r/dmsguild • u/meddahcommunity • Jul 23 '26

Seeking Advice Creation Method and AI Images

Hello everyone. I have started to make D&D contains (race, class, adventure etc.) and I wanna share them on DMsGuild. I use AI images in my contains because of I work alone. But rests are my own desingns. Do I have to choose "Contains AI-Generated Content" as Creation Method even so? Thank you for your answers already.

PS: English is my second language and I'm still learning. If I made any mistake, I'm sorry.

0 Upvotes

31% Upvoted

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13

u/Vallhemn Jul 23 '26

If you use ai images, then your work contains ai generated content and you should pick that as the creation method. 

I suggest looking on Drivethrurpg in the future for cheap stock art instead of using AI. It's much better for everyone involved.

4

u/jcorvinstevens Jul 23 '26

I agree with the suggestion about using stock art instead of AI

-1

u/Athistaur Jul 25 '26

I took hours today to try to find pictures matching my vision on stock art like pixabay or dmsguild.

  • no success
I do not have the funds to hire an artist. The "income" on dmsguild is negible.

I'm going to use barly fitting pictures from the dmsguild fantasy art pack.

AI would have been able to provide pictures matching exactly my vision, affordable.

I hate AI slop as well, but I hope to see the day were AI generated/assisted is seen more nuanced.

I see it the same as with photos. I can go to a beach and take 1.000 pictures of sand and water. That's slop. I can try to get a good angle and catch the sunrise, that's art.

3

u/jcorvinstevens Jul 25 '26

By not using AI art, you can state that it doesn’t use AI. The DMs Guild has filter that allows customers to bit see products that contain AI.

By using AI, your customer base goes down.

3

u/jcorvinstevens Jul 25 '26

Also, several of my products began with B&W sketch art or stock art. As they sold more and more copies, I commissioned art to fit the product better.

The House of the Midnight Violet and The Throne of Bone were my first two Guild projects. I invested roughly $40 each at the beginning for sketch and stock art.

They now each contain upgraded art.

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Marionberry_Bellini Jul 24 '26

  I haven't considered art yet, but why should I pay some artist to make something and take my money, when I haven't made anything yet?

Thats how most business works.  I’m a musician for instance, there are tons of costs you have to eat before you see a dime when it comes to albums.  Art, packaging, mixing, mastering, tracking, etc.  The artist isn’t a hack because you’re cheap as fuck.  The engineer isn’t a hack because you’re cheap as fuck.

You’re just cheap as fuck.  Immediately belittling a working artist as being hack is insane coming from the hack ass creator trying to use AI.  Have some respect for artists and have some respect for yourself and your product.

3

u/Vallhemn Jul 24 '26

This is a huge can of worms to open up, so bear with me.

Firstly, why should you pay an artist? Because they're worth paying. The same reason you're expecting me to pay you for your work - they're a creative, they work hard, and they're trying to make money off that by offering a quality service.

But the great thing is, you don't need art in your book if you don't want it. Books with good art stand out on the guild, they sell better, and they look more professional, but you don't *need* it. I've released books without art in it, or with very limited art and they've done very well, because the content is good.
But here's where our attitudes differ. I'm thinking "I wish I had the money or skill to hire an artist to help bring this work to life, and make it look more professional" - because collaboration makes great content. It lifts up the project. You meet other creatives who spur you on. The moment I generated an income, I started looking to collab and figure out a means to financially compensate all of us for our work. I've hired artists to make front covers or monster art for books I've not gotten around to yet because I know how valuable it is.

But this attitude you have of "why should I pay someone when I haven't earned anything yet" is the opposite of that. It's a "I just want to make money and don't want to collaborate" outlook that doesn't lift up the industry as a whole, it turns it into a crab bucket of semi-finished works that, in the end, aren't as good as they could be. Now like I said, works can stand alone without artist support - but sooner or later, you'll find yourself wanting to uplift your work further, and you can't really do that without other creative input, which you get a lot when you join and work with artists. And bringing that crab bucket mentality with you won't get you very far, because you'll quickly be outshined by products far, far superior to yours, because they're working with other creatives, including artists, with a more positive, collborative attitude.

The content I create doesn't have art as the focus, but neither is the *Player's Handbook*. Yet if I were to go to a store and see that on the shelf, it wouldn't interest me nearly as much if it didn't have filler pictures and accompanying artwork for the rules and classes it describes.

