The Warhammer 40k rules might be complex, but they’ve got nothing on a 50-step combat resolution procedure generated by AI text tool ChatGPT. Redditor u/AlexRescueDotCom shared the cursed creation to the r/wargaming subreddit on Thursday.
Combat resolution in Warhammer 40k involves rolling to hit, to wound, to save, and perhaps a Feel No Pain save for a particularly tough unit. Depending on your Warhammer 40k faction and your army’s weapon abilities you might even skip some of those rolls. ChatGPT’s list has fifty distinct stages, including gems like:
- Cover Efficiency Check: How effective is the target’s cover against the attack?
- Defensive Mechanism Effectiveness Check: How effective is the target’s defensive mechanism against the attack?
- Counterattack Probability Check: What’s the chance of a counterattack from the target?
- Post-Attack Position Adjustment Check: Can your model adjust its position after the attack?
- Follow-Up Attack Necessity Check: Does your model need to make a follow-up attack?
The list goes on, and on, and ends with a final check to see if, after two score and ten dice rolls, the fighter earns any experience. You’ll find the whole thing on Reddit.
We note that ChatGPT has ‘generated’, rather than ‘written’ these rules. Systems like ChatGPT are trained to find patterns in text from the internet, and can then create strings of letters that fit those patterns when prompted. It’s remarkable technology, but it has more in common with the algorithms used to shrink or enlarge pictures in Photoshop than with real intelligence.
That ChatGPT has been able to generate this list does imply that, somewhere on the internet, there are actual rules documents with phrases similar to “Weapon Functionality Check” and “Post-Attack Terrain Condition Check” in them. Honestly we wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an expansion to Advanced Squad Leader with that level of detail.
Neural network databases, commonly called AI, are a major concern for the tabletop scene at the moment. Wargamer’s Mollie Russel interviewed creators and legal professionals about the future of AI art in tabletop RPGs. We’ve also covered some fun stories about AI generation, including an AI-generated Warhammer Fantasy army and a DnD playing AI that just loves Magic Missile.