Using Midjourney AI for Dungeons & Dragons
EDIT: 30 april 2023. A lot happened with midjourney since this post was written (august 10). Back then version3 was relatively new. Today Midjourney is way better at giving you decired results and is on version5. See this new post instead
The future is here. AI generated images, AI generated maps and much more is now commonly available for anyone who wish to use these tools. All they require is to click a bit, and perhabs throw some words at a prompt.
Midjourney.com
Midjourney is a new AI-powered image generator that uses words you input into a prompt for inspiration to the AI, to create some wild images. You can sign up for a free trial to test it out. It may take many attempts to get exactly what you are looking for, but if you are not looking for something exact you might get a WoW facter rather quickly.
But, can it be for inspiration or even concent art by DungeonMasters ?
Absolutely! I find it extremely well suited to help illustrate fantasy scenes. The more abstract, the easier it is to illustrate it.
For instance, I am considering an underground sidequest which may lead the adventuring party to an underground dungeon, so I asked Midjourny.com AI to generate some some images for me, with only a few words for inspiration
/imagine prompt medival fantasy dungeon dark vibrant —ar 16:9
In just a few minutes I had these amazing results:
I was stunned. These are way better than anything I hoped for, and actually makes me want to swift the setting a bit to fit the images.
It is not just an underground dungeon, it is a large underground cave with a forgotten fortress inside it. Walls are illuminated by magical growth and veins of unknown metals.
What else can I use this for?
I’m an player in another campaign, where I play a Gnome Artificer. Our heroic party once ventured into a secret pirate cave, large enough that ships could fit. Our DM did an amazing job describing it, but I wondered if Midjourney could make a cool scene about this.
I was afraid that it would be too dark, so I asked it to be colourful to mimic the dungeon results above.
secret underground pirateship cave colourfull --ar 21:9
Midjourney gave me 4 examples to pick from. Almost psycadelic to look at, but no doubt that this is a cave with pirateships. Really beautiful examples, which I am currently considering if I should get them posters for my home.
I was intrigued and tried a few more renders with a few different parameters, and I think the results are amazing.
secret underground pirateship cave, realistic, octane render, 4k, --ar 21:9
There is no limit ?
Midjourney gives you a trial, where you can make a few images yourself before you need to purchase a subscription. Which is fair, since the AI requires quite a bit of processing power, for every image you make.
I was thinking about my Gnome Artificer, and the notebook he always keeps on him. After making many notes about dragons, he came up with a blueprint for a Homunculus, or rather a tiny dragon construct. So.. could I get the AI to create such blueprints for me ? I figured, they would be best thematically if they where made in a style like Da Vinci
dragon construct machine style of da vinci blueprint --ar 21:9
Now, they does not look exactly like a dragon, but it does look like the blueprints describe certain dragon construct features, if such was built mechanically (in a steampunk or rather spellpunk kind of style).
Notebooks.. but what about Spellbooks?
As much as I love the Da Vinci blueprint paperstyle, I think it could be quite awesome if I could get the AI to make photos of a spellbook. Perhabs with the same kind of blueprint-ish feeling.
spellbook with magical blueprints on pages, misty background and lightrays coming out of the book, octane render, hyper-realistic --ar 21:9
These books are freaking amazing. Although it was first much after I realized that because I requested the images in 21:9, I got them in super-wide versions, which also meant that the books where not exactly booksized. I love how they are looking super worn, and like the paper is living and spells are oozing out of the paper.
So, I picked a few to get a higher render of them:
I have not reached the end of my Midjourney experience - you will find more in mosts to come.
Have you made some awesome AI images, or are you, yourself already using AI for your games - then please let me know. Throw a comment below.