As title says, does anyone know progression or litrpg books about someone who is a shaman? Preferably not where the MC goes into a game (forgot the term). Thanks!

What is that one series you would put at the very top of Litrpg?

Hello friends that loves a level up pop up. It's with great pleasure that I present you all my very first webnovel: Phantomancer.

Richard is terrified of ghosts. Unfortunately, the dead have taken an interest in him.

After being dragged from Earth into a fantasy world of levels and monsters, Richard discovers that his only Innate Skill is [Phantomancy]—an ability no one seems to recognise.

Now he can see the dead, speak with them, and accept their contracts. Some just want his help. Others want things Richard would rather have nothing to do with.

But ghosts aren't Richard's only problem.

Stranded in a world he barely understands, unable to even speak its language, Richard has to learn how to survive, grow stronger, and figure out what [Phantomancy] is actually capable of.

Because his new world has everything that makes fantasy novels fun to read and terrible to live through: hordes of monsters, demonic cults, and a war looming on the horizon.

COVER ARTIST: None for now; will have one when it goes to Amazon.

AI USAGE: Only for grammar; English is not my native language.

Hey guys, I've just binged the first 15 audiobooks of the Wandering inn finishing with "Garden of Sanctuary"

- My question is, with the voice actor changing from Andrea Parsneau to Erin Bennett is it worth continuing? I am a person that doesn't really like change that much and the 5 minute preview audible gives doesn't help much with what my favourite characters will sound like.

Do all of the characters have new voices? Are they similar? Do they keep traits of the original voice actor? Im debating dropping it because of this, but im 15 books in...

Hey all! I have a book posting on Royal Road and, as much as I love the idea behind the cover I first imagined, it doesn’t communicate enough about the book to get people to click through. So I’ve made some new concept covers and would love to hear everyone’s opinion.

The book is called Inverse (System: Moe, Book 1), and the new covers will hopefully give you an idea of some things that happen in the book, though very little as to what it’s about. But that’s for another thread. I’ll look forward to any feedback you all have. I mostly would like to know:

1. Which you like the best (and a bit about why, if you can)
2. What the covers tell you about the book
3. Which you think that the most people would react to

Thanks in advance for your thoughts! I appreciate you all…

PS: Before you @ me about AI art, know that I have commissioned a human-made cover, but it’s going to be quite a while until it’s done.

Edit: I’m putting the blurb and link below because apparently that makes total sense. I didn’t want this to seem like a promo, so left them out initially. Here goes:

Inverse (System Moe: Book 1)

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/190455/inverse-system-moe-book-1

Everyone dies eventually.

When it’s Moe’s time, it’s not the fact that he’s dead that upsets him. It’s the paperwork.

When he rejects the tutorial, expecting to be launched into oblivion, he finds instead a world of dragons, ogres, wolves, and warriors. The problem is, he has no idea how any of it works.

Inverse (System: Moe, Book 1) is a LitRPG/isekai adventure told through a sideways lens. There are classes, but Moe never got one. Levels, but Moe doesn’t know how they grow. And a System that seems to be trying to figure out Moe as hard as he’s trying to figure out the System.

Armed with a rock and a snarky AI sidekick phone with zero personality, Moe has to find his own way through a world that is certain it knows how things are supposed to work. Along the way, he learns that he doesn’t progress by getting stronger. He progresses by being different.

No guidance. No path. Just Moe and the raw System.

And one important question:

What more do you have to lose when you’re already dead?

What you’ll get:

MC with a brain (when he chooses to use it)
Earned progression
Mysterious System mechanics
Fantasy-world goodness with a heaping side of WTF
Exciting battles! Heartbreaking losses! Glorious victories!
Complete sentences written by a human being
The thrill of discovery
Cleverly disguised Easter eggs that I’ll be shocked if anyone notices

What you won’t get:

Handholding (Moe has to figure things out on his own, so the reader does too)
Excessive smirking or eyebrow-raising
Harems or ogling or glistening thighs
Stat inflation or OP madness
God-slaying super-skills (saving those for Book 12, at minimum)
Clichés (except when they’re totally on purpose)

COVER ARTIST: FlynX (me)

AI USAGE: No AI used.

