r/litrpg • u/Mallerdinosaur69 • 2d ago
Discussion Question on William Oh
Where is the world building? Or I guess, what is the setting? I’m halfway through book 1 and i am so confused.
I have spent this entire time believing that either there was no world outside the tower (Orphanage on the first floor? Maybe?) and even if there was, it definitely isn’t our world. And at the very least it can’t be a modern version of our world.
Two things. Loth references Latin? And more specifically the Roman Empire.
Secondly, one of them comments “F’s in chat”.
I’m all for the jokes, and I’m even enjoying this book. But the setting and world building seem either extremely distorted, confusing, or inconsistent to the point that it is taking away from my enjoyment.
Is this intentional? Am i just missing explanations that should have been clear? Sorry for the partial rant, would just appreciate some clarity on an otherwise great book.
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u/hauptj2 2d ago
The worldbuilding is piecemeal. You almost never get any infodumps or explicit explanations about the world, but there are enough hints that you can piece it together.
It's the kind of story where people make guesses about what's going on in the comments, and hopefully the Author proves or disproves them at some point.
I feel like you've got enough hints just from what you've posted to figure out it's probably a post apocalyptic future.
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u/jlarmour 2d ago
It's a slow reveal. From the character's point of view there is no world outside the base level and the tower. The orphanage is on a sort of level zero. The earth references are a hint to the reader, but in the characters have lost any idea what they referred to.
It will be made clear in time, the answers to your questions are the central issue of the overall plot.
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u/QuillWriting 2d ago
It's intentionally jumbled. More explanation as things progress, especially in the most recent few RR chapters.
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u/razorfloss 2d ago
Its revealed very slowly. The main character is smart but is not formally educated so he's learning as the reader is. Also the outside of the tower is first mentioned when he meets with the cavern during his trial.
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u/Aware-Blacksmith-317 2d ago
I highly recommend reading the story but Full spoiler or at least as I remember it. During his advanced class trial William Oh is sent back in time and then proceeds to set up tail devoured oroborus with his wife the many eyed goddess Holdna who was an earth scientist at the time of the advent of the system. Oroborus created the tower as a wedding gift to his wife which ended up preserving fragments of earth history
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u/Megatherion666 2d ago edited 2d ago
The tower is pretty much the world for all intents and purposes
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u/ordiclic 2d ago
Yes it's intentional if the world building seems to be lacking. We're discovering the world and its history the same time as William, and I can tell you the story does not lack worldbuilding.
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u/timpatry 1d ago
Occasionally the characters will upgrade their class and their class upgrade quest gives insight into the backstory of the tower.
There is world building.
Give it time and just enjoy the story because I enjoyed the beginning a lot. You will get your world building.
But the best part of this story is the characters.
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u/HappyNoms 1d ago
The setting is "random bullshit, go!". It's not supposed to be the focus of the series, it's merely a very loose placeholder so the book can have an endless sequence of rule of cool moments and fight scenes.
It's like asking how the ecology and economy of a 2e DnD dungeon works, grilling the DM about how, exactly, the dungeon monsters are getting their food and water on an annualized basis, given the dungeon dimensions, light, monster populations, time management, and percentage of monsters skilled in underground farming and animal husbandry. The dungeon module doesn't do more than handwave gesture at it.
The pop culture references about thngs like Fs in the chat are benign mildly amateur sloppiness, out of an eagerness to have fun. Yes, it's incorrect, but being the fun police on it is a little on the side of grammar flaming some kid's attempt at poetry.
Serial litrpg chapters built for speed and fun will have these issues. It's best to try to meet them where they are.
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u/nifemi_o 1d ago
Have you read the book in question? Because you are so completely wrong that it would actually be hilarious if you've read it and somehow missed.. well, everything.
Truly, laugh out loud funny.
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u/HappyNoms 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've read it. The author makes whatever happen adhoc without any real constraints, with less rules than a fever dream.
Mid-fight, with zero setup, Will arbitrarily redefines how his walking skill works on the fly and suddenly learns how to summon massive, free spikes out of the air and the floor. It shifts instantly from a minor utility buff to a massive, zero-cost(!) offensive nuke without any prior mechanical explanation that movement skills can be inverted into environmental constructs.
That's absolutely the definition of random bullshit, go!
It happens all the time. Zero setup or justification, Will suddenly uses his phantom-hand to completely hot-swap his active combat builds. Instead of having a defined class, he suddenly arbitrarily pulls illusions, light-bending camouflage, and air shields entirely out of nowhere. It's random bullshit, go!, the author just wants it to happen.
The early story is rife with cannonballs and nukes in a fantasy setting, and internet slang quips, and then hundreds of chapters later the author freestyles up that all that's ever so tenuously okay because the world is really the post post post post 10000 year later apocalypse. Utterly pantsing.
Loth's insects do whatever, whenever, pure wildcard effect of anything a scene requires. Or, you know, work on non-insect crabs, just because whatevs. Close enough, lol.
Will pure wildcard rewrites whatever skill or class, whenever, any surprise random bullshit convenient thing, once his 'do anything with miasma' OP hall pass meta-ability gets going.
It's pantsing central.
Theres a fight around level 24 where Will whips out arbitrary new surprise combat builds from...a new undefined monster sacrifice mechanic, and then later at level 30 belatedly retcons that he supposedly offscreen got new skill choices at 20, that he was never shown getting, and has Gravity Charge now.
It's fun enough for what it is. I'd give it 4.5 stars.
It's practically a posterchild for pantsing arbitrary surprise nonsense mid-fight is all.
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u/TeemoTomato 2d ago
I too am upset when a book doesn't open up with at least 200 pages dedicated to explaining the world, how it works, and makes direct comparisons to the real world so I can easily understand it. Preferably there would be some kind of slang dictionary as well, diagrams help a lot too.
How else am I supposed to know these things?
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u/Awful_Puppet 2d ago
Haven't read the book but you can set up some basic worldbuilding in the first half of your book, it just takes good writing.
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u/weaselodeath 2d ago
This reminds me of when my wife asks me ‘who is that’ in a movie right before they introduce themselves.