Here we are again.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” –Snake Pliskin.

Looking back from the land of 2024 on my blog, I’m seeing a lot of things that have been in the same cycle of my life since this time last year. Our bathroom flooded from a plumbing issue. Our oldest child is struggling to get around to class and her job. I’m writing blog entries on similar topics in the broader TTRPG industry and culture. The OG GM is right; it’s like spinning the Wheel of Pointless TTRPG Controversies every week to see what comes up next.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Monstober so far; coming up with new creatures almost every day has been a refreshing change of pace from the weekly blog cycle. Everyday is now pretty much a Monday in terms of content unless something comes up.

The damned AI debate.

Yes, I’m still a bit hung up on that DnD Shorts video. It’s okay to hate on “AI slop.” It’s fine to make a video about it. But my problem is this guy just told his half a million subscribers and countless other YouTube viewers that they should do the same. Now I’m one of the few odd men out advocating in favor of using AI tools for creating TTRPG products.

Dude, if you don’t like people using AI tools, that’s on YOU. There is a feature in DriveThruRPG that lets you turn off AI generated content. You don’t even have to look at it, much less cry about how much you hate looking at it. Those of us who use AI tools are supposed to mark it as such so we don’t offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities. Back in my day we didn’t get upset and cry about something on a public access television (because there was no YouTube) just because we don’t like something. We changed the channel, turned it off, read a different book, bought someone else’s game. In the words of Degeneration X, “Suck it.”

My use of AI art on most of my Monstober entries undoubtedly has someone cheesed off somewhere. My apologies. I don’t have a $3 Million Kickstarter project so I can pay artists to provide me with a beautiful, well thought-out piece of art for the crazy things that pour out of my brain at 3:00 in the morning. I do have my ChatGPT model that I’ve been steadily training, however.

People are leaning into AI more every day to do things that help us free up time, one of the most valuable resources in the world. I spend less time hunting for artwork and then plugging things into photo editors and paint programs to get a fairly crappy looking mockery of what I want and more time doing laundry, fixing door handles, and cleaning up floods. I kid you not, since using AI for my projects, I have almost literally doubled my productivity to the point where I can get something out on DriveThruRPG in a few weeks as opposed to a few months.

“Just use free stock art,” people cry.

Do you know how hard it is to find a piece of stock art that looks like a demonically possessed goblin/wasp hybrid? Good luck finding that. Much less a Kaiju that looks like Cthulhu and Sirenhead had a baby together.

Is it perfect? No. Would I rather be using a human artist for the DTRPG stuff? Yes. Can I afford one? Nope. So ChatGPT gets the job for now. It’s also helpful for bouncing ideas around and brainstorming. It’s especially helpful when it comes to some of the editing and organizational stuff, too.

But, if you have over $3 million lying around, you probably have a staff. I have me and a Large Language Model (LLM.) We get done what I want to accomplish, not because I don’t want to pay people who I couldn’t afford even if I wanted to, but because it gets me where I want to be and the next rung on the creation ladder up from zero.

What I think people might be missing:

Everyone says, “You just enter a prompt, and you get free art.” That is 100% not the case. I often go back and forth, sometimes for days because I get extra appendages or things just look goofy as all heck. Once in a great while I even get a cartoon of something I didn’t ask for. Then there’s the inevitable problem of using any free software: running out of image credits or hitting the Free Plan limit. I think I can safely say if I could afford to pay for Premium, I would just to see if the thing fouls up less and burns through responses as much.

But hey, I’m the devil for using AI in my approach to content creation. Or at least that’s what I hear. I still won’t kick a puppy or kiss a zombie, though. Unfortunately it makes me a bit of an outcast in the TTRPG space, which is a shame on some levels. Then again, I don’t think anyone was scouting me as a game designer or writer anyway. The “community” seems more focused on Dungeons & Dragons or voice actors anyway.

I see so many people with connections from various conventions or online collaborations who happily punch down on people like me for using AI. Oh, you’re going to tell the whole industry that I use AI, so they shun me? They were already ignoring me or just plain don’t know I exist.

I don’t see a community. I see cliques. Tight little groups of DungeonTubers banded together with their own followers. That’s not helping me grow. The opportunities just aren’t there. I’ve tried to befriend some of these people to no avail.

