28 KiB
[RT][HF] How To Avoid Death On A Daily Basis - Chapters 1-100
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Author: u/mooderino The Good Student*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/4o8pka/rthf_how_to_avoid_death_on_a_daily_basis_chapters/
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Score: 19
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Created: 2016-06-15T18:07:29
Post:
#How To Avoid Death On A Daily Basis
#####Author: mooderino
####Chapter One ####ToC
New chapters appear on Fiction Grill first.
Synopsis
What if you really were transported to a fantasy world and expected to kill monsters to survive?
No special abilities, no OP weapons, no status screen to boost your stats. Never mind finding the dragon’s treasure or defeating the Demon Lord, you only need to worry about one thing—how to stay alive.
All the people summoned form parties and set off on their adventures, leaving behind the people who nobody wants in their group.
Story of my life, thinks Colin.
Genre: Fantasy, Summoned, Comedy, Adventure, Romance, Slice of Life, non-OP
I’m not entirely sure this story is appropriate for this sub, but I stumbled across a discussion of my webnovel in your Monthly Recommendation Thread which I enjoyed reading, and I thought maybe people here would be interested. If it’s not the sort of thing you guys like let me know in the comments.
Just to give a little background, the aim was to write a typical ‘transported to a fantasy world’ story, but with no powers, no ‘chosen one’ advantages handed out willy-nilly, and a more realistic approach to being attacked by mythical beasts when you don’t have a magic sword or invisibility cloak. It’s still an adventure story, but I tried to make the MC’s actions plausible.
Bear in mind though, he is a 19 year old male with no higher education and some social anxiety issues. His views on sex and race aren’t always the most enlightened and the comedy can be crude (although that’s probably more to do with my puerile sense of humour than his). But it’s written in first person from his perspective and I think it’s consistent with his age group (source: I was 19 years old once).
However, some people have been put off by his view of the world and his behaviour towards those around him (fortunately, some haven’t).
The start of the book is a bit slow. There is a reason for this. It started as an experiment, writing a chapter a day for 30 days straight to see if that would help me build up an audience (answer: yes).
So initial chapters are very short. And it takes a while for the story to take hold because I wrote it with no outline or plan. Each chapter was improvised on the day of posting (still is, although I reduced it to posting 5 days a week). That’s why I used a premise that I was familiar with—so I could use common tropes rather than totally original ideas. I didn’t mind using cliches because I felt the MC’s approach would subvert them, or at least present them in a new light. Characters are also British, as is the spelling and some of the slang.
Anyway, I just finished Chapter 100 marking the end of Book 3. I will be on hiatus for two weeks before starting Book 4. If you’re interested, now would be a good time to catch up.
More Links
####Chapters are released five days a week (Mon-Fri).
Comments:
u/AurelianoTampa [+8] (8 hours later)
Hi there! I was one of the people posting about it in the recommendation thread.
Despite the flaws and criticism, please don't be disheartened. My criticism was mostly about the character because he's suuuuuuch an immature ass sometimes. But the writing is enjoyable overalland I've found myself literally LOLing many times while reading. If some of the jokes fall short, well, it happens. I very much enjoyed most of what I read. Good job!
All that said, I wouldn't identify it as purely "rationalist." Still, it does have a lot of characteristics of rationalist writing - plus it is an original story, which frankly I find a lot more interesting than most fan fiction. It's a decent recommendation even if it doesn't really come across as rationalist.
u/mooderino [+3] The Good Student (11 hours later)
I don't think of it as purely rationalist either. Certainly that wasn't the focus when I started it. But that kind of approach does underpin the main theme of a regular person in a fantasy world, so I was very interested in the discussion you guys were having.
u/TennisMaster2 [+3] (7 hours later)
[Meta:] Why this format? This is the second post this week formatted in this exact fashion.
u/mooderino [+5] The Good Student (11 hours later)
The format I used is the one I use when posting on /r/noveltranslations which is the main subreddit for serials of this type.
u/rationalidurr [+3] If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! (19 hours later)
Well its definitely not rational, but holy hell the humor is on point so fucking hard. All of the little details, like the onesie and characters talking holy shit man. I am on chapter 36.
Amusing story, batman out of ten.
