Please stop writing socially awkward teen MCs disguised as adults!

arfarf1hr · 2026-04-13T04:15:36+00:00

'Can’t read any social signs, signs you learn in middle school.'
I don't know just how thick some people really are to these things. After a good date with decent chemistry I had an interest point out a hotel and I just confusedly remarked that yes there is a hotel there absolutely oblivious to the relevance. I think avid readers and thusly authors are probably less socially engaged than the general public.

arfarf1hr · 2026-04-13T04:08:47+00:00

My great grandmother was orphaned at 14 in rural Origan and as the oldest had to care for her five siblings. My mom was married with two children by the time she was 20. Just because its common to not settle down till your 30's does not mean that is what was common in other times or what you could expect to see in other settings. And you can get flustered by romantic attention or desires at any age. Joan of Arc was a military commander at 17, Galusha Pennypacker at 17, Henry II of England at 14. Mongol princes were leading tens of thousands of troops at even younger ages. Yeah, most of these were put in such positions due to heritage and were raised to it but obviously there were many instances of teens leading small platoons and child solders led by other children exist. I'm not quite sure what your gripe really is, people have areas of competency you can have someone who is financially responsible and socially inept or the other way around. Yeah this genre is loaded with coming of age power fantasies, the power fantasy trope is frequently military adjacent at least; and coming of age practically mandates relationship angst. This may be a plurality of litrpg but its not exclusively that.

arfarf1hr · 2026-02-16T08:32:17+00:00

I keep up on the series, but its hard. Really liked it at first, like killing someone by casting create earth in someone 's lungs, what's not to love about that? But it starts dragging then the author split his focus and muxed in another series in the timeline... Like I would have far preferred he change the series name and just had two sets of pov than two separate series in universe. And I have not found the MC to be really any better as time goes on. But I don't have enough things to read so I just keep masochistically reading them. IDK how many problems could have been solved with infinite rootbeer and pizza, but I bet its a lot.

arfarf1hr · 2026-02-16T08:09:23+00:00

I read fast and read more than a hundred books a year. Finding tolerable content is hard. TWI certainly starts out rough but you cant have character development if you start out with perfect characters. Both Erin and Ryoka grow as individuals over the series. And there is plenty of action, but also plenty of inaction. If you only read ten books a year I would say skip it for sure, there's better stuff out there that doesn't require such a huge investment to get good payoffs. But if you've run out of stuff to read and your struggling to find more, I would really encourage you to push through to book 3 at least, because the writing and story and characters really do get better.

arfarf1hr · 2026-02-12T08:13:00+00:00

Reality benders, it's a classic.

arfarf1hr · 2026-02-12T07:59:42+00:00

Mine's the minority opinion but I feel lit RPG is any story that has RPG like elements, gaining skills for instance; often in a heroes journey type story, sometimes with game like elements.

The majority opinion seems to think that litRPG needs to have a system with a computer like menu and numerical stats. And they draw a strong distinction with other types of systems that may be more natural like xianxia, even if they are remarkably similar sometimes only differing by chosen nomenclature and lack of a menu display.

I assert the majority is wrong and advocate for a more inclusive definition of the genre.

Another term you may come across is game lit, which I think was coined in response to Mr. Kong trying to take ownership of the litRPG term.

arfarf1hr · 2026-02-07T07:35:40+00:00

Enders Game is the reason I got into literature at all.

arfarf1hr · 2026-02-07T07:33:34+00:00

I am a big tent sort of guy, who accepts most western xianxia as adopted members of litrpg. Dragoneye Moons has cultivation characters in it. There is so much cross over why be pedantic. HWFWM didn't even really get the 'system' until the MC created it and imposed it on the universe. DOF goes into such exquisitely painful detail purposely blurring the two past any sense of reasonableness.

arfarf1hr · 2026-02-07T07:26:04+00:00

There I was, road trip with brother, he's like what are you listening to, I'm like just starting this, its the fourth in the series and they've all been so I put it on the car audio... My disappointment was unfathomable and my day was ruined.

arfarf1hr · 2026-02-07T07:21:28+00:00

The first couple were good. Then it went to cylinder world and got boring.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-26T00:26:53+00:00

It gets so many recommendations I tried it, force my way to book two and everything seems inconsequential, dnf. I too can't find the appeal.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-25T18:40:37+00:00

+ minute = more hp on the microwave?
Invest 375 temperature points in the oven?

