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Yeah, don't use Chrome on mobile. They're in control on Android, so they're going to allow things that aren't in your interest, but makes them money. Use Firefox and install an adblocker and/or something like Blokada
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Apr 11, 2023 21:13
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I've been using Brave on iOS, and it's nicely getting rid of 90%+ of ads. Only 'site' ads, like Reddit's posts, slip through
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Apr 13, 2023 21:09
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use vivaldi. it's chrome but not poo poo. in any righteous world chrome would be dying the death of IE6 right now
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Apr 13, 2023 21:17
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Super Supportive continues to be great. It feels like various puzzle pieces of how the main character will get strong are slowly becoming clearer and fitting together.
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Apr 13, 2023 21:48
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open question as to whether the professor was actually trying something shady (as insurance, he's experienced)
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Apr 13, 2023 21:54
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Stexils posted:open question as to whether the professor was actually trying something shady (as insurance, he's experienced) My guess is yes but not in a particularly insidious way. Given his reaction, I think that Alden's "alien sense" is just extremely strict about contracts. The professor ended up being more-or-less okay (if a bit irritated at the effort to make the contract acceptable) with whatever changes needed to be made. I'm a bit confused about the part about renewable 15 minute lessons (I think that's what it was?). Is there some part guaranteeing he can get more than one? It will be neat to gradually get a feel for exactly how Alden's new sense works. I have a feeling that it will be very useful in dealings with Artonans.
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Apr 14, 2023 08:49
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Alan can only fetch one assistant at a time, so the deal is essentially 15 minutes of instruction per rescued assistant. Breaking the contact into one day chunks minimizes the chances that either of them can't fulfill their end of the bargain.
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Apr 14, 2023 12:10
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Patrick Spens posted:Alan can only fetch one assistant at a time, so the deal is essentially 15 minutes of instruction per rescued assistant. Breaking the contact into one day chunks minimizes the chances that either of them can't fulfill their end of the bargain. Ohh, I must have missed the part where he's just making one trip a day, though it makes perfect sense - he obviously couldn't take multiple at once. Edit: Unrelated speculation on Gorgon's whole deal (and now Alden's as well) - I suspect the reason Gorgon could eat that one insect (a fly IIRC?) but not the crickets Alden brought is that the insect had eaten from something of Gorgon's, like the food Alden brought him or something. Either that, or he couldn't eat the crickets because Alden brought them to him and they weren't there of their own volition. The fact that it's not very obvious/clear makes it pretty interesting. I trust the author enough that I think the explanation will end up making sense. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 23:11
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I posted about this in RSF, so I figured I might as well post it here: I'm curious if anyone else has read Hmmph... this junior is a good seed. There are a lot of things that make it a chaotic mess, but I think the quest-master's attempts at trying to herd cats into filling out the setting makes for an interesting approach towards solving the "side characters don't have an internal world" problem, since everybody's the hero of their own substory. I wouldn't really want to see this replicated on the large scale, but it's an interesting one-off case.
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Apr 15, 2023 18:08
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I think quests are naturally driven to making a world that seems full and side characters with realistic motivations, since they have to be written more like characters in an RPG supplement than they are residents of a typical novel. The author has to allow for them to do all sorts of stuff, since they don't know exactly how the story will go. This has always been the strong point of Forge of Destiny for example.
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Apr 15, 2023 18:12
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I just mainlined BTDEM books 1-3, immediately got the audiobook for four and yes. So far so good. Now to ask Selkie for more shout outs.
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Apr 17, 2023 03:57
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nrook posted:I think quests are naturally driven to making a world that seems full and side characters with realistic motivations, since they have to be written more like characters in an RPG supplement than they are residents of a typical novel. The author has to allow for them to do all sorts of stuff, since they don't know exactly how the story will go. This has always been the strong point of Forge of Destiny for example. Yeah, I feel like the problem is that most authors aren't really capable of pulling this off. FoD is great at it, though.
