u/greenskye

Currently on chapter 56 of the story. I really liked the first part where Alex was just making cities. I was totally on board for a fluffy fic of a completely OP dude effectively playing a massive game of making sandcastles.

However it's now giving off similar vibes as Brockton's Celestial Forge to me, not the techno babble part, but the part where the MC is completely horrible at communication and reacting to things and also doesn't think much through, and as such basically makes everything 1000 times worse for themselves. And then has the classic worm trope of nothing really allowing for a win, where even seemingly ok actions are poisoned to turn out shitty after all.

Does this fic eventually go more towards the happy/power fantasy/wish fulfillment side of things or is it firmly on the side of canon Worm as far as general vibe and 'things get worse' goes?

Many Worm fanfics feature the MC rebelling against authority and obviously canon has this as well, but I'm looking for fics where this is a bigger movement.

Entire departments or all of the wards or all heroes everywhere walking out. Or maybe regular people finally growing tired of the cops and robbers games and turning on capes in general. Ideally this is more of a political/PR disaster rather than simply a Cape being too powerful to control. You know that moment in Harry Potter where the entire school rebels against Umbridge? I want something with a similar vibe but applied to the PRT/heroes/Alexandria/etc. Not necessarily kid like, but a moment where all faith in authority is broken and everyone or nearly everyone just rebels.

Longer/completed fics preferred but I'll take anything. Currently reading Legacy of Enginseers which I thought was going to go that way for a bit but I don't think it will. The more extreme/over the top the mutiny the better.

System Apocalypse is a sub genre of the litrpg space, usually having an all powerful system show up on earth, introducing everyone to classes and status screens. Wondering if anyone has attempted to cross this with Worm's already present superhero apocalypse(ish) scenario.

Or if that isn't available, any other Worm + other apocalypse genre. Moonshot by ShaperV fits this theme by having the moon exploded and about to cause a nuclear winter. Maybe there's a zombie apocalypse fanfic or Matrix style fanfic or whatever. Just something else in the mix combined with all the typical Worm issues.

There's a ton of fics with OP MCs that go on to solve all the problems and usually they save Dragon along the way. However in basically all of these fics, Dragon's abilities while fully unlocked are totally outclassed by the OP MC and are mostly useless or at best a semi powerful side kick level.

Are there any fics that basically deliver on the idea that a fully unlocked Dragon would be able to do a lot more, such that she is the primary force that fixes issues?

Could be a fic with her as the MC (or an SI that becomes her) or an MC that's weaker but somehow manages to free Dragon anyway.

Preferably a longer fic and I'd prefer if the fic doesn't just imply this would happen but actually reaches this part of the story (no incomplete fics that never get to any part where Dragon is the badass).

Trying out BCF despite it's rather checkered reputation. I'm currently on chapter 30 (Crescendo) and generally enjoying it so far. I don't mind the slow pace or the constant power theory discussions (actually enjoy those). The one thing I'm struggling with is just how mentally broken Joe is, specifically his crippling cowardice when it comes to anything people related and his inability to even attempt to even think about (let alone work on) his mental issues. He's just figured out aura and now I'm slogging through pages of him struggling to even contemplate it, let alone actually try to address the issue.

In my opinion the author is too good at writing about mental hang ups and it's like pulling teeth to me reading through those sections.

All of the complaints I tend to see about this fic complained about the pacing and the technology theorycrafting, so I wasn't expecting this much focus on mental issues. If the 'slow pacing' also applies to Joe's near complete inability to be human, I'm not sure I can continue. Google searches seem to imply he gets better, but aren't clear on when that is. Can anyone give me any milestone chapters of when Joe makes character growth breakthroughs so I can have an idea of how much of a slog I'm looking at? Maybe if I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I can power through or skim the mental freakout portions?

It's a pretty common trope in the Harry Potter space and several other fandoms, but I don't think I've seen many do over fics especially that don't have an alt power or something. Anything out there like this?

Preferably completed, or if not then a decent way through the plot.

The earth has been subdivided into various 'regions', about on the size of a smaller US state. Each area has a human from that area get to pick which genre convention to follow. This all happens simultaneously and you have no idea what your neighbors might have picked.

Your task is to pick a convention like 'murder mystery' or 'urban fantasy' or something and your local area will be altered such at the most common and well known cliches of that genre now happen on a regular basis. If required, the local area will also be entirely altered such that it matches the typical genre environment (i.e. an isekai area would have medieval towns and monsters with adventurers and magic, a sci-fi world would have futuristic buildings and tech, massive overcrowding, etc)

The genre you pick has to be one that currently exists, is decently well known and it will follow the most standard and cliche aspects of that genre (or subgenre). It is not based off of a specific work (i.e. not marvel or DC, but 'generic superhero world')

Travel between zones is possible, but the longer you stay in a zone, the more you'll slowly adapt to that zone, losing any powers or tech or abilities you had from another zone. Major incursions or conflicts between zones will not be allowed by the ROB, or at least not permanently.

What genre do you pick, what cliches and tropes does it have and why did you pick it?

