#TTRPG – Rapid Prototyping – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (AI)

I have continued to wrestle with the implications of AI in my industry (tabletop RPG design) given that AI both threatens art and writing. The technology may not quite be there yet, but with every iteration and update the software gets better at hands and better at checking its own work.

I don’t want artists to be made redundant.

I don’t want my work as a writer and designer to become redundant.

I want to continue to employ artists and writers as well.

Things are further complicated by the various stances of companies such as Paizo, DrivethruRPG and others. There’s a great deal of hostility on both sides of the argument, between the Cult of the Machine on the one hand and the neo-Luddites on the other.

Ultimately, in a business with margins as narrow as the TTRPG industry, AI is always going to be a temptation. I have zero reservations about using AI to produce YouTube thumbnails and other, similar ephemera like live stream backgrounds or blog art, but when it comes to illustrating books things become a bit more complicated.

Other small press companies are using AI to great effect. Before The Red Room were shitcanned by DTRPG they used a mix of art, often a lot of it AI, which enabled them to rapidly produce material and to earn a great deal of money compared to other small companies (according to the public details). In no small part they were able (and are able to) produce content at such a rapid pace because they don’t have to necessarily wait for art. Other small publishers have followed suit.

If I am to compete (in the general rather than the specific sense) I have to follow that path, to at least some extent. If I can turn out product more swiftly and at reduced costs, I can make more money, and more profit, and invest that profit into the products I have a lot of faith in.

Yet I don’t want to go all the way that way either.

So I’ve decided to double-down on the ‘Radical Centrism’ on this topic. I’ll use AI where it makes sense to do so – filler pieces of art, rounding out what I have to add richness and quality to work. I’ll also use AI on projects where I think there’s less potential popularity, less potential profit and where I might not have otherwise been able to make the project viable. These projects, tester projects, will be tagged or in sections called ‘Rapid Prototype’/ If those projects become sufficiently popular, I’ll then return to them and give them the full, proper treatment in a proper edition.

Main works will still be predominantly human-driven.

We’re all struggling with this and figuring out where we want to be with it all, how to integrate it without undermining human creativity. Hopefully this is a step on that path.

#TTRPG #Cy_Borg – Cyb.ORG.URL.IG RELEASED! Corporate Characters and Missions

GET IT HERE

Cyber: Involving, using, or relating to computers, especially the internet.
Cyborg: In science fiction stories, a creature that is part human and part machine.
URL: Uniform Resource Locators, a website address.
Borgerlig: The Swedish term for the bourgeois, the middle class.
Bourgeois: Belonging to or characteristic of the middle class, typically concerning its perceived materialistic values or conventional moral attitudes.

This book is a cluster of ideas and inspirations for playing a (forbidden) corporate focussed game or campaign of Cy_Borg by Stockholm Kartel. Here you will find corporate character classes, character generation alternatives, a modified mission generator, and other odds and sods.

The Blodrak Corporation knows that reality is a simulation and has injected operatives into the simulation. They’re trying to find a way to save the world (the world is where they keep all their money, after all) by running a repeat simulation at many times normal speed. The trouble is that the simulated populace, government, corporations and cyberpunk keep fucking it up.

You’re there to try new things, troubleshoot and guide the simulation to an eventual positive outcome.

And no, you only get paid per hour that takes place in reality.

If reality is even reality…

This is a RAPID PROTOTYPE made using AI input and art, albeit with human oversight and touch-up. If it proves popular enough, it will be expanded, and more human art and creativity will go into a larger edition.

GET IT HERE

The Wiki-War Continues

Contacted by an upset fan who is trying to keep my Wiki page up, accurate and up to date.

Seems there’s some fuss over my image.

The following photo is of me and by Michelle Quinton. If you need a photo of me for promotional purposes, author photos or similar, you are welcome to use it. Both myself (as the ‘model’) and Michelle release it for such usage.

#TTRPG #DnD – EroTech & DoomArt Released on Drivethrurpg

Following recent talks with DTRPG and assurances, I have made the EroTech gazetteers available for sale there.

You can also find stock art by Designs of Doom, a collection of hapless goblins and their evil overlord.

There’s a new section on the Drivethru page for each, DoomArt and TableTopless.

Check them out HERE.

#TTRPG – Erotech Gazetteer 5 and Another Chunk of Red Room Products at Post-Mort.com

The fifth Erotech Gazetteer, devoted to the adventures of the Tabletopless.org crew in the southern reaches of the world of Kanotag, plus some rules for ‘instant’ NPCs, Dwarves in the world of Erotech and a good few monsters.

GET IT HERE

More The Red Room books have been added to the store.

#DnD – Messing Around with AI to Create Stupid D&D Monsters: The Allama

Allama

Medium beast, unaligned

Armor Class 11
Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4)
Speed 40 ft.

STR 14 (+2) DEX 10 (+0) CON 12 (+1) INT 2 (-4) WIS 11 (+0) CHA 5 (-3)

Skills Perception +2
Senses passive Perception 12
Languages –
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Scream. When the Allama spots an intruder, it can let out a loud scream that can be heard up to 300 feet away. Any creatures within 60 feet of the Allama when it screams must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the end of their next turn.

Sure-Footed. The Allama has advantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws made against effects that would knock it prone.

Actions

Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) bludgeoning damage (1/10 Allamas have horns doing 1d10+2 piercing damage).

