Made By An Imperfect Human

a warm take on generative AI in tabletop gaming...

Nov 25, 2024

Welcome to the Glyph and Grok - A weekly blog-letter exploring topics in the tabletop gaming arena. We explore design, execution, and culture relating to anything played on a tabletop.

Introduction

Technology is constantly moving the lines, dragging us to rationalize our positions. I'm turning 40 next year, which means I've grown up right along side the personal computer and the internet and gotten to be a part of everything that comes with it. My professional career to-date has also been entirely birthed from automation - I program machines to produce things safer and faster. One person tending a machine can join or package a massive quantity of something with less personal risk in less time than a group of persons doing the same task. There are massive benefits to be gained from automation, but there are also pitfalls. Whom benefits the most from this massive uptick in productivity? This concept presents a slew of mostly-ignored-by-those-in-power questions about life in the real world that have needed grappled with for a long time - and AI exacerbates the need for answers.

Large language models "LLMs" are just a strange facsimile of actual intelligence and AI art visuals are just bridging into where it is difficult to tell if something is AI generated or not, but these have already caused massive ripples in our unready global human society. In what seems like a VERY short time, this technology has gone from an interesting gimmick to feeling like a threat to what many hold near and dear to their human experience. To generalize a quote that’s out there in the ether, we want the programs and robots doing the drudgery so we can produce more human art, not have them do the art so we can do the drudgery.

I feel like I have a unique perspective to explore as someone who interfaces with industrial automation technology often but also enjoys the very analog hobby of tabletop gaming. I have previously used AI art in my posts on this very publication, used generative AI to create art for some products and explored its use as a GM idea generator or replacement. Technology has always been something I will play with first and ask questions later. I have found these things very interesting in concept, but ultimately when I ask myself “why” I like tabletop gaming, what is most important to me about the hobby - use of these things has run contrary to that “why”. The craft of creating things for my table, the act of filling the role of the game master or referee in bringing the collective story at the table to life is something that cannot be outsourced and still be as exciting to me. The things I make for others to use, cannot be as proudly boasted, and so I will consider this a lesson learned. I do not begrudge any persons from exploring these things, and in your own personal games at your table, that is up to your table to decide, but as someone aspiring to put my creations out into the world - it has to come from me.

TL;DR - You will not see any more AI generated content in this publication or any products that come from the work we’re doing.

The following is my collected thoughts on the subject of generative AI through the lens of tabletop gaming - what I’ve tried and how I got to my current position.

The Thing

I love to automate processes. Obviously as I’ve made a career out of it. Taking repetitive mundane tasks and handing them to software or device is an amazing enabling capability. We as a species have basically jumped into being cyborgs by having our all in one communication and data devices in our pockets, always connected. It is not as cool as the movies, because the act of linking up to a satellite and getting your global position has been streamlined to a background task by clicking an address and auto-mapping a route. The fantastic then became the mundane and we as humans grunt in aggravation if the process takes longer than 200 milliseconds.

The thing is, how does one look at at the process required to produce content for your tabletop gaming experience? What is a “mundane” task? I offer that a task is worth automating if it is not providing you an opportunity to learn, and that makes for a very short list. I have obviously not started from this position, and I am not a fan of the hot takes that suggest an immoral act for literally any use of these technologies, but I believe having your own answer to this question is important.

The gap in my aesthetic taste versus what I can personally produce in a visual art medium is what drove me to try generative AI visual artist programs.

The Problem

My personal use of generative AI art has been attempts to create evocative visuals for this publication and monsters that I definitely could not create myself. Answering that need with something that has low-cost means you are creating something faster for less. If I had to interface with and pay a visual artist for this, it would take longer and require things I wasn’t trying to do in creating a thing myself. I was trying to get to a finish line faster with what I thought was a better product. That’s what I would tell myself. But therein lies the rub. There’s negatives in the effect on reducing demand in the marketplace AND in meeting my own want to be accepted into the marketplace. Sidestepping the training of visual art models on human art, obviously creators should have control over the rights to their work and they shouldn’t be scraped without their consent, lowering the demand for their work will harm their ends. As I am enjoying devoting my own time in learning how to create maps and art piece visuals myself now, it is a lot of time and effort, but I am starting to bridge that gap into having the skills to produce cool art myself which I have wanted my entire life.

For my own selfish means, an attempt to make something look professional, the use of AI generated art actually made it look “low-effort”. AI art has gained a zeitgeist coloration of making whatever it is attached to seem low-effort and there is an assumption of AI being the entirety of the thing. I know because it’s also my own view at this point. When I see something that is riddled with AI art, I will assume the writing will be poor, and I know I have made my own products with 100% my own writing that just used an AI art face!

I have been very heartened by discovering the OSR/NSR communities that are out there voting with their wallets and making funding campaigns lift up projects that are created using 100% human art. There seems to be an endless demand for good quality tabletop content, with art of all styles and varieties accepted. It is not needed to produce to the quality of the biggest names in the space to be able to make excellent artifacts. My own art is a far cry from where I would just choose it to be, but it is so enjoyable working in that direction.

The Conclusion

Do I think there’s just a black/white line on generative AI? No. Would it matter if I did think that? It’s here. The cat is out of the bag. Technology doesn’t go backwards. I think it is far more productive to grapple with the real implications. If you are someone who is just looking to generate something quick that’s been done before, or you want to use an image in a personal endeavor when you wouldn’t have paid someone to create it anyways? Then I do not see issue. If you are making something meaningful for consumption out in the world. You are doing yourself and those that use your products a disservice in using generative AI. The many skills that come together to create something like this are worth the time to hone.

All that is to say, anything you read here or see produced in association with our efforts will be 100% human made from here on out. I do not plan to purge the previous posts with AI art in them or to get rid of the couple things I’ve created so far. But we will be re-releasing those items without AI soon enough. I wanted to write this to be what I point to for my viewpoint on the topic, and so I may update this in the future.

And so I will end this by pointing to a number of things I have found useful.

Draw 21: Great teaching Drawing Videos

Affinity: The best “Adobe” alternative I’ve found for digital editing/drawing

Till next time.