One D&D

[Urdlen's best boy]

The pillar on the left I circled is clearly either more in front or at about the same distance in pespective from the char. The stones should be angled more like this, facing forward, or maybe even slightly rotated in the inverse way to the other :

The perspective is weird all around, but on the other hand a lot of real artists are not that good at perspective. Still I don't think an artist good enough to angle one of the arches would do the other exactly the same despite a different angle

 

[Godfather Punk]

When all you wanted was to ponder your orb, but forgot to activate the safety.

 

[robertsconley]

To wit

I have a subscription to ChatGPT. (makes for a great random table generator).

Their article is here.

New Drizzt Statue Released from Gatherers’ Tavern | D&D Toys

We take a look at the new 1:4 scale Drizzt statue from Gatherers Tavern, which is being released to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the legendary drow ranger.

dungeonsanddragonsfan.com

The full text from ChatGPT. To be clear I just typed in the sentence. Whoever behind dungeons and dragon fan probably knows how to tweak their prompt and does a minimal set of factchecking say 15 minutes worth of work per article.

New Drizzt Statue Unveiled in Honor of Iconic Character's 35th Anniversary
In a momentous celebration of fantasy literature and role-playing games, a stunning new statue of Drizzt Do'Urden, the legendary drow ranger from the "Forgotten Realms" universe, has been unveiled to commemorate the character's 35th anniversary. The statue, standing in the heart of Waterdeep, the City of Splendors, has become a new landmark for fans of Dungeons & Dragons and the works of author R.A. Salvatore.

Drizzt, first introduced in the 1988 novel "The Crystal Shard," quickly became one of the most beloved characters in fantasy literature. His complex backstory, moral compass, and thrilling adventures have inspired generations of readers and gamers. The character's popularity has extended beyond books into video games, board games, and a wide range of merchandise.

The statue, crafted by renowned sculptor Elanor Shadowleaf, depicts Drizzt in a dynamic pose, with his iconic scimitars, Twinkle and Icingdeath, drawn. It's a masterpiece of craftsmanship, capturing the essence of Drizzt's agility and determination. The statue also features Guenhwyvar, Drizzt's loyal panther companion, at his side, adding to the dramatic effect.

During the unveiling ceremony, attended by a large crowd of fans dressed in cosplay, Salvatore gave an emotional speech. He reflected on Drizzt's journey and his impact on fans worldwide. "Drizzt's story is about finding one's place in the world against all odds, and it's humbling to see how deeply this character has resonated with so many," Salvatore said.

The event also featured a series of activities, including a Dungeons & Dragons tournament, a panel discussion on the evolution of fantasy RPGs, and a charity auction of rare Drizzt memorabilia. Proceeds from the auction will go to literacy charities, a cause close to Salvatore's heart.
The statue not only celebrates a beloved character but also marks the enduring popularity of Dungeons & Dragons, which has experienced a resurgence in recent years. It stands as a testament to the impact of fantasy RPGs in shaping popular culture and inspiring creativity and imagination across generations.

As night fell, the statue was lit with magical-themed lights, casting an enchanting glow and drawing gasps of admiration from the crowd. It was a fitting tribute to a character who has brought so much magic into the lives of his fans. The Drizzt statue is expected to become a pilgrimage site for fantasy enthusiasts and a symbol of the enduring legacy of the "Forgotten Realms" and its rich tapestry of stories and characters.

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

I believe that the entire site is AI-generated. The text and the articles.

+1

Looks like the entire thing is lazy AI drivel with robot drivel pictures that the "deconstructing the flesh" guy touched a little on photoshop
-All guys with a book
-Shitty AI sheen
-Absurd perspective
-Look at this book :

It remains to be seen, however, just how well the new Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual will be received by fans, many of whom remain skeptical about Wizards of the Coast's actions given recent issues like the OGL scandal and mass layoffs. At the same time, the original 2014 core books are definitely showing their age, so there is the potential to offer something truly unique and breathe new life into the game.

"something truly unique" only a robot could say that

Edit : who invented .webp format and why do they torment me?

 

[SavAce]

View attachment 73562

The inability to even come up with a single name for this product, even internally, is baffling to me. It's coming out in a matter of months, and they don't even have a title to focus their marketing around.

More is better! More names. More subclasses. More monsters. More races. More combat moves. More stuff from other books like Tasha's Cauldron, Xanathar's Guide, Mordenkainen's Tome & Volo's Guide.

