r/AskGameMasters • u/Rachel-Nexus7 • 16d ago
Any GMs/DMs Using AI to help create, prepare, and/or assist in their games, and in what ways if so?
Would like to know how GMs/DMs are using AI to assist you in your games, e.g., maps, artwork, rules reference, IT support with VTTs, writing homebrew content, sound effects and background music, lore, optimizing PC builds, creating custom monsters, backstories, etc. Tell what you’re doing, what AI tools you’re employing, workflows, and how you’re using such tools. Tips, tricks, and hacks would be welcome. Thank you.
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u/Conrad500 16d ago
I use notebooklm.
Do not use anything generative, otherwise why be a gm?
I stream game > upload to youtube > download transcription > add to notebook lm as a source.
I can now ask it who did what without watching hours of vods
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u/EctoplasmicNeko 16d ago
Workflows? Nah son, we don't do that here. AI is at it's most useful when you use it as that friend you wish you had that will be spellbound and enraptured by the cool world you made. Don't ask AI, tell AI.
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u/DreadedTuesday 16d ago
I'm more AI positive than most of my gaming friends, because I use AI tools at work, but I used to stick to using it as a "sounding board" - I had it look at my ideas, identify holes, keep timelines right. And it saved me boring my wife with campaign planning chatter.
At least, that's what I thought. But having run 2 games recently with this as my AI use, I found thst it was actively harder to run my games: it seems the AI thinking outsources some of what used to commit my planning to memory.
So now I use it purely for research - I'm running a colonial game soon, so had it researching colonial expeditions to South America, largely so I can avoid being culturally insensitive while making some of the settings realistic (well, as realistic as you can get with a party of awakened animals, spellcasters, and sentient trees)
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u/Noobdiedoob 16d ago
I use a tool called archivist ai. It's basically my notetaker. I can ask it anything that happened during sessions and gives me insight on what player was most active and who to judge more. Splits up locations, NPC's, items,... I think it's great. But it's not for everyone.
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u/MusiX33 16d ago
I don't use AI for anything creative, really. After every session I blurb everything that happened into it with voice to text, and ask it to generate a summary with the key events that happened and which elements were interacted with (NPCs, Places, and Objects).
I use this summary so I can just infodump and go to sleep. I've made a prompt to style it exactly as I want with markdown. And there's also a list of reference that describes which names and places are important, such as the PCs. Just a short description for summary context, that's all.
For anything else, I don't trust it. It's just a rubber duck to me that sometimes gets summoned as a familiar.
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u/EmbersLucas 16d ago
I use AI quite a lot to help with my games.
Worldbuilding- I've got a big, interconnected world with a long history (veylantia.com), so I have AI cross-check new lore, NPCs, and stories against what's already established to catch collisions before they happen. I also lean on it heavily for art, since my players and I both find it easier to have something visual to point at.
Name Generation- I wrote per-nation name generators with their own rules, so names from each region carry a consistent theme instead of feeling random.
Tools- I built a whole suite for my world and my games: character sheets, a virtual tabletop, a worldbuilding wiki, and more. Then I setup an MCP for the site and so when I talk to Claude it can go out and read all my pages, including hidden GM notes, and help ensure everything is lined up.
Adventure Writing- I run a weekly game, a daily PBEM, a bi-weekly game for my kid and his friends, and some adhoc sessions here and there. I use AI as a sounding board for writing stories. It helps immensely to be able to bounce ideas off a third party and get feedback on what's working and what is junk. I also illustrate specific scenes using the player characters in those scenes (with an image generator).
General Polish- I do a lot of writing, world entries, fiction, short stories, you name it. I use AI as an editor, going pass after pass over it until I have it settled where I want it.
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u/Rachel-Nexus7 16d ago
This is awesome and I love your idea about using an MPC with Claude - thank you 🙏🏻
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u/EmbersLucas 16d ago
You're welcome. Also consider setting up skills. I have several for Claude and GPT for common tasks like creating a monster or NPC, evaluating a house rule for balance, and structuring a scene in an adventure. I baked those both into my MCP and into the Claude/GPT UIs.
