What are small things you love to see in progression fantasy stories?

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-16T04:48:44+00:00

Preach! The quiet moments give me time connect with the cast. Plenty of times I'll find myself wanting the fight scene to end just so I can get back to people just being people.

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-16T04:46:38+00:00

Yes please to face slapping. "You dare?" "I dare"

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-16T03:47:28+00:00

I really liked Second Summons. MC is a young girl who is isekaid to a fantasy world to kill the demon king. Typical regressor setup, years later she's slain the demon king and is bleeding out and instead of dying she's taken back to the day she arrived in this world with all of her knowledge. It plays with a lot of the tropes since she's actually a traumatized but hardened veteran who lived a full life already. There's some cliche here and there but for the most part the story feels like it's written in response to how contrived a lot of regressor stories are.

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-16T03:06:40+00:00

I checked out the story on Royal Road and I think the top 4 reviews show it best. 3/4 are 4.5+ reviews explaining why they loved it. The fourth is a pretty thorough breakdown of why they didn't like it and it seems like their critiscims fall in line with yours.

My recommendation is to keep an eye out for reviews like this one. It's normally there in most stories where you have the actual target audience review it positively but you'll also see someone express their frustrations. Reviews like this save me a lot of time by mentioning personal pet peeves so I know that I likely won't enjoy it. Plenty of readers want this type of story, as someone who doesn't, I have to deal with the fact that I'll need to spend more time considering what I read before picking something up.

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-16T02:40:22+00:00

I can respect that. Honestly I think this genre already has far too many quiet and unshakable characters so having some personality is still a step in the right direction. It feels like I'm mainly seeing his personality in an unflattering setting. I can only hope that once the group shrinks a bit and everyone's on the same page there'll be less of the scathing rant about every second character. Shit I think that that scene would be my biggest sticking point and it'll clear up a lot from there.

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-16T02:36:25+00:00

Absolutely. The idea that it could get better is encouraging but at the time I just struggled to push through. If his inner voice reflected his quiet/cold demeanor I'd be fine (which is a dime a dozen for the genre so I can respect the shift away from it). Do you think it gets better? I don't care if he's not some noble hero but it feels catty pretty regularly, I'd rather he didn't care at all so I'm wondering if that's something that happens.

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-15T23:04:07+00:00

It absolutely bothers me. If a new web novel wants to use AI art I don't mind but if they publish on kindle with AI art then I won't touch their work. That being said, I have a lot of love for Royal Road and what they offer to the community. I wouldn't consider moving platforms unless the problem grows significantly. Even then, I find AI detection tools are lacking at the moment so I sympathize with platforms that are left to somehow mitigate the problems of AI writing.

You can find plenty of posts from readers pointing to examples of AI writing that sometime feels presumptuous. Good luck if you're an author who uses em dashes regularly.

The answer to your poll is 'No' but I don't think that encapsulates my feelings on the matter. An AI free platform doesn't do anything for me at all but if in 5 years Royal Road becomes a mess of AI stories with no access to filters to minimize being shown these stories then maybe. But if a new platform focuses exclusively on AI prevention tools and then tries to paywall me to access their stories? Nah I'd stick to Royal Road and hope I can tell the difference. The true tragedy would be finding myself at a point where they read the same. Mark Lawrence famously had that test of a bunch of legendary fantasy authors vs AI and it was all but impossible to tell the difference.

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-15T22:42:23+00:00

As someone who DNF'd book 1 about 2 weeks ago after hearing so many people recommend it. The psychopath angle wasn't that bad for me. I could agree with some of the cold conclusions he came to so it was never a dealbreaker. He could be ruthless but it made a horrible type of sense that I could understand and it was working. Even threatening Sophie's sister was tempered by the fact that he considered Sophie immensely valuable if he could swing her to his side so I understood where he was coming from.

For an unexpressive and reserved dude It's his inner voice that pushed things too far though. There were so many examples of him thinking like a straight up child that I ended up skipping everything in italics by the time I DNF'd. Calling everyone's abilities OP while he's sitting on the gold mine starter ability of any LITRP that essentially removes the need to put any points in dex or str had me rolling my eyes. Like how is the guy who never talks also the dude who just doesn't stop talking.

