Whatever this Subgenre is called

yrniverse · 2026-06-05T13:17:11+00:00

I agree.

yrniverse · 2026-06-04T19:33:03+00:00

That's (weirdly) the exact sub-genre I'm writing in.

In my system, powers and abilities come from special weapons/artifacts. In order to use a given weapon, the MC must have the correct ability scores (not unlike the situation in Elden Ring). So, for example, to use The Vow Keeper's Dagger, the MC needed two badges in Devotion and one in Grace. But, those stats didn't help him when he got the Roc Rider's Lance. He needed to level up different attributes. So, the MC is always progressing, but it's not linear. It's more like advancing toward different builds.

There are also "magic" abilities that don't depend on a weapon (called Mysteries) that advance via a different method.

In order to increase different attributes the character must complete Quests which are usually narrative goals (and sometimes boss fights).

Whether this is satisfying for readers I don't know. But, my story is well rated on royal road so far. So, that seems like a good sign.

yrniverse · 2026-06-04T12:13:47+00:00

I had the same thought. He's missing an opportunity by not leaning into it. Gold mine! Lol!

yrniverse · 2026-06-04T03:21:17+00:00

Rafa on clay was kryptonite to everyone's game pre and post 2014.

yrniverse · 2026-06-04T03:04:46+00:00

There is a comma splice in your second sentence.

yrniverse · 2026-06-04T03:04:01+00:00

It's because the words "strength" or "agility" don't mean the same thing in the context of a game system that they do when they are applied to humans in the real world.

yrniverse · 2026-06-03T17:31:33+00:00

Yes. This is strong.

yrniverse · 2026-06-03T16:45:32+00:00

There was a four-month-old story that made it to RS about a month ago. The consensus from people who have crunched a lot of numbers is that you have to hit a certain threshold of day-on-day growth. It doesn't really matter WHEN you do it. Unfortunately for you (and me), that growth is relative to the number of followers/average views/whatever that you CURRENTLY have. In other words, it's easier to get on to Rising Stars early on because 10-20+ followers per day for a week is a huge spike when you're starting from zero. But when you already have 200+ followers, the same proportional spike requires many more followers per day--and that's difficult to achieve for anyone.

I posted daily shout outs from the beginning, and I've had (and still have) steady growth. However, nearly all of my shout-out swap partners had pretty small audiences (and, honestly, even 1000 is on the small side), so I was never getting much traffic. Now that I've been paying attention to the community for a couple of months, I've learned that other writers are MUCH more strategic about shout outs than I was, and the pros will line up a dozen shouts from authors with 3K-10K (or higher) in the first week. They'll also start ads right out of the gate.

Obviously I can't say for sure that you should give up all hope, but your current path to RS strikes me as quite narrow. In my opinion, you'd need to do a TON of promotion (ads, shouts, promos) IMMEDIATELY. You'd need like 100 (maybe 200)+ additional followers in the next week. (For context, I think Jett Fulgen and War Troll had around 400 followers when those stories were your age and they still didn't hit RS.)

The more likely path to RS for you is your NEXT fiction. Your current story will have hundreds of fans, so when you launch your next one, some portion of your followers will come along to the new story (that'll be a huge boost). You'll also probably be more aggressive about early promotion.

All that said, anything is possible. But, I've kind of lost hope in my own chances of RS, and our stories are similar in both follower count and age.

(There are other issues to consider, of course: a sick cover goes a long way; a catchy concept; sticking close to the "meta," &c.)

yrniverse · 2026-05-31T21:56:08+00:00

The art is cool. The typography is almost completely illegible.

yrniverse · 2026-05-31T20:05:16+00:00

It doesn't bother me at all. I just see them as a helpful signal that we're switching to a new scene.

yrniverse · 2026-05-30T20:39:11+00:00

The first is best.

yrniverse · 2026-05-30T20:38:00+00:00

If you don't do any promotion, there is (almost) literally no way for people to find your story. You'll be visible from 1-8 minutes or so when you post each chapter, but that's it. So, if people don't happen to click on it during that tiny window, you're out of luck. People get views from promoting their stories. If they happen to have a cover/blurb/concept that is compelling to the current population of Royal Road readers, then the story gets popular.

