By Jason Campbell
Over the last few years we’ve heard a lot about Artificial Intelligence game masters – TTRPGs run not by a human, but by a computer program. The TTRPG largely claims they hate this idea, but let’s look at it closely.
AI Game Masters – We Hate That!
If you’ve played TTRPGs for a long time, you likely look at the relationship between (human) game masters and players as core to these games. Video RPGs are great, but they’re different, playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu are purely the provenance of conversations between humans. If you’re newer to TTRPGs you’re probably used to computers involved in Virtual Tabletops and Character Creation , but you’re likely still used to game sessions consisting of conversations and dice rolls. These reasons usually lead players (and certainly GMs) to dislike the idea of AIs running TTRPGs. But, wait…
The Biggest Problem With TTRPGs
So, what’s the commonly agreed on biggest issue with keeping TTRPG groups together? It’s not too controversial to say that the biggest issue is scheduling. How do you find a time and day that works for everyone, and in the case of long form campaigns, will work for everyone consistently? There are suggestions given, but no complete solution, as humans all live their own lives apart from their gaming hobbies.
Conclusion
If the biggest complication in playing TTRPGs as often as you like is scheduling, then it would seem that an AI game master who’s available any time might be the perfect answer. Sure you lose the emotions and perhaps creative improvisation, but those aren’t the biggest issue, right? The biggest issue is scheduling. As Stephen Wright said, “You can’t have everything – where would you put it?”
Please note that I’m a forever GM, and I am in no way advocating for TTRPGs leaning into computer run games. I’m curious how players in the future will feel about this? Let us know in the comments!
About The Author
The thought of an AI GM is intriguing, but I don’t think the tech is there…. Yet. There needs to be a toolkit that lets you take an adventure and plug it into the ai, along with rules and some set of hm instruction and then we will be there. Will it ever replace a human? No. But an intriguing concept.