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Apr 17, 2023 05:32
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nrook posted:I think quests are naturally driven to making a world that seems full and side characters with realistic motivations, since they have to be written more like characters in an RPG supplement than they are residents of a typical novel. The author has to allow for them to do all sorts of stuff, since they don't know exactly how the story will go. This has always been the strong point of Forge of Destiny for example. I think it's actually much harder to do this well in a serial or quest format than traditional publishing. In traditional publishing, if you need a character to act in a certain way 2/3rds of the way through the story, you can go back and edit in a few scenes establishing the necessary personality traits or skills. You can tweak presentation so the character remains consistent throughout. In a quest or a serial, side character appearances are weeks if not months apart. If a writer hasn't been keeping good notes, it is very easy to accidentally change even basic things like a characters hair or eye color. Much less more complex elements like personality, goals, and speech style. Shoot, a lot of serials can't even remember how to spell side character's names. I'm reading one story where the author uses three different spellings for the MC's sister's name. Which one will be used in any given chapter seems to be completely random. Even if an author can keep everything straight, they're limited by the need to maintain consistency with what they've already written. They can't go back and change previously chapters meaningfully. Forge's author is uncannily good at fleshing out side-characters.
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Apr 17, 2023 17:08
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They really are! All of the assorted worthies we meet over the course of Ling Qi's travels are people that have gone through as much adventure, personal troubles, and fated meetings as she has. If they hadn't, we wouldn't be meeting them, and they might not even be cultivators at all The metaphysics of the setting does mean that uniqueness is encouraged, though, so that removes the need to justify the "everyone's a Main Character" of it all quote:They hummed, continuing to trace the contours of the bark. “‘I’ is malleable. A sharp blow, a trauma, may remake a man entire. An extended hand might do the same. Or it may not. You may observe a mortal throughout their life, and there will not be a single moment which you can isolate and say: This is the truth.” I'm still thinking of how Cai Renxiang went from being the most wooden character of them all, to maybe my favorite side character in a web serial, period. The slight changes in the way she interacts with Ling Qi since their meeting are simultaneously the subtlest bit of character work in the serial, and maybe the single most hard-fought victory Ling Qi has achieved since she stopped being a gutter rat. Can't believe I'm hooting and hollering when a teen noble deigns to make not one, but TWO slight jests over the course of a single conversation. She even sassed our main character! Once! re: TWI. I'll also note how pirateaba decided we didn't have enough main characters so they introduced (latest Geneva arc spoilers) literal clones. we split up one character into into a half-dozen, basically. To their credit I do think their perspectives could be fascinating! I really think pirateaba could stand to really hone in on one or two character for a couple months. Over the past 20 updates or so the best chapter was also one of the very shortest, and even that one had some questionable detours. did the unicorn fight even mean anything? that could have been a single sentence mentioned in passing. Ramie fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Apr 17, 2023 |
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Apr 17, 2023 17:53
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Dream Weaver posted:I just mainlined BTDEM books 1-3, immediately got the audiobook for four and yes. So far so good. Now to ask Selkie for more shout outs. I have to know what I'm shouting out
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Apr 17, 2023 18:39
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I find the general concept/metaphysics of cultivation in FoD to be very interesting/compelling, maybe moreso than any other superpowers/magic setting I've encountered. Basically the whole concept of power being the result of imposing some crystallization of "who you are"/"a concept you embody" on the world, with the highest levels essentially overwriting reality and the end of that journey being to actually become that concept as part of the fabric of reality. And then exploring what that means for the sort of person who can make that whole journey. It's really interesting stuff.
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Apr 18, 2023 00:41
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That's something that I hate about Forge, because it means that the protagonist and friends will become less human as they ascend the ranks, less capable of any kind of agency, more like a robot stubbornly dedicated to a particular principle. Conceptually that's interesting, but I don't think it makes for a great story unless you just don't have the protagonist rank up very high.
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Apr 18, 2023 00:43
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I really like how that kind of thing is handled in Cradle. The end point has more push and pull than just becoming the concept, but it's similar.
