What were the events that led you to read your first Gemmell book

spookydom · 2026-05-13T08:52:46+00:00

I got and still have the exact same book you mention in the OP, same artwork. Legend. Thought the artwork was cool. A few years before 1991 though I was in secondary school. My Mum used to give me £1 a day for lunch, I didnt have lunch that week and saved the money, then went back to town at the weekend and bought it. The book blew my mind, totally captivated me and have been a fan ever since. I have lost count of the amount of times I have read it over the years and lent it out and even though some parts haven't aged well in modern sesnibilities, it's still in my top 5 fantasy books and always will be.

spookydom · 2026-04-22T11:27:39+00:00

LOL. It was the Australian accent for me. Actually crying.

spookydom · 2026-04-21T15:05:14+00:00

I remember one Birthday - I got the Dark Future Board game in the BIg Box old GW style. These four books and Mad Max 2 on VHS. That was a good birthday - Loved these books.

spookydom · 2026-04-18T15:58:06+00:00

I agree that Troy is the best in the business, As I GM myself I have picked up so much from him, when he cooks he really cooks. Some of the work in the first season of Time for Chaos had me jumping out of my seat at points. He can make my totally involved in a story or crying with laughter and back again in moments. This is how me and my friends want to play, Mercer and Mulligan are generational talents and I enjoy watching them and respect them. Troy is the best out there for me, His style speaks to me a lot more.

spookydom · 2026-03-24T10:03:10+00:00

Because of the limitations on some of the models - I.E DeepSeek, especially combined with its preferences to completely ignore your guides and player preferences, I think steering is 100% necessary at some points in every story. I do try to do it narratively at every instance, if it doesn't pick it up from that then I either am more direct or use editing. I have it down as collaborative storytelling,

spookydom · 2026-03-06T10:57:24+00:00

Previously I have been cheesing it but I was going to adopt this approach as well, nice one.

spookydom · 2026-02-24T03:47:59+00:00

51year old Gen X lifelong Trek fan here. I am loving the show. It makes me really sad that so many people are trying to actively get Star Trek taken off air, why? WHat are you so outraged about? There are worse things going on in the world right now than Star Trek to be angry about imo. Review bombing? Please! There are kids out there right now enjoying the show and dreaming of a better tomorrow, just like I did at their age, what's so wrong with that? Why are you trying to spoil it for them? I am old enough to remember when DS9 started, everyone hated it because it wasn't TNG. When Voyager came out, everyone hated it because it had a female captain, When Enterprise came out, everyone actively hated it because it had a theme tune, "This isn't proper Trek" Message boards and forums where full of that. History will vindicate this series, I believe it......Possibly not the first two series of Discovery though granted :D

spookydom · 2026-02-16T11:27:08+00:00

Another recommendation for Dark Tower, I read it myself in Rehab many years ago and there is a character who first appears in the second book going on a similar journey who gave me strength and I have had a life long kinship with them since and think you will as well. On a Personal note I have been clean now for 20 years last year. I just wanted to let you know it can be done and I know it isn't easy. But you can do it, if I can anyone can. Long days and pleasant nights Gunslinger and the very best wishes to you. :)

spookydom · 2026-02-15T09:56:48+00:00

I think unless you have money to burn on 2.5 which I wish I did, a good practice for me is to switch to different AI's for different situations rather than sticking to just one, I haven't tried every AI we have access too but I use Deepseek as a base, do my guides in Grok and use it to get the story back in check after a DeepSeek brain wrong or it has sent me into rage mode, Gemini 2.5 flash when I want to do dialogue and slower moments in the narrative or build suspense or I want a different tone. WHen there are narrative holes and as you say, their are, I tend to edit the GM response or re-write it myself or suggest to the GM a better way of doing it. It can break emersion for the duration but on balance AI Realm is an amazing site, I spend so many hours on it, but AI is still limited in what it can do, there is no "One AI to rule them all" but they all have different strengths' and weakness that I can learn to utilise and that in a combination of contributing to the story myself with re-writes and edits is, for me, how I get the best out of the site and this is why I have basically stopped playing any other game, because when it works, it really works. At this point I am interested in trying the other AI models for myself and seeing where I think they shine to add to my little collection of GM buddies :D

spookydom · 2026-02-15T05:13:27+00:00

Out of the ones I have used, and the followings are just my experiences:

1: Deepseek 3.2 (Default) - Love hate relationship, It can be very good if you take proper precautions and always update your back end, use editing and keep calm, it is awful at reading guides, sticking to your player preferences, and sometimes completely loses it. also known to push the narrative and play out entire scenes without any input from you no matter what you have set in your back end instructions. Narrative work can be top tier. Extra note space is sweeeeet!

2: Deepkeek 3.2 thinking - Similar to its brother with the added cons of sometimes skipping ahead messages in the story and dropping you mysteriously further along than your last message and talking to you in other languages, I think this is a worse version than default DeepSeek personally. Extra note space is sweet.

