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Peachfart posted:My only Patreon web serials are still TWI and Ar'Kendrithyst, so you can see my favorites. Though I have been thinking about adding in the Outcast series because it is just that consistently good. Outcast is real good. Generally I don't read serials that are RPGish down to hit point totals but the premise was interesting enough to get me reading it.
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Dec 13, 2021 18:22
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like all of the actually good litrpg stuff, instead of writing about someone's boring EverQuest session it's instead some kind of awful constructed reality
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Dec 13, 2021 18:29
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Larry Parrish posted:like all of the actually good litrpg stuff, instead of writing about someone's boring EverQuest session it's instead some kind of awful constructed reality So here we were in Skyshrine, my small team of friends hedged out by a much larger force of these assholes called Fires of Heaven. We looked on in amusement as their leader, Furor started putting down coins in formations on the ground while shouting as his forces to stand in the boxes. At some point a daring rogue started to pick up the coins and this started off an apocalyptic rant from Furor. Dragons were slew that day, but the people watching from the sidelines gained the most.
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Dec 13, 2021 19:53
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Larry Parrish posted:like all of the actually good litrpg stuff, instead of writing about someone's boring EverQuest session it's instead some kind of awful constructed reality Agreed, so many serials basically go 'It's a magic world, with a slight twist! Now let's power grind monsters to make numbers go up!' making it as much fun to read as a level grind session in a Korean mmo is to watch.
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Dec 13, 2021 22:25
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Katalepsis posted:“But that’s bullshit. Power itself doesn’t corrupt, that’s just an excuse used by monsters. If you have a consistent and coherent ideological standpoint, and you apply it to the world around you, then hey, power doesn’t corrupt. Not by itself. The standpoint has to be wrong in the first place.”  Which I'm using amusingly because of the scene
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Dec 15, 2021 19:32
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quote:Verity knew the politics of the situation mostly because of her parents, especially her father, who was always fretting over the position of the family. Taxation and seizure were the twin specters that seemed to haunt him, and he spoke of them frequently. They were, to put it in her father’s language, being bled at multiple different levels, thrashing around like a wounded animal trying to stave off the tax collectors, and at the same time, their business interests were at threat from the workers, who could legally seize a company in a forced buy-out at what her father considered to be rates akin to robbery. Her father hadn’t actually suffered from a company going into seizure, but he spoke about it often, and when it was a part of the Society news, it felt to Verity like it was all anyone spoke about. Also liked the trope gender swap here: quote:“Hey, I’m a boy,” said Mizuki, who’d put on a cloak and grown a beard. Her hand briefly went between her legs. “Aw, what a rip.”
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Dec 15, 2021 20:50
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Used to be about Dungeons is a very fun read. And also verging on extremely dark at times beneath the happy go lucky facade. But mostly well written and funny! "You've killed me four times!"
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Dec 15, 2021 21:14
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Affi posted:Used to be about Dungeons is a very fun read. And also verging on extremely dark at times beneath the happy go lucky facade. I haven't gone back and reread but I swear that number goes up every time she says it. TUTBAD isn't densely laden with jokes but the ones that are in there are real good.
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Dec 15, 2021 21:21
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to be fair that really does seem like the best possible response to a chronomancer you don't like. they'd probably never gently caress with you in the primary timeline so you just instantly try to kill them whenever they show up. it doesn't matter for the primary you, but it does irritate the chronomancer.
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Dec 15, 2021 21:43
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Cicero posted:Wow, based Dondrian extremely based that alexander wales has engineered a Georgist political economy for his fantasy world Larry Parrish posted:to be fair that really does seem like the best possible response to a chronomancer you don't like. they'd probably never gently caress with you in the primary timeline so you just instantly try to kill them whenever they show up. it doesn't matter for the primary you, but it does irritate the chronomancer. wales has spoken about this in the discord the day does not end instantly, so if any chronomancer with higher priority than Lola finds out, they can reset and hold mizuki accountable for Crimes
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Dec 15, 2021 23:10
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Georgist? Did I miss a land tax reference somewhere?
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Dec 15, 2021 23:54
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A big flaming stink posted:extremely based that alexander wales has engineered a Georgist political economy for his fantasy world that's why you kill every chronomancer that isn't your friend, silly.
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Dec 16, 2021 02:01
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A big flaming stink posted:wales has spoken about this in the discord the day does not end instantly, so if any chronomancer with higher priority than Lola finds out, they can reset and hold mizuki accountable for Crimes Oh, interesting, I didn't know that chronomancers had a priority system. That's a fun wrinkle, I wonder if we'll ever see it come up.
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Dec 16, 2021 03:08
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blastron posted:Oh, interesting, I didn't know that chronomancers had a priority system. That's a fun wrinkle, I wonder if we'll ever see it come up. I think it got brought up when Alfric was discussing Lola stealing his original team. Because she developed her powers first she was able to set up her play as many times as necessary before him, but once "locked in" Alfric got to respond in a similar fashion.
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Dec 16, 2021 03:37
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Larry Parrish posted:that's why you kill every chronomancer that isn't your friend, silly. This is just good policy in general, really.
