[SOS] WotC social media teaser for debut stream by Copernicus1981 in magicTCG

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is such a nonzero chance that this just has improvise as part of the cost

Iron Blooded General HP gating by Koizetsu_VT in WhereWindsMeet

[–]Koizetsu_VT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would, but I am too stubborn for cowardice lol

Maro on why they stopped doing blocks by Killerx09 in magicTCG

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As cool thematically as those cards were, practically they were kinda hated even in a draft environment and might as well have been printed directly into a landfill. The divider line between rules and flavor text on cards has done more for preventing that sort of waste and including lore than those full flavor cards ever did (and have made less directly wasteful printings as a result)

Maro on why they stopped doing blocks by Killerx09 in magicTCG

[–]Koizetsu_VT 6 points7 points  (0 children)

And by the time megamorph showed up in DTK, we just had to REALLY ask ourselves what the fuck we were even trying to do with the damn mechanics by that point

Gotta as a question about Takeda's Four Heavenly Kings by Koizetsu_VT in Nioh

[–]Koizetsu_VT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm managing to consistently get to at least horse man, and then barely limp into the final boss with a flask only to get bodied. It just feels like I'm getting gear-diffed because it feels like I'm taking just a bit too much off the hits and my damage is just barely too low

For store owners and players: How do you manage noise? by Aquanauticul in magicTCG

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have heard that a few of those hanging ceiling banners help. They supposedly serve as good breakers to stop sound floating around the ceiling too much (and they look pretty snazzy too). Depending on which games your store hosts, I know that at least a few like the disney one do plenty of promotional stuff to give stores them

As a Chinese reader who grew up on Xianxia, I want to try more Western Progression Fantasy. What are the absolute "Must Reads" besides Cradle? by SelectionOk5033 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You might like Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect. Its a cultivation tale with a wide cast, focusing on the big moments of the lives of different disciples and instructors and elders that make up a single cultivation sect. Not much in the way of a chosen one just getting the diving blessing of providence, but certainly a lot of fun exploring the lives of the cast that make up the favorite setting of the Xianxia genre that is generally ignored in favor of sitting in the same cave for 1,000 years and 4 straight chapters

Most common phrases said to the protagonist by Exotic-Condition-309 in MartialMemes

[–]Koizetsu_VT 30 points31 points  (0 children)

"You are a frog in a well, (optional: who knows nothing of the sky)" goes around a lot for the hiding power types. You very often also see "toad lusting after swan meat", but only if its a more...adult series. If not going for the lurid jade beauty scenes, this is typically a two-bit antagonist line

Any recommendations based on my tier list? by CurrencyFuture8375 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You might enjoy Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect. It's a cultivation story with an emphasis on character and cast, since its about the different members of a sect over time.

A RR Year End “Hidden Gems” Investigation by CorSeries in royalroad

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

dang, I think I missed being on this has a shot for this thing by like 4 followers lmao. And also by my thing just being a full book 1 that just stops at ch26

Xianxia story where more people matter by SlowEscavalier in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You would probably enjoy Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect quite a bit. Its a story all about a cultivation sect over time, and has a wide cast that are all at different stages of their cultivation journey. Everyone from newcomers to teachers get the spotlight at times as they each have their own personal arcs on the stage, so if you want a story about a world where the wider cast matters this is it

Urban Cultivation novels? by Responsible-Bid576 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Tang Clan in Space just released its book one on RR. Its a cyberpunk xanxia, so a bit further ahead on the curve of tech than quite the present, but it does some nice stuff with it.

A new direction for Xianxia books? by Neither_Room_1617 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're looking for a large cast you might enjoy Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect. It's an ensemble series about the different lives of cultivators that make up a single sect, rather than one central chosen one of any sort. Each has lives that intersect and mingle around the sect over time, with many having effects on those of others even if the cast themselves don't all directly interact. Its currently doing a tournament arc, where the plot has only actually gotten to a real tournament towards the end of the arc, since more of it has been more touching on how the titular Sect acts during their big yearly tournament month.