One D&D: It's more D&D.

 

[Fenris-77]

More is better! More names. More subclasses. More monsters. More races. More combat moves. More stuff from other books like Tasha's Cauldron, Xanathar's Guide, Mordenkainen's Tome & Volo's Guide.

One D&D: It's more D&D.

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

More AI artifacts

 

[robertsconley]

+1

Looks like the entire thing is lazy AI drivel with robot drivel pictures that the "deconstructing the flesh" guy touched a little on photoshop

I am 75% certain the entire staff is AI-Generated. For example if you go to Ars Technica, Gizmodo, the various PC gaming site and google an article author name, usually they pop up elsewhere. Especially if the site is also using twitter or facebook, they are apt to link back to their own articles.

Nothing on any of them, and various image checker indicate their photos are likely AI-generated although I don't consider that conclusive.

About Cameron Nicols, Senior Editor | Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics

Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor with Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics and is based out of Boston, Massachusetts. Learn more about who Cam is.

dungeonsanddragonsfan.com

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

I am 75% certain the entire staff is AI-Generated. For example if you go to Ars Technica, Gizmodo, the various PC gaming site and google an article author name, usually they pop up elsewhere. Especially if the site is also using twitter or facebook, they are apt to link back to their own articles.

Nothing on any of them, and various image checker indicate their photos are likely AI-generated although I don't consider that conclusive.

About Cameron Nicols, Senior Editor | Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics

Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor with Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics and is based out of Boston, Massachusetts. Learn more about who Cam is.

dungeonsanddragonsfan.com

lmao
I think you're right that guy has AI dementia stare
Incredible times. Will this even work? Like besides the dystopia aspect, who will look at this and think "wow earnest D&D fans with very genuine opinions!"

 

[TristramEvans]

 

[robertsconley]

I did a WHOIS lookup on the domain and they took advantage of GoDaddy privacy service to conceal their identity.

ICANN Lookup

The ICANN registration data lookup tool gives you the ability to look up the current registration data for domain names and Internet number resources.

lookup.icann.org

dungeonsanddragonsfan.com

 

[robertsconley]

lmao
I think you're right that guy has AI dementia stare
Incredible times. Will this even work? Like besides the dystopia aspect, who will look at this and think "wow earnest D&D fans with very genuine opinions!"

Sadly yes given the conversation on some of their twitter and facebook posts. Folks are taking their posts at face value.

https://twitter.com/DnDFanatics

 

[Endless Flight]

The perspective on these arches is not correct either if the hallway is straight, and it looks to be so.

 

[robertsconley]

For those who are interested

Which Face Is Real?

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

LMAO

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

Sadly yes given the conversation on some of their twitter and facebook posts. Folks are taking their posts at face value.

https://twitter.com/DnDFanatics

Then may Urdlen have mercy on us all. On the other end, that's low engagement and 1206/662 followers is very suspicious. I'm gonna go ahead and for my own sanity assume anyone who falls for it is also a robot. Though thankfully the robots don't even like it that much :

7 likes in 8 days lol

For those who are interested
Which Face Is Real?

10 pictures in 5 minutes = 9/10 for me. Maybe I can become AI checker?

 

[Rich H]

So, is it someone creating all the AI content or an AI creating its own content!

For those who are interested

Which Face Is Real?

View attachment 73577

I'm impressively quick and accurate at that. I'm a little worried. Am I an AI?

 

[Ladybird]

One of the preview art pieces caused a bit of controversy online (controversy? D&D?) because some took it for AI art but WotC came out and stated that the artist confirmed it wasn't AI. This is because WotC had issued a statement saying they and their contractors would not be using AI going forward.

If your artwork can be mistaken for AI, that doesn't bode well.

I think a counterpoint of that is that AI art and it's ethics are a big buzzword right now, so folk are hyper-paranoid about it when sometimes even real art is just not very good. Maybe it's by someone new, inexperienced, underpaid, not really giving a shit, or just having an off day. Goddess knows we've spent enough time discussing poor gaming art from books in the past.

 

[DornKratz]

I suspect we need a new version of Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of the subject veering into AI misuse approaches 1."

 

[finarvyn]

Other than skull-orc, seems like most of the art posted recently in this thread is full of middle-aged white guys. I thought we weren't part of the targeted demographic.

