|
Plorkyeran posted:I've seen people complain about the 500 word minimum to submit a story to RR and I'm just confused
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2023 16:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 20:32 |
|
|
Wittgen posted:It is going to be so satisfying to see him push through those complications. That one teacher who is pissed that Alden is being admitted? In 30 chapters when Alden wins his respect, it is going to be immensely satisfying. Sup sup 77 it's gonna be weird, that's for sure. I mean, he's going to level up at an odd rate (faster because of wizard, slower because of advice from mother to wait as long as he can stand between affixations) , he's not going to show many results from the level up on his sheet because he wants to be boring and because he's not going to be pumping his stats hard compared to his skill, he's going to be spending a bunch of free time practicing wizard skills rather than whatever his courses say, and oh yeah he's gonna spend months at a time crippled from existential pain and unable to use his skills. So I genuinely have no idea how hero school will play out
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2023 20:53
|
|
|
awesmoe posted:Sup sup 77 it's gonna be weird, that's for sure. I mean, he's going to level up at an odd rate (faster because of wizard, slower because of advice from mother to wait as long as he can stand between affixations) , he's not going to show many results from the level up on his sheet because he wants to be boring and because he's not going to be pumping his stats hard compared to his skill, he's going to be spending a bunch of free time practicing wizard skills rather than whatever his courses say, and oh yeah he's gonna spend months at a time crippled from existential pain and unable to use his skills. So I genuinely have no idea how hero school will play out Also (SupSup 77) getting frequently summoned to the triplanets with 48 seconds notice, possibly in the middle of an exam, once his six month vacation is over. I was having a conversation about that on the discord, and people were thinking he'd use his one quarter off for the recovery period, but I was thinking it might be best to do one quarter of only academic classes, no heroing. He can tell people he's using his deferred no summoning time/refusals for that to make sure he doesn't get summoned during finals or whatever, and he'll be getting a two month mental wellness vacation from summonings anyways so it'll kind of be true.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2023 21:01
|
|
|
Bremen posted:Also (SupSup 77) getting frequently summoned to the triplanets with 48 seconds notice, possibly in the middle of an exam, once his six month vacation is over. SupSup 77 I'm sure that since any Avowed could get summoned at any time (though rabbits are more likely than any other and with less than a minute notice) that the school will make accommodations for Alden getting whisked off in the middle of an exam. Alden is probably more so concerned with having to affix mid-semester and being unable to use his skills for his classes. He may want to affix while on Artona I though, since I'm not sure that the Earth Contract will give him the 2-month wellness period, while Mother almost certainly will. Plus she just offers better advice on affixation anyway. Luckily for Alden, he has an excuse to visit Artona I fairly frequently now with the open invitation from Stuart so he doesn't have to rely on a lucky summons to the homeworld.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2023 21:12
|
|
|
awesmoe posted:Sup sup 77 it's gonna be weird, that's for sure. I mean, he's going to level up at an odd rate (faster because of wizard, slower because of advice from mother to wait as long as he can stand between affixations) , he's not going to show many results from the level up on his sheet because he wants to be boring and because he's not going to be pumping his stats hard compared to his skill, he's going to be spending a bunch of free time practicing wizard skills rather than whatever his courses say, and oh yeah he's gonna spend months at a time crippled from existential pain and unable to use his skills. So I genuinely have no idea how hero school will play out Remember that the recovery from this last affixation was the worst it's going to be, since he won't be having affixations quite that big in the future. And IIRC it took two months for him to recover from this? I forget the exact time involved. So I doubt he'd be out of commision for more than a month or so for future ones. Wittgen posted:It is really odd. I myself love power fantasies, and that is exactly why I love this chapter so much. It is setting up a delightful gauntlet of self interested people that are going to complicate life for our hero. It is going to be so satisfying to see him push through those complications. That one teacher who is pissed that Alden is being admitted? In 30 chapters when Alden wins his respect, it is going to be immensely satisfying. The PR teacher and Alden are going to drive each other crazy. The Velras being incidentally scorned over and over is going to be so funny. The other thing is that the teachers (I think it's mostly the principal and Torsten Klein) aren't pissed because they don't like Alden. In fact it's the opposite - they're pissed because they think they're letting Alden make a poor decision because it will benefit their school. If anything, their decision to try and discourage Alden is the most well-intentioned one. They realize that just rejecting him would cause him to get admitted somewhere else, so the only way to prevent him from pursuing this goal is to somehow make him change his mind. Their school stands to solely benefit from admitting him, but it rubs them the wrong way to (from their perspective) let this poor kid waste his time pursuing an unrealistic goal.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2023 22:23
