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Well I’m hype for more Mother of Learning
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Sep 3, 2018 08:51
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Omi no Kami posted:Mother of learning: Huh, didn't see that coming. If everything we heard wasn't a horrible lie, that's actually a decent way of wrapping up red robe's thing.
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Sep 3, 2018 09:33
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Cicero posted:Wrapping it up? It's left ambiguous whether RR is actually dead or had to resort to the contract. Oh, I guess that sentence is ambiguous- I'd initially read it to mean that he'd tried his escape hack and gotten gibbed, but he could've taken the deal instead. I'm not sure it's likely though- if the primordial was open to having more than one agent outside the simulation, wouldn't it have kept talking after Silverlake's sudden yet inevitable betrayal?
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Sep 3, 2018 10:05
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oof. Mother of learning spoilers Even though I saw it coming the double-cross still managed to catch me a bit off guard. That Silverlake would betray them is just so blindingly obvious that it would be harder not to expect it - she's only a hair above that lich in terms of moral alignment. Still, it might not actually be that big of a deal? Silverlake is on her last month. Presumably, the primordial wants her to free it by destroying the prison somehow or something? But that's probably not something she can manage on her own right? Zorian was predicting pretty low odds of escape even factoring in the help of the entire squad - but Silverlake will be on her own and I doubt that destroying the prison will be any easier than escaping from it. And at the end of the day, Zorian and crew only have to tie her up for a month before she gets wiped regardless. It is a hell of a wrench in the works though, for sure. Also this chapter it's revealed that a large part of the cast including Zorian are seriously considering physically escaping the time-loop to live as doppelgangers in the real world? That blew my mind more than the Silverlake stuff. I guess it's feasible since they're all master magi who could change their identities with relative ease, but geez. I really wasn't expecting that. I always assumed they would just "possess" their own bodies - which(I thought) was Zorian's stated plan. I noticed that the story has been playing it up as a big moral conundrum (that I don't really see if I'm being honest) - and now it seems they ultimately don't want to do that anymore apparently? Personally, I think a bunch of weird doppelgangers running around is worse in just about every way than just quietly displacing their old souls with the new-and-improved versions.
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Sep 4, 2018 12:02
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sunken fleet posted:oof. quote:Also this chapter it's revealed that a large part of the cast including Zorian are seriously considering physically escaping the time-loop to live as doppelgangers in the real world? That blew my mind more than the Silverlake stuff. I guess it's feasible since they're all master magi who could change their identities with relative ease, but geez. I really wasn't expecting that. I always assumed they would just "possess" their own bodies - which(I thought) was Zorian's stated plan. I noticed that the story has been playing it up as a big moral conundrum (that I don't really see if I'm being honest) - and now it seems they ultimately don't want to do that anymore apparently? Personally, I think a bunch of weird doppelgangers running around is worse in just about every way than just quietly displacing their old souls with the new-and-improved versions.
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Sep 4, 2018 12:51
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I want loving time to read mother of learning now! Goddamn it. The spoilers are killing me.
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Sep 4, 2018 13:11
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Affi posted:I want loving time to read mother of learning now! Goddamn it. The spoilers are killing me. Do you want to get stuck in a time loop? Because phrasing things this way is how you get stuck in a time loop.
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Sep 4, 2018 15:03
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MoL: I have to be honest, if I was Zorian 1.0 I'd much rather be absorbed into a vastly superior version of myself than have that version suddenly appear and relegate me to being the poo poo Zorian for the rest of my life.
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Sep 4, 2018 15:13
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So, I finally got around to finishing my upgrade of a friend's site after the original WordPress site got eaten by malware. If you haven't read Hitherby Dragons, by Jenna Moran, author of RPGs Nobilis and Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, now's your opportunity to do so on a site with faster loading times and some neat little features that were included by people savvier than me. If you don't want to wade through the very beginning and want me to recommend an awesome bit of it so you can have an idea if you like it, I'm going to recommend The Summoning of the King.
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Sep 4, 2018 18:48
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Autonomous Monster posted:MoL: I have to be honest, if I was Zorian 1.0 I'd much rather be absorbed into a vastly superior version of myself than have that version suddenly appear and relegate me to being the poo poo Zorian for the rest of my life. Well, it's more like it'd just effectively kill you when his mind replaced yours. You also might be able to coerce the other Zorian into teaching you all his things; I imagine that, with his own help, he could probably reach our Zorian's level in half the time.
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Sep 4, 2018 18:49
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Rand Brittain posted:So, I finally got around to finishing my upgrade of a friend's site after the original WordPress site got eaten by malware. If you haven't read Hitherby Dragons, by Jenna Moran, author of RPGs Nobilis and Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, now's your opportunity to do so on a site with faster loading times and some neat little features that were included by people savvier than me. This is really weird but also awesome. I also vaguely recall writing a very similar reply to a very similar post of yours. Either way, I've always been bit too dumb for the main meta-narrative, but I do enjoy the little side-stories and if anyone reading wants to check something out, I'd suggest trying The Legend of Perfectly Defensive Samurai or Ragnarok or The Land Where Suffering Is Remembered.
