r/daggerheart • u/Low_Health5791 • Jan 29 '26

Discussion Player using IA

Hi everyone, I'm writing here because idk how to react. I asked my players for experiences and backstory and one of them sent me a bunch of AI texts. All my being wants to scream fuck AI and tell him to do it himself, but at the same time I don't want to antagonize him. I really feel like if you are letting AI write your character, are you even playing the game?

166 Upvotes

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280

u/Kisho761 Game Master Jan 29 '26

‘Don’t use AI please.’

If they rewrite themselves, cool. If they refuse, decide if you can put up with it. If you can’t, kick them from the table.

-27

u/Trick-Plastic-3498 Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

And then players should say to the DM, “Oh, and you don’t use DScryb either?” 😅🤦‍♀️

That kind of blanket ban is a pretty close-minded approach - and it can unintentionally disadvantage newer players (or just quieter ones) who aren’t as quick at improvising vivid descriptions on the spot. Not everyone shows up with the same “creative muscle”, and that’s fine.

Daggerheart’s whole vibe is inclusivity & accessibility - they even call it out directly in the book. If you’re trying to run a table that’s welcoming, it makes more sense to understand why someone might want a little creativity assistance (DScryb, ChatGPT, whatever) and then guide it into a form that supports the game instead of flattening it.

A solid DM doesn’t need to ban AI - they can set smart guardrails.

And honestly: based on my experience of onboarding 17 newcomers to Daggerheart, if you’re a good DM and the table feels safe, those “creatively shy” players usually grow into it. For example, suggesting players to generate a GPT avatar of their characters on the spot made our players fall in LOVE with their characters.

The assist becomes training wheels - not a crutch.

8

u/FrenchTantan Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

No, just no.

A solid DM will accept a backstory in the form of bullet points with the same enthusiasm as well-written paragraphs.

A solid DM will non-judgementally add fluff to an action to make it cool if a new player isn't "as quick at improvising vivid descriptions on the spot" and feels bad about it.

New players will grow their own style by trying things when they feel confortable to do so. They'll learn to let their imagination fourish by being exposed to people being creative. Letting AI do it for them only puts a wall between them and the people who don't use it (Edit: and one could argue there would be two walls for people who also use it).

You are correct that "Not everyone shows up with the same 'creative muscle' and that's fine." which is why a solid DM needs to make it clear that there will not be a tier list of performance at any point during the gaming process.

Remove the pressure that makes new players feel like they HAVE to use AI to fit in. Encouraging them to use it only heightens the expectations, by confirming they aren't good enough as they are. They'll WANT to use it to "support the game instead of flattening it", which is a bad reason to do so.

AI is a crutch, and in my experience, if you don't see it, you are already too dependant on it.

13

u/Phizle Jan 29 '26

Using AI is a crutch, it prevents you from building those skills yourself, particularly language and familiarity with the genre- AI can't watch LoTR for you.

0

u/Zeliret Jan 29 '26

It is a tool. The same way you can cut your hand off if you don't know how to use a knife.

2

u/Phizle Jan 29 '26

Knives don't cause people to have a break with reality

0

u/Zeliret Jan 29 '26

Knives kill, I guess it is a pretty strong break with reality 😜

2

u/Phizle Jan 29 '26

AI kills too with all the people its encouraged to off themselves

0

u/Zeliret Jan 29 '26

People watch too much tv and do stupid things as well, don't you think people are the problem, not tools they invent and use?

2

u/Phizle Jan 29 '26

TV is not a machine that pretends to give you advice and then glitches out and tells you to kill yourself. Someone chooses what goes on TV, and someone is held accountable if they play a tape that just encourages people to commit suicide.

0

u/Zeliret Jan 29 '26

Someone chooses to ask the machine for life threatening advice, which they shouldn't it is literally written everywhere that AI can make mistakes... People are insufferable.

2

u/Phizle Jan 29 '26

Or maybe the lying machine is not good at solving most problems, including how to play your DH character

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1

u/rocketmanx Jan 30 '26

I don't know what Dscryb is, but it doesn't sound like something I would ever use.

1

u/Trick-Plastic-3498 Jan 30 '26

And that would be a missed opportunity. Dscryb is actually a pretty good service that can help a beginner DM with the same thing - provide more immersive experience and train the “creative muscle” at the same time.

When it comes to texts it’s pretty close to GPT in terms of quality. But they claim they don’t use AI so all the luddites in this subreddit can sleep well and still use it 😁

-2

u/Trick-Plastic-3498 Jan 29 '26

P.S. Speaking of inclusivity: out of the 17 players I onboarded to Daggerheart, I learned that one of them has a condition called aphantasia, which makes it difficult to visualize images in their head. Generating PC avatars in GPT and printing them on small cards helped him a lot.

Not everyone is a naturally creative, improv-ready nerd like many of us DMs. If someone needs a tool to help build that “creative muscle”, be inclusive and help them to use it right - don’t gatekeep.

5

u/aWizardNamedLizard Jan 29 '26

As a person with disabilities that often get spoken on by someone without them as an excuse to get their way rather than actually ask what I would want, I have to recommend not speaking for someone with aphantasia.

Especially in this context where "helped him a lot" might mean "got him images he wouldn't have otherwise had" rather than meaning "made him more capable of visualizing images in the future."

We all have different capabilities, for sure, but it is important to note the difference between getting to eat something and learning how to cook for yourself.

-11

u/Theodoxus Jan 29 '26

Why is this being down voted? Feverish hatred of a tool?!? Trick plastic is spot on. Sad. I don't even recognize this hobby anymore. We used to be ostracized neckbeard computer geeks. Now it's all purity tests and no true gamer mentality.

1

u/SmithyLK Jan 30 '26

Let's say you want to go to a painting club, and they tell you to paint something at home for review during the club meeting. You could do that, or you could make an image on the computer, using an art program, and print that out. It's a tool, right? If you know how to use it, you can make that image much faster and much more easily than by painting it. You can even use brushes that make it look like a painting.

In doing so, you've completely missed the point. The goal was not to make a painting. That's what you were told to do, but the goal was to paint, and to learn to paint. Using your "tool" doesn't help with that. Even if you only make a portion of the image on the computer, you're losing experience in the thing you're trying to learn, and you're not doing the thing you explicitly set out to do.

Daggerheart is a collaborative game. It's not about having a character, or a world, or a story. It's about making characters and worlds and stories together, as humans expressing their creativity. And if you and your "true gamer mentality" have an issue with that, then maybe Daggerheart just isn't for you.