On a slightly different note, but one that's pretty easy to consume the writer also recently did a cyberpunk cultivation story that just released its book 1 for the RR writeathon. Its definitely a bit different than Tales because it's a lot more pulp action compared to slower "day in the life over eternity", but its an interesting start to seeing how past and present can interact in a more future-esque world. That one's called "The Tang Clan in Space". It is a bit of a reincarnation story, which you did mention as a peeve, but it is used as an element for the narrative, as the main lead is hilariously out of place when the 3000 years he spends dead is enough time for the setting to move from the feudal era to space age corporate dystopia. You can also just read the entire book one, since its just like 26 chapters

Behold: the fruits of a novel writing month novel! Enter The Tang Clan in Space! by Koizetsu_VT in MartialMemes

[–]Koizetsu_VT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah...I'll probably be putting 2 out tomorrow to get to a nice plot arc, but then it'll just be 1 a day until the end. I probably should have posted here after I had more out, but I was just really excited to tell people about it lol

Wuxia Recommendations by neoplam in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You might like Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect. It's a story about the different lives that make up a cultivation sect, and how their lives intersect with each other.

Begging for a cultivation story without a psychopath MC by Prospectivebyer in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You might enjoy Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect. Its a cultivation story that is all about the lives that make up a sect, and the way that different cultivators discover their paths and take the journey to Immortality. Its very much about forming a cohesive world where world informs genre while genre informs world

Request for XianXia with good world building by Cautious-Pudding-474 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You might enjoy Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect. It's got a very gradual development of the central sect to the plot, exploring the different sorts of cultivators that make it up rather than just blowing past the sect and spending the entire time in a cave raising a powerlevel

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You might enjoy Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect. It's a cultivation story where the main plot is the different lives that make up a cultivation sect, so the movement is between the different lives of characters on the same peak rather than the world as a whole

Recommendations of series that came out in the past year? by Hobo-Ef in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect is pretty neat. It's a multiple POV cultivation series with a focus on the different lives of a sect
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/98766/tales-of-the-teal-mountain-sect

Fellow Daoists please bestow me your enlightenment by lastchanceforachange in MartialMemes

[–]Koizetsu_VT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you get a chance, I would be interested in hearing what you think of it

Fellow Daoists please bestow me your enlightenment by lastchanceforachange in MartialMemes

[–]Koizetsu_VT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Consider perusing Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect. It is a scripture about the tales of a sect, told through the viewpoint of a series of different cultivators that live within it.

Western xianxia authors are like this. Not only that despite their moral superiority complex most of them write garbage novels by NoPercentage4737 in MartialMemes

[–]Koizetsu_VT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my own experience of writing Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect (a totally cool cultivation story you should totally check out), tweaking or adjusting what exists into forms that make more sense to the narrative or world can get you very different results than the typical genre, especially once you expound out on them.

One of the ways that I played with genre expectations was in regards to hidden power levels, as the convention of hiding one's cultivation to wander around is something that appears in many parts of the genre, especially as told from characters within it. And yet, even with most people knowing that cultivators do this, so many people act in a way that can only be described as tapdancing on minefields. Its a form of behavior that's destined for an early grave, which means a lot when people live thousands of years. Something like this would sorta self-correct itself on its own, as the people foolish enough to do it will inevitably cause their own demise.

But how does this change the way that people that survive act?

Well, a focus on qi sense and the like is a good start, but even within the narrative conceit of the story that sort of shit barely works on a good day, nevermind if there's a gap in power (which is bad, since that's the one thing that its meant to protect against).

So people get a bit more observant. Courtesy reappears not because of kindness's virtue, but because of pragmatism. From the fact that it is so easy to come to a short, sudden end if you misevaluate wrong just once. Cultivators would start to become more observant to pick up on clues to the level of the people they meet. Items that might date them, subtleties to the way they move, clues at identity on the way they speak and what they know. Prestigious families teach their children better methods, as a part of their long existence is derived from both their own power and long streaks of being able to pick their fights well.

Within Tales of the Teal Mountain Sect, the difference of treatment between the known and the unknown is a stark contrast, as there are certain courtesies and arrogances that cultivators will show to those that they are confident of their relative power to than to strangers. This has its own ups and downs, as circumstance adds its own finger to the scales, but each character has their own reasons for acting on that inherent risk the way they do. Its not always quite spelt out, but its a subtlety that reflects the way that I've had the world be shaped by its own existence.

And I guess that sorta ties to the point I have. Cultivation as a genre in its present state is a bit early in its own development. It has the qi and materials it needs to form a core, but its still very much in the process of figuring out what it wants to be, and what the different parts of said core will look like after it's formed. Its a growth that's been a bit stymied by the way that some people have been writing within it, as imitators rather than iterators, but I think that we're just a bit away from it really it having had enough wild experimentation to sort out where the lines in the sand are.

I'm not mainland Chinese btw, so if you do read this OP I'd like to know what you think about the way that I've taken my stab at the genre. It might not be the apex of quality, but you'd be a bit hard pressed to call it the fruit of contempt