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Apr 18, 2023 00:48
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Wittgen posted:I really like how that kind of thing is handled in Cradle. The end point has more push and pull than just becoming the concept, but it's similar. In Cradle it's much more a "regular" sort of power. There's the icon stuff, but IIRC you can connect with other icons through enough effort and trying to get the right mindset. Who you are just makes it easier to connect with - and exert authority over - certain ones. Lindon has an easier time connecting to the Void Icon because of who he is, but his powers are still "just" powers and he could conceivably develop a connection with other icons. The Void Icon exists as its own separate thing, rather than Lindon himself defining it. So in the Cradle setting there isn't the same "people become aspects of the world/universe" element, with them instead simply gaining power through understanding the world as it exists (plus just normal power acquisition via cultivation). People gain power and understanding, which allows them to exert authority over the world. It's still interesting, but I find the FoD setting more novel. Edit: Added some spoiler tags for Cradle plot stuff
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Apr 18, 2023 01:50
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Yeah, there’s at least one recurring character in Cradle who’s Big Powerful, and they still can relate to and have friends who are way weaker than they are. This is pretty different from Forge. The Forge power system always reminded me more than anything else of the Jenna Moran RPG setting Nobilis.
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Apr 18, 2023 02:01
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Ytlaya posted:I find the general concept/metaphysics of cultivation in FoD to be very interesting/compelling, maybe moreso than any other superpowers/magic setting I've encountered. Basically the whole concept of power being the result of imposing some crystallization of "who you are"/"a concept you embody" on the world, with the highest levels essentially overwriting reality and the end of that journey being to actually become that concept as part of the fabric of reality. And then exploring what that means for the sort of person who can make that whole journey. It's an interesting idea, but the last few years I've been slowly becoming more uncomfortable with these kinds of concepts. The thing I find disturbing about it is that it removes the human element from the story. Cultivators in Forge are no longer wholly human, and so the stories are no longer about people. Their flaws aren't human flaws, but the inevitable result of elevating things that aren't people above people. The Empress isn't a bad ruler because power corrupts/she's lazy. She's a bad ruler because the concept she's embodying is poorly suited for rulership. The Bai aren't a monstrous testament to the disastrous results of unchecked paranoia, they're just snakes. You don't get mad at a snake for biting you - it's what they do. Sun Shao isn't a pathological traitor who ruins everything he touches - he's "the Butcher of the West." Really, is anyone surprised that "the Butcher of the West" has the highest body count in recorded history? It's hard to blame him for getting not only all his kids, but all his grandkids killed in one stupid fight after another if he's the principle of unrestrained war or revenge and not... a person. We can regret the inevitable consequences of letting not-people be in charge, but we can't really be surprised. Threads of Destiny even has the Ice Queen culture point this out by explicitly barring high-level cultivators from political positions. LLSix fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Apr 18, 2023 |
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Apr 18, 2023 02:44
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The fact that its a CYOA/quest doesn't help with things, because people are either trying to game the system that was created for this specific story and have the character focus on being more powerful, or trying to ship characters together. There is very little consistency with the protagonist's actions because of this.
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Apr 18, 2023 03:23
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IShallRiseAgain posted:The fact that its a CYOA/quest doesn't help with things, because people are either trying to game the system that was created for this specific story and have the character focus on being more powerful, or trying to ship characters together. There is very little consistency with the protagonist's actions because of this. Yeah, this is what drove me away from Forge, not anything to do with the power system.
