DONE Walpurgisnacht: A LitRPG Tale

Discussion in 'Works in Progress' started by Yuli Ban, Apr 30, 2019.

  1. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Paul Chain and the Automaton have decided to become great adventurers, but are underleveled and need a quest if they want to reach the endgame. The mission: receive a locket. But as they prepare their quest, they come across a murder scene. And the murderer is a gothic elf named Malfiore. Malfiore wishes to join the Black Saturday witchcult, a guild of black magicke assassins, warlocks, and witches, and is willing to do anything to foster dark powers. As their paths lead to the same destination, they decide to join forces, though Chain and the Automaton are perpetually unsure about their dark friend's alignment.
    Their quest takes them on an pirate ship in the sky and through wizard-infested mountains, but the world is a gaslamp fantasy where they begin noticing many darker truths beneath the fantastic surface— they accepted the racial castes that existed, but will they be so tolerant of this steam-era's desire for purity through blood?
    Perhaps Malfiore's desire for power is going to be used for a better purpose...?


    Word Count: 0

    Expected Word Count: 60,000 to 70,000
     
  2. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Now that I'm almost finished with Tournament of Titans, I'm soon to start work on this one.

    First thing to note is that this was actually inspired by a playthrough of Skyrim. I believe I even mentioned it in the status updates, that I had gone into Skyrim for a little bit of nostalgia over spring break and ultimately spent several days inside.
    The gaslamp fantasy setting was taken from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, even down to the main city they go to being named Tarant. Well, Tarranta.
     
  3. Herko Kerghans

    Herko Kerghans Biased Survivor LitRPG Author Citizen

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    Whoa! Superbly fine taste, mate! Yeah, that's one amazing setting (and a great RPG).
     
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  4. Gryphon

    Gryphon Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen

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    I read that as AutoMartin and chuckled.
     
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  5. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    You know what, I might steal that. Can I steal that? I'm stealing that.
     
  6. Gryphon

    Gryphon Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen

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    Be my guest. It's a great name for a cyborg.
     
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  7. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    I've been trying to seriously plan this one out, and the original storyline seemed a bit weak to me. So here's a few scattershot ideas to see if anyone can help me choose a good one. All establish Walpurgis Online as being inside of an MMO, but since there's no real life sections in any of them, it can essentially read as a gamelit fantasy.
    1. Paul Chain and Malfiore are brother and sister lead characters living in a gaslamp steampunk London-expy, Tarranta. The world outside Tarranta has degenerated thanks to a zombie war, triggered by a necromancer and a mad alchemist duking it out. This is essentially a clash between two different kinds of zombies: the Satanic Undead vs. the Infected. Slow vs. fast; doom vs. thrash. But outside of that war, life still goes on. Fundamentally, this is a Voyage plot as they decide to leave Tarranta to find a way to rid the realm of the zombie war. Auto-Martin is a side-character.
    2. Paul Chain is the sole lead (the safest option). Auto-Martin is his HK-47 esque sidekick, and the two get framed for the assassination of 3 aristocratic maidens when they're targeted by hopefuls of the Black Saturday witchcult. Malfiore saves them from slavery in the mines, but they are indebted to her because of this and have to follow her on a quest to fight off another aristocrat who wants her dead. In the process, they discover that the notoriously elitist and classist Tarrantan elite (all high elves and imperial humans) have been putting orcs and other 'undesirable races' in concentration camps to further a magickal eugenics cause. They decide to fight the elite.
    3. Malfiore is the lead (not quite as safe; female leads don't seem to do quite as well in litRPG). She is a dark mage girl who seeks to cause the apocalypse to destroy a corrupt and hateful world, and so she goes about causing havoc and growing strong enough to join the Black Saturday witchcult. In the process, she makes a few enemies and also recruits two newbies.

    I was thinking about using elements from all 3 ideas, but the main plot is still up in the air.
     
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  8. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Alright, so from what I've heard on Reddit, I ought to go with the second plot as Book 1. Easy enough. Since that was the "original" plotline and the only one thus far made with the 7-act-structure in mind, maybe it makes sense that it's the most competent one. Once I'm completely finished with Tournament of Titans (I only need to clean up the prologue and ending), I'll start on this one.
     
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  9. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Word count: 10,692

    Fun fact: some of those aren't my words. They're not written by any human, in fact! That's right, I used GPT-2 to help me out with some chunks.

    Also: I am probably going to change the name to something cooler.
    Edit: By that, I mean give it an actual title. "Walpurgis" was more of a placeholder since I came up with the story on Walpurgisnacht (April 30th) and it fit the generally gothy vibe of the story.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2019
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  10. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Word count: 22,622
    After scrapping those original 10,000 words, I'm now twice as far along as I originally was. I've finished the first plot point and am nearing the first pinch point.
     
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  11. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Through great procrastination and effort...
    Word count: 50,900
    I wanted to get it to 51,000 exactly last night, but it was 2 AM. Getting close to the second plot point!
     
  12. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Getting closer to the start of the climactic showdown. Should be in about 3k words.

    I've been really putting this story off because I've actually been working on another story concept. If anyone remembers that "Enekai of Kollidor" idea I presented about a year ago, it's that. I've been really honing down how I want that story to progress and how it's going to work. But I do need to get back on top of writing these stories that I said I wanted to have done in June.

    That I even have three finished at all is definitely good, but it's not so good to be stuck.

    Once I finish Walpurgisnacht (that's the current WIP name), I'll go back and really fix up the first three and fill in all the blanks in Astral Falls. Then, starting in September, I ought to be starting the next proper wave of stories: Violence Online, It's A Wonderful World (name pending), and the sequels to Tournament of Titans & Walpurgisnacht. That could be wrapped up by October or November.
     
  13. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Aaaaaand it's done!

    Word count: 70,969
    Last two numbers are beautiful. Shame they're going to change.

    This was a bitch to write until it wasn't. It was actually easy and fun to write; I was just a lazy bastard. I'm fairly certain I did 90% of work in the first week of July and in the past seven days. The final battle can be a pain because I already set up everything and had the big epic speech, so I sometimes feel like, "Damn, I actually have to end the story now!" But I think I did a better job setting up a sequel hook than I did in Tournament of Titans, which I wrote as a standalone story with a vague idea of a future installment in mind. This one, I went in knowing it was just part one, so even though it still feels like an epic finish, there's also a sense that there's a lot unaccomplished or, perhaps to put in a better way, unexplored.

    As with Tournament of Titans and El Sexorcisto Z! Redux Edition, the last act veered off into a different direction from what I planned. As it turns out, an outline is only good to capture a certain amount of essence of a story— once you start writing it, things happen that even you didn't anticipate which naturally build up over time. You find plot threads that ought to connect. You find out that Chekov was a gun nut without any spare storage.
    Once I go in and really color in the lines, it's probably going to expand to 75,000 words or so, and then when I start cutting stuff back out, I can see it coming back to around where it is. Would make for a good $2.99 story.
    There's only one real hang up: what story do I do next? I know I said I'd do Violence Online, but I feel like I ought to also consider working on a sequel to either this or ToT first.

    Do I want to write a bunch of series first installments or have at least one bit of evidence that I'll continue a series? Eh, I guess I'll do Violence Online and then see which one does the best.
     




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