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:Remember that the recovery from this last affixation was the worst it's going to be, since he won't be having affixations quite that big in the future. And IIRC it took two months for him to recover from this? I forget the exact time involved. So I doubt he'd be out of commision for more than a month or so for future ones. It was (SupSup 77) about a month and a half for the recovery, I think. That said, I don't believe it's stated anywhere that future affixations will be easier than this one. If anything, future affixations will be bigger, just a smaller percentage of his total authority. But the impression I got was the recovery time is always about the same. I'm very curious if Torsten will bring up the fact that they can't give skill advice to rabbits in the interview and if he does, if Alden will mention that he doesn't need it. If that happens I could see Torsten's opinion of taking him improving since that seemed to be his major objection; I kind of get the feeling that winning Torsten's approval is going to be part of the current storyline, since he seems to be set up as too important a character to drop after the interview.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2023 23:34
|
|
|
Hey, is anyone else following Calamity Mandate? I've been reading it for a year now and I like it more than a bit, but I have no idea how to write a rec post for it. I just do not know how to sell this one to people.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 00:29
|
|
|
Bremen posted:It was (SupSup 77) about a month and a half for the recovery, I think. That said, I don't believe it's stated anywhere that future affixations will be easier than this one. If anything, future affixations will be bigger, just a smaller percentage of his total authority. But the impression I got was the recovery time is always about the same. I don't think it's a question of approval. I think Torsten and the others respect Alden just fine. But he/they don't see a reasonable path forward for him, and nothing Alden says or does in the near future is likely to change that, at least until it becomes clear that Alden's growth and abilities are abnormal. The point he and others made is that they can't think of any path forward for Alden. It doesn't matter how well Alden can use his Skill, because they believe it will cap at 10 (at best). And once it does, they won't know of any other Rabbit options Alden could pursue to get better at hero work. He'll just be an Avowed with a single decent Skill and *way* fewer foundation points than his peers, with the gap only becoming wider with each year. They even explicitly mention Alden hitting his peak in a few years - in other words, they realize Alden might be able to perform reasonably well early on (and they all agree he did well in the exam and would have no problem admitting him if he were a different Class/Rank). But they can't think of any way he could continue to keep up with the progress required to be a hero. Basically, it's not about Alden himself - it's about his Class and Rank. To change their minds, Alden needs to prove that his situation is completely outside of the norm, and Alden himself doesn't want to do that any time soon. Alden performing well in school wouldn't change their minds, because they've already acknowledged that there's nothing wrong with his personal abilities. IIRC they even explicitly say that the situation would be easier to deal with if Alden didn't perform so well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 01:02
|
|
|
Bog Standard 3-16 Brin just can’t catch a break, can he? I’m a real sucker for stories where the protagonist has to claw their way forward by making choices that may be necessary right now but will absolutely be terrible for them in the long run. I wonder what makes this one an “evil class”? To me, the whole “the class makes you evil” thing seems kind of misplaced, because the only example we have is Witch, which actively incentivizes evil behavior by granting the holder abilities that can really only be used in evil ways and then giving out tons of XP for using them. What about getting hurt a lot and healing quickly is explicitly evil?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 01:41