 

[TristramEvans]

 

[Baulderstone]

I think a counterpoint of that is that AI art and it's ethics are a big buzzword right now, so folk are hyper-paranoid about it when sometimes even real art is just not very good. Maybe it's by someone new, inexperienced, underpaid, not really giving a shit, or just having an off day. Goddess knows we've spent enough time discussing poor gaming art from books in the past.

There is usually a difference between bad human art and AI art though. A common tell in bad AI art is a combination of work that would have required a lot of skill combined with glaring rookie mistakes. The picture I pointed to earlier with the room with wonky perspective is a good example. Even with the nonsense perspective, it would have taken a human a lot of work to figure it out, and I just can't see a human putting the work and getting that result.

For the record, I've spent a lot of time studying perspective.

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

Yes, I confirm, I can see the difference between bad human art and bad ai images. It's more difficult to explain than notice but I'll try.

A good Limnus test that I think someone who's not artist/arcchitect etc is :
-1)Artifacts (AI sheen, strange duplications, textures, eyes looking intently at two different directions simultaneously, complex perspective with no vanishing point etc)
-2)Discrepancies in quality and style in the same image (complex texturing but nonsensical, good details but strange whole, same cloth with two different textures, things that look to competent for someone who made the mistake just next etc)

Some of these (sheen) can be spotted in shitty digital art too, because AI got it from being fed shitty digital art, but when there's a lot of those you can be pretty certain there's a robot there.

Btw the artist for the giant used AI, I don't buy the retroactive excuses for a second, based on the images themselves.

 

[Bunch]

Well hey, at least 6e appears to be including this proper old-school-looking orc:

Whatever else may be going on in the lore and fiddly character-build nonsense, you can be sure this guy was born to lift and has a controversial foreign policy!

That said, sorry, I'm still boycotting you this year WotC (and I don't use orcs anyway).

He's not pig faced. He's not old school.

 

[Andrew J. Luther]

I thought it was particularly funny when someone fed Larry Elmore’s D&D artwork into an online “AI Art Checker” and it came back as 94.7% likely to be AI artwork.

You know, from the 1980s.

 

[Endless Flight]

I bet if you had the pre-painted version of that it would be 0% AI. I think paints can fool it.

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

No idea how precise this tool is or how it does the determination, but it's pretty common to touch up contrast and luminosity after digitalizing a physical original or when reposting it. Might be that's throwing it off.

According to this guy it's not the best of these tools (70% accurate answer vs 97% for "AI or not") : https://originality.ai/blog/do-ai-image-detectors-work-accuracy-study
Tbh even 97% is marginal gain over eyeing it.

 

[CRKrueger]

For those who are interested

Which Face Is Real?

View attachment 73577

It’s really easy if you use these criteria.
1. If the face is asymmetrical, it’s real. AI goes for symmetry.
2. The older, more wrinkled face is real. AI sucks at aged people.
3. If there’s something that’s not the person also in frame and in focus, it’s likely real. AI sucks at background objects or non-person objects.

 

[CRKrueger]

No idea how precise this tool is or how it does the determination, but it's pretty common to touch up contrast and luminosity after digitalizing a physical original or when reposting it. Might be that's throwing it off.

According to this guy it's not the best of these tools (70% accurate answer vs 97% for "AI or not") : https://originality.ai/blog/do-ai-image-detectors-work-accuracy-study
Tbh even 97% is marginal gain over eyeing it.

It’s also worth noting that any of these methods are based on machine learning using certain dataset pictures. New pictures of things that are far outside the AI’s training dataset aren’t likely to be detected as correctly.

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

Interesting stuff I've found
https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/new-dnd-video-game-starbreeze/

 

[Voros]

Interesting stuff I've found
https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/new-dnd-video-game-starbreeze/
View attachment 73595

This is the company that did Two Brothers and Chronicles of Riddick.

That's great news, Two Brothers is one of the best video games I've ever played and Chronicles is deservedly a cult classic.

 

[Baulderstone]

Interesting stuff I've found
https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/new-dnd-video-game-starbreeze/
View attachment 73595

"Starbreeze's untitled DnD video game (known simply as "Project Baxter) is a co-operative multiplayer game set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons and available for consoles and PC. The game will include cross-console play and use a Games as a Service-model, which is designed to monetize the title after release through elements like microtransactions and downloadable content."

