Responsible AI & Human Creativity in TTRPGs

AI in tabletop RPGs

Leave the imagination to your table

The part of tabletop roleplaying I care about happens between people: a player’s unexpected idea, a difficult choice, a character who becomes more interesting than anyone planned. That is where I want our attention to be. I use AI to help with the work around the game, so there is more room for the people playing it.

That distinction shapes how I build Recap Raven. Remembering a promise from six sessions ago is useful help. Deciding what a character should do, what their story means or how an artist should portray them belongs with people. The hobby needs its writers, artists, designers and players, and using AI should leave room for their work to be valued and supported.

Where I think AI belongs in tabletop RPGs

Make room for creativity: Writing adventures, building a world and giving its people a history are creative parts of being a GM. I want Recap Raven to give you more time for that work. Its role is to preserve the lore you and your players establish, without filling gaps with AI-generated history.
Keep the story with the table: Your players decide what their characters attempt. When they surprise the GM and take the adventure somewhere unexpected, that is part of the fun. A campaign assistant should help you remember those choices, not tell you how to react to them.
Give GMs their attention back: Writing recaps and searching old notes can take time away from preparing or playing. That is useful work for AI to help with, especially if it lets a GM listen instead of typing through a scene.
Leave room for the unexpected: An AI suggestion should be easy to ignore. The strange plan your players invent may be the best part of the evening, even if it takes the campaign somewhere nobody prepared for.
Respect the whole table: Players should have a say in whether AI is part of their game. Talk about recording and sharing, respect people’s boundaries, and make space for those who would rather play without these tools.
Treat campaign stories with care: Your group’s imagination should not become training material. We do not train AI on campaign content, and privacy comes first when choosing providers: they must not train on it either.

Recording starts with a conversation

Before the first recording, talk with everyone at your table about what Recap Raven will process, who will see the recap and whether anything will be shared publicly. Get everyone’s explicit permission, and revisit that conversation when a new player joins or your sharing plans change. Nobody should discover afterwards that their game was recorded.

Friends checking in with one another before recording their tabletop game

Our Discord bot posts a visible recording notice before it starts capturing audio. The notice explains that recording creates a transcript and session recap. Where a campaign uses a public Discord forum for delivery, it also explains that the recap and transcript will be visible there. The recording controls let the GM pause or stop capture.

A bot announcement supports that conversation; it cannot obtain permission on a GM’s behalf. Our Terms of Service require the person recording to obtain permission from every participant. We encourage GMs to make recording consent part of their table’s usual check-in.

Be clear about what AI produced

A generated recap is an interpretation of the session. It can mishear a name, miss context or draw the wrong conclusion. We explain those limitations and provide ways to review the result. Campaign answers include source references where supported, so you can revisit the session behind an answer rather than relying on how confidently it is phrased.

See our approach to accuracy for how we evaluate quality and make campaign memory easier to check.

Your table keeps the final say

We deliberately keep preparation suggestions high-level: reminders of what your players hinted they wanted to do next and threads you may want to revisit. How you build the encounter and respond to their choices stays with you. That distinction matters to us. Helping you remember what needs preparation is useful support; telling you how to run it oversteps the GM’s role.

Actual Recap Raven Quest Log and Hooks tabs: an editable lighthouse quest above a consolidated recap hook with session sources and a resolve control. — The Recap Raven Quest Log and Hooks interface, shown with demonstration campaign details. Memory sessions can update these records; manual editing is available on every plan.

Human creativity and artists

We value the writers, illustrators and other creators who make this hobby what it is. Our aim is to free up time for playing and creating. An artist brings their own judgement and interpretation to your world; generated imagery does not replace that relationship.

We use AI-generated illustrations on this website, in demonstrations and in Campaign Showcase. Supporting artists does not mean we avoid generated imagery altogether. The boundary for us is creative control: an illustration should not establish what a character looks like or add facts to your campaign. Those choices belong to your table. Generated artwork serves as a visual accompaniment, not a record of what happened or a substitute for an artist’s interpretation of your world.

How campaign artwork is created and handled

Use the information to start a conversation

Our session analytics can help you notice who has room to contribute or where the pace changes. A quiet player may be thoroughly enjoying the game. Talk with your group before deciding what a chart means for them.

TTRPG Table Insights extends that curiosity to the wider hobby through anonymous aggregate statistics. We want to help GMs compare experiences and find ideas for their own games. There is no percentage that tells you whether everyone had fun.

Take responsibility when something goes wrong

We use testing, monitoring and support reports to find problems and improve the product. That includes checking access boundaries and player-safe outputs, alongside whether a feature works. Our engineering approach explains those checks. If you spot an incorrect result or have a concern about how your content is handled, please join our Discord community and help shape the next version of Recap Raven.

Many of our features have come directly from listening to our users. We’d love you to join those conversations, share feedback and help fellow GMs in the server.

Your campaign history deserves care.