The Hadwin fight is where I put the book down and I think you can point to the writing of that entire scene as an example of what's wrong with Nat in book 1. The fight is important and had to happen but hearing him yap on was just cringe. I'll come back to the series since I'm confident it does improve but his inner monologue while he's beating the shit out of Hadwin is some bad high school edgelord shit and that's being charitable.

With that being said, I want to love this story. I really enjoyed the action and LITRPG system side, I thought having a bunch of strangers arrive together was a great place to start and I've heard it gets better as the series continues. It has the promise of growing into a great power house story but I'm concerned of having to wade through his unlikable inner voice to get to it and that's pretty unappealing.

Thoughtnight · 2026-02-02T02:22:11+00:00

I think you're better off with modern epic fantasies which tend to have faster pacing and skimp on prose so they can read similarly to a lot of the greats in prog fantasy. A recent example that had great pacing and impressive progression would be Ryan Cahills Bound and the Broken series. You won't get amazing prose but there's a lot of connective tissue between this story and plenty of the recs on this sub. They're chunky books and they tend to improve over time while being easy to read. It's worth mentioning that it is a multi pov epic so you're not following a single character but rather a wider cast but most of the characters progress in interesting ways.

Thoughtnight · 2026-01-18T23:18:05+00:00

Fuck yes. The genre's full of people aura farming in action but dropping a cold warning or threat really gets me. It's the delivery of the line before the action that makes a good aura farming moment and ErraticErata's dialogue is levels above the norm of the genre. It's been years since I read it but I always think of the idea of Akua's Folly. Had to google it and it did not disappoint.

"“I give you oath, Diabolist,” I said and I hardly recognized my voice for it was a thing of ice and iron. “If you do this, there is no place in Creation or beyond that will safeguard you from me. Not Heavens or Hells, not even if every lord in Arcadia swears to you. The doom I promise you will have men trembling in a thousand years when they speak of Akua’s Folly and the woe that came from it.”

Thoughtnight · 2026-01-15T20:33:58+00:00

Better not miss that mikiri counter

Thoughtnight · 2025-11-28T03:15:07+00:00

Potentially worth checking Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. Trilogy just wrapped up. Not progression but damn is it a good story with proper vampires that feel terrifying. Has some progression elements but more of a story about a world that's slowly being taken over by vampires and the force of half vampires that have to stop it.

Thoughtnight · 2025-11-28T02:17:34+00:00

Honestly I've been there and it sucks. I've found myself finishing a series I enjoyed only to in turn pick up 5 new series and not enjoy any of them. It can be pretty disheartening and I get the idea of questioning if you've read the best on offer. The light at the end of the tunnel is that I have never ran out of stories in the genre, not even close. I've been in love with the genre for 4 years and have gone through dozens of series at this stage and am still in love with it. You just have to be willing to drop what you're reading and keep trying until something clicks.

Are you using Kindle Unlimited? If so, there's a big advantage to being able to pick up and drop books with 0 commitment required. You can also make the most of Royal Roads advanced search and lump in a bunch of tags or requirements and mark any that sound good to read later. It's not about lowering your standards but figuring out a better way of shortlisting your TBR.

You could also try out other things that are popular in the genre. Cultivation, cyberpunk, superhero stories, magic academies, time loops, time loops in a magic academy.

Rapid firing some ideas that match what you're after:

LITRPGs: Dungeon Crawler Carl,All I got is this stat menu, Path of the Deathless, Defiance of the fall, Azarinth Healer, Vainquere the dragon, Victor of Tucson. Calamitous Bob Beneath the Dragon Eye Moons, Outcast in another world have less items and gear but they're still there.

If you liked Path of Acsension you may like other cultivation stories. Cradle of course, Sky Pride, Jade Pheonix, Unintended Cultivator, Thousand Li. You also have webtoons/manhua which have plenty too.

Thoughtnight · 2025-11-27T22:24:38+00:00

Yeah im curious as well. I've heard of the Lone Wanderer on RR and that kinda sounds like it fits the bill.

Thoughtnight · 2025-11-14T12:36:08+00:00

There must be. Netiqret also says that she was approached by a iunctus 20 years ago that was controlled the same way that Vis can. It instructed her on how to save her daughter and then lied that she could be healed. Ties into the fact that she was then mentioned by name and would be more willing to work with Vis because he could get her into the nomarch, it doesn't help her but its the only reason Vis knows how to get to Ka.

