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Xel posted:If you have any recommendations I will give them a try. I couldn't get past the first couple of pages of the few I've tried to read on royal road. I've already read (or tried to read) pretty much all the popular litrpg series on KU already but haven't gotten successfully interested in web serials even once. Threadbare. For my money it is head and shoulders better than any other litrpg on Royal Road.
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Sep 22, 2020 21:05
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Cicero posted:Will Wight is possibly too generous for his own good: This is super generous, and very convenient. I hadn't bought Uncrowned yet since it had that cliffhanger at the end. Ccs posted:I've never read a "Cultivation" series but heck i might grab the first of these to see if it's something i'd like. Do it now and don't delay. Cradle is possibly the best series in the genre.
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Oct 5, 2020 20:54
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Bhodi posted:Dungeon Crawler Carl book 2 just came out, it's a pretty drat good litrpg. All the earlier eps on royalroad are gone; I'd have thought they'd at least leave a few chapters to get people hooked for free. Nah, Kindle Unlimited is a horrible monopolistic blight that exists only to hoover up free stories and sequester them inside. Every serial I'm aware of that has been picked up by them also took down any free versions they had.
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Oct 6, 2020 02:51
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Early Wintersteel and a little bit of Uncrowned: Lindon's reaction to losing to Yerin feels off. Lindon has spent his whole life losing. He lost to Jai Long. He just spent months losing literally every single duel he fought against the Akura underlords. It is only very recently that he started to even see himself like a real sacred artist. For the vast majority of their relationship she's been much, much stronger. It's weird that he expected to beat her and it's even weirder that it hits him so hard. I found the parts about him being lonely after she leaves to ring much truer and be more relatable.
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Oct 7, 2020 17:31
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Wintersteel. I like that we got to see Lindon doing more soulsmithing. Hate those Heaven's Glory more than ever, though. Kidnapping Lindon's mom is so... petty. Also, ick.KOGAHAZAN!! posted:I think it's less the thought that he lost to Yerin so much as that his planned growth track has been suddenly derailed for the first time since... he met Eithan? He wasn't so much confident in beating Yerin in a fight as he was the idea that his plot armour would kick in, something would happen, and miraculously everything would be alright. I think he says something like this at the end of Uncrowned but I haven't been back to check. That scans. He does say several times that he would have been happy to lose if they'd both been uncrowned.
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Oct 8, 2020 14:36
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Cicero posted:Word of Will is that Cradle ends whenever the gang ascends. If they keep doing stuff, that'd be a different series. I think Lindon is still an Underlord? He could stretch the next couple of books out by ascending one small rank at a time, 9=Overlord, 10=Archlord, 11=monarch... huh, yeah, I don't think he's going to get 12 books out of this. Hmm, what if he kills all 4 Dreadgods first? 9= Titan 10=Blood Phoenix 11 = The other two 12 = smacking down all the obstreperous monarchs? ACValiant posted:What's the best of xianxia out there? I haven't read too much of it but I really like Cradle. Forge of Destiny would be my next suggestion. After that, there's two goon cultivation games right now. I'm running one of them Always Be Cultivating is a CYOA. The main character is currently training to be a doctor and has a loveable bear sidekick. Nyaa is doing an LP of a Cultivation game. Everything else is a big step down. I'd probably recommend Cultivation Chat group next. It has all the problems already discussed, but it starts off strong and you can stop whenever you want. I know I stopped a few hundred chapters in. This thread OP has lots of suggestions. Whatever you do, don't read kindle unlimited cultivation stories. I have yet to find one that isn't trash. You might also enjoy the adjacent LitRPG genre. It is also generally terrible, but has more English authors. Threadbare on Royal Road is my personal favorite. Mother of Learning isn't a cultivation story, but it scratches a lot of those some itches so I'd recommend it. Cicero posted:Ah, also forgot Street Cultivation, an urban fantasy cultivation series. That one's pretty alright, got kind of a blue collar feel to it, though again, not nearly as good as Cradle.
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Oct 10, 2020 01:32
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Leng posted:Waiting for Chapter 1 of Bloodline where Lindon gives the command: "Destroy" and annihilates all of Abyssal Palace or something in the middle of Sacred Valley, while Kelsa's all If he does something like that, the command better be "End".
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Oct 14, 2020 00:52
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who are you and what did you do to my little brother?
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Dr Subterfuge posted:oh hell it's been so long since I thought about him I had forgotten his whole backstory. His goldsign is basically a huge snake-like mouth with jagged teeth, right? Yeah. He wears a mask most of the time.
