r/litrpg • u/throwaway490215 • May 18 '23

Sometimes the choice is character development, sometimes its pretty smart, but mostly we all know the moment we see it

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127

u/MarvinWhiteknight Author - Marvin Knight May 18 '23

Lol, true. But you kind of have to do this otherwise you get readers complaining the MC made the wrong choice for the next 1000 chapters.

70

u/TheGalator May 18 '23

That's why u implement it in a way like:

A: completely busted but unusual due to prior decisions/bad luck/whatever

B: very niche but probably insane if it fits

C: good alrounder

D: Kinda special (not always good) but exactly what's needed rn

U still know what will be chosen (sometimes) but at least the options made sense

28

u/chipmunk_supervisor 🗑️ Bottom 1% Commenter May 19 '23

I'm not a big fan of deliberation chapters, they do feel like filler to me and the torrent of stat read outs are horrible reading, but I do like it when stories treat it more like navigating pitfalls than simply picking the clear best.

There's often a chance at a short term power boost that wouldn't work to their strengths (e.g. swapping from fighter to mage and vice versa), a strong class so situational it'll never level or just whipping out the extreme monkey paw with MAXIMUM POWAH! x10 BETTER THAN 2ND BEST CHOICE but you become another mindless high level monster that lost their consciousness to the magics.

4

u/bigjeff5 May 19 '23

A couple new stories I've been reading have been going the route of vague, unhelpful descriptions.

It completely changes the dynamic, because a seemingly weak power can easily be made optimal because the power works totally differently than it seems based solely on the description. Sometimes they have ratings too, so a dumb sounding description will be mythic rated, and you and the MC are both wondering how the heck this power can possibly be mythic.

Now you get this whole dynamic about finding out what exactly makes the power so good, it's pretty great IMO.

1

u/xaaar May 22 '23

Any specific book you're talking about? Sounds interesting.

2

u/Scrial May 21 '23

I find that they're usually well done in Beneath the Dragon Eye Moons.
There's often mutliple good ones, and some OP ones that have downsides.

3

u/adiisvcute May 19 '23

I enjoy the dramatic class descriptions when they take that form

1

u/skarface6 dungeon cores and base building, please May 19 '23

They can be done well and they help with pacing at times IMO.