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Even in Delve the numbers don't matter.
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Apr 29, 2023 13:44
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Enkor posted:Even in Delve the numbers don't matter. What do you mean? These are hard numbers, i bet they are even in a spreadsheet somewhere lol
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Apr 29, 2023 15:29
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Enkor posted:Even in Delve the numbers don't matter. Selkie Myth posted:The “numbers don’t mean anything” annoys me so much. I think there are two completely different conversations here. When it comes to the story as a whole, the numbers can matter a lot if the author uses them well: Delve and BtDEM both have well constructed and thought out systems integrated into the story and the numbers mean specific things to different characters while having social/political ramifications that change how the readers/characters view things as the story progresses and more about the world is revealed. But when it comes to how an individual fight scene plays out for the reader, the numbers don't matter any more in Delve than they do in The Wandering Inn. Super Supportive could easily turn out that the whole rank system is has nothing to do with actual power but is solely designed to deny the client races truly powerful skills and useful knowledge by obfuscating them as much as possible and instead create useful demon fodder. Then the numbers would not matter in a far more meaningful way than if the author were making dice rolls for every scene as they write it.
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Apr 29, 2023 15:45
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I ain't reading no numbers, and I don't care how much maths anyone has done.
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Apr 29, 2023 16:36
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the only story i've ever read where i sincerely believe the numbers matter is Blake Island, and those numbers aren't exposed to a casual reader at all - you could easily read the whole story without realizing that it's a tabletop rpg CYOA. most stories are simply using them to evoke an aesthetic or avoid needing to worldbuild about why everyone has superpowers, or to actively dive into worldbuilding about why everyone has superpowers. which is fine, but it's a different thing from making the numbers matter in terms of shaping the narrative
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Apr 29, 2023 17:41
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BadMedic posted:If the author is good, then reading a stat block is just reinforcing the events that happened and everything stays consistent. I think this has been my experience as well with one major exception, I don't ignore stat blocks. I'm a math guy. My master's thesis was a really ridiculous way to calculate square roots. I say this to explain that when I say I like numbers, I mean I really like numbers. I enjoy reading the numbers in a story and verifying they check out with the narrative. A large part of what I enjoy about The Martian, which is in no way a LitRPG, is the detailed math and analysis. The best LitRPGs (hi Selkie) do the same thing but with fantasy systems. There was a short-lived story titled "The Magic of Logistics" which I really enjoyed and still have on follow just in case it comes back to life after 3 years. What I'm trying to say here is that I read every single stat block that's posted. If someone spends an entire chapter on what the characters are packing, I am absolutely there for it.
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Apr 29, 2023 18:23
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I mean it's one thing to be essentially doing fantasy physics with magic. It's another to be spewing big ol' stat blocks every chapter or two.
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Apr 29, 2023 19:01
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LLSix posted:if someone spends an entire chapter on what the characters are packing, I am absolutely there for it. It's nice to know that you'll one day read and enjoy the warm up exercise pokemon fanfic I wrote last year, where the main character was obsessed with travelling ultralight and kept describing her gear in detail. I have to really pull myself back from describing stuff in things I'm writing, nobody wants to know what's in the rucksack in that great a detail. I have tried to start a litrpg like three times now and I just can't bring myself to do it.
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Apr 29, 2023 19:11
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Bhodi posted:Could you not let them ad lib? Maybe just the name of the skill or find some other way of presenting the info? This has got to alienate audiences, I wonder how many people just stopped and turned it off and didn’t go back. I'm fine with it but everyone in the audio world acts like I killed their firstborn when I suggest it.
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Apr 29, 2023 22:52
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Have them start reading the skills and dings and numbers and slowly drown out the voice with a louder and louder eeeeeEEEEEEEE ears-ringing noise as it keeps going, until all of a sudden it snaps back into the story as if nothing happened
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Apr 29, 2023 23:05
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A big flaming stink posted:unrelated to this comment, but i have just realized that the author of this serial is literally the former punter of the Minnesota Vikings Chris Kluwe WHAT 
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Apr 30, 2023 00:35
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Man's got to make a living.
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Apr 30, 2023 00:58
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Well, I have finished Book 9 in TWI. Boy the goblins just cannot catch a break huh? I'd figured that they'd get let into Liscor after defending it from the Goblin Lord and the humans. But they really cut them down rather than let the "lesser species" in their walls even after saving the entire city huh? I thought they'd get to settle outside the city or something in the end, but nope, just forever getting hosed. Ryoka really was the cause of this too in the end. Being the one who gave the knowledge of how to make trebuchets. I swear that girl is somehow behind half of the disasters in this story. Erin almost became a [General] too huh? Probably for the best that she declined that class if she wants to keep running an inn. She did become something of a goblin chieftain for the back half of the book, though without the proper class. Other goblins can apparently sense now like she's a [Chieftan] or [Lord] but differently. She also seems to be able to sense Goblins too. Overall I really liked this book. I guess that's it for proper releases for a while. I'll probably go back to Forge of Destiny and catch up on that before possibly returning to TWI. I checked the WN, and I'm only 28%(!) of the way through the current text of TWI despite 9 books released. I can't believe I'm not even a third through this. How much more is there to write about???
