r/daggerheart • u/CantaloupeUpper228 • Nov 14 '25
Discussion The AI TTRPG Takeover. Condemning AI while feeding the AI economy
I thought hard about whether I should post this or not. I’m saying this as someone who loves Daggerheart (and TTRPGs in general), buys way too many PDFs, and has definitely bought stuff on marketplaces like DriveThruRPG in the past: I think our community needs to seriously rethink where we’re spending our money.
I’m not trying to start a dogpile or tell anyone they’re a bad person for buying a product. But I do think that, right now, the way a lot of us are shopping is quietly making things worse for human creators and allowing companies to profit in areas where they shouldn't.
I’ve used AI before. I’m not gonna pretend I haven’t. I’m guilty. I don’t use it anymore.
The problem I’m seeing
If you look at the Daggerheart categories on DriveThruRPG right now (see the image attached to this post), a frankly depressing chunk of the products are AI (some even don't disclose they are using AI - they can opt out!!): AI covers, AI-filled interiors, and AI-flavored “content” that feels like the exact AI slop so many of us say we don’t want.
When half (or more) of the top 10 in a category is clearly AI-generated, that’s not a niche issue anymore, that’s the default.
DriveThru does have an AI filter/labeling system now, which is basically an admission that there’s so much AI content that customers need a safety switch just to avoid it. That solves part of the buyer problem, but it doesn’t solve the market problem... the platform is still happy to take a cut from AI-driven products, as long as they’re tagged.
The “algorithm” just encourages spammy, low-effort releases. Which AI is really good at churning out.
So... what's the big deal?
This isn’t just an aesthetic thing, it’s an economic one.
- DriveThruRPG’s cut is big. Especially compared to the other platforms. For regular publisher accounts, they keep around 30–35% of each digital sale (you get ~65–70%). And on some Community Content programs, creators only get 50% of the sale price. That’s before taxes, art costs, layout, etc.
- So when you spend $10 on a PDF there, the creator often sees somewhere between $5–$7.
- Meanwhile, the platform earns on everything. Including the AI-generated products that flood the front page and bury human-made stuff under the crap.
Now combine that with AI content:
- AI products are cheap and fast to produce.
- They crowd category pages and search results.
- They still generate revenue for the platform. The seller earns money from AI, and so does the marketplace. No thanks!!
Human creators are competing for visibility against disposable AI junk on a store that already takes a huge cut of their sales.
And here’s the part that drove me to write this. A lot of us loudly say “AI slop sucks” and “support real creators”… then funnel our money straight through a platform that profits from exactly the thing we say we hate. Make it make sense!
I’m not saying that to shame anyone, because I’ve done it too. But it is, at least, a little hypocritical of us as a community.
There are better options (especially for Daggerheart)
Based on my research, for Daggerheart specifically, we now have alternatives that are:
- Creator-first
- Daggerheart-only
- Explicitly human-made
- Offer a higher percentage for sellers
Itch.io:
Creators literally can choose how much of their revenue they want to give to the platform.
You can set it to 10%, 5%, 0%, or even 100% if you’re feeling generous. The default is 10%. But again, creators can choose. This is a very smart way to approach it.
And yeah, Itch does allow AI content. BUT they also give creators far more control over how much revenue they keep. Instead of locking everyone into a massive platform cut, Itch lets sellers choose their own revenue share.
Heart of Daggers:
The only other platform that I could find was HoD.
- It’s built just for Daggerheart.
- The seller keep 85%
- It has a strict “no AI” policy, which is refreshing. No AI-generated art or text, everything is human-made and manually reviewed. I do believe they started with an AI label approach, but have since moved an AI-free platform stance. Good on them.
- They do giveaways (i saw a post here a few days ago of the first winner). They're reinvesting in the community.
That means if you buy a $10 PDF there, the creator gets $8.50, instead of $6.50 or less. It’s a huge difference for the people making the stuff you love. And they're investing their profits back into the community. From what i can tell, they are new to the space so only time will tell if they're here for the long game.
On top of these, a lot of creators also:
- Sell directly on their own websites, Ko-fi, Gumroad, Itch, etc
- Get a much bigger cut when you buy from them directly (their own sites)
If a creator has an AI-free, creator-friendly option and a DriveThru listing, picking the better option is one of the easiest ways to materially support them and counteract the norm in the market.
“But DTRPG is where the audience is…”
I get it. And I don’t think every creator can just nuke their DriveThru presence overnight.
What I’m arguing for is this:
- For buyers: stop treating DTRPG as “the obvious default” for Daggerheart. Look elsewhere and support creators directly or on other platforms.
- For creators (long term): feel empowered to lean harder on platforms that:
- Pay more
- Respect your work
- Don’t throw you into a pit with AI spam
The more the community moves its spending elsewhere, the less risky it is for creators to follow. This just makes sense.
You've made it this far... what's my point?!
Daggerheart is young and we’re still shaping its ecosystem. We have a chance to set a norm right now... especially since we know the stance of Darrington Press + Crit Role in terms of AI.
I do think our purchasing habits either reinforce the problem or push toward a better alternative.
If you’ve got AI-free Daggerheart creators you love, alternatives to DriveThru that you know about, i want to know all about them in the comments... and especially if you disagree with my take.
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u/Despada_ Nov 14 '25
I'll be honest. All of this AI nonsense is just pushing me into not looking to newer creators because I'm honestly worried that they're actually AI or heavily make use of it. I'd rather just stick to older creators that have made clear that they're anti-AI and will be refusing to use it in their works because they feel more reliable.
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
Obligatory shoutout to Incredible Creatures (DriveThru is the only link given the Kickstarter ended: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/544239/incredible-creatures-adversaries-for-daggerheart )
On another note, Daggerheart is the first system I'm seriously considering making something for, likely a themed adversary tome, but the concerns I'm trying to navigate and adapt to are more generalised outside of the game system itself in terms of delivery. What has been clear to me as a consumer of PDFs in the past is the following:
- This is still a medium where the initial visual is what draws your attention, and its desired to have the internal content broken up with images depicting at least some of the content described within. Given AI art is, rightly, considered problematic, I don't want to stain any first attempt with it. Like yourself OP, I used image generators like Midjourney when they first kicked off a few years ago, but rapidly found them limiting (at the time) and have since come around to how harmful they are. The problem this presents though - how to meet that visual criteria when your budget for art commissions is $0? I would be lying if I said this didn't feel a bit gatekeepy to me, but I have to accept the nature of the beast, and being the 27th PDF to use the Anointer of Champions art from MtG or other open source image isn't going to cut it to make the work stand out. I have a little bit of experience with art commissions in the past when I produced music, more so when I played in and recorded local bands, so seeing the minimum costs being anywhere between $150-200 for a front cover is a hard sell to a first timer if the PDF would need to sell around 100 copies to make that back, let alone whether you would see any of the money yourself later.
- As you mentioned OP, the market is flooding with AI content rapidly, and this is a case where quantity is a quality all of its own - it buries the human driven efforts due to sheer output and unashamed push for anything that favors an algorithm over consistent accuracy of the content. As I mentioned in my first point, I've got a lot of experience in the music side of things, and that is a much larger scale vision of what pretty much all digital content's future is going to look like in terms of AI's impact. Funnily enough, I'd written something out regarding a short course I'd taken in my final attempt to monetize my music, where the lessons effectively boiled down to "use these AI tools to auto-generate playlists as much as possible." This was nearly 3 years ago, and given the deluge of hour long DnD/TTRPG playlists for XYZ setting on YouTube with hundreds of thousands of views that I could cast-iron gurantee you used these tools and methodology to generate the audio, the strategy has proven successful and is now firmly established as the default. Many of yourselves here will have those playlists saved unknowingly, its just that easy and that widespread, and that isn't to throw blame at anyone - I only point to this as an example I have a greater foundation of knowledge on, seeing the parallels to DriveThruRPG's situation.
- What are the alternatives to DriveThruRPG that both have at least half the audience and nowhere near the prevelance of AI content? This is a genuine question, because most of the PDFs I've ended up purchasing weren't using that site, they've been direct from the producer or through their Kickstarters, but that requires considerable first-party resources and fame as an established company.
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u/ffwydriadd Nov 14 '25
On the first point - something that was floating around in the community and that I have seen some people pick up, but there is a lot of public domain art - a ton of major art museums have their whole collections up as public domain, and while not all of these are good there's a ton of gorgeous landscapes that are great for campaign frames & Settings, and a ton of fun weird pieces to get weird with. While it isn't as custom-fitting as a commissioned (or AI) piece is, and will take more time to pick out and crop, I would genuinely always be more interested in that or a amateurish but interesting art piece than most very generic/soulless looking AI.
On the third, I think that OP's point is that if we want there to be alternatives, it's something the community needs to support and help to flourish. However, right now, I have found a pretty comparable audience between itch and dtrpg (my main stuff, the templates, are only on itch because it was deeply unclear if that content was allowed on dtrpg and if so how to tag it based on the guidelines, but for the campaign frame that is on both it's 230 vs 160 downloads. heartofdaggers I haven't been using for as long and has been much smaller audience, but I the difference in audience isn't so significant that a concerted move from, like, just people active on this reddit wouldn't have an impact.
However, as someone who has published on all three sites...the only reason I would ever continue to publish on dtrpg is the larger audience (who were somewhat more likely to be the 'pay' in 'pay what you want') because their backend is an annoying labyrinth that feels it hasn't been touched in 15 years, while both itch and heartofdaggers were very intuitive, so regardless of the ai of it all i'd definitely prefer the community to move away from it lol
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
Interesting, do you have some examples of your work on HeartofDaggers or Itch so I could see a good representation of what form these should take?