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I don't think it's a question of approval. I think Torsten and the others respect Alden just fine. But he/they don't see a reasonable path forward for him, and nothing Alden says or does in the near future is likely to change that, at least until it becomes clear that Alden's growth and abilities are abnormal. The point he and others made is that they can't think of any path forward for Alden. It doesn't matter how well Alden can use his Skill, because they believe it will cap at 10 (at best). And once it does, they won't know of any other Rabbit options Alden could pursue to get better at hero work. He'll just be an Avowed with a single decent Skill and *way* fewer foundation points than his peers, with the gap only becoming wider with each year. (SupSup 77) I was talking about approval of him attending the school. And all Alden has to do to deal with those concerns if they actually mention them to him is to say "oh, I already have a skill plan." There are plenty of ways he could have gotten that information, like asking a Griveck, and they already suspect he knew what the luggage skill did so it wouldn't even seem that odd. If they ask, he can even (truthfully) say he can't talk about it because of an oath tattoo. I'm just curious if he'll do that and if so how Torsten's reaction to him will change.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 01:45
|
|
|
blastron posted:Bog Standard 3-16 Brin just can’t catch a break, can he? I’m a real sucker for stories where the protagonist has to claw their way forward by making choices that may be necessary right now but will absolutely be terrible for them in the long run. Bog Standard 3-16 I think he just knows it is an evil class and the sales pitch left out the all the stuff the class will ask you to do for XP, kind of what you'd expect a salesman for an evil class to do.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 03:43
|
|
|
Bremen posted:(SupSup 77) I was talking about approval of him attending the school. And all Alden has to do to deal with those concerns if they actually mention them to him is to say "oh, I already have a skill plan." There are plenty of ways he could have gotten that information, like asking a Griveck, and they already suspect he knew what the luggage skill did so it wouldn't even seem that odd. If they ask, he can even (truthfully) say he can't talk about it because of an oath tattoo. I'm just curious if he'll do that and if so how Torsten's reaction to him will change. I've also considered Alden going the "I have reasons but can't discuss them because of the tattoo" route, but I feel like the instructors don't really have a reason to believe Alden understands what's necessary to become a hero. From their perspective, the idea of a B-Rank Rabbit being a viable hero is just profoundly far-fetched. Griveck Ryeh'bts are all very high-Rank and comprised of the strongest Avowed in their society, so the instructors aren't even wrong when they say "that doesn't apply to a B-Rank human." Also, because of the way the Rabbit class works, the instructors (correctly!) believe that he won't be picking up any significant new Skills, since Rabbits usually focus on a single main Skill and normally wouldn't be able to acquire another of similar Rank for many years. So any additional Skills/spells Alden picked up while in high school and college wouldn't be higher than C-Rank (if that), and they're probably not wrong about no low-Rank Rabbit Skills being suited to heroics. So Alden can say he has a Skill plan, but the instructors have no reason to believe it's anything good enough to make him a viable hero. Alden's future potential pretty much centers entirely on the unique nature of his Skill + absurd rate of growth, and he can't/won't reveal those things. So all I'm saying is that Alden can't really do anything in the near future to prove the instructors wrong, because even if he performs really well it still wouldn't address their concerns (which would all be 100% valid if not for Alden having a Skill + growth rate that is unprecedented to their knowledge). I expect this to be the case until at least after his next affixation (which I still think will be a turning point of sorts, since he probably won't be able to hide his unnatural growth at that point).
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 04:45
|
|
|
blastron posted:Bog Standard 3-16 Brin just can’t catch a break, can he? I’m a real sucker for stories where the protagonist has to claw their way forward by making choices that may be necessary right now but will absolutely be terrible for them in the long run. (Bog Standard 3-16) Definitely also a fan of this chapter's ending. The Illusionist mentions in the chapter that "Evil Classes have a tendency to change your outlook. Perhaps even alter your personality." It's not just that they give you incentives to do bad things, it's that unlike normal classes, they inherently change who you are. Normal Warriors probably don't have Pain Resistance, for example, which the Scarred One says "you'll feel [pain] as information, and as fuel to push you to greater focus and ferocity." The use of "push you" makes it sound like the personality alteration of Scarred One is in that skill. And Scarred One's whole design is encouraging you to constantly be in pain, which means that the personality altering factor of Pain Resistance is constantly in effect. As far as Evil Classes go it seems like a pretty scary one!