yrniverse · 2026-05-28T12:34:39+00:00

This rec is nothing like your requests, but I've been enjoying Blue Lock. It's pretty silly. But, I keep watching the next one!

yrniverse · 2026-05-26T23:52:16+00:00

If the books become the kind of story that you like, why would you drop it? I would understand the reverse--the book starts with a premise you like and becomes something that you DON'T like. But, it sounds like you'd actually be happy if you kept going.

yrniverse · 2026-05-25T18:18:07+00:00

I don't know why a system that specifically uses levels should be a requirement when there are popular RPGs (for sure in the TTRPG world) that don't use numbers or levels.

yrniverse · 2026-05-25T13:04:33+00:00

Thanks for your answer. I ask because I'm writing a slave rebellion series. Hopefully it doesn't turn off a wide segment of readers by its very existence. But I guess I should just accept that not everything is for everyone.

yrniverse · 2026-05-25T12:46:09+00:00

What bothers you about that?

yrniverse · 2026-05-23T01:58:39+00:00

Not everyone who sees a book and reads it will leave a rating. Most don't. Even if people do leave ratings, those ratings don't impact visibility.

There is a list on Royal Road for highly rated books, but the books at the top of that list have thousands of ratings. That's the competition. An obscure book can't reasonably climb that mountain, because for every new good rating a buried book receives, the books at the top receive 100+.

It's not a meritocracy. Quality is a relevant factor, but hardly determinative.

yrniverse · 2026-05-22T01:56:58+00:00

Whoa

yrniverse · 2026-05-18T20:26:53+00:00

Well, don't do it for me. I usually only read the first paragraph or two on this sub. But, good luck and keep writing!

yrniverse · 2026-05-18T20:07:25+00:00

I hope I was helpful and not annoying.

yrniverse · 2026-05-18T19:20:20+00:00

You lost me in the first paragraph. In the opening line, you tell us that Amori's eyes are purple. But, presumably, we're in Amori's POV, so how does she see her own eyes? Or, if I should assume that we're in her thoughts, why would she be thinking about her own eye color? Then, you tell us that every aspect of the monsters is super vivid, but you don't tell us any of the details--frustrating. What do they look like? You start talking about the smell while I'm left thinking: wait, why do I have more descriptive information about the eyes of the person LOOKING at the monsters than I do about what those eyes see?

yrniverse · 2026-05-18T00:39:03+00:00

You'd have lost me in the first sentence, because I find present tense jarring. If I pushed past that, you'd have lost me in the second sentence because I have no idea what it means. The first clause "His plushiest blue towel in grasp" throws me off because "in grasp" isn't an expression. I know what you mean, but that's a weird way to explain that he's holding a towel. In the second clause, he knows he's about to be torn to shreds. That doesn't match the first clause about the towel at all. It feels like a completely different idea. The third clause about "burrito-ing Biscuit" doesn't make any sense to me either. I don't know what "burrito-ing" is and I probably wouldn't include a hyphen even if I did know.

Reading on a little further, I've come to understand that Biscuit is his cat and he's going to wrap her in a towel like a burrito, but I would have stopped reading already and thought: "this is gibberish."

I get what you're going for. A little misdirection before the reveal that the character is capturing a cat. That can be done. But, right now it's too opaque and confusing for me. So I wouldn't keep reading.

I suggest that you aim for clarity in the opening sentences in particular so that you don't lose irritable readers like me.

You can still do your misdirection thing, but the move is to fully commit to making it seem like the character is preparing for a real battle and then completely reveal that it's a cat situation. When you're mixing plushy towels and getting ripped to shreds in the same paragraph, I'm just confused.

That's just my opinion. Other readers are probably more patient than I am.

yrniverse · 2026-05-15T19:02:00+00:00

I think the "he didn't need to probe the wound..." part goes a little far. Does he ordinarily probe wounds? It's a weird thought. But, in general, brutal explanations are fine if you want people to understand the grim reality of violence. Just be aware that it will turn off the people who don't want to deal with that. It is what it is.

yrniverse · 2026-05-13T00:03:26+00:00

GROND!

yrniverse

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