For example, that whole Scorched Basin project came and went. I had no idea they were looking for gaming or voice talent. But it was a 5E project and I think we can safely say I’m not in the demographic they were probably looking for. (Although I find it ironic that Caucasian male YouTubers talk mad smack about us “old white guys from the Midwest flyover states” because they automatically assume they know me.) Just because I use AI for my own work, doesn’t mean I’d use it if hired for a “real” project. Not that anyone seems to notice or care when I see zero views on some articles and videos. (Apologies. I’m trying not to be bitter.)

But it goes to show that the #ttrpgcommunity is really nothing of the sort. I think I used to give some people way more credit than they deserve. The question I frequently ask is, “Am I trying to make friends and hang out with the cool gamer kids, or am I trying to sell my humble Dragonbane offerings to a very focused audience?” Why are any of us here at this point? When did D&D become the “Cool Kids Club?”

I started my TTRPG journey way back 40+ years ago when I was around 10, learning to play Marvel Superheroes and Basic Dungeons & Dragons. We didn’t have commonly accessible global telecommunications in the palm of our hands. There was no one teaching the finer points of Game Mastering except maybe at conventions or clubs. Even then, it was a relatively new art form that was just taking off. We didn’t have relatively famous voice actors showing us how to play.

So, I’m too old for a lot of this “community” it seems. I’m automatically considered part of that damned dirty OSR movement. From what I hear some of the old guys want nothing to do with me because I use AI tools, too. I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding underlying everything here, though.

I don’t use AI to mindlessly pump out drivel for D&D with big breasted anime girls on the cover.

That’s not the way or the point of using AI to create a product. I condemn that as much as the guy who likes to punch down on me for using AI. “AI slop” as it’s commonly referred-to is a cheap, often thoughtless cash grab that will probably be driven out of the hobby within 10 years. That’s not what I’m about.

My projects/products are very clearly marked that I used AI tools for the art and some of the writing related tasks. I’d probably do that even if DTRPG didn’t have rules saying we’re supposed to label our AI content. (Although I have yet to see them police anyone using generative AI.) I’m not trying to claim anything I didn’t do. Hello, have you seen my original artwork? It’s pretty bad. AI is a massive step up.

And no, I’m not trying to screw over artists or anyone else just to make a profit. “Big” DungeonTubers, game companies, and Kickstarter projects who make hundreds of thousands or over a million dollars can afford to hire pretty much anyone they’ll ever want or need, especially artists. I, down here with my little shoestring budget and an aging laptop, am just trying to make enough to buy a few game supplements and support some of my favorite creators. I don’t have hundreds of dollars to shell out for art on Patreon exclusives. (I don’t even have a Patreon.)

I may not have a half a million subscribers on YouTube but allow me to share my opinion.

It’s okay to use AI tools to get by. If you need to use AI generated art or even text to help you with a project, then do it. The technology is improving by leaps and bounds daily. Stay with the times. What matters is the amount of interaction and editing you do after the fact. It’s a good thing if AI helps you get that ball rolling when you need it. Do what you need to do to get on the map and make improvements from there.

I edit like crazy on everything I produce, probably to the point of overthinking things. Many of my prompts going into chat are so detailed, I could probably skip the AI component altogether in some cases. But it’s nice to have a second opinion to help organize my thoughts a little better and I often find editing to be a back-and-forth process that helps. My point is, the final product in terms of text is always way more human than AI which is a distinction a lot of people overlook.

I think the real “AI slop” comes in when someone uses generative AI without editing any text, pairing it with some AI art with a poorly written prompt, also not edited, and then drops it onto DriveThruRPG without labeling it properly. And somehow people are making some money doing this. Human see, human do after that and pretty soon there’s this AI word salad product floating around everywhere, mostly unchecked. The lack of human interaction makes the product less reputable.

If you’re responsible with how you use AI, I think people should cut you some slack. You’re not a bad content creator on any platform for making something that looks good, is written coherently, laid out carefully, and attributed properly when needed. Instead of shunning and ostracizing fellow creators, maybe we need to get back to building the TTRPG hobby together.

I find it ironic that some of the DungeonTubers crying the loudest don’t even have their product on DriveThruRPG when I looked.