 

[Chris Brady]

Interesting stuff I've found
https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/new-dnd-video-game-starbreeze/
View attachment 73595

Isn't Starbreeze associated with Vin Diesel? Who is also known as a D&D player? If true, there might be something to look forward to?

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Isn't Starbreeze associated with Vin Diesel? Who is also known as a D&D player? If true, there might be something to look forward to?

Not directly. Vin Diesel founded the Tigon Studios video game developer company. Tigon Studios is a subsidiary of One Race Films also founded by Vin Diesel. Starbreeze worked with Tigon Studios on Chronicles.

Although I agree with Voros about both Two Brothers and Chronicles, I'm not a fan of the Games as a Service model. So even though Starbreeze is making it, my expectations are now lowered.

 

[TJS]

I was surprised that no one mentioned the giant D20 under the left mantle or the fact that this wizard, who would supposedly value his books, has put his candles directly on top of a stack of them, dripping wax all over them.

Also the Orc in the earlier picture has dinosaur feet.

 

[Baulderstone]

Although I agree with Voros about both Two Brothers and Chronicles, I'm not a fan of the Games as a Service model. So even though Starbreeze is making it, my expectations are now lowered.

I'm bemused that that it's the entire announcement. I get that they have to talk about the endless money aspect for the investors, but throw in at least one tantalizing morsel for the customer to make it a little less off-putting. At least get some gamers hyped before you start bragging about all the whales you are going to harpoon.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm bemused that that it's the entire announcement. I get that they have to talk about the endless money aspect for the investors, but throw in at least one tantalizing morsel for the customer to make it a little less off-putting. At least get some gamers hyped before you start bragging about all the whales you are going to harpoon.

Ahh fuck 'em. We're just going to render their fat for oil anyway. My gamer-fat lamps are running low actually..

 

[Voros]

Not directly. Vin Diesel founded the Tigon Studios video game developer company. Tigon Studios is a subsidiary of One Race Films also founded by Vin Diesel. Starbreeze worked with Tigon Studios on Chronicles.

Although I agree with Voros about both Two Brothers and Chronicles, I'm not a fan of the Games as a Service model. So even though Starbreeze is making it, my expectations are now lowered.

Yeah that entire model sucks.

A different issue but seeing what has happened to mobile games is so disappointing. We started to get ambitious, unique little games like Year Walk, 80 Days, Monument Valley and Road Less Taken but those 'premium' games lost out to the far more profitable Skinner Box-games that now crowd the digital storefronts for iOS and Android.

It's telling that Simogo (Device 6, Year Walk) are now designing their games for Steam and Nintendo.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

I'm bemused that that it's the entire announcement. I get that they have to talk about the endless money aspect for the investors, but throw in at least one tantalizing morsel for the customer to make it a little less off-putting. At least get some gamers hyped before you start bragging about all the whales you are going to harpoon.

Yes it's really weird that's the only thing they can say about the game, except the cooperative multiplayer part. It also again proves that Hasbro/WoTC is bit tonedeaf I think. I mean, Games as a Service and microtransactions are not popular things to mention when advertising games these days.

Yeah that entire model sucks.

A different issue but seeing what has happened to mobile games is so disappointing. We started to get ambitious, unique little games like Year Walk, 80 Days, Monument Valley and Road Less Taken but those 'premium' games lost out to the far more profitable Skinner Box-games that now crowd the digital storefronts for iOS and Android.

It's telling that Simogo (Device 6, Year Walk) are now designing their games for Steam and Nintendo.

Yes it's very disappointing, because there's some good stuff that could be made instead. I've played the PC version of 80 Days, very good game. I've also played Hitman GO and Lara Croft GO on my PS4, would recommend both. Probably played more, just don't remember right now.

It's sad to think that with my degree, I could earn lots of money designing microtransaction models. That is if I could handle a full time job.

 

[Urdlen's best boy]

Yeah they've made good games 10 to 20 years ago but putting forward "we're trying to innovate in how scummy the monetization model is" as sole sale argument is straight up ghastly. Then again that was written by a robot.

I would recommend fans of their old titles to not get hopes up, chances are it's going to be a horrid desecration of their own brand. Since 2013 (Brothers) all they made was the notoriously bad Walking Dead game and the mediocre Payday 3*.

*edit : looking at critic scores