EDIT: Just finished chapter 73. Oh my universe, the story is consistently funny and I am enjoying how you're twisting all the fantasy tropes into somethign new and awesome, screaming fish HAH!
u/mooderino [+1] The Good Student (a day later)
That's really great to hear. Glad you're enjoying it.
u/None [+3] (2 days later)
I've just started reading it, but I'm not impressed so far, honestly.
Chapter 2 (did you mean scene two? Two hundred words a chapter doesn't make.) :
The speaker was a tall, blond guy. Ripped, good-looking, your basic alpha male. He was wearing a tee shirt for a band so cool I’d never heard of them, and knee-length shorts. He looked ready for a trip to the beach and maybe a little surfing. Girls and guys alike huddled around him.
Like, seriously? This isn't a "Hello world, look at my finished product" paragraph, this is a "fuckfuckfuck I can't get this damned bit out properly, fuck it let's just put some sarcastic author commentary shit and fix it in the first edit pass" paragraph.
I'll give it another few scenes, but...sorry, not impressed.
Quick edit:
And, girls,” said a guy who had taken up position on Golden Boy’s shoulder, “any of you feeling scared, come see me. I’ll make you feel safe.” He was a black guy with a shaved head and a dazzling smile, wearing a tight vest that showed off his incredibly muscular arms.
“Me first,” said a female voice in the crowd, to much tittering.
Nope, done. Sorry. This is the same sort of thing as I mentioned above. Pre-alpha writing.
u/Vakuza [+2] (18 hours later)
Have you got any more recommendations? I like this story quite a bit, it has its flaws but it is a somewhat clever setting. It also isn't yet another damn fan fic, which there is far too much of on this subreddit.
u/OutOfNiceUsernames [+1] fear of last pages (2 days later)
The first several arcs of this story were more or less as good as first several arcs of Iron Teeth, so you can try reading those.
u/VanPeer [+2] The shard made me do it (2 days later)
I absolutely love this story so far. You have a knack for portraying social interactions with humor, something that I struggle with. The chronically shy MC's inner monologue reminds me so much of my own mindset when I was a teen.
Although, the MC's apparent willingness to be ruthless really makes me queasy.
u/Eryemil [+2] (11 hours later)
Interesting so far.
Something stood out to me right away however. If this world is not a video game why are there natives acting like video game characters?
But why would they give the girls weapons at all? They're at a physical disadvantage as fighters of any kind (I won't even speculate on psychological differences) and any weapom they get would provide a greater relative benefit to a boy. Specially when they can be used instead to create new monster hunters and hunter creators in turn. Even if your scruples rebel at the idea of basically forcibly turning these girls into breeding machines---which given the technological level, environmental pressures and comparable historical context the natives would be living in, they should not---plenty of these girls would readily prefer this arrangement to almost certain death.
In video games, male and female characters have equal stats and are equally valuable; in real life we have nearly universal division of labour for a very good reason.
Will continue reading tomorrow, see if the issue is addressed at all.
u/mooderino [+2] The Good Student (11 hours later)
If people were summoned simply to make up the numbers (men for fighting, women for breeding) that would imply a population issue, but that doesn't seem to be the case. There is probably another reason.
u/Eryemil [+0] (12 hours later)
Still doesn't explain why the locals would follow along. Plot armor aside, as I said, women make for poor warriors. That goes beyond the fact that they're more biological valuable than men. The overwhelming majority of them will die horrible deaths and accomplish very little.
I'd be interested to learn what percentage of these arrivals that went on to become "legends" were female; a realistic number would almost certainly put them at less than 1% which means most of these girls will either wizen up and end up baking bread in a village somewhere or dead.
Still a good premise though. I've bookmarked it to continue reading.
u/plushiemancer [+1] (a day later)
Even exaggerating the gender differences, say a woman with a sharp blade is only half as lethal as a man with a sharp blade. That is still very lethal. Weapons do a lot to make up differences in strength.
u/Eryemil [+2] (a day later)
Assuming raw physical strength is the only thing that would make men better warriors than women; but there's more to it than that, such as greater lung capacity, greater pain tolerance, longer limbs, differing hormonal loads—without even mentioning fussy inherent psychological differences and the like.