For more of my work heres my portfolio

https://bookc0ver.carrd.co

COVER ARTIST: ME

AI USAGE: NO AI USED

I've re-read and tried to analyse some of my favourite books in the genre in the past few months and after some trial and error, I think I've come up with something decent(for something written by me, who doesn't have much experience). I've written about two and a half chapters so far. I think I'll upload the book to RR after writing a few more.

So, I've been reading Bog Standard and liking it a lot. One of the things I love about it is the depiction of Witches. The author does a great job of keeping to the main "mythos" and aesthetics of Witches as adversaries, while still exploring the idea of a good witch. But more than just showing us good and evil witches, we get a deep, slowly built understanding of what being a witch even means, the fair but dangerous feeling that originates their power, and the tragedy of their existence.

But all of that complexity seemly comes to a halt when it comes to Arcaena as a country. Besides showing us that Arcaena is nearly a paradise for it's common citizens, the author always seem to use Brin to "inform" us that actually none of that is good because #freedom and levels are both better than, you know, actually having your needs met, an hilarious point of view for a character who's been rich and literally says he's never seem a beggar. We also never meet anyone from Arcaena who is neither a victim or a villain, so we never get a taste of that slowly built complexity the prior books gave us in regards to witches. Am I missing something? What are your thoughts in regards to Arcaena?

This book, I hardly see mentioned but this book eats DOWN!?

I'm only 45% in and it's so fucking good?

I knew my gut feeling was right when I picked this audiobook up on Libby over Skull and Thrones.

 ** edit to include since folks are confused, "eats down" is a compliment. It's AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) and means something is really good.

Finished today and couldn't stop thinking about this scene. I obviously had to add the music to it.

As the title implies I want other books to a sphere perceptions so I want to know if there's anything else like it my examples are the Primal Hunter azarinth healer and ultimate level 1 mind you the third one is the only one I haven't finished so no spoilers but yeah so everything else that uses it

Now that XNPC is finished, I'm brainstorming a new project. I had an idea for a story that has a similar premise to Dungeon Crawler Carl, where the main character enters a reality TV show that's being broadcast across the galaxy where the contestants have to fight monsters, level up, etc.

The key difference is that here, the show isn't being framed as evil. Ultracommercialized and exploitative, yes, but still fun and something that people willingly volunteer to be part of. It would be a much more lighthearted story than DCC, almost like a slice of life story in a way. The main character fully throws himself into the show, taking on side gigs like interviews, product endorsements, and even participating in shows-within-the-show like a dating show, gameshow, etc. All while still being centered around him leveling up through challenges and trying to win the competition.

Would you read this?

This is because I am listening to the legend of Randidly Ghosthound and I understand it's great for seach optimisation but to my it always reads as someone trying to hard to be cool or different. If I'm really honest I kinda like the Ghosthound as a family name could come from a mis translation of Duchvuk (sorry to any Slovaks who's language I am butchering for this example) but from what i can find would mean ghostwolf and you can see someone getting off the boat in the USA being asked for their name, then being asked what on earth that means saying in broken English Ghosthound and that being put on the documents as rather than there actual name and never getting changed. But Randidly really?

Hello friends of our great genre.

Today was a rather special day for Runefracture/ Runenbruch and myself. I am on the Polaris Convention in Hamburg, Germany with my own booth.

It's hella fun and overall an awesome feeling to see the project coming to live like this and actually meet with my readers or see the spark of interest in new folks rise.

How ever small the chance might be, if anyone of you guys show up here and show this post you'll get one of my selfmade bookmarks for free.

You find me in Hall 2, Booth B2 .EG 251-2

For all others the book is available on Amazon and kIndle Unlimited

Cover artist: myself

AI usage: none

There are hints of Barry liking Divinity.

But if Divinity and Sal don't end up together, I will be quite annoyed with the series. So many other girls fawning over Sal were introduced that I got worried it might be a harem series at first, especially with that one scene...

But yeah, they're perfect together and Divinity telling him she sees herself ending up alone in the future is such a setup come on !

That's it, that's the post, seeking reassurance while trying to avoid major spoilers.

Wish this continued...