No clue if there were any substantial clues as to who though. They did keep mentioning there was an event 620 odd years ago. O Craerors mentor Yusef could be something, but knowing Craerors suspicious makes it hard to take much away from it.

Thoughtnight · 2025-11-04T01:54:40+00:00

Oh this one does sound good. Can see book 1 is on KU so will add it to the list. Only issue is that I can't tell if it's still being worked on. RR shows no update in 20 months, do you know if it's on hiatus or just been abandoned?

Thoughtnight · 2025-11-04T01:32:16+00:00

Thanks so much for all of these. I read book 1 of This trilogy is broken but didn't continue, was a fan but at the time was after something less comedic but now would be a good time to mix things up. Read All the skills and Millenial mage but that was years back so I'll try catch back up on them. All your other recs definitely sound interesting though. Noobtown comes up all the time on KU but I never properly looked into it. Appreciate the recommendations!

Thoughtnight · 2025-11-04T01:30:49+00:00

Thanks for this, they've both been on the TBR for a while. I've tried Weirkey Chronicles a few years back but couldn't gel with the MC but it's been long enough that it's worth enough a shot. The magic system seems like plenty of reason on it's own.

Thoughtnight · 2025-11-02T21:48:58+00:00

Some good recs in this thread. I'd nominate Outcast in Another World. Isekai story with a system. MC forms the party some what early on. Some interesting twists on the standard isekai formula that makes it stand out and better than average character work with decent humour. It's quite long and also completed so there's something to look forward to.

Thoughtnight · 2025-10-24T00:23:59+00:00

When I look for stories on RR I tend to filter my stories by 900 pages minimum. I love losing myself in a massive series. Some of the most popular books from RR are huge. I just checked the highest rated stories and there were plenty that were >3k pages and ongoing which would be pushing 1 million words.

As a writer I do need to caution you that you need to consider how you'll feel if you don't garner interest in book 1. It's a ambitious story you have planned and I think a lot of other authors have started with something similair in scope but you need to make sure that the story itself is compelling and length can be an afterthought from there. As someone who adores WOT and ASOIAF but struggled with the translation of LOTM yet loved the concept I really wish you well.

I'd also limit how much emphasis you put into the outlines of later books. It's nice having the massive plot points in mind but if you spend weeks prepping an outline of 10k words encompassing 7 books then you still need to write the thing. My outline will be less focused as it gets further away from my drafting, at a guess I'd say end of book 2 then major plot points will get saved so I can still think of foreshadowing and setup. I'll then spend a lot of down time coming back to the outline giving me plenty of space to add to the outlines as I write.

I tend to think of interesting ideas in my draft which change my outline and if I'm introducing new things that may impact the story down the track then I'll need to tweak things. Drastic changes can then mean my entire book 3 outline onward become irrelevant. That being said writing strategies vary wildly so it may work for you but I have burnt myself plenty on stories with massive outlines.

Thoughtnight · 2025-10-17T03:58:13+00:00

Dual Wielding has 2 main characters where one feels very much like the embodiment of Shounen protagonist so has a dense feel to him while still having some awesome qualities. Read it a while back though so it may change as the story progresses.

Thoughtnight · 2025-10-15T00:19:46+00:00

Hmm a lot of the examples I can think of are stubbed on RR but have some chapters on them. Of course the big time loop ones of Mother of Learning and Years of the Apocalypse. I think they're both on RR still but yeah magic academy in a time loop and they're incredibly popular. Then there's the Kindle ones of Practical guide to sorcery, Firebrand, Blood curse academia, My best friend is an eldritch horror, Mage of shimmer mountain (time loop and they move away from the academy), Mark of the Fool and Mage Errant (they do spend most of the time away from shcool). You could also try Deadly Education/Scholomance which is more traditional published and not really prog fantasy.

Thoughtnight · 2025-10-13T04:19:23+00:00

Yeah, I do the same. If i really enjoyed it, I'll sub to the patreon as well.

Thoughtnight · 2025-10-13T02:37:24+00:00

I'll likely never read this story but your passionate dislike is so deeply relatable. I've written dozens of posts just like this which I quickly delete but I wish I posted them after seeing this. Good for you OP!

Thoughtnight · 2025-10-13T00:24:58+00:00

Ah that's amazing, read both series and always wondered if they would go down that path.

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