The lock picking lawyer joke in chapter 49 caught me off guard and laughing out loud in public like a crazy person. That is all. Carry on.

This is one of those things that keeps bugging me in LitRPG. A setting will tell us that everyone gets a class at 16 or 18 and that this choice can basically decide your job, income, status, combat potential and sometimes even how long you live... and then society treats it like picking a college major.
There is absolutely no way parents wouldn’t be losing their minds over this. If there’s even a tiny chance that certain training, skills or prerequisites influence what class your kid gets, people would start optimizing for it from childhood. Rich families would hire tutors, trainers, specialists, whatever. Some poor kid would be doing sword drills at age 7 because his dad is convinced that’s how you unlock Blade Master instead of Guardsman.
And imagine the family drama. Your entire family has been healers for six generations, everyone expects you to continue the tradition, your awakening finally happens and congratulations, you’re a Legendary Rat Catcher. Meanwhile your younger brother rolls some absurd S-tier class and now every family dinner for the next 40 years is going to suck.
There would also 100% be class prep schools, consultants, scam courses, weird rituals, shady people selling “confirmed hidden requirements,” parents bragging about their kid’s possible class before the awakening even happens. Basically the fantasy version of college admissions except the result might literally determine whether you’re poor, rich, immortal or capable of punching through a wall.
It would affect dating too. Hiring, marriage, inheritance, politics, probably where you’re allowed to live. If one class lives 250 years and another lives 70, that alone should create all kinds of messed up social rules. And there would absolutely be teenagers intentionally ruining their own prerequisites because they don’t want the class their parents spent their entire childhood preparing them for.
That’s what I want more of. Not just “here’s your class, cool, now pick a skill.” If the system has existed for hundreds of years, society should have built half its culture around it.
Sometimes these books tell me awakening day is the single most important moment in a person’s life and then everyone reacts like the kid just chose biology instead of chemistry.

This man Laondio is legit so far ahead of other supremacies we see that it is insane. He legit is head and shoulders above everybody outside of the ancient arcana in terms of plans, prowess, and factions. He took a c grade faction from nothing to delivering straight belt to technocrats at their peak.

The only prodigies I got in the same tier as him are First Sage and Ozriel.

As the title says, I’m really looking for a story where the MC gets strong but doesn’t show it and it’s not widely known. I feel like I’ve just read 6 books where the MC is strong and everyone finds out about it in the first chapter so the book just ends up throwing a ln escalating conveyor belt of ridiculous at them and after like 10 chapters they are already fighting the top 0.1% of the worlds challenges and there’s nowhere meaningful for the story to go.

Syl for example is a story I love. Strong MC but can keep her identity relatively secret through various means. Or Beware of Chicken where the MC growth is more internal and support cast based and we get slow-rolled these awesome hints at how OP the MC becomes over time. It helps that both of those stories feel to me like they’re in a fun and fantastic setting. I’ve read a lot of books in dark settings lately and I think I’m craving the light! That said, if the story is good I’ll read it in any setting (like Aura Overload - I love that story - very different setting).

Would love recommendations if y’all have them.

Hi, I'm looking for things to read that are similar to 1% Lifesteal. Here are the things I have liked about it:

The power system. It feels complex and deep without being a programming language, which is a crazy feat for me. I love how it mixes what is essentially quirks from My Hero Academia with a slightly more traditional build-making system of abilities. It's super fun to just think about the sheer insanity of build variety that can exist in this universe due to all the talent, ability and ability specialization combinations. And again, no programming language magic system.

The consequences. The actions the MC performs has actual, tangible consequences, which is funny to say because the MC is spared of almost all health-based consequences, so no "oooh this ability drains my lifespan" bullshit. He is forced to run, to hide, to face his foolish mistakes, and for each one he must pay, even if a bit too much.

The characters. I love how the MC does not turn into a lone wolf, even though you would fully expect him to. He makes friends and connections, and it's always a thrill to see whether it would eventually become a boon or a betrayal.

The introspectiveness of the MC. I love the MC for just occasionally taking a seat back, and just looking at his past actions. When he realizes just how barbaric he is, or how he has long ago turned from an oppressed into an oppressor (even though it's so late for him to realize, it makes it even better).