Shall I name some? Yes, some of these “big names” have a few adventures on DMsGuild.com. I guess AI might be competitive in that arena. But the “big” projects that make thousands or millions of dollars on Kickstarter and then hit publication? Most of them aren’t on any of the Roll20/OneBookShelf sites as far as I can tell. So a dude complaining about “all this AI slop” on that site amounts to jack diddly sh*t as far as I can tell. It’s not even cutting into his bottom line that far.

Let me be frank, Mr. Shorts, go back to shilling for Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons, making video tutorials on the most broken character builds, and managing all that money from you Kickstarter. Meanwhile, let the rest of us do what we need to do to get by. It’s none of your damned business what I use to create my product that you’ll never buy, never browse, never use, or even look at. I know you’re not reading my blog, so maybe we’ll get lucky and one of your servants can fill you in.

Yes, I’m bitter. It’s not because I’m jealous. I’m appalled by the fact that some little pipsqueak with a fraction of the amount of time in my hobby is out there on YouTube trying to tell me how to go about my business. I don’t tell you how to manage your big money Kickstarter book and I don’t see where you’re hiring, (not that I’d have a chance given my evil demographic.)

It’s a new technological breakthrough and we’re still adjusting.

I can remember a time, not that terribly long ago, when TTRPG creators would loudly decree, “I’ll never use digital art in any of my products! Everything truly good must be crafted by hand on paper or canvas the way they did back in the old days!”

People used to hate on Photoshop. Now it’s almost expected that most of the images we use for games are edited, cleaned up, and yes, even created digitally. Pretty much all of our layout is done using some sort of application these days. I can’t remember the last time I laid out something by hand, but I still know how to do it. Cropping photos and doing print layout by hand is a skill lost to these kids who grew up playing D&D 5E.

Remember when all the teachers were saying, “Don’t use the spell checker?’
Do you know how many hundreds of words I’ve had to add to my custom dictionary? This thing doesn’t even come with some fairly basic TTRPG industry terms. Imagine that. But seriously, it would be hard to find someone who doesn’t use the grammar and spell check functions in Word now.

Sometimes I think the tabletop roleplaying crowd is about a step and a half behind the rest of the business and publishing world when it comes to the use of new technologies. Even Hasbro recently mentioned doubling down on their in-house AI usage.

I’m all for analog gaming as such. Great. I’ve said that countless times. I make all my PDFs in a second printer friendly version for a reason. I prefer games that don’t require an app in order to make a character. I can go without a computer or printer if I have to.

But when it comes to content creation, some of y’all act like angry pitchfork wielding Luddites. Don’t make an AI thumbnail for your video and then turn around and complain about people using AI tools in the industry. Someday some of you will grow up and learn what I’ve been saying for a little while now, “adapt, learn, grow.” Don’t punch down on people who are using the technology already. You’ll just get left in the dust by the time the next tech trend crops up.

Once upon a time I was going to do everything to keep this whole blog positive.

Do you know how hard that is to do when something has me this steamed? I’ve meditated, “prayed” to the Universe, used the Ho’oponopono method, and had any number of YouTube ASMR Reiki cleansings. I’m still pissed off.

One time I vowed to stay away from negatives and just talk about all the good stuff. My goal was try to avoid “no,” “not,” and various contractions thereof. I slip from time to time. I get irritated about dumb stuff like this AI debate or something WotC did that needs to be addressed in my opinion. I’m allowed to vent my opinion: right, wrong, or otherwise on my blog. Just like I’m allowed to use whatever creation methods I see fit on my product.

At least I’m still following one of my other guiding principles of “Do no harm.”

At least I’m still attempting to honor my guiding principle of “Do what brings me joy.”

I don’t hate on Ginny, Will, Bob, Ted, Taron, Dan, or any of the other big money DungeonTubers. I might get irritated with something they say or do (regularly.) It comes to pass eventually, usually just a matter of when. It’s not petty jealousy nearly as much as being absolutely gobsmacked by something that was said online that bears correcting. I might not be correct all the time, but free discourse still allows me to disagree with the status quo and those spouting it.