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Sep 4, 2018 19:11
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I kinda wish it weren't totally inevitable that Diabolist is playing a long game of manipulation, because in theory it isn't totally inconceivable that someone raised in her circumstances could change as a result of spending months with a group like the Woe (since it'd be her first time with any sort of peers that wasn't just a nonstop political game). But I just don't see her ever losing the ambition to still try and rise to the top, since in her mind backstabbing Catherine wouldn't even be a mean or disrespectful thing to do.
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Sep 4, 2018 20:42
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Wandering Inn Patreon chapter 5.18 So Zel and Sserys were gay? That's a pretty interesting twist that I totally didn't pick up on, but it makes a certain amount of sense considering the level of intimacy with which Zel recalled Sserys. Not a great look on the 'Bury your gays' trope, that doesn't really offend me too much personally. I kind of want to look back and see how some of Zel's interactions or internal monologues are colored by this reveal, especially the ones regarding Sserys.
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Sep 4, 2018 22:04
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Speaking of wandering inn, did Ceria's early character arc feel a little weird to anyone else? (spoilers for first five arcs) Like, it seemed at the very beginning that she was being set up to be romantically interested in Ryoka- maybe I was reading romantic tension where none existed, but it felt so heavy-handed that I found myself hoping things didn't go that way because it was so obvious. Then after Ryoka does her weird sociopath fight club thing out of nowhere her and Ceria's friendship almost completely disappears (which makes sense, since she doesn't see Ryoka very much compared to Erin, who is a cool isekai protagonist who also is not a sociopath), then she and the horns just kind of fade out of the narrative and become generic extra hands whenever a battle scene needs to happen.
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Sep 5, 2018 00:16
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Silynt posted:Wandering Inn Patreon chapter 5.18 Yeah I feel like this has been slowly set up for a while with lots of little details that make sense in the broader background context of it, like Drake society being extremely socially rigid and lovely in a lot of ways. Of all the other races' societies we've been exposed to in the setting the Drakes are easily the worst in that regard.
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Sep 5, 2018 08:42
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quote:“No, see, you’ll profit as well. All you need is to convince five others of contributing coin and when they do you’ll get a part of their own contribution. It’ll all work out, I promise.” 
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Sep 5, 2018 23:31
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TWI: 3.00E and 3.01E are oddly sweet. I'd have much less of a problem with the whole "uplift the savages" theme of the story, if it were more of a love story between a blind man and a half ogre.
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Sep 6, 2018 02:02
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tithin posted:TWI: 3.00E and 3.01E are oddly sweet. I'd have much less of a problem with the whole "uplift the savages" theme of the story, if it were more of a love story between a blind man and a half ogre. That has been by far my biggest criticism of the story as a whole. It feels meandering at times, and there's stuff I wish had been paced/edited differently, but for the most part it's fun... but every single time Erin mistakes "different" for "inferior" and tries to make Liscor more like North America I start skimming. (I can't remember where this happened, so assume spoilers through TWI arc 3) The bit where she introduced abrahamic religion to the borg is probably the most frustrated I've ever been with a character in that story; I know she's portrayed as impulsive and shortsighted sometimes, but it baffles me that she couldn't see any potential downside to teaching a downtrodden feudal society about religion.
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Sep 6, 2018 03:59
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The further TWI moves away from Erin (EXCEPT FLOS), the better. The Selys trilogy that just ran (part 3 already out on Patreon and you'll all see it on Saturday) was interesting, had some fun moments, and left a cool loose end that they can come back to later.
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Sep 6, 2018 04:29
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Do the Flos sections actually have anything that contributes to the story? I genuinely couldn't get through them- I think I read one or two, but it just came off like a gigantic moron stomping around and having victory fall into his lap in a really unengaging way, so I just started skipped them.
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Sep 6, 2018 04:35
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Flos is annoying because he's written as super charismatic ... and he's not. Probably really hard to do that correctly.
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Sep 6, 2018 04:41
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Omi no Kami posted:Do the Flos sections actually have anything that contributes to the story? I genuinely couldn't get through them- I think I read one or two, but it just came off like a gigantic moron stomping around and having victory fall into his lap in a really unengaging way, so I just started skipped them. Everything's building up to something big, he's just another log on the fire. Flos was interesting though, not so much himself as his subordinates. We did get some interesting info about how the world works out of that. The two summoned kids are sorta boring, though the last chapter involving that area with the exotic weaponsmith will be interesting. lurksion posted:Flos is annoying because he's written as super charismatic ... and he's not. Writing a charismatic character can be really hard. I don't think Pirateaba has the experience to pull it off yet. At the same time, I've been wondering if this is actually intended to feel off. His kingdom and rule completely revolves around conquest. He may literally be able to get people to follow him through a form of mass mind control of some sort, as long as he's on the warpath. Kalas fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Sep 6, 2018 |
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Sep 6, 2018 04:43
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Kalas posted:Everything's building up to something big, he's just another log on the fire. Hmmkay, thanks! 