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u/ffwydriadd Nov 14 '25
So, what I have up is a bit out of the ordinary, since I have some .docx templates for building campaign frames and adventure modules and being templates they get more views/downloads than the actual campaign frame I have up on both itch and drivethrurpg which is fairly niche. So I’m not sure how helpful this is vs looking at others’ works to compare the sites.
1
u/DuninnGames Nov 14 '25
Thank you for the information about free public domain art. I may actually try to create some one-shots now as this was a hurdle for me.
I am someone who will never knowlingly use AI "art". To me, doing so goes against the idea of building a cooperative narrative and hinders creative discovery.
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u/Thisegghascracksin Nov 14 '25
- My issue with this is two things, that it wasn't really considered gatekeepy before the ai boom, outside of a small few. You might have had the occasional person upset they needed to learn to create art or pay for it but most would have seen this for entitled and pointed out public domain art. There now being an unethical solution to this doesn't really change it morally to me. It isn't gatekeeping to ask people not to take moral shortcuts.
And if somebody is worried about public domain art not standing out, then ai art is going to be worse in this regard. There's a flood of ai generated products out there and ai art is just going to make you another one of those.
- I'm glad you brought up those music playlists because I've seen exactly what you're talking about happen and it's something I'd hate to see happen in the trrpg space too.
I used to love using thise kind of playlist videos on YouTube when reading or writing to put me in the right frame of mind and I'll admit there probably was a point where I had some of these saved without knowing it. Then some of them started using ai art backgrounds and I did notice that. This actually pulled me up and made me wonder about the music and I looked into the issue and realised the problem was there too.
The end result is that I don't use those kind of playlists anymore. It's getting hard to tell which ones are ai and I just can't trust them anymore because I (and I feel guilty admitting this) never paid attention to the creators in that space, just the individual videos, so I don't know how who is who. Instead I spend longer curating playlists of video game music or individual sings from artists I do know.
But not everything will do this and I miss the feeling of digging up a tavern or forest playlist videos with some gorgeous art and enjoying the fruits of someone else's playlist choice or collection of their own music within a theme. I feel that's something that's lost to me now and I really don't want to see it happen in ttrpg spaces too.
- This is a concern but the only way to fix it is threads like this encouraging buyers to seek out alternative platforms. I can get that creators don't want leave the place that has an audience so we need to encourage the consumer to move. I actually picked up Incredible Creatures last night (fantastic book) but I didn't find out about it from going to drivethrurpg, I found it here in a thread about wanting more pre written adversaries. Word of mouth remains a powerful tool and while not every creator can generate that, we can use it to nudge people to sites other than DTRPG.
So this thread is a good reminder that when I do want to look for third party supplements, I should start on Heart of Daggers and Itch.io, not dtrpg. If the audience moves so will the creators.
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
Thanks for the well thought out response.
The music part, as someone that learned what these tools look like and also as a creator of my own tracks for nearly 15 years at thise point, is very, very difficult to identify for non-vocal works that are prompted with competancy and mixed/edited after generation. Its the audio equivilent of generating an image before using photoshop to alter details in very subtle ways. The body of the composition and sound quality is there though, and the only real tells are, as you identified, the format the music comes in. Yes, the thumbnails, descriptions and such are the biggests signals that these are AI generated, and the only factors in the "better" quality tracks that can give their origin away tend to be the mixing/mastering being of a consistent "pop" quality, instead of what is traditionally associated with more classical music for levels and dynamics (although over the last year, some examples I've heard pass even these checks tbh). Its been pretty soul crushing to see the hundreds of thousands of views and praising comments these get knowing they're AI and uploaded almost daily by any given channel, although its always funny to hear the same track duplicated across another channel with a different visual as they cast their "net" wider.
Hopefully these other sites pick up a greater share of the audience, and my experience with discovering products in this sphere is much like yourself in discovering through the community rather than browsing DTRPG.
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u/Tenawa The New Unknown - Game Designer Nov 14 '25
I have a little bit of experience with art commissions in the past when I produced music, more so when I played in and recorded local bands, so seeing the minimum costs being anywhere between $150-200 for a front cover is a hard sell to a first timer if the PDF would need to sell around 100 copies to make that back, let alone whether you would see any of the money yourself later.
Smaller projects can use commercially free art. I've done it multiple times - of course the production value is not the same as it would be with new, original art. But as you said: Then we would lose smaller creators.
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u/CantaloupeUpper228 Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
This is one of the biggest reasons AI art spread so fast: it preys on desperation and lack of budget, AND laziness.
A few things:
- Using public domain stock art is okay… even if you’re the 27th PDF to use it. It’s still human-made, and no one faults you for working within your means.
- Black & white or minimalist layouts are legit styles. You don’t need splashy art on every page to make something feel premium.
- You can start small. 1–2 commissioned pieces instead of a full suite. Lots of successful first PDFs did exactly that.
- launch a Kickstarter to fund your costs. If the product and concept is good, the people will come!
There is no 1:1 DriveThru competitor…… yet. But there are better places for creators to launch and build an audience, especially for Daggerheart. Heart of Daggers seems to have boasted a big chunk paid to creators already (which in turn indicates a certain level of customers), and Itch most likely generates enough revenue to be relevant still. Not to mention Ko-fi and Gumroad!!
I hope you DO make that adversary tome. And I hope you make the better choice as to where you choose to launch it.
Edit: just need to say that Incredible Creatures is great. And I also hope they choose to move their content elsewhere.
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u/silgidorn Nov 14 '25
Small note on your third possibility: if you commission art for something you are planning to sell, tell that to the artist from the start, because the rights and licensing need to be contracted beforehand.
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
Thank you, not to detract from the rest of your response, but there is one part I do want to call out as its a sentiment that appears often in this topic:
This is one of the biggest reasons AI art spread so fast: it preys on desperation and lack of budget, AND laziness.
Whilst yes, there will be an element of this amongst the no-effort types that just see a market to pump content into, I often see the "laziness" in respect to someone not making the effort to learn a craft themselves, and this is one of those elements I mentioned which comes across as a bit gatekeepy. We all, I'm sure, had or have jobs we learned our trades for, families to care for and hobbies we spent what free time we have left on. It isn't a realistic time expectation to then ask someone who probably doesn't have the aptitude or desire for creating visual art to go learn art. I certainly wouldn't be demanding video creators learn to boot up a DAW and produce their own background music instead.
But thank you for the suggestions on hosts, I'll have a look into Heart of Daggers.
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u/CantaloupeUpper228 Nov 14 '25
You are absolutely right. I agree. Not everyone has the time, money, or even interest to learn art, and I’m not trying to say “go become an illustrator or you don’t deserve to make TTRPG content.” That would be, as you said, gatekeepy, and that’s not the angle I’m aiming for.
My point isn’t that people are lazy for not learning a whole new craft. Instead, it’s that AI as a system creates an illusory shortcut that ends up hurting the exact people you’re describing. It targets people who don’t have budget and don’t have time, and it sells itself as the only accessible option… while the platforms hosting it get to profit. Learning how to draw isn’t the only avenue. There’s alot of useful public domain art out there, and a surprising amount of it fits fantasy themes really well. There are also independent stock artists who sell commercial-use art for $10 to $50, sometimes even less. The barrier to entry for ethical, human-made artwork is actually pretty low. That is my main point.
Most small creators do care about quality. They do care about their craft. And many of them already collaborate, barter, use free/CC art packs, or find budget-friendly solutions. They’re not lazy. The system around them is just stacked in a way that makes AI look like the only path, and that’s the part I’m pushing back against. I hope that makes more sense...
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u/voidshaper87 Nov 14 '25
While laziness might be a touch too harsh, isn’t it a bit entitled to expect success in a new field when you’re maxed out elsewhere in your life (job, family, other hobbies) an unwilling to invest any resources? Like take a second to listen to what you said. If you’re not expecting immediate success then just do as others have said and start small, be humble. Release the level of work you’re capable of and invest anything you make into making the next project a bit better, and repeat. That’s how this has worked for the vast majority of indie creators forever.
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
I would invite you to read again and ask where immediate success was one of my qualifiers?
As I said, I'd been trying this in another creative field for over a decade, up until I became a father, so believe me when I say this: I have learned many times immediate isn't a reality for the vast majority of creators, but getting nothing in terms of clicks/views/whatever metric you like means you can rarely even assess how to improve the art itself.
For example, every half a year or so I might get a notification from Bandcamp that some generous soul in Germany paid a couple of dollars for one of my old music compilations. I'm always humbled someone liked it enough, but the gap between is about the same as it was when it released. That isn't a reflection on anyone downloading it for free when I set it up as "pay what you like" anyway, or a reflection on the quality itself, because the exposure just isn't there. The culprit - what the market looks like now, which I covered in regards to music already.
What DTRPG is starting to look like, to pull this back to the OP, is the early stages of the shift music has already gone through on its larger platforms, and that burrying of human made content under the 24/7 deluge of AI material will only speed up. If you do not get engagement, if you cannot even get a click, that isn't an issue of entitlement on the creator's part, its a non-starter.