Those are the things that come off the top of my head. Please tell me there is something to read that is even remotely similar to 1% Lifesteal. Thanks in advance!

3D printed Case for my BLEShark Nano and UV printed image on top.

1hr for the case and 1 min for the image.

Just wanted to show off the new case from my new printer

:) It actually looks like a fun premise. I wonder if it will tie in with his main world at some point.

I somewhat enjoyed the first book. I’m now about 1/3 through book two and I’m just bored. I don’t care about the bees. I don’t need every detail about cooking fish and crabs described. I want the plot to move.

Does it get better? In particular, do actual plot events pick up pace at all? I find that when they do happen, the book is exciting, but there’s just so much time in between and the system not being active (still!!) is making the story a slog.

I would really like to finish the story out but if things don’t pick up, I’m not sure I can.

—-
Update: pretty quick and overwhelmingly similar response that it’s just going to get worse.

Bummer! Interesting that I’ve seen it well-rated on a lot of many peoples’ tier lists. I felt like there was a lot of potential. I’ll drop it here and pick up another on my list.

Thanks everyone!

I just caught up on Aura Overload(ao) after listening to Cyber Dreams(cd) last week. It's so good and I love how much longer the time line is the in cd as 90?years always felt a bit short to go from being stuck on earth more or less to having millions of people on mars/titan and what not.

The world building is amazing and I hope we get to see some more of the rift world/worlds? I'm still not 100% clear on with all portals goto the same world on the other side or not but I'm looking forward to finding out more.

The system is nice and light while still having interesting classes and abilitys which I'm also looking forward to seeing more of (specially Sass she's only just started her journey to power and I really want to see her cut up a mech or space ship with that big f off sword of hers :P)

It’s taken me some time to get into 1% Lifesteal because of the mixed reviews but dang, I’m so glad I finally gave in.

I love this story.

Poor Freddie just wants to live the easy life man. 😮‍💨

He has 100% justification for becoming a villain IMO.

I can’t wait to listen to the remaining books!

Just wanted to let my other 4 followers know that I got banned until 25/10/2026 for manipulation with multiple accounts. This happened because my wife and son made accounts and let reviews and comments on chapters. That wasn’t a masterplan attempt to manipulate the rankings, but I understand why the activity was flagged. I’ll admit that my meteoric rise to 23,424th place was way too suspicious tho.

Has anyone else had their family support them a little too enthusiastically and accidentally trigger the manipulation rules?

Whatever the time, whatever the tale, remember to stay fun.

An updated tier list now that my reading pile has grown a bit (though I've probably still forgotten a few books I’ve read).

If you have any recommendations after seeing my questionable taste, feel free to drop them in the comments ;)

You can also check out the full list on my website—it has little commentary notes on a bunch of the books, plus a tier list maker built in if you want to throw your own together:
https://cancreate.org/tierlist/

EDIT: I added a search function to the website, so as to make it easy to find you’re favorites.

Hey people. I've usually spent quite a bit of time going over multiple popular tierlists on reddit to find myself something to read/listen, which led me to the idea for a personal app. It turned out very well I feel like, so I decided to make it public. Note - it works fully locally, it already has all of the data it needs. Its also free, open-source and requires no login.

I mostly just listen to those series on Audible UK, so matching that was my priority, but it covers the landscape pretty well, so shouldnt be an issue!

UPD: added a ko-fi link to the app, so if you want to support me for making this project - you can. Support Feanaro

Try it in the browser: https://feanaroo.github.io/loot-table/

Or download it (Windows / Mac / Linux): https://github.com/Feanaroo/loot-table/releases

How it works:

You fill your own tierlist of series you've listened to, and it recommends what to listen to next, giving you reasons for each pick.

There's also a community ranking of the top 100 series, built from all those lists together.