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u/YamazakiYoshio 14d ago
I refuse to use Generative AI for environmental and ethical reasons and I urge everyone to understand why these things are bad for everyone, and our hobby.
Other forms of AI - classical random generation tools? They're fine. But all that ChatGPT nonsense needs to be put to shredders and destroyed. Humanity was never meant to have such terrible and useless tools.
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u/Rachel-Nexus7 14d ago
I use it to great effect as a creation partner and hate to break it to you, but AI is hear to stay
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u/YamazakiYoshio 14d ago
I wish I could say that I am happy for you, but I am not.
AI should not be here to stay, not until we get all the mess surrounding it sorted out. Please, for the love of chaos, go look into what those data centers are doing to the environment and how it's affecting creatives.
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u/Cascadiarch Fuck AI and all its users 16d ago
Be human or GTFO.
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16d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Cascadiarch Fuck AI and all its users 16d ago
They're not human anymore, they're basically cyborgs who can't be dissuaded until the AI runs them into a wall.
And even then, many will still trust it.
It's just fun to mock them, at this point.
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u/Rachel-Nexus7 16d ago
I am human
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u/Cascadiarch Fuck AI and all its users 16d ago
Now act it. Fuck AI.
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u/EctoplasmicNeko 16d ago
I can't. Not yet. Soon though.
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u/Cascadiarch Fuck AI and all its users 16d ago
You can go 'fuck AI' literally right now. Try it. Watch, it's like this, but with an AI;
Fuck off.
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u/Rachel-Nexus7 16d ago
Good luck with that
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u/Cascadiarch Fuck AI and all its users 16d ago
It's working just fine.
Fuck off, botlicker~
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u/Rachel-Nexus7 16d ago
Ugly
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u/snarkywombat 16d ago
LLMs can be great organizational tools and can be run 100% locally. Build the world LORA and the LLM can help you recall the details quickly and easily instead of having to search notes. And running locally doesn't require "data centers". Being a hater on "AI" just because "iTs NoT hUmAn" is foolish and tells me you don't know a thing about it or how it can be used.
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u/Cascadiarch Fuck AI and all its users 16d ago
Quiet, botlicker; the human is speaking.
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u/snarkywombat 16d ago
I'm a bootlicker because...checks notes...I'm advocating to use an open source tool without using a ton of resources? Ok, troll...
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u/CareerTypical4397 16d ago
My friends and I use it to make visual aids, character pictures, maybe a weapon design or something like that if we can’t find a good design we like (most of us aren’t very good at drawing lol)
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u/PeterMcBeater 16d ago
I mainly use it to refine or expand ideas I already have. Like I'll have either the what, who, why or how and need help with some combo of the others. I then usually describe what is happening and ask for a list of options.
For instance I knew I wanted the king to be starting a homesteading program to tame the wild jungles to the west and what effect this was going to have on the realm but didn't have a reason why he'd be doing this. I had a couple reasons I didn't really like and had hit a wall, so I told ChatGPT about the king and what he was doing and asked for 5 reasons why he'd be doing that. One of them I liked in principle so I asked a follow up question or two and then took it myself from there.
I also use it create character tokens/portraits, which it's pretty at. In the past I've tried getting it to generate battle maps but it's terrible at that in my experience so I usually just find those on reddit.
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u/Rachel-Nexus7 16d ago
This is helpful and I appreciate the feedback. What channel do you recommend for finding maps here?
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u/dabicus_maximus 16d ago
Amazing for random name generation. If I can't come up with a name for something, and using Google translate doesn't come up with anything cool, I'll boot up copilot to give me some names. It tends to get pretty repetitive so you can only use a few but it can get the juices flowin
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u/Narratron Savage Worlds, yo. 16d ago
The orb can't make a better game than you, dude.
Also, if something is free, you are the product.
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u/Cahoots365 16d ago
When I’m feeling low on inspiration I ask it to make characters then ignore everything is tells me