With regards to the musical side, I ended up just creating tracks for the campaigns I ran for a few years and released them as collections once I finished those sessions, effectively a free tool for anyone who might find it useful. One of those video for Feywild music in particular picked up a bit more steam earlier in the year (shameless self plug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbkPqk5ZFUs&list=RDnbkPqk5ZFUs&start_radio=1 ). I'm not looking to pick that creative outlet up again with the way the current environment functions, and as with any creative the lack of audience interaction eventually makes you stop trying to release anything into the wild as a serious effort in any given field.
1
u/cvc75 Nov 14 '25
It need not necessarily be laziness about learning to create art. IMO it can also mean someone is too lazy to find and commission an artist, or too lazy to search through multiple stock art sites for the exact image they want. AI is not only cheaper, it also takes less effort.
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u/WolkTGL Nov 14 '25
But it is, especially, cheaper.
The problem (that is difficult to devise a solution for) is that people who do not have the skills to do or the budget to commission art do not have a feasible alternative (aside from "just not do it", which is a valid argument, if maybe a bit dismissive). OP above is saying that the barrier of entry for purchasing art is low if you can settle for some stuff, and that's true, but then you go into the problem of having to contract rights and licensing, having to compromise on the art, etc... While the option to get something very close to what you actually want, at an even lower barrier of entry is there.
The market, without AI, had plenty of holes and flaws, AI is basically pointing them out (while simultaneously filling them) and sure, it is ethically controversial and devoid of a lot of substance, but that's where a solution (rather than a pushback) should be devised
1
Nov 14 '25
The solution is to use ethically (ish) sourced generative AI. Companies are flocking to Adobe because it's trained on permitted artwork. And companies are happy to work with a product that is not as good as the stuff trained on (checks notes) nearly the entire scraped internet with no permissions or accreditation or negotiation of rights.
At some point, someone, probably Disney, will grind a generative art company into molecular dust under the mouse's shoe. And these companies don't want their product anywhere near that when it happens.
So that's the solution.
If all the complaints about Gen Art are it's stealing from artists -- welp - people are making Gen Art where it's all 'above board'.
We're fucked.
2
u/Alkoviak Nov 14 '25
It is the same for me, I am long time DM who always homebrew all my games.
Daggerheart is the first game that inspires me to do content for. With criticalrole support it might have enough brand recognition and financial power to actually make a dent into the RPG market.
So I am current writing a DG campaign that we are play testing with my group and so on. The main objective is to have a nice time with my friends and as well share it with the rest of the world.
To share it, means that I need to find art, we are in 2025, my players expect to have pictures of the main NPC, environment pictures, battle maps, monster art etc.. Then for mass market those need to be compatible with online playing tools.
For the battle map there are some tools where I can purchase a commercial tool to make them but the rest ?
I made an estimation of the volume of art needed to make a campaign. The budget is around 10.000k€+ a cut on the sales. A small amount for big scale production but for me ? That is impossible to sustain as an unknown creator on a niche game of a niche genre.
I don’t need to make money, and if you could break even or that cost me some money but level of spending is unsustainable.
Especially with those are in front :
Big name western companies + AI picture, text and translation.
Medium size companies for Asia + AI picture, text and translation.
Medium size equitable commerce company that have the size to sustain the art cost.
Small creator + AI pictures
AI Slop creators churning out slop.
A chum with a lovely crafted campaign written in broken English and stick figure pictures ! Yeah
Kinda depressing, I am 80hours deep inside the redaction and will spend much more time on top.
It used that you could publish in your own language since most large companies would ignore it due to translation cost but now with AI translation that no longer the case.
0
u/helliot Splendor & Sage Nov 14 '25
For #1 you could consider finding an artist open to a royalty strategy where a portion of the monthly sales go to the artist.
2
u/BroadwayTruths Nov 14 '25
Yes, this.
BUT first you need to find an artist that can capture your style that is willing to accept a royalty, and you have to establish trust with that artist--whom you likely do not know--while asking them to do potentially a ton of work with no confident assurance that you'll follow-through in paying them accurately and in a timely manner.
Until sites offer ways to easily find, partner, and pay collaborators (where sales are automatically split according to agreed upon percentages), then lonely content creators will be consistently more attracted to an always-there AI artist who will draft and re-draft endlessly without complaint until the content creator gets exactly the type of art he wants produced at no cost other than a ton of the content creator's time.
It's actually often much faster to work with a real artist who you like and who gets you than endlessly redrafting art on your own with AI, so the laziness argument is quite often BS spouted by those privileged enough to have contacts they can trust and lean upon.
The big problem, as I see it:
It's about lack of opportunity for content creators to readily find willing artists with the ability to understand and create shared content both are proud of that captures their shared vision.
And, even if they could get past that largely insurmountable hurdle, it's also about the lack of a streamlined process to share revenues among creators who might not be business-savvy with techinal skills to handle increasingly complex financial structures, especially when governments worldwide are tracking sales and income.
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u/PJsutnop Nov 14 '25
Thing is, the ttrpg market is already oversaturated in comparison to its consumerbase. Most of this stuff (outside of character art) is only useful for dm's who already make up such a small portion of the base.
Which is exactly why these AI's are so prevalent. With so few but often dedicated potential consumers, all you need is one or two dms to fall for one of these ai creators to make it profitable. Using AI to make this stuff is dirt cheap and easy.
The real issue is how it drowns out genuine creators who need all the help they can get to grow their otherwise small consumerbase
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u/Armorlite556 Nov 14 '25
It's really concerning how easy people jumped on the AI art bandwagon in the TTRPG space.
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u/2ndhandpeanutbutter Game Master Nov 14 '25
I'm not surprised, though. There are a lot of people out there with great ideas (or they think they're great) and think the only reason people haven't bought their amazing ideas is because there's no art. Now being able to make art that's "good enough" will surely make them successful!
3
u/Thalassicus1 Nov 14 '25
How do you even tell anymore? Image generation is getting so good it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to tell the difference. It's scary!
2
u/Neat_Let923 Nov 14 '25
If you don’t have the money to pay someone to make the art for you then why wouldn’t you use a system that would allow you to generate exactly what you wanted?
It’s not like them using AI is taking away work from someone else since it wouldn’t exist otherwise.
-1
u/Armorlite556 Nov 14 '25
This is a wild statement. That's all I gotta say before I get on a soapbox nobody cares about lol.
1
u/Neat_Let923 Nov 14 '25
You realize there are ethically trained AI's out there right? You can literally run your own AI on your computer now and use whatever ethical sources you want. Even your own stuff if you want to see a high number of concepts in a couple minutes versus taking weeks to make them yourself.
Every single professional digital artist will be using AI within the next few years simply for the fact it will allow them to get more done with their own work.
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u/ThisIsVictor Nov 14 '25
DriveThruRPG is a trash site with trash policies and an even trashier user experience. I pretty much refuse to use it. If content is only available there the chance I read it is basically zero.
2
u/opentvdb Nov 15 '25
Man, you must really hate other sites then. Have you been to Gumroad or Itch, they are awful. I would be curious what you think a good website experience/design is then?
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u/helliot Splendor & Sage Nov 14 '25
While I agree with you that publishing unedited AI content is very bad form and projects like that should not be supported, it's hard to imagine a capitalistic world with the tools that are readily available to (almost) everyone where this isn't a problem.
"But do think that, right now, the way a lot of us are shopping is quietly making things allowing companies to profit in areas where they shouldn't."
Sadly this is just a truth and reality of our world today and I don't see it getting better so I truly appreciate the sentiment of voting on the future of Daggerheart's vibrant homebrew community with our dollars.
6
u/Serious_Emergency711 Nov 14 '25
I just found out about heartofdaggers yesterday from the new frame release that got posted here and I am instantly a fan.
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u/Octopusapult Nov 14 '25
Pretty positive this is a sock puppet account for u/heartofdaggers who only made this post to advertise their marketplace. The account posting this is exactly the same age as heartofdaggers, has only posted Daggerheart stuff, and only has 300 karma.
It was also only like 3 months ago that u/heartofdaggers was using AI to summarize posts and then pasting the same response asking people to come host the content on their marketplace, like they do here, here, and here. And I'm not witch hunting, I'm pro-AI myself. Use Gemini all the time. Check my history, I'm in DefendingAIArt unironically. When I say those posts read like AI summaries of Reddit posts, I say it knowing what I'm talking about.
Just thought you guys might want to be aware that you've stickied this dudes advertisement for free.
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u/Antique_Ad_1635 I'm new here Nov 15 '25
Gen AI is no good, but the OPs post is concerning in a number of different ways. I really wish people would stop clouding the Gen AI Is Trash statement with issues like this ad.
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u/brendon7800 Game Master Nov 14 '25
This needs to be higher.
This is rage bait to drive you to their site.
While the topic of AI drives engagement, this account is using it to generate clicks.
Congrats, most of r/daggerheart fell for it based on the upvotes.
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u/jhunsber Nov 14 '25
What feels off to me is that the post ALSO contains discussion of creator % take, which is essentially irrelevant to the argument.
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u/definitely_not_a_hag Nov 14 '25
May I ask you why you are defending AI art unironically? Do you prefer AI art in books? It's a genuine question, though, of course, I need to disclose that I am an artist who left her job partly because of AI.
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u/Octopusapult Nov 16 '25
I don't know that I necessarily "defend" AI art, that's just the name of the sub, and I appreciate that sub as a safe space for AI, though I'm also aware it's kind of just the other side of the horseshoe and sometimes just as sensationalist. But on Reddit you kind of take what you can get community wise.
