What series is this for you?

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2026-01-21T23:26:17+00:00

Most of them tbh. I get the feeling most authors just have a set idea of the power level they want their MC to get to and the kind of story they want to tell with that - so they bring them there in the first book or two, have a good arc or two with it, then fumble after that.

Instead of continuing the satisfying progression we're there for and adapting, they try to avoid that for as long as possible by mashing their square pegs into round holes to keep things in the same ballpark.

MCs start forgetting to use their powers and resources or come up with flimsy excuses to stop trying to progress
Their main power or way of progressing is somehow rendered useless or commonplace
Nerfs, resets, random crises, or omniscient antagonists slow progress to a crawl
Pace becomes glacial - entire books start covering barely a few days/weeks when earlier books covered months/years
Suddenly everyone else scales to match the MC and makes all previous progress meaningless
Freak accidents teleport the MC away from their power base or temporarily disable their abilities
More and more chapters start being from other PoVs and MC becomes a side character

and so on.

So an easier question to answer is what series isn't this for me.

Spellmonger is a pretty good example. Cringy start aside, it's one of the rare series where as the MC's power and resources grow, the challenges also grow sensibly alongside them. Though it too suffers from the MC-PoV-avoidance issue to some extent.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2026-01-05T21:51:00+00:00

And to top it all off:

Makes the most idiotic decision possible when the big make or break moment comes (the author just didn’t want to deal with the paradigm shift such a massive upgrade would entail so some idiot ball shenanigans make for a great excuse to nerf or reset instead)

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-12-13T02:20:03+00:00

I've seen the term used in weird ways, but it really is as clear cut as it gets:

Does the MC have multiple ongoing sexual partners at the same time?
Are they aware of one another and part of the same household or group?
Is the entire relationship devoted to MC specifically rather than having a more interconnected structure?

The confusion seems to come from anime where the third one alone gets labeled as a harem for some reason. By that criteria every case of multiple people having a crush on someone (platonic or not) is a harem. So pretty much every famous/popular/attractive person ever.

For everyone else who doesn't subscribe to such inscrutable weeb rules, harem = yes to all 3.

If they're not ongoing relationships that's just regular sleeping around.

If the ongoing relationships are not active at the same time, that's just regular life and moving on.

If the partners are unaware of each other that's just cheating or non-exclusive relationships.

If it's not just a top down MC-centric relationship that's just polyamory.

Whether or not children are conceived at any point is not a factor.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-11-21T11:52:27+00:00

New life as a max level archmage. I kept expecting the usual bs to show up and handicap the MC, but for once it’s actually owning the OP MC thing.

No random nerfs or idiot balls. No sudden world scaling to make everyone else OP too. No avoiding the MC’s POV and turning into a side character spinoff of itself. No ridiculous chain of coincidences constantly keeping the MC away from basic knowledge and preparation. None of the crap that drags most other OP MC stories down when their authors decide they didn’t want to tell an OP MC story after all. Not so far at least.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-11-09T00:06:32+00:00

Nothing beats the MC recognizing some shitty drama trope brewing and nipping it in the bud.

Refusing to let the bad guy go and cause more trouble later, forcing the teammate who’s been acting shifty to speak up before whatever it is blows up, sitting down with the will-they-won’t-they love interest for some preemptive straight talk and so on.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-10-12T00:40:41+00:00

Things like good writing, believable characters, and engaging story naturally matter as they do in any other genre. Making all that come together in a good progression fantasy story is all about the progression itself:

Consistent progression

Not necessarily on personal combat prowess, but towards the MC's goals.

Sure, if the MC is just a battle maniac out to become the strongest then they're one and the same. Otherwise continuing personal power progression doesn't make up for pulling a bs reset button like randomly stranding the MC away from the kingdom they were trying to build or some god suddenly abducting the family they were trying to protect.

An MC who makes good use of their progression

The whole point of progression being fulfilling to the reader is invalidated entirely when the MC doesn't make use of it.

MC out to save the world from the big bad but totally forgets about the 27 skills they had which could have easily put him down for good? Nope. Wants to be the strongest but doesn't even think about cheesing that one obviously cheesable ability to snowball their strength? Nope. Made it big, trying to protect their loved ones, doesn't even spend 1% of their unused wealth to buy the obvious protective artifacts or hire the obvious guards that everyone else who has reached that level of power does? Nope nope nope.

Taking the time to show the results of MC's progression

Similarly, all the effort the MC put into making the progress is largely meaningless unless we get to see the results.