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 06:10
|
|
|
quote:I’m a real sucker for stories where the protagonist has to claw their way forward by making choices that may be necessary right now but will absolutely be terrible for them in the long run. I'm reading a trash numbers-go-up one called *ahem* Accidental Champion: A LitRPG Apocalypse Tower Climber which (you may be surprised to hear) is a litrpg apocalypse tower climber which has elements of this. The dude has some initial advantages but stumbles on a lead in a way that makes him feel guilty about it, and then he (justifiably) feels like he has to take every chance at power he can so he can go home and save earth from The Invading Hordes. None of this is new ground, but watching the guy decide between the literal-harvesting-souls class and a diablo-2 style corpse explosion class when he still thinks hes a hero is pretty fun. It's no better written than the hundreds of other litrpgapocalypsetowerclimber-likes, but the author is definitely aware of what they're doing with the 'are we the baddies' vibe and im interested enough in the train wreck to see where they go with it. It is like 95% straight litrpg and 5% character tho - i dont want anyone to accuse me of actually recommending it or anything. its not good. just to be clear.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 07:09
|
|
|
blastron posted:Bog Standard 3-16 Brin just can’t catch a break, can he? I’m a real sucker for stories where the protagonist has to claw their way forward by making choices that may be necessary right now but will absolutely be terrible for them in the long run. Bog Standard 3-16 It could also be that Scarred One tends to be offered to people who have experienced a whole lot of physical and mental trauma and most of them tend to be hosed up even before they get class. But yes, I suspect there might be an element of the system whispering like "hey, if you shove this poker up your rear end, you'll get SO MANY xp points, bruh". It could also deaden you not just to physical pain but also to all sort of emotions, which will for sure change your personality.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 11:18
|
|
|
Is Bog Standard worth catching up on? I figured I'd leave it six months or so for it to get out of childhood village stage.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 11:28
|
|
|
I looked through the thread and collected some recs (no one responded to most of these lol):KOGAHAZAN!! posted:Hey, is anyone else following Calamity Mandate? I've been reading it for a year now and I like it more than a bit, but I have no idea how to write a rec post for it. I just do not know how to sell this one to people. Relevant Tangent posted:Enjoyed In Loki's Honor. Isekaied into a generic fantasy world MC sets about saving it from the rear end in a top hat Gods. awesmoe posted:I'm reading a trash numbers-go-up one called *ahem* Accidental Champion: A LitRPG Apocalypse Tower Climber which (you may be surprised to hear) is a litrpg apocalypse tower climber which has elements of this. Ytlaya posted:I've been really enjoying the new series by the "Outcast from Another World" author ("Skill Thief's Canvas"). I'm up to chapter 12 now, which is the current Patreon chapter (RR is up to 6, which basically concludes the first arc). It started off a little awkward, but the Patreon seems like it's reaching the climax of its second arc, and I think the basic structure of the story is very promising and creates a good framework for having substantive individual arcs that don't fall victim to the sort of story-telling a lot of "progression" stories suffer from. Cynic Jester posted:I read 129 chapters of Return of the Runebound Professor on the train yesterday, which scratched that itch for me. A somewhat crunchy cultivation system that the MC gets to exploit. Nettle Soup posted:Chaotic Craftsman Worships the Cube is kinda neat, in a numbers-go-up way. Group of people get Isekaied into a world which is ending, in the vain hope that they can save it, and the MC gets told he's no good and abandoned. This gives him an inferiority complex and he starts making armour instead. Sax Battler posted:I've been enjoying Dungeon Planet. Onean posted:
John Lee posted:Also big in the last handful of pages: Time to Orbit: Unknown! Fella wakes up out of cryosleep on a busted generation ship, has to keep everything running and survive. I'll put these on my to-read pile. Thanks for the recs. Nettle Soup posted:Is Bog Standard worth catching up on? I figured I'd leave it six months or so for it to get out of childhood village stage. Well, I'm pretty sure the village is about to be burnt down so maybe?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 11:54
|
|
|
I've also been reading Mirror World: Goddess Transformation based off the Rec, and it's a fun light read. Not too amazing, but enjoyable - in the long run the authors lack of worldbuilding chops will let them down but for now it's good a good rate of progression for a power fantasy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 12:43
|
|
|
Bremen posted:The Game at Carousel: A Horror Movie LitRPG does something more innovative with the LitRPG model, and that alone would be enough to catch my interest. Einander posted:Bremen mentioned The Game At Carousel a couple posts back and I've been reading through that one off and on over the last few days. I'm in the mid-60s right now. I have somewhat mixed feelings. I've read through what's available of Carousel at the moment. Given its premise (the protags are going through motions reenacting horror stories in a litrpg environment and while there is risk of death while you're in a scenario, it's much less so than if they were actually in one of these horrible situations) it was never going to be as tense as actual horror stories, but yeah, the story feels somewhat flat. I reckon part of it is the litrpg thing deflating the tension, sure, but the vibe I am getting is that this is simply the author's first (publically) published work and they just don't quite have the chops yet to make an ensemble cast all distinct and compelling and to make things as tense as they could be. They leaned into what they could control at their current skill level - the worldbuilding and setting up mysteries - and are doing the best they can with other aspects of telling stories, trying to work and improve on it as they go along. (And I do think there's a bit of progress when comparing the first chapters to the latest. I thought the underground facility arc was pretty fun, more fun than the slasher movie or the haunted castle.) I am curious enough about the overarching mysteries of the story that I'll keep following it for now.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 13:13
