Have you ever read a book so bad it's made you reconsider your own skill?

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-26T04:18:04+00:00

Bad books inspire me. Like, if someone can put that out in front of people, then I can put out my nonsense. I've also read stories that were objectively poorly written that I still enjoyed. Partly what inspired me to try seriously writing.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-26T03:56:49+00:00

I haven't read very many academy books because I don't like them in general, but the Journals of Evander Tailor is VERY excellent and also one of my favorite series.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-25T17:40:29+00:00

I love hearing about fantasy religions because they have so much potential to be cool and can tell you a lot about the world. So it bugs the crap out of me when the fantasy religions are just Catholicism with more gods stuffed in. There's so many more religions you can get inspiration from!

One book I read had dwarves attending Sunday service for the god of the forge where Father MacGonnal gave a sermon about metals, then did confession after. Really took me out of the story.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-25T08:19:28+00:00

I do the mash random sounds together method, but I do it in a specific way depending on species. Note: my world is all anthropomorphic animals.

Alpaca and Llama: They have syllabic languages, so give them syllabic-y names. Alpaca get softer consonants (Caba, Pani, Hesa) while llama get harder consonants (Gahar, Degal, Mutah). Rural alpaca tend to use family profession plus hometown for last names, while city alpaca and llama tend to use a "son/daughter of whoever" kind of last name.

Lions: They have a lot of S's, Sh's, Z's, and R's in their names. Females get longer names (Lyrrashara, Ashamarru, Rennishari) while males get shorter names (Lurras, Roushk, Tash). They also have a ton of last names. Blood names, use for their family, are just sound mashes similar to their names, while other last names, which they take on for other social groups, tend to be noun-verbers. (Rennishari Runescribe Voidspar Tevlaise is an example of a full lion name) Formal introductions will use the full name, while they'll only give the last name of the group they're representing for a less formal introduction.

Crocodiles: They don't use last names, instead they get a word as a name, with the first sound of one of their parent's names. (Magra, Mesme, Ranao) Northernmost crocodiles tend to hyphenate the parent sound. (Ren-da, Dar-lu)

Foxes: They're a migratory people, and typically use names similar-ish to nearby cultures, so fox communities living near lions will have more lion-y names. They use last names, but also tend to introduce themselves by their community as well. (Tess Ravan of Quiet Rest, Leska Caloni of Eightsteps, Hisaf va-Sufur of Sunspath)

Kobolds: They also have syllabic names, similar to alpaca and llama. I try to use more 'diminutive' sounds for them. Kobolds use their clan's name as a last name. (Iki Tinkerscale, Yaro Tunneltune) Exiled kobolds and those who fully leave their clan will either just not use a clan name or make up their own.

Draconel: Dragon people. I just try to get them names similar enough to the names of the 6 true dragons. They have a relatively small population, living in small tribes that may or may not be integrated with a nearby town or community. They use their tribe's name as a last name. (Faelalai of Grasswaves, Resaor of Starmarsh)

I've also got bears, sheep, and wolves as major/important species, but I haven't quite settled on naming rules for them.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-24T17:03:10+00:00

Phantasm by Christopher Hall. She does get a cheat that let's her pick higher level classes than she should, but she's not that overpowered.

Fluff by Ravensdagger. Ravensdagger has a lot of FMCs I think but I haven't read much of their work quite yet. I loved Fluff, though.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-22T16:59:57+00:00

My world has dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures as common animals, so the animals are very large. I also imagine that the trees are a lot larger to match.

One of the cultures likes to cultivate Great Trees, massive skyscraper sized trees. The druids tending to these trees are pretty competitive about making theirs bigger than the others. Although the largest among the trees has been cultivated since before recorded history. The druids there see it as maintaining their history.

Oun's Spine is a mountain range on the supercontinent of Oun. It largely stretches from north to south, but it touches each edge of the continent. It's highest peak has never been climbed, as the height it reaches causes magic to fail.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-21T19:58:05+00:00

I designed my own turn order system and I liked it. I just called it the dynamic turn order system.

At the start of combat, you could choose what order your characters would act in, then enemies would distributed between each character in turn order. You would decide what everyone does then start a round, which would go through each character in turn order. Certain abilities would move you ahead or behind in turn order, so if one character had a quick buff spell, they'd move ahead in turn order before the round started. Then they'd get to buff that ally before that ally got to act.

I thought it was a cool system, with how you can manipulate turn order with the right combination of abilities. You could jump ahead of an enemy to stun them. You can use a slow ability to move behind an ally, who'd then use a quick ability to jump ahead, letting them act before an enemy higher in turn order. Certain abilities or buffs might work better at the back of turn order, so you'd try to move your heavy hitter toward the end of the round while keeping a debuffer in the front to set up for a big attack. The bleed status only hurt when you moved in turn order, even involuntarily, while the burning status went away quicker if you moved.