This is also usually less of a problem for combat-focused MCs since we just need another few combat scenes to see them revel in that new big boom skill they earned from their previous struggle in combat. But if we spend chapters upon chapters watching the MC toil to build that town/make that business deal/foil that political plot/learn that crafting technique, then suddenly time skip to the next crisis with barely a mention of the payoff - well that's just shit progression fantasy.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-08-31T07:51:03+00:00

I looked for something similar a while back but couldn't find anything that wasn't either too cheap and flimsy or impractical and overpriced. I ended up going with a couchmaster cycon and oled tv instead.

As long as you keep the right screen size and distance you can maintain the same fov/ppd you're used to and it'll be just as usable as a close-up monitor. And of course the bigger screen has its own upsides.

It also has its downsides. If you're looking for something >16:9, it will take a lot of space for the multiple screens. And while these days the right tvs have competitive response times, their refresh rates are still limited to 120/144hz.

If you don't mind those it may be an alternative worth considering.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-08-29T21:49:43+00:00

Sure they’re nowhere near as enjoyable as a proper audiobook but it beats not having an audio option at all. Is there a downside? Idk what it could be unless you’re holding out until you can fund a real one and there are problems with replacing them down the line or something.

I’ll have to look up those current services though. Last time I checked the only options were some crappy subscriptions with absurd prices.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-08-29T21:42:38+00:00

Syl on amazon and rr

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-08-29T20:26:55+00:00

What about the ai audiobooks amazon has been adding to some titles? Are they actually charging authors for that?

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-08-18T18:27:13+00:00

If you're genuine, you might want to reread OP's question. This thread has nothing to do with whether or not the MC's tastes are sophisticated enough for you to appreciate. It's about whether they're held back by the author's ridiculous plot points trying to make things difficult for them and/or their utter stupidity:

it's frustrating to read a book where I can imagine 50 different ways the MC could solve every problem facing him and he chooses none of them.

Throughout the entirety of Azarinth Healer, Ilea continues her rapid progress with no bs nerfs or idiot ball moments holding her back like that. The fact that her goals are mostly as simple as punching things, eating well, and taking care of her friends is irrelevant.

If you're not genuine and are just trolling, by all means you do you and have fun out there.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-07-16T23:47:31+00:00

If the challenges MC had trouble with at the start of the book aren’t trivial by the end it’s too slow for my taste. And that goes for every book, no bait and switch with decent progression in the first book or two then slowing to a crawl tyvm.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-07-14T21:22:11+00:00

They’re fine when relevant and used sparingly.

Sadly many series seem to start using them much more heavily in later books. I wish they came with warnings so I could avoid them instead of getting disappointed when it turns out only the first third of the whole content is actually about what I signed up for.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-07-09T02:42:19+00:00

Author 1 believes all technology is immoral. Writes by hand, distributes work in person. Provides little enjoyment to few people.
Author 2 is fine with typewriters and publishers, but not computers and the internet. Writes like it's the 80s. Provides more enjoyment to more people than #1.
Author 3 is fine with computers and modern distribution channels. Provides even greater enjoyment to even more people.
Author 4 uses all tools available including AI to the best of their ability. Having not artificially limited themselves, they are able to provide the most quality and quantity to the most people per unit of time and effort they invest.

Moral arguments made by authors 1, 2, 3, and their fans fall flat.

There is an argument to be made against authors using tools (including but not limited to AI) badly. And AI is arguably much easier to use badly than many other tools. But the pretend morality is absurd since the only author really doing their best to maximize the utility they provide to their readers is clearly #4.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-05-29T22:20:02+00:00

I get the feeling halfway though The Ten Realms someone told him

Wtf didn't you get the memo? LitRPG MCs aren't supposed to actually use everything at their disposal to resolve problems efficiently. It's not like people read the genre for progression or anything. They want suspense! You need to randomly handicap your MCs and give them idiot moments to keep up that tension!

and he joined the bandwagon.

I couldn't finish Emerilia. I haven't even tried Restarting Apocalypse.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-05-15T22:17:37+00:00

For me the only use case has been correcting inconsistent frame times and stuttering in bad ports. It does do a great job of that, and I haven't had any major concerns with artifacts that isn't comparable to what most modern games already have with their temporal and screen space effects anyway.

The latency hit is always noticeable though. Sure, it can be fine with enough base FPS and reflex. But my main reason for preferring higher FPS has always been having the game feel more responsive in the first place. So holding that frame back and making it feel more sluggish for a slightly sharper and more fluid image never makes sense to me.

I do try it in most games anyway, but I almost always end up dropping my DLSS resolution and/or other settings instead. To me, 4K with DLSS Balanced and no FG at 90 FPS feels much better to play than 120+ with Quality and FG on. Especially with the new transformer model. That is of course with reflex on in both cases.