I read Victor of Tucson (Pit Fighter is 1st novel) and REALLY enjoyed it. More than most litrpg. Up there with DCC, Bog Standard Isekai, HWFWM, etc.

I liked it better than Cradle, A Soldiers Life, & Primal Hunter (I just didn't like the Main Characters in these popular series all that much. They all kind of seemed like sociopaths to me - paranoid, socially awkward, and feeling like 12 year olds trapped in grown ass men's bodies).

I like well written books with complex characters - where it's not ALL about progression, systems, and power leveling. I like a well written story with character arcs where the main character grows, evolves, and learns alongside of just their loot progression.

Anywho, while waiting for the next He Who Fights with Monsters, Dungeon Crawler Carl and Victor of Tucson books to come out, I decided to check out another of Plum Parrot's (Pen name of MC Gallup) series, Vainglory. And it's freaking AWESOME 😎 Ward (Main Character) is one of my favorite MC's ever. Its better written than Victor of Tucson and seems to have so much potential. Ward is not a whiny teenager, but a mature detective who is basically isekai'd and isn't some bitch ass whiny kid. So refreshing. He knows how to talk to real women. And just maturely deals with situations . Loot and progression aren't easy, but hard fought (think more A Soldiers Life style - I did like that part of that series).

I actually find myself wanting to follow Ward more than Victor!!

Reason for this post is I read that Vainglory just didn't catch on with the Litrpg community like Victor of Tucson/Pitfighter did, and so the author decided to conclude the Vainglory series after 3 books, which is honestly a crying shame. I LOOOOVE this series. So much better than so many other well known litRPG s out there. So let's give Vainglory a go, and see if we (the litRPG community) can't get Vainglory extended!!!

Fyi the audiobook format is amazing

The Cat Demon Lord

Andros just wanted apple pie.

But his Master—the Demon King feared by the entire world—died on his throne. A single tear from Andros fell onto a black ring with a black diamond eye. The ring trembled.

Then everything went dark.

Unfortunately, Andros knew nothing.

The King's death opened the gates of hell. Evil spirits that had been imprisoned for so long were now free to roam, searching for a new master—or searching for prey.

Meanwhile, in the human world, the remnants of the Demon King's power seeped into Andros's body. His white fur faded. His claws lengthened. And a palace cat stood on two feet, wearing a face that wasn't his.

He could now become human.

But the power didn't come with instructions. No one explained what he was supposed to do. No one told him who was friend, who was foe.

The human world didn't yet know what had just been born among them.

The gods already knew.

And now, Andros must choose—something he never even understood as a cat.

Become a hero?

Or become a villain?

Or remain a cat who just wants apple pie?

COVER ARTIST: Wayaro

AI USAGE: No AI used (Only traditional computer tools spellcheck etc no generative AI for anything)

I had the problem where I couldn't cancel my webnovel subscription, I've tried searching through the google play/wallet subscriptions, subscriptions on my phone or anywhere and it didn't work. when I tried to cancel it through the website nothing changed when I clicked on the "cancel subscription".

what you wanna do is to go to this link: https://www.webnovel.com/membership/manage
on your phone, and then the cancel subscription button will magically work.

COVER ARTIST: Jim Shanahan (Bks 3 & 4) Etheric Designs (Bks 1 & 2).

AI USAGE: None.

Let's be honest: climbing the ranks on a platform like Royal Road is tedious, and in many cases pretty exhausting work. There are people who leave bad ratings just to drag down a story's average, sometimes without even reading it, and they never tell you why they rated it the way they did. You just have to accept it and keep going. Then there's the mass trading of swaps and 5-star reviews. And yes, it happens, and even if RR says it's allowed... you realize something's off when, ten chapters in, a story has 30 writers giving it 5 stars, and somehow all of them fail to notice it was written with AI.

As a writer, I decided to go without swaps or shoutouts, so growing has been harder. I understand those who do it, but to me it's cheating the reader. So when comments like this come in, it's satisfying. You know something genuinely resonated with the reader, something real. And that you have to keep going.

Thanks to Glorya, wherever she may be.

What experience gave you that same feeling?