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Apr 18, 2023 03:45
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LLSix posted:It's an interesting idea, but the last few years I've been slowly becoming more uncomfortable with these kinds of concepts. The thing I find disturbing about it is that it removes the human element from the story. Cultivators in Forge are no longer wholly human, and so the stories are no longer about people. Their flaws aren't human flaws, but the inevitable result of elevating things that aren't people above people. The Empress isn't a bad ruler because power corrupts/she's lazy. She's a bad ruler because the concept she's embodying is poorly suited for rulership. The Bai aren't a monstrous testament to the disastrous results of unchecked paranoia, they're just snakes. You don't get mad at a snake for biting you - it's what they do. Sun Shao isn't a pathological traitor who ruins everything he touches - he's "the Butcher of the West." Really, is anyone surprised that "the Butcher of the West" has the highest body count in recorded history? It's hard to blame him for getting not only all his kids, but all his grandkids killed in one stupid fight after another if he's the principle of unrestrained war or revenge and not... a person. We can regret the inevitable consequences of letting not-people be in charge, but we can't really be surprised. It doesn't really remove agency though, because people still need to take the actions that lead to them becoming a powerful cultivator who has focused on whatever concept, and most members of any given faction aren't so incredibly high up that they're incapable of change - that just seems to apply to the tiny minority who are at the very peak of the cultivator world. And the implication that the absolute top-level cultivators are incapable of real change isn't really a good or bad thing - it's just an element of the setting (and one that is at least novel/interesting compared with most other fantasy settings).
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Apr 18, 2023 12:01
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IShallRiseAgain posted:The fact that its a CYOA/quest doesn't help with things, because people are either trying to game the system that was created for this specific story and have the character focus on being more powerful, or trying to ship characters together. There is very little consistency with the protagonist's actions because of this. what I'm hearing is they should have tied power accumulation to shipping, like the spirit blacksmith stuff in Thousand Arms but less anime or more anime
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Apr 18, 2023 16:28
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Cicero posted:That's something that I hate about Forge, because it means that the protagonist and friends will become less human as they ascend the ranks, less capable of any kind of agency, more like a robot stubbornly dedicated to a particular principle. I loved how Practical Guide handled it
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Apr 18, 2023 19:30
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Selkie Myth posted:I loved how Practical Guide handled it Same, though I think it and FoD are just aiming for a very different type of setting/metaphysics. In PracGuide, the source of power is external to the people in question - it is basically granted by the Gods, and the amount of Name power you can use corresponds to how much you conform to your Role (with a lot of the more interesting stuff being the way Roles themselves can be created or changed over time because they stem from culture/perceptions/history). In FoD, power is directly linked to a person becoming more "clearly defined" (and is derived from the person themselves, with "people" and "the world" basically being one and the same). I can understand not liking what this implies about people at the peaks of power, but I still prefer it this way because it's something novel/interesting - there are plenty of other series where people with lots of power are just...people with lots of power. And I don't think that the FoD system is even that limiting, since the decisions you make during your "journey" still influence your "destination." In a way, it actually makes earlier events more meaningful, because that character development creates the basis for who the person will become later.
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Apr 18, 2023 23:43
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LLSix posted:It's an interesting idea, but the last few years I've been slowly becoming more uncomfortable with these kinds of concepts. The thing I find disturbing about it is that it removes the human element from the story. Cultivators in Forge are no longer wholly human, and so the stories are no longer about people. Their flaws aren't human flaws, but the inevitable result of elevating things that aren't people above people. The Empress isn't a bad ruler because power corrupts/she's lazy. She's a bad ruler because the concept she's embodying is poorly suited for rulership. The Bai aren't a monstrous testament to the disastrous results of unchecked paranoia, they're just snakes. You don't get mad at a snake for biting you - it's what they do. Sun Shao isn't a pathological traitor who ruins everything he touches - he's "the Butcher of the West." Really, is anyone surprised that "the Butcher of the West" has the highest body count in recorded history? It's hard to blame him for getting not only all his kids, but all his grandkids killed in one stupid fight after another if he's the principle of unrestrained war or revenge and not... a person. We can regret the inevitable consequences of letting not-people be in charge, but we can't really be surprised. It's really just taking a reality and making it larger than life. People who gain increasingly large amounts of power become increasingly unable to relate to those weaker and less concerned with the strong person's perspective and priorities. That's real, that's a thing that happens everywhere. It's being blown up and emphasized because that's dramatic and because that makes the thing easier to get inside of and examine. (And also because it makes Shenhua's inevitable descent into excessive Revolution once she loses her wife an unavoidable tragedy that has to be accepted rather than something that can be resolved through words alone--but, again, that's still a real thing! Shenhua's thing is not something alien to humanity! It's just being made unambiguous and clear for story purposes! And remember, her wife being able to hold her back just comes down to them loving each other.) And you'll notice that basically all of the story's important characters have some strong tie to caring about the weak. Ling Qi's Communication, Cai Renxiang's ideals, Bai Meizhen's insight about how people hurt people and are hurt in return... It's pretty inevitable that one of the emerging themes here is that you can retain humanity as you gain power so long as you CARE about retaining it, enough to fight for that. The "barbarian" people are an important part of the story because "humanity" is a theme and they're a good vehicle for that theme. Seriously, the more you pay attention to mechanics in that story, the less you're going to understand it. The metaphors are the important bit. If the story had 0 magic, Sun Shao would still be the Butcher, because the magic isn't the point, it's black and white thinking and Sunk Cost Fallacy. The Bai would be vengeful and xenophobic even without a magic snake ancestor. Stop staring at the bark and look at the trees.