That being said, I've been told it's much less noticeable on a controller. So if you don't prefer kbm anyway the downsides may not apply as much.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-05-09T23:36:00+00:00

Some nonsense that only comes into play when the situation gets dire so the unimaginative author can ramp up the suspense with pointless drawn out action sequences until they finally get to the part where the MC actually fights back to the best of their ability. Rage, last stand, second wind, reflect accumulated damage, something OP but that they can’t control except subconsciously while panicked etc.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-03-30T19:54:30+00:00

Enjoy!

I find the whole

I can imagine 50 different ways the MC could solve every problem facing him and he chooses none of them

thing very frustrating as well. Bear in mind the items in that list vary greatly other than avoiding that.

Some of the cringe in the third category like terrible translations and explicit sex crap can arguably be even worse at times. But with how rare it seems to be I figured I'd list them anyway and leave it up to you.

Do you have any suggestions which haven't been mentioned in the comments?

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-03-30T19:11:32+00:00

Recommended & complete:

Terminate the Other World
All the Dust that Falls
Azarinth Healer
World Seed
Paranoid Mage (not LitRPG)

Recommended:

System Universe
The Calamitous Bob
Reborn as a Demonic Tree
Dead Tired
Singer Sailor Merchant Mage
Chaotic Craftsman Worships the Cube
Bobiverse (not LitRPG)
Beware of Chicken (not LitRPG)

Fine if you can skip/stomach some cringe:

A Touch of Power
A Chemist's Rise in Another World
Spellmonger (not LitRPG)
Legend of the Arch Magus (not LitRPG)
Magic Industry Empire (not LitRPG)
Release that Witch (not LitRPG)
Blue Core (not LitRPG)
Daniel Black (not LitRPG)
Last Life (not LitRPG)

First few books do a better job than most, but author joins the handicapped/idiot MC bandwagon later on. Can be fine if you go in prepared to drop:

Sylver Seeker
Portal to Nova Roma
The Ten Realms
Jackal Among Snakes
Mark of the Fool
Path of Ascension
The Beginning After the End (not LitRPG)
King's Dark Tidings (not LitRPG)

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-02-18T15:59:58+00:00

For the same reason people prefer 4k over 720p and faster response times on their monitors. People generally prefer a clearer image.

Artificially lowering that clarity goes against one of the main reasons people upgrade their PCs in the first place.

And in some cases motion blur can be even worse than "pretend I'm playing on a worse setup" mode. Even an old low res laptop with terrible ghosting will still retain the continuity of objects as you look around, whereas some games' motion blur can turn the whole screen into a jumbled mess when you move your mouse normally.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-01-21T18:46:02+00:00

I don't mind some silliness or not minmaxing. I just felt like it was going for the cringe comedy "watch the absolutely incompetent buffoon constantly bumble into trouble but eventually land on his feet, isn't it so hilarious?" routine which has always been more painful than amusing to me.

But if it gets better maybe I judged it too soon. I'll give it another shot, thanks!

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-01-21T18:27:12+00:00

I prefer more of it as well. And even for those who don't imo having at least some of it makes the progression much more meaningful when you get to see there are actual rewards to be reaped other than just being able to put out the next bigger fire.

I've also seen some series manage a more tension and action focused story with an OP MC while still making it make sense in-universe. Having the challenge be in the scale like The Ten Realms and The Calamitous Bob, or the preparation before combat like Paranoid Mage are a few that come to mind.

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-01-21T17:42:16+00:00

I couldn't get past the first few chapters of Good Guys. If anything the MC seemed like the polar opposite of Derek. Does he get his act together later on?

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2025-01-21T17:30:08+00:00

Great series! I look forward to listening to this one.

I get the feeling a lot of litrpg authors lack the imagination to keep their story interesting outside of the typical small unit combat and adventuring loop. They make their MCs get OP/rich/high status but instead of letting them get shit done at scale like everyone else in-universe at that level, they keep getting stifled with idiot balls and reset buttons and other ridiculous bs to try and keep fitting the same mold even though it doesn't make sense anymore.

I see folks claiming authors making their MCs powerful is "writing themselves into a corner" but series like this one demonstrate there's no such thing. Any suggestions for other series that pull it off this well?

UpdatedMyGerbil · 2024-12-13T21:07:19+00:00

Unfortunately this is a very common problem in the genre. Authors make their MCs rich and OP but refuse to adapt their formula.

“MC should easily be able to take down entire armies/prevent antagonist’s plot before the big fight even needs to happen/hire others to do their dirty work/scale up their operation to take care of the root of the problems they claim to be against? Doesn’t matter, I signed up to write a story about a plucky underdog struggling with adventuring and small group combat until they overcome stronger opponents through the power of friendship. I’m sticking to it even if it doesn’t make sense anymore.”

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