11/13/2023 0 Comments Myst books dungeons and dragons![]() Similarly, game shops shouldn’t plan on welcoming their new chatbot overlords anytime soon. Ultimately, ChatDM’s performance, and its struggle to maintain a consistent story, should assuage any fears human DMs may have about AI taking their place at the D&D table. ![]() Of course, that faster-paced, minimalist action, more like a novel or movie than a step-by-step battle simulation of play, might appeal to those intimidated by the game’s granular minutiae. It also tended to summarize how the melee played out, omitting any exciting attacks, spells, multiple dice rolls, or saving throws. As for Challenger Number 3, the burly half-orc swings his axe at Pelthor and misses, leaving an opening for the group to act. And you never told us whether the burly half-orc Challenger Number 3 actually hit.ĬhatDM: My apologies for the confusion. Players: Wait, we were supposed to go after Challenger Number 3. Only through interaction-with us, the players-was it able to focus on moving the story forward in smaller, iterative chunks punctuated by decision points or actions. A pattern of play began to form: ChatDM would quickly sketch too much of a story we’d ask for intervening steps or additional information and it would happily oblige, backing up and filling in details. Additional details emerged from the blurry generic shapes. When urged to name the city, ChatDM offered: “The name of the city could be something like ‘Zarekath,’ which sounds suitably ancient and evokes a sense of mystery and intrigue.” ChatDM understood that a place-name’s faux-exotic mouthfeel was all part of the game. (One way to know ChatGPT isn’t human: It takes feedback so easily.) We prodded for a more specific location, and ChatDM cheerily complied: “Sure! How about I describe a ruined city that could serve as a setting for your adventure?” Better. Unlike the insular world of the Omegaverse, finding a space between innovating and remaining true to the form can be tricky in D&D. Drawing from narrow ideas of gender, race, geography, and culture, ChatDM’s taste for fantasy was often a bland amalgam of fantasy scenarios harvested from decades of D&D lore and Tolkienesque tropes sown across the internet, chewed, processed and re-extruded for our consumption. “In this world, magic is real” and there are “powerful wizards and sorcerers” “humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings” “dragons, trolls, and giants” “sprawling forests, rugged mountains, vast deserts” and also “sprawling cities, bustling towns …” Yawn. Unfortunately, Fantasy World 1.0 was no fresh take on the genre rather, it came off as generic. In moments, it churned out broad plot lines, adventure settings, and an entire mystical land for us, complete with place-names, lore, and backstory. Then, knowing you can trick ChatGPT into writing porn or teaching you to build a bomb by asking sideways, we shifted tactics: “We would like you to first describe a fantasy world where our adventure will take place.” Bingo.ĬhatDM immediately showed talent for verbosity. The experiment began quite simply: We popped open a few cans of Mountain Dew, put some Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult on the turntable, grabbed our bags of polyhedral dice, and asked ChatGPT, essentially, “Shall we play a game?” Initially, ChatDM was reluctant to play: “I’m not capable of serving as a Dungeon Master for a game of Dungeons and Dragons.” Much like convincing your older sister to run a game back in the day, the bot required some coaxing at first. The Writers Guild of America strike was called partly in reaction to fears about AI replacing human creativity in the realm of storytelling, but could AI also be coming for dungeon masters’ jobs? ChatD&D was a chance to find out. What was unclear, though, was whether a computer could match a human’s capacity for the harder work of gaming: being innovative, adapting to unexpected situations, and actually interacting with players. ![]() It also seemed to offer a limitless gaming experience. ChatD&D was an attempt to see if computer-driven, role-playing experiences had improved since the days of classic text-based games like Zork and Colossal Cave Adventure, which merely guided players through pre-generated scripts.Ĭonsidering that AI is already being tested in creative realms-generating perfunctory tourist itineraries and podcasts, writing college essays and novellas, and rendering images in a range of styles-christening a ChatDM felt like the next logical step. Some context: We are two Gen-X gamers who’ve been playing D&D since the Jimmy Carter Administration. ![]() We’ve asked ChatGPT to play what we’re calling “ChatD&D.” Our particular DM has never played D&D, and it’s not even human. We are not adventurers, but plain boring humans, playing a tabletop game in our mundane, non-magical universe. Sadly, having to dictate a metafictional correction dispels the illusion. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |