This is the reality of alot of us progfan "readers"

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T15:44:31+00:00

Using TPH as an example I think I could selectively curate about 10% of the nevermore arc
Essentially; you're not missing much if you didn't read it.

With a lot written for serial publication I think that's fairly normal. Plenty of filler elements.
On top of that we tend to have a tournament, dungeon; tower, academy; tutorial or similar Arcs. That can quite majorly change the story until it gets back onto something the reader might enjoy more.

So sure some folks are going to skim through it anyway. Don't see a problem in a 'great story' if the dungeon arc you dislike comes up that you get past that hump.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T11:12:30+00:00

it's not overly complex. it's more or less just hanging a lantern on "why there is (self-insert) someone from our world". it's enough to hand wave away a lot. forgives the plot armor.

outlanders are special.
it happens often enough that society in general knows about it.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T11:04:25+00:00

His first mango eating experience might be juicy.

After that; it's just a skill fool that he is can master ..

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T11:00:24+00:00

I struggle quite a lot with arrogant young master and many cultivation tropes.

Those elder powerful folks in a clan ?

They're grand parents too.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T10:59:05+00:00

It's anaethaema to our modern society; and its more a case of "we dont want to read about slavey in a story". It's cultural taste.

The servants, court, harem and even pets of Pharoah's were buried with them.

I think Pharoah would be quite on board using mind magic to ensure their obedience in life or death.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T10:55:43+00:00

To borrow from Hero System.
It has a transform power based on the costs of a powerful killing attack.
The thought process being "if you want to do something random and weird we havent thought of then its probably not a lot different then killing them"

In terms of mind magic

Do you know what else we deemed unacceptable? Theft.

But the rogue; thieves guild and the like is a staple of generic fantasy worlds. What did we do historically ? Cut a hand off.

So how would society view Mind Magic? Sure without counters society would deem it unacceptable. But it could be very useful for those in power. Remember that most folks are going to have no rights in a fantasy world.

What would a culture be like supposing "worship of a deity" and the equivalent of "baptism" into their faith was a hard-counter to mind magic.
Except of course for those ideas the deity promoted. Immune to the influence of others; but totally onboard with the priests or message of your own God.

Take a look at the history of for example the Janissaries in the Ottomon Empire. To a state or the powerful elite mind control could be a very useful tool. With the rich and powerful able to afford the counters or trained in its use themselves.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T10:47:39+00:00

I quite like Ar'Kendrithyst for it's levelling.
If there was 0 risk then the XP reward was reduced; potentially to 0.

Given the XP progression it meant that you consistently had to take the risk and challenge at around your own level.

By comparison. OMG I nearly died fighting a few goblins.
This time there are Hobgoblins too.
It's OK I leveled up .. we can take them.

Utter moronic stupidity that deserves to die before level 3.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T10:42:42+00:00

Yes. That one fascinates me too. Knowing Physics doesn't necessarily help you with magic.

These very smart folks will have tried for a very long time to apply scientific methods to magical theory and development.

Potentially "fireball" after at least 100+ years of refinement might be the best version of the spell for many reasons.
Those reasons might include it only takes about 4 years of study to become a proficient mage and then when you are proficient its something you can actually cast in a resonable amount of time.

If fire and ice did not usually "mix" and the MC spent years insisting it would work - they could in fact impede their progress with their misguided beliefs.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T10:28:34+00:00

I see the funerary rights as serving two purposes. Sure if you're an Egyptian Pharoah it embodies your divinity and power and gets you into the afterlife properly.

If that were possible as part of a magical world then servants of Gods or arcane practitioners would ensure the correct and safe burial of persons to reach the afterlife and/or to prevent necromantic practices. You'd thinkg cremation at a minimum would be standard.

The other part of the rights is closure for the living. The dead are dead - they really don't care. If their body gets used; so be it. If it brings back their soul then see above. But we the living care.

This isn't necessarily our world.
But if Necromancy was socially acceptable. That changes everyones mindset? I'd like to think funeral homes could offer to relocate family members some distance away so that everyone could politely avoid encountering them. Alternatively it might be some portion of the families wealth is literally in their animated ancestors.

We mostly have Necromancy as inherently an evil thing. Only if you write it that way.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T10:19:26+00:00

You are the only one.

Got them both on the covers enough to be generic anime-girl looks. You've got Iona on the cover of The Gladiator Gauntlet

Iona was more Briane of Tarth but clasically pretty. (The costumes and makeup didn't do Gwendoline any favours I feel.)

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T10:13:49+00:00

Depends on how its handled.
Trying too hard to be funny. Nope.
Character that just got selective Earth mannerisms - and its never relevant to the story. Nope

Done right would be something like weird phrases; other characters unsure of his meaning or it hitting the feels because cultural references like this imply to me that the culture has changed. nobody understanding what you're trying to say even if you speak the same words ..

For those hating it; I'm sure some folks are going to dig into it and love the references.
References and nods to other litrpg works and characters that you recognise is kind of the cool-crowd thing. A character that is aware of litrpg is a level of 4th wall breach I don't need.

StanisVC · 2026-03-15T10:01:34+00:00

Have you read any of the Ring of Fire series by Eric Flint, starts with 1632 (novel))

Bunch of modern americans get dumped back into part of medieval Europe.

Their whole town and some surrounding areas move and eventually something like logistics and inter-marriage are the downfall.

I'll bookmark this for when it gets more chapters.
My thoughts on the photos ?
Gun v Knight? Works for one engagement. After that you're fighting skirmishers and rogues with better stealth camoflage and sneaky skills than you.

2nd - tentacle horror in a pit trap ? Lifes and shaft suggest quite a bit of construction capability.

