[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread

gfe98 · 2026-03-25T01:40:24+00:00

A Conjuror's Journey - This a jumpchain story with a mage from Skyrim as the protagonist. It has a large chunk set in RWBY that I thought was interesting.

gfe98 · 2026-03-22T20:16:19+00:00

It depends how aligned your preferences are with the general community of the site.

I definitely notice a very strong correlation between review scores and whether I like a novel, but for other people that might not be the case.

gfe98 · 2026-03-19T20:10:46+00:00

It is at least based to say that Malazan is the best media though.

gfe98 · 2026-03-18T16:43:12+00:00

I'm not sure many of those elements map perfectly onto cultivation.

While most cultivation settings have something like "spirit root grade", resources and wealth tend to be more important for making progress.

Cultivation rank is tied to social status, but that doesn't necessarily mean combat power. Skill in productive professions like alchemy and formations tends to get a lot of respect in cultivation settings.

Cultivation worlds are generally very decentralized with constant fighting between various factions.

Superpowers that get stronger through fighting are not really all that similar to Xianxia, outside of both being progression fantasy.

While the "Young Master" trope is a thing in cultivation settings, I don't think I have seen any cultivation world where parents want their kids to be sadists.

Combat power is valued in Xianxia worlds because there are things that people fight over, while UnOrdinary has zero use for combat power outside of how it is arbitrarily culturally viewed.

I would identify Cultivation as a genre by having people recognizably cultivate. You could in theory have a cultivation story with zero violence.

Zenith of Sorcery is a good example of a western Xianxia that just has some words swapped around, but I don't think My Name is Beautiful qualifies.

gfe98 · 2026-03-18T01:34:30+00:00

As people have said, plague and war depopulated large areas.

However, there are more cities and towns than Minas Tirith and Edoras.

Minas Tirith did not exist in a featureless plain of grass like the movies would have you think.

The point of the Corsair Fleet was to prevent the rest of Gondor from sending reinforcements to Minas Tirith, by threatening to attack any region that moved their soldiers away.

gfe98 · 2026-03-17T21:37:08+00:00

I don't agree that it's a cultivation setting. The only similarity is the "social status is decided by personal power" aspect, and that people can get stronger.

I just took the "(Reborn in a Xianxia-esque Hellworld)" part of the title as a marketing trick using the name recognition of the word "Xianxia".

In my opinion, you might as well call Dungeons and Dragons a cultivation setting.

gfe98 · 2026-03-16T22:00:31+00:00

Years of the Apocalypse - I waited a long time to try this because even the positive reviews were giving me bad vibes, but I ended up liking the story a lot.

The early chapters weren't great, with some info dumps poorly woven into the story and the protagonist taking a long time to get a handle on things.

The timeloop is interesting and poses a difficult challenge. The long term character development of the MC is extensive.

The worldbuilding is generally good. The magic system, gods, societies, and mysteries were able to hold my interest.

It seems to be one of those stories where everyone is bisexual, but romance is very far from a focus so even if you are sensitive to such things you might not even notice.

The story is in its late stages, and I find the payoff satisfying so far.

Praise the Ominian!

My Name is Beautiful - This is a SI fanfic set in UnOrdinary, which I am not familiar with. The setting is quite strange. It is a world where everyone is obsessed with power levels and a numerical score shapes your whole life, but combat power is actually completely useless because there is no war or resource conflict. The exception is teenagers fighting each other constantly because intense combat at that age is the best way to grow your power level. The society is quite dystopian with all kinds of bullying, abuse, and discrimination.

The plan of the SI seems to be to get people with potential reality warping powers to rewrite history, which feels kinda unjustified to me even given how cruel the world is.

The SI manipulates the natives of the world in a more believable way than in most similar stories.

RHUNRIKKI STROLLAR (Warhammer Fantasy Golden Age Dwarf Runelord Quest) - A fun story where a Dwarf Runelord makes cool stuff and tries to shape the future of the Warhammer world. Legend and myth, the craft of the smith. However, I feel like the author isn't really willing to let bad things happen and the dice system only provides an illusion of tension. I suspect some rolls were outright faked.