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Apr 30, 2023 01:29
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Nitrousoxide posted:I checked the WN, and I'm only 28%(!) of the way through the current text of TWI despite 9 books released. I can't believe I'm not even a third through this. How much more is there to write about??? Each volume keeps getting progressively longer lol. You're in for a wild ride.
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Apr 30, 2023 01:39
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Nettle Soup posted:It's nice to know that you'll one day read and enjoy the warm up exercise pokemon fanfic I wrote last year, where the main character was obsessed with travelling ultralight and kept describing her gear in detail. I really want to know what is in the bag. Unfortunately pokemon holds no interest for me, I think maybe I was just a year or two too old for it when it came out.
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Apr 30, 2023 03:09
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I know people get tired of comments about TWI chapter length but good loving lord a 56k word chapter. At least pirate has finally accepted they can't keep writing a novelette twice a week while ALSO trying to write a full novel at the same time, so they're taking May off. Probably going to end up making Gravesong vol 2 four times as long because of it.
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Apr 30, 2023 08:28
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Infinity Gaia posted:I know people get tired of comments about TWI chapter length but good loving lord a 56k word chapter. At least pirate has finally accepted they can't keep writing a novelette twice a week while ALSO trying to write a full novel at the same time, so they're taking May off. Probably going to end up making Gravesong vol 2 four times as long because of it. IT IS NOT A BREAK IF YOU ARE WRITING A DIFFERENT NOVEL
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Apr 30, 2023 09:10
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LLSix posted:I really want to know what is in the bag. Unfortunately pokemon holds no interest for me, I think maybe I was just a year or two too old for it when it came out. That's fair, I doubt that one'll ever see the light of day as it really just was an easy way to warm up, but it is a consistant problem for me. Always mentally packing the perfect bag.
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Apr 30, 2023 09:13
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I think the whole fiddly gear porn bag-packing stuff may be a hot new genre with a bunch of devoted fans who don't yet know they need it. I'd read pokémon ultralight bag packing. Just post the inventory in a blue box at the end of the chapter. Make sure to break it down by pocket or pouch or compartment.
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Apr 30, 2023 09:19
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90s Cringe Rock posted:IT IS NOT A BREAK IF YOU ARE WRITING A DIFFERENT NOVEL Also not sure they can say they took a two week break if they release a chapter that’s a week’s worth of work for them…
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Apr 30, 2023 09:58
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90s Cringe Rock posted:I think the whole fiddly gear porn bag-packing stuff may be a hot new genre with a bunch of devoted fans who don't yet know they need it.
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Apr 30, 2023 10:03
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That was a pretty fun chapter in A Nerubian's Journey.
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Apr 30, 2023 11:45
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Megazver posted:That was a pretty fun chapter in A Nerubian's Journey. Next chapter seems like it'll be fun too.
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Apr 30, 2023 12:04
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Something I realized while reading the latest Katalepsis patreon chapter: I mentioned previously that I liked how Heather's descriptions of supernatural life shifted from 'horror' language to 'biology' language, as her opinion of the supernatural changed. Related to that, I had also noticed how she talked about the house in 'horror' language as well, but in an affectionate way. I always assumed that was just an affection, sort of a way of saying "yes it's a creepy old house but it's our creepy old house". As heather herself said, she has a tendency to anthropomorphize things. But no, the house is a House, straight up haunted. And not in the classic european way either, where it's a being inhabiting a space, but in the japanese style where the being is the space. A totally alien existence cause it's not a Person, it's a House. I just find that super cool. ...that also makes me wonder how others view their House, cause I assume that 'horror' language would be used in a much more traditional way.
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Apr 30, 2023 15:28
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This is my recommendation for today, another Writathon effort: Unfathomably Cute, it's an eldritch cthulhu-inspired superhero horror fic about a girl who gains superpowers- contracting with an elder god- under lovely circumstances. Those superpowers, so far, seem to be mostly tentacles. It's by somebody who has never read Katalepsis, but should. It's pretty good!
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Apr 30, 2023 18:30
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.Z. posted:Also not sure they can say they took a two week break if they release a chapter that’s a week’s worth of work for them… And pirateaba wrote a separate page of massive apologies just because she wanted to take a month to write another book. She needs to take actual time off or TWI is going to literally kill her.
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Apr 30, 2023 21:52
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Nitrousoxide posted:I checked the WN, and I'm only 28%(!) of the way through the current text of TWI despite 9 books released. I can't believe I'm not even a third through this. How much more is there to write about??? Also, lmao
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Apr 30, 2023 21:53
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cyrn posted:Super Supportive could easily turn out that the whole rank system is has nothing to do with actual power but is solely designed to deny the client races truly powerful skills and useful knowledge by obfuscating them as much as possible and instead create useful demon fodder. I don't think something like this will end up being the case (or at least I hope something like that isn't the case, because "they secretly are trying to sacrifice client races to demons!" would be a lame twist). I think it's more just the case that they passively deny knowledge just because they wouldn't gain from making it available (and not even very strictly, since the System will be aware of Joe teaching Alden deeper stuff and won't care). There's probably nothing "sinister" in that sort of way going on. It's probably more like modern real-life imperialism where the nation (or race/planets in this case) just enters into exploitative agreements with a (sometimes) implicit threat of force behind it. And many/most Artonans probably view this arrangement as good for the client races, similar to real-life opinions on corporations using cheap labor in poorer countries. Except it's probably even more subtle/abstract in the case of the Artonans, since there seems to be some metaphysical limit on directly screwing people over.
