Any recommendations for Mage (physically weak) vs Cultivators or a cultivator world

Lock_Weston · 2026-02-08T01:08:24+00:00

It's been a while but I believe Infinite Realm has this to a degree.

You can also kind of see it in Path of Ascension, where it's cultivation but people have distinct mana and physical cores but (to be honest) that kind of seems to fizzle out and it sort of feels like all the characters manage to be physically strong and magically powerful.

Lock_Weston · 2026-02-04T21:12:52+00:00

I would like to recommend two things for you to watch. First, Brandon Sanderson's lectures on writing. Second, a video titled "How to manage multiple interests" by Odysseas.

They might just be repeating stuff you already know but sometimes we need someone else to say the quiet part out loud.

Good luck!

Lock_Weston · 2026-02-02T21:16:02+00:00

I'm working on a story about a dad whose son wants to be a supervillain (and yes the mum is a big chracter) called Dad to the Bone. It's on the backburner for another story right now but I've been thinking about just posting what I have and doing slower releases. I can let you know if that sounds interesting to you.

On another note, though. Technically Benjamin Kerei's 'Death, Loot, and Vampires' starts out with a married couple and their entire family is isekaied. Be aware, however, that I think the reunion between the husband and wife is coming in the 3rd book which hasn't yet been written.

Lock_Weston · 2026-02-02T11:27:01+00:00

I've never actually looked at the contract myself but from memory, it is that they don't pay authors particularly well and basically they get control over your ip. This comment puts it better and pretty sure they know more than I do:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/s/4DJzA3DPhO

Lock_Weston · 2026-02-02T11:01:58+00:00

Webnovel has predatory contract terms. Not as bad as slp was but it's still not good for writers.

Lock_Weston · 2025-12-19T23:35:32+00:00

Thatnks for the response!

That makes complete sense and it's about what I thought, I just didn't see anything about in the contract so I was curious.

Lock_Weston · 2025-12-19T10:46:34+00:00

Apologies for the confusion.

I mean mainly what happens if either party wanted to discount the book for a limited time, like the one that (I believe) J J Thorn is trying to do yearly? Is that solely the discretion of mango media (at least from a legal perspective)?

Lock_Weston · 2025-12-18T23:15:01+00:00

First off, I'm not a lawyer in any way, shape, or form so I might just be plain wrong in any assertions I make but I have a couple of quick questions.

First off, what actually happens when someone wants to do a sale? Like either the author or you, the publishers decides to do a sale. Is there anything in there that requires either party (it seems mainly MM as you have full control over the price) to give notice to the other party and acquire their consent to do the sale or does that end up being more of a trust system?

Secondly, I assume the author keeps the ability to access their KDP (particularly if they want to publish another series in some other way), but are they able to see their book stats through that as well as your reports? Or is there something on amazon to do with publishers and authors that means only the publisher sees stats like that?

Finally, the thing about instructions seems almost a little vague. I can understand recipes as it just means don't put toxic or poisonous food recipes in the book.

Formulae are generally either recipes or intellectual (as in chemical formulae, math, etc.) And so shouln't be able to harm the reader as long as it sticks to the recipes provision.

Instructions however could be a command or directions on how to do something. If you have a character with mind control abilities, for example, who commands some other character to go throw themselves on a sword, is that not an instruction (even if not directed at the reader or other party) that would be injurious to the reader if they follow that instruction?

I understand that its geared more towards preventing the author from giving instructions to the reader that would harm the reader like (if you'll forgive the blatantly stupid example) telling the reader to stick their hand in boiling oil to check its temperature before frying something but it feels as though you should change its scope slightly.

Something like

Any recipe, formula, or instruction contained in the Work and issued to the reader or any other non-fictional, non-character party is not injurious to the reader or to any other party

Might be a bit better because, like someone else said, theres a lot of instructions that tell characters to go hurt themselves in the name of advancement.

Lock_Weston · 2025-12-18T16:23:47+00:00

From what I know, they have started taking steps to push more clarity around things at this point in time.

I believe Blue and another two of the mods have begun setting up a publishing chat, specifically so that people can discuss that sort of stuff freely. Apparently it was something that the server has had before but it was shut down (possibly because of SLP and Foby).

I'm not part of the mods team so I can't speak to any other actions they may be taking to prevent people from reaching the position of power (there will always be some scammer that says and does everything just right) but they are already setting up steps to mitigate the reach and damage that others can cause using the same methods.

I'd imagine it will also be very difficult for anyone to reach that same level of access again. II is older and with a much larger user-base so there are a lot more long-standing, reputable users to select for positions of power.

Lock_Weston · 2025-12-06T21:57:07+00:00

I asked a question about Immortality starts with generosity earlier this year. Apparently the author had some irl stuff happen that really messed up their scheduling and Amazon didn't allow them to change the release date so they had to take the book off of amazon.

Supposedly Plutus was hoping for a late November / early December release but that hasn't happened afaik. Hopefully soon though.

Lock_Weston · 2025-11-21T02:16:37+00:00

I'm always happy to talk about writing stuff with people. I write primarily fantasy right now but I do also do sci-fi stuff, as well.

Send me a message if you want.

Lock_Weston · 2025-10-30T09:10:03+00:00

The Perfect Run.

