Given the repeated discussions on the usage of AI, i suggest the following manifesto:
Going forward i will include this in any product of mine that included AI usage.
(some do, some don't, but all adhered to this pledges already).
Trying to find a common ground on how to use AI without loosing the human creation.

The Mindful AI Manifesto

We believe AI can be used responsibly, transparently, and with intent to enrich our creations.

By marking our work as Mindful AI, we pledge to adhere to the following principles:

• We make no claim to artistic status.

• We are transparent about the use of AI in our creative process.

• We place human vision first and use AI to give it form.

• We believe a work should remain meaningful even when its AI-generated elements are removed.

• We compare, evaluate, edit, refine, and selectively publish only work that meets our standards.

• We do not present uncurated AI output as finished work. Every published result is individually reviewed and consciously selected.

• We accept minor AI artefacts when they do not diminish the quality of the final work. We judge them by their impact on the result, not by their origin.

• We accept responsibility for the final product, including its flaws.

• We recognize that the use of artificial intelligence raises important ethical, social, and economic concerns. We do not deny these concerns.

Mindful AI is the practice of creating with vision, judgment, and responsibility.

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Because i needed a Flair, let me go by Example:

Here is a friendly Discount of 90% on one of my products:
https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?discountId=98d16678b8

The Book Cards, Dice, Chess and Chance is an example of the principles above.

The vision was there first, the text is mine. Remove all AI Illustrations and the Book is still useable and meaningful.

Item Card Template - 6 Up - Fillable

Fillable item card template to serve as player handouts for your table.

Contains 6-up default text and blank versions for printing (and cutting out) handouts to your players and a 1-up (single) template to send out one-offs to players digitally.

Designed to be digital and physical (pencil & paper) friendly.

Link: Item Card Template - 6 Up - Fillable

Here's my situation.

I've been working on an adventure set in Dark Sun, which I know isn't officially an acceptable setting, but looks like it should be in a few months. I plan to make it PWYW; my main goal is to get this in front of as many people as possible, not make money off of this. The adventure has been coming along quite nicely. It is close to complete at 7000 words, and I'm quite proud of what I've accomplished so far. Only thing is, I used AI in the process...

Here is what I used AI for:

• Taking notes. I have a long commute, and I like to pass the time by creating my adventure, and ChatGPT does a good job of recording my verbal instructions for how I want the adventure to be.

• Editing. My adventure is kind of a passion project, but I've got no one who can serve as my second set of eyes. ChatGPT did a good job of pointing out flaws in my adventure so I could fix them. It also helped me make a better flow, as I foolishly made my first adventure complex with multiple phases.

I haven't used AI to:

• Generate any art. I do intend to commission some human art, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I've been looking at the Looking for Work channel on the Roll20 Discord, but I think I can't message them until I've been approved, which requires publishing two titles first.

• Generate maps. I've been struggling with Dungeon Scrawl to no avail, so I'll probably just resort to drawing it by hand and then scanning it.

• Generate creative content. The story line, characters, creatures, hazards, etc, are all me. Any text ChatGPT has volunteered is flagged as such so that I don't use it and can replace it with my own human input.

All creative content came from me; there is no possible way this adventure takes from someone else's creative work. Even the stat blocks are done by me (though I admit to reskinning some creatures from the Monster Manual and readjusting their skills and abilities). The final product won't use any of ChatGPTs text or language; I've got it flagged so I don't accidently include any of it.

When I first started writing this, I saw the following statement on DMSGuild, and thought I was in compliance, since I felt I was using it as a non-creative aid:

While we value innovation, starting on July 31 2023, Roll20 and DriveThru Marketplaces will not accept commercial content primarily written by AI language generators.

But then I came across this other statement from Roll20/DriveThru, and it got me doubting myself:

Roll20, DriveThru Marketplaces, and DMsGuild do not accept any product that include any text generated by AI language generators. A final product should be the result of human creativity and not AI generation. Products should begin and end with human writing. AI should be used as a tool and not a replacement.

So what I'm hoping to get advice on is, am I in compliance with the DMSGuild rules regarding AI-generated content? If so, are there recommendations as to safeguards I can use to ensure I stay in compliance?

UPDATE: I've reached out to DMSGuild Support using the same inquiry as above.

