5 DnD ChatGPT Prompts to Make Your Game Better

AI chatbots are immensely popular tools, and many have speculated about how to use them to improve D&D and other TTRPG games. Here’s a list of prompts that you can use to improve your game.

Add Variety to Your Game

Give me some recommendations for great D&D 5e books and resources from third party publishers

If you ask a chatbot for these resources directly, it can create suggested resources from adventures to stat blocks, but because AI uses an average of everything, you’ll only get average results. It can be helpful to get you past Blank Page Syndrome (AKA Writers Block), but everything gets repetitive quickly, and don’t expect any ideas that will blow away your players.

But by suggesting products made by actual design professionals, it might show you some of the more popular books by creative designers who know and love the game and have invested themselves in making your game better. Or you can check out the most popular titles at the DMs Guild.

It will hallucinate though, suggesting books that don’t exist, so you’re probably better off asking people about their favorite resources or going to the suggested companies’ websites.

An artist’s illustration of artificial intelligence (AI). This illustration depicts language models which generate text. It was created by Wes Cockx as part of the Visualising AI project l... — Photo by Google DeepMind on Pexels

Get Advice to Improve Your Game

Give me a list of D&D 5e blogs that give Dungeon Masters great advice, and give me directions how to subscribe to them

Because you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s hard to get general advice from a chatbot that’s helpful beyond the most generic suggestions. But thankfully, the hobby boasts many amazing blogs full of great tips that will answer questions you didn’t know you had and give you tips you’d never think to ask for. Or you can follow the RPG Blogroll to get a steady feed of insights and suggestions from people who know the game and write from extensive experience.

Get Feedback to Improve Your Ideas

Give me a list of online communities where Dungeon Masters give each other advice

While you could feed your latest adventure idea into a chatbot and ask for feedback, even minimal experience playing the game as a human will give you more insight than a chatbot. The problem is that chatbots don’t have insights. A black pudding has more insight than a chatbot.

Instead, find online places with other players and GMs. All of the major social media platforms have them. Personally, to avoid chasing algorithms, I prefer oldschool forums like EN World.

Many people on laptops at a long table — “NYCR Lan party” by hudson is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Make a Game Your Players Will Love

Give me a few questions I can ask my players to make sure they’re all enjoying the D&D 5e game that I’m running as Dungeon Master

You can’t ask a chatbot what your players value most in a game. It has no values. You have to ask the players. But a few pointed questions can be helpful.

Impress your players with amazing art for your encounters

Give me a list of sources to find low cost or public domain non-AI fantasy artwork that would work for my D&D game

Instead of exploiting talented artists by using their work without their permission, find some interesting art & use that for inspiration. It’s the reverse of how most DMs design their encounters, but perusing the Smithsonian collection, Wikimedia Commons, or other sources can give you many adventure, monster, or treasure ideas. Sadly, most public stock art sites have become nearly useless as they’ve been flooded with AI images. If you’re looking for something specific, DriveThruRPG is the only fantasy art site I know of that forbids AI images to be added as stock art (although they still allow it to be used in other products with a content flag and haven’t removed the hundreds of AI-generated images currently in their library), support actual artists so they can keep creating original pieces by purchasing stock art from DriveThruRPG.

Notice the Pattern?

OK, this article is a but tongue-in-cheek, but I hope you recognize the point. What makes tabletop roleplaying games great is the people. For all the amazement over AI tools, human creativity can ponder an idea, consider it, and imagine it. AI takes a Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder of words and mindlessly puts them into a mold, the opposite of what makes analog games so great.

People at a round table playing D&D — “Playing in the Midnight Fiesta” by Benimoto is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Talk to people — local and online communities. Support creators, both the homebrew community and professional designers and artists. Get advice from people who care about their players and want everyone at your table to have a great time.