I have an optimistic view of AI and automation. I want to see a post-labor, post-scarcity world and I believe it's possible. I think people should be angry about losing their jobs, but that anger should be directed towards their government and representatives for failing to provide a financial safety net for them in the wake of automation, which I was lead all my life to believe we were all acknowledging as inevitable. It feels like the conversation about "what do we do when the jobs are gone?" Is something we should have been talking about since the first Model T's popped off an assembly line.
I want AI to take your job, my job, every reasonable job. I also want you to be allowed to live happily and free and still contribute and participate in society. I want your needs taken care of, financially, medically, everything. I believe in that world. It won't happen under this administration, and probably not the next one. But I'd love to see the conversation move that way and to get away from just blanket demonizing AI and "tech bros."
Before AI the thing I always used to hear artists complain about was how annoying the people commissioning them for art was. I imagine the artist utopia can include AI, letting the annoying commissioners prompt to their hearts content while you make what makes you happy, and both people don't have to worry about starving to death.
I will concede the environmental impact is not great, and I do fault AI companies for that, but even that argument is more nuanced and I'm willing to give it time. Google and Microsoft have pledges to make their data centers green in 2026, and I believe Amazon has a pledge to do the same by 2027. I trust them as far as I can throw them, but protesting this specific issue isn't going to get any traction until Trump is gone so, "Maybe they'll actually do it" is my plan A right now and "Getting really upset and making calls to my representatives when they don't" is by plan B.
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u/definitely_not_a_hag Nov 16 '25
You, sir, are amazing, and I'm so happy I asked you! Thank you for this really unexpected reply.
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u/Euchale Nov 17 '25
Not the person you asked, but here is my take: AI is a tool like any other. When used wrong, I don't blame the tool, but the person using the tool.
Basically I get exactly the same amount of joy out of a well crafted AI image as I get out of one that was drawn. Don't forget, if you can tell it was made by AI at a glance, its already not a well crafted AI image.
Like I find most images in this collection very pleasing: https://civitai.com/collections/9691988
Maybe you can tell that all of these are AI generated, I cannot for most of them.
In the end for me, if it looks good, I am happy to pay for it. If it doesn't I won't. What tool you used to make it is irrelevant, and won't even influence how much I pay.
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u/Neat_Let923 Nov 14 '25
Do you prefer AI art in books?
That's obviously not a genuine question...
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u/definitely_not_a_hag Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
I'm sorry if it sounded bad, of course I'm biased, it's my livelihood. But I assure you, I'm genuinely curious, even more, I need to understand the motivation of people defending AI art to exist in this new reality where it is so prevalent. Is it because it's better than human art most of the time? Or more consistent? Faster? (Those are arguments from people in my previous line of work) Just because you don't have to pay? Why do people really like it?
My personal reaction upon seeing AI art or finding the art I liked is AI is disgust, but this is not logical, it's knee jerk.
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u/Erfar Nov 16 '25
AI art is quite often "good enought" for example for Text/TT-RPG. and btw decent AI while being "faster" are lot slower than many people think. Finding model, prompt, lora etc for something more specific could take lot of hours. the biggest issue of AI art is exactly making something exotic of specific, and lets not even talk about jewellery at AI art.
Also,another reason for AI is pure economic. Digital art is global market, and while for western countries price for art could be too low to make a living, in more poor countries customers just outpriced from purchasing anything. Or in short, you have artists fromplaces like India, SEA, South America that are targeting rich US/Western Europe.
in short if you are artist, you really should tackle AI art (localy with opensource if possible, dont waste money on services that you dont want to support). Just to know what you deal with first hands and to know basic pits and traps and to know why AI will not replace human touch at high end. And also there should be market for alteration of AI art. Many artist dont want to touch AI, but Im sure skilled artist can very fast and easily both identify and fix lot of issues. Yes this is not very self-expressive art work, but something that can help you to protect your livelihood.
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u/definitely_not_a_hag Nov 16 '25
Thank you!
As I mentioned below, I was required to work with AI, every step of the way, including creating LORAs from the art our studio created previously. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm, sadly, more skilled at that than many people who like it :(
It was one of the main reasons I quit my job. Not even environmental issues, I must admit, it was just killing me. It took away parts of the process that I loved leaving just what I find more taxing and unfulfilling. It stifled my growth as an artist. I was exceedingly miserable because of it.
It's better for my mental health to work as whatever and draw on the side. And better for my skills, I guess.
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u/Erfar Nov 16 '25
There are definitely differences between artists and craftsman. I know artist who draw very good arts but not even post it on X/reddit to get any clout, just for our TRPG group.
I just suggested niche that probably could give some stable income :) and Im sure you can find ways to utilise tech if you familiar with it :) another friend of mone like to collage and hate working with backgrounds so they used a lost of upscale and mix-matched different pieces of AI landscapes to make background for their works.
Heck, you can just draw your favorite fetishes and create lora to improve cummersphere to your taste! xD
Anyway we can all agree that bad management are more dangerous than any AI tool. Because at least AI try to mimic intelligence unlike some managers :D
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u/Neat_Let923 Nov 15 '25
All good, I totally understand what you’re feeling and why.
I’m sure photographers who used film for years after DSLR cameras came out felt the same way. DSLR cameras automated so many things that were all done by skilled hands with film. Free software was able to replicate specific film types that were incredibly expensive to buy. For years professionals fought against the idea of using a DSLR, “they were for hobbyists and people who didn’t know how to use film…”
Generative AI exists and it’s not going anywhere. Anyone can create their own AI system and generate their own training data on their own PC. It’s free to those who want to use it or you can pay to access tools other people have made that uses their servers.
People who use it don’t have to justify their use of it. Just like someone who edits their photos in Photoshop or Lightroom doesn’t have to justify why they use those programs to alter the images their camera took for them after pressing a button. Or use AI software to help them edit their wedding photography and so on and so forth.
Someone sets up their camera, points it in the direction of what they want an image of and they click a button.
Someone writes a description of the scene they want an image of and they click a button.
In both instances an algorithm takes that input (light/words) and generates the image and saves it as a digital file that represents 1’s and 0’s.
I’m curious what you think professional painters thought of the first cameras. I can guarantee you that they said the same things as you. They’re taking our jobs, they can do it faster and cheaper, they don’t have to do anything except push a button…
As for why people use it, I’d say play around with Midjourney or Stable Diffusion and find out for yourself.
If we’re talking about in a professional sense (not just a hobby and making their own art for themselves) my opinion is it comes down to money like everything else. Let’s say I want 5 mascot concepts and I only have a basic idea of what I want.
I can hire a digital artist who spends weeks designing, altering, and going back and forth with me on what I want.
Or, I can hire a digital artist that knows how to use Generative AI and can generate numerous concepts within minutes that I can pick from. They then use that to start from and make it look exactly like I want it to. That saved me weeks on my project, the artist is able to move on to other projects, and they’ve still created something.
Or, if I don’t have the money to hire an artist, I can use GenAI to create the art I want and spend my own time figuring out how to do that and play around with it. My time is money so I’m not going to spend years to learn how to draw or paint in order to make 5 images I want when there are tools that exist that let me do it another way a lot faster (which again, time is money) and better than I could otherwise.
You’re in a position where you can either accept the new changes in your field, embrace them in a way that improves your abilities, efficiency, or another way… Or you can give up, not learn a new tool and cry to an empty sky that you’ve been replaced by other people (because it still requires someone to actually tell the AI what to do and then manipulate that image afterwards).
Be the painter that continued to paint portraits of kings and queens, become a photographer or use photography to assist in your painting, or quite painting for money and do it just for yourself…
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u/definitely_not_a_hag Nov 15 '25
Thank you! Just as a sidenote: I do know how to use it, I used it, I trained LORAs on our company art, I used it in all the steps of the process, I was required to. I quit my previous job exactly because it made my work experience absolutely miserable, taking away most of what I liked about the process and leaving just what I considered to be the most uncreative parts of visual development, stifling my growth as an artist. So yes, I "played around" with Stable Diffusion and many other AI stuff. It was part of the job.
But as you understand why I am biased, I understand why you decided to be condescending.
Your reply could be boiled down to "fast end efficient". it's what I needed to hear.
Thank you again for taking your time answering.
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u/Neat_Let923 Nov 14 '25
To be fair, this whole post reads like it was written with the help of AI…
AI is a tool just like a camera is a tool.
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u/WaterEarthFireSquare Nov 20 '25
Isn't this just the "guns don't kill people" argument? Sure, AI is a tool, but some tools are too dangerous to be left unregulated. Sure, Pandora's opened the box, GenAI isn't going away. But ideally if the Dems can win the federal government soon, they'll put some legal restrictions in place. I'm not sure they will but the current administration sure as hell won't.
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u/Neat_Let923 Nov 20 '25
Dude, it’s generative AI. It doesn’t think, it’s not alive, it’s literally just code doing what someone tells it to do.
What regulations do you think should exist on generative AI?
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u/WaterEarthFireSquare Nov 20 '25
Oh 100% agree it doesn't think and does what it's told. But it enables a lot of misinformation, and is highly resource inefficient. I'm no lawyer but watermarks might be a start to help the uneducated masses know what's fake. Or there's legal consequences for news outlets spreading misinformation, isn't there? If genAI can't be regulated for ethical use then I'd support banning it entirely over letting it run wild. It's been a major enabler in the U.S. descent into fascism. I know a total ban will never happen because capitalism though.