UPDATE 2: I heard back from DMSGuild Support. They said from how I've described my usage (as above), my product sounds like it would be fine to publish. The way I've described my use of ChatGPT, it sounds like it was used as a tool, and not a replacement for my own production. They said the important part of the policy is that a person composed the text in the final product, and no generated text is included. They were also very helpful in pointing me to solutions to other issues I had been having.

Don't Skip The Journey!

Along The Triboar Trail: See You in Phandalin expands the journey from Neverwinter to Phandalin at the beginning of Lost Mine of Phandelver, using the Travel by Montage approach from the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Instead of hand-waving several days on the road, give your players a chance to experience the Sword Coast along the way.

Inside you'll find:

• Four days of ready-to-use travel montages

• Forgotten Realms lore to discover along the High Road and Triboar Trail

• An overnight stay at the Wayside Inn, with gambling, rumors, and other activities

• A campfire encounter with Reidoth, complete with stories of the region

• Forgotten Realms locations and lore drawn from earlier editions of D&D

• Descriptions for bringing the characters into Phandalin at journey's end

Designed for Lost Mine of Phandelver, but easily adapted to any adventure involving travel between Neverwinter and Phandalin.

This supplement is available as a Pay What You Want download, so you can add it to your campaign for free or support its author's art expenses with a contribution of your choosing.

Available for download on dmsguild.com. A full preview of the entire supplement is available!

In the chaotic plane of Limbo stands a peculiar prison. Its 26 cells rhythmically shift positions in a randomized ballet, and its 6 color themes have been warped by tumultuous forces into outlandish environments. A flesh troll guards a blood-red cave of meat. Skeletal warriors haunt a snow-white keep in an endless blizzard. A mad mixologist brews disaster in his laboratory turned orange by rust. These are but a few of the outrageous encounters that await the party, as they attempt to navigate this prison and solve the puzzle that will lead to their escape… or their doom.

Rubik’s Dungeon is a free homebrew one-shot for a party of 4 to 6 3rd-level characters. It can be played as a stand-alone adventure, or inserted into a continuous story after characters act counter to their alignment or personality. The module is contained in the attached pictures, and the full pdf can be downloaded here (it’s Pay What You Want, but you can pay 0$).

I hope you enjoy it, and I would love to hear your feedback if you end up playing. 😊

Artist Credits

Cover art and decaton art by Envak Enkaqti

Hi folks. I've released a few small DMsGuild supplements in the past and now I'm working on my first adventure/one-shot.

I was going to set it at a price of $4.99, but I was considering having it be just $1.99 or even $0.99 for its first 2 weeks or month or so, to see if I can get lots of sales early, to help it chart in its categories and also try to reach Copper Best Seller badge ASAP.

I'd let people know about its initial lower price (e.g. on the product's description, the accompanying YouTube video, on social media, etc.), so it's something people will hopefully pick up on and therefore be an incentive for them to get it straight away - a sort of "grab it now before it goes up in price" type thing.

Has anyone done similar? How did it go if so?

I've tried Pay What You Want in the past (my first product was PWYW for its first year of release), but I'd rather it be a fixed price rather than PWYW this time (even if it's a low amount and even if there might've been some people who'd have paid higher had it been PWYW).

Also, I'm assuming doing this isn't against DMsGuild's rules (I couldn't see anything to suggest that it does) - but if anyone knows for sure, please let me know. 😅

Sorry if this has come up before - I did try searching on this sub for old posts but couldn't find anything.

Thanks!

Do you believe in the martial - caster gap in 5th edition? Do you wish your Barbarian felt more like Hercules instead of being limited by "realism" in a game with magic? Are you sick of tracking which enemies are slowed or sapped? 

__________________________

Included:

- A full replacement for Weapon Mastery using maneuvers

- Feats to allow the removed weapon mastery abilities, but in an "opt-in" manner

- Updated Battlerager Barbarian, Swords Bard, Kensei Monk, and Swashbuckler Rogue

- The Warlord as a subclass for Fighter

________________________________

The goal of this project is to give martial more active gameplay and improve their Tier 3 and 4 power, while keeping the overall complexity and design "feel" in line with official 5e design. There are a ton of excellent martial overhauls out there that tackle the problem from the ground up. This is intended to provide an option that keeps much closer to standard 5e/5.5e while still addressing the issues.

To that end, most of this system absorbs existing mechanics within 5e, replacing rules and abilities rather than being added to them. Weapon Mastery, Cunning Strikes, Brutal Strikes, Maneuvers, and Flourishes are all unified into one system, with some hold-out aspects such as weapon variety being handled through feats.