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Sep 6, 2018 04:45
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Omi no Kami posted:That has been by far my biggest criticism of the story as a whole. It feels meandering at times, and there's stuff I wish had been paced/edited differently, but for the most part it's fun... but every single time Erin mistakes "different" for "inferior" and tries to make Liscor more like North America I start skimming. That scene actively made me angry Frankly, I'm just tired of Erin, and how "special" she is. Everyone comments on it, everyone says it. Everyone forgives her mistakes because she's so special. I don't use the phrase mary sue often, but god drat do I feel like she is one
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Sep 6, 2018 05:36
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Of course she is but so are p much every other character in twi.
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Sep 6, 2018 06:16
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Pyramid scheme to build a literal pyramid. It is glorious.
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Sep 6, 2018 06:17
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The thing that confuses me about PracGuide is that it's probably the most competently written web serial I've read in terms of its general plot, pacing, characters, etc, but there are some uncharacteristically amateurish things, like the heavy use of certain words and phrases ("without missing a beat" being one of the better examples - I don't know if I've ever seen that phrase used in a way that wasn't obnoxious). Some dialogue is also cheesy, but I get the impression that might be intentional and part of the setting itself (and it seems to draw attention to the contrast between how wacky and likeable many characters are despite being objectively morally abhorrent).
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Sep 6, 2018 07:11
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Ytlaya posted:The thing that confuses me about PracGuide is that it's probably the most competently written web serial I've read in terms of its general plot, pacing, characters, etc, but there are some uncharacteristically amateurish things, like the heavy use of certain words and phrases ("without missing a beat" being one of the better examples - I don't know if I've ever seen that phrase used in a way that wasn't obnoxious). It seems pretty intentional - you only get a Name if you are an 'interesting character' anyway - and then it probably exaggerates your personality it to fit the cliche you're filling, and you also deliberately become more of a 'character' to get more weight in your narrative and become less likely to die. Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Sep 6, 2018 |
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Sep 6, 2018 07:46
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Ytlaya posted:the heavy use of certain words and phrases ("without missing a beat" being one of the better examples - I don't know if I've ever seen that phrase used in a way that wasn't obnoxious). This bit in particular really makes me clench my fists.
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Sep 6, 2018 07:55
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I like it enough that it's all copacetic, yeah?
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Sep 6, 2018 20:41
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Ytlaya posted:some uncharacteristically amateurish things, like the heavy use of certain words and phrases ("without missing a beat" being one of the better examples - I don't know if I've ever seen that phrase used in a way that wasn't obnoxious). This is just a guess, but my bet is that the author doesn't spend enough time on editing. The human brain is weird, and it's really easy for even highly talented writers to fall into repetition and stock phrases-I've had cases where something sounded fine as I wrote it, but when I went back to edit and polish I'd find multiple cases where 2-3 sentences in a row opened with very similiar phraseology. An over-reliance on specific idioms and the like is even harder to catch, since you'd probably need to read several chapters in a row to pick up on it.
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Sep 6, 2018 22:45
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The impression I get from reading PracGuide is that the author spends a lot of time polishing a few great beats per chapter, and the surrounding text is basically a first draft. The less interesting the thing the text is about, the more typos and overused idioms it has. It's an effective way to write a serial, but I wish he had an editor that'd make a pass over each chapter.
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Sep 7, 2018 07:05
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Probably hard to do on a serial that updates three times a week.
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Sep 7, 2018 18:19
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I've gotta say, Drow society being a pyramid scheme of knowledge and power is pretty fuckin wild.
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Sep 7, 2018 20:44
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Megazver posted:This is really weird but also awesome. I also vaguely recall writing a very similar reply to a very similar post of yours. Yeah, I put it up a while ago but now with the main site dying I finally got somebody to put in all the bells and whistles that actually made it better to read it here than there.
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Sep 9, 2018 22:40
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A couple new Worth the Candle are out.
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Sep 10, 2018 17:11
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New PracGuide and I still luv my crazy, treacherous, demon-bothering waifu. Listen to the Akua, Cat. The Akua is wise.
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Sep 12, 2018 07:44
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Prac Guide would be massively improved even by letting someone else go over the past chapters and fix the typos. It's one of the few texts I've ever read where the typos cause me to lose flow because I can't tell what it was supposed to mean during my first pass. Also my dad would love the story, but the typos would slowly drive him mad, as if it was a book in Lovecraft. Tom Clancy is Dead fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Sep 12, 2018 |
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Sep 12, 2018 08:39
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Yeah the typos are crazy
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Sep 12, 2018 09:01
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Everything that Akua said is true, and Cat is so deep in the self loathing that it's starting to drive me nuts. Also, the bit about this plan making no sense is very true. I wonder what the dwarves are up to, I hope we finally meet some after hearing about them in hushed whispers for the past 5 books.
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Sep 12, 2018 14:59
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