres or stories typically featured in role-playing games.
- Brainstorming how to tie up loose plot threads. This is beyond the ability of most traditional tools or aids to help with, and it’s a godsend if (like me) you often lay down clues long before you’ve fully worked out all the details of the mystery.
General Brainstorming
ChatGPT is pretty good at just coming up with ideas for your campaign in general. I’m talking about stuff like adventure ideas, encounter ideas, descriptive details of rooms, etc. It’s not great, though, and its output can feel pretty generic compared to material like Raging Swan Press which has entire books full of wonderfully evocative tables great for filling environments and dungeons with detail. There’s also stuff like this Random Adventure Generator by @slyfourish@ttrpg.network or this other Random Adventure Generator by donjon which are both probably just as good or better than ChatGPT in general at brainstorming adventure ideas.
Where ChatGPT shines however is that you can give it basically arbitrary thematic or fictional constraints and tell it to generate ideas within that context. ChatGPT is mediocre at generic D&D or traditional fantasy, but my campaign isn’t a typical D&D campaign world, and as a result ChatGPT is basically the only random generator that can reliably generate ideas that are actually useful for my campaign. In essence, ChatGPT is a random generator I can tailor to my campaign world.
Here’s an example below of how I might use ChatGPT for this. In practice, I often like to “prime” it with details of the major characters of my campaign as well. It’s not brilliant, and you can see in many places it’s effectively repeating back themes or ideas that I gave it in the first place, but it’s nonetheless incredibly useful compared to the kind of stuff I tend to get back from other random generators that focus on generic fantasy content.
My biggest challenge with this kind of usage of ChatGPT is that it tends towards sounding like a back-of-the-book summary of a plot, often generalizing or otherwise glossing over the specific details that I’m precisely interested in. The first response to my prompt in the example is a great demonstration of this, which is why you’ll see I have to follow up by prompting it for specifics about the McGuffins and the cast of characters. If anyone has ideas for prompts that can avoid this tendency to summarize without making it write novels of text, I’m all ears.
Tying Up Plot Threads
ChatGPT can be really helpful with brainstorming not just general ideas but specific plot points for your adventures and campaigns. I don’t know how to explain this well outside of sharing another example but the gist is that you give ChatGPT a lot of detail about your campaign and its themes, characters, world, and setting, and then explain how there’s a “gap” in the story somewhere and ask it to brainstorm how to fill it. In my example here, the “gap” is that I’m missing a clue to deliver some critical information, but I’ve also used it successfully for other things like:
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“Why or how would character ABC be connected to mysterious phenomena XYZ?”
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“Which of these characters could have summoned the monster, and why?”
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“What is the nefarious scheme this character is planning (which I hinted at in a prior session)?”
I’ve used it to run a campaign in single player.
Using Janitor AI, I setup a multi-personality AI using its D&D and games training presets and then fed it the SRD for 3.5 as well as all the stuff I wrote for my campaign and was able to play a game as a player all by myself because the AI handled being a DM and 3 other players.
It worked out pretty good. It didn’t always understand the rules which lead to arguments… Just like it would with real people! 😃
As a fellow GM juggling the chaos of life and the chaos of campaigns, I can totally relate! ChatGPT has been my go-to wingman, helping me flesh out NPCs, dream up plot twists, and even improvise on the fly when my players throw me a curveball. I am currently using chatgptdeutschkostenlos.de. It’s like having a trusty co-GM who never needs sleep or snacks. Can’t wait to swap stories and tips with other GMs in the community!
I often use GPT chat to refer to how to play games and it is very effective. It must be said that GPT chat is now trusted by many people. In addition to learning how to play, I also use it to create my own imagenes de buenas noches gratis website.
@buenasnocheshd must it be said? What does it mean to say that?
Please tell me how to make this AI Images, I’m currently developing a website about immagini buongiorno nuove 2024 and struggling with these image stuff
I don’t use ChatGPT and don’t plan to. For me, part of the fun of running games is being creative and doing the work of coming up with stuff myself. I don’t have as much of an issue with ChatGPT as with machine generated images, so that’s not why I avoid it. I just think the creative work is part of the experience, and us humans can also do that far better than a computer program. ChatGPT can’t easily draw on campaign-specific themes and symbolism, can’t foreshadow the greater mysteries going on. I mean, it likely can if specifically prompted to, but then you’re still doing most of the work myself.
And if I want to randomly generate something… Well, we’re all into TTRPG’s; that’s what dice are for. (Or tarot decks. I have too many of those. They’re just so pretty and I keep hoarding them.)
I think this is an entirely valid perspective. Some people are just overflowing with ideas and the use of ChatGPT (or any kind of aid in inspiration, such as random tables) seems redundant. Just for a point of comparison, my own experience is a combination of (a) I simply enjoy creating some kinds of content more than others, and (b) I don’t have enough spare time to personally author all of the content I want for my campaign. With my limited time, I want to focus on authoring the stuff that I enjoy creating and/or the stuff that’s going to have the biggest impact. As an example, I’m happy to delegate descriptions of rooms to books of tables or ChatGPT if it means I can focus instead on the lore of the dungeon as a whole or the background & motivations for its overarching villain.
I think this is a good and creative idea to use ChatGPT to support the work of the Game Master (GM) in games like D&D. ChatGPT’s strength is that it can automatically create content and core details. story quickly based on the GM’s input requirements. This saves preparation time for the GM. However, I also agree with the author that the GM still needs to monitor the output quality of ChatGPT, adding its own details to create its own style and feel. for your game.
The personalization in sharing the author’s own work style helps create a feeling of authenticity and intimacy. This also opens the door for readers to share their opinions, experiences, and even suggestions on how to optimize the use of ChatGPT in a GMing environment.
ChatGPT puede ayudar a los DJ a ahorrar tiempo preparando rápidamente la trama, los NPC y los detalles necesarios para el juego. Sin embargo, GM todavía necesita supervisión y edición para garantizar la calidad y adaptarse a su propio estilo.
The rapid development of AI like ChatGPT is remarkable. Big technology companies are pouring huge capital into this field. This will have a strong impact on many industries, including the publishing industry.
Meestal gebruik ik ChatGPT om te studeren en te werken. Ik gebruik vaak opdrachten om er informatie aan te geven en het te dwingen te schrijven en te werken zoals ik dat wil
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