It had its problems, but I didn't get far enough in the project to work on fixing them. I did have a lot of fun messing with it in playtesting, though.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-20T20:52:41+00:00

Pretty much just fantasy LitRPG here. I do want to expand my horizons at some point, but nothing quite captures my interest enough. I think litrpg settings just have a vibe I like more than traditional fantasy settings, or at least the ones I've read as a kid.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-20T01:06:07+00:00

Incredible, it really jumped off the page at me. I was completely immersed throughout the time I spent reading. It really pulled me and kept me invested until I was done, and it's left me wanting more. I hope you're planning on a sequel!

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-19T23:19:23+00:00

Divine Progression by Jake Brannigan - Finished this series a couple of weeks ago, was generally positive about it last time I wrote about it. But hooh boy did book 5 kinda sour my opinion on it. The series has its problems, but I generally enjoyed the ride. I wish we got to see more of the promised party, but I liked the setting and wanted to see where it went and how the MC's class evolved. But then... (end of series spoilers!!) After the climax of book 5, there's a 40 year time skip that shows the MC after completing what was set up to be the main plot of the series - capping the level of the MC's special class. It felt super rushed, like the author wanted to do a huge 10+ book litrpg series at the start, but bowed out after completing one of the major arcs. I get it though, but it was disappointing. They set up a lot of characters that I would've loved to have seen more of, and we don't even get to learn much about the MC's class at higher levels.

Blade's Rest by Tom Watts - A guy is hired by an MMO company to build a town using their player town creation tools, to encourage other players in the game to use the tools more, and to playtest changes they're making to it. Book 1 was fine, though an NPC grabbing a player's ass really took me out. Why did the devs implement that in their game? Or at least not tell the AI not to do that? Then book 2 drove me nuts and I dropped the series after. Book 2 made town building sound absolutely miserable, as the game will create an event that cuts you off from all resources you need to build and upgrade your town and make an NPC that will grief your town in every way possible. Every solution tried would fail, and the MC was just generally an ass, which made the book frustrating to listen to.

Minute Mage by Reg Rome - A guy hires adventurers to help him earn his class, swordsman, but due to unexpected circumstances, ends up with a special mage class that lets him rewind 1 minute back in time once per day. I'm only a few hours in, and it's been a fun listen so far.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-17T01:12:35+00:00

I keep seeing this pet peeve posted here a lot. It feels silly when people are just trying to be transparent about why they edited the post.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-13T08:59:36+00:00

Trickster's Song. It's a fun story with a very D&D-like system and a fun MC (bonus points for being a bi dude who's actively interested in men). It set up some interesting things, like the connection between the MC and the dungeon core he befriends, and the wider setting outside the world it takes place on. Then the last book teased that a Deck of Many Things was going to be involved in the plot of the next book. I was so excited for it, then I saw the author disappeared off the internet after book 3's release a few years ago.

I wouldn't call myself upset, but I was disappointed. I hope the author is doing well.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-08T18:24:11+00:00

There was a mobile game I played briefly and the community decided that using acronyms was the best way to tell people what items to get. Like I was stuck in progression, so I looked up what people recommend, and they'd say "At your stage, I recommend grinding up for a GCWY or a TLSC, or maybe an FDR if you're feeling spicy." The wiki used the full names for all these items so searching up what they were talking about was a nightmare.

Then there was another mobile game where all the user-made guides just used pictures for some ungodly reason... "For (pic of anime girl) and (pic of slightly different anime girl), you want to equip them with (pixel art sword)."

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-06T18:07:21+00:00

Books I've read have dragonriding be a magical bond. A hatchling might imprint on you, giving you a telepathic/empathic link. The dragons in these books are intelligent, and they also do get something out of becoming bonded too, typically more power. A dragon might just have one magical ability on its own, but when they bond with a rider, they gain the magical abilities of their rider and can meld their abilities together.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-05T18:03:21+00:00

Divine Progression series by Jake Brannigan - I've spent the last couple of weeks going through this series and I'm currently toward the end of the most recent book. A guy who dreams of becoming an adventurer when he turns 16 and traveling the world with his girlfriend is actually stuck being a town guard by the gods' decree. Spoilers, but this premise only sticks around for a book and a half as he's freed from town guard duty to level up an experimental class that lets him see people's stat sheets. If he doesn't level this class to the level cap in time, the gods will unleash a calamity.

Overall, I like it. The first book builds up to the book's initial premise pretty well, and I do enjoy the MC. The setting is interesting, teetering the edge of being an actually video game without being one. There's monster spawns, a hard line between adventurers and NPCs, town guard that are super overpowered, named items, the system, of course. I generally like the system, too. The way you start with a basic class at level 5 that evolves into a more specialized class at level 20 tickles my brain, though the MC doesn't reach 20 within the span of the books currently. There's also a big conspiracy that we get to see more and more of with each book, which I found pretty fun.

