There’s a moment I see happening at tables everywhere.

A GM sits down to prep for the week’s session. They open their notebook, stare at the half-finished dungeon sketch, sigh, and think, I’m too tired for this. I’ll just ask the AI to build something. Five minutes later, they’ve got a full quest line, a named NPC, a tragic backstory, and a color-coded dungeon. It’s fast. It’s convenient. And—if you squint—it almost feels like cheating.

Here’s the truth: AI is already at your table. More than half of adults in North America use AI tools regularly. Among younger players, weekly use is the norm. Even in tabletop communities, plenty of GMs admit they’re using AI somewhere in their prep, whether they talk about it openly or not.

The question isn’t if AI belongs in your game.
The question is who’s in charge.

This article is your bridge between curiosity and control. You’ll see exactly where AI adds magic, where it muddies the waters, and how to use it without losing your voice—or your table’s trust.

Let’s get into it.

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The Line That Matters: Tool vs. Pilot

Imagine you’re running a theme park. AI can help with maps, signage, and backstage logistics. But no matter how sharp the tech is, you don’t hand the keys to the roller coaster to the intern who showed up yesterday.

AI is that intern.

It can help you brainstorm, outline, summarize, and polish. But it has no instinct for pacing, tone, or the social contract of tabletop RPGs. It doesn’t know your players. It doesn’t feel tension in the room. It can’t tell when your rogue is about to derail the entire session with a terrible idea.

That’s why your real job—your irreplaceable job—is being the interpreter of the moment.

And that starts with controlling how much authority you give to the tool.

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Where AI Shines (and Where It Doesn’t)

Let’s break your workflow into three simple modes: Before, During, and After the game. Each mode has clear opportunities and clear boundaries that keep the fun in your hands.

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Before the Game: AI as Your Intern

Think of prep as your workshop. This is where AI earns its keep—so long as you stay in the driver’s seat.

Best Uses

1. Brainstorming ideas when you’re stuck.
Say you need a villain with a motivation beyond “be evil.” Feed the AI a few constraints—location, tone, theme—and let it toss ten options at you. Maybe nine are unusable. That’s still one spark you didn’t have twenty minutes earlier.

2. Creating raw lists—names, locations, rumors.
You know that moment when your players ask, “What’s the name of the blacksmith?” and your brain goes blank? Build a list in advance. Use the AI to generate 50 names themed by culture or region. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every session.

3. Drafting NPC flavor or item descriptions.
Use AI to produce a starting paragraph. Then rewrite it in your voice. This is the key. If you copy and paste AI text directly, it will feel generic. Your players will feel the tone shift. Your campaign voice matters.

4. Generating reference art.
Portraits, landscapes, props—AI is strong at visualizing ideas. I’ve used it to create “concept art” for a city so I didn’t spend hours googling. But I always tell players if an image is AI-generated so expectations stay clear.

Red Lines

• Don’t let AI write core story beats. If the climax of your campaign comes from a bot and not from you, you’ll feel disconnected from your own world.
• Don’t use it to write PC backstories without explicit player consent. Players need ownership over their characters.
• Don’t let it create complicated statblocks without checking them. AI often mishandles action economy, spell interactions, and CR math.

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During the Game: AI as Your Lookup Tool

Once the session starts, your focus shifts. You’re juggling pacing, combat rhythm, player choices, emotional beats, and improvisation. This is where AI needs the tightest leash.

Safe Uses

1. Quick rules summaries.
Not rulings—summaries. For example: “What does the prone condition do again?”

You’re still making the ruling. AI is just giving you the bullet points faster than a book search.

2. On-the-fly names.
Players love meeting unexpected shopkeepers. AI can spit out a name list in advance or during a break.

3. Describing something you didn’t prep.
If players go sideways, you can ask the AI for a few descriptive prompts (not scripts) to inspire your narration.

Unsafe Uses

This is where GMs accidentally hand their campaign away.

1. Don’t let AI adjudicate rules.
AI can be confidently wrong. About spells. About action economy. About monster abilities. The tool was not designed for rules precision at the table. You were.