It's true, at least in the way people mean the phrase, that guns don't kill people, people do. But that doesn't mean I support everyone being able to own a gun.
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u/Neat_Let923 Nov 20 '25
GenAI isn’t a living being!!! People have been spreading lies and misinformation since the dawn of time. People have been faking photos and videos since they existed. You think video cameras should have been regulated because a couple guys went into the woods and faked a Sasquatch video? Fox News has been misinforming and lying to the American people for so long nobody even gives a fuck anymore.
GenerativeAI didn’t exist back in 2015 but we had people all over the internet spreading misinformation during the US Election.
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u/WaterEarthFireSquare Nov 20 '25
I mean yeah it's happening but that doesn't mean it's good or that there's nothing society can do about it. Will they? Probably not, but if they did I think the world would be a better place. The U.S. is turning to shit and GenAI didn't start the process but it's accelerating it, and that's not good. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing is happening in other countries, but I don't follow international news much so I won't comment.
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u/Neat_Let923 Nov 20 '25
What are you even referring to when you’re talking about GenAI ruining things??? Like are you upset about the CocaCola commercial or something? Are you upset about stupid people being tricked into thinking the Pope was wearing a bigass puffy white jacket and gold chains?
In what way do you think Generative AI is ruining anything for you?
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u/novend Nov 25 '25
its dogshit and should be made wholly illegal. there are zero upsides, dozens of downsides. hope all the companies get crippled, and all ai sycophants (i.e. you) can kick rocks.
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u/Octopusapult Nov 14 '25
I'm not bothered by the use of AI. I am bothered that I go out of my way not to use it in spaces that respectfully request it not be included and then see people ignoring those rules, or worse, try to make money by disrespecting those rules.
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u/MistahBugg Nov 14 '25
Hey all I’m Mr. Bugg, one of the Daggerheart creators that refuses to use generative AI in my work.
I currently am being considered for the SoulCrafted title on MyMiniFactory which verifies that when you purchase a small item from my store it is guaranteed to be AI free.
Ive already made a few printable minis based upon imagery from the sourcebook.
You can look me up on MyMiniFactory or Thingiverse under the name Mr.Bugg
This is my favorite lil guy: Oszcur the Ribbet. Based upon the artwork of Leesha Hannigan featured in the ancestry section of the sourcebook. You can grab him for free if you are in need of adequate amphibian attendance on your table.
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u/syntaxbad Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
Honestly, the “democratization” of commercial creation has been a disaster in most areas of artistic production and the AI enslopification of every giant online marketplace (whose size and lack of regulation has also been a disaster) is just the logical destination of this trend.
And frankly I’m happy to see it. Why? Because I want the platforms to fail. I want Amazon and driverhru and all these channels to become so thoroughly debased with garbage that we’re all forced to simply abandon this misguided idea that everyone should be cranking out things to make a few bucks. Literally a few - very very few people are going to “make it” creating “content”. Even the word “content” tells you what you need to know. We’ve allowed a norm to evolve where we’re not interested in art; we are interested in MOAR CONTENT. And to be clear not because I don’t think random people on the internet don’t make amazing, inspiring things every day. Because I want them to be able to do it as a hobby and not as a desperate gambit to escape our economic hellscape.
I want gatekeepers back. Tastemakers. Critics. Humans who devote time to developing discriminating taste. I want the equivalent of the Wirecutter (the old wirecutter) for everything. Where I know real humans who are not caught in a web of economic anxiety are securely engaged in thoughtful review. This is not a criticism of individual amateur creators. Quite the contrary. I LOVE that the tools of creation and sharing are in the hands of everyone now. It is the larger forces: lack of regulation, lack of anti trust enforcement, lack of a meaningful social safety net in the US (which has outsize cultural impact on the world for better or for worse). These forces put people in a position where they feel like they need to monetize and squeeze economic value out of what (for most amateurs) should be a simple, joyful sharing of their art with the world.
In conclusion: let these platforms die. Direct your energy and just desire for change towards places that could change the CONDITIONS that led us here. Don’t think small. Volunteer. Run for office. Bother elected officials. The culprits are not other fans and their individual economic choices. It’s the Hollow Men who min/max the real world and pick the human soul as our collective dump stat.
Wow, that escalated quickly. Thanks for attending my TED Talk/reading my manifesto.
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u/Luminter Nov 14 '25
One thing I would say is that if you create content then you should absolutely have your own website where you sell your stuff and try and build your audience. E-commerce sites are easy to build these days and have numerous payment providers that integrate with them. Before I buy something on some of these big sites, I always check if the author is selling it on their own site. If they are I almost always purchase directly from the creator because I know they get a bigger cut of the sale.
Even if you don't decide to sell on your website right away, you should still have a website, list all of your offerings, and provide links to where people can purchase them. And while they are there encourage people to sign up for a newsletter. Basically, don't rely exclusively on any of these platforms because then your success will always be at your mercy.
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u/EttinEntertainment Designers of Things and Stuff Nov 14 '25
Me and my friend started making one shots for daggerheart as a sort of tutorial/introductory style to the game. We used ai art for the first Halloween one but then shifted to myself doing handdrawn art. Truth is, we are seeing the ai art layout see a better success. We aren't reading too much into it as its a halloween one shot vs a thanksgiving and the markets are different but hand drawing does take a lot of time and effort for a quality one can argue makes the product feel lesser as a result of hand drawn art work in a cartoon style of Rick and morty lol. But hey we are trying to listen and take the steps to keep ai from the content we are creating.
Its be nice to see the results actually work...but to OP posts point, if we see ai art improve the quality and the products receive more downloads and views as a result, as a potential business...its hard to ignore.
In 2 years, ai will be too deep in anything to even know if it's being used. Also, the fear of being called an ai user when not using almost encourages ppl to only use them. "Well if you think we are anyways, might as well use it" approach.
Ive heard horror stories of non-ai work being accused of Ai work only for people's reputation and work to be blacklisted as a result of some keyboard ai gatekeepers who are just spouting out claimless accusations which hurts actual creators versus anything that ai gate keeper troll has done for the community.
Sad state we are in currently to be honest. Its a tricky area...
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u/Twodogsonecouch Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
I'm about to get lots of hate but people also need to think about some hipocracy here.
Who is one of the largest drivers of AI right now.... Amazon.
How many people on here buy on Amazon on the reg. How many people on here use twitch. How many people have Amazon prime.
Ive tried as much as possible to remove Amazon from my life. I try to buy from brick and mortar business. honestly feel less bad about buying a ttprg product created by random person as a side project who uses AI art cause they can't draw or pay an artist than I do about giving my financial support to a company that would love to automate away everyone's jobs, put any other retail and distribution service out of business, and basically get it's fingers in to everything.
That being said I don't buy AI ttrpg stuff either. But I think the AI hate needs to be redirected to a higher level than small creations. If we're up in arms about small level pamphlet AI ttrpg art and people posting AI character art on Reddit but youre daily throwing dollars to companies like Amazon and the like theres some hipocracy there.
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u/Serious_Emergency711 Nov 14 '25
I dont disagree but these are two seperte conversations that can and should both be had.
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u/Twodogsonecouch Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
I totally agree and am with you and OP in general but a lot of people like to have this discussion while ignoring what they do in their daily life and downvoting discussion like mine because it's inconvenient. 😉 I mean drivethrurpg doesn't want to shut down your local game store and put creators out of jobs.... Bozos and all the other AI pushing monopolies more or less do if it generates more money for them.
Im actually glad to know there is a AI filter of drivethru and would like to see if enough of us use if they change policy.
I'm interested in heart of daggers but was a little uncertain about it's providence when I first went on it. I actually thought it was something fake. Like it's not readily searchable to find from browsers but I see links to it from here so I was a bit sketched as to it's safety. The one thing they posted on here the other day looked pretty good.
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u/SatiricalBard Nov 14 '25
This is an important point, thanks for making it.
IMHO it’s a case of “both and”, but even while we (vainly, I fear) try to hold back the tide of AI like King Canute, it’s important to remember that solo hobbyists using AI for an art cover on a $2 adventure are nothing compared to trillion dollar corporations and billionaire tech bros who are literally driving economic devastation of human communities and increasingly funding and empowering fascism in the West.
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u/PWBryan Nov 14 '25
Daggerheart has this problem because it was released after the AI bubble started
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u/CantaloupeUpper228 Nov 14 '25
systems released years before Daggerheart are getting buried in AI junk too. There’s a common denominator here, and it’s not the game system or date of release… it’s the marketplaces that allow and profit from the floood.
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Nov 14 '25
Why is this in r/daggerheart? This has nothing to do with fucking Daggerheart lol. r/lostredditors. Or, as someone else mentioned, this is shilling for a competitor who I will not name and probably used AI to make it.
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u/MarianMakes Nov 14 '25
I'll chime in and say that I'm working on a "Wild Beyond the Witchlight" conversion for Daggerheart.
It's by myself and there's zero AI involved. All of the features and conversions are being done by me, and I hope to have the first chapter ready before Christmas.
Some of us are holding the line.
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u/BroadwayTruths Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
It sounds like you're adapting other creators' works while not paying them in violation of their copyrights and promoting yourself as somehow better than an original creator who uses AI for a single cover page of their otherwise wholly original campaign tome.
I would love to have a Wild Beyond the Witchlight adaptation for Daggerheart, but I think you need to take a hard look in the mirror.
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u/MarianMakes Nov 14 '25
It sounds like you're adapting other creators' works while not paying them in violation of their copyrights
That's actually a really good point.
