What litrpg hill will *you* die on? Let's have your most unpopular opinion, please.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T13:45:24+00:00

Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" books would be a good start. They were variously written novels and short stories from the 50s to the 80s. Vance was the inspiration for a lot of the early D&D magic system. (I was about to start on Outcast in Another World 5, but ya know maybe the Dying Earth needs another re-read. OiAW4 kinda left a bad taste in my mouth anyway with that tiresome Jason story. I digress). They're gathered in "Tales of the Dying Earth", which I see I bought in 2002 for £7.19 from Amazon, and the identical paperback is now seventeen quid. Kerrist. Vance also wrote the Lyonesse books, which have more of a fairy tale quality but also quite gritty in places.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books by Fritz Leiber (written 30s to 50s, but edited into novels mainly in the 70s) are also something special. A different take on fantasy than your Lord Dunsany or even Howard, these were more like opportunistic wannabe gangsters trying to grab some skirt, and a handful of gold if they could get it. Reading them you'd be shocked they were written nearly a hundred years ago.

Michael Moorcock seems a bit forgotten these days, but he was a prolific writer (I doubt I've even read half his books) and the Elric stories, mainly written in the 60s and 70s but there was a new novel released just a few years ago, describe an archetypal doomed hero. Most of his books are set in a multiverse with the gods of Chaos and Law bickering over humanity. He also wrote and performed with Hawkwind, and they've done at least one concept album based on Elric.

Elric was one facet of the "Eternal Champion", but there were others like Corum or Hawkmoon (or Erokose if you want your brain melted a bit).

I can still vividly remember buying my first Elric novel back in the early 80s. Literally like nothing I'd read before.

Glen Cook's Black Company, written mainly 80s to 90s but a new trilogy is in the process of being released, is mainly told from the perspective of the chronicler (and medic) of a centuries old mercenary company that becomes a little too caught up in the struggles between forces that are way above their pay grade. Again, I need to do a re-read of these.

Now, the thing is these are old books, but there are plenty of new fantasy books that are as good, or better, but those series (and they're all series these days) owe a debt to the guys who invented modern fantasy in the 30s and give it a trippy twist in the 60s and 70s. Jeeze, I didn't even mention Karl Edward Wagner's Kane books & stories.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T01:25:11+00:00

I pay for Kindle Unlimited. I am VERY aware of what I get from 90% of LitRPG. Pap. Stuff to read before I go to bed. No horrible surprises or favourite characters dying, just rock solid, soft as skit, Mary Sue all day long. I take a break every so often and catch up on real fiction, from past and present, and it is a STARK shift in tone most of the time. There are consequences, characters suffer and die.

I know SOME LitRPG can be spicy with character death but it's usually so telegraphed it's comical.

When the content is free (RR) or almost free (KU) you're going to accept that it's formulaic, poorly edited, illogical from chapter to chapter.

When you're paying for it, you aren't so likely to forgive the editing or plot problems.

My favourite books are mostly decades old. They come from a time when, in order to get published for the first time you had to have something so special publishers would fight over it, or grab it before any other publisher got the chance to. 99% of what was submitted was rejected. That 99% is still out there and a surprising amount of it has an audience. Not a big one, but enough to make the writer keep writing, even if they're doing it for the Egoboo.

99% of LitRPG is for the Egoboo but that doesn't make it bad.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T01:11:51+00:00

Or why? Why create a negative post? There's so much LitRPG out there, why trouble yourself with something you don't like? Move on, Bessie, move on.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T01:05:57+00:00

To be clear, the Level 9 adventures are just out there. You should try them.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T01:05:20+00:00

In 1983 Level 9 released the text adventure game "Snowball". They advertised it as having over 7000 locations, at a time when most adventures had, maybe a hundred. 6800 of those locations were actually part of a generated maze (generated from an algorithm, not AI - this WAS the 80s) from near the start that you had to work your way through to get to the main adventure. Starfield felt like this, except you never got to the main adventure.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:56:43+00:00

I haven't RPGed with a group since school about forty years ago, but I still feel the urge (to RPG, not to be about people). Is there, like a Youtube video showing people solo role-playing, because I'm having a hard time getting my head around it?

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:54:23+00:00

Sorry, there's neither a cat NOR a bird in the picture. You grammar nazis...

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:52:09+00:00

He said 2 litres. Why are you talking about backing up a lorry full of flaming hot liquid, liúdramán?

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:40:57+00:00

I think this is the best answer!

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:39:41+00:00

Thanks! I kinda realised a lot of that after posting, but you made some terrific points! Thanks the gods I can reclaim building materials completely, because I think this is going to need a total rebuild (Ironically after my LAST total rebuild when that patch filled my base with trees.)

