Speed Up TTRPG Prep with AI
How to use AI to handle the grind and build deeper, richer TTRPG sessions.
5/16/25
8 Minutes, 1800 words
How AI Helps You Do More with Less
Running a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) is one of the most rewarding creative outlets available. As we've explored in our previous discussionsâhow AI can enhance your TTRPG experience, using AI as a player, and AI tools for TTRPGsâAI can be an invaluable tool in enhancing the TTRPG experience.
From helping Game Masters manage complex narratives to empowering players with character development tools, AI unlocks new levels of creativity and efficiency.
Even the most brilliant campaign ideas can get buried under the weight of prep. Recaps, continuity, NPC creation, worldbuildingâit adds up fast. Whether you're a GM who's spent hours behind the screen, a player crafting a deep backstory, or someone who's watched your DM juggle ten lore threads at once, you know how much time it takes to keep the game flowing.
AI can dramatically reduce your workload by speeding repetitive parts, without cutting corners where it counts. And best of all, the time you save can go into crafting story beats, adding player-specific details, or finally building that weird forest dungeon you've been thinking about. Or just relax.
1. Where Your Prep Time Really Goes
Even with a tight prep list, most GMs still spend a good chunk of time getting ready for each session. That time might come in one long, focused sprintâor get chipped away over the course of a week in 5-minute bursts between meetings, during a lunch break, or while waiting for your pasta water to boil.
Prep looks different for everyone, but common time sinks include:
- Writing custom recaps (~30â60 minutes)
- Creating meaningful NPCs with depth (~5â30 minutes each)
- Checking lore or continuity details (~15â60 minutes)
- Filling in world flavor (tavern names, magical items, etc. ~15â30 minutes)
- Brainstorming quest hooks or narrative forks (~15â60+ minutes)
- Outlining the upcoming session (~15â45 minutes)
These tasks often stack, turning what starts as a simple prep session into a multi-hour marathon. With the right AI tools and a few smart prompts, you can compress that down to 10â45 minutesâwithout sacrificing creativity or quality.
2. TTRPG Tasks to Automate with AI
These tasks take time, but this is exactly where AI shines. With the right prompts and context, you can shave hours off your routine without sacrificing depth, voice, or creativity.
Here's how AI turns five of the biggest time sinks into quick wins:
Session Recaps
Manual Grind: You comb through notes and try to turn scattered memories into something coherent. Easily 30â60 minutes.
AI-Enhanced Flow: Feed your transcript into a model, prompt it for a summary in your desired format and tone, and tweak as needed. Usable recap in 5â10 minutes.
Prompt Example:
"Summarize this TTRPG session in a lighthearted, fantasy narrator voice. Highlight the three most important events and include player names."
Taking it a step further:
If you're already comfortable with AIâor want to push it furtherâyou can get very specific with your instructions. Curate your prompt to ask the AI to highlight character arcs, locations visited, open-ended quests, relationships that evolved, or major combat events. See a full example in our Prompt Engineering 101 for TTRPGs blog post.
NPC Creation
Manual Grind: Creating a single well-rounded NPC could take 30+ minutes, especially if they're tied to the adventuring party's main narrative.
AI-Enhanced Flow: Jump-start the creative process. One prompt can generate multiple options, each with personality, secrets, and hooks. Pick one, tweak it, and go.
Prompt Example:
"Generate 5 fantasy NPCs a party might meet in a crowded desert marketplace. Include name, appearance, goal, unique characteristic, and one secret."
LLMs, or any one of the multitude of NPC Generators, can provide a starting point for a new NPC at minimum, but they will generally not be customized to your specific campaign. That said, you can think of this as scaffolding for a new character and adjust as needed to fit your story.
Lore Recall and Continuity
Manual Grind: Digging up campaign details meant flipping through old docs, text threads, or notebooks, and hoping you could decipher your own handwriting.
AI-Enhanced Flow: Ask your campaign assistant (especially one that has your session's history or transcripts), and it surfaces the answer instantly. Obviously, Archivist AI has this functionality built in, both other tools like NotebookLM are powerfool tools when given the appropriate context. It really is that easy.
Prompt Example:
"Who was the warlock we met in ByRiver, and what did they want from us?"
Worldbuilding
Manual Grind: Naming a tavern or describing a room could easily turn into a 20-minute research rabbit hole.
AI-Enhanced Flow: One sentence gives you something flavorful and setting-consistent.
