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I have seen a good deal of a few AI-heavy games in the past several months. What do you make of this trend?

The real smoking gun for me is when the advertisement uses the same old hallmarks (curly apostrophes, long dashes, "not X, but Y," oddly "business sales pitch"-like tone; any one of these would be innocuous, but encountered all together, they are suspicious), yet the actual GM communicates in a much simpler style... only to occasionally flip back into long, AI-generated responses, such as in-game.

There is one up right now.

This game takes place in the world of Dispatch—a living, breathing city where danger erupts without warning and heroes are the thin line holding everything together. I’ll be your DM, but in this world, you’ll know me as your Dispatcher. I’m the voice in your ear, the one who tracks the chaos, the one who sends you and other heroes into the field when Manhattan needs you most.

Your missions will range from capturing dangerous villains to rescuing civilians, stopping escalating threats, uncovering hidden plots, or confronting unknown anomalies. Dispatch calls don’t wait. They hit fast, loud, and unpredictable. When that call goes out, you suit up, step forward, and answer it.

Using Daggerheart’s Duality system—Hope and Fear—we’re shaping a flexible, evolving ruleset that grows with both the world and your characters. Every mission will test your skills. Every choice will shape the city around you. And as the story unfolds, we’ll refine and expand the system together, adapting it to the heroes you become.

This is a world where your decisions matter, where Hope fuels your rise, where Fear pushes back, and where every Dispatch shapes the next chapter. You’re not just playing a character. You’re becoming a symbol.

I am actually in this game, and the GM has been using AI-generated messages extensively. For example, the GM posted a long, long, LLM-generated summary of the Daggerheart rules. (Why they felt the need to do so, I do not know.)

Said summary includes awkwardly phrased lines like:

► Duality Blessings (Doubles)

Rolling matching numbers—1:1, 7:7, 12:12, or any matching pair—creates a moment of powerful cosmic alignment. This is always an automatic success, regardless of the threshold. You also gain 1 Hope and remove 1 Stress. Doubles represent the world synchronizing with your intent, allowing you to carve through fear and doubt effortlessly.

Despite this being their first time ever playing or running the system, they also posted some questionable homebrew mechanics that would have a significant impact on gameplay. When I pried and asked about the mechanics, it became clear that the GM did not even know how the core dice roll rules even worked.

So in other words, this GM is also outsourcing their understanding (or "understanding") of the rules to LLMs. Why even play tabletop RPGs at that point?

Compare this to the GM's non-AI-generated messages, such as:

Alright but you have to do me a favor.

I think streamers are cool but they feel like more male stalks them and ask for weird things while influencers are cool but get more attention from female… if you are playing a woman. V tube gets a lot of hate but the most fans.

I can already see 1 story problem which ever route which will get your story going or maybe just something small to deal with

And:

Alright well hope you have fun make your character ill be here if anything

And:

Use abilities skills whatever comes to find. Just when you roll either low or fear it will have consequences of course

When I asked the GM why they were using LLMs, they said:

No I only used the AI to help me correct any misspelling and condescending what I’m saying.

This seems to be much more than correction of misspellings, though.

They openly claim to be "a 24 year old DM married marine Veteran," and they allege that they have "been a writer for 10 years."

They are trying to turn Dispatch into a game of Daggerheart and have homebrewed a number of questionable mechanics to try to make it work... and even then, I am doubtful that they are faithful to Dispatch.

For example, all of our PCs are assumed to split up (bad idea in general, doubly so in Daggerheart where Fear accumulates on a group-wide basis), and each PC has to make two separate rolls to make it to a location in a timely manner.

When I asked the GM why it would take two successful rolls just for a single PC to make it to a location in time, the GM responded:

Have you ever had to shot a M240 machine gun after running up a damn hill while your squad leader’s yelling you’re a pussy because you sprained your ankle after hiking 20 miserable miles, most of it uphill, with an 80 pound pack digging into your shoulders the whole time? Man, my lungs were burning like I swallowed jet fuel, my ankle felt like it was held together with hopes and bad decisions, and that pack kept sliding, smashing my spine every step like it had a personal vendetta. Sweat’s pouring into my eyes, rifle slipping in my hands, and the only thing I can hear besides my own ragged breathing is my squad leader screaming like I personally offended the Marine Corps by existing. And then, as if the pain parade wasn’t enough, you gotta drop to the dirt, set up, and start firing like your body hasn’t been begging for death for the last three hours straight, all while thinking, “Why the hell did I sign up for this?”

I think I can handle the stress of some dice on my phone.

I lied I didn’t carry a M240 but M320 and my M27 I thought the M240 was funnier. No disrespect brother but all for fun and giggles. Let’s have a good game!

This is not the first time I have talked about this exact topic.

This is not the first time I have seen a GM outsource large swaths of their duties to LLMs, and I doubt it is going to be the last.

