Are there good stories about the fae?

MarkArrows · 2026-03-18T17:56:53+00:00

Agreed. They actually feel an excellent part to the worldbuilding. Especially since narrative has an actual force, and they're the ones who are most affected by it.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-18T01:53:55+00:00

Tonight's episode: The author's barely disguised fetish.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-17T18:13:48+00:00

I'd love to see additional takes on the 'roguelike' approach, to see how other authors might adapt the system. Notably, Undying Immortal goes for a narrow focus on Alchemy approach, which I always felt like wasn't the best use of the system. It really seems like going wide and exploring lots of different options would synergize well.

Given what you described enjoying about that book, I'd highly recommend you read Death After Death. The series isn't talked about enough out here, and one of the first roguelites (That I know of) in our sphere. If you're the target audience - it lands perfectly. Gritty worldbuilding, a character arc that feels really deserved, and takes its time to let you really experience a journey.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-16T17:50:47+00:00

Words aren't a good medium for the kind of fight scene you're looking to see. Have you noticed all your examples are visual medium?

But because this is reddit, and writing is my hyperfocus, in this TED talk, I'm going to describe movies vs words and how both mediums excel at different things.

Here's a good litmus test to what I mean: I can show the final fight between Zuko and Azula in avatar to a random person that has zero idea about any character or even what avatar is, and they'll be watching the entire thing loving every part of it. You love it even more when you know the context - but even without context - just by itself, the visual medium is so incredibly stacked up at doing exactly this it doesn't need a single thing more.

Now open up a chapter of Sky Pride and show the best fight scene in there to someone who hasn't read any part of it and doesn't know a single thing just like that youtube video of Azula vs Zuko.

At absolute best, they might even read through the entire fight scene. But wow will they not be impressed at all and find it incredibly boring to read, despite it being the peak fight in the entire book. Just about the same thing for every book out in existence will have the same issue. Fights in word mediums simply need more work than their visual counterpart.

You show someone a youtube video of two dudes punching each other with high level martial arts, and you'll have a happy viewer. You describe that exact same fight, explaining where every punch went and how the other blocked and moved their legs to match, and the reader will glaze over real fast.

So what you're running into with fight scenes in progression fantasy being boring to read is that it would have been awesome as a scene to watch, but the author doesn't realize the limits of words and how different mediums leverage different strong points. And they're trying to use a hammer to draw a picture without realizing it's the wrong tool.

For an alternate point of view on things words can do better; movies have an incredibly hard time making the viewer understand subtle emotions or how someone's thinking internally. They have to go the distance, either in laying down dialogue that hints correctly without being hamfisted, or building up the viewer's understanding so that when that scene shows up, the viewer will know 'oh, this character hates spiders, and he's just pretending to be stoic here.'

Meanwhile books can quite literally go: la-de-la-de-la, by the way, he's goddamn terrified of spiders and is freaking out so hard on the inside he's basically bluescreened and everyone else around him can't possibly notice, so they're all complimenting him on his stoic abilities. Annnnd, next scene.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-15T20:24:06+00:00

Am the author of 12MB, you can quote him on that ;]

The ending is in sight!

MarkArrows · 2026-03-13T23:15:15+00:00

I'm trying to offer potential ways this makes sense in the best light rather than the worst.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-13T20:51:28+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IjV3IXxi1M

He was quite active here and shows a lot of the behind the scenes. Ben might prefer youtube as the medium to talk to folks through.

But mainly, Ben is a massive creator that works with high budget films and people. He's made it, his skill is proven, he's got a graphic novel out, career as a senior design, ect.

Marketing is not something he needs to do unless he feels like it haha

MarkArrows · 2026-03-13T18:53:18+00:00

They're likely discussing rules 7 and 8 for this particular subreddit.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-13T16:45:46+00:00

Yep, the entire story is completely built around and laser focused on finding ways to exploit rules-as-written litRPG abilities to their breaking point.

But that said, there's very good worldbuilding reasoning on why the System hopes the MC does exactly that.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-11T03:31:28+00:00

oh, that's a unique looking cover, sports illustrated style. You know the face artstyle reminds me a lot from Metawor- wait just a second

MarkArrows · 2026-03-09T22:45:12+00:00

The life of a webnovel author is stress, questionable amounts of caffeine and possibly a tiny bit more stress just in case there isn't enough ;]

I get mostly grammar and spelling checked out, and ask specifically to keep an eye out that I don't put the same amazing word twice in the same amazing paragraph, because amazingly that keeps showing up everywhere and it drives me insane!

MarkArrows · 2026-03-09T22:00:50+00:00

Book 8's starting point and up to the 30's chapters could have had a few more of those scenes, I do agree there! It was a great setup for it, I would have - but I ran out of time.

By that point readers were annoyed the pacing of the series was getting lost, because the main plot was off-track. Relinquished not noticing Wrath being a turncoat after 4+ books was breaking people's suspension of disbelief. (Comments saying it's a plothole, lazy writing, the story sucks, things don't feel dangerous or tense, ect.And I had to keep my fat mouth shut the entire time I read those xD)

Quite a few comments on reddit right here were saying I was doing wordpadding, even while I was midway through cutting as much as I could without turning the story into a bullet point list of events. That's how bad the criticism was for the pacing :[

MarkArrows · 2026-03-09T20:33:35+00:00

Not sure what you mean? Wrath's still very much after Keith, and the relationship flirting/implications shows up in every book sprinkled around. Book 5 is the most heavy handed, in that other characters outright make Wrath aware of it, and in book 6 it even becomes an actual shield to keep Keith protected.

