If this is their position, and I’m not convinced of this, then I understand them and what I can say is: don’t use Dice Roost, not even for features that don’t involve the use of AI, if they believe they’re supporting exploitative multinationals. However, the discussion seemed to me to be going on a completely different path, not to mention those who simply wrote, “Fucking ew.” And just so you know, Foundry, just to name one, has a bunch of plugins that use AI.

I understand the comparison with the vegan dinner, but no one directly invited you. Meat-based dinners will always be around. I open a restaurant that ‘also’ advertises meat dishes (and not only), and vegans come to me in the comments to tell me I’m a ‘murderer’ or ‘insensitive’, for goodness sake, they’re free to do so, but the discussion is dry and leads nowhere. It would be much more useful to start a discussion where they explain their reasons without offending the work of others and giving the opportunity to set up a serious and mature discussion table.

I’d also like to add a thought of my own: this battle against AI seems like the latest fad. I’d like to know if the same people who are blaming AI for the new evil (without considering the benefits it brings to serious matters, not just D&D, such as curing rare diseases, genetic mapping, land mapping, preventing geological disasters, and many others) are the same people who avoid buying plastic bottles, don’t buy the latest iPhone made in China from companies that exploit children, or only buy homemade clothes to avoid exploitation in third-world countries.

I’m here to accept any negative criticism, but it must be constructive. It seems to me that there’s a stance here for which people can’t even provide valid reasons. No one has yet responded point by point to what I wrote.

I keep not understanding what you’re talking about, the site is entirely developed by me, I haven’t exploited anyone. And if you’re talking about D&D instead, I’m not exploiting anyone’s work: all the material on the site is free-copyright, and I specifically only pulled unofficial, unprotected documentation, whether it’s the rules (which are free), the spell and monster database, etc. Every reference to the material I’ve drawn on is specifically credited, which makes my product a sponsor and an opportunity to introduce other people’s work to more and more people. What people create in the site afterward is their own property. It’s funny to me that you first compare my system to other, more famous ones, sneaking in flimsy criticism of the (entirely optional) use of AI, and then dwell on some supposed “inappropriate” use of other people’s content, when the very sites you cite do the same thing, and not only that, they commercialize the product and profit from it, which I don’t do. Through all of this, I haven’t seen any response to all the other points I raised. ;)

The only thing I can see is that it’s “free”, but that’s freeness that is built on the backs of the lives and livlihoods of thousands of people.

Sorry, what does even mean? Being free is already a significant incentive in itself. I hype AI features because, in my opinion, it’s precisely the missing element in other systems. If you’re a purist and feel my system offers nothing more, you’re free to stick with your favorite sites. Instead, you could give me your idea of ​​what others are truly lacking that I could offer, since that’s exactly what I’m looking for: constructive feedback on what I could implement to help the community.

I understand the purists’ skepticism, but Dice Roost offers a feature that can be used or not, nothing stops the DM from voicing the NPCs themselves, with or without the NPC chat open (there’s a “puppet” feature that lets the DM answer on behalf of the NPC, forcing specific responses or avoiding LLM use entirely). The site is completely free and doesn’t force anyone into an approach different from the one they want; at the same time, it gives less experienced DMs, or those who enjoy voicing NPCs less, the chance to use a new feature.

I can assure you the voices are genuinely realistic with the right model, but I’d suggest trying it yourselves if you have doubts. Also, the system is designed to give the LLM sensible context so that NPCs respond consistently not just with their background, but with the game world they’re in and the people they’re talking to. It’s certainly not perfect, the project just launched and has plenty of room for improvement, but from my tests it’s very reliable and accurate when the game world is set up correctly.

Regarding Vibe Coding: it exists and is used. I’m a Team Leader at an IT consulting firm, I’ve been using these tools well before they went mainstream, and the speed and reliability that modern development with this approach offers has no comparison to standard development, regardless of the team or the developer behind the keyboard. I don’t intend to get into a technical discussion here about why developing this way is better, but assuming that Vibe development automatically means bugs makes me think you’re either not in the field or don’t know the tool at all.

As for features, the system covers what I consider the basic functions any (system-agnostic) tabletop campaign needs: player and character sheet management, NPC management, maps, game chat with dice rolling. Many of these features are paired with AI-based additions aimed at improving them. For example: automatic NPC responses, where you can assign information that only unlocks with certain triggers (a key phrase, an item the party possesses, a party member’s race, etc.), which pushes players to stay in character and use the right phrasing to uncover extra information useful for advancing the plot, but never essential to progressing (tier 1 and tier 2 info); automatic conversation summaries; the ability to “narrate” situations or locations as if it were a game or a film; a private GM-only chat where the GM can get answers about locations, NPCs, past events, the rules of the system being played, and more, to speed things up and help run campaigns. Again, all these features are free and not required to play.

The only supported system today besides the “generic” one is D&D 5e, which offers additional features, a dedicated character sheet, bestiary, rulebook, and a complete spell and magic item list fully translated into Italian (in Italian, there’s no VTT with a complete, free translation). In the future I want to implement other systems and let everyone create campaigns with their preferred ruleset, with dedicated features for each.

The site is very young (it’s been live for less than 72 hours) and isn’t at version 1.0 yet. I’m looking for constructive feedback and suggestions on how to make it work for all types of players and DMs, whether or not they approve of AI use.

Going forward, I’d suggest a more constructive and less toxic attitude toward someone offering a new tool for free, regardless of whether you think it’s useful to the community. The people using it will be the ones to judge whether my project is any good.

Thanks anyway for the input, and before you ask, no, I didn’t generate this message with AI, believe it or not ;)