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Oct 22, 2020 22:46
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Xel posted:Russian litrpg is great. I feel like I've learned a bunch of interesting russian cultural details from the various ones I've burned through. No! Please don't! Save yourself. Nothing worth reading lies on the path you have chosen. Would telling you it eventually turns into a harem stop you from hurting yourself? Xel posted:Just finished reading The New World on Royal Road and really enjoyed it except for the constant spelling errors but that's easily forgivable. Decent sci-fi litrpg with some cool concepts and most importantly the progression pacing is quite consistent even through the 40+ hours it took me to get from the beginning to latest chapter Here's another short sci-fi story on RR if you want: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/22848/post-human. Not litrpg.
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Oct 29, 2020 21:23
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Victorkm posted:the vegas crime families or the super powered sports teams that try to recruit the failing seniors each year. Even then, anyone who leaves the program I believe gets at least some portion of what they learned erased from their brain. When Nick was ejected from the program for tricking Vince into going all out before he failed out, they erased EVERYTHING and he was back to being the guy who originally enrolled at Landry. Mind wipes. That's how you can tell they're the good guys.
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Dec 8, 2020 03:41
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30.5 Days posted:I decided to go ahead and read ascend online since it's recommended in the OP and what a bizarre book. Nothing in the book makes sense unless you accept that the "real" world is an untenable dystopia, but... it's not. Unless you REALLY like having a boss. The idea that people would stick around in a game where they can be tortured and enslaved instead of going back to just having a nice life doing whatever they want is insane. Fun plot though. The plot is so dumb, the sequel completely ignores it and switches to a new character. Despite that, Ascend Online’s first half feels more like a MMORPG than most stories in the genre. The boss fights are also well done. I like threadbare better in almost every way, and it’s free on Royal Road. Maybe give it a try if you want more MMO litrpg.
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Dec 20, 2021 04:37
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Cicero posted:I’d say that her arc ended in book 8 when she merged with Ruby and won the tournament. Book 9 wrapped up a loose thread for her, but I don’t remember anything noteworthy for her character development Love isn't weakness is my vote for revelation.
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Dec 24, 2021 23:05
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It's weird that VRMMOs always have huge stat blocks. I feel like having a lot of stats is the last thing you want in either a VR game or an MMO. VR games are best when they are immersive, and having your character "miss" when you clearly hit the enemy would be very disorienting. MMOs with an emphasis on level or item level or stats creates very stratified games where you can only make progress when playing with people with roughly your same level/stats. Not being able to play with most other players rather defeats the point of being massively multiplayer online. It feels like the stats exist more to enable the power fantasy than anything else, but maybe that's what most readers want? Are there any VRMMO stories that describe a game you'd actually want to play with your friends? Data Dragon Danika does this reasonably well by having most of the power from a skill come from the very first level, and there being no stats. It's also generally charming. I can't think of any other VRMMO stories where the game being described didn't sound like it had awful mechanics. LLSix fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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Jan 23, 2022 17:10
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Jarvisi posted:I want to read a book about a good necromancer who runs a construction firm Why a construction firm? I forget which, but one of Simon R. Green's Hawk & Fisher books involves undead dock workers. I wouldn't be surprised if there's something like that in his Nightside series too.
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Feb 15, 2022 20:29
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AARD VARKMAN posted:Can I get some recommendations for Cultivation books/maybe LitRPG? I'd like something to get something new on my Kindle before I head to the airport for some epic VACATION READING, and I've read all the obvious stuff I think https://www.amazon.com/Forge-Destiny-1-Yrsillar-ebook/dp/B08P8175Z1 Forge of Destiny is usually the number two cultivation recommendation right after Cradle. And it's on Kindle now. So I'm a spider is good progression fantasy with a spider MC. I usually also recommend Threadbare and Data Dragon Danika for LitRPG, but they're much more light hearted than the other things you like. Threadbare's MC is a teddy bear (golem) who goes on all kinds of actually rather serious adventures after the first arc, but the tone remains charming and playful. On the other hand, you said you liked seeing how path's combine in Cradle and Threadbare has a very extensive multi-class mechanic, so you'll probably love those elements. Grimgar is a gritty low-power D&D-esque litrpg. The first book covers their extreme struggles to kill lone goblins. It's also very Japanese with all the usual sexist baggage that implies, although at least the bathing scene trope is somewhat inverted with the spying boys getting what they deserve.
