Disclaimer: The post below contains spoilers for Starfinder’s Attack of the Swarm. You’ve been warned, so please don’t complain if this ruins your life.
I probably don’t need to explain AI-assisted writing and art at this point. Many words have been written about the latest technology to compete with human creativity. If you don’t know much about ChatGPT, you can find a good explanation at PCguide.
Now back to the gaming.
Devon is GMing Attack of the Swarm, and our PCs were tasked with saving four dinosaurs from an imminent volcanic eruption. Our brainstorming lead to some good ideas, some terrible ideas, and some weird ideas. (Imagine a sexy dino hologram.) One player consulted ChatGPT and got the results in the image below.
We were blown away by how much we got with so little input. It’s like if your dog suddenly wrote a dissertation on black hole formation.
This will lead to some angst about the end of gaming as we know it, but we’re not getting worked up over it. It’s easy enough to keep AI from dominating gameplay with some simple house rules. GMs can ban AI outright or allow limited use with a high skill check, for example.
With selective use of AI, gameplay can become more immersive by allowing players to effectively roleplay super-high WIS and INT scores. I’m not saying players are morons, but few people are rocking an 18 INT. In our game, the dude who tapped ChatGPT was playing a high-INT Android computer specialist, so it made thematic sense.
For fun, I took it in a different direction.
