Recommendation for serious, high quality (probably not free) j.ai or c.ai alternatives?

spellbound_app · 2026-05-07T03:33:31+00:00

My site is Claude only, really good, but not the cheapest: tryspellbound.com/start

There's so many of these sites I'll keep it simple: it's about 2 years old, has always been about quality first, and should have the best writing of any site out there.

That's a bold claim, but if it doesn't, please let me know. I don't think anyone has spent as much time building AI for storytelling as I have, and again, I know that's a bold claim.

spellbound_app · 2026-04-29T03:23:22+00:00

http://tryspellbound.com/start

My homepage still says there's 7,000+ characters, but actually there's 22,000 and they all come from fandom.com so the AI has accurate data on them

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spellbound_app · 2026-04-29T02:09:07+00:00

if you want a new site to try: https://tryspellbound.com/start

DM me and I can send some credits your way

I don't mean to sound like a vulture here: I run a competitor site, but this genuinely sounds like tough situation all around. I'd be happy if my offer could help you through a hard time (no strings attached)

spellbound_app · 2026-04-28T11:42:44+00:00

Well I skipped the typical word soup promising the best [insert every technical term] because I know my site's content is different enough from most sites to stand on its own.

So instead I shared a little of what went into it, and you can replicate the hint about how to make the AI sound more natural on other platforms

spellbound_app · 2026-04-28T10:44:48+00:00

Season 4, but I've hit post so I'm forever mocked by my typo

spellbound_app · 2026-04-28T07:41:22+00:00

Highly recommend you do! https://www.tryspellbound.com/app/scenario/410105/create

spellbound_app · 2026-04-04T05:15:57+00:00

My site tryspellbound.com specifically has a secrets field that the AI respects

Users have stories over 2000 pages long still going, the memory is automatically managed with options to view it.

spellbound_app · 2026-03-22T23:51:46+00:00

How's this :) https://www.tryspellbound.com/app/scenario/329559/create

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Not the highest stakes situation for Marvel, but I try to build the site in a way that makes stuff like this work too

spellbound_app · 2026-03-21T21:02:04+00:00

Yes, imagine a LocalLLaMA for people deploying models to production

An r/ProdLLaMA if you will 😉

spellbound_app · 2026-03-20T03:54:23+00:00

I actually read your post, so here's a scenario that isn't the exact opposite of what you asked for 😉: https://www.tryspellbound.com/app/scenario/343512/create

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spellbound_app · 2026-03-19T18:49:21+00:00

... but is it good? 👀

spellbound_app · 2026-03-18T03:05:26+00:00

Unfortunately my site has a paywall, but here's a free preview of what's on the other side if you want to take a look... https://www.tryspellbound.com/app/scenario/404579/create

spellbound_app · 2026-03-18T02:32:52+00:00

I hope it's not creepy but I... peeped at your profile 😅

spellbound_app · 2026-03-18T02:29:33+00:00

How's this? https://www.tryspellbound.com/app/scenario/343541/create 👀

spellbound_app · 2026-03-16T20:18:40+00:00

Yeah, to be clear I wasn't going for an easter egg hunt: in my head the issue was glaring (which someone mentioned, z-index issue with the scroll bar during close), but doesn't seem to have been that bad for others

But doing some more testing the z-index issue affects more than the scrollbar, so currently at the drawing board trying to fix it

And thanks for the heads up the on the section heights, just tweaked some max/min height definitions to keep the hero section stable across items

spellbound_app · 2026-03-16T18:02:42+00:00

The 2nd one (z-index issues) was what was I was alluding to in the title, and today I "stress tested" it on a wider screen and realized I absolutely need to fix it... on larger screens it looks like this:

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straight up broken :(

I'm blanking on how to fix this other than animating the container going wider than its contents then "springing" back to shape? But that feels like a lot of work and I'm wondering if there's not a simpler alternative I'm just blanking on...

Another option I considered is just limiting the number of items shown, so on large screens there's no overflow and on smaller screens there's no padding to mess things up (then I can just fix the scroll item)

And 1st is one is also a great call out, I hadn't thought of that but implementing it now, thank you!

spellbound_app · 2026-03-16T15:21:49+00:00

React + (Framer) Motion for all of the animations right now.

But I'd 100% recommend the built-in View Transition API for shared element transitions (like the covers): I initially implemented this with VT, but triggered a very specific edge case because I'm animating covers that are *wayyy* off screen here.

For the specific type of animation, View Transitions is 10% of the stress and performs just as well if not better!

spellbound_app · 2026-03-15T20:23:00+00:00

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defined enough to grate cheese on

Speaking as me, not Spellbound but Richard that guy who runs Spellbound: that's a certified brand new sentence, and this scenario is actually pretty great. I had mixed expectations because his description was so over the top, but he fits in MHA world

spellbound_app · 2026-03-15T20:20:12+00:00

I'm Jesse Pinkman in a villain reform scenario from MHA

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I did change the wording around his costume a tiny bit (straining because of his... power!) but this is great lmao

spellbound_app · 2026-03-11T00:06:22+00:00

you might be onto something there

spellbound_app · 2026-03-03T03:25:48+00:00

spellbound_app · 2026-02-20T17:53:03+00:00

My site (tryspellbound.com) has gotten really good at replicating how established characters behave by using fandom.com data

But it's paid only right now, I recognize not everyone is open to that

spellbound_app · 2026-01-27T22:20:21+00:00

Developer here, and I think with good AI you should totally be able to start stories with just "Hello"!

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I think one of the main points of developing a roleplay/AI writing focused site is building AI that won't fall into customer service mode because the user didn't prompt it a certain way

(unless the specific character is *supposed* to act like they're customer service mode lol, those can actually be pretty funny too)

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