That’s another thing ChatGPT sometimes helps me with. It turns my rage fueled diatribes into clear, polished, organized, focused articles using a document called Write Like Me. It’s a custom GPT that keeps my voice and tone without making me sound like a negative raging madman bent on world conquest, running though the streets naked, spreading rumors of another great plague upon humanity. No promises this time. I still might do all or some of that. I did not have it go through this article.

DungeonTubers, give me something worthy of my attention.

I’ve said it before on here and I’ll say it again: When I have the wealth, I’ll happily help as many people as I reasonably can. A true community would be looking to hire some additional writers, artists, editors, etc if they had a multimillion dollar Kickstarter on their hands. I sure as heck would.

Funny how I never see where people are looking to hire TTRPG designers, writers, artists, editors, etc. I’ve heard such unicorns exist. Maybe I’m looking in all the wrong places. It’s like that time my friend told me to hold the bag while he went around back to flush the snipes out into the open. He never came back, and I’ve never seen one of those rodents. It’s almost like they don’t do the real.

I don’t see the big name DungeonTubers looking for any help or collaborations from the general public. They have their cute little cliques and I suspect there’s at least one cult (of personality) out there. I find it ironic that conventions ask people to speak on a panel about YouTube when the person in question hasn’t made a video in almost a year now. Seriously? Your entire YouTube career is 80K subscribers who you never talk to now?

I’ll say again, I’m available for a lot of this stuff. I’m a game designer, writer, and sometimes I can even edit. I’m building my portfolio steadily on DriveThruRPG with the help of AI. I can do the work. But y’all don’t hear me though. I’d be surprised if anyone makes it this far into the rant. <shrug>

The end of October marks the start of my YouTube journey as well.

It took me a very long time to get up the nerve to start making videos. I took time off over the summer because it was difficult to get any recording done. It still is to an extent. I thought when this all started there would be hurdles, but I’m definitely not where I thought I’d be at this stage. Monetization is a very long ways off if ever.

I watched every YouTube tutorial, how-to strategy, and the best practices videos I could get my hands on. I listened to countless motivational speeches for new YouTubers. I’m at a point where I could probably be one of those folks, but it’s not my niche.

No, no. I had to pick the tabletop roleplaying niche. It’s a niche within a niche and because I don’t flog on D&D 5E, it’s an even tinier niche. The strange thing is I see other YouTubers who are niched down this far with way more subscribers, higher view counts, and so on.
“It’ll be fun,” they said.
“Just start,” they said.

Anyone saying that never had to try to compete with the likes of Will “DnD” Shorts or Bob Worldbuilder and their audiences. The YouTube experts clearly do not understand the tabletop roleplaying niche as the VidIQ Podcast crew has proven multiple times now. So a lot of meaningful YouTube advice condenses down to title, thumbnail, and first 15-30 seconds which I learned Day 1.

I guess maybe I need to keep making videos with the vague hope of getting discovered, building an audience, etc. The temptation after this past week to start putting DungeonTubers on blast has been overwhelming, but I don’t feel like getting chased down the street by a half a million drooling fanboys or roasted by dozens of people in my own comments section. If there’s one thing we’ve seen DungeonTubers do successfully, it’s poison the well on their detractors and build a psycho village full of pitchfork-and-torch bearing loyalists. And don’t even get me started on the Critical Role crowd…

I have spent a ton of time questioning my motivations for everything this week.

Why am I still here? What am I trying to accomplish with my blog, YouTube, and DriveThruRPG? Is anything truly worth this much effort and grief? Would it just be easier to watch horror movies and play Fortnite most days?

If I wasn’t doing this, what would I be doing? Would I even still be writing about it? Do I need to be in front of an audience all the time? What would I change over to if I did change again?

Here’s the kicker: TTRPGs are in my blood. I’ve been doing this for so long I don’t know anything else. I’ve tried. It always comes back to gaming. (Of course I mean tabletop roleplaying.) It’s what I know and love the most. So I’m not going anywhere.

This IS what brings me the most joy through all of the ups and downs of life. I don’t know why the Universe put me on this path. I’m going to keep writing stuff for various games whether the public ever sees it or not. I’m going to keep writing about the industry and the culture as I see it. I’m even going to keep making videos about TTRPGs as the mood hits. I might be barking in the dark most of the time, but it still lights me up and I intend to keep on going.