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I think it’s pretty uncharitable to call it “secondhand PTSD”. The dude is from a modern society and worked an office job, so seeing the kind of injury, disease, neglect, and death that he was confronted with was unimaginably shocking and terrible. I was uncomfortable just reading the descriptions, so I can’t imagine how terrible it would be if I were to force myself to come face-to-face with some of the worst conditions humanity has to offer. Seiji is consistently portrayed as at odds with the world because, despite his misanthropy, he has modern values like “kids are not expendable” baked deep into his moral framework. He hates himself for every compromise he makes (or blames it on anger over the situation) and makes irrational decisions to do what he can to make the world just the tiniest bit less awful. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that seeing how awful the world truly is would be an intensely traumatic experience.
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Jul 19, 2021 23:01
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So if I want to read through against the gods or similar length works, what is the best kindle-like option these days?
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Jul 20, 2021 00:47
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Anias posted:So if I want to read through against the gods or similar length works, what is the best kindle-like option these days? I like https://github.com/Flameish/Novel-Grabber although not sure if it works on the gods are bastards.
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Jul 20, 2021 04:14
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Anias posted:So if I want to read through against the gods or similar length works, what is the best kindle-like option these days? You mean the physical reader? I use an actual kindle (the e-book reader kind, not the tablet-lite); for stuff on Royal Road and other sites, I use Calibre with the plugin fanficfare, which downloads stuff directly into the Calibre library and even handles updating. It works on a lot of sites but not wordpress or novel-specific sites like The Gods are Bastards, or at least it didn't last time I checked. I did eventually managed to download the first book of The Gods are Bastards with some blog to epub site but it was very finicky. Some authors don't want downloaded copies of their stuff floating around, which I'm sympathetic to but it can make using an e-book reader annoying if the author tries hard to prevent the basic automated grabbing utilities. Bremen fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Jul 20, 2021 |
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Jul 20, 2021 04:46
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'is insanity a racial trait' is incredibly good
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Jul 20, 2021 04:51
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A big flaming stink posted:'is insanity a racial trait' is incredibly good it's pretty sweet
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Jul 20, 2021 08:08
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Bremen posted:It works on a lot of sites but not wordpress or novel-specific sites like The Gods are Bastards, or at least it didn't last time I checked. I did eventually managed to download the first book of The Gods are Bastards with some blog to epub site but it was very finicky. You can use the WebToEpub plugin to save the story. It works well with wordpress and other novel site.
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Jul 20, 2021 22:01
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Holy gently caress, that TWI patreon chapter.
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Jul 21, 2021 06:40
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46000 words
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Jul 21, 2021 07:48
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That could have practically been its own short story, if you filed off the serial numbers. Getting an editor was one of the best decisions Pirateaba has ever made.
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Jul 21, 2021 08:18
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TWI non-patreon: I would die to protect infinitypear
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Jul 21, 2021 08:33
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That was the best TWI in months.
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Jul 21, 2021 10:34
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That was a loving incredible chapter the ending was a bit deus ex machina, but I'm so loving angry burn that place down to ashes, salt the earth so naught can be built there again.
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Jul 21, 2021 11:44
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well, im not going to lie. Normal dark fantasy novels usually aren't as horrifying as like, Abercrombie style stuff, because they're unreal enough that I can detach emotionally. thanks to pirateaba for teaching me that, actually, it was lovely writing detaching me. Jesus Christ. However I'm glad that based Pisces, the best character in TWI, has reached an even deeper power level.