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Apr 19, 2023 03:23
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LLSix posted:It's an interesting idea, but the last few years I've been slowly becoming more uncomfortable with these kinds of concepts. The thing I find disturbing about it is that it removes the human element from the story. Cultivators in Forge are no longer wholly human, and so the stories are no longer about people. Their flaws aren't human flaws, but the inevitable result of elevating things that aren't people above people. The Empress isn't a bad ruler because power corrupts/she's lazy. She's a bad ruler because the concept she's embodying is poorly suited for rulership. The Bai aren't a monstrous testament to the disastrous results of unchecked paranoia, they're just snakes. You don't get mad at a snake for biting you - it's what they do. Sun Shao isn't a pathological traitor who ruins everything he touches - he's "the Butcher of the West." Really, is anyone surprised that "the Butcher of the West" has the highest body count in recorded history? It's hard to blame him for getting not only all his kids, but all his grandkids killed in one stupid fight after another if he's the principle of unrestrained war or revenge and not... a person. We can regret the inevitable consequences of letting not-people be in charge, but we can't really be surprised. i feel like threads and virtuous sons are both centered on a quest to attain power without losing your humanity along the way, so that good can come from it rather than evil. virtuous sons is more explicit about it, but then that's not a story that really does things quietly - it's a major theme so it's obviously and heavily tied into the history of the world as understood from an ancient greek perspective, of the current age as a fallen age where men can no longer attain true virtue. threads is quieter about it, but ling qi is a more well-rounded person than most cultivators, and strives to be even more so, and to cultivate that well-roundedness in her friends and associates. that is her special main character sauce that other people don't have, that has gotten her to where she is now, it's just not in the foreground all of the time.
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Apr 19, 2023 04:10
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LLSix posted:It's an interesting idea, but the last few years I've been slowly becoming more uncomfortable with these kinds of concepts. The thing I find disturbing about it is that it removes the human element from the story. Cultivators in Forge are no longer wholly human, and so the stories are no longer about people. Their flaws aren't human flaws, but the inevitable result of elevating things that aren't people above people. The Empress isn't a bad ruler because power corrupts/she's lazy. She's a bad ruler because the concept she's embodying is poorly suited for rulership. The Bai aren't a monstrous testament to the disastrous results of unchecked paranoia, they're just snakes. You don't get mad at a snake for biting you - it's what they do. Sun Shao isn't a pathological traitor who ruins everything he touches - he's "the Butcher of the West." Really, is anyone surprised that "the Butcher of the West" has the highest body count in recorded history? It's hard to blame him for getting not only all his kids, but all his grandkids killed in one stupid fight after another if he's the principle of unrestrained war or revenge and not... a person. We can regret the inevitable consequences of letting not-people be in charge, but we can't really be surprised. I get that but the thing about all these characters is they Chose to be like that. Scary rear end eldritch horror and also grumpy fashion disaster elder Sima Jiao said it before. Be careful what you discard on your way. Everyone is who they want to be because of the choices they made. The ones who get to the very highest levels are the ones who are talented and crazy enough to go through unimaginable trials and still keep going chose to discard stuff to get to that point and kept what they did on purpose. The Butcher chose to become the Butcher. The Empress chose to take her dads work and become She Who Builds Civil Infrastructure and Social Works. I won’t deny they become progressively more inhuman so I can see how that becomes less relatable but the road they took to get there is still utterly human.