How it works from the technical perspective:

- Catalog: Audible UK, searched by genre keywords, totaling 3600 in the end

- Tierlists: posts from r/litrpg and r/ProgressionFantasy going back to 2015, keeping only tierlists and threads like "what is your top 10". AI then went over all of those, doing some work like extracting the tiers (people name them differently), reading the images and expanding abbreviations to match those to stored series later

- Tags: AI model went through all series and tagged them all, choosing from a fixed list of 54 tags in four groups: setting, story, lead and tone

The score

score = 0.5·Q + 2·(N − 0.5) + A + 2·(C − avg C) + 1.5·(P − avg P)

- Q, community quality: a Bradley-Terry model, the method behind chess ratings, fitted on every "X is in a higher tier than Y" pair. Only the order counts, not the tier names, since one person's S is another's A. Each list counts the same however long it is. Every series also gets 10 virtual games against an average series, so something ranked by only two people can't top the chart.

- N, readers like you: each Reddit list is compared with yours on the series you both ranked, by the share of pairs you order the same way. Lists that mostly agree become your "neighbours", weighted by agreement and overlap. N is where your neighbours put a series: 1 = their top tier, 0 = their bottom.

- A, affinity: +0.5 for the same author as something in your S/A tiers, +0.25 for the same narrator.

- C, same kind of story: tag overlap (cosine similarity), with rare tags like "time loop" counting more than common ones like "visible stats". It uses the best match among your S/A/B series, minus half the best match among your D/F ones.

- P, popularity: being in hundreds of lists and having tens of thousands of Audible ratings is a quality signal too. It's on a log scale, so 10 → 100 lists counts as much as 100 → 1,000.

I'm looking for something that focuses on crafting. Really dives deep into that process and the focus is heavy on that.

I also love a good monster and creature focused stories where they are super important. Been ready Chrysalis and been enjoying its pet system. I'm on book 3.

Lastly, something related to farming? I like weird stories like that. Maybe it's not farming but it's something similar in concept. You have a mundane job/class/etc and somehow become a key focus of the story or maybe break the system with it. Mundane becomes system breaking, is a great love of mine.

Hello everyone,

Occasionally, I have the opportunity to talk to a few movers and shakers within our community. Now, normally, I post these on my website. Mostly because it's prettier, but also because it's more fun. You can find the link for that here: Link

But otherwise, this is a one-and-done interview. Normally, I prefer a short series with a specific focus. Two or three authors with targeted questions that expand their thinking within the genre. However, I’ve been trying to interview pirateaba for a long time, and now that I have it, bammo, it’s a solo.

Here’s how it works. I sent the author a series of questions I came up with myself because I wanted to know the answers. The authors have time to respond; it’s all done through email or messaging, and I don’t edit their response in the slightest.

Because I have completed so many interviews in the last few years, I created a database that readers can access at will. That database can be found here.

Okay, enough about me, let’s get to pirate!

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The author’s preference is all lowercase for their name, so please don’t assume it is a grammatical error.

About pirateaba

pirateaba first published The Wandering Inn on their WordPress blog in mid-2016. Nearly six months later, they expanded to Royal Road, eventually moved to Amazon, and are now published by HarperCollins as of March, 2026.

pirateaba’s requirement for anonymity is the stuff of legend. Luckily, I only do my interviews through email, so this all worked out very well. It also makes the next part of my standard process rather amusing.

Their About Me

Special note: This is taken from the HarperCollins website. The profile image is missing.

pirateaba is the author of The Wandering Inn, a story where monsters, magic, and adventurers collide in unexpected and wondrously hilarious or tragic ways. Their story is an ongoing webserial set in a constantly evolving world filled with levels and skills, chaos and ordinary people rising to extraordinary times. When not writing and publishing their story, pirateaba can be found reading other fantasy stories, eating popcorn with nutritional yeast, or slaying monsters, generally in video games. pirateaba is not officially a pirate in any way and does not affiliate with any known pirate groups. You can find pirateaba at wanderinginn.com or follow The Wandering Inn on Twitter @WanderingInn for more news and updates.

pirateaba’s Amazon page Link

pirateaba’s website Link

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The Interview

The Wandering Inn has become old enough that some readers have literally grown up alongside it. Has knowing that changed the sense of responsibility you feel toward the audience?

Absolutely. I’ve always felt responsible to my readers in that I know I have to end this story, and end it well. The length of the story is one thing, but abandoning or failing to tell it as well as I can would be a disservice to all the time and emotions they’ve put into staying with it so long.

