r/litrpg

COVER ARTIST: N/A

AI USAGE: None

I know what you're thinking. Who the hell uses a 2 star review to promote their work? But read the review - it's excellent.

It's for the recent release of my very first book - Overpowered Murderhobo Book One. I set out to create a true murderhobo type character, and the review makes it clear that I did.

It's "Exactly as advertised" for a start. The review highlights and details exactly what you're getting and though the reviewer only gave me a 2 star, it's because they just didn't enjoy it - a fact they put down to my MC having 'fewer lines he isn't willing to cross'.

But they did also read it in one sitting. They say they wouldn't have finished it, but for that. Now, I don't know about you guys and gals, but I would never be able to read a book in one sitting that hasn't gripped me in one way or another, even if I ended up not liking it overall!

This reviewer didn't enjoy it (though he detailed everything right with the story from my perspective! - it is a murderhobo afterall), and maybe some of you might check it out and have the same feeling, but I think there will be more who enjoy it than don't!

As of this post, the book is at 4.6 stars on Amazon after 86 ratings, and 4.55 on Goodreads after 55 ratings.

If this is the kind of OP character you're looking for, or the review has you intrigued, you can find the book here, to buy or download on Kindle Unlimited: Overpowered Murderhobo Book One

Blurb in comments!

(Mandatory I'm uncomfortable with self-promo but I know it matters here.) Hello, does getting a book signed matter to you? Because I'm offering them in limited amounts, anyone who pre-orders The Wandering Inn: Book One, Part One that HarperCollins is publishing can make their claim. It's part of a Kickstarter-style campaign I'm running here:

https://wanderinginn.com/inncentives/

If you want a signed bookplate you can add to your book, the numbers ARE limited and I'm hoping to hit the New York Times' Bestseller's list so I can show my family. It's very selfish, but it'd also be great to see and it's a nervewracking thing, trying to hit big number goals. I get pre-orders not being very fun to do when you can just walk into a bookstore, but I have been told repeatedly that it's good to get bookstores ordering more copies of your book and the NYT lists count pre-orders and like the first week of sales for their lists.

The business world is hard to parse and it feels like it's very difficult to enter as a web serial writer. Like I said, it took me a long time to find the right company since most didn't understand LitRPG/webserial and I think part of that was because the industry started noticing the popularity of the genre. (That's also due to Matt Dinnimen's Dungeon Crawler Carl series doing so well. A rising tide lifts all ships and he's also shouted out The Wandering Inn, which I'm hugely appreciative of. I hope he keeps leading the charge and I wish him all the success and sympathy; being the forerunner has to be tough!)

Here we are now, though, and if you ever wanted a copy of TWI, I'd really appreciate you buying a book. And I will sign some bookplates though we are going to cap how many because...my hands. There's more than signatures; we have twenty 'levels' of rewards that I'm offering the community to show I am thankful and want to give a bit back for all their support. And one silly Level 100 reward my agent talked me into offering...

Obviously numbers matter for business stuff, but I really just want to hit the list to show my grandfather. He's the last of my grandparents and the first physical book I get from HarperCollins I'll sign and send off to him right away. If I could get on that silly list I think he'd be very happy to show everyone. He's always been proud and supported me since he heard about my story and he reads it as best he's able to even now. He gets the web serial world a bit, but the list is something he and the other people in his retirement home would recognize.

Either way, we made it to working with one of the big publishers and I'm eternally grateful to my readers. We are changing the publishing industry, even if it's a mix of new and old systems, as ever. Here's to more writing; I have other book series I want to publish and maybe I'll take some time and write a few I've had knocking around my head sometime. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you see my book in a library someday.

--pirateaba

Dominion of Darkness is an IFstrategy/RPG text game (there are some 2D illustrations) in which the player takes on the role of a Sauron-style Lord of Darkness with the goal of conquering the world. He will carry out his plans by making various decisions. He will build his army and send it into battles, weave intrigues and deceptions, create secret spy networks and sectarian cults, recruit agents and commanders, corrupt representatives of Free Peoples and sow discord among them, collect magical artifacts and perform sinister plots.

Here is the prototype (but in this post I am searching for people to test new, extended and improved version): https://adeptus7.itch.io/dominion

I am looking for people eager to help with playtesting - especially fluent in English. You will play at least once (one gameplay lasts about 1-1,5 h, because game is very non-linear and supposed to be be replayble), send me Your opinion, information about possible bugs, some details about stats achieved during it.

If You are interested, please write comment here or just send me Your email on chat.

PS. If You don't believe that game exists and think that this is some scam, here is one of the reviews of the prototype:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNpSKToOSg

And here is fansong made by one of the players: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mPcsUonuyo

Alright, honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t seen a Reddit post about this already given how most of us are authors and how big the Discord is, but we need to stop recommending RRWG “The Guild” to new authors, or anyone looking to dip their toes on Royal Road or writing online. This post is going to be rather inflammatory, but it’s purely me trying to make my case that we stop recommending The Guild as the “go-to” server.