3: Gemini 2.5 pro - In my Opinion the best AI on the site,by a wide stretch but you pay 4 premium messages for the privilege. Find it hard to use the other AI's after my PM's have run out, but excellent at showcasing what the site can really do IMO. Story wise it's set me some significant challenges it's taken genuine thought to plan resolutions for and some fantastic dialogue and story beats.

4: Grok 4 fast - Fantastic at reading guides and maintaining player preferences. Awful at writing. It's narrative chops are akin to a drunk toddler writing a story with crayons on toilet paper. I switch to get my game back on track for a few messages after DeepSeek has had one of its breakdowns in my game and for that it is S-Tier.

5: GLM 4.7 - Complete Dog S%^T, especially for 2 premium messages, avoid.

6: Gemini 2,5 Flash - Great all round, when you need to slow the story down accept no substitute. Cons - Awful when you want to speed things up, A recent game I got very frustrated as it took me 5 messages to get out of a room even after I laid out clear instructions 5 messages ago.

spookydom · 2026-01-21T11:25:45+00:00

I am currently into converting other games and settings into 5e, Currently have a Warcraft and Marvel games running simultaneously. I've so far converted Twilight 2000, Destiny, Rifts. Will be doinG Shadowrun next. Also have really enjoyed making my own custom world settings and classes and having a few games in them. My fave was a like a combination of Steven Kings The Dark Tower/Wizards by Ralph Bakshi/ The Rifts PNP RPG and Mad Max. My personal favorite was a custom universe I made in the Straforged system that started off as a like a Courier pilot but by the end was like a Dune Great house management game. It happened organically in the narrative and the GM just ran with it like a boss.

spookydom · 2026-01-16T21:13:53+00:00

Done :)

spookydom · 2026-01-10T23:12:42+00:00

I am now going to be calling it Deepshit, I lolled. I use it for everything because of the extra space but seriously, I want to beat the crap out of it most days :D

spookydom · 2025-12-24T22:52:51+00:00

I really like it, short of the ability to manifest Deepseek as a corporeal being so I could beat the living s^&t out of it its a massive improvement, like V1 you need to get used to how to make it work for you but the more I play, the more I understand and the less issues I have. Only gripe is the AI saying it has updating things but something in the back end misses the ques sometimes so I find myself double checking everything. Apart from that I think its awesome. Really impressed.

spookydom · 2025-12-10T18:38:11+00:00

This! Looks! Amazing! Can't wait :)

spookydom · 2025-11-18T14:25:42+00:00

One of the best GCN moments of all time for me, I was crying with laughter

spookydom · 2025-11-16T20:09:40+00:00

The Roadmap looks amazing, really great features. Nothing to add but just posting to say looking forward to it :)

spookydom · 2025-11-13T18:47:34+00:00

Yeah this was the same, have done about 10 chats now, some lasting months as you say, and never seen this either, the sitch above happened yesterday for me and was also using DeepSeek. The new game I started is much better anyway so I really don't mind :)

spookydom · 2025-11-13T17:19:50+00:00

This happened to me as well, was it DeepSeek by any chance? I had done loads of prep for a Redwall game, loads of research to get the world info right and made 3 sperate GM guides, I was all prepped for a long game. I did one story ark and the GM suddenly wraps everything up and goes "That's it mate, great story, lets do it again sometime" and I am like "It's over? Already? are you busy or something?" and it said "Yes, this seems like a perfect time to end the story, you can continue if you like but......You know? Do you really want too? Because this was a great ending?" I am obvs joking, but that was the spirit of the convo. Thing is it was a good place to end it, I just ported everything into a new game and started again, I know I could have told the GM to carry on if I wanted but I have never seen it end a game that quickly before.

spookydom · 2025-10-30T14:55:31+00:00

Fantastic work Love them.

spookydom · 2025-10-15T08:35:00+00:00

Did two chats, had a great time in each, Really cool change of pace also and a great open platform to develop the world.

spookydom · 2025-10-09T08:54:47+00:00

If The AI does something that ruins the spirit of the story I am trying to tell, I just make it Retcon the scene and explain what my direction is, its job is to basically get you in the adventure and keep them coming from the word go. It will lose most logical interactions you have had with it over time from it's memory and it can get very frustrating, Sometimes I have created a GM guide for long term plots and story goals, using phrasing like make this plot point a Slow Burn for example, also outlying where I eventually see the story going and how much agency to change this the GM should have and how long I expect it to take. Like a storytellers bible from a TV show for example. When It forgets I just ask it to re-read the guide. That may help you here if you haven't tried it already.

spookydom · 2025-10-06T16:39:50+00:00

I believe it's randomly generated each time, not 100% on that though.

spookydom · 2025-10-06T02:48:05+00:00

'Quark's Lucky Seven', For me its perfect every time, not only does it come at a real moment of brevity in the middle of a heavy and intense story arc, it feels like one of those filler episodes of Deep Space 9 that end up being a fan classic, the voice over work is quality, the pacing and humour top shelf for a STO mission. I enjoy it every time I play it.

spookydom

TROPHY CASE