(Aside from "RPGs in general" jokes, of course.) I was just thinking of this because i can remember (back in the day ) someone wanting about $16 in 2025 money for "ship's deck plans" that were mostly rectangles with a hex-map in them. And that's it. (You used to get people doing that. And 'warehouses' that were a slightly more squat rectangle, with a door on the side.)

Biggest RPG rip off you've ever encountered?

Completely setting aside my issue with online GMs outsourcing their duties to LLMs, I have been finding it to be a poor sign when a pick-up game's GM expresses an optimistic desire to run this super-grand, super-ambitious, epic saga for the ages. I think it is deeply unrealistic to expect that a group of people semi-randomly assembled together will miraculously have the chemistry, investment, dedication, and scheduling necessary for a game to last for years. I think that lofty ambitions and expectations transform into rapid burnout when they meet a much more prosaic reality of mismatched preferences, availability issues, and decent-but-not-fantastic roleplaying.

This goes triply in a play-by-post game, where it might take several months (if not over a year!) just to complete a very short, bare-bones adventures. This is also exacerbated by rookie mistakes like taking in more players than the GM can handle, or writing in homebrew mechanics that substantially upheave the core rules without prior experience with the system. I recently joined one such play-by-post game wherein the GM expresses a desire for a grand-scale campaign, has taken on seven players, and has presented extensive homebrew despite having zero previous experience with the system; I doubt it is going to end well.

I have much more confidence in a GM who is willing to simply say, "We will do a quick adventure together. If it works out, we will consider a longer campaign." Indeed, I have had much more success with such pick-up GMs. (This is assuming I do not just play with people I already know, which I also do.)

I’m the owner of a FLGS and a fan of RPGs since OD&D back in ‘77. The shop itself is a very diverse store with miniatures (D&D and Games Workshop), board games, TCGs, RPGs, and lots of other bits. The former owners kept RPGs to the mainstream ones and other than D&D, mainly the core rule books; D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, and the like.

Since I took over almost 4 years ago, I’ve quadrupled the shelf space for RPGs. I’ve brought in other RPGs as I can find them. As a fan of Savage Worlds for example, it’s been virtually impossible over the past 4 years to find the core rules. I signed up to the kickstarter and joined the retailer email list and the only email I’ve received, 2 years ago, was “welcome to the list” :)

Anyway, I do bring in other RPGs and have reached out to Bits and Mortar and gotten that in place plus over at Indie Press Revolution, I’ve brought in several Indie RPGs (Dukk Borg is coming :D ). I’ve also participated in FreeRPG Day. I’ve also instituted a quarterly Learn2Play event for one shot learning about different systems. Aliens (twice plus a month long game), Pathfinder, D&D, My Little Pony, Pirate Borg, Shadowrun (plus a year long game), with Old Gods of Appalachia and Arkham Horror RPGs in the queue (and Dukk Borg coming up).

Heck, we finally got Daggerheart. Our distributor didn’t have it but a second one did so once it was available to us, we brought in 5 copies (well, 4 copies as I always buy one :) ).

Just saying that I’m an RPGer (and gamer in general) and enjoy all the different systems :)

The reality though is core RPG rules are bought by most folks but anything else is bought by just the GM. So we have games sitting for years (seriously) before it catches someone’s eye. I have to be careful and not bring in RPGs that I personally think are interesting as we have to be customer aware. I do want us to be a destination for folks looking for alternatives to D&D so I’ll keep bringing in different systems.

Just realize that games that sit for years, are also tying up funds that can be better used with other products that are more likely to move. “Churn” is a key aspect of owning a shop. But as the owner, it is “my way or the highway” But I still have to be careful.

Do you prefer combat that is fast and deadly which doesn't really allow you to simulate long flight scenes like you see in the movies, or do you prefer being able to simulate taking lots of hits and having a longer combat? I'm thinking like the John Wick movies where he takes crap tons of damage, but keeps going vs the more familiar games where one or two hits could take you out of the fight. There are so many systems that do combat a lot of different ways and I'm curious if there is any consensus when it comes to combat.

I know we all prefer to be able to mow down NPCs while at the same time being able to fight on. But when it comes to PC damage, which do you prefer? I'm more of a simulationist that wants combat to be truly dangerous to force creativity and trying to find ways to avoid conflict, but when it happens I want every strike to carry some weight and mean something.

I searched for this before posting and found a couple of threads about which video games should have TTRPGs but not the reverse.

For me Coriolis (Third Horizon and maybe another game for The Great Dark) would be something I'd love to see done as a video game. And my ideas are ambitious. I want Coriolis station as a place you can walk around in. Something akin to Cyberpunk 2077. But I also want to be able to go to the various planets and other locations. Some space flight would be ideal. I guess this might be pulled off with an extensive Starfield mod but it would have to have a much darker aesthetic. Also I'd prefer an engine where you actually land the ship yourself not have a cut scene.