Prompt Example:
"Describe a ruined alchemy lab overtaken by plant life. Include 3 notable items the players might discover."
Taking it a step further:
Use an image generator to visualize the items discovered in the lab by the party. It enhances player immersion and adds texture to the world. Want help in generating? Follow up the prior prompt with:
"Turn this description into a visual prompt for an AI image generator."
Plot Hook Brainstorming
Manual Grind: Finding a compelling quest idea that fits your tone, player level, and pacing could take an hour or more.
AI-Enhanced Flow: Prompt for 5â10 tailored hooks, choose the one that clicks, and develop it from there. Whether you need twists, NPC ties, or side objectives, you can flesh it out in minutesânot hours.
Prompt Example:
"Give me 5 low-stakes plot hooks appropriate for a level 5 party in a coastal port town. Nothing world-ending."
Taking it a step further:
"Now expand the [chosen plot hook] into a 3-beat narrative arc. For each beat, include:
â A central conflict
â The resolution or outcome
â A unique gameplay element (e.g., social challenge, puzzle, investigation, or combat scenario)."
3. Now You Have Time for the Fun Stuff
Here's the part easy to overlook: AI doesn't just save timeâit creates space for all the little extras that bring your world to life.
The time you get back can be reinvested in a nap (no judgement)... or leveling up your game.
- In-Character Artifacts & World Flavor: Personalized handouts (letters, bard songs, bounty posters), in-world documents (town gossip, newspapers, prophecies), rumor sheets, cursed journals, shop menus, and journals from an NPC's perspective to sharpen their voice.
- Session Recaps with Personality: Recaps from individual character's POV, summaries with a specific voice (noir, fairytale, cosmic horror), and highlight reels for flashbacks or inspiration points.
- Narrative Depth & Simulation: "What if" outcomes from choices players didn't make, simulated flashbacks or alternate paths, and expanding old bullet-point notes into vivid scenes or monologues.
- Utility, Consistency & World Logic: Rewriting exposition into dynamic storytelling formats, random encounter tables, side quest rumors, and catching continuity gaps across multiple sessions.
4. Sample 30-Minute Prep Routine
Once you've got AI in your toolkit, session prep becomes less of a grind, and more of a springboard.
Here's an example of a 30-minute workflow using AI:
- 0â5 min: Skim the outline from last session
- 5â10 min: Generate and tweak a recap
- 10â15 min: Prompt new NPCs and key locations
- 15â25 min: Review plot hooks and build around the best
- 25â30 min: Create an in-world prop (poster, scroll, tavern sign, etc.)
By the end, you're not just ready to runâyou're excited to see where the session goes.
5. Using AI During the Session
AI doesn't need to sit out once the game begins. A campaign assistant (like Archivist AI) can support you behind the screenâhelping you stay present while still keeping the world coherent.
- Quick Lore Access â Ask for facts mid-session without pausing to dig through notes.
- Consistency Checks â Keep plot threads aligned across sessions and callbacks.
- On-the-Fly Ideas â Instantly generate unexpected landmarks, personality traits for NPCs you didn't think the party would talk to, or magical items that feel right at home in your world.
It's like having a well-organized notebook that actually answers backâwithout breaking the flow of the game.
6. Pro Tips to Use AI Without Losing Your Voice
Want to get the most out of AI without losing your voice as a GM? Keep these in your back pocket:
- Start with a first draft, not a masterpiece. Use AI to break the blank page, then refine.
- Save your favorite prompts. Reuse, refine, and remix what works. You're building your own prep toolkit.
- Let AI handle the scaffolding. Focus your energy on pacing, emotion, and roleplay moments.
- Use tools that know your world. Campaign-aware tools are ideal, but even general models shine with clear input.
Final Thoughts
AI doesn't replace the craft of GMingâit removes the friction. It handles the repetitive, the logistical, and the easily forgotten, so you can focus on the story moments that matter.
If prep has started to feel like a second jobâor if you've found yourself cutting corners just to make game night happenâtry using AI for just one task. A recap. An NPC. A bit of world flavor. That's all it takes to feel the difference.
And if you're a player reading thisâwatching your GM burn hours of their week to make your experience greatâmaybe give them a nudge to try it too. Or use it yourself to deepen your character, recap your arc, or write in-world journal entries between sessions.
Start small. Experiment. See what sticks.