Even exaggerating the gender differences, say a woman with a sharp blade is only half as lethal as a man with a sharp blade. That is still very lethal. Weapons do a lot to make up differences in strength.
But we know very well that women are nowhere near as half as lethal as men, in practise—even under similarly stressful circumstances and when subjected to the same pressures. And "very lethal" is relative; how much does that amount to in a world with literal monsters out of fairy tales walking around? I predict the overwhelming majority of these boys would not live very long and neither would virtually all of the girls.
My original comment put forth two main point and the replies I've received keep going back and forth ignoring one of the two as convenient. Women's potential as warriors was one and their immensely greater value anywhere but in a battlefield. Also noted where the environmental factors of the land and the projected cultural outlook of the natives.
Lets make it simple though: say you're the local governor. Do you give these girls weapons and tell them go to out and fight dragons or escort them safely to the nearest settlement, marry them off and tell them to shut up and multiply?
u/plushiemancer [+1] (a day later)
i do what has been done for hundreds of years, as is laid out in the treaty of the four
also lethal is kind of a 1 or 0 thing. a sharp sword through vital point kills everything. If a woman can't kill a monster by putting a sharp object through it's vital point, neither can a man. (assuming the sword is very sharp)
u/Eryemil [+3] (a day later)
i do what has been done for hundreds of years, as is laid out in the treaty of the four
Is this some kind of geeky roleplaying thing?
also lethal is kind of a 1 or 0 thing. a sharp sword through vital point kills everything. If a woman can't kill a monster by putting a sharp object through it's vital point, neither can a man. (assuming the sword is very sharp)
Is a toddler with a rifle as lethal as a trained sniper? I've already established, I think, that women are not men's equal physically even beyond mere strength.
But as I already noted, you can say that women have the potential to be on average as lethal as men, minus their physical shortcomings, but our reality does not bear this out. For a myriad of reasons, women are simply not half as lethal as men, not even a quarter as lethal or even and eighth.
Do you challenge my prediction that under such circumstances 99% to 100% of these girld would be slaughtered?
u/Murska1FIN [+3] (a day later)
Were I a local governor, I would take strides to ensure that the Visitors are protected initially. I would explain their circumstances as honestly and fully as possible, while attempting to extract whatever useful knowledge they might have from their own world. Then I'd ask them what they want to do and attempt to facilitate any non-ridiculous demands if possible, however staying with the aim of eventually having them take care of themselves.
A trained female with a sword is definitely going to defeat any untrained man with a sword, every time. Same with any other weapon, and especially things like guns. The average untrained man using a melee weapon has good odds of defeating the average untrained woman, but the difference is not as stark as you portray. In many cases, such as when using swords or spears, the first good hit is going to be what counts and with untrained combatants luck plays a large part. If both combatants are trained, then their relative skill is way more important than physical characteristics - those only come to play when they are essentially equally skilled.
The key difference is definitely not strength, but reach - the whole point of weapons is that you don't need to be strong in order to be lethal, because weapons amplify and focus your strikes.
As for cultural issues, obviously these depend on the culture. In this case, pretty much everyone appears to have a weapon and at least some measure of self-defense training, even if they are civilians. Makes sense in a fantasy world where you can be jumped by a monster the instant you leave your home.
u/Eryemil [+2] (a day later)
Here we go again; another person conveniently addressing one part of my argument while neglecting the other.
Firstly, these women are not fighting untrained men. They'd be fighting horrible monsters that will kill even trained men. How about you answer my question: what percentage of these girls do you expect to survive if they follow the path laid out for them? Can you honestly say it'd be any more than 1% on average?
Why would they, or the natives accept those odds when actual humans throughout our long history would generally not even when facing less horrific environmental pressures?
Female warriors don't make sense. They can never make sense unless you take reproduction out of the equation at the very least---never mind physical and psychological aptitude.
u/mooderino [+4] The Good Student (a day later)
Interesting discussion. I think from a purely nuts and bolts perspective, the survival rate of female warriors would be quite low, possibly even hampering the males and getting everyone killed, but as the writer there are specific reasons I positioned the female members of the visitors the way I did (whether to good effect or not, I can't say).