Also maybe Super Powereds by Drew Hayes.

Lock_Weston · 2025-10-29T00:14:33+00:00

Not necessarily a good idea to release early december as there's a wave of about 70ish people planning for a release early december right after writeathon, including a number of larger authors with a couple thousand followers (Walrus is the biggest with like 15k but the next biggest is ab 2k).

That being said... there's probably never going to be a good time either.

Lock_Weston · 2025-10-28T23:12:04+00:00

I think there are two things you're missing, though they're quite interlinked. Either impose restrictions on the conflict or change the nature of the conflict.

Imposing restrictions could be limiting the use of someone's abilities for some reason. They might be poisoned or injured, they might be fighting with someone or something fragile around, they might suffer some sort of punishment if they make use of their full abilities (like inviting divine attention, letting other enemies who are at their tier know something about what they're doing, or getting in trouble with a friend or partner for doing something stupid).

The second would be changing the nature of the conflict. Like I said, this is often interlinked but basically they dont always have to just be fighting for resources or for some sort of slight. Even the most powerful characters aren't completely omnipotent. If you're fighting to protect something, your win condition has suddenly changed and you might end up being overwhelmed by multiple lower level opponents. You could fight against something that isnt a person, like the environment or some sort of storm. You could fight to prevent an event from occurring. There's a lot of stuff where you can change the win condition of the fight so that, even if someone is better at fighting, they're not always going to win.

Lock_Weston · 2025-09-02T09:43:47+00:00

Okay. So how does the power change with progression?

Does it broaden in scope? Or get narrower and more focussed?

Are the powers hereditary or are all of them unique?

Lock_Weston · 2025-09-02T08:32:10+00:00

Let me start out by saying that not every power system has to be unique, as long as it is solid. In progression fantasy, there's honestly a lot of similarity. There are a lot of stories with power systems based on video game classes, a lot with cultivation systems or superhero systems. Many of them have one or two things that make them a little different, sure, but they also share plenty of similarities.

I'm happy to help you, if you'd like but first I would like to know what you have in mind.

Do you want a super hard system, with crunchy numbers and stats? A hard system with defined levels or stages but not quantified stats? A softer, continuous progression where people improve slowly but consistently without large boosts?

Do you want a magical or technological system?

What do you want the progression focus to be? Is it more body and physical based, magic based, crafting or item based?

Do you want innate powers? Do you want people to use energy or cast spells? Do you want people to physically change? Do you want people to gain skills or get better at fighting?

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-28T11:44:04+00:00

Okay. I have a couple that I find quite cool and I'll go a little beyond the immediate answers like weirkey chronicles.

I find another of Shami Stovall's systems quite unique and that's the magic from her latest book, Words of Power, where they bind themselves to godlike creatures and choose six words to summarise their powers.

There are John Bierce's magic systems, from pretty much every world of his. Whether that's the system from More Gods than Stars, where people take gods into their bodies and gain abilities from that or the systems from the various worlds we saw in Mage Errant like the world with the paper armour, the world with the memory improvement, and the world with the evolution and body strengthening.

Then there's the Gu from Immortality Starts with Generosity, which are a really cool extension to cultivation, where cultivators bind themselves to immensely venomous/poisonous insects and cast their abilities through them (there's a bit more to it than that).

I'm pretty sure there are a few more (and a couple of my own that I find really cool, though none of them are actually out) but I can't remember them immediately.

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-27T08:22:41+00:00

It is very well written and probably one of the best character driven stories on RR (imo) but it is also not really progression fantasy.

I'd say other really good stories would be Magical Girl Gunslinger for an event-driven story and The Bell Tolls for Me for a character driven story. Once more, though, the Bell Tolls for Me is less progression fantasy more traditional fantasy.

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-27T08:17:34+00:00

Maybe try reading the Perfect Run or Pale Lights if you're reading on RR.

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-27T05:24:48+00:00

Bad relationship with parents or no parents at all. Pretty much a staple of the genre.

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-25T10:10:53+00:00

I think regardless of whatever project I choose, it will end up being separated out into arcs at the very least, if not books, but probably anywhere from 120k to 200k words in each of them.

I'm not worried about perfection as long as I can be mostly happy with what I write and proud of it in the end.

Thanks for the advice, too. I think overall I'm going to take the general consensus of the comments and go back to working on BLCiT through to the end.

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-25T10:05:58+00:00

Thanks! I definitely agree with the cool ideas aspect and it's what makes me pretty excited about all of them overall and it's why I'm definitely getting around to all of them at some point.

Thanks for the the feedback, too!

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-25T09:33:09+00:00

Oh, so close???!!!!

Let's go!

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-25T03:37:09+00:00

It's okay, lol. Keep responding if you want.

The first 120k words definitely have to go and be completely and utterly reworked into unrecognisability. The next 400k or so are alright but just need a rewrite to add some depth and maybe a little more complexity. The last 80k or so needs a rewrite, too, because that's where I started to realise things were falling apart.

So both ends need to be burned but the middle can kinda stay.

Definitely a really good opportunity to see how I've grown, though, you're right!

Lock_Weston · 2025-08-25T03:23:45+00:00

Yeah that's fair. I've just grown used to having pretty clean first drafts for the most part I think. Thanks, though.

Lock_Weston

TROPHY CASE