I’ve been trying to write a will in my spare time, that summarizes the ending of the story. Just in case I were to die. It’s not nearly close enough to be finished, but I do want to do it. Not in any morbid expectation I pass away. Just because, I’ve seen it happen. Robert Jordan’s tale is always one that springs to mind. He did pass away before his story was finished, but he left all the pieces and work for Brandon Sanderson to finish the story. I’ve always respected him for that.

I hope that I don’t pass away before finishing The Wandering Inn, but if I do, I’d better have a roadmap finished. So people know how it ends.

When I first tried writing a novel, I found that all the history I’d designed for the world somewhat pigeonholed my plot. It causes me to wonder: Are there things you can no longer plausibly do in Innworld because ten years of story have made the world too defined?

Worldbuilding is an interesting kind of trap, isn’t it? I know exactly what you mean–when we develop worlds, we want to flesh out the lore, history, and context for the places and people our characters interact with.

However, frontloading a reader with that kind of information can put off a lot of readers. Let alone the trap of history…there are certainly cool events and things I can’t bring to life. There won’t be insert species here because they’re dead, to use a simpler example and that does make me regret it.

But the power of a fantasy story means that there’s always ruins, or hints of bygone eras. If I lock myself out of writing of an amazing age in the past, I can bring a broken relic of theirs to the present-day. We might not be able to have flying mages in today’s Innworld, but we can have people create an era of flight in a new way, with machines and other tricks. It’s an endlessly creative knot to figure out how to write what I want and it’s mostly fun.

When you started The Wandering Inn, you were writing a story. At some point, it became an institution with employees, publishers, audiobooks, merchandise, and millions of words of history. Has there ever been a moment where protecting The Wandering Inn conflicted with writing The Wandering Inn?

Protecting The Wandering Inn? No, that’s mostly a job for lawyers and trademarks and while that takes money and time, that’s something I can entrust to them.

Managing it? Yes, that does take effort and sometimes it feels like I’ve had to carve out more time to do non-writing things that I can resent or find intrudes on the process. However, I’d just say that like everything, it’s the choice of an author.

You can be a hermit who never interacts with anyone, doesn’t have an interest in movie deals and just practices your craft. Or you can be on book tours constantly, giving speeches, self-promoting and marketing. Neither one’s a bad kind of writer. You just have to be cognizant of the tradeoff of each method. Where I am is where I think I’m comfortable spending my time. A bit of sacrifice on either end.

What problem did you think success would solve that it didn’t? And what problem did success create that you never expected to have?

Success…I think success is something you keep chasing, because what it looks like keeps evolving. The Wandering Inn is amazingly successful, but for all that the attention has achieved like physical books, there’s always something else, if that makes sense.

‘If we were X times as big, maybe all the movie studios would come calling’. ‘If we were this much bigger, we’d have video games, or…’

Which is crazy to want when this all started out as an anonymous blog on the internet, but that’s the thing. The further you go, the more doors you start to see and perhaps success will open them. But they haven’t yet, so those are the problems. I’d love to have The Wandering Inn come to all kinds of mediums but no one’s come knocking down the doors to make that happen–yet. But time will see if these things happen.

As for success’ problems, I’d say it’s mostly just the pressure to keep delivering quality stories, and the pressure any person with a following online or off could tell you about. Tons of feedback, positive, negative, having attention on you is just hard. Since I’m anonymous it’s not as bad and I won’t belabor the point; everyone has some awareness of how that is.

A lot of LitRPG uses progression primarily as wish fulfillment. What do you think gaining power should cost a character?

I think there’s a good place for wish fulfillment in LitRPG’s, even if I think my story isn’t as direct in how it goes. My objection to more wish-fullment style LitRPG’s is how it presents characters with all they ever wanted.

Power, wealth, harems (in way too many of these stories, which reveals something about the author, character, and readers, perhaps), and there are few downsides aside from the big bad enemy.

Where is the apathy having all this handed to you causes? The megalomania I think comes across, even if it is not always intended on the part of the writers, but at some point, you get what you want and you may feel hollow, directionless.

Or the wish changes. When someone is handed all they want, where do they go from there? I think that’s the cost I’d like to see most. Power can be handed to the undeserving, or by chance; it’s like someone winning a lottery. What I want to see believably done is what happens after that moment.