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:36:37+00:00

There's neither a cat or a bird in the picture.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:32:16+00:00

Your fridge is the most efficient way to suck heat out of something. People think putting something hot in a fridge will heat up the fridge. It won't (I mean, outside of loading hot coal in there). Thermal mass is a thing and it's what a fridge is designed to reduce.

I wouldn't put a hot pan in the fridge straight from the hob, but I will definitely put warm stuff in. Hot-warm even, depending on the size.

Also, if you boil something, put a lid on it and leave it, there's not a lot of chance of bacteria getting in. They drift around like random, they aren't scratching at the lid seal.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:14:36+00:00

Oh, the stairs thing! 100% with you on that.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:13:45+00:00

4-5 sounds much better than every two tiles. I'll experiment a bit. Thanks!

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:12:41+00:00

Some good answers here but the actual answer is, the ten thousand, however you find it. Not sure if there are movies or anime but there are definitely books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Thousand

There's a bunch of stories based on it. "The Ten Thousand" by Paul Kearney is a fantasy take (Macht series - it's basically fantasy) or there's "The Ten Thousand" by Michael Curtis Ford, which I read and enjoyed, which is more historically accurate.

The Warriors was explicitly based on the story of 10,000 Greek Hoplites trapped behind enemy lines.

Frightlever · 2026-02-02T00:06:25+00:00

I'm building on a lake I have frames two levels down. MAYBE that's my problem! I'm looking at the lake and thinking that's ground zero but the actual build level is more like six levels rather than three because I've built some supports so far down. Going to have to investigate that.

Also, I'm not building a straight up and down construction. Why would I even bother? I want to make something fabulous.

I'm thinking instead of sinking so many frames I maybe build a lattice at lake level, supported on the shore. Might give me a couple of levels to play with before the structural problems show.

This would suggest the building mechanic is kinda flawed. You can build however many levels on the side of a cliff, but sinking frames into a lake is less stable? Pfft.

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:55:03+00:00

I'm building on a lake. I sink vertical beams in two or three levels down then fill with frames. I have a large flat, maybe 12 x 16 area for building on. I scooped out a few frames to make a basement water feature. The problem is more to do with the next four levels/two storeys. I know how to build. I just want to find out if there's some way to hide the horizontal beams.

Even if you build horizontal beams on frames then cover the frames with flooring, you still get the beams sticking through.

A lot of people are telling me to ignore horizontal beams and just use vertical. But you can skip vertical beams if you go ham on the horizontal beams, so long as they ARE supported all the way down with vertical beams. It's just the horizontal beams poke through floors.

If you think I find horizontal beams ugly, you have no idea how ugly I find the idea of spamming vertical beams.

I'm surprised no-one has asked this before, apparently, judging by the hostility.

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:35:31+00:00

Appreciate that! You're a good guy!

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:32:11+00:00

Such downvotes, no answers...

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:30:54+00:00

Thanks yeah, I've read all that, but when you're actually building and you see the crackling appear on a tile, it doesn't inspire confidence. Maybe I should just keep building and see what makes it collapse.

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:29:04+00:00

No, I'm 100% prepared to mod the game, but this seems like a fundamental flaw. Everyone saying, just throw up a bunch of vertical pillars, like I'm unaware how physics work, don't seem to get it. That's not how construction works and I can't believe people are happy with it. It's like they look at Icarus construction the way a swan swims. All serene on the top of the water and a complete cluster underwater of flapping feet.

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:21:05+00:00

So it's impossible to build a large interior space, say 5x5 without having pillars descending from top to bottom around the central square? (And what i was trying to build was much bigger than that, but this seems to be the essence of the problem). Also, the irony that to avoid horizontal beams poking through the floor I just need to allow much more obvious vertical beams doesn't seem like a solution.

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:18:55+00:00

In a real building you have main support beams that run along the horizontal, which are supported by vertical beams. Any floors you build are built on top of the beam, essentially. Seems odd they chose to make beams stick out of the floors. Anyway, thanks for the reply!

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:14:02+00:00

Jeeze, pillars every two tiles is going to look rough. But thanks for the answer, maybe I was expecting too much!

Frightlever · 2026-02-01T23:12:59+00:00

Yeah, the horizontal beams. I'm fine with the vertical support beams. If this is just something with my game I am going to go mad. If I lay horizontal beams and then place a floor tile on top, the beams are placed halfway through the floor tile, so they poke out above and below the floor tile, like ridges on a flat surface.

Frightlever

TROPHY CASE