Writing servers are literally a dime a dozen, I seem to be collecting them like Pokemon lately. Even the author-specific servers I’m in have a spot for “writing chat” or “industry chat.” I could recommend some, but I don’t know if the owners would like me putting their server here considering what I’m about to do. 

First, let me set the stage a little bit. This all started when someone in The Guild who went by NovelNinja was outed as being a sham editor. This person and I have already had issues due to his pretentiousness, and I am not the only one. Personally, when I had my run-in, I said some very un-buddha-like things to him and promptly received a light dressing-down. I was told he’s been very active in the trad community for a long time. 

It turns out his editing experience is mostly fake, and he used AI to do it (snore another post about AI - but wait, there’s more!). On top of this, he pushed (repeatedly, from the screenshots I’ve seen) a website known as AuthorMedia where it charges you $9 a month (simply to stop bots from joining) to join. 

This isn’t really news, this has been on r/progressionfantasy before here. The post has since been deleted by the mods. I’m hoping this one ends up being allowed since I’m doing more talking about a dev editor charging people to use AI. Discord is rather huge to most (a lot?) of authors on Royal Road. Even the ones at the very top have a Discord that they’re in. “The Cabal,” as it’s sometimes referred to, but it’s mostly just authors hanging out like usual, plus there’s a fair bit of LARPing.

People get scammed with editing all the time. I was told I was scammed as well by someone who edited some of my work. (I had a suspicion it wasn’t all above board, but then one day I was outright told). My point is, it sucks but it isn’t news. 

The problem with NovelNinja, Mrs. Ninja, and AuthorMedia is that it pushes a very distinct, disgusting and outright evil viewpoint that I don’t believe any of us share. At worst, the website (and the individuals listed) promote outright fascism and nazism, and at best, some alt-right view points that bring a lot of the same energy you see from people screaming about why there isn’t a white pride or straight pride parade. Screenshots

Blog post source

NovelNinja, aka Matthew (this is information he gives out and is linked to anything if you even just search “NovelNinja,” I’m not doxxing anyone) and Mrs. Ninja, aka Lori, even on their personal accounts promote hate, bigotry, and just being disgusting human beings. 

He apparently is also quite a fan of the original Sad Puppy himself, Larry Correia. I personally didn’t know what a Sad Puppy was until someone called The Guild’s owner a Sad Puppy apologist in my DMs and they shared this Reddit thread. AuthorMedia itself has done full interviews with Larry.

Mrs. Ninja has a personal blog where she sets out to right all the wrongs in the world with cringeworthy memes in between sections and rants that are, again, disgusting. Here’s an article that I was shown that’s especially heinous.

There is good news! NovelNinja has been banned from the various Discords I’ve seen him in. He pointed this out in one of his posts that I personally found, well… Here. Calling people jihadists, even “Butlerian Jihadists,” thanks to Dune, is a whole new level of yikes. And yes someone with these views should be called out and “cancelled,” in my opinion.

The above screenshot was pulled from a much larger article where he posted names. I’m not sharing the link to the website itself because to my knowledge, these people would rather not be named and they didn’t consent to having the screenshots shared. I’m told there’s been concerns for a while about calling him out because people were worried about him retaliating in a callout post of his own in his personal network. 

All the while behind the scenes, the server owner was communicating with NovelNinja. Telling him everything about the process of banning him, who is doing what, what's being pulled from where, and explicitly apologizing to him that this is happening. The previous blog post was posted by NovelNinja the day after his ban on AuthorMedia.

So, what’s the point of all of this?

When this all first came to light, RRWG’s owner hmm’d and haw’d about dealing with the issue. Even after an outcry from their own mod team. Since this has happened, a few people have stepped down as admins or mods, and some have outright left the server. I’m not going to say I know the specifics as to why, but it happened right after all of this came to light. 

There was also talk from the owner of outright banning the whistleblower cause he’s a dang troublemaker. From what I’ve seen and heard, that was only the owner and one or two of their friends (and perhaps NovelNinja). 

He asked, and offered to leave if the owner would like. The owner declined.

Now, this all happened about a month ago. The stage is set. 

Last night, the owner DM’d the whistleblower and asked if he would still leave amicably. The whistleblower said he would leave anywhere he wasn’t wanted, but it would not be amicable. He stuck to his guns and believed anywhere someone like NovelNinja and those of his ilk are, he didn’t want to be. 