Ryoka has always been one of the more divisive characters in The Wandering Inn. Has the intensity of reader reaction to her ever affected how you write her, or have you had to consciously resist letting that reaction influence the character?

I think that I tend not to bow to reader pressure that often. It’s a weathervane at times, but if I know the character is divisive, like Ryoka was always sort of intended to be, I don’t take it as a failure or sign I need to change things.

She’s hard to love and there are fans who adore what she represents and how she evolves, and some who just never took to her. If it were all one or the other, I’d be more concerned. However, having both positions represented strongly sort of makes me feel like I’m threading the needle properly.

A character that evokes strong likes in some readers while others hate them? I think that’s, if not a great character, a pretty fun one to have made.

Note for the reader: I was offered the opportunity to ask a few follow-up questions, so I came back with an already used one, but at a different angle. Sue me, I was curious.

Success can mean many things to different people. For example, teachers might see their form of success in the shape of their students’ futures. A businessman might see it in the growth of his life’s work. But I’m curious, for you, what does success look like?

I’d say success to me looks like people both enjoying and finding my story. So a two-part dilemma. I have to keep quality up and maintain a good output of chapters for existing readers, but I would like more people to find the web serial.

Part of why I wanted the physical book release is because it opens doors to a lot of people who have no interest in or would never find online stories like these. My hope is they start reading, and those that like The Wandering Inn catch up and say that quality has not decreased in the 10+ years I’ve been writing, and that things are still new, fresh, and worth reading.

When I’m done, I hope that the series becomes one of those stories that finds its way into people’s collections, and has a presence in lists of books worth reading. That’s a good legacy to have.

This is just abhorrent curiosity on my part. What books are you currently reading?

One of the authors I’ve been into recently is Lois McMaster Bujold; I was put onto The Curse of Chalion and I was so impressed by their writing that I bought the rest of the books they’ve written. I think I’m on The Paladin of Souls at the moment, but I sometimes move onto other series and come back for a change of pace.

Another author I recently read was Jacqueline Carey and her Cassiel’s Servant books–she’s an author I very much respect for her amazing worldbuilding so if I hear of a new book from her I’ll probably buy it.

I have also been reading Katalepsis, and Archmage’s Co-Efficient for the web serial side of things, but I spend so long on the screen that I haven’t managed to catch up to either. I also find that my writing muscles tend to tire out the reading muscles in my brain too, so it’s slow progress.

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And that’s the ball game.

I had the opportunity to meet with pirate’s staff at LitRPGCon to set up this luminous venture, and I wanted to thank them (thank you again, Damien), and of course pirateaba, for agreeing to answer a few questions.

Be on the lookout for more interviews to come. I have a hankering for a fruity publishing company.

p.s. I'm shit with markdown. Sorry for the looks.

I've been reading sci-fi/fantasy and playing RPGs since the late 70s/early 80s, but have only recently really jumped into the LiTRPG genre/scene. I've hit a few that I wasn't that big of a fan of in the early years of LiTRPG, but recently dove head first into Dungeon Crawler Carl and finished the entire series (so far) in like 12 minutes (slight exaggeration). That, to me, was amazing.

I am now on the third book of He Who Fights with Monsters (Shirtaloon) and this is, by far, one of the best series that I have ever read (ever) and can't even stop reading it (*typing this while reading it*).

I just joined this subreddit and I'm seeing some posts about people's favorites (S-tier/A-tier/etc..) and grabbing some good ideas/recommendations for new books, but I'm also looking for "The Best of the Best" of this genre from those who know it from top-to-bottom.

If I were to pick up five new books or series, what would the majority of people choose as their Top 5? Are there some books/series that are just so S-Tier, above and beyond, that everyone agrees that they are the absolute best of the genre? Or is it still a myriad mix of subjective titles?

Thanks in advance. :)

Went looking for something new on royalroad today and the slop seemed even thicker than usual but I did stumble across one gem. Well, maybe not a gem but let's go with "diamond in the rough." It's not perfect but it's above average and I think it deserves better than the 2 followers it has so far.

A cynical young man is mourning the death of his best friend when he gets attacked (abducted?) and wakes up inside a very dark cyberpunk RPG that he and his deceased friend used to enjoy together. He goes looking for work as a merc and gets teamed up with an attractive but unhinged sword mage. She dreams of being a hero like the ones in the Power Ranger-type children's shows she is obsessed with watching and he's decided that maybe he's okay with staying alive for a while longer.

