I'll throw out an idea for something I would find useful, an automated, on the fly crossreference and lookup tool.  We all know how great internal links on most PDFs aren't, so looking up rules, tables, etc at the table is a time consuming pain in the butt.  It's better with paper products, but still can take more time than I want.

So here's what it would do.  If for example you have 5E on pdf, you tell the tool to analyze the PH, DMG, MM, and the adventure you're using.  Then at the table you have a page of the adventure on your device.  There's a room with a basilisk, a locked chest with several magic items, some rough terrain, and so on.  When you tap the room description, links and summaries pop up for whatever is relevant to the room, e.g. the basilisk description from the MM, locks skill, movement rules, petrification saves, magic item descriptions, whatever.  Add functions to drill down for additional information and to take you to the actual reference, and I think you've got something that would save me time at the table.

AI based "speech to text to prompt" mapmaker would be sweet and something I would love to see in RPGs. I am a low tech guy myself.. but here is a game I sit at as a player that used TableTop Simulator and a TV Screen for the DM to load up stuff... like if we are fighting a cool monster he might load it up on the screen.. sometimes he has maps and stuff setup that way.

Anyway, he has to spend time building these TTS scenes for our group... but with AI image generation... what if he as a DM could just describe the room, as he describes it to us, but holding down a record buttons. This is converted into text, and then that is used as a prompt to build an image.

Quote from: Like you say somethingThe dimly-lit corridor leads to a small room with two exits. In the center of the room is a skeleton in rusted armor, a rusty sword nearby. The room is lit by torches, with an eerie green glow emanating from one of the exits.

or w/e and the image app thing like midjourney or something builds that "room" onto the map.

I saw this app opn steam recently... Dungeon Alchemist
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1588530/Dungeon_Alchemist/

and when I saw your thread I thought, if AI could build resources for players on the fly from GM descriptions... that would be pretty awesome.

Quote from: Or something like thisThe Chicago Tribune Newspaper's front page contained an article about the gangland murder of Rocky "SawTooth". The notorious gangster and bootlegger, who was gunned down outside The Cliché Club. Several bystanders were injured, including Dr Sbaitso, the head of the antiquities department at the Chicago Museum, who was shot multipule times by Tommy Gun fire.

and have the AI write an actual article, make the paper front page... GM can just print it and hand it to the players as a story aid. The GM can even use the made up article as a story prompt to expand some of the game points.... or w/e.. just a super fast example.

Anyway.. my point is that imo, RPGs work best with a pencil and paper and some dice... but I do like player hand outs and sometimes maps are needed as well, particularly if you play combat heavy games like DnD. If an AI could create this kind of "3rd party content" I think that could be something people might want.

Quote from: Taramin on April 27, 2023, 07:53:50 AM
Hello to all,

I have been mastering games for over 30 years. For me, immersion is fundamental. That's why, over the years, I've found several ways to reinforce my narrative: I've created atmospheric playlists, not just of music, but of sounds. I found visuals, etc.
But preparing a session takes a lot of time.
Being a computer engineer with a specialization in AI, I want to start a project where I can automate all this. But before I start coding like crazy (I also have a family to take care of ), I would like to get some advice from experienced game makers :
If you had a tool that made your daily life as a game master easier, what features would you need?
I'm talking about realistic features, not ones where you replace the game master with an AI

Thanks a lot for your help...

A faster horse.

Quote from: Cathal on April 27, 2023, 11:24:09 AM
You don't have to mention that you know AI. It has nothing to do with it. People can learn Excel and "Automate" lots of stuff. I don't know why now everything is "AI" which is not most of the time.

Artificial Intelligence is so fake.


Anyway, I think that anyone can teach himself to first create a "3d6" dice roller in Excel. From there, expand to make a character creator (3d6 down the line, at least). Fiddling with the program will unlock new levels of knowledge and skill, about how to do more complicated tasks.

Quote from: Cathal on April 27, 2023, 11:24:09 AM
You don't have to mention that you know AI. It has nothing to do with it. People can learn Excel and "Automate" lots of stuff. I don't know why now everything is "AI" which is not most of the time.

Actually, "using AI" is relevant It's not actually intelligence and it's not magic; it's just a set of programming techniques.  But those programming techniques allow you to do thing that you can't without them.  If he had just asked about a DMing tool I probably would have made a very different suggestion.  The one I made requires AI to work well.

Personally, I'd like a tabletop that can do some common sense things, like "hold a button down to show melee ranges and line of sight", something that makes targeting spells and effects easy, and of course, something that allows for multiple vehicle combat to make sense.  What I'm describing are features that are hard to find in a VTT, and every VTT requires a lot of dorkwork.

But I think OP is more looking for general ideas that would be achievable- as, after all, the latest machine learning chatbots really do make possible things that were harder before.  I don't have a great answer for that- for the most part, a lot of OSR products provide a creative product, along with instructions for how to break it apart for use in small bits- or even just come with tables to roll on and be creative with.  These are all great things for a chatbot type application to work with (and in many cases, public facing ones can do it to some extent), but the problems start when you need continuity.  Even the best ideas in fiction strain and sometimes even break under the weight of becoming fully fleshed out, and there's nothing tracking that.  Calendar and timing programs are helpful, but their use is questioned, etc.

Then there's the other side- the argument that immersion risks the map becoming the territory. A description of a room encourages players to seek out individual features, describe things.  A map of a room invokes interaction with the map, and while the table can still describe all the stuff as before... do they?  Does the background music set people in a mood of lively adventure?  Of course!  But does it really describe the world you're making?  Possibly not.  Put a picture or a model of a character in front of everyone, and suddenly no one uses their imagination to picture that person any more.  You no longer have "red eyes, smoky hair, and blue skin", you are now a cartoon someone drew (or one that some thing drew).  It's difficult to defend this raw vital style without just sounding like a curmudgeon, techno-hater, or just a contrarian, but every new thing I add or experience makes me really give thought to this position as well.

But even with all that, tools to help the game run are still going to be helpful and great.

Anyway, sorry I don't have many ideas.

I want a tool that makes players show up

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on May 01, 2023, 12:28:19 PM
I want a tool that makes players show up

Yes!  If someone makes a tool that does this it will make MILLIONS!

Quote from: Mishihari on April 27, 2023, 07:17:30 PM
I'll throw out an idea for something I would find useful, an automated, on the fly crossreference and lookup tool.  We all know how great internal links on most PDFs aren't, so looking up rules, tables, etc at the table is a time consuming pain in the butt.  It's better with paper products, but still can take more time than I want.

So here's what it would do.  If for example you have 5E on pdf, you tell the tool to analyze the PH, DMG, MM, and the adventure you're using.  Then at the table you have a page of the adventure on your device.  There's a room with a basilisk, a locked chest with several magic items, some rough terrain, and so on.  When you tap the room description, links and summaries pop up for whatever is relevant to the room, e.g. the basilisk description from the MM, locks skill, movement rules, petrification saves, magic item descriptions, whatever.  Add functions to drill down for additional information and to take you to the actual reference, and I think you've got something that would save me time at the table.

This would be great when I was playing 5e.

Only caveat is that you can just google "5e SRD basilisk" etc. and get most of that.

OTOH a dungeon with pop up menus for when you open a closet or study a statue, for example, would be amazing. Bonus points for adding up the exploration turns as you go, tracking torches, automatically rolling for random encounters, etc.

Come to think of it, having some kind of "alarm clock" that included this would be an awesome tool.