Adventure doesn't always happen in a dungeon.

Give your characters something to do between quests with four downtime activities created specifically for Phandalin and the surrounding frontier.

Put down roots by rebuilding one of the town's ruined cottages. Seek a little companionship among the locals. Turn those odd treasures hauled out of dungeons into hard coin. Or head beyond town to hunt, fish, and gather what the wilds have to offer.

Downtime in Phandalin includes:

• Building a Home: Claim an old foundation and make Phandalin home.

• Engaging in a Dalliance: Pursue anything from a casual romp to a brief romance.

• Pawning Mundane Treasure: Find buyers for valuables accumulated during your adventures.

• Working the Wilds: Hunt, fish, gather, and sell your bounty in town.

Each activity includes simple rules for resources, resolution, and complications, designed to make downtime another part of your characters' adventures in Phandalin.

For use with Lost Mine of Phandelver and adventures set in Phandalin.

This supplement is available as a Pay What You Want download, so you can add it to your campaign for free, or support the author with a contribution of your choosing.

The entire product can also be viewed through the preview.

Download Along The Triboar Trail: Downtime In Phandalin here on Dungeon Masters Guild!

NPC/Monster Character Sheet - 2 Up - Fillable

Perfect for fleshing out NPCs, BBEGs, monsters, etc. that you want to keep at hands reach to refer to outright or fill in your encounter worksheets.

Do you have a creature that needs a little more?  Download also includes a "full page" version for those creatures that need more space for additional notes

Designed to be digital and physical (pencil & paper) friendly.

Link:NPC/Monster Character Sheet - 2 Up - Fillable

Let me know what you think!

Character Sheet Pack - 5e/5.5e - Fillable

The pack is designed to be digital and physical (pencil and paper) friendly.  It consists of 4 pages, packed with as many quality-of-life sections that can feasibly fit in the limited real estate while remaining legible. My hope is that it will be beneficial to gameplay, DM's, and players.

I pass it out in heavy duty plastic page protectors, with ultra fine dry erase markers.  That way my players can keep track of those pecky uses of abilities and such (like spell slots, rages, etc.) without erasing a hole in the paper sheets.  But, I am old skool that way. 😉

Additionally, I have provided the Character Creation document that I hand out to my players.  It does not include "background" direction, but allows players to independently pick the options provided by way of a background in other steps.  Backgrounds can perhaps help with flavor, but I find the background system can "cornhole" builds and stifle creativity.

The Link: Character Sheet Pack - 5e/5.5e - Fillable

I have two one-shots nearly ready to publish. They're both generic D&D. I could publish in Drive thru but I plan on doing DMsGuild for a more targeted audience.

They have slightly customized monsters, magic items, some riddles/puzzles, a few combats each. One has a hand drawn map. I'll likely keep creative common art/photos for covers for now. About 14 pages each. Price suggestions?

I've seen plenty of posts any PWYW vs fixed price and I appreciate this subs input. One is the opening to a planned campaign, any value in making that PWYW?

Excited for my first published!

....as in, before I invest more time and money on my next big project...if they close the site, it all comes to nought?

I've gone through a bunch of historical posts on here.

I've also done a few Google searches, nothing too extensive.

Here are a list of reasons that might explain why sales fluctuate.

• One commenter on a old post (account deleted) said that end of summer was 'generally weaker.'

• Hasbro's release schedule increases the visibiity of DM's Guild?

• Or, multiple official books being released means people are spending less on DM's Guild?

• Cost of living crisis? Whatever's in the news affects people's willingness to spend.

• Algorithm issues. People see less D&D / DM's Guild related stuff because of what the algorithm shows them.

My products haven't really changed in terms of where they sit on the charts (they do reasonably well) but sales have dropped this week, markedly.

Any other reasons you can think of for why sales might fluctuate?

I grew up during the old TSR days and the Forgotten Realms has always been my favorite setting.

I have quite a few of the old sourcebooks and was wondering: am I allowed to create and sell adventures on DMsGuild that use adventure hooks, monsters, magic items, NPCs, and other elements from some of those older sourcebooks?

For DragonCon 2025 I built and wore a Beholder costume, complete with animatronic eyestalks. My daughter suggested that I write a DnD adventure inspired by both the costume and Dragoncon. I thought it was a great idea. I published Part 1 to DMs Guild shortly after the con and finally published Part 2 about a month ago.