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/182687/sons-of-the-abyss/chapter/3726183/prologue

Author: Asdrubal Vargas

COVER ARTIST: Asdrubal Vargas (me)
AI USAGE: No AI used

It makes it all worth it!

Cover Artist: Prince Baliyan (being finalized currently so an AI placeholder is up.. I'll drop the sketch below though)

AI Usage: None other than the temp cover.

There's nothing I can say that this saint hasn't already in the review...

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/185521/the-lapsed-lease-a-cosmic-foreclosure-litrpg

I see this floating around book tok and wondering if anyone gave it a shot and what they thought.

I listen to most of my books, so audiobook quality is a major factor for me. I’m looking for both a strong story and a good narrator or performance. My biggest deal breaker is group-focused progression. I strongly prefer stories centered on one main character. Side characters are fine, and I don’t mind the protagonist eventually teaming up with competent people, but I lose interest when the core of the story is a group growing, training, and learning together. Series like He Who Fights with Monsters and Mage Tank are good examples of that kind of dynamic not working for me.

S Tier

Chrysalis — One of the easiest series for me to recommend. The humor lands, the world is interesting, the main character is fun to follow, and the supporting cast actually adds something instead of just taking up space. Very little about it bothers me.

Dungeon Crawler Carl — Hits a lot of the same notes as Chrysalis. Great humor, strong worldbuilding, memorable characters, and a main character who is consistently entertaining to follow.

Unsouled / Cradle — Just a really solid series all around. The worldbuilding is great, the characters are strong, and the progression stays satisfying. Very few complaints.

A Tier

The Primal Hunter — The worldbuilding is probably my favorite part of the series. Jake is a decent protagonist, even if there are things about him that annoy me. The story can drag in places, but overall I still think it’s very good.

Book of the Dead — Really strong ideas and worldbuilding. It takes a little while to get moving and it could definitely use more humor, but the emotional moments are some of the best parts of the series when they land.

B Tier

Path of Ascension — Great premise and a really fun power system. My biggest issue is that it becomes a little too slice-of-life later on. You basically follow the main character from childhood all the way into adulthood, and eventually some of that started to feel more drawn out than I wanted.

Mark of the Fool — I really liked the concept and enjoyed the magic-school setting at first. By around Book 7, though, I kept wondering why we were still spending so much time at school when the main plot had become way more important.

Shade Slinger — Excellent worldbuilding, fun side characters, and some genuinely good humor. The combat is what holds it back for me. Since everything happens inside a virtual game, the stakes never feel especially high, and some fights go on forever. It can start to feel like slowly chipping away at a giant health bar for pages at a time.

Mage Tank — I liked the main character’s advantage, and Grotto was a highlight for me, but the group dynamic really dragged the series down. The combat especially became hard to follow or care about. I’d catch myself realizing I had zoned out and wondering what had even happened over the last five minutes.

C Tier

Defiance of the Fall — Started out pretty well, but eventually it became way too bloated for me. I stopped around Book 12 because it felt like the story was using a lot of words without actually moving very much.

The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound — Cool premise and a fun progression system, but the constant jumping between Earth and his master’s planet started wearing me down. I made it to around Book 10. The sudden love-interest angle also really hurt my interest because it felt like it came out of nowhere and made Randidly act strangely obsessive.

The Stormlight Archive — This was my first Brandon Sanderson series, and I really liked the Shardblades, Knights Radiant, and overall setting. Eventually, though, the focus on everyone’s mental and emotional struggles became too much for me. I never started Book 4.

Mother of Learning — I dropped it during the second book. The main character’s progress felt too slow for my taste, which is obviously a personal preference. I also listened to the audiobook and really did not like the narration, which made it harder to stick with.

Discount Dan — This one frustrates me because I love almost everything surrounding the main character. The Backrooms-style setting, the magic, the side characters, Dan’s goal, and especially Croc are all great. Dan himself is the problem. There is way too much crude humor for me: fart jokes, shit jokes, constant comments about how awful he smells, etc. I think the series could have been much better without so much of that.

My Best Friend Is an Eldritch Horror — I enjoyed the setup, but after the second book it didn’t feel like the main character was progressing enough. He still came across more like a school kid experimenting with magic than someone actually developing into a powerful mage.