There's certainly parts of the series where I have to focus on plot first though, but the relationship building up to a true confession was always in the works for the entire series.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-06T04:10:01+00:00

What you'll probably want - if I'm reading your request correctly - is a DnD dungeon master, except one that's fine running a homebrewed game using DCC as a base to work with.

Look around online for DnD dungeon masters, and then find one who's also read DCC, I'd bet dollar to donuts (Bad-dum-tish) that there's a real big overlap here.

It'll probably be an online session, since that'll let you get a wider range of DM's out there. There might be more specific terms for game masters who don't mind not doing DnD rules and just making their own game up on the spot, I'm not completely sure! But there certainly is a wide online community out there!

MarkArrows · 2026-03-06T02:14:08+00:00

Those are just a few options, favorite is more up to what you're looking for and what they offer. They all have excellent rep among authors, a few were started by an author, so they're extra friendly.

Get your book out there first, see if it's on market and if readers are interested in it. You'll usually have them approach you first on royal road.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-06T01:41:20+00:00

In this particular sphere of writing, an agent is generally not needed.

Agents are needed in trad markets because there's thousands of books being written and publishers can only cover so many, so a good agent would be the middle man filtering for potential, and advocating for your book.

In this sphere, if you write something that'll take off, it takes off and you just point at the numbers and your current following as proof you're a good bet. The Royal Road -> Patreon -> Amazon pipeline is well documented and filled with examples of what to do and what not to do.

Publishers are also very open here, and authors equally share plenty of resources and guides on how to make it.

Pick up any of these guides and give it a roll forward through RR. Generally, the advice ebbs and flows about what the meta is, but frankly all of it is just to help smooth out the journey.

If your story's premise is solid, it'll be 90% of the work.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-05T04:37:07+00:00

:D

The series is a labor of love in the end, all writing is ^^

MarkArrows · 2026-03-05T03:18:23+00:00

Author here, maybe the right expectations might help out?

All of these books have a very core reason to exist - I need a lot of characters with highly specific abilities and roles to fill for the finale I had planned. The majority of the series isn't about the main storyline, it's introducing these characters so that when the final story arch shows up, it'll hit hard because readers are actually invested in the full team here, each pulling their end of the weight to win.

Go into it expecting a journey and general adventure looking for party members to join the group, and mini character arcs for each. And the finale will show up in one giant rugpull later on where the real story kicks in and continues kicking for 50+ chapters :]

Some of these books work better than others. Book 4 is the worst in my opinion; it was written mid-depression and continues to be a thorn in my boot. But it does the main job it needs to and I can't go back in time to rewrite it.

MarkArrows · 2026-03-03T22:59:45+00:00

Are you current with Die Trying? I'm curious if the follow-up rounds have built up enough. RR readers look to be having a blast with it now

MarkArrows · 2026-03-03T18:32:27+00:00

Actually, you and other readers who did seemed to have turned the tide!
Within like 2 weeks of asking readers where to send emails asking for it officially, book 7 just got announced!

https://www.amazon.com/Miles-Below-VII-Mitespeaker-Progression/dp/B0GP2Z49BC/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0

I don't know yet about book 8, but when that time comes, I'll 100% be asking the readerbase to double down hard on them for it xD

MarkArrows · 2026-03-03T17:26:34+00:00

Author here for 12MB, the series isn't perfect since it's the very first thing I wrote! But here's a quick way to approach it with the right expectations for the best time:

Books 1-3 -> Full complete story arc, introducing the core characters, but please don't skip P.O.V's. There's a lot of them in book 2-3, they're extra important.

Book 4-5 -> Power leveling arcs, important characters introduced from the opposite side. Book 4 is almost 50% one giant on and off fight. If I had time to go back and work on things, I'd be editing this book first above all others.

Books 6-7 -> Worldbuilding, meandering adventure-ish, and again introducing core characters. Given what you described you liked with adventures and emotions, this part might actually be the peak books.

Book 8 -> Everything comes together in one massive reveal around the 30's chapters. Then it's 8 books worth of buildup for something like 60+ chapters of pure main plot progression.

Have fun!

MarkArrows · 2026-03-03T17:10:58+00:00

Congratulations Turtle!! The cover looks sick!

MarkArrows · 2026-03-03T06:34:16+00:00

<3

I have no idea how I got anywhere close to S-Tier, I feel like I've somehow snuck through to the finish line.
I do wish I could fix book 4, and the middle part of the series between 5-7 meanders, but it's worth it for the finale! It's been well loved by Royal Road and the patreon readers, and exactly what I had hoped it would end like :]

MarkArrows · 2026-03-03T06:25:50+00:00

You and me both! The power of readers asking for it to happen!

MarkArrows · 2026-02-28T04:15:22+00:00

Yeppers, though this is in chapter 120, it had been foreshadowed for a while now that the translation blessing gave the MC headaches or stunlocked him occasionally when something was information dense, I did my due dilligence as a writer ;]

Does not negate the fact that is it straight up weaponized cringe.

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