The CEO of Hasbro said that all of his peers use AI for their Dungeons & Dragons games, which is apparently a “clear signal that we need to embrace AI.”

Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, has had a very public and very awkward relationship lately over the use of AI in their marketing materials and sourcebooks. Whenever the use of AI occurs, the resulting outrage causes enough of a stir to trigger a full retraction and apology. But that doesn’t stop Chris Cocks, CEO of Hasbro (WoTC’s parent company), from being very excited about the use of AI in D&D. At a Goldman Sachs conference (via Futurism), Cox casually mentioned that “We’re already using AI in the development department,” before clarifying that it’s mostly machine learning and proprietary technology, saying, “We’re going to be deploying AI extensively and liberally within the company, both as an aid to our knowledge workers and as an aid to development.” But in a weird way, Cox, who apparently plays D&D with “30-40 people on a regular basis” (I barely have time to play two TTRPG games. Chris, are you just in the West Marches campaign?), says, “There’s not a single person here who hasn’t used AI in some way, either in campaign development, character development, or story ideas. That’s a clear signal that we need to embrace AI.” Look, I’m not going to sit on the throne of ethical superiority here. I’ve never intentionally touched generative AI to run a TTRPG group, but I’ve gotten a reference image or two for games on Pinterest in the past. Homebrew campaigns that are devised by the sweat equity of a DM are very rare. I’ll admit that generative AI isn’t that far off from that, and if it’s just four random people I’ll never meet playing on a Discord server, that’s fine. I don’t agree, but that’s your life. But campaign development? Character development? That makes up 90% of my work as a DM and is part of why I enjoy running games in the first place. Cox continues: “I think the themes of using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player onboarding, and using AI for new storytelling apply not just to hardcore brands like D&D, but across multiple brands.” This enthusiasm runs counter to the spirit of Wizards’ AI Art FAQ, published shortly after the above controversy. That FAQ reads: “Magic and D&D have been built on the innovation, ingenuity, and hard work of talented people who shape these beautiful and creative games. As such, we require that artists, writers, and creators who contribute to the Magic TCG and D&D TTRPG refrain from using AI-generated tools to create the final Magic or D&D product.” To be fair, this specifically refers to AI art, but it’s a long way from Cox’s hunger for that field. Not sure. If the technology didn’t tire me, I could imagine another version of me, not an old man yelling at the clouds, happily experiencing a generative AI story once or twice, as a novelty experience. But as with most uses of generative AI to “create” artwork or writing, what’s the point? Aren’t we robbing ourselves, above all? Stay up to date with the most important stories and best deals picked by the PC Gamer team. AI can’t replicate the deep joy of twisting your players to surprise them, or watching your table grow attached to an NPC. Proprietary D&D story generation tools can’t replicate the euphoric feeling you get when someone asks a lore question or wants to work elements of your world into their backstory. They can’t give you the satisfaction of a well-balanced encounter or a homebrew mechanic being rewarded. You can’t tell a story with your companions, but that’s half the reason we bother. Secondary tools like character creation and rules questions don’t bother me much either way. AI is notorious for hallucinating information, so such a model would be unreliable, but that wouldn’t be the end of the world. AI could, for example, serve as a random name or NPC generator, something many DMs already use in traditional ways. I don’t see the appeal in Cox’s supposedly 10-player-strong game creating impersonal worlds and characters, and I worry that his infatuation with the technology will lead Hasbro to continue trickling the worst of video game nonsense onto pen and paper.