|
|
|
I click all the recs! Dungeon Planet was cool but seems to have been abandoned now that the author has gotten past the initial worldbuilding phase. Time to Orbit Unknown is solid and you should get on that! I read Mirror World: Goddess Transformation when it was extremely new and wasn't impressed tbh. It doesn't do anything new and the main character wasn't interesting or well written to make up for it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 13:19
|
|
|
SupSup77:Ytlaya posted:
This is my objection to Klein's behavior in a nutshell. I guess we just disagree about if it's reasonable. I agree his arguments sound reasonable at first glance, but I don't think it requires special knowledge he can't have to find reasons to think the arguments he advances aren't as solid as they seem initially. For me it comes down to Klein knowing he doesn't know the things he thinks he knows. There aren't even any examples of Rabbits unsuccessfully trying to be heroes he can use to justify his position. He's using a complete absence of knowledge to be very confidently wrong while simultaneously rejecting the evidence of his own senses. To me, his arguments sound a lot like: Women\Rabbits can't fight. Ignore the fact that Russian & Scythian & Sarmatian & etc\Grivek women\rabbits have done so successfully for centuries. LLSix fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Aug 19, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 14:38
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I've also considered Alden going the "I have reasons but can't discuss them because of the tattoo" route, but I feel like the instructors don't really have a reason to believe Alden understands what's necessary to become a hero. From their perspective, the idea of a B-Rank Rabbit being a viable hero is just profoundly far-fetched. Griveck Ryeh'bts are all very high-Rank and comprised of the strongest Avowed in their society, so the instructors aren't even wrong when they say "that doesn't apply to a B-Rank human." Also, because of the way the Rabbit class works, the instructors (correctly!) believe that he won't be picking up any significant new Skills, since Rabbits usually focus on a single main Skill and normally wouldn't be able to acquire another of similar Rank for many years. So any additional Skills/spells Alden picked up while in high school and college wouldn't be higher than C-Rank (if that), and they're probably not wrong about no low-Rank Rabbit Skills being suited to heroics. So Alden can say he has a Skill plan, but the instructors have no reason to believe it's anything good enough to make him a viable hero. Alden's future potential pretty much centers entirely on the unique nature of his Skill + absurd rate of growth, and he can't/won't reveal those things. Well, (SupSup 77) that's not a Rabbit specific issue - no one (normally) gets higher ranking skills until late in their career. The thing is, if the A rank Meister of Bows gets a new D rank skill, they can push him towards getting one that lets him calculate ballistics better, or climb buildings, or whatever, because they've trained meisters of bows before and know what works for them. As Torsten points out, there totally could be D rank rabbit skills that would help Alden be a hero, the school just doesn't know what they are. So Alden saying he already got build advice would help there, because as far as I can tell that was Torsten's sole objection. So Alden actually having advice from someone who would know seems like it would go a long way towards relieving that objection. LLSix posted:SupSup77: I mean, (SupSup 77) Torsten is specifically the only one in the chapter that acknowledges there might be Rabbit skills useful for heroing. He just thinks the school can't help Alden be a better hero. My read on him was exactly the opposite of yours - in your analogy he's the one pointing out that there are women that can fight while everyone else says they can't (he even specifically points out that Griveck rabbits make it work). Bremen fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Aug 19, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 17:00
|
|
|
Bremen posted:Well, (SupSup 77) that's not a Rabbit specific issue - no one (normally) gets higher ranking skills until late in their career. The thing is, if the A rank Meister of Bows gets a new D rank skill, they can push him towards getting one that lets him calculate ballistics better, or climb buildings, or whatever, because they've trained meisters of bows before and know what works for them. As Torsten points out, there totally could be D rank rabbit skills that would help Alden be a hero, the school just doesn't know what they are. So Alden saying he already got build advice would help there, because as far as I can tell that was Torsten's sole objection. So Alden actually having advice from someone who would know seems like it would go a long way towards relieving that objection. Right but if not them, who? Okay, they won't be able to optimally help because they don't have experience doing it. Granted. There's got to be a first for any class, and there are also the Uniques (and a powerful Unique in the room!). It really does come off poorly IMO. This isn't surprising since this is the society that exists primarily to sell juice substitute and mollify the powerful, and rewards and disciplines appropriately. Look at how much of the chapter is pointing out that the real thing that matters is influence, the chapter opens with a discussion about how much heroing is really about branding and sponsorship!