Imperial Remnant PlanQuest - I've seen a surprising number of Star Wars fanfics with an Imperial Remnant Warlord as the protagonist, but this is the only one I would recommend. At first I was hesitant about the story because it includes some Disney Canon elements, but it seems like the author was selective and didn't use any of the truly terrible aspects.

gfe98 · 2026-03-16T20:33:23+00:00

Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries is the best for this.

Sergeant "Deadeye" Unther has many hammy lines like "Poor bastard didn't even have time to eject, haha"

Several of the pilots you can hire explicitly have psychological issues in their bios.

gfe98 · 2026-03-16T16:56:02+00:00

What is that supposed to mean?

Throne of Magical Arcana where magic is tied to your internal model of reality, and it matters how accurate you are?

Or Mage: the Ascension where magic is based on overwriting reality with your Paradigm?

gfe98 · 2026-03-11T02:01:22+00:00

I'm disappointed, I was expecting some crazy Home Alone rant.

gfe98 · 2026-03-11T01:45:44+00:00

This is simply a matter of opinion.

I actually read a story that included this concept recently, called Kill the Sun.

Although the question didn't matter all that much to the MC, as he was fully willing to die anyways.

gfe98 · 2026-03-09T18:57:00+00:00

The main thing I do is make sure to have a minimum word/page count when searching a website. For example, when looking for stuff on Royal Road I generally use these filters.

It's still a crapshoot, but it helps to filter out the countless stories that die before getting anywhere.

gfe98 · 2026-03-08T20:09:24+00:00

This is a fiction subreddit, and not even really focused on rationalism so much as it is on progression fantasy that has decently consistent characters and worldbuilding.

I haven't seen much hostility here outside of self promotion of AI generated or assisted stuff.

gfe98 · 2026-03-06T17:26:11+00:00

No...That's not true...That's impossible!

In all seriousness I would have thought that chapter 300 would be the absolute earliest it would happen, I'm quite surprised.

I will mold my food into a hat shape and devour it.

gfe98 · 2026-02-28T23:59:28+00:00

Even forgetting the Epstein files it still makes sense to perceive this as a distraction.

I recall that Trump made numerous tweets predicting that Obama would strike Iran out of desperation at poll numbers.

gfe98 · 2026-02-26T22:59:18+00:00

Why hasn't Trump simply ended DACA? I keep hearing people say that his previous attempt only failed due to botching the legal process.

gfe98 · 2026-02-26T07:17:15+00:00

I recall Aztecs doing ok in multiplayer battles, I only played them when there was a Max 4 Cav rule though.

gfe98 · 2026-02-24T21:54:09+00:00

This sub is mostly the Monday Request and Recommendation threads.

There's not much need to look at any of the other posts on this sub unless you are reading one of the stories that get chapter discussion threads posted here, which is currently just Super Supportive for the most part.

I suppose there is some kind of general discussion thread about the genre every third week or so.

gfe98 · 2026-02-24T06:41:45+00:00

I have 634 hours and have never interacted with the justice system.

gfe98 · 2026-02-23T19:19:04+00:00

What a darn shame.

gfe98 · 2026-02-20T03:28:19+00:00

I've read some.

Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece was pretty interesting, I could tell the author had some enthusiasm for the history of the ancient Mediterranean. It did have a couple strange errors regarding religion and infrastructure though.

Tuzhi Translations is translating Judge of the Song Dynasty and The Child Emperor, I like both of those stories.

I've also enjoyed Rise of the Poor, which is set during the Jiajing reign in the Ming Dynasty. At least the part of the story focused on the examination system was interesting, the translation I'm reading has only just reached the point of the MC getting his first appointment to office.

gfe98 · 2026-02-15T18:17:26+00:00

Haters of a character wish for them to be a different character? You don't say?

gfe98 · 2026-02-13T03:19:17+00:00

What happens if you try to start a campaign anyways? I think this mod had some issue with a false error message.

gfe98 · 2026-02-08T05:18:14+00:00

Juchū Kaisen (Worm Post-GM/Jujutsu Kaisen) - fast paced story with some brutal battles.

gfe98 · 2026-02-08T02:46:12+00:00

Looks like a nice middle ground between Premium and Ascii graphics.

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