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May 1, 2023 01:00
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Super Supportive: Alden is really having it hammered in that Avowed are possessions. Manon's skill is terrifying in an HR environment.
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May 1, 2023 03:37
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Ytlaya posted:I don't think something like this will end up being the case (or at least I hope something like that isn't the case, because "they secretly are trying to sacrifice client races to demons!" would be a lame twist). I think it's more just the case that they passively deny knowledge just because they wouldn't gain from making it available (and not even very strictly, since the System will be aware of Joe teaching Alden deeper stuff and won't care). I think that "demon fodder" was less "they are sacrificing them to demons" and more "they are summoning the humans to do difficult or menial tasks"
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May 1, 2023 04:56
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I'm also betting that true demons and chaos are a direct result of Artonans not having balanced contracts
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May 1, 2023 05:33
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Nettle Soup posted:This is my recommendation for today, another Writathon effort: read a bit of this and it seems cool thanks silo you little poo poo
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May 1, 2023 08:07
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Kyoujin posted:Super Supportive: Alden is really having it hammered in that Avowed are possessions. Manon's skill is terrifying in an HR environment. Yeah, but I think there's a catch to that skill So far a major theme of skills is that they work off of perception, so I think her "Tailor Environment" skill only really works on you if you view her as your 'superior' in some sort of way. Of course, that's exactly the environment she's been building up here...
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May 1, 2023 09:19
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Ytlaya posted:I don't think something like this will end up being the case (or at least I hope something like that isn't the case, because "they secretly are trying to sacrifice client races to demons!" would be a lame twist). I think it's more just the case that they passively deny knowledge just because they wouldn't gain from making it available (and not even very strictly, since the System will be aware of Joe teaching Alden deeper stuff and won't care). To clarify, I did not mean fodder literally, and completely agree this is about karmically limited imperialism/colonialism. I meant demon fodder in the sense of cannon fodder: we may discover that the system is tilted as much as is karmically possible to get people to choose things that are useful at filling the dangerous front lines of the demon war while obfuscating truly valuable magic in way that technically balances out. The Artonans are giving off vibes along the lines of 'we gave them a manual for magical plumbing and they are using it as toilet paper, how hilarious' when the superhero/villain stuff comes up and this would be a natural fit with the imperialist/colonialist themes the author is exploring.
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May 1, 2023 15:16
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BadMedic posted:Yeah, but I think there's a catch to that skill I took it to be "Owner" is ambiguous and not limited to herself. She could be hired to use it on any employer/manager/supervisor to brainwash their workers. We'll see how the details shake out.
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May 1, 2023 18:45
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Kyoujin posted:I took it to be "Owner" is ambiguous and not limited to herself. She could be hired to use it on any employer/manager/supervisor to brainwash their workers. That's a good point and I agree, but I still think that perception/consent still matters to some degree, just like it seems to with a lot of skills
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May 1, 2023 19:24
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BadMedic posted:That's a good point and I agree, but I still think that perception/consent still matters to some degree, just like it seems to with a lot of skills For sure and bet it relates to all the gifts and things she does for the boaters to buy their loyalty
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May 2, 2023 01:44
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Selkie Myth posted:I'm fine with it but everyone in the audio world acts like I killed their firstborn when I suggest it.
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May 2, 2023 19:27
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Selkie Myth posted:I'm fine with it but everyone in the audio world acts like I killed their firstborn when I suggest it. Asking a voice actor to ad-lib is usually not particularly well-received, since their job is to read the words off the page, not to write them. If you want to replace blue boxes with a description, you should write that yourself.
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May 2, 2023 20:42
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Initial impressions of A Nerubian's Journey, after seeing it mentioned positively several times here: Prose and characters are functional, but plain and unexciting. You could make the story of someone reincarnated into a commune of spider monsters wrapped up in their own stagnant politics WAY more interesting, and none of the three starting characters have anything to make them interesting other than their basic function as plot devices. This story is also relying a little too heavily on the reader knowing Warcraft lore. I find myself googling stuff semi-frequently to make sense of what the author is talking about. With those negatives aside, there are interesting ideas here even if they weren't presented in an engaging way. When I got to chapter 8, I really liked the first-contact story that they are starting up. I am invested in seeing whether the spider people and the walrus people can find common ground. I suspect that the speed at which the author zipped through our boring protagonist's childhood and training means that they were a lot more interested in the story starting here, and I'm hoping it goes cool places!
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May 3, 2023 02:24
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