Design Considerations for AI-Based Creativity Support Tools in Tabletop Role-Playing Games

Abstract

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) provide a complicated environment for creativity. Game masters (GMs) co-create a story along with their players and many choose to complete significant labour both prior to and during a gaming session. However, the boundaries that GMs may have about artificial intelligence (AI) being used in this creative hobby have not been examined. We first analyze Adventure AI, a podcast featuring human-AI interactions in Dungeons \& Dragons play, to determine how AI is and can be used in tabletop role-playing gaming and how players perceive this use. We complete a qualitative analysis of three seasons of this podcast, from 2023 to 2025, reporting on the overarching themes of roles of AI, roles of humans, the evaluations and failures of AI, and its treatment as a person and character at the table. We then examine the perceptions of active GMs in TTRPG communities on the use of AI for creativity support in TTRPGs. We conducted a survey of GMs to discover the labour they completed in preparation for and play of TTRPG sessions, the existing creativity support tools that they use for this labour, and their opinions on the use of AI in TTRPGs. We performed both qualitative and quantitative analysis to examine survey data and contrasted our results across two participant groups: those who have or have not been paid to GM a gaming session, and those who have or have not used AI as GMs. From our data, we created twelve distinct orientation groups encompassing the opinions of participants on AI for use in TTRPGs. Based on our findings, we propose thirteen design considerations in the form of questions AI tool developers should ask when creating AI-based support tools for TTRPG use.