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Feb 21, 2022 05:41
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PerniciousKnid posted:Grimgar is really interested in portraying a more realistic struggle in actually killing monsters, but the sexist baggage is undersold here. Every interaction between the characters references bust size, every mentor is trying to bang their students, and this isn't sexist but half the characters have really stupid speaking patterns. My brain is broken so I have to finish the series for closure but it's torture. This is accurate. It's sexist enough that I can't quite bring myself to buy it, and my library only had a few books, so it will forever remain unfinished, taunting me.
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Feb 22, 2022 05:17
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Fireteam Delta was pretty okay.Cicero posted:Will Wight's response to Branderson's insane kickstarter (currently past $16m): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjoQate39Po I know it's not the point, but looking at his pie chart, I can't help thinking it's a really good thing none of his books are math or number heavy.
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Mar 4, 2022 14:49
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Darkrenown posted:Is this still the case? I went looking after finishing book 5 (which was great) but I can only find a few sample chapters from book 1 on RR. Nope. Kindle Unlimited demands exclusivity, so anything that gets moved there gets taken down everywhere else.
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Mar 24, 2022 00:22
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Back in book 1 of DCC they said people never make it past (or maybe to) level 12. So they sell tickets to rich people to live on floors 12+ while the dungeon is running and commit all the heinous crimes they want because normal laws are suspended in the dungeon. Or something like that, it’s been awhile.
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Apr 8, 2022 09:10
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pradmer posted:There's a big progression fantasy sale going on to benefit Uvalde shooting victims. The only one of those I've heard of is Dungeons of Strata. It's at best meh. It looks like most of them are on Amazon, so you can click the link and get the sample to decide for yourself. Let us know if any of them are any good. If you're looking for more Cradle, you're best bet is probably either https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42385/an-outcast-in-another-world-subtitle-is-insanity or https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36983/tower-of-somnus. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/24203/homicidal-aliens-are-invading-and-all-i-got-is Is a noticeable step down, but still fun.
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Jun 4, 2022 00:01
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pradmer posted:When does it get good? I tried it when it was still on royalroad and read until a chicken fought a fox and gave up because it was pretty bad up to that point. The chicken fighting the fox is the high point of that section. If you didn't enjoy the fight or anything up to that, you're not going to like it. Sorry, but good on you for trying something different.
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Jun 23, 2022 02:02
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Remulak posted:How the gently caress is Beware of Chicken so good? I don’t even read litRPGs or whatever and holy crap, hit on all cylinders. Between this and Joel Sheppard I can’t believe the amount of great content I’ve read on KU just in the last month. Amusingly, Beware of Chicken's author is as surprised as everyone else.
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Jun 27, 2022 17:49
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I'm going to admit that I didn't completely follow what was happening in Reaper. All the sections from the Lion monarch's perspective were completely uninteresting and I tended to skim them (something I almost never do) which didn't help. I think I'm going to have to reread it before I can read the new one.
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Jul 7, 2022 00:52
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Babysitter Super Sleuth posted:Re: Malice and Northstrider, them flipping on Lindon so quickly makes a lot more sense when you remember that the entire nature of being a monarch is deliberately choosing to be a big fish in a tiny pond. They *like* the situation they have, they want to keep it going, because nobody on Cradle can tell them to cut it out and the abidan are forbidden from telling them what to do. Lindon is directly and openly loving with their gravy train, if he forces them to ascend then they have to obey rules and follow orders and no longer be at the top of the totem pole anymore. Same goes for shen (who would absolutely hate living under the abidan rule and would probably get deleted by the judges the moment he tried to defect to the vroshir) and as far as sha miara goes, she’s 15 and has no idea what’s actually going on. Emriss is a tree and the 8ME have probably convinced themselves that they’re the exception to the “all monarchs must go” plan, same way they thought they could wiggle out of getting teamkilled by Penance. You don't even need to read Dreadgod to understand why Malice would be a villain. You just need to read her name. Or pay any attention to how she treats Mercy and the rest of her family. Malice has always been presented as a lesser evil at best. LLSix fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 7, 2022 15:35
