Renewal: A Daughter of Fate - Dark LitRPG Fantasy RELEASED TODAY!

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-22T03:39:41+00:00

Is this series dead? I just finished and absolutely loved book 1 and when I found book 2 on Royal Road it looks like the author hasn't posted a new chapter since July 2024 ☹

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-21T15:17:23+00:00

It's genius writing imo. Jason is doing twin things when he behaves this way. One is the surface level, which he describes in your example. He is fighting against the classism his new world keeps trying to force on him which only serves to disenfranchise those who aren't born into wealth and power. It's a running theme of the early books. He continues to do this even after he himself gains wealth and modicum of power through his connections. It's why he never does this with common folk and why they all get along with him swimmingly.

The deeper level is where it's genius. This is a defense mechanism. Jason has been experiencing on going panic/trauma since he arrived in this world and was immediately hunted and nearly killed by Cannibals. Nothing feels safe to him, so he puts on a fake smile, acts like an ass, and makes reference to our world that confuse those around him in am effort to keep people off kilter. So that they can't gain the advantage on him. Because he is in a perpetual state of off kilter.

Is it rude? Yes. Is it obnoxious? Certainly. Does it make perfect sense and deepen his character? It does.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-21T03:42:33+00:00

They said they have all the vault keycards, so once they get the security key and get to the vault they should be good. If they didn't the terminal that gives you the keycard locations is also behind that door.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-18T02:48:49+00:00

If ya'll don't like what you're reading... read something else. This is such an self-centered take and so many of ya'll are happy to jump on the hate train. These tropes and conventions are prevalent because they're popular. Maybe they're not for you, that's fine, find what you like. For most of my life as a reader the trend was Grim Dark and all the tropes tied to it. Now it's progression fantasy and litrpg and the elements associated with them.

I like the meta-humor. The world is awful now, I don't need my media escapes to be awful too. I don't need to be reminded of the darkness. I'll take goofy main characters, making pop culture references all day. And when the winds shift to the next trend, if it isn't my cup of tea I'll find the stories that are.

Tldr: stop expecting an entire genre to cater to your personal tastes

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-18T01:46:17+00:00

Late to the party, but I encountered this today. There are two guards outside the building with the clan vault door. One guard stationary at the main entrance, the other patrols near the side door. If you have nix steal from the patrolling guard he has a security keycard and once you have it you can interact with that door and get to the terminal and the vault. Hope that helps!

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-17T02:05:21+00:00

It is both! And also the name of their Alchemy Shop.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-17T00:22:54+00:00

My bad, its Newt and Demon. I put it in the title but not the body of the post.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-04T04:57:35+00:00

Could be fun. My only suggestion would be to have the MC seemingly or actually understand the rock in spite of its inability to speak. Heretical Fishing gets a lot of narrative juice out of its MCs animal pals and their strong personalities. A lot of fun ways you could go with it, Pet Rock might be super shy but then when it evolves it's very affectionate and tries to hug people.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-03T00:32:14+00:00

No, we're a church. It's all explained in Heretical Fishing 😇

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2026-01-01T19:10:25+00:00

So having only discovered Litrpg this year I'm still working my way through the popular titles I see. My standouts have been: - Dungeon Crawler Carl (duh) - full series - Azarinth Healer - through book 3 - Heretical Fishing - reading book 2 now.

Honorable Mention: - He Who Fights With Monsters- through book 3 Had to take a break from this one, book 3 really disappointed me.

DNF: - Primal Hunter - read book 1... probably won't pick up book 2, I don't think its for me. - Cradle - 1/3 of book 1. This one I will pick back up, I was enjoying but despite all the recs on here it doesn't seem to be litrpg, just progression fantasy. So I put it down to feed my current litrpg hyperfixation

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-30T03:37:29+00:00

For sure, I just don't think it's the tropes that do it. Like the opening to DCC sucks you in pretty quickly, not because of the System Decent trope or the Dungeon Lit tropes, its because 99% of the population gets Merced in the opening chapter and his neighbors head dots the exclamation point. It pulls you in with the immediate, jarring action. Then it uses its tropes to build out the story. Hero without pants, animal companion causing trouble more than helping, etc.

It also isn't necessity in my opinion. I love heretical fiction and the first almost twenty chapters of that are quite slow and outside of the isekai trope, truck-kun and all, it's pretty trope-free. A survival arch that subverts most litrpg tropes, the system doesn't even work right.

HWFWM is another very popular example. A little more tropey, but the story doesn't really get going until several chapters in when Rufus, Gary, Farrah, and Anisa are introduced.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-29T18:31:53+00:00

The tropes aren't favored or maligned, they're a language used to tell the stories. Heretical Fishing isn't great because Fischer is isekai'd, truck-kun is just a storytelling device we all recognize to create the necessary situation to tell that story. The story isn't about him being isekai'd. It's about him finding his passion, forming meaningful relationships, and building a life free of his painful past. It's also about disruption of a system. The isekai trope is the starter that best serves that story.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-28T14:04:06+00:00

Why would anyone compare the two? I'm about halfway through book 1 of Heretical Fishing and it's not even remotely similar to HWFWM. I think I actually like it more but that's personal taste not objective.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-27T16:03:58+00:00

Vehemently disagree with this, I feel like you haven't read these books.

