Weekly roundup 1/11
Added 2026-01-11 21:18:53 +0000 UTCThis Week You Get A Question - Preferred Early Power Levels
I've been catching up on reading the big names in progression fantasy and litrpg, while also sorta keeping an eye on modern Royal Road trends. Right now, everyone loves archmages, for example. In the past, it was more warriors, but those stories escalate power quite quickly and you still get the 'aura farming' and 'glazing' of the MC that recent archmage stories have quite early. I've found it interesting how quick the progression is in some of the classics. By the end of book 1, for example, stats that started at 10 are already in the hundreds. Characters are often bulletproof, can survive impalement, and are already taking on dozens or hundreds of enemies at once; combat is happening in mere seconds. It seems to me this accentuates the power fantasy aspects, but reduces tension. Other stories move a lot slower with accumulated power, which has higher tension and often forces characters into more creative choices, but there's less badass moments.
I'm curious as to what sort of power progression people like more in the early stages of a series (e.g. book 1 or 2), and I've tried to make a poll that reflects what I think the trends break down into. But if there's something I'm missing, feel free to let me know that too!
Also, here's the chapters that came out this week:
Extra-Advanced Tier
Chapter 279
Chapter 280
Advanced Tier
Chapter 269 (part 2)
Chapter 270
Comments
I think what I enjoy most is the trickster archetype. I think that’s what I actually like about Cradle are the early books focused on characterization and world building with humor where there’s cosmic irony that ppl misperceive the weakling as strong bc of the weakling’s cunning. Everybody loves an OP power fantasy here and there (which is why the Aethan chapters work great but even then he’s a trickster god archetype, killing with mischief ) but that’s not *interesting* and isn’t what drives the plot. Which is why grindfest is unsatisfactory (and the later Cradle books which try to get all serious—boo! Continue to pull pranks!). I really liked Mage Errant for the same reason. Not progfantasy but Lies of Locke Lamora I enjoyed too. I guess mischievous fun is my fantasy but that’s doesn’t mean the payoff in those books isn’t power fantasy—just more explicitly that the little guy wins one over on the powerful through wit😂 Pale Lights and Surviving the Succession are my other top recs for RR.
George
2026-01-22 19:47:00 +0000 UTCThanks for all the insightful and detailed replies!
UraniumPhoenix
2026-01-14 17:34:06 +0000 UTCFor me, rather than the actual strenght of the mc, what really matters is percieved power, and the concequences of their actions on others. If your mc battles godlike monsters all the time but nobody is there to witness it and it has no impact on society, then it isn't really interesting. I would rather get a not so powerful but resourceful mc with a lot of agency, one that gets others curious about them and makes waves around them with their wits. My favorites chapters are often POV of people investigating or speculating about mc. Glazing is fine but in light doses only, the mary suing in max level archmage is a bit too much for me.
Ronan Cadoret
2026-01-13 15:59:22 +0000 UTC