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Apr 19, 2023 19:46
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Selkie Myth posted:I have to know what I'm shouting out Finished book four and that last couple of interludes were like... °chefs kiss°. I immediately began Forge of Destiny because of all these recommendations and drat. It makes my Cultivator novel (Sect Leader) look like garbage. I'm definitely taking notes on this one...and probably buying three more Audible credits so I can mainline books 5-7 of BTDEM... And work on my other books. Hopefully my second Cultivator WIP is nearly as good as Forge of Destiny. But really five stars.
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Apr 19, 2023 22:39
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Just finished catching up on Pale Lights and really enjoying it. There's a lot to love, but I got a chuckle out of Angharad going "that's it, the slate's clean", and then Isabel walking away... only to promptly come back and go "well, since the slate's clean, hi, my name's Isabel."
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Apr 19, 2023 23:49
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Jossar posted:Just finished catching up on Pale Lights and really enjoying it. There's a lot to love, but I got a chuckle out of Angharad going "that's it, the slate's clean", and then Isabel walking away... only to promptly come back and go "well, since the slate's clean, hi, my name's Isabel." And then Angharad just being like "sure, makes sense to me." The most recent chapters (maybe just on Patreon, which I think might be a few chapters ahead if the one you describe is the most recent one on the main website) have had some interesting stuff on Tristan's side of things. I like how different the two characters are (and having both their perspectives makes the situations where you see one through the others' PoV interesting).
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Apr 20, 2023 02:25
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It's been a while since I've checked this thread! What's worth reading at the moment? I checked this out this morning and quite enjoyed it, but as far as I can tell it has only my review, no followers and zero comments, so I figured I'd come give it a push. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/66587/writeathon-shades-of-forever It reminds me of 12 Miles Below, but not nearly as tryhard edgy. Is TWI still going? I must be two years behind at this point...
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Apr 20, 2023 10:40
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TWI continues to shovel out words. I can't get enough Bioshifter, and IIRC you already read Katalepsis. Did you ever try A Journey of Black & Red?
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Apr 20, 2023 11:32
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Nettle Soup posted:It's been a while since I've checked this thread! What's worth reading at the moment? New/updated stuff I've tried lately: A Sect Elder's Journey: Reincarnation Xianxia where the reincarnator gets shoved into a sect elder instead of a disciple. It's actually kind of interesting to see a depiction of what the elders are doing behind the scenes to generate those traditional cultivation stories, and also kind of fun how it gave me Amazing Cultivation Simulator flashbacks at times. But there isn't a lot of it so far and it's relatively slow updating. Gets a provisional upvote while I wait for there to be more. Industrial Strength Magic: Kind of jams all the genres in there: Superhero, Fantasy, LitRPG, but does enough worldbuilding that it kind of makes sense. The setting got an influx of magical refugees from another world that got overrun by a Cthulhu-like force, and is now itself under siege by that force and exposure gives some people superpowers. It very much tries to be a lighthearted comedy except when it isn't, which makes the series feel kind of like it wants to have its cake and eat it too. But if that doesn't bother you, it has some fun sequences and a lot of interesting worldbuilding. It updates on a schedule which is a nice sign and the writer actually seems to have a planned plot instead of making things up as they go which I can appreciate. MAZE: The Endless Quest: A series set in a nominally close to our modern world setting, with the exception that there's been a LitRPG style labyrinth accessible through portals for most of human history. Normal people are always level 1 but can choose/be accepted to go explore the "MAZE" (and yes, it's always capitalized in the text but I don't recall if it's ever said why) and gain levels, which appear to still work even back on Earth. There was a lot of stuff about MAZE that normally drives me away from webserials. It makes no real intent to explore what access to a LitRPG system means for society - the Earth is more or less just our Earth with a few minor changes, like a few comments