Taking Your TTRPG Sessions to the Next Level

As a DM, I always look at each session and ask how I can make the next one better. The only downside to playing with friends is that they sometimes hold back criticism. Fortunately, my group has been open about how they feel, even if it takes them a little while to warm up. Either way, I'm always reviewing what I did and what I can improve.

I absolutely adore Sly Flourish (Mike Shea) and his approach to prepping sessions quickly. With AI tools, throwing together a session outline, creating interesting NPCs on the fly, and planning your sessions is easier than ever.

For my Daggerheart campaign, I've used AI to help create in-game newspapers and books that look like they're printed on worn paper. I write the actual content, but use AI to model the books and newspapers after real ones, with editions and print runs that follow a real chronological order to my in-game calendar. That's my OCD kind of shit, and my players have probably never noticed. But to me, it's those little details that make a world feel real.

I’d urge you to use AI as a tool, not a crutch. I think of it as a personal assistant. It's great at organizing, brainstorming, and examining scenarios to help anticipate what my players will do. Ultimately, you have to be very good at improvising as a DM, because even with the best-laid plans, players will almost always do the last thing you expect (which is what makes it fun)!

Plenty of creators wouldn't want to use AI at all. Some argue it stifles creativity and borrows from others' work.

I agree - it can.

Especially if you rely on AI instead of your own imagination. But when used as a tool, AI lets you explore ideas, catch inconsistencies in your lore, and fix redundancies. Ultimately, you need a firm vision and a deep knowledge of your world. You can only truly get that by creating it. You can't be a backseat driver.

AI hallucinates, and if you're not the one creating the content, it'll make a bigger and bigger mess. Think of an Eiffel Tower made of chocolate in a warm room: eventually, the whole thing collapses on itself.

Use AI to streamline what you've already built.

About six months ago, I started building Mothership skills and items in Foundry VTT, laboriously creating every item from the book by hand because I couldn't find modules that did it all. It was a HUGE task and an immense headache. Claude accelerated that workflow enormously.

I built NPCs, items, skills, and every rollable table imaginable. I even built an interactive in-game computer terminal where players can buy gear and look up bounties. With Claude, I was able to generate items as JSON files and import them into Foundry instead of doing each one by hand like I used to.

But I've used AI for other elements of my game too. Just the other day, I finished a cutscene my players will eventually see, and I am SO proud of it.

It's an emergency broadcast from an OCA officer. I wrote the script, polished it with Grammarly, and recorded the lines myself. Then I ran the lines through ElevenLabs to turn my voice into a stern female officer, imported the audio into Adobe Premiere, added radio effects, and animated the text to crawl across a computer screen, complete with OCA’s faction logo. Alarms blare and explosions thud in the background as she calls for help. I'll update this post when my players see it.

Until then, that video is private, in case they come here!

I can't wait for my players to experience that moment, and I'll be watching their reactions closely to see what lands and what I can do better next time.

With the technology we have now and what I've learned in the Adobe suite over the years, I'm becoming the DM I always wanted to be. I feel like the animated intros, cutscenes, and even interactive terminals bring my games to a whole other level.

Just remember - it all starts with a single step. From there, keep growing and iterating.

And things can be as simple or as complicated as you like. Mothership says as much in its Warden’s manual. All you really need are players, imagination, and a notebook.

My first campaign began in 2019 with my players breaking into a castle to rescue a kidnapped sorceress. Seven years later, it's grown into an extremely epic campaign featuring different generations of characters, controlled by my players. Now I'm even building my own sci-fi setting.

I couldn't be happier.

Creatively, it's been incredibly satisfying, and watching my friends enjoy the worlds I've made is why I do it (and I imagine why most DMs do).

Just remember to use these tools to strengthen your inner voice, not to replace or stifle it. Because what we all want, and what these games are really about, is something uniquely human: sharing and telling stories.

May you find good stories to tell. Until next time, stay frosty.