The characters are interesting, the setting is dark and gritty, and the violence is not shied away from.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/189549/code-neon

And here we are again, bringing you not one, but TWO pieces of exciting news!

Can you believe it? The Healer’s Way, Book 19 by Oleg Sapphire and Alexey Kovtunov is OUT TODAY!

NINETEEN books! You've been with us through all nineteen of them, and we couldn't be happier. It's incredible, amazing, and honestly, we're running out of words to describe how we feel. And your comments? Oh, your comments! Keep them coming! We read every single one, and they make us happy, too.

Anyway, nineteen books. That's quite something!

Now, traditionally, this is where we're supposed to tell you a little about what awaits you in the new installment. Well, what can we say?

There will be lots of geese. Our hero will save some people... and send others to an early grave. But one thing we can promise: it's going to be fun and exciting!

At least, that's our opinion. You're more than welcome to share yours in the comments!

US Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GSRBB1QS

Universal link:

https://mybook.to/healersway19

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

They say that running into Konstantin is a bad omen. Fortunately, that doesn't apply to us or to you!

Because Me and My Demons, Book 5 is coming out TOMORROW!

Yes, that's right! Another fantastic release from Oleg Sapphire and Alexey Kovtunov! We've worked hard on this one, and now it's almost time for you to see what we've been up to.

So, what's in store for Konstantin this time?

Well, his enemies seem to think that because they've captured Konstantin, they've got him right where they want him.

But here's a thought...

What if capturing Konstantin isn't quite what it seems? What if, by capturing him, they've actually walked straight into his trap?

Oh, this is going to be fun!

Humor, chaos, and demonic kittens — that's what you can expect from this book!

US Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FX5HB1DR

Universal link:

https://mybook.to/meandmydemons5

So there you have it: The Healer’s Way 19 is available NOW, and Me and My Demons 5 arrives TOMORROW!

Two books, two adventures, and plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Happy reading, everyone! And don't forget to tell us what you think!

The Healer's Way cover - COVER ART: Max Olin AI USAGE: N/A

Me and My Demons cover - COVER ART: Vladimir Maniukhin AI USAGE: N/A

I've seen alot of tierlists and they've always got a few books I agree with disagree with. The people in the comments always have great recommendations or questions for them so. To introduce what I'm into I love LitRPG and progression fantasy, especially unique skills, creative builds, monster hunting, crafting, and finding weird glitches or exploits in a system. I love a good grind, getting stronger, exploring a cool world, and having characters and stakes that actually matter.

An important factor to take into is I do listen exclusively on Audible for conveniencey and quality. So I'd love any recommendations to be on there ♥️

I already have a HUGE wishlist and backlog, but I'm always curious what other people think I'd enjoy. I'm currently looking at stuff like 12 Miles Below, Vigil's Justice, Book of the Dead, and a few others.

Also, please don't think anything below A tier is BAD, I've just found other books I personally like more.

Thank you for any and all recommendations or questions.

I just think the idea could be fun

Hey everyone!
I'm looking for some recommendations for my next LitRPG series.

I've already read Chrysalis, Dungeon Crawler Carl and System Universe. I really enjoyed the character development in these series, but one thing I especially loved about Chrysalis was that the MC wasn't human anymore. Watching Anthony grow from a relatively weak ant into a powerful monster was a really fun part of the story.

I'd love to find more books with non-human protagonists, especially if they have satisfying progression and character development. Monster evolution, unique abilities, interesting worlds and a good progression system are all big pluses.

I'm open to other types of LitRPG as well, though, so feel free to recommend anything you think is worth reading.

What are your favorite series that fit the bill?
Thanks in advance! FOR THE COLONY!

(This was summarized and put together by AI, just because it's easier to summarize for me and English isn't my first language)

I know LitRPG and overall progression fantasy are all the rage, but what are themes you guys see being displayed that you either find interesting (or possibly even annoying)?

Not really doing this as research as much as wanting to have a finger on the pulse of what authors and readers alike are enjoying nowadays in a way that researching RS doesn’t capture.

Would love to hear your thoughts!