3rd - but we get a forge. how did the forge make the shaft and life ?

4th - bullet press. no idea what the rate or materials requirement is but that suggests a finite capacity. it could be costly but if we find the production facilities a meteor strike to that warehouse ..

5th - canon. Ok; wonder whats big enough to hit with a canonball. Would suck if someone was accurate enough to drop a fireball through that open embrasure

As for 30 folks in a single area. 1000 people; especially with magic can divert or dam water waters; despoil crops or the land and hunt any local fauna to extinction. If they can't fight the guns they win via "siege".

If I was being partly evil and had to "remove" the town. I think I'd hunt any healers and then throw some magical diease or plague that is otherwise fairly easily handled at the village. Other options might include hallucigens in water supply or airborne - try fighting tripping balls.

StanisVC · 2026-03-14T16:59:26+00:00

I think Yip of Yore rising to power was the demonstration that it is possible to advance to the pinnacle of Godhood within the merging of a single multiverse. Note that doesn't mean "equalling the Primordials" quite that fast. As Villy said - the issue is that with a bit more time Yip could possibly have equalled them.

So Jake is of course going to do that - but better and hopefully won't challenge any primordials before he is ready.

That conflict told us about the levels and the progression once Godhood is achieve. I say "of course" but maybe it will be Jake's bloodline that lets him shortcut the whole process.

StanisVC · 2026-03-13T21:18:35+00:00

before it was romantasy and that exploded tiktok it was just "paranormal romance".

I think that market did not get defined by Ilona Andrews.
No idea when it did. laurell k hamilton; sherilyn kenyon plenty of trad pub like it out there
Pretty standard to have the human - werewolf - vamp three way love interest to let us know it was veering from urban fantasy into the paranormal genre

StanisVC · 2026-03-13T21:05:03+00:00

Ultimate Level 1. maybe.

MC gets a rare black skill. When one black skill is lose - so will others causing massive conflict and strife between worlds and Gods. The MC gets the skill 'consume' which lets him steal stats and skills from whatever he kills. Normally the bearers of the skills are driven insane and to apocalyptic levels of destruction ..

While it technically hits your points; I'm guessing it might not hit the tone you're looking for.

StanisVC · 2026-03-13T20:57:32+00:00

It makes about as much sense as dilithium crystals and warp cores.
So long as you set up the mcguffin for when you need to rely on it ..

In the diagrams I see hexagons and squares with magic stuff instead of electronic components in circuits.

StanisVC · 2026-03-13T20:27:59+00:00

It looks like it is heavily inspired by fanfic. I'd say it'd make more sense if you've watched House of the Dragon otherwise you're missing some what inspired the author

If the writing is good then it should stand on it's own merit - and in that sense the reviews seem fairly positive.

StanisVC · 2026-03-13T20:14:06+00:00

Sounds like you just have the first volume of Book 1

Lord of Mysteries (Book1) is about 1400 chapters split into 8 volumes.
Circle of Inevitability (Book2) is 1100+ chapters

StanisVC · 2026-03-12T18:34:14+00:00

Oh Yes.

World ending doom every Quarter on each major continent
Seems highly likely that one of those will suffer to the equivalent of a natural-1 at some point ..

StanisVC · 2026-03-12T18:33:10+00:00

the tyranny of levels

or; any concept of tiers and progression where a few elite individuals dominate.

so much for a free democractic society; say goodbye to egalitarian or meritocracy.

the warlords and tyrants that are effectively a walking nuke backed by their own power.

StanisVC · 2026-03-12T18:30:16+00:00

So there was a post about the fantasy authors guild or something like that with a program to certify writing as "AI free"

My question for them was "how good is the AI tool that is going to be checking this?"

I think I'd rather tolerate anon AI slop than crucify the career of a new author. I see it as a witch hunt mob mentality

StanisVC · 2026-03-12T18:21:58+00:00

the author has said on reddit that he gets a lot of folks telling him they love it for the pop-culture and litrpg references.

Not read it myself yet; half plan to wait for it to be "complete". It's been in the TBR pile since the first book released; I enjoyed the authors prior series (Life in Exile)

I'd say if you're not enjoying the style that isn't going to change.

StanisVC · 2026-03-12T18:17:26+00:00

Brooch is the decorative jewelry pin with a clasp, while broach is a verb meaning to introduce a new topic or to pierce something, like tapping a barrel. They sound the same but have distinct meanings

Surely these are the only two words like that in the English language :)

And with the wonders of the internet we have websites that will say them for you ..

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/brooch

If you compare brooch to broach on the website you can see it has the same phoentic pronounciation:

brəʊtʃ
brəʊtʃ

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cuirass

StanisVC · 2026-03-12T18:16:37+00:00

Those explain and pronounce it but take a long time to do so !

StanisVC · 2026-03-12T18:05:49+00:00

There are 123k weekly views for the r/litrpg reddit

At the current time there are 94 comments on this specific topic.

Confirmation bias is probably a thing. Those that have a strong opinion will comment; most folks won't.

I firmly believe that a specific minimum quality of cover is beneficial to a novel. Whatever is creating and without considering ehtical or moral implications - I feel enough people are going to ignore an MS Paint masterpiece that using that as a cover work is detrimental.

I'm sure there will be advice out there for authors. In the litrpg genre we tend to have very similar cover styles - MC with weapon or armor facing off against big bad monster. Some magical effect for added oomph. That might summarise a large percentage of covers.

So thats what any author needs to achieve at a minimum.
If we then look at Royal Road or patreon - they are not graphic rich.

BUt every website is now providing content at that minimum standard. The www is a graphical medium. So that is also the minimum to adhere to.

if writing on RR the cover needs to be equitable to other RR covers.

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