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Jul 21, 2021 15:32
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Also the worth the candle post mortem is out, even though I think there's some epilogue stuff coming. Which he doesn't spoil, by the way. I mostly agree with his points; the level up addiction stuff did suck, and there was too much talking about meta narrative that, ultimately didn't have anything to say. but this is a really grognard kind of point to make, but he mentions that the void beast was basically supposed to be fantasy global warming; there's no real way to fight it. problem is, that's pretty true on earth. not everyone will agree how to solve these problems in either the long or the short term, and you could never enforce it completely and totally. but, uh, even before they take over Anglecynn, which is basically the West in terms of power over the rest of the world, juniper and his party are so insanely powerful that they literally could conquer the world and implement hexal juche to stop void usage. just an inconsistency of the tabletop thing, I guess. if the DM just outright won't let you do something that isn't blocked by the rules, then it shouldn't have been a factor in the first place, you know? but hey maybe it's a meta commentary on how global warming won't matter for fairly comfortable westerners such as juniper, lol anyway it's worth a read I think. i like authors talking about writing. https://alexanderwales.com/post-mortem-worth-the-candle/
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Jul 21, 2021 16:01
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im glad your back to posting in this thread larry, i really appreciate your taste 
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Jul 21, 2021 16:07
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Finished, and... what a fuckin chapter. Goddamn. The near-literal deus ex machina at the end is a bit out of nowhere on its own, but fits well with events established in previous chapters. Excited to see what this means for Pisces and the Horns moving forward.
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Jul 21, 2021 19:46
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A big flaming stink posted:'is insanity a racial trait' is incredibly good Just caught up with this. Incredibly strong start. Highly recommended. Link for the lazy: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42385/an-outcast-in-another-world-subtitle-is-insanity
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Jul 22, 2021 21:02
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Ascending, do not disturb is pretty charming after the first two chapters. Soon, Kong Hou saw a variety of outcomes for bad people. When she walked out of the jail, she only had one thought. Being a good person was really very good.
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Jul 23, 2021 01:59
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LLSix posted:Ascending, do not disturb is pretty charming after the first two chapters. Hell yeah it is!! I was feeling An Emotion at the end of that
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Jul 23, 2021 10:15
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blastron posted:Stumbled across Breaker of Horizons and it’s actually pretty good! It mashes a bunch of tropes together (invasive litrpg system, cultivation, monster protagonist) and comes up with something pretty original. It’s very combat-heavy and not a whole lot of character interaction, but the combat is real meaty and the narrative glue between fights paints a good picture and drives the story forward pretty decisively. Thanks I write it. LLSix posted:I’ve been enjoying that as well, but the MC is weirdly dickish. Not consistently so, but it feels like every so often the author wakes up on the wrong side of bed and suddenly decides to have the MC do something evil. Can you clarify whatcha mean by this? Only thing I can think of is him wrecking the human ship. ThirdEmperor fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jul 23, 2021 |
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Jul 23, 2021 20:19
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Re: Breaker - The mentality he has seems reasonable given his upbringing on a depleted world. (it's weird when people from earth instantly understand that cultivation universes are a never ending resource war. His background has firmly established why and how he fits into the role.) Keep in mind until Inkspur started talking for him he couldn't communicate at all with humans who are incentivized to kill him on sight. He has shown he's perfectly happy to work with other invaders, under the assumption that they will try to kill him. Like the monkey tribe. It's good stuff, I appreciate that it moves fast and moreso how it moves fast. Sometimes in these stories there's too much time spent on any given quest or goal when it goes against the established pacing. Keeping the dungeon quests/adventuers and his goal to collect points or particular treasure as 1-2 chapter short segments I think matches really well with what the characters mindset and lifestyle.
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Jul 23, 2021 21:33
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Beware of Chicken is extremely charming and heartwarming and wholesome and funny and I can't get enough of it. It's kind of predictable in some ways, but in the way that a favorite childhood movie is predictable after watching it for like the fiftieth time because you love it so much.
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Jul 24, 2021 06:15
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Beware of Chicken is a nicekai. What if you went to a fantastical world and just enjoyed yourself instead of seeking combat? Breaker is uniquely confusing from a geographical perspective. Usually I have a vague idea of where a character is, but some combination of lack of landmarks, cardinal directions, and recursive delving makes it hard to visualize where the main character is. Usually on an Earth system apocalypse they give you some cities for localization, but it makes sense that invader MC doesn't know it. I'm probably just weird trying to visualize that, though.
