AI Art for Fun and Inspiration

 Dozens of RPG books, hundreds of unpainted minis, a whole blog of ideas and scenarios to play...

And I listen to one blog religiously and because of it, I may have a new addiction.

Episode #517 of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff (KARTAS).  Three of the segments were a double dose of the Cinema hut, a Ken's Time Machine that kept me interested about Poland's January Uprising.  

The Business of Gaming segment, usually interesting, but pretty innocuous, had me dead to rights.  

The specific topic?  The use of AI generators with RPG art.   I won't go into the pro and cons within the industry, but I am simply amazed at the text and art AI generators that are available for little or no cost.  

I've recently come upon some neat names that scream character creation.  I had planned on maybe building up the #CharacterCreationChallenge for January, or perhaps some 5e pre-gens for a concept I'm working.

I also (thanks to KARTAS) have the bare-bones concept of Favomancer (a diviner who uses beans).  

With a simple text of "Cyprion Broodbank, a Favomancer, walks into an inn, with a fireplace," these were the four images DeepAI generated:

Cyprion Broodbrank, a Favomancer

Let me tell you,  the lower left and upper right get the feeling I was hoping for, and the lower right ain't bad either.  

What was even more amusing was using that exact same text and putting it in the text generator, and I have a backstory I would so use in a game.  Sure it randomly involves a donkey, purple and silver facepaint, and a vague encounter with the innkeeper's wife that's either an exorcism, intimate relations, or some odd tribal massage technique.  It's not a million monkeys on a million typewriters writing Shakespeare, but there's an awesome backstory.  Now just to stat him up with 5e or Hackmaster.

I also tried two attempts at NightCafe:  one for "halfling woman Norma Gimblespringer"

and one for "Zorin Redrock, gnome titan (spartan) warrior, plated armor, weathered face from years on the sea, looking to avenge his friends against the slavers of Roark."

He let his goatee fill out, but that's how I've pictured "Old Man" Zorin for the past twenty years. 

I last discussed this background for my Burning Trogs Redux game during #RPGaDay 2022.  It would involve some work, online or at the table, but this would Zorin's character art for when the band officially got back together.  

Of course, the biggest problem with AI is that an identical description will not generate the same product, and neither will any modification (Cyprion dancing, Zorin chopping down a tree, Norma making pies).

With the nominal fees for large quantiles of art and text, I understand why it could become a problem in the RPG industry,  but this is the true clipart I've been looking for when a scenario/article/scene had no interior art in the book.