that humans live longer thanks to magical healing. It's also very slow paced and... not exactly slice of life, since there's a real risk of death, but it's very much just the story of the main character going out adventuring and leveling rather than trying to be a story about world shaking events. So honestly there was a lot about that would normally make me lose interest, but I found myself sticking with this one. It was just involved enough that I always found myself stopping to read a few more chapters before putting it back down - I was never riveted, but it felt like a pleasant diversion. And there's a *lot* of it, 5000 pages as RR counts things. The Newt and Demon: This got recommended to me when I asked about stories involving running a business; it's about a survivor of Earth (after the planet is destroyed being integrated into a system) who ends up with a cheat potionmaking ability in his new LitRPG life. This is one of those stories where the isekai element feels awkward. The summary makes it sound like this is a hardened killer who just wants to live a quiet life as an alchemist, but that never really comes up - he was a hardened killer, then he wakes up in a new world as a cheerful and friendly pacifist with no hint of any other personality. It's also very much a "everything falls perfectly into place for the main character to excel" story but there does at least later turn out to be reasons for that beyond just being the main character. It's very much a quiet slice of life story, though it eventually becomes less about alchemy and more running a small town Dwarf Fortress style. The second book adds a bit more complexity and tension, which I thought improved the story, but by the end I didn't feel much desire to keep going. Magical Girl Gunslinger: This story is clearly heavily influenced by Stray Cat Strut, though it adds a LitRPG system with levels, stats, and spells onto SCS's pseudo LitRPG point based equipment purchases. There's also an interesting contrast between Stray Cat Strut being a lighthearted and often comedic story set in a very dark world with Gunslinger being a dark and drama heavy story set in a very bright world. The main character is very trauma heavy, Taylor from Worm style, and despite it being clear the vast majority of characters in this bright world would drop everything to try to help her she tries to hide her issues and pushes back against any attempt to help her. Which is, as I understand it, not unrealistic but it can be very frustrating for the reader. Other than the drama elements it follows a similar mold as Stray Cat Strut, with the main character ending up in the middle of an attack and gaining powers and a friendly alien AI ally, then having to fight to save those she cares about. The story has currently only just finished all the urgent events involved in dealing with the first attack so it's less clear where it will go from there. And it seems to update extremely slowly.
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Apr 20, 2023 15:45
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Super Supportive is very good. It's technically a LitRPG Superhero story, but really it's about colonialism. Aliens have colonized Earth, not to harvest physical resources but instead to get the services of the small minority of humans who will be given superpowers by the magical contract that governs the alien-human relationship.
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Apr 20, 2023 16:12
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Bremen posted:New/updated stuff I've tried lately: I haven't read this one yet, but it's by the author of A Nerubian's Journey and that one is pretty good, despite being a World of Warcraft fanfic. And I've played WoW for a bit more than a decade ago and don't really consider myself a fan or a lore expert.
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Apr 20, 2023 16:19
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Seconding the Super Supportive recommendation. If you liked Katalepsis, Hungry has a new serial: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/59967/necroepilogos
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Apr 20, 2023 17:22
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Megazver posted:I haven't read this one yet, but it's by the author of A Nerubian's Journey and that one is pretty good, despite being a World of Warcraft fanfic. And I've played WoW for a bit more than a decade ago and don't really consider myself a fan or a lore expert. Seconding this one. My knowledge of Warcraft lore was playing WC2 as a kid and mashing past text in WoW years ago but was still able to follow along. The story does a great job of showing the MC adjusting to life as a giant spider person and (vague spoiler) dealing with how his changes save many lives but also bring calamity to others .
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Apr 20, 2023 17:46
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