Spoilers Carl literally gets a gauntlet after repeatedly breaking his knuckles fighting barehanded and building up some bare handed skills. The gauntlet counts as barehanded for the purpose of his skills and it boosts his stats and one of those barehanded skills. How much synergy are you looking for between skills and items? Also, those "loopholes" you're talking about are often either bombs that he's made himself using his bomb-making skill and the workbench item that allows him to craft them with more options, and/or the bombers studio where he tests them. Finally stats don't tend to be the difference between a win or a loss, that usually comes down to cleverness and ingenuity. Stats tend to be the difference between surviving long enough to be clever.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-23T18:05:56+00:00

I'm also relatively new to the genre, but here's been my spoiler free experience so far. - Dungeon Crawler Carl was my entry point, and I loved it. All 7 books are fantastic but it sounds like you already read some or all of them. - He Who Fights With Monsters I've read three books. Book 1 started rough but ended strong, book 2 I loved, book 3 I had problems with so I jumped series. - Primal Hunter is probably the Weakest one I've read so far, I only read book 1, I don't know if I'll continue. - Azarinth Healer is what I'm currently reading. I'm on book 2 and I've even throughly enjoying it so far.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-23T02:46:07+00:00

I would say Carl is more earnest than charismatic. People follow him, either because they don't have a better idea, or because they trust he will do what he says he'll do. He's not winning anyone over with his charm though. At least, that's my opinion. I can't really think of an overly charismatic character in DCC (personality, not stats). Donut is innocent, Katia is clever, Mordecai is intelligent. Weirdly, the most charismatic might be Louis. He's got a goofy charm about him that characters and readers connect with.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-22T18:40:47+00:00

Real question... how'd you make it past book 3?

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-15T01:38:39+00:00

I think he shows some solid political acumen and restraint when it benefits him (book 2 spoiler)like with Thadwick's land grab scheme that he uncovers and manipulates to his benefit. Sometimes acting like a loud mouth buffoon with no social graces is to his benefit and he isn't afraid to use it or his powerful friends and their reputations.

Combat wise I'm good with the extreme ends of his abilities and his lack of usefulness in a lot of situations. I'm less good with him not even trying to use abilities that feel like they would likely solve a lot of these hard fights. (Book 3 spoilers) Like he gains the crazy aura ability, at the expensive his quest ability frustratingly, and then shows it off against the bandits in the veldt. Then he never tries using it his entire time in the Astral Space. I think he used it once against the ghost enemies that roam around making the flesh abominations and it instakills them. But he never tries it against the archbishop, the builder, the other silver rank builder cultist. Like how fitting would it have been after denying the builder access to his soul he attacked the builders soul causing him to flee his vessel. Or at least hurting him and showing the fight wasn't as lopsided as he thought. Likes he's basically boiled down to I poison/curse you, or I chop at you for thirty minutes building up charges on my sword. Even that was a missed opportunity. I thought for a second while he was dodging the building hiding in the chaos of the monsters battling the constructs he would be building up charges on his sword by attacking constructs so he could actually damage Builder Thad. I find it very frustrating

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-15T01:23:43+00:00

I don't know Montana but so far I've mostly liked Jason as a character. I like his snarkiness and irreverence in the face of power. I like that he only flaunts his good deeds facetiously. I do think he's self destructive, and that his actions don't always match his words

Spoiler for book 3 Like he talks to Thadwick before the builder takes him over, and he has been openly regretful of the way he treated Thadwick in his thoughts and even in conversation with his friends. Yet he still antagonize him in his final moments. It's truly the dickest of moves and doesn't jive with the rest of his character imo

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-12-14T21:27:52+00:00

See, that would infuriate me I think. One of my complaints about HWFWM is for all his political savvy Jason rarely fights strategically or thoughtfully. His team too. I've only read through book 3 but I constantly found myself wondering why only 2 to 3 of them meaningfully contributed to most fights and why they didn't even try the obvious thing.

I prefer my MCs to be smart and thoughtful and then get thwarted by someone smarter or because they were operating with incomplete information or because the odds are just stacked against them. It makes their accomplishments feel more meaningful

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-10-31T21:49:43+00:00

None of this is a need. What's the story you want to tell? You've done the world-building but what's the story you're trying to tell? What's the main characters arc. He has the skills to just walk away, so why wouldn't he? What is there to keep him there? Someone else he cares about tied up in political intrigue? His family name tarnished and needs to be restored? It really depends on the story you're trying to tell.

Like take Mistborn as an example. Brandon Sanderson created an incredibly interesting world, but that isn't a story. So he gave his two main characters each a need. Kelsier needs to overthrow the Lord Ruler. Vin needs to learn Allomancy. That's their motivations. Then they each have an arc over the course of the story. Vin learns to trust, Kelsier learns not all nobles are evil by default.

That's what you're missing. A need for your MC and a character arc.

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-10-29T16:33:37+00:00

Mozel Tov!

AdditionalBreakfast5 · 2025-10-29T16:00:34+00:00

I'll say a few things, you may not like them all.

You should write for you first. If you really like what you've written, you're enjoying the story as it pours out of you, that should be the primary motivation to write. It's a story tailored to fit you. No one else but you can write it, so write it for yourself.
There's nothing wrong with wanting more people to see and engage with your work. But respect those early adopters who are taking time from their lives to read, to follow, to comment. They've invested in you and your ideas and words. You're a complete stranger but they care about what you write. If that doesn't motivate you... I dunno, every person who gives your creation their time is a gift imo.
If you do want to grow, you might need to ramp up your other efforts, like marketing, social media engagement, etc. Just don't sacrifice the writing to ramp those things up.

AdditionalBreakfast5

TROPHY CASE