Before he left, he sent the same message to a few channels, every instance of which was promptly deleted:

“So, I’ve been asked to leave by the owner of the Discord (For those unaware, that’s Dagrun, not Milc). This is due to me outing NovelNinja for faking his editing career, selling AI as a dev editing tool, and being a bigot. I have zero interest in staying somewhere I’m not welcome, so I’ll be heading out.” 

From there, the night became uncomfortable. The owner gave one or two warnings, and then outright banned some notable members of the community who all have glowing reputations as people who are more than willing to help newcomers. This list includes: Srsli (Arcane Chef), Fiddlesoup (Lazy Loops: An Idle LitRPG, among others), Sib (Revenant - Power Stealing Hero), and Solomon Abraham (Overpowered Murderhobo, Beastmaster Healer). 

A few other sizable authors, including Magius Swiftscale (The Apprentice of Ouroboros, others), were threatened with bans, but ultimately survived the wrath. 

Here is Srsli’s last message on the server that earned him a ban. 

As readers, you’ve probably all seen these names on RS or even KU / Audible. As authors, you’ve probably seen these people in the relevant Discords (including RRWG) always willing to help and always more than friendly. 

Finally, we have this from another admin who fully backs up the owner about everything. That includes allowing NovelNinja to stay, banning the initial whistleblower, and everything else. 

Ellembri does have a point. It is the owner’s house and what she says is law. Even if she doesn’t follow her own rules. The point of the server was to have a community, though. A community where the authors of Royal Road could gather, network, and help each other out. 

Honestly, the people of RRWG are great. The whole of the Royal Road community is amazing. Everyone I’ve ever interacted with, even “trouble makers,” have always been more than willing to help those just getting on their feet find their foothold. The server as a whole reflects that, but having someone so power-crazy go wild with a banhammer at people simply asking for some clarification of a situation just isn’t it. 

Here are the screenshots I'm allowed to share. It’s everything above and so much more. It’s everything I’m allowed to share of everything I’ve seen about the people above and the RRWG drama. There has been a ton that I’ve been asked not to share for obvious reasons, but man… everything is just… it’s a lot.

Amitabha, my friends… 

(TL;DR for those that don’t want to read the chapter - NovelNinja is a terrible person, and somewhere between alt-right and possibly an outright nazi. He is apparently friends with Dagrun, the owner of RRWG “The Guild” who violates her own rules about giving warnings and just outright bans notable people in the community for questioning why something happened in a server built on helping and growing the space.)

Be safe this 4th and if you do blow your finger off there are cool bookmarks out there

Hi everyone @ r/litrpg! Tis I, Wuto, using my monthly to show off the newest art (cover) of Volume 16. The RR chappies just hit a big milestone, and new art arrived!

The series, of course, is Metaworld Chronicles.

Bao cooked so hard with the last art batch I just... had to share it. (The scenes are all reader-voted)

/Dogeza

For this repost, first, allow me to apologise to the reader who was deeply offended by Bao's art, as voted for by my readers. I have told my 11k followers that they are a bunch of degenerates! I have personally texted Bao and told him that our contract is henceforth annulled and that he can abandon his art and use ChatGPT to feed his family.

/Dogeza

If you are one of the 8k viewers who laid eyes on this travesty. Allow me to self-censor and present only art suitable for innocent eyes.

/Dogeza

I immediately attempted to examine said reader's history to see what kinks I had horribly offended and whether it was at all possible to donate to the man's chosen charity, only to find that he had hidden all his posts! His comments?! Truly, our ardent moral crusader cannot be judged! For he (or she) is the one who judges!

Your humble author has only posts and comments on LitRPG/progressionfantasy, a Reddit front-page cat-hat image, and a Flickr front-page photography win from 2016.

For readers who are in the mood for PURE HOPE, off-meta LitRPG about Theatre, Tragedy (by Shakespeare that is), and accidental education, come read my new book! We have sing-alongs!

I am serious, its about theatre...It's 1000 pages long already!

COVER ARTIST: Bao
AI USAGE: Nope! Nada!

I saw this on their Facebook page. Thought I post it here if anyone was interested. The first 11 books are free to listen to on soundbooth app from now to July 12th.

Boxxy is on the loose and ready to wreak havoc on the Soundbooth app! The first eleven volumes of Neven Iliev’s Everybody Loves Large Chests are available on the app for FREE between now and July 12. Jeff Hays’s magnificent narration skills are on full display in this irreverent series, which also features performances from LitRPG greats Annie Ellicott, Justin Thomas James, garyfurlongvo, Dorrie Sacks, Johnathan McClain, and more! Grab this tasty loot at the link in the comments while the getting is good.

SYNOPSIS: Large chests are said to encompass all manners of hope and dreams. Men covet them. Women envy them. But one fact holds true ― everyone wants to get their hands on some big ones.

What happens when one large chest in particular decides to flip the script?

Content Warning: Gore, violence, and explicit sexual scenes.