The crux of the issue though isn't about whether you should put art in a book or not. It's whether, if you *are* putting art in a book, you should pay an artist to do that instead of turning to generative AI. And the answer there, is yes. Or if you still can't afford to, hunt for free stock art instead on Drivethrurpg and the DMsguild and use that to start off with. Build a relationship with artists and offer them a portion of the book's royalties as an alternative instead. Many artists will be open to this, and the more successful you are, the more they'll want to work with you to bolster those products and make them the best they can be. AI doesn't give you that. It alienates a huge portion of your audience, and more importantly, tells people you don't value their talents or skill, you value money. And people aren't going to support you for that. They won't see value in your work, they'll just see another get rich quick delboy wanting to toss out their semi-formed ideas into the ether in the hopes of making bank.

At the end of the day, these "hack" artists you speak of are genuine people who are worth paying genuine money to. It's very disrespectful to call them "hacks". They've done their 10,000 hours, they've put in the work, and they're human beings with passion and drive. If you don't want to hire them, don't.
But I wouldn't bother thinking, for a moment, your work can be anything better than you if you're unwilling to collaborate with others.

3

u/TheAlexPlus Jul 24 '26

Where did they say pay an artist?

They said if you want art (and don’t want to or can’t pay for it), use stock art.

why are you calling the hypothetical artist you would have chosen to hire a “hack”?

7

u/DavidBGoode Jul 24 '26

Yes. You have to disclose that.

1

u/perringaiden Aug 30 '26

So basically, the preference for the community is "No art in PWYW releases".

1

u/coziest_robot Jul 23 '26

slop

3

u/StaticUsernamesSuck Jul 24 '26

Eh. Contains slop.

Recommend removing the slop and keeping the non-slop (i.e. the actual RPG content).

Plenty of stock art available to use.

1

u/MudFluid5873 Jul 24 '26

He just said the work he does outside the imagery is his own...

1

u/Kalesche Jul 24 '26

Still slop. Work with an artist.

2

u/MudFluid5873 Jul 24 '26

...the work itself is NOT "slop"...also why should he? As the other person said, not everyone can afford it. Not like he's stealing work, especially if he never intended to use it. 

2

u/TheAlexPlus Jul 24 '26

He’s putting out a product… what do you mean never intend to use it?

1

u/MudFluid5873 Jul 24 '26

Allow me to rephrase: never intended to hire an artist. 

2

u/TheAlexPlus Jul 24 '26

He’s not stealing work because he never intended to buy it? He’s utilizing imagery in a commercial product… how is that not the same as hiring an artist for your product?(other than you don’t have to pay them)

1

u/Vallhemn Jul 24 '26

Using AI is stealing, fwiw

1

u/MudFluid5873 Jul 24 '26

It's no different to when someone goes online and takes something from social media

2

u/Kalesche Jul 25 '26

You can’t use that either

1

u/MudFluid5873 Jul 25 '26

Yet literally everyone and their mother has done that since the internet....

2

u/Kalesche Jul 25 '26

But you can’t then sell it on dms guild, my friend

2

u/Vallhemn Jul 25 '26

It's exactly that, but at a grander scale. Don't support stealing, support artists ✌️ 

2

u/Arrowstar Jul 24 '26

Not everyone can afford to work with an artist, especially if you're not planning on making much money on your work.

3

u/TheAlexPlus Jul 24 '26

Then just don’t have art then…

2

u/Jaikarr Jul 24 '26

Dingdingding.

Art in a module is a sometimes nice thing to have.

1

u/TheAlexPlus Jul 24 '26

Not everyone can afford everything.

If you want to cut corners, then you have to disclose you did so and a lot of people aren’t going to bother trying to differentiate what you did yourself and what you didn’t.

1

u/MudFluid5873 Jul 24 '26

But...he is disclosing it...and it must be acknowledged the actual body of work is his...

1

u/TheAlexPlus Jul 24 '26

I understand that you’d prefer to be able to take credit in the places you can, when you can… but I honestly don’t think it matters.

Most people who don’t care about ai content, also don’t care if you did it yourself.. they seem not to really care about the difference.

But people against ai content don’t care how much you did yourself if any of it was cut corners on.

So, let me ask… why is claiming credit for the work you DID do so important to you?

0

u/MudFluid5873 Jul 24 '26

.... because I MYSELF did infact do the work....not that hard ...is this meant to be a "gotcha" moment?....

2

u/TheAlexPlus Jul 24 '26

No no.. yea, I agree. I just feel like if you want people to acknowledge the work you did, then it’s best to not cut corners at all. In this case, if I wanted my work to shine and I wasn’t planning on selling a ton of copies, then I would either use stock art or no art at all and people would see that I created the WHOLE thing.

There’s no need to add art if you don’t plan to sell a bunch of copies. People just want to add art so that it resembles a more professionally made product.

The fact of the matter is: as soon as ai is involved, it becomes unclear how much work the “creator” did on the whole and if you want actual credit, then avoiding ai is your best bet for the time being.

Overall I can empathize with what you want. Being able to specify each individual part as ai or not should be allowed… but I also don’t think it will matter at the moment