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Dec 16, 2021 05:48
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A big flaming stink posted:extremely based that alexander wales has engineered a Georgist political economy for his fantasy world That’s some minority report bullshit right there. Being charged with a crime you haven’t committed.
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Dec 16, 2021 06:03
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Stuff like that sounds more like sci-fi than fantasy and I’m cool with it
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Dec 16, 2021 06:12
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Always kill time manipulators because if they aren't evil they would have killed Baby Hitler.
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Dec 16, 2021 06:15
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"there is beauty in these trash birds"
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Dec 16, 2021 18:47
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Cicero posted:Georgist? Did I miss a land tax reference somewhere? verity's parents complained about their second house being taxed at an extremely high rate
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Dec 16, 2021 21:59
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Tagichatn posted:Outcast is real good. Generally I don't read serials that are RPGish down to hit point totals but the premise was interesting enough to get me reading it. Outcast is probably the only "indulgent" web serial that I've been able to enjoy. Like there's this one issue where characters will frequently say stuff that feels like "what a reader would fantasize about a character saying*", but the core story/narrative is told confidently and reliably enough that I can overlook it. The author is also obviously aware of how other web serials are written and consciously making efforts to avoid a lot of the problems endemic to the genre/medium. * I'm not sure how else to describe this, but it's something I've noticed where different characters will say the sort of things that a person would daydream about saying in a similar scenario - it almost feels like an overcorrection for the common complaint of characters behaving in frustratingly unreasonable ways.
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Dec 16, 2021 22:38
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nightchild12 posted:I've been looking through the Royal Road Writeathon winners (https://www.royalroad.com/blog/45/writathon-winners) and found a couple of standouts: This was from the other page but thanks for recommending war queen. Binged it all yesterday and it is a fantastic breath of fresh air. The author has great talent for writing from a nonhuman perspective and I'm very excited to see where it goes. I've been reading Tori and it's pretty decent and I like the way they implement the game world although the main character is getting on my nerves. She feels like a Mary Sue and always complains about how much she has going on then takes all help for granted or turns down help because she is a perfectionist (writing invitations). Maybe it's supposed to be a character fault but doesn't feel like it yet.
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Dec 16, 2021 23:34
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Yeah, Tori can be an rear end in a top hat too like when Victoria's old acquaintances didn't believe that she'd really changed. She called them bitches even which felt really jarring because firstly, they're all kids and secondly, Victoria didn't just change personality, she had her entire personality overwritten by a 40 year old woman from Earth.
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Dec 17, 2021 00:22
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My big issue with Tori is probably how much side stuff she's successful at? Like re-creating and introducing modern cuisine is always just the most eye-rolling thing in these kinds of stories but we also did not need her to be running a successful clothing business where she's also doing all the bespoke designs on top of all the plot stuff. It detracts a lot from what started off as a decent underdog story and despite how much we've been teasing it, Tori has yet to suffer any setbacks that last longer than a single scene. I just tire immensely of 'and as I had a hobby in present day I can obviously use this to upstage the idiots in the world I isekai'd to.' for every single thing these people were remotely interested in.
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Dec 17, 2021 00:33
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Yeah, I thought the fashion stuff was fine the way it was introduced as conflict with the love interests and heroine. Wish it went to the background after she hired some competent staff and focused more on the delta project. The food stuff I would completely remove unless there was a plot reason to introduce new cuisine at a party or something and includes all the difficulty and set backs using strange ingredients.
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Dec 17, 2021 00:56
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On another note, I missed you were talking about War Queen too. It rules especially now that the queen has started interacting with a wider group of humans. The latest chapter also gives some great background setting details the pan-human Empire is so awful and dystopian that the subjects have an easier time cheering for a giant bug alien.
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Dec 17, 2021 01:01
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Yeah! War Queen definitely rules. It can be a bit hard to follow at times but that's probably my brain turning to mush after too many web serials. It definitely rewards you for paying attention as some of the great jokes can be missed in translation As the true nature of the humans was revealed I thought Svera might end up working with the Coalition although that seems less likely now after making up with Hathan and having enough trouble comprehending an empire of individuals, much less a (democratic?) coalition.
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Dec 17, 2021 01:11
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I don't mind Tori being good at too many things because that's just the kind of story it is, but the food stuff gets really boring. It's the exact same scene over and over with a few words substituted in for whatever the current dish is.
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Dec 17, 2021 04:01
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Plorkyeran posted:I don't mind Tori being good at too many things because that's just the kind of story it is, but the food stuff gets really boring. It's the exact same scene over and over with a few words substituted in for whatever the current dish is. I would've thought the fact that discovering everyone is a programmed automation with no free will would have more impact. 
