I'm about to enter my third decade of being a public school educator.  For much of that journey, I've been fascinated and passionate about how educational technology can positively impact learning.  Of course, since ChatGPT seemingly exploded onto the scene in November 2022, artificial intelligence has been a part of that interest.   As we celebrate its potentiality, we must have honest and sometimes difficult conversations about AI.   I consider myself "cautiously optimistic" about artificial intelligence in general, and in that spirit, my book has an entire section dedicated to the intersection of AI, TTRPGs, and education where I show its promise while recognizing some areas of concern. 

However, I want to pull back -- from the discussion of AI inside the content of my book, to the book's creation itself.

Firstly, outside of cited sources, the words within the covers are my own.  I'm such a grognard writer that I didn't even use AI to help generate an outline, much less for feedback or "first drafting."  That is not to pass judgement on other authors that do, and who knows how I may collaborate with AI when writing a book sometime in the future -- but Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom is the product of my own mind.   (This was also part of an assertion I made when signing my book contract.)

Secondly, any imagery inside my originally submitted manuscript was done without AI.  I took the photographs and designed the visual graphics; my good friend James Allen created the iconographic art by hand that are meant to be signifying headers for several repeating text features in the book.  

Thirdly, McFarland's own graphic design team of humans tackled the cover art.   As the publisher shared with me,  "several members of our team all had input in some way or another for your book cover" -- and as its author, my input was a part of that, as it was for input on the title  -- but as a matter of policy, they don't acknowledge or credit individual McFarland designers.  McFarland  also uses a combination of resources to design their covers, some of them "old school" digital tools like Adobe Photoshop and Shutterstock, and others like Adobe Firefly that utilize AI.  However, Adobe Firefly's AI generation only draws from its own archived bank of art from already compensated artists, or from art in the public domain.  This AI policy of Adobe mirrors McFarland's overall general policy to "only use suppliers that compensate their artists." McFarland are also transparent in this usage, citing resources such as Shutterstock and Adobe Firefly as part of their books' credits/title pages.

Lastly, I will share that when I signed my book contract, I acknowledged that McFarland (who, as I said before, dutifully and frequently requested my input throughout the publishing process) ultimately has final approval of the title and the front and back covers.  This is as common in the publishing world as it is uncontroversial.   Having said that, it's important for me to emphasize that my experience with McFarland has been delightful, and I'm enormously grateful for the large amount of respect, collaboration, and communicative effort they have given to little ol' me over the last year, an unknown with his first "official" book.  McFarland is a wonderful publisher and I would highly recommend them to authors seeking a print partner.  In short, I am joyous about my book's final title and covers.

In closing, while I appreciate you reading this discussion of how AI was (and mainly was not) used in the design of my book, I am more excited for you to read and share Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom!

---Adam Watson, April 11, 2025