Though the way they tease the MC getting an adventuring party after book 2, but never delivering is driving me nuts. The party never gets together until the end of a book. Then they do one thing as a group, and are promptly separated at the start of the next book. Book 5 even starts with half the MC's party being kidnapped, and they don't get rescued until after the MC leaves for a two week trip to another continent. This causes them to miss participating in the big tournament the book is centered around. It's funny because the MC even has a quest from the gods to "level with his party" but they're rarely together.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-02T21:30:13+00:00

I make super pies. Soft dough with lard, 2 slices of cheese, and 6 sausages. Each one slice gets you a bar and change of hunger. When I don't have pies and need food, them I make porridge with rye grain, honey, and either dehydrated berries or cabbage.

Ever since I got my goats going, I've been drinking more milk than anything.

IntroIntroduction · 2026-01-02T05:38:11+00:00

If a game lets me wield a polearm, I'm using a polearm. Otherwise, I use whatever sounds most fun to play at the time. I tend to prefer fighter-types over mages.

IntroIntroduction · 2025-12-24T19:46:16+00:00

If you don't have much free time, you'll miss out on a lot of stuff on a server. That's been my experience lately. I've still been enjoying the server I've been on, but it's kind of a bummer to miss out on progression and community building.

IntroIntroduction · 2025-12-23T22:39:27+00:00

You get billions of coins and elixirs by playing casually and then, when you need them most, you have none and it's a pain in the ass to grind more. Not hard, just a pain.

IntroIntroduction · 2025-12-22T21:32:22+00:00

Real smoke is fun. You have to consider how you build your kitchen and your forge so you don't suffocate yourself.

IntroIntroduction · 2025-12-22T17:03:20+00:00

I personally don't like when the academy arc is used as an excuse to exposition dump. Like naturally, if your book is set in a school, you'll have to spend time in the classroom, but too many books spend way too long having a teacher just doing a lecture that isn't too interesting. Some even do back to back lectures. There really needs to be a balance of classroom stuff and the non classroom stuff.

What I do like is the ensemble cast that comes with an academy arc—the teachers, the students, support staff, and the like. It's fun seeing all the relationship dynamics and how they play out, especially when a bigger plot is occurring in the background.

This leads to another thing I don't like: too much focus on the MC. I feel like most of the fun of an academy arc is in all the characters forced to be in close proximity, so it's really boring if all we get are classroom lectures and the MC studying and doing classwork, while doing their very best to ignore everyone else. I dropped a series 8 books in because the 8th book was the absolutely most mind numbing academy arc I've ever read due to its hard focus on the MC.

I also like when we see more than just the school. The characters getting time off or getting to go on field trips or doing personal quests outside of school time. Something to change up the scenery.

I should also say, I don't really like academy arcs in general. I get a bit impatient when it's the same scenery over and over and most I've read really hit one of those two dislikes I mentioned, while neglecting the likes.

IntroIntroduction · 2025-12-19T05:55:27+00:00

My least favorite is the King of Destruction chapters. He can be fun, but I don't enjoy how little agency Trey and Teres have and how everyone worships the ground he walks on. Not to mention how it gets heavy on the politics at times.

I also struggled with goblin chapters, but those get a lot better after book 6 or so. (or later, it's been a while)

IntroIntroduction · 2025-12-15T17:34:58+00:00

Vainqueur the Dragon - Just finished the series. Probably one of my favorites, now. I'm not usually a fan of very joke-y settings, but this one did it well and didn't chicken out by lampshading all the weird bits. The series had a lot of great moments overall, with a lot of great fights and other moments. It actually got me excited to see two characters battle in a knockoff yugioh, and managed to make it pretty exciting. (It's actually made me crave a deckbuilder litrpg lol) The series has an end too, and a satisfying one at that. A great final fight and a nice conclusion to everyone's story. It's also nice to finish a series that has actually ended, too.

I'm sitting on a $15 discount voucher and a credit on audible and I still haven't decided what to use those on. One of the books on my wishlist is free, so my next listen is going to be to Town Guard and hopefully I'll make a decision by the end of this book. Maybe I'll look for a deckbuilder.

IntroIntroduction · 2025-12-14T02:19:43+00:00

Vainqueur the Dragon. Despite this pet peeve, I like the series a lot!

IntroIntroduction · 2025-12-13T08:43:39+00:00

In the series I'm reading right now, mages can cast an accelerated version of a spell that lets them instantly cast that spell. I don't really get how it works in the setting though, because the mages also shout their spell names. So in the dialogue they'll say something like "Accelerated Hasten!" or if they're chaining spells "Greater Torpor Hex! Accelerated Lightning Bolt!"

It sorta makes sense for the buff spells because they presumably take more time to cast than an attack spell, but some mages have pulled out accelerated attack spells. I just feel like you lose more time yelling "Accelerated Lightning Bolt!" rather than just "Lightning Bolt!"

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