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Dec 17, 2021 04:42
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Actually there is something else that bothers me about the food stuff. Most of what Tori excels at boils down to project manager wish fulfillment. She's really good at organizing projects and getting useful results out of people. The premise of the story is that it's a transmigrated project manager, so that makes total sense and is fine even if she's a bit too good at it. The two main exceptions are sword fighting and cooking. She's only good at sword fighting compared to other students and not compared to people who are actually good at it, so sure, whatever. It doesn't come up much. Cooking, though, she's amazing at. She's able to make dishes from a bunch of different cuisines using ingredients that aren't what she's used to and have it turn out amazing on the first try every time. It'd be much more reasonable (and fitting with the idea that her "cheat power" is family) if she was suggesting things to their chef who was then experimenting with ideas to recreate the dish she described.
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Dec 17, 2021 04:47
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I honestly don't know why readers get so hung up about food in particular in any isekai. It's the best part! If anything is unbelievable, it's the ability to introduce firearms/steam engines/etc with very little effort even when you consider that the MC has some sophisticated engineering background. That stuff really starts to strain credulity for me, but if they show the elven rubes how delicious hamburgers, and crepes are? I will eat that poo poo right the gently caress up. I mean for god's sake Tori is currently resettling 1500 refugees with zero job experience and I don't think being able to make a good burrito is the Mary Sue part.
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Dec 17, 2021 05:35
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Argue posted:I honestly don't know why readers get so hung up about food in particular in any isekai. It's the best part! If anything is unbelievable, it's the ability to introduce firearms/steam engines/etc with very little effort even when you consider that the MC has some sophisticated engineering background. That stuff really starts to strain credulity for me, but if they show the elven rubes how delicious hamburgers, and crepes are? I will eat that poo poo right the gently caress up. I mean for god's sake Tori is currently resettling 1500 refugees with zero job experience and I don't think being able to make a good burrito is the Mary Sue part. tbf, she's mostly offloading all the expertise for the resettlement with experts and has the personal support of the crown prince. I'm honestly more surprised they're pretending resettling 1500 people is some kind of insane and impossible thing when she has access to those kinds of resources.
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Dec 17, 2021 06:03
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I think that people (myself included) don't like the food stuff solely because it's everywhere. Out of all of the isekai that I'm currently reading, I can think of exactly one (Outcast) that doesn't involve home cooking in some way. There's just too much! There are so many other things that a character could do to bring a bit of their culture with them. They could teach people to play chess, start a band to cover their favorite songs, write stories based off their favorite movies, and so on.
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Dec 17, 2021 06:04
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I couldn't do any of that poo poo but I can cook for myself. Good thing I don't read/watch isekai stuff so I'm not sick of that trope yet.
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Dec 17, 2021 07:08
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blastron posted:I think that people (myself included) don't like the food stuff solely because it's everywhere. Out of all of the isekai that I'm currently reading, I can think of exactly one (Outcast) that doesn't involve home cooking in some way. There's just too much! I'm 90% certain these novels stole the food stuff from TWI. The other 10% is that everyone likes food. Edit: But at least TWI recognizes that Erin is by no means a master cook, and later on everyone is rolling their eyes at Erin's 'cooking skill', which mainly seems to be shoving as much grease and sugar into a dish as she can. Peachfart fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Dec 17, 2021 |
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Dec 17, 2021 07:19
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I like the cooking in arkendrithyst because it mostly involves magically creating approximations of plants that don't exist in the new world and/or weird plants that are native. More world and character building, less Connecticut yankeeing vis pizza.
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Dec 17, 2021 07:27
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Peachfart posted:I'm 90% certain these novels stole the food stuff from TWI. The other 10% is that everyone likes food. Ascendance of a Bookworm predates The Wandering Inn! And as blastron is, uh, probably aware, it covers all of their examples to some degree or another 
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Dec 17, 2021 07:50
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Argue posted:Ascendance of a Bookworm predates The Wandering Inn! And as blastron is, uh, probably aware, it covers all of their examples to some degree or another Bookworm's cooking was a lot more forgivable because it was less about recreating Earth dishes and more about using local ingredients in ways that were novel to the people using them. More importantly, it was also often central to the plot and fit the overall themes of the story. Myne's quest for the perfect sponge cake actually got her into some fairly significant trouble, because when she tunnel visioned on having found a reliable source of sugar she conveniently forgot that the highly skilled baker who was happy to help her with her experiments just so happened to be in the employ of a major business rival. The fact that it went into exhaustive detail was also nothing new to the series, since it went into exhaustive detail about absolutely everything.
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Dec 17, 2021 10:22
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blastron posted:I think that people (myself included) don't like the food stuff solely because it's everywhere. Out of all of the isekai that I'm currently reading, I can think of exactly one (Outcast) that doesn't involve home cooking in some way. There's just too much! only villains do that avoids this trope in several ways but specifically with food it just describes how loving weird the local food is. it's all fairly normal stuff but the Flyfr are obsessed with making everything spicy and sour and it drives the protagonist insane.
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Dec 17, 2021 11:45
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Peachfart posted:I'm 90% certain these novels stole the food stuff from TWI. The other 10% is that everyone likes food. This a super popular cliche in japanese isekai, there is currently anime airing all about the premise of "superior Earth (Japanese) food bedazzles the natives". Like I do enjoy of variety of foreign foods, but mushy peas are good eating too y'know?
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Dec 17, 2021 12:54
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