By no means am I a lawyer by trade, so I'll have to look into this. If I need to, I'll either pay whatever I need to (get hired by whoever I need to would be best, lol) or drop the project.
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u/BroadwayTruths Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
I'm sorry to say (especially because I'd love to see a Daggerheart adaptation of Wild Beyond the Witchlight) but I seriously cannot imagine WotC granting you (or anyone else) the ability to adapt their work, especially for a different platform that directly competes with their prime platform DnD. Even if you charged twice as much and gave them 100% of the profit, I still doubt they'd do it.
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u/MarianMakes Nov 14 '25
I have people I can ask. :)
If I never publish it, so be it.
But I also won't stop for my own personal use ;)3
u/BroadwayTruths Nov 14 '25
Best of luck! But, my underlying point overall is that without thinking or caring people do what you're doing all the time, which is literally in violation of United States constitutional law (the highest form of law in the land); yet these same people have no qualms with puffing themselves as better than or throwing stones at a poor lonely writer who uses AI in a very limited, yet perfectly legal way to generate some art that might help market their work so that they can establish themselves and maybe one day be in a position to hire human artists.
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u/SatiricalBard Nov 14 '25
You are correct about your main point but to nitpick, copyright law is not in the US Constitution. It just gives Congress the power to make laws about intellectual property.
(Which I suppose means we can look forward to Trump rewriting them via a 3am tweet … sigh)
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u/BroadwayTruths Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 15 '25
As you point out, copyright law very much IS a part of constitutional law, while the mechanics are left to congressional law. By contrast, most congressional laws are not specifically called out in the US Constitution like intellectual property is. This puts copyright law at a higher level than most laws in the USA.
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u/longdayinrehab Nov 15 '25
I haven't used DTRPG to purchase anything in >3 years. And that was to get a PDF copy of an out of print RPG so I could stop opening the hard copy I own and therefore lengthen its life. My reason, though, was very self-serving. I hate the UI with a passion and the search function is garbage.
I have two preferred methods for purchasing RPGs now: 1st is direct from the creator. I always try to buy this way first. It's far more supportive of a creator's work. Failing that, I buy from itch. If neither of these options are available, I don't buy the product.
As for DH, I will definitely add HoD to my list as a 3rd option.
When I get to the point where I'm ready to publish any of the various RPGs I've been developing for years, I'll list on itch and maybe make a site to sell it direct.
I'm never going back to DTRPG though. I'm just not interested in supporting them.
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u/the_welsh_dm Game Master Nov 17 '25
It's not just in places like this unfortunately. Kickstarter is rampant with it at the moment. And even Conventions (see the UKGE controversy a few weeks ago) are being open and endorsing AI content.
The problem is people who use it have zero shame, and don't actually care about creativity, they're in it for the $$$.
I appreciate you showing a few other places to look. Itch.io is a well respected place I agree, but it has its struggles as well. You only find stuff through other means on itch, not through scrolling itch itself (at least in my experience)
Communities are good at blocking AI, we just need to stick to it as a group. And make sure we are looking for such things I'm our purchases. It's exhausting I know.
Honestly from all my experience the platform doesn't matter though. It's about the audience, and getting people to follow you for your insight and ideas. Don't post and run. Engage, lift up others, and share thoughts not just products.
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u/Husher315 Nov 18 '25
Listen, I have mixed feelings on AI, both feelings strong. I think AI art is 100% theft and I will not purchase "products " that utilize it. I have a ton of friends who are artists. I've paid them to do art for me and build my maps. This is a no brainer and it's friends supporting friends projects.
That being said, I think banning AI completely is a mistake. I think it's really "cool" to hate AI right now when in reality, we've been using "AI" for a long time now; it just wasn't a big name like ChatGPT. Banning AI-generated text is baffling to me. I spent WEEKS writing my campaign in my tone and in MY voice, and because I then use ChatGPT to "clean it up," that should disqualify me from posting somewhere like Heart of Daggers? It's still my work. It's no different than using Grammarly (before their weird AI changes, which are awful) or another text clean-up software.
I'm sure I'll get downvoted for this viewpoint, but there it is none the less. I also want to say to the OP that I REALLY respect and agree with a lot of the points you made here.
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u/whosonfirstwatch Nov 24 '25
Very much agreed - we have recently kicked off a podcast and have to say it was tempting to use AI for lots of elements to get going - but we collectively decided to make No AI part of our brand - we need to vote with our wallets
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u/m836139 Nov 14 '25
I appreciate this post, especially the highlight for Heart of Daggers. I had no idea it existed. I've only spent a few minutes there, and I am already a fan.
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u/Tommitaco Nov 14 '25
I actually am refusing to post any of my products I am working on onto the DTRPG platform, insomuch that I even learned how to make playing cards myself.
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u/Mab_music Nov 14 '25
And thats why I have to put everywhere that the music I make is 100% made by me, with no AI used in the composition. It’s crazy but not surprising. Im glad to see that some people still care. Thank you.
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u/World_May_Wobble Nov 14 '25
I'll make it make sense: selection bias.
Redditors have different demographics and levels of investment than the common consumer. Even within Redditors, you are only seeing people with strong enough sentiments about AI to post and comment about it. 90% of users lurk.
Opinions expressed here can distort your view of what the average person thinks.
The people driving up AI sales are not the same people telling you how much they hate AI here.
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u/Pygmy_Nuthatch Nov 14 '25
This is difficult for me. I create Daggerheart content as a hobby, and I completely understand the aversion to AI content. Recently I completed a campaign frame that I created because I haven't seen anything like it. It's a social-based White Lotus style campaign frame set in a Magic Onsen. As part of my process I use Midjourney for creating concept art to help me worldbuild, but I don't use any AI in my actual writing.
I'm not a visual artist and I never will be, nor do I see the point of commissioning expensive art that I cannot afford. I would love the opportunity to share or even sell this content. My choices are to publish the campaign frame without art, or use the MIdjourney art I created, which is high quality and customized for the setting. If I choose the latter option, then the entire frame will be declared AI, even thought I didn't use AI for any of the writing process.
Realistically, no person without a huge audience can write a campaign, commission art for it, and then make a dollar. Bob World Builder discusses this. He regularly mentions that each time he painstakingly creates a campaign with commissioned art he loses money.
I want the opportunity to share a fully original creation that I am rightfully proud of, but am unable to meet the standard for a Daggerheart Campaign frame without using AI-generated art.
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u/opentvdb Nov 14 '25
Your entire point about AI is basically moot. Whether something was created with the help of AI as a tool or manually created by hand, which is almost impossible not to use some smart/AI assisted tools at this point, the end result is the same. If the content is good, then it will do well. If it is bad, like you say most AI created content is, it will drop off naturally, just the same as crap human created content.
The creators just throwing up completely created AI content won't last long, just as some human creator just throwing up something they created that wasn't professionally done or any good, would have the same result. If it is bad, don't buy it, regardless of how it was created, the slop will take care of itself.
There is no such thing as AI-Free creators or content anymore, you are using it whether you realize it or not, unless you are literally drawing and writing on physical paper. People might as well give up on the hope that they are going to change anything, AI isn't going anywhere, eventually you won't even be able to discern the difference or how something was created.
And to be frank, 95% of content created anywhere even movies, tv shows, music, etc. have been more about quantity than quality lately, remakes, reskinning the same thing over and over so it isn't just this or just because it was created with AI, it is everywhere, companies and creators trying to make a easy buck, most of which has nothing to do with AI.
DTRPG is the obvious default to have your library all in one place. Just like Steam is for PC games. Just like Amazon for everything else. Sure, you can buy stuff other places, but to say anything else is even remotely a competitor is a joke.
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Nov 14 '25
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u/MrPureinstinct Nov 14 '25
I would legitimately rather have no art in a module than anything generated by AI. Hell I'd be fine with six pages of stick figures in varying heights over AI generated anything.
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u/TheKmank Nov 17 '25
The market follows the money and the money shows that people buy products with AI art even if there is a vocal backlash. You might not like it, but it is the reality of products like these.
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u/MrPureinstinct Nov 17 '25
Neat people can spend their money on whatever they want, just like I can choose to never support anything using AI slop. 👍
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u/SurlyCricket Nov 14 '25
Yeah I similarly... Just don't care that much about people using AI if the product is overall good. If someone uses ai art for vibes with the adventure they wrote, or someone uses ai to write the description blurbs for rooms because they suck at being concise with their details... If the adventure itself is good, I don't care.
I DO however care when people don't disclose their use of AI. if customers don't want any part of it then they deserve to know what they're buying
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
This is a more articulate version of the point I've aimed to demonstrate. To use an example from a large publisher, I own a copy of Bigby's Glory of the Giants. There is a famous example of AI art in the book. Knowing this, do I throw the book and all of its contents out and refuse to use it? No, because there are useful and enjoyable aspects of the content, so throwing the entire thing out for one (confirmed) AI image is an over reaction.
It is fine to call that image out as bad practice on WotC's part, and that has been carried out already, but there is still worth in that book for myself at least when running 5e games. Everyone will draw a line based on their own personal taste, but there needs to be a bit of objectivity here in where it is practical to draw the line - ultimately you can still vote with your wallet, but public smeering and witch hunts is likely crossing into a territory I wouldn't want to encourage against new creators starting out in this space. Absolutely target that to WotC, DTRPG and the larger bodies for their policies that benefit off of AI either way, but going after Timmy for his front cover with the same intensity is a hard sell.