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 17:37
|
|
|
Brain Candy posted:Right but if not them, who? Okay, they won't be able to optimally help because they don't have experience doing it. Granted. There's got to be a first for any class, and there are also the Uniques (and a powerful Unique in the room!). It really does come off poorly IMO. (SupSup 77) Well, it's not unreasonable that a school with a lot of rabbits would know better what rabbit skills might be useful in combat than CNH. They might not have the experience or resources to train Alden in combat specifically, but they would be better at helping him pick skills. Torsten does offer as an alternative that he should go elsewhere until he has found more skills and then apply at the university level to their hero program, when CNH's lack of knowledge of rabbit skills would be less of an issue. Given what he knows that might be honestly the best advice he can give to Alden. Also, accepting Alden means not accepting someone else that they might be able to help more. If they can't maximize Alden's potential but can maximize someone else's, it's simple math that it would be better to take a comparable candidate of a different class if there is one instead of Alden. Bremen fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Aug 19, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 17:56
|
|
|
Bremen posted:(SupSup 77) Well, it's not unreasonable that a school with a lot of rabbits would know better what rabbit skills might be useful in combat than CNH. They might not have the experience or resources to train Alden in combat specifically, but they would be better at helping him pick skills. Torsten does offer as an alternative that he should go elsewhere until he has found more skills and then apply at the university level to their hero program, which given what he knows might be honestly the best advice he can give to Alden. The point about Scythians is to note that Rabbits being non-combat is cultural, as already highlighted by the griveks. It was never that women couldn't fight, it was that they weren't culturally coded as fighters in certain societies. The analogy is pretty direct, Rabbits are domestic and therefore clearly (  ) unsuited for dangerous duties. Just  .Of course there will never be a known human combat Rabbit if every human with the inclination is shooed away from any support for exploring it! Society has an alternative role for them!
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 18:18
|
|
|
Brain Candy posted:
My point is Torsten (and to a degree Arjun) are the ones in the chapter that push back against that idea. It's the other characters that espouse Rabbits are the non-combat classes so they can't be a hero, Torsten outright disagrees saying he thinks it's quite possible Rabbits can fight just fine, even as the others disagree with him. I'm not saying that no one claims that, I'm saying I respect Torsten because he's the one that doesn't, even if he has other reasons he doesn't think Alden is suitable for CNH.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 18:23
|
|
|
Nettle Soup posted:Is Bog Standard worth catching up on? I figured I'd leave it six months or so for it to get out of childhood village stage. No. He is still in the village. He did just get his adult class. The entire arc has wavered between boring and stupid. The last few chapters have been so arbitrary and involved so much stupid on everyone’s part that they’ve thoroughly convinced me it won’t ever pull up and be enjoyable. The classing up process borrows heavily from BtDEM, but is executed not nearly as well. Pretty much all the changes make for a worse story. LLSix fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Aug 19, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 18:34
|
|
|
SupSup 77 Yeah, ironically, I think the two characters who outright vote against Alden here are the ones most unambiguously on his side. They either think there's nothing the school can offer him (Torsten) or think that Alden is trying to become Hannah in his grief over her death and trauma of the last half-year (Arjun). Everyone else sees what they think is a doomed rabbit and says "let him in, we can milk him dry (principal and Colibrí)" or were probably ordered to get him in because of the desire of a matriarch (Skiff)"
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 18:39
|
|
|
Nitrousoxide posted:SupSup 77 Agreed for the most part, but (SupSup 77) I read the principal differently. I think she acknowledges the orders from above and that she can't straight up refuse, but is trying to undermine them. Like, they hired a worse psychologist to make sure he wouldn't get denied on mental health grounds, so she has a better one watch him during the testing. She knows if CNH turns him down he'll just get accepted to another less principled hero school, so she doesn't turn him down, but she does everything she can to try to encourage him to withdraw - arranging for him to be in the combat tests instead of the individual power assessment, making sure Arjun is one of the alumni so he'd get a personalized evaluation from a hero he respects trying to discourage him from attending until he's in better mental shape, and so on. I think the principal is one of the ones trying the most to help Alden in this chapter, she's just being subtle about it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 18:55
|
|
|