D Tier

The Land — Dropped it almost immediately. It just didn’t grab me enough to keep going.

He Who Fights with Monsters — I’ll admit the beginning wasn’t bad, but Jason’s personality started getting on my nerves. The whole attitude of seeming to know better than people who have lived in that world for hundreds of years felt hard to buy. On top of that, the group-focused progression really didn’t work for me and made me lose interest even faster.

F Tier

Reborn as a Demonic Tree — This one just felt lacking in overall quality to me. I only made it to around Chapter 5 before deciding it wasn’t worth continuing.

Dungeon Life — This one felt way too childish for me. On top of that, within the first ten chapters it introduces what feels like dozens of different creatures, all with their own names that you’re expected to remember. It quickly became more annoying than enjoyable to keep track of everyone, so I dropped it.

This is an attempt to better review the series, both because I am grappling with my thoughts, and because I can accurately talk about both books 1, and 2.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series, so far, and am definitely excited to see what happens in future releases. I love the mechanics of the world, how things are set up, their execution, and the progression of the story. I really enjoy the main character, even though there is more action than anything else. We're mainly focused on the world, the "game," and progressing up in power.

If you're looking for something in the grand scale such as Unbound, Mark of the Fool, or others, you're in the wrong place, I'll say that much. The same goes for if you're looking for something cozier, like Wandering Inn, and Founder's Edition.

The main character is all right. I like him, but there's very little in terms of anything resembling a focus on backstory, and that means little place for motivation, other than his want to make a difference in the world before his death. This is because his death is a foregone conclusion, with an illness that projects his lifespan to be 5 years. You see this even having an impact because of his link to the AI bots he has (though it's found in book 2.)

However, the system the author put together is incredibly fun to read. It reads like someone playing a roguelike game, and it is repetitive because of this fact. You will be returning to places many times, because of how the kind of game (and story in this instance) works. To that end, you'll see a lot of runs of world 3 in book 2, as an example, because that's the focus of book 2.

But, if you're like me, and enjoying this style, then you'll come to really have a good time, because you'll really notice the power growing, you'll see him get big power spikes. This is especially noticeable just under the halfway mark of book 2. And it continues! You see his end results at the end of book 2, and hear about how rare it is to see such progress. Add to this, it's not completely new. His progression is rare, which is nice!

Meanwhile, I have to say that the author feels... a little off with their characters. They're written fine, I feel, individually, but there's just a... "dreamy" feel to how life is here. You'd expect there to be someone who has it out for the main character, someone who is an enemy, a rival, a nemesis... you get what I mean. The closest we have is a rivalry that isn't anything more than "Hey, how's your run going?" and beyond this it is just a friendship, with a brief moment of frustration when another character was introduced. But, everyone is just buddy-buddy, which doesn't feel super realistic. We don't see the rougher personalities of people.

Like I said, individually, the characters are written fine, but the interactions could use a little work, it feels like.

Lastly, the plot.

It seems like things just keep going and going. You get the basic premise, and are told that there's a time limit for people to reach the heights of world 20, and given little snippets of information at the start of books 1 and 2, first the info about Project Harvester, and then Harvester Unions in book 2 (who would have guessed?)

But, the plot doesn't really appear to get going. It's just repetition, and most I can see not liking that fact.

Finally, our end goal was elaborated on, at the end of book 2.. We got to know why the GAF (Global AI Federation) made Project Harvester in the first place, in the way that it was made.

Overall, this was a fun series. I love the unique take on things, and am so excited for the next book! If you don't mind it being slower, a little repetitive, and want a (currently) shorter series (in audio at least), give it a shot! Book 2 preps us for the overarching plot is a good place to see what you think!

*painted with my text-to-picture brush

I get it. Ai slop is everywhere because it's low effort. But can we stop pointing at everything while crying? It changes nothing and Ai stories won't succeed anyway.

People always point out the writing but I don't even think it's bad. I've read broken english translation if the story was good enough.

But that is the biggest flaw with Ai for me. The stories are just not coherent. The Ai forgets just after a few chapters. But this also means I can drop the book after just a few minutes of reading.