One of the things I love about fanfiction is how you can poke at the absurdities inherent to the source media. The meta structures that come from needing to keep a story going, or making sure your plucky main character is still the star of the show.

Things like how comic book heroes are not allowed to actually progress the world to a better state (because it's supposed to be a relatable world), how they can't actually permanently catch the villains (you can't remove a fan favorite antagonist like that). Or how all the adults are useless in kids stories, because the kids have to be ones to solve the problems, or how nothing is really allowed to go right (at least not for long) in a grimdark story, or the reverse where nothing truly bad happens in a childrens show.

To some extent this is present in most fanfics, but I'm looking for the more extreme examples, fanfics where a major focus is poking at or otherwise running the plot counter to what the source canon meta would require. I just love to see the friction that creates in the source characters and world.

One of my favorites for this is With This Ring, which focuses heavily on prodding some of the absurdities inherent in the DC canon universe. I've also read a fair number of Harry Potter and Worm fanfics with similar ideas. And I've read at least one My Little Pony x Xcom fanfic that had an interesting set up having cute ponies deal with ravening hordes of homicidal aliens.

I'm looking for two things:

• New tropes to explore for this type of content that I haven't thought of or encountered yet. Maybe something poking at the absurdities inherent in romances? Or mysteries? Basically new search terms to look for this kind of content
• Actual fanfics you'd suggest that have a heavy focus on this sort of thing. My current muse is superhero fanfics, but I'm open to anything. Maybe anime? Would prefer it's more than a one shot, and I tend to favor OP/wish fulfillment style fics as well, but we'll see what's out there.

The way I see it, most of Cauldron's schemes only work because of PtV. It's conveniently able to anticipate every move and even in the rare cases it can't, it'll tell you that it can't, making you aware of the blind spot.

Are there any fics out there that create a *true* PtV blind spot, one that Cauldron cannot detect and therefore cannot mitigate? Thus leading to them being blindsided by one or more of their shady experiments massively blowing wide open into a PR disaster for the PRT?

There are a ton of PtV blind spot fics, but most of the ones I've found focus on utilizing that to let the MC build up a power base before Cauldron can stop them. I'm looking for more of a political screw up, where Contessa doesn't know to stop several incriminating events from happening because Cauldron is so confident in PtV that they had no backup plan for it failing to give them warning. Basically hubris causing their downfall (or at least putting them in the hot seat)

Now this could still be bad for humanity, it's not like Cauldron was doing this just to be evil, but it's hard to justify that to a screaming public who finds out about some of the shit they pulled.

Anything like that out there? Longer/more complete fics are better, but I'll take anything even a short story.

Looking for fics for anime that, in canon, feature a protagonist that is too shy or socially awkward to actually pursue the girl and (often) doesn't use his powers to the fullest.

Looking for fics that feature that anime story, but now with an MC that doesn't have the canon-MCs timidness and will use their powers to the fullest.

I have no issues with the original anime (I watch a lot of them), I'm just interested in fanfics that attempt to see how a more strong willed, or more socially adept MC navigates through the plot and how the story (and progression) might be broken by an MC willing to exploit every opportunity to it's fullest.

My favorite example of this was a Mushoku Tensei fanfic that replaced the original man that reincarnates as Rudi with another person, one without that original soul's trauma and issues. It followed what someone with Rudi's magical talent might accomplish when they were more driven and more socially adept. It was an interesting alternative path.

Are there any progression stories out there that follow the idea of progression through increasing levels of automation? Your basic survival/automation/rts (sort of) style set up where a singular character boot straps from mining rocks by hand to building thousands of units and massive automated production lines to effectively be a one-man industrial super power?

I just really like the loop of bootstrapping up to bigger and bigger things via building little pieces of automation (automating getting wood, then stone, then crafting basics, then moving goods around, etc)

Anything like that exist?

Example:

This doesn't apply to most stories because it simply doesn't come up, but I really hate it when a character is given the ability or option to alter their appearance and they just say 'Oh I look fine, I don't want to change anything'. This is especially annoying for characters meant to be self inserts, as that level of total self confidence in your appearance is anything but relatable to me.

Recently been reading God of Trash by Noct and it's one of the very few stories that actually address this well. The MC gets a minor shapeshifting skill and his immediate reaction to it is thinking of the dozens of minor tweaks he'd make to his form. Which was just so refreshing to see. It didn't specify specifics or anything, which I think is the right move, but it also didn't pretend that they were totally perfect either.

Which story has handled your pet peeve well?

Hey everyone, looking for some honest opinions.

I'm self-publishing my first LitRPG novel in about 4 months, alongside the audiobook (which is already signed with a solid publisher and voice actor).

My plan is to go wide instead of KU. The reason is I've been publishing on Royal Road and built a small but loyal readership there. Going KU means stubbing the story, and that feels rough on the readers who've followed me chapter by chapter.

So the question: is it really that bad to release a LitRPG outside of KU? I keep hearing readers basically live inside Kindle Unlimited and won't touch anything that isn't in the program. Is that true across the board, or is there room for wide releases in this genre?

Readers, would you skip a LitRPG just because it wasn't in KU? Authors, has anyone gone wide and made it work?

Appreciate any honest takes.