If you're behind on Bog Standard, I would probably wait a week or 2 unless you want to get caught up to cliffhangers. That being said, I just read the last couple chapters and really enjoyed them. Sure the story isn't perfect but the frustrating events conclude in the only manner that makes sense and not "she was evil the whole time!" I don't remember much of btdem but thought the class selection was well done. Illusionist and especially Glassmaker sounded cool and the banter was much more fun than a big ol stat block. It all being in real time made the inevitable evil class pick make sense in the context that Tawna orchestrated the events to save the village.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 19:36
|
|
|
LLSix posted:No. He is still in the village. He did just get his adult class. The entire arc has wavered between boring and stupid. The last few chapters have been so arbitrary and involved so much stupid on everyone’s part that they’ve thoroughly convinced me it won’t ever pull up and be enjoyable. It's pretty funny how many people are tilting at BSI after the last two chapters. The comments are filled with raging nerds. Litrpg readers are as thin-skinned about things not going the MC's way and being even mildly disempowered, as romance readers are about the stories not going through a precise set of romance beats and not ending in Happily Ever After.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 19:53
|
|
|
My worry about Bog Standard is that I might be reading it as more clever than it actually is. My take on evil classes is that they give you incentives to act in ways that other people find evil, which would be a great storytelling vehicle, but what if it literally just is that they alter your psychology to make you evil? Is Tawna trying to get Brin killed a reasonable course of action based on information we don't have, or has she just decided that the only way to deal with him clouding her prognostications is murder?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 20:28
|
|
|
I just worry that Bog Standard is trying too hard to be edgy, or maybe even worse one of those webserials where the author didn't start with a long term plan and had to start throwing stuff at the wall when it became wildly successful. I'm not going to like review bomb it or anything but I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone at the current time.
Bremen fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Aug 19, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 20:31
|
|
|
Bremen posted:I just worry that Bog Standard is trying too hard to be edgy, or maybe even worse one of those webserials where the author didn't start with a plan and had to start throwing stuff at the wall when it became wildly successful. I'm not going to like review bomb it or anything but I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone at the current time. I'm paying for the Patreon at the moment and I'd say you don't have to worry about either of those right now.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 20:43
|
|
|
blastron posted:My worry about Bog Standard is that I might be reading it as more clever than it actually is. My take on evil classes is that they give you incentives to act in ways that other people find evil, which would be a great storytelling vehicle, but what if it literally just is that they alter your psychology to make you evil? Is Tawna trying to get Brin killed a reasonable course of action based on information we don't have, or has she just decided that the only way to deal with him clouding her prognostications is murder? So far the story has at various points claimed all of the above are true. A level of clarity that only the best writing can achieve.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 20:47
|
|
|
SS 77 once again Part of the dilemma is that the goal of the school is to turn Alden into a capital letters Hero, and the objections raised are mostly along the lines of being unable to make Alden one. But Alden isn't actually there to be a Hero, as he said to his councillor he's there for two other things, which Hero school is just the best place for.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 20:53
|
|
|
First chapter of the last book of Ar'Kendrythist just released on Patreon. Welp. Hopefully being a true wizard is as overpowered as possible because Erick sure is in a rough spot.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 21:35
|
|
|
Wittgen posted:First chapter of the last book of Ar'Kendrythist just released on Patreon. Welp. Hopefully being a true wizard is as overpowered as possible because Erick sure is in a rough spot. (Ar'Kendrythist Patreon)And so many Ericks apparently ended up there even after dodging all of the OTHER pitfalls in the way. Really underlines the last book's point that he's been walking a very narrow line between survival and disaster for a very long time. Half-expecting this to be a recurring element where the number just keeps getting bigger and bigger, up until they reach a final confrontation and it's dropped for just "Erick." I love that kind of thing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2023 00:05
|
|
|
New chapter on Patreon. SupSup 78: I really like the relationship between Kon and Alden so far. Kind of an opposites complementing each other kind of thing. Alden knows so much more than Kon about magic, but Kon knows so much more about Avowed life. It's nice to see that even in a brief conversation, they both learn quite a lot from each other.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2023 18:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 20:32 |
|
|
SupSup 78 That interview at the end must have been really baffling to the teachers. As they keep lobbing softballs at Alden over and over again and he gets more and more despondent only to have him get a big goofy grin on his face as Instructor Klein starts tearing into him.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2023 19:06
|
|