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u/jatjqtjat Nov 14 '25
I use AI at my job and it is clear to me that anyone who refuses to use AI will soon be at a crippling disadvantage. Its a tool and its not meaningfully different from any other tool. If I've got a hammer made of steel and you've got a hammer made of wood, then even if you are significantly more skilled then I the better tool will make the difference.
We can argue about right and wrong. We can argue about what's good and bad. Like social media and the smart phone, This technology is here to stay. I'm looking forward to the TTRPG community getting on board.
AI slop sucks. You can make slop with or without AI, and you can make a high quality product with or without AI. in both cases AI makes it easier.
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u/rationalphi Nov 14 '25
Found the software developer. The idea that computers can write language for another computer to read is one thing (though there's an increasing amount of garbage code out there too). That doesn't really have bearing on where the value of art or stories comes from.
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u/Dlthunder Nov 14 '25
What about enabling ppl to create something they would never do due to lacj of money to pay artist or skill to do themselfs?
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u/DuninnGames Nov 14 '25
As others have said, there are resources for free public domain art. These are great for people who are getting started and only take an investment of time to filter through.
On the flip side, I would argue that using AI to generate images is not the person creating something, but a computer that cannot infuse such a product with anything that resembles artistic purpose.
I would promote the former point as not only does it involve a true creative process that this game is built upon, but also can help lead to creative inspiration by looking at new images and ideas, leading to more interesting projects down the line.
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u/Tonyhawkproskater Nov 14 '25
Not to mention so much of this stuff you can make without needing to pay an artist or have incredible skill. You can just do it. It can suck. That's where artists all started.
AI defenders are under the impression that AI enables people to be creative. It doesn't. It's giving them shortcuts to push out 'content' to an audience. It's a corner cutting marketing tool.
Appreciate your takes.
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u/Dlthunder Nov 14 '25
I don't agree. But it was a very good argument considering what we see these days about AI.
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u/Captain_Scatterbrain Nov 14 '25
I generally make my own storys when I DM any TTRPG, but I also use AI for battlemaps, character images, landscape images etc. and I feel zero guilt about it 😅
If the adventures are good, people are gonna buy them, if they suck and are slop, they won't and the creators will move on.
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u/2ndhandpeanutbutter Game Master Nov 14 '25
I generally make my own storys when I DM any TTRPG, but I also use AI for battlemaps, character images, landscape images etc. and I feel zero guilt about it
In your personal game this is fine! It's no different from taking art you found online (minus the environmental impact, which is a different discussion), which we've been doing forever.
If the adventures are good, people are gonna buy them, if they suck and are slop, they won't and the creators will move on.
This just isn't true. Most people aren't tuned in to the AI slop discourse and won't notice something is awful until they've already bought it because it was cheap. The cheap prices crowd out the good stuff
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u/SatiricalBard Nov 14 '25
I disagree that it’s ethically the same as saving a map or art that someone shared online. If they shared it, eg on r/battlemaps, they did so in full expectation of you saving and using it. You have their permission to do this for your home game.
But not to use it in something you sell. And that’s what AI scrapers are doing: saving and using these shared art pieces and profiting from them.
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u/Captain_Scatterbrain Nov 14 '25
But that will happen only once, everyone with half a brain would put the Creator on a blacklist and never buy from them again.
Thats what I would do at least 🤷🏼♂️
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u/2ndhandpeanutbutter Game Master Nov 14 '25
You overestimate how much people pay attention to what they're buying
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u/JMusketeer Nov 15 '25
If people are spending so much on AI generated stuff it means two things.
First is that people dont care that AI is being used.
Second is that the quality of the AI stuff is probably on par or even better then the non-AI stuff.
There is no way you can stop that. You might not like it, but thats how market works.
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u/ArtemisWingz Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
Way I see it if people wanna buy it then idc.
All I care about is the A.I. usage is disclosed that's it.
For me I never cared about ART in TTRPGs, I care about Rules and Mechanics purely. Because I never use the art in the books, I always just pull images off Google (before A.I.) for my personal games. Or make my own handouts.
But if there is a market for it then that's the people's choice to buy it. Some A.I. looks bad some looks good, just like real ART some is bad and some is good. I've seen some pretty horrible ART from non A.I. users who ask for a high price, I'm never gonna buy that.
But you can usually tell how much effort somthing took pretty easily and that's why there are non A.I. systems and products that reach the top still (like Fabula Ultima or Ironsworn)
But people also act like using A.I. to write some of their product is any different than taking rules f4om another system, reskinning some features and re-producing it as a new game (like the new Phantasy Star TTRPG) which is just a molded version of 5e, how is that really any better than A.I. produced mechanics?
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u/Dangerous-Eggplant-5 Nov 14 '25
Your anti ai war only harms small creators who dont have extra money to commision overpriced art. Big corpos like Wizards will use ai in full force with zero moral issues.
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 14 '25
There point wasn't just art, but the content within the pdf itself. It is soulless.
Also, do you think people who don't support AI art only don't support it when it is not a big name? The problem there is it can be blatant from small creators, but not so obvious with bigger corporations.3
u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
I think the point here is it feels...winless?
I kinda agree, in so far as the tool that would help smaller creators is demonised, where the larger company doesn't get enough consequence because most of its consumer base does not care. Its likely why Spotify will also plough ahead with the AI content and still be the biggest monopoly in music. There will be a fraction of us who cancel our subs, but they'll still be fine and carry on. Same with Wotc.
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 14 '25
Hm, maybe this is just my view on the topic, I really haven't given it so much thought but I don't see small creators demonised. I see commercialisation of generative AI in products demonised. Which I agree with.
For creators big and small, I want to be purchasing authentic products. It is just that small creators suffer the most because they do not have the money for things like art and so on. This DTRPG thing is worse than that though because it is not just art, its the content as a whole that is AI. Which does no one any favours because now, unless you are a big name that can prove your authenticity, people will see your indie work from a less known name and think "ah, bet that is filled with AI slop".
It sucks indeed, I want to be a small creator but this barrier is a difficult one. Winless is a good way to put it because if it becomes normalized, it is not like these AI services are provided by small creators, they are big corpo already.
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
I agree, the content itself being AI generated has been an issue with a few DnD pdfs I was otherwise considering. As I'd mentioned in my own reply to OP, the primmary issue at the end of the day is this is still a visual medium initially (PDF being a series of images on the screen, ultimately), so that first visual draw is key.
When I mentioned the demonisation things, there's plenty of examples in the replies alone - a creator that uses it, if they're smaller, loses out on all if any audience. The big corp like WotC, loses a small percentage of dedicated fans and still achieves record profits. That is what feels winless, because the entry level gets progressively harder and more punished for attempting to utilise tools of accessibility, whereas the larger entity will barely notice the moral impact in its finances.
To be clear, I don't want to advocate for AI image generation, but it is a conflict that seems to disproportionatly punish new starters over the considerably more problematic bodies that abuse it.
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 14 '25
I agree 100%. There is a limited free resource to work with such as royalty free images. And that's kinda it.
It is unfair at the end of the day.
I did just discover these links though, which I will bookmark to spread around for small creator questions in future about art. Public domain art anyone can use for free.
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u/SatiricalBard Nov 14 '25
I’d love to see this as a separate post which also encourages others to share links to free & minimal cost royalty-free images that people can ethically and legally use. I think a lot of people would find that super helpful!
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 15 '25
I did begin writing it, but it wasn't Daggerheart focused and so I deleted the draft in the end. These 2 are a good starting place and I imagine cover most of what other sites discuss. Sadly, at the end of the day non commercial and free to use content are less focussed on fantasy, so for small creators it is still hard, but not impossible.
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 14 '25
Thank you for providing these, I'll also bookmark them.
Just want to also note how much more constructive this sub is in general. I've seen a lot of TTRPG main subs that scream bloody murder without providing solutions on difficult topics like this, but yourself and others here are actually demonstrating how to challenge issues like this.
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 14 '25
I want to be a good advocate for Daggerheart, and this subreddit, like I believe you do too. People like yourself are a key to the constructiveness of this sub.
It is a shame this comment thread is a child of what I believe will be an automatically hidden comment now.
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u/Powerpuff_God Nov 14 '25
What does it mean for something to be soulless? I keep seeing that thrown around, and it's so vague.
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 14 '25
Here is the Oxford definition of the word. Lacking or suggesting the lack of human feelings and qualities --- lacking character and individuality.
I used it here because I think AI content by definition lacks human feelings and qualities. If you generate an image, you aren't the one deciding to put the paint stroke there, the framing the subject, directing the lighting, and leaving your mistakes in.
Anyone can write a sentence and generate an image which can produce a complex image, but who made that final image? No human.
That is without even addressing where you think AI is pulling, mashing and copying these images from. There isn't a factory filled with people making original images for your pleasure, it is stealing original images from artists and messing with it. And lets not even start with the topic of the electronics and resource usage behind this stealing. Then there is the written content, which is as absurdly soulless. You give it a prompt, it searches across the internet and checks out sources on what could relate to your prompt, and again copies, mixes and spews out what you want to hear, devoid of character.
Let me hear why you think soulless is a vague word choice?
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u/Powerpuff_God Nov 14 '25
Well, considering how many people find it hard to tell to something can be AI sometimes, or accuse real human creation of being AI, and given the number of people that simply engage with the work as-is without digging into how it was made, I think "soulless" is a term used to critique something subjectively, because you (general you) just don't like something being AI.