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Jul 24, 2021 17:33
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ThirdEmperor posted:Thanks I write it. Hi! Despite my complaints, I've been enjoying your story. It is significantly better than most of the stuff on RR. I loved the Kill 'Baby Boots' goal. I don't remember him wrecking a human ship, but I caught up at chapter 40 or so and paused at chapter 50 to save them up so I can read several at once. The one that stands out most to me is the time he murdered the kelpie with the Monkeys in chapter 15. You rightly had him feel guilty about it, so I'm willing to chalk it up to character growth. Side note, booby trapping the monkey weapons was an awesome trap. His entire interaction with the Mantis people is just a little bit off, a little bit more wicked and murdery than I expected. He seems entirely willing to kill them without any clear reason other than personal gain, and only seems to refrain because he doesn't think he can win. (Yes the dominus(sp?) node would be a nice benefit, but there are lots of other nodes. Or he could trade. He only needs to "hold" it for three days. He could give it back afterwards.) I thought he'd considered poisoning all the elves for the quest reward, even though they're by far the nicest people in the story, but couldn't find the relevant chapter. I thought there were more, but I can't recall any other specific instances. Maybe the Nic on the page is less murderous than the Nic in my head. Nic does come across as being very, very desperate, which given his circumstances is fair. Overall, I've been enjoying the story a lot more since he went into the dungeon. The interactions with Levanth were spectacular! I really liked the murderous undertones to their conversations. The insights he's been getting into just how monstrous the System and Logos have also been very compelling. It does make his willingness to pursue killing the heretic seem odd though. I'd think he'd be more eager to poke Logos and the System in the eye every chance he gets, but maybe he's too used to living under their crushing oppression to consider that an option. Whaleporn posted:Re: Breaker - The mentality he has seems reasonable given his upbringing on a depleted world. (it's weird when people from earth instantly understand that cultivation universes are a never ending resource war. His background has firmly established why and how he fits into the role.) Scaevolus posted:Breaker is uniquely confusing from a geographical perspective. Usually I have a vague idea of where a character is, but some combination of lack of landmarks, cardinal directions, and recursive delving makes it hard to visualize where the main character is. The invaders have cities and maps too. Nic is a random fodder mob, though, not part of the official "invader" squads. It's been a few weeks since I read the intro sections, but I think Nic started out in poisonous swamp (maybe a delta?). Forest on at least one side, rocky coast on another. Lately he's been in a desert dungeon where relative locations seem looser since the points of interest are all separated by large stretches of desert. Desert that's especially inhospitable for a soft-skinned amphibian like Nic. (He's a city boy and too ignorant to travel early in the morning and late at night to avoid the worst of the sun and heat. Given his restless drive, it's not surprising he's not willing to hole up for a few hours in the middle of the day either.) LLSix fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jul 25, 2021 |
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Jul 25, 2021 03:59
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TWI Patreon: And at last, he heard it. He listened and heard the voice at last, welling in the promise of Khelt, the very same ground they had all walked. His very soul. It said: “Four out of ten.” This made me laugh so hard I started choking
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Jul 25, 2021 19:52
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Kyoujin posted:I've been enjoying Outcast in Another World rocode posted:Just caught up with this. Incredibly strong start. Highly recommended. I was wondering why my RR page randomly started getting hits from Something Awful. Thanks for the kind words, guys! I'm glad some people in this thread are enjoying my story.
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Jul 26, 2021 03:27
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It’s good! Good job.
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Jul 26, 2021 03:32
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I liked it enough to sub for the Patreon. It's probably my favorite litrpg besides TWI and ar'kendrythist. Pretty much entirely because the numbers and poo poo are just there for context. Holy God if I get tricked into one more tabletop nerds theorycraft session disguised as a novel I'm going to actually kill someone.
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Jul 26, 2021 08:24
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Larry Parrish posted:I liked it enough to sub for the Patreon. It's probably my favorite litrpg besides TWI and ar'kendrythist. Pretty much entirely because the numbers and poo poo are just there for context. Holy God if I get tricked into one more tabletop nerds theorycraft session disguised as a novel I'm going to actually kill someone. ...isn't the numbergloop the... point of a LitRPG? I should probably read one one of these days
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Jul 26, 2021 08:34
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KamikazePotato posted:I was wondering why my RR page randomly started getting hits from Something Awful. bro where's your discord where we can make incredibly tired inside jokes in
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Jul 26, 2021 08:40
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Larry Parrish posted:I liked it enough to sub for the Patreon. It's probably my favorite litrpg besides TWI and ar'kendrythist. Pretty much entirely because the numbers and poo poo are just there for context. Holy God if I get tricked into one more tabletop nerds theorycraft session disguised as a novel I'm going to actually kill someone. Thanks for the support! And yeah, one of my internal 'mission statements' when writing the story was to minimize the stat stuff so that it can be enjoyed by people who like numbers and Skills while not turning away those who care primarily about the plot. LitRPG mechanics should be unobtrusive and serve to further the world and narrative, not the other way around. A big flaming stink posted:bro where's your discord where we can make incredibly tired inside jokes in Honestly, people have asked for a Discord, but I just don't have the time to make or run one. I'm juggling a lot of things right now.
