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Article Summary
- Chaosium has targeted generative AI being used by community members producing and selling third-party TTRPG content for Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, RuneQuest and Age of Vikings.
- Chaosium officially removed around 40 titles which they identified as using AI-generated text or art.
- Chaosium has long championed user-generated marketplaces for their RPGs, which are hosted on DriveThruRPG.
- This move aligns Chaosium with a growing number of TTRPG publishers and conventions pushing back against AI content.
Chaosium, publisher of TTRPGs including Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, RuneQuest and Age of Vikings, has officially rolled out a new AI policy that has resulted in them removing over 40 titles from their online community marketplaces. The removals were for products which the publisher said featured either generative AI text or imagery, which is a direct violation of their AI policy.
Chaosium joins a growing number of TTRPG publishers, conventions and accessory makers who have taken steps to curtail the use of generative AI within the industry, particularly when it comes to creative outputs. Below, we take a closer look at what happened and what it means for the future of the hobby.
What are Chaosium’s community content programs?
Chaosium currently runs several online programs that allow users to legally create and sell third-party content using their game licenses. All of these program are hosted on DriveThruRPG (which takes a cut of all proceeds) and are as follows:
- Miskatonic Repository: Call of Cthulhu
- Jonstown Compendium: RuneQuest
- Companions of Arthur: Pendragon
- Sagas of the North: Age of Vikings
It’s worth noting that while these Chaosium community programs do not allow the use of AI, DriveThruRPG does have an existing policy that allows for the use of AI if it is clearly marked.
Why is Chaosium cracking down on AI content?
The simple reason is that the use of AI is something the vast majority of TTRPG players are opposed to. In an official blog post on the Chaosium website, the publisher notes that “we have noticed a recent disturbing trend in the use of AI-generated text from some authors. In recent days we have removed 40+ publications from sale.”
In the post, however, they note that detecting AI is not an easy task and that “We use a mix of our own instincts from decades of writing scenarios and running games, backed up by the use of multiple AI detection tools if we smell a digital rat.” Chaosium also provided a full list of detailed criteria on what they feel indicates the potential use of AI to generate text and imagery.
Notably, Chaosium has been particularly sensitive to AI use following the BackerKit launch of the Time Without Tide RPG. The publisher found out that AI had been used in Adobe software to generate image descriptions in the game’s sample PDF. They quickly let the community know and removed the PDFs immediately, showing just how serious TTRPG publishers view the issue.
Final thoughts
Chaosium’s crackdown highlights a much larger, ongoing trend within the entire TTRPG industry as publishers and conventions like UK Games Expo struggle to stem the tide of AI generated content. The challenge is in being able to quickly identify and remove the materials, which is not an exact science and requires time and resources to complete.
In other words, it’s unlikely that AI created community content will be going away anytime soon.