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I just re-read Bloodlines and Reaper. After that, the start of Dreadgod seems to introduce a lot of plotholes. Specifically: The whole theme of Reaper is that the team sticks together and advances together. Dreadgod, which starts the next day has them immediately split up. Even Lindon and Yerin go off to fight against different dreadgods on their own.. Nevermind that in Bloodlines the entire team fights against 1 (suppressed) dreadgod together and every single one of them is badly wounded just to annoy the Titan. It can't even be called a draw since the Titan wasn't meaningfully hurt, just tired. It could have easily finished them all off. The only reason Orthos didn't die is the dream technique that was used to make the titan forget it even held the turtle. We're expected to believe that Lindon and Yerin suddenly can solo stronger opponents? I'm 15% of the way through Reaper and I don't even know where the rest of the team is, except Mercy who's been not exactly kidnapped by her mom according to Pride. None of them have had any screen time yet. Lindon also seems to be making some extremely questionable decisions, after telling himself he shouldn't do exactly what he's doing. e.g. Early on he decides that he's not going to use any of the Labyrinth's stored power until he knows what it's for and how to replenish. Less than 24 hours later, he's suddenly using it to rescue random citizens of random Monarchs. The same Monarchs who refused to help him or Yerin save Sacred Valley from the Wandering Titan. He knows, and tells us, that he needs to be preparing to fight the dreadgods and the Monarchs, a fight where he'll be both outnumbered by and weaker than his opponents, and he's spending vital, irreplaceable resources to help strangers? Yes this is an objectively moral thing to do, and he's a good person for doing, but there's no in-text explanation for his sudden reversal. It's not even clear that what he's using them on is helping, evacuating cities after the danger has passed into a place that is very close to another dreadgod (the Wandering Titan) and has fewer resources, isn't clearly beneficial. Lindon even observes that he's not really helping all that much by doing this. Cradle is still one of the better cultivation stories, but I'm starting to think I'll be happier when it's over and the author starts a new series. It seems like the longer a story runs, the harder it gets to keep it internally consistent, and this one is 6 years old now.
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Aug 23, 2022 00:23
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I'm about a third of the way into Dreadgod, and I'm happier now. Shortly after where I was when I stopped, it started addressing some of my concerns. I still think the ordering of events isn't the best, but at least the other characters are getting some screen time and focus now.
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Aug 23, 2022 18:37
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I think VR stories and looper stories benefit from the same approach to death. It works best when the MC dies frequently, and so underscores the danger and difficulty of what they're doing in a way other stories can't. It also works well when it's incredibly chill and relaxing and the lack of real consequences is an intended part of it's charm.
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Aug 30, 2022 14:20
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Darkrenown posted:Book 2 was so boring I never started 3. Does stuff actually happen in it? My experience was similar. Except that while it did get better, it didn't get enough better for me to want to buy new ones when they came out. I was disappointed by how they taught the kids to do magic. They have these awesome weird powers, and 90% of the time they use them in really straightforward ways to kill people. I was really expecting more outside-the-box thinking after they talked up how awesome the training they were getting was. More stuff like the storm mage learning to redirect lightning near them would be great. Less of the bone girl making boring bones to stab people with.
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Sep 26, 2022 03:06
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Hiro Protagonist posted:Anyone read Virtuous Sons by YB Striker? It's a cultivation novel in a Greco-Roman society, and I'm enough of a dweeb that sounds appealing. Good but not great. It’s worth a read. There are a bunch of historian jokes if you are familiar with ancient Greek and pre-imperial Roman culture.
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Oct 15, 2022 02:06
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Hiro Protagonist posted:With how many progression fantasy/cultivation novels there are, it seems like, outside of Cradle, the ones that people recommend are parodies more than the actual things. That's kind of why Virtuous Sons sounded interesting: while I want it to be original, I would like something that took itself somewhat seriously. The only other ones I ever hear are Mage Errant and Mother of Learning, both of which feel like edge cases to the genre anyway. Maybe give World of Cultivation a try? It's one of the better "serious" cultivation stories. That still makes it a long step down from Cradle. Forge of Destiny is on KU now - give that a try first. I bounced off the start five times, but once you get into it, it's good.
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Oct 15, 2022 20:49
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Captain Monkey posted:Street Cultivation was decent too. That’s the one where the MC starts off as a human punching bag for higher level cultivators, right? I liked the start of Street Cultivation but bailed shortly after the MC inherited a relative’s debts. Death clears all debts. I did think the cultivation leeches were clever, but the story just kept breaking my suspension of disbelief after that; it seemed like the author hadn’t done even cursory research on how important plot points worked in the real world so couldn’t provide the narrative framework to justify why things worked differently in the story. Tower of Somnus (proglit, not cultivation) did a much better job of underpinning the awful cyberpunk setting.
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Oct 17, 2022 04:06
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