Comment by lowsong

Comment by lowsong 4 days ago

I am baffled as to why anyone would want this, or anything like it.

Sure, it's a cool technical demo. But... the point of D&D is a social game played with others. Even if you play a D&D-like video game such as Baldur's Gate 3 (which I'd argue is a fundamentally different experience to playing a tabletop RPG anyway), you're experiencing a world and a story that someone else has crafted.

What's the point of replacing that social interaction, or that connection to another person's creative vision through their art, with an LLM? What value can it ever provide?

Kiro 4 days ago

I would love a fully generated D&D campaign where I just input some parameters, like a writing prompt, and get a tailored LLM Dungeon Master organizing it. Whether it's the result of someone's creative vision or not is irrelevant to me.

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mog_dev 4 days ago

I imagine for people like me who do not have anyone nearby willing to play D&D

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samwiseg 4 days ago

Right, but why not play BG3? You know that an LLM is not going to provide any meaningful narrative, or craft a thought provoking story.

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- standardly 3 days ago
  
  > You know that an LLM is not going to provide any meaningful narrative, or craft a thought provoking story
  The title of the paper is "Exploring the POTENTIAL of LLM-based agents..." Right now, yeah, just play BG3. But the context of the discussion is its potential, which is certainly worth discussing imo.
  
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lowsong 4 days ago

I've been in a weekly D&D game for over a decade. I don't keep playing it because of the game of D&D (certainly not, I could rant for a long time about the game's myriad shortcomings across many editions). I play it because of the friends I play it with, because of the social connection that exists in and around the game.
To play a tabletop RPG without that isn't the same thing, and to play with LLM is bankrupt of meaning. You'd be better off picking up one of those old-school choose your own adventure books or a video game like BG3. At least those were written by someone with intent, at least there's meaning in the story and setting. Or, finding an online group.

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- mywittyname 4 days ago
  
  People play games for a variety of reasons. While you enjoy the social aspect, others may find that to be the worst aspect of the game (or just don't have a social circle).
  I grew up playing D&D alone in my room using LEGO. It was great and I still have some of the sets I built as dungeons and monsters that I built from reference pictures in the Monster Manual.
  Video games are different from solo role playing. It's like trying to substitute shooting hoops in the driveway with NBA '24.
  
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- enasterosophes 4 days ago
  
  Would it be fair to say that you also don't appreciate solo rpgs?
  
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rexpop 3 days ago

Find someone! Make someone! Go online!
Dear god, it's crucial that adults be capable of creating and maintaining relationships. If it's impossible then, well, that's hell on earth.
Go out and make a new relationship! Do you live in Antarctica? And, if you live somewhere where new relationships can't be made, my god, get out of there! Go, go now! Go somewhere you're allowed to be human!

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soneca 4 days ago

I am not interested in this, but an AI DM that allow human players to play would keep the social aspect. Since being DM is a higher threshold of knowledge and time investment, this could unblock a social gathering, rather than substituting it.

Also, if it doesn’t try to keep the story to strict guardrails, the creativity and story creation would come essentially from the human players.

I don’t think those arguments are enough to make me want to use it, but I see the point and possible interesting use.

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standardly 3 days ago

> the point of D&D is a social game played with others

That's one of the points, or a benefit maybe, but its not the WHOLE point. Some people just enjoy RP and fantasy worlds, so a single-player campaign would still be enjoyable (to me, at least, but maybe I'm weird). I def don't see this replacing DMs in real groups any time soon.

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enasterosophes 4 days ago

I've found chatgpt useful for trying out D&D settings that I don't normally get to experience in my usual group. It loses the plot after a while, but it's enough for me to figure out whether I dig the setting enough that I would want to pitch it for a real game.

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Balgair 4 days ago

There's a saying in DnD:

"Bad DnD is worse than no DnD"

I'll agree. I've had bad groups and, wow, yeah. I'd rather have just doom scrolled my phone for 4 hours.

So, an AIDnD is wonky now, but it's better than bad DnD (at least with some futzing about that I have done myself).

To really reach here: I think you're placing value on the thing due to the effort involved. That's kind of an old school Marxist way of assigning prices to goods. I'm trying to point out that the value isn't that way for everyone. The 'new' market way of assigning prices is 'whatever someone will pay for it'. And in that very tortured analogy, that means that AIDnD is just as valid if someone likes it enough to do it. The background effort isn't part of the determination of value, necessarily.

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