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Nico de Gallo's TTRPG Resource Guide

The Human-Made
Alternatives Guide

A curated resource guide of practical tools, free art libraries, and incredible human artists.

Browse the Resources Visit the Artist Guild

Index & Contents

What You’ll Find Here

Designed and collated by Nico de Gallo

You Don’t Need Gen AI for Your Games.

– Nico de Gallo Linktree

This page is a constructive, AI-free alternative for tabletop creators. Many people do not know how generative AI tools are trained or their environmental cost. Instead of shaming them, share this guide and point them to these human-made resources.

If you see somebody using AI, do not assume the worst. Link them here and help them out.

Quick Glossary

Free

Generally free for home games and personal use.

Creative Commons

Often usable commercially if you include the required attribution.

Public Domain (Copyright-Free)

Not subject to copyright law, but still verify source and reproduction notes.

Attribution

Another way to say crediting the artist/source; some sources require a specific format.

★

Featured · Artist Directory

The Artist Guild

Verified AI-free artists available for commission, homebrew, and supplement work.

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I

Free image libraries, icon sets, and marketplaces

This is the best off-ramp from AI art for creators who need usable visuals quickly.

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II

Free stock art, maps, and music from individual creators

These creators actively share reusable work with licenses attached, so you can source human-made materials directly.

View Resources →
III

Places to find artists

When close enough is not good enough, these communities are better than prompting for approximations.

View Resources →
IV

Writing prompts, random tables, audio, puzzles, and handout tools

AI gets used for ideation because people do not know where the real tools already are.

View Resources →
★ Artist Guild I Readymade art and assets II Artists and creators III Request original character art IV Even more free stuff

Free image libraries, icon sets, and marketplaces

This is the best off-ramp from AI art for creators who need usable visuals quickly.

Itch.io Free TTRPG Assets

Free TTRPG-tagged game assets from independent creators, useful for maps, tokens, UI elements, and printable pieces.

See also

Search for game assets, keep the TTRPG tag, and filter to free listings.
Visit
Pulp Magazine Archive

A huge archive of pulp-era magazines that can be mined for public-domain mood, collage material, and design inspiration.

Visit
Medieval Image Sources

A giant link list of medieval images and full books. Very strong for manuscripts, heraldry, borders, and historical texture.

Visit
The Noun Project

A large collection of human-made icons and simple illustrations for handouts, sheets, interfaces, and quick visual signposting.

Visit
Game Icons

A deep icon set in SVG format that is especially useful for VTT modules, cheat sheets, and tokens.

Visit
Flaticon

Free PNG icons with paid SVG access. Useful when you need fast visual support assets without illustration work.

Visit
OpenGameArt

A broad library of community-made art, sprites, textures, sound, and interface material intended for reuse in games.

Visit
Openclipart

General-purpose clipart and illustrations that can fill gaps for diagrams, signage, and handout visuals.

Visit

Free stock art, maps, and music from individual creators

These creators actively share reusable work with licenses attached, so you can source human-made materials directly.

Duncan Hall

Grimdark fantasy stock characters released under CC0 for flexible reuse.

Visit
Jean Buttler

Illustration work available under CC-BY 4.0 with licensing details linked from the artist site.

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Jason Glover

Free art assets shared for tabletop and publishing use with permission-based reuse guidance.

Visit
Mariana Ruiz Villarreal

A prolific Wikimedia creator with CC0 diagrams and illustrations that are especially useful for handouts and reference material.

Visit
Chaoclypse

A pay-what-you-want chaos art pack made available for reuse with permission guidance from the creator.

Visit
Stregawolf

Fantasy illustration work released under Creative Comrades CCLA 1.0.

Visit
Elven Tower Map Collection

A free Patreon collection of 300+ hand-drawn maps released under CC-BY 4.0.

See also

The Patreon membership for this collection is free.
Visit

Places to find artists

When close enough is not good enough, these communities are better than prompting for approximations.

r/ICanDrawThat

A broader request forum that works well when you need sketches, props, creatures, or visual concepts beyond character portraits.

Visit
r/FreeArt

Artists and requesters meet here for no-cost art exchanges, especially useful for personal campaigns and prototypes.

Visit
r/DrawForMe

Not every post is free, but the free-offer filter is a good place to catch artists volunteering time for requests.

Visit
r/OriginalCharacter

A community where artists regularly post creative offers, especially useful for OC-focused prompts and one-off collaborations.

Visit

Writing prompts, random tables, audio, puzzles, and handout tools

AI gets used for ideation because people do not know where the real tools already are.

Handout Maker

Create in-world letters, notes, and faux documents without touching image generation at all.

Visit

Better tools are out there.
Point people to them.

If somebody is still using AI in the TTRPG space because it feels convenient, this page is the redirect. It shows the practical alternatives without turning the conversation into a fight, and it points them to verified artists when the right solution is collaboration.

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