2. Don’t let AI dictate what happens in the story.
If you ask, “What does the villain do?” you’re handing narrative control to a system that doesn’t understand stakes or pacing. You decide what the villain does. The villain is yours.

3. Don’t let AI write live scene dialogue.
It’s slow, it’s stiff, and it disconnects you from the table’s emotional energy.

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After the Game: AI as Your Archivist

This is where AI can save you the most time without harming your table culture.

Use it for:

• Session summaries
• NPC logs
• Encounter notes
• Timeline management
• Inventory tracking
• Lore indexing
• Campaign wikis

You’ve probably seen the stats—AI adoption in the workplace has doubled in the past few years, and people use it most for repetitive, routine tasks. This is exactly where it belongs in TTRPGs: behind the curtain, handling the boring stuff.

But still avoid:

• Creating events that didn’t happen
• “Enhancing” scenes players didn’t see
• Inventing lore your world doesn’t support
• Replacing your campaign voice with AI prose

Your players trust you to remember the story they told—not to let a tool rewrite it for convenience.

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AI Session Zero: The Safety Tool You Didn’t Know You Needed

If you’re going to use AI in your game, talk to your players. A quick five-minute conversation now prevents misunderstandings later.

Here’s a simple checklist you can steal for your next Session Zero:

1. What tools will you be using?

Let players know up front if AI helps generate art, dialogue starters, or summaries.

2. What won’t you use AI for?

This is huge. Tell them you won’t:

• Let AI control story outcomes
• Let AI adjudicate rules
• Use AI without reviewing the output
• Write PC content unless asked

3. How can players opt out?

Some players may not want AI art of their characters. Give them that choice.

4. How will AI content be credited?

Transparency builds trust. Even a small “generated with assistance” note is enough.

5. Where does your campaign data go?

If you’re using cloud tools, reassure your players about what you’re inputting and why.

This is how you protect player agency and your table’s social contract.

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Four Ways AI Overuse Backfires

Let’s talk about the real dangers—because they’re not the ones people usually expect.

1. Your game loses its voice.

AI prose has a “clean but bland” sound. Overuse makes your campaign feel generic.

Fix: Never use AI text without rewriting it. Use the rhythm and tone your players know.

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2. Continuity gets messy.

AI doesn’t remember your canon unless you force-feed it context. It will contradict itself and you.

Fix: Treat AI as notes, not truth. You decide what makes it into the world.

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3. Players feel cheated.

If they learn that entire arcs, NPCs, or emotional moments were machine-written, they may feel disconnected from your story.

Fix: Use AI for prep and grunt work, not emotional beats or plot pillars.

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4. You stop growing as a GM.

If AI does the creative heavy lifting, your improvisation muscles atrophy.

Fix: Use AI to speed work, not replace skill. Always revise, shape, and decide.

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Tools That Keep You in Control

When people talk about AI “taking over,” they imagine monolithic cloud systems doing everything for them. But the safer trend is in the opposite direction: tools that support you, not replace you.

Good examples include:

• Local note-taking assistants
• VTT-integrated helpers that recall your campaign notes
• Prompt organizers for NPCs, dungeons, or items
• Name generators
• Timeline managers
• AI art tools used only for inspiration

The best tools don’t propose new canon. They surface your canon faster.

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The Bottom Line: AI Is a Powerful Magic Item—Attune Carefully

Like any rare artifact in your world, AI carries benefits and risks. It saves time. It generates ideas. It keeps you organized. But if you hand it narrative control, it will steer your campaign into uncanny territory.

Use it before the session for brainstorming.
Use it during the session for quick lookups.
Use it after the session for organization.

But the moment you let it write the story or make decisions, you’re no longer the one running the game.

Your players came to see your world.
Your voice.
Your judgment.
Your sense of adventure.

AI helps you build the stage.
You run the show.

Call to Action

Take ten minutes this week and create your own AI boundaries. Decide what AI is allowed to do—and what it’s not. Try an AI Session Zero. Rewrite one AI-generated paragraph in your own voice. Notice how much better it feels.

You don’t need to fear AI.
You just need to keep your hands on the reins.