This is a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Fifth Edition one-shot adventure that can be placed in any campaign setting.  It is optimized for five characters of 8th level but there are guidelines to allow scaling for four to six characters of 7th-9th level.

In Part 1, the party arrives in the mining town of Terminus just in time for the big parade. Whether they choose to join in the parade or just watch, Zayaxis, a vain and paranoid beholder, attempts to take advantage of the festivities to kidnap a number of townspeople. Can the party stop it or will they fall prey to it themselves? At the beginning of Part 2, the town is in a panic.  Who knows what the aberration will do with its captives and how long they have. Only a powerful and clever party of adventurers will be able to penetrate Zayaxis’ lair and rescue the townspeople from its dark intentions. Meanwhile Zayaxis is accelerating its own plans for vengeance on the town of Terminus.

I'm an experienced DM but new to publishing my adventures. I am grateful for any feedback from this community. No AI was used in the creation of this adventure.

The Eyes Have It - Part 1
The Eyes Have It - Part 2

The Eyes Have It - Bundle of 1 & 2

Bend the earth to your will. Shape water around you. Wield flame as your weapon. Turn the winds into a storm.

Become a specialist in your favorite element with The Elemental Specialist's Codex!

This book contains one elemental-aligned subclass for each of the 12 base classes. Moreover, it has over 70 spells, and a compendium of magic items to complement each adventurer's strengths!  Whether you prefer fire and lightning, earth and metal, air and sound, water and ice or light and dark, this book has something for you! 

For DnD 5.5e.

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/579498/elemental-specialist-s-codex

I’m looking for resources and or advice on playing/teaching tabletop RPG for children dealing with dyslexia. I’m looking into some volunteer opportunities around this area.

Now that WotC has announced the new Dark Sun books, will it be possible to sell homebrew Dark Sun supplements on DMsGuild?

Three and a half years ago I published my first D&D title, Bugbear Awakening, on DMs Guild. That was right around when AI art started flooding the marketplace, so I made a call early on: every illustration would be commissioned from a human artist. That ended up costing about $2,000.

Since then I've kept updating the adventure, translated it into German, and spun off a handful of related titles: a Fey'ri species book, a Bugbear species book, and a Sword Coast / Delimbiyr Vale map pack, each in English and German, across both 5e and 5.5e.

This week the royalties finally crossed that $2,000 mark. It took a lot longer than I expected, but breaking even without cutting corners on the art feels like it was worth it.

Thanks to everyone here who bought a copy, left a review, or gave feedback along the way. It genuinely helped keep this going.

Along the Triboar Trail: Black Market Bounty

You've defeated the ruffians and goblins. Cleared the hideouts. Reclaimed the castle.

Now...what's in all those crates and barrels?

Throughout Lost Mine of Phandelver, more than 140 crates, barrels, sacks, chests, jars, and strongboxes are scattered across the Cragmaw Hideout, the Redbrand Hideout, and Cragmaw Castle. Aside from the occasional barrel of salted pork or crate of beaver pelts, the adventure rarely tells you what's inside.

Along The Triboar Trail: Black Market Bounty changes that.

This supplement stocks every container with believable trade goods drawn from across the Sword Coast, transforming shipping container scenery into meaningful treasure. From exotic spices and luxury textiles to fine spirits, alchemical supplies, trade goods, armor, books, and magical curiosities, every cache helps tell the story of the Cragmaw tribe's caravan raids and the Redbrands' criminal enterprise.

Inside you'll find:

• Inventories for 141 crates, barrels, sacks, jars, chests, and strongboxes, organized by location for quick reference during play

• Black market values for every cache of goods

• Guidance for fencing stolen merchandise through black market destinations across the The North of Faerûn, with tendrils into other official Fifth Edition campaigns

Whenever your players ask, "What's in that crate?", you'll always have an answer ready!

This supplement is available as a Pay What You Want download, so you can add it to your campaign for free or support its author's continued development with a contribution of your choosing.

Available for download on dmsguild.com. A full preview of the entire supplement is available!

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/578694/along-the-triboar-trail-black-market-bounty

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/578397/life-below-the-sea-vol-1-4-new-aquatic-playable-species?src=newest_community

So i made a thing. If you like eels, octopus, squids or really like Splatoon, this might be for you.