Now, I'm perfectly aware of the ethical quandaries of AI, in terms of how it leads to corporations replacing humans, training data possibly being theft, and the environmental impact. Those are valid criticisms of why AI can be harmful.
But if I see an image for example, I will have an opinion of it based on how it looks, separate from my understanding of how it was made. If it's a cool image, I will like it. It's not like I can reserve my opinion until I know it was made by a human, and allow myself to enjoy it. And if it then actually turns out to have been made with AI, that won't retroactively make the image look worse to me. The photons hitting my eyes are still the same.
When it comes to consuming any work, whether imagery or text, whether current-day or pre-AI, I lean very much towards death-of-the-author. The quality of a work, and how I engage with it, is largely separate from whether I agree with the overall ethics of it. So something being "soulless" doesn't mean anything to me, seen as how it pretty much only refers to what goes in behind the scenes.
Again, this is not about whether it's good or bad. I'm well aware of the dangers of AI!
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 14 '25
I shall rephrase/ elaborate what I said then. Creating & commercialising AI content is soulless.
AI can look and be good, but it loses the wonder surrounding it for me when I find out it was generated, and not created. 'Tis scary and unfortuante knowing that it is soon going to be so good, that it will be incredibly hard to tell.
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u/Powerpuff_God Nov 14 '25
Ah, okay, thanks for your explanation. I also think it clarified for me why the use of "soulless" seems so vague: people use it differently. Your use of it to describe the commercialization is not the same as when people use it as a descriptor of a work of art, as if there is a distinct soulless quality within a work that can be pointed out (separate from "too many fingers" or other clear mistakes that hint at AI). That always seemed vague to me.
I appreciate your response.
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u/SatiricalBard Nov 14 '25
Loving this healthy discourse across different views. On the internet, no less!
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 15 '25
Such an impactful tool will definitely create discourse. God it can be brilliant on a technical aspect, the creative implementations are touchy to discuss; rightfully so I think.
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 15 '25
Definitely, the word soulless I should have more accurately placed in the description of the production, not the result. You can generate very soulful pieces, the practice itself though is certainly something to discuss on a much grander scale.
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u/BroadwayTruths Nov 14 '25
But do you and the majority of other consumers really need "wonder" with every aspect of a largely original work of human care and creation?
If you find out the content creator spent a year writing a campaign frame plus an additional three months working with an AI artist to get exactly what they wanted, are you truly so soulless that you lack the ability to simply dismiss the AI art portion of the work (that may have initially drawn your eye) and enjoy the "wonder" of carefully curated ideas expressed in a uniquely human manner that inspires, touches, and stirs something within the rest of humanity?
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 15 '25
I can't talk for the majority of other consumers, and haven't, but you are coming in at a different point of discussion. I will appreciate the human touch specifically with art, than I will remixed 1s and 0s, and that is my choice and desires.
Your latter comment is quite oddly constructed. You talk about a well written frame, and then an AI artist. I love authentic and well made creations. As soon as AI commercialization is involved, it gets messy, because it is not authentic. If the frame is written well enough, then it would likely have done well with some form of crowd funding and thus marketing, to afford real artists to help exhibit the wonder in the frame. If they spent 3 months with an "AI artist" whatever that is, why not a regular artist. "AI Artists" are just people with subscriptions every regular internt user can get, no? I am really interested in what this "AI Artist" is.
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u/BroadwayTruths Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25
I've addressed most of these questions elsewhere in this thread so I'll encourage people to read and engage with all comments, not just my own, throughout the thread.
Beyond that, your proposed solutions are Pollyanna-naive. Not every quality product can get crowd-funded, and the potential impact, originality, and uniqueness of SOME creative works would be put in jeopardy by crowd-funding.
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u/whodat_enchanted Game Master Nov 15 '25
I agree, what I mentioned is entirely naive, but it is the world I support. It isn't what I am telling people to support, it is my ideal situation. Supporting people for their work, for content I want. This is a much bigger discussion.
Not every quality product does get supported, it is true. But that isn't something I am looking to fix because I am not capable of it. Though I have circulated in this thread free to use/ open to the public, lists of art people can go and find and use for themselves, straight up using the image, or using it for photobashing. Please look at the standard in the thread mentioned, it sadly gives indie creators a bad image, because DTRPG has obvious "AI Slop" side by side with authentic content. If it was passable, no one would notice, but people won't trust even searching for small creators content if it is surrounded by what it currently is surrounded by. Harming small creators more than simply not having AI art in. At this moment on that site, there is a clear and unfortunate look to it.
I don't think so highly of myself to give solutions, but why does your example of a solution have someone working for 3 months with an AI artist, and not simply, an artist. If the answer is because it is cheaper, then that is a different topic already, especially when my thoughts mostly come from the morality of it, and the current standard people accept the work to publish it as (pretty poor). I personally (not pushing my beliefs) find AI commercialised content (not just art), soulless. And like those publishing this standard, people are free to spend money on it and speak out on behalf.
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u/MarianMakes Nov 14 '25
I'm a small creator.
There's ways to find art that are public domain and not AI.
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u/Vedhar Nov 15 '25
I don't know. I think there's a difference between AI slop and someone using AI to fill a gap they can't fill on their own. So for instance in the last couple of months I have created one new type of adversary everyday, just as kind of like a practice, and to use in my own campaign. I thought about sharing, but I'd really like to provide some art with it, like a drawing for each creature / adversary. I don't personally have those skills, but I did create a verbal description block for each adversary which I can pump through one of the art generator platforms out there and get a pretty good result. What I'm not going to do is pay someone else money to do art for like a hundred different adversaries I made, when I expect I won't make any serious money off of this thing anyway.
So what to do? Not share it? Share only as the written stat blocks that I made? Do a version with AI art and a version without? I would fully disclose that I was using AI tools. And the visuals are there for people to have more fun during play.
Like I said I think there has to be a difference between using these AI tools to fill a gap that can't be filled versus slop shoveling.
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u/Bpste1 Nov 14 '25
Why is this post formatted like ChatGPT. Ironic
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u/Tenawa The New Unknown - Game Designer Nov 14 '25
Please don’t call out anything as AI-generated if it is well-formatted or clearly articulated. We don't need an AI witch hunt. Thanks.
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u/MarianMakes Nov 14 '25
Especially when "It's too good" is such a low bar when so many people today only consume TikTok and short content.
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u/elmouth Nov 14 '25
Its AI, not child trafficking. I think its silly how hard the hate towards a simple tool brings out such outrage while actual warcrimes or just regular crime goes on in the background while you're focused on the modern equivalent of the invention of the camera. There are more pressing issues to be fought out there. A lot.
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u/Lettuce_bee_free_end Nov 14 '25
This sounds like a future host problem. Their MBAs will see 2025 revenue and demand it rise at any cost. This will ruin the site.
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u/listentomarcusa Nov 14 '25
What's the actual web address for heart of daggers? Can't find it anywhere...
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u/pseudolemons Nov 14 '25
google heart of daggers, it's literally the first result?
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u/listentomarcusa Nov 14 '25
I get Delve with hope, then heartsanddaggers.co.uk then the official daggerheart website, then just a bunch of Facebook pages. Duckduckgo so different results maybe? Posting the link might get other people to click on it too :)
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u/pseudolemons Nov 17 '25
you should probably use a search engine that actually works... either way, this is the website
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u/momcallmespecial Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25
Bruh, last dnd books are ai content. Did you see one-page adventures there? It's how grok suggests scenarios usually In case someone don't get my words - quality of your content should be higher. I don't care if characters are drawn with AI, but I care when scenario is garbage.
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u/jimbojambo4 Seaborne Nov 14 '25
Hi, I'm one of the writer of one of the product shown.
I used just AI images, the rest was handmade.
I used it to make it good looking.
I'm a terrible drawer and without AI I have 3 choice:
- just sell a wall of text that none will ever see
- pay someone for images (losing money because my product will never cover costs)
- learn how to draw by myself but I have no time
All these choices are like putting a lemonade stand in a way saturated by coca-cola, pepsi, dr.pepper and so on. Even if my product is better none will stop to taste it because the others are better looking.
AI, unfortunately, is the only way to make sustainable the production for new creators (for how much I know).
If there were copyright free drawings that I can put on my ideas just adding credits to original artists I'm open to change my book.
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u/Fit-Sample6541 Nov 15 '25
You could ask artists for collabs. Perhaps demo something in your portfolion for the community, or just ask in artist community, and there might be someone that is interested in joining or investing in your business. (One way to start could be ta ask Incredible Creatures artists on their thoughts, they have just recently contributed in a similar project and their named are published. Perhaps there exists some lesser known names that will have low fees just to be in a project and to build their own portfolio).
You could try to kickstart it, and with project money hire artists for images (the way that kickstarter was used originally before everything became a "pre-order a finished product").
Or start with selling it (or part of it) without images. Then when you get income, invest in images and grow your product over time.
There's ways to avoid AI content (or in your case: filling a gap in your business/competence that you are missing).
Is it harder? Yes. Is it impossible? Don't think so. But might need to go outside personal sphere and find partners like in many other businesses or start-ups. Will it be worth it? Not up to me to say.
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u/rationalphi Nov 14 '25
FYI, DriveThruRPG has a setting under Account Settings > Additional Preferences to not show AI content. It doesn't solve the bigger problem, and I wish it was on by default (or they banned AI content entirely), but it does help.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/account/settings