What games would you folks want to see?

Hi all, I wanted to ask for some advice. I work with some really troubled kids between the ages of 8 - 12 that have been removed from their schools due to extremely violent behaviour. We are setting up individual programs where they are going to be essentially privately schooled in isolation from other kids and hopefully build the social skills and get the support they need that will allow them to improve without putting others at risk, with the ultimate goal being that they can safely and successfully return to school one day. They are very smart kids with a lot problems and require both emotional support and academic support.

One of the kids expressed an interest in playing D&D. I have not yet played it myself and have not been a GM, though I am interested personally in it, know a lot about it in general, and have a lot of experience in story-telling, facilitation, improv, acting, and related skills.

I am interested in exploring this option as a safe outlet for the violent streak that can also be a rewarding way to work on their math, reading and writing, as well as a way to learn emotional regulation and better decision-making through role-playing various decisions of the characters.

My questions:

1. Am I even remotely correct that this activity can help us do that, and is so, how?
2. Is it possible (enjoyable) to play this with one to three people, including the GM?
3. How can I successfully run this with minimal rules and a small learning curve, both for myself and the students? I do want them to go through the process of creating a character and character sheets, but too many rules or reading off the bat will trigger behaviour. One of them can't even read. Can we have a visual character sheet?
4. Is it possible for me to run the game as a GM without ever having played it before? What equipment do I need? How can I learn without having to attend a group as a player, which would take many hours which I currently do not have?
5. How is it possible to put greater emphasis on non-violent actions in the game, so that fighting and battle will not be the only option, but verbal problem-solving, negotiation, non-violent actions are also rewarding for the player? Perhaps there are campaigns/missions which require no fighting at all?
6. What game systems would be best? I have looked into some kids games like Hero Kids and No Thank You Evil.

Open to any other ideas or resources or if you think I am asking the wrong questions. Thanks in advance. Posting in a few subs to try to get as much feedback as I can.

In search of a megadungeon type campaign in the SF setting, don't care what system it was intedned for...do these things exist? I did some googling and can't find anything beyond Gradient Descent for Mothership and similar, which while cool af, isn't like Rappan Athuk or Stonehells for fantasy games.

In character or out of character, from "Women wouldn't be able to swing a sword" to "Ah, yes, the rainbow colored rabbits are thermonuclear explosives" what is the oddest thing you've heard at game?

(As much background or as little as you care to give.)

Okay so I got this group of 6 friends (me being the 7th) we have been playing ttrpgs(lets be honest its just A5E from enworld) for a couple years by now. I am in a sense a completionist that likes to absorb as much info about anything that I can so I read and got an ungodly library of homebrew content both paid and free all in the purpose of alleviating the general problems with 5e based games. Mainly the sameness of the martial characters and the divide between them and the casters and some builds being very much unworkable+hampers the character fantasy.

As a group my players are all roleplay 1st type of people and as much as I cant call them optimizers they certainly hate when they feel useless or less powerful than the other players in a consistent manner and some of them feel like whatever I got for them dont really achieve the fantasy they had in mind about a certain character. I had characters inspired by all sorts of media. There was a time a player wanted a spider-man esque character,guts style swordsman,polka dot man,aragorn,jinwoo,homelander,omni man you name it. To each I can at least flavor a certain subclass or pull one from my vast library(some being easier to do because guts and aragorn wasnt a challange obviously) but everytime they would have some problems with it that I am unable to address without making them super inbalanced or throwing off the entire idea of a growing character this just might be a skill issue too so I dont know. I played shadowdark with a different group where I was a player which was fun but it felt like its not my players would look for so osr is out of the picture too(Im inexperienced so its not like I cant be convinced on it) I think I need a crunchy free form system

So yeah sorry if I rambled but is there any system you would recommend for a detailed character creation that gets it just right so that everyone can play whatever they want however they built it instead of premade choices. I would love to hear your opinions and recommendations

I wanted to share my experience with the physical core book in case it helps others deciding whether to buy it.

I purchased my copy on August 1st, and after only a few months of normal use the pages have already started coming loose from the binding. I treat my books carefully, so this was pretty surprising and honestly a bit disappointing; especially for a brand-new release.

I reached out to customer support at the Critical Role shop, but they told me the warranty period had already passed. I get that policies are policies, but it still feels frustrating to have a book deteriorate this quickly and not really have any options for repair or replacement.

I’m posting this mainly to give others a heads-up about the durability of the current print run. If anyone else has had similar issues (or if there’s a known fix or replacement option), I’d appreciate hearing about it. I really love the game; I just wish the physical book held up better.

Edit with a picture of the book in question: https://imgur.com/a/WYjgoUE