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Jul 26, 2021 09:12
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KamikazePotato posted:Thanks for the support! And yeah, one of my internal 'mission statements' when writing the story was to minimize the stat stuff so that it can be enjoyed by people who like numbers and Skills while not turning away those who care primarily about the plot. LitRPG mechanics should be unobtrusive and serve to further the world and narrative, not the other way around. ... I actually like yours for the character writing, I don't give a poo poo about the plot at all lol. Not that it's bad, it's just that I've read ten billion genre fiction novels and it's rare that people catch me off guard with something new and original. But also I'm a freak who likes slice of life stuff. Fuschia tude posted:...isn't the numbergloop the... point of a LitRPG? It's the point of a bad one. You've really missed out being tortured by a crappy book that has just enough of a hint of maybe something interesting happening but feeds you pages of numbers minutia that ends up either not mattering or, sometimes, not even being used at all and just being literal page filler. Or the true hell of LitRPG, where it's literally a story about people playing a game and theorycrafting builds. Larry Parrish fucked around with this message at 13:10 on Jul 26, 2021 |
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Jul 26, 2021 13:07
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Speaking of which, I read Data Dragon Danika a while back and enjoyed it a lot. Nothing much happens in it and there's no major conflict, but it bought back all the nostalgia of just hanging out with my guild in various different MMOs over the years. Very calming, and it's complete.
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Jul 26, 2021 14:24
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I'd second that. I read it a while back and wished there was more.
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Jul 26, 2021 14:36
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Nettle Soup posted:Speaking of which, I read Data Dragon Danika a while back and enjoyed it a lot. Nothing much happens in it and there's no major conflict, but it bought back all the nostalgia of just hanging out with my guild in various different MMOs over the years. Very calming, and it's complete. Data Dragon Danika posted:They say the "Living Jade Empire" creates individualized quests. They say it can read your mind. They say you can find your heart's desire. They say that there's never been a game like it, and they're right but… they're also wrong. 
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Jul 26, 2021 14:42
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Fuschia tude posted:...isn't the numbergloop the... point of a LitRPG? There's four general categories of litrpgs: 1) Number go up. The numbers don't mean anything but they keep getting bigger, and people are reading the story to see the numbers get bigger. 2) The author made up a RPG system and then had fun min/maxing it and then wrapped a story around that. The story is hopefully good, but the real point of the whole thing is for the author to show off how they broke the thing they made up. 3) The story is in some way exploring the implications of a world which runs on a game system. The numbers here are usually secondary to the non-numeric effects. 4) LitRPGs are popular these days so the author stuck some superficial litrpg elements into their story.
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Jul 26, 2021 19:08
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Going back a couple of pages, I feel like Vigor Mortis is about Vita slowly becoming a monster, and uh.. Lark? slowly becoming human and the contrast there. Something something desires something something you are not what you're born as you are what you want to be, all mixed with the edgyness of a 15yr old girl writing fanfic on the internet. I might drop it too tbh. I miss Shade Touched.
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Jul 27, 2021 01:34
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Larry Parrish posted:but hey maybe it's a meta commentary on how global warming won't matter for fairly comfortable westerners such as juniper, lol
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Jul 27, 2021 01:43
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Nettle Soup posted:Speaking of which, I read Data Dragon Danika a while back and enjoyed it a lot. Nothing much happens in it and there's no major conflict, but it bought back all the nostalgia of just hanging out with my guild in various different MMOs over the years. Very calming, and it's complete. Wow. I thought i would hate this one. I usually end up hating all the VRMMO ones pretty quick, but this is basically just a written version of Recovery of an MMO Junkie, and frankly I'm here for it.
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Jul 27, 2021 08:46
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