I'm sure that you've sat down before and thought to yourself, “Where do I even start?” There isn't an exact science behind building a campaign for a TTRPG. Whether you're building an interesting NPC, designing a dungeon, or balancing a magic item, writer's block is a problem that can stop your progress at any time. This is where AI tools like Friends & Fables come into play. With the right approach, you can use AI to help get your imagination back on track. Although you could use AI to replace all the creativity in your work if you wanted to, just know that it's not there to replace it, but instead there to help it along the way.
I'm sure that you've sat down before and thought to yourself, “Where do I even start?” There isn't an exact science behind building a campaign for a TTRPG. Whether you're building an interesting NPC, designing a dungeon, or balancing a magic item, writer's block is a problem that can stop your progress at any time. This is where AI tools like Friends & Fables come into play. With the right approach, you can use AI to help get your imagination back on track. Although you could use AI to replace all the creativity in your work if you wanted to, just know that it's not there to replace it, but instead there to help it along the way.
I’ll be going over some tips and tricks to help you use AI to get those creative juices flowing in your world-building and campaign-building projects that can be done using our generators here on Friends & Fables!
There are a lot of people who complain about AI giving them the wildest generations when they're looking for NPCs to populate the world. One problem that a lot of people run into is detail. AI thrives on detail, and the more you give it, the better it delivers.
Instead of saying:
Try:
This doesn't mean that every time you add more details, the generations will get better, but it does help the process along the way. There are some instances where I’ve overloaded a prompt with details and got much worse results than a reduced version. Test different prompts until you get a good feel for what gives you the best results. One of the beautiful things about using AI is you can just keep regenerating something until you get something that you really want.
When using the Friends & Fables AI, you usually want to ask AI to generate NPCs, items, locations, and monsters in specific ways. When you get a good flow for what works best for you, keep track of it so you can keep doing things the same way.
What Friends & Fables Generates:
Keep this in mind when you are generating things with the Friends & Fables AI. Everything is built around the in-game platform. There may be a specific way that works best for you when you’re having the game generate things for you. Because Friends & Fables generates appearance, backstory, personality, and mannerisms for characters, you might want to consider incorporating a little bit of each of those when you make you're using the AI so it has something to build off of. The AI can do it on its own, but if you put in a little bit more effort, you can fine-tune a character to be more in line with your expectations.
Examples for using the Friends & Fables Generator:
By adding a little bit about the appearance, backstory, personality, and mannerisms, I can make sure that the barkeep is generated how I need it to be. The same is true for the dragon. This will also make sure that the character art generated by the Friends & Fables generator doesn't disappoint.
AI can really help you get over that writer's block, but it shines best when it's paired with your creativity instead of doing all the creativity on its own. It's best to think of it like a creative partner who would sometimes throw wild suggestions your way. Some of the suggestions will be absolutely brilliant, but some of them might be a little bit off, unique, or not in the style that you are looking for.
For example, maybe the AI designs a monster with Shadow Wings, Acid Breath, and Telepathy. You might love the Shadow Wings, be okay with the Acid Breath, but think that the Telepathy just makes no sense. I'm not saying that AI has given me a generation like this before, but I would personally like to keep shadow with shadow, acid with acid, and telepathy with the aberrations. The point is that you can change what you need to until what you're generating is exactly what you envisioned.
The AI is just the starting point, you decide how it all ends up! Use AI to fuel your creativity, not replace it. Be specific, structure your prompts, and mix your own ideas in with the AI's. If you don't like something, then change it. If something's missing, then add it. If the whole thing seems off, then have the AI regenerate it until it gives you a solid base to build off of and tweak. Here at Friends & Fables, we hope to make AI one of your new best friends at the table!