Spit. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, range 10/30 ft., one target. Hit: 1 bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be blinded until the end of their next turn.

Appearance

Allamas are large, woolly beasts resembling llamas with sturdy builds and shaggy coats. They have keen eyesight and a loud voice, making them ideal guardians for herds or homesteads. When an Allama spots an intruder, it will let out a loud scream that can be heard for miles around.

#TTRPG – The Red Room being added to Post-Mort.com

Given the removal of The Red Room from Drivethru, every little helps, so I am in the process of adding their products to my personal sales site Post-Mort.com

The best place to support them is still to get it from Big Geek Emporium, but whichever way you choose to support them in these difficult times is appreciated.

I helped The Red Room get their start, which I’m proud of. I like helping new people get into publishing and helping them get to market, so given our history this move only makes sense – even though it’s more paperwork for me.

You can find their products HERE

I’m the Subject of a Wikipedia Edit War

There’s an edit war going on at my Wikipedia page, which seems to have escalated from someone simply trying to update my basic biographical information and photo (and having that maliciously rolled back), to accusations of war crimes and cannibalism that are being treated with more seriousness and discussion than my basic biographical information.

Fucking lol.

For the record, I was born on the 5th of December 1975, in Winchester in the United Kingdom.

I am also a videographer and podcaster, as well as an author and game designer.

You should probably mention my work with Tabletopless, and the use of my work in the Airplay documentary.

You should probably treat the accusations of ‘misogny’ etc with the same gravitas and seriousness you treat the accusations of war crimes and baby eating.

#TTRPG #RPG – Wightchester Support Material RELEASED!

You can purchase it HERE

Filthy assistant, William Baldwin, went above and beyond and produced a bunch of layouts for various buildings within Wightchester. However, there was not room to include them in the final product. You can find them here, along with (for your convenience) the two introductory adventures, Nox Comitae and Prima Noctae, as well as a large-scale image of the layout of the city.

I was going to charge PWYW for this, but the Shopify store doesn’t support that option, so – in need of money – there is a small charge, even though you can get the adventures and the map from this blog for free if you don’t want the layouts.

Enjoy!

#TTPRG – The Red Room has been censored off DrivethruRPG

My letter of protest…

Dear Sir,

With great distress, I note the removal of The Red Room from your online store (DrivethruRPG). While I certainly acknowledge that there has been a degree of deliberate ‘nipple tweaking’ by The Red Room in their marketing and positioning, this outcome is precisely what I was concerned would happen when you changed your policies regarding controversial content and ‘hostile marketing’.

Put as succinctly as possible. I was concerned that your policy changes would result in the following:

1. Malicious reporting of products (even by people who had never bought or read the product in question).
2. The inability of publishers to protest poor decisions or to mobilise their fanbase to counter those decisions.
3. Increased censorship, whether self-censorship or otherwise.

Every one of those concerns has now been borne out.

We have a product maliciously reported by someone who didn’t even purchase or read it, subject to the censor’s eye – despite adult labelling – resulting in the loss of a publisher from a site that is a near monopoly in the space.

Your policy of taking products down to be cleared impacts release profit, doing damage whether or not a product is deemed ‘safe’ or not. This policy is wide open for malicious and abusive reporting.

Your refusal to allow publishers to protest publicly, or to face their accuser, undermines confidence, increases self-censorship and removes certainty from what is already a very precarious profession. It further exacerbates the malicious reporting issue.

We work in a field that has known the ire of more than one moral panic. We should know better than to indulge the moral entrepreneurs of such hysterias, even if they come from inside the industry.

Your job is that of a middleman, to sell products by publishers to customers. Your job is not that of a censor or moral busybody. Provided that a product is not illegal, I see no reason why you should not sell it. To censor such a product is an abuse of your monopolistic position and, more broadly, a betrayal of the values of the hobby and the arts.

It is especially disappointing following the industry-wide rejection of Wizard’s new OGL and its morality clause, which you are de facto enforcing on everyone’s games unbidden.

For those disturbed by such material (adult material, horror material, or anything else), the best option remains not to buy something if they don’t like it.

It is as though we invited Pat Pulling into the industry to act as a watchdog rather than mocking, deriding and countering her ridiculous claims.

Unfortunately, given your degree of monopolistic power in the industry, my protest is limited to this letter. As a disabled creator with an uncertain income, I am forced to prioritise that income over my principles, at least in this case. Still, as a producer of somewhat ‘edgy’ content, I’d like to know if you’re going to pull the rug out from under my feet on the arbitrary say-so of some crank with more time than sense.

Still, I appeal to you to return to the free expression values we were all assured of when we originally signed up for the sake of art and concerning your powerful position in the hobby.

There is one other matter that needs addressing. Before Miguel and Silvia set up on their own, 

The Red Room was published through me on the site. Given that their earlier work has not been subjected to such a witch hunt, I trust those older projects released via Postmortem Studios will not be affected. Would you regard the future release of (compliant) products by them via me as ‘ban evasion’ or some such?

I will be releasing this letter publicly in support of Miguel and Silvia but unattached to any marketing. My anti-censorship and pro-free expression stance is already a matter of public record since before I even started working in the industry (even for people I violently disagree with), so it cannot realistically be called ‘hostile marketing’.

Sincerely,

James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Postmortem Studios