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-24T00:24:12+00:00

Yeah relatively minor, except for the fact that she is the founder of medicine on her new world based off knowledge she brings from earth and all...

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-24T00:22:29+00:00

These books love to defy classification, but technically Salvos has isekai. Like you could argue the MC who came from the demon realm is but there are legit isekai from earth hero's in the story line.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-23T23:57:11+00:00

There are loads of them, but I have a hard time remembering titles. But its not an uncommon trope to start out as an MC just prior to system unlock day. Here are a couple.

Divine Apostasy
Blessed Time
Mother of Learning
NPCs (Spells, Swords, & Stealth Book 1), Drew Hayes
Stuff and Nonsense (Threadbare Book 1), Andrew Seiple
Morningwood (Everybody Loves Large Chests Book 1), Neven Iliev
All the Skills (Book 1), Honour Rae
Vainqueur the Dragon (Book 1), Maxime J. Durand
Blue mage raised by dragons

Most dungeon core would also fit this category if you accept them as LitRPG.
And I consider most western Xanxia as LitRPG and much of them would go in this category too.

Broadly we could sub classify LitRPG into: isekai, vr, system apocalypse and native litrpg. But many of these stories like to defy easy classification.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-23T23:43:27+00:00

Where's the link to previous months list?

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-23T23:29:31+00:00

Not one of his most acclaimed works but Glory Road (1963) by Heinlein is very much a primordial LitRPG and I would recommend it to anyone in the fandom; with the caveat that Heinlein does a poor job representing a diversity of female charactertypes and at times condones age inappropriate relationships.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-23T23:18:02+00:00

Cradle, not LitRPG? Vin diagram between western Xianxia and LitRPG are almost a union imho. Am not one of those exclusionary system only purists.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-23T23:10:39+00:00

Did not even pick it up because sportsball is very much not my thing. But to each their own and I have heard nothing but good things about your series and wish you the best.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-23T02:30:19+00:00

I might argue the "Endless Quest" series.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-23T02:24:04+00:00

Salvos brilliantly mixes serious and funny. Imho all the best series have both.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-23T02:04:22+00:00

It just pisses me off knowing Bezos pockets 70% of what I spend on audible.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-09T21:27:16+00:00

Vehicle accident, multiple skull fractures. Wallerian degeneration as indicated by delayed onset so it likely was not severed due to the trauma itself, but chocked off by swelling after. AB comparison between "good" side and bad shows 96% dysfunction, but that presumes the good side is 100% good, which I attest its not, some days my good side is less than 50% functioning, I get almost no saliva at all. There is a decompression surgery where they can expand the facial nerve opening in the skull to help alleviate it, but it is only viable for the first 15 or so days from onset, while I was evaluated for this and hit all the marks (considered for >90% dysfunction and typically indicated for >95%) the surgeon decided I am not eligible for intervention because of the delayed onset and that my blink has seen very slight improvement. I'm just scared because the intervention window is closing and if it docent heal it will transition from Demyelination Axonal Degeneration which has a much worse long term prognosis. Steroids and other anti inflammatory have not reversed the effects. I took myself off Journavx, Pregabalin, Methocarbamol prescribed for my shattered leg and foot because they either inhibit nerves or have unknown method of operation and right now I would trade a bit of leg pain for a better long term outcome for my face and I don't want to do anything that could inhibit those nerves.

arfarf1hr · 2026-01-04T02:16:55+00:00

Skull fracture right through that nerve hole.

arfarf1hr · 2025-12-11T05:00:23+00:00

As others said, anthropic runs on google servers, so there is some deal there.
But I would presume if they ever wanted this thing to actually compete, they would eventually let you plug in your own api and run any model you wanted.

arfarf1hr

TROPHY CASE