Firstly, the visitors aren't straightforwardly comparable to the natives, that includes the females. If they were just extra fighters why bring them over in the first place? There are plenty of soldiers etc already here, and they're far better at fighting the monsters than the kids. They must have some other purpose, although it isn't clear yet (I have started to allude to it in recent chapters).
I also wanted to mess around with the conventions in these sorts of stories where the attractive female in leather miniskirt fights alongside the hero. The way the women react and how they deal with the issue in my story is a mixture of me addressing how things would really be, and how they generally are in fantasy stories. So I'll often play up the cliched approach (arriving and being handed a weapon) and then subvert it (weapon is a useless stick).
Perhaps that makes it feel a bit muddled, I'm not sure.
I think I do take a lot of the points being made here into account (not necessarily well, but I try). I make it clear the majority of those summoned die and die early (I think I said two-thirds). The women are constantly under threat of harm from their own side, natives, and monsters. Some check out, some use their sexuality, some try to fight.
The question of why they aren't married off etc. goes to my first point. Why would they be summoned if they were going to be just used for breeding (unless there's a shortage of fertile women here)? Something more must be expected of them, it just isn't known yet what that is.
The reason I gave Colin a party of girls and ineffectual boys was to specifically raise these sorts of questions. Although finding suitably satisfying and entertaining answers is quite hard (you may have noticed).
I would also point out that every shortcoming women have in this context could probably also be applied to the MC.
u/Eryemil [+2] (2 days later)
Just keep in mind that this was just a passing comment based on the few chapters I've read. I don't know whether the subject is addressed later on or not, as I said.
u/KyleDaScourge [+4] (a day later)
First of all, you're sounding a good bit more pointlessly confrontational then necessary mate. Secondly, you're misrepresenting the issue. These people aren't being summoned to 'fill out the number' so the question of whether the women should be relegated to expanding/maintaining the population is answered right there by people who are more aware of their issues then the reader. Additionally, your question is, if you'll pardon me saying, fucking idiotic. 'What percentage of women do you expect to survive?' really? You've not only already provided the correct answer, you've also managed to misrepresent it into misogynist-sounding pointlessness. 1% of women are going to survive, if that, because when you you summon up random schmucks to be armed with primitive weaponry and thrown against monsters, 1% of anyone surviving is about the best you're going to fucking get. If that's not already the case then you're vastly overestimating the actual danger in which case the women's physical ability, which is by the way only slightly inferior to that of the average man on average and there are certainly exceptions to the rule, matters a fuckload less. Mainly though, try to stop coming off as so condescending about your opinions vis a vis women. You're not gonna make many friends that way.
u/Eryemil [+1] (a day later)
Accusations of misogyny, social exclusions threats, accusations of condescension and aggressiveness---almost impossible to defend against---and very little of substance besides.
Do you honestly believe your comment above contributes more to the discussion than mine, so far? Your post is nothing but the classic fall in line or else...
u/KyleDaScourge [+5] (a day later)
Yes actually, I do. Let's go through your comments to demonstrate.
Asking why the natives act like video game characters, when they don't, and then veering off into a lecture about why all the women should have immediately been forced into sexual slavery... nothing misogynistic there, no sir!
Once again asking why the locals didn't immediately start raping the women, pointing out the incredibly obvious as demonstrated repeatedly over the course of the story when we see visitors dropping like flies, and then voicing expectations for all the women to immediately give up any hope of returning home or bettering their position in order to take up baking in the nearest village with an inexplicable shortage of pastry chefs.
More extrapolation on the inherent inferiority of women, idiotic dismissal of a womans ability to be dangerous with a deadly weapon, dismissal of every reply you've received, and another bout of advocating for the rape factory.
Outright dismissal of someone's explanation for why the locals aren't carrying out your rape-factory plan with enthusiasm, they've got a fucking centuries old treaty dictating how they handle the visitors, an assertion that women are to men what elite soldiers are to toddlers, and then a statement of the obvious with a misogynistic slant because of course the vast majority of the visitors are dead folk walking.
Dismissal of yet another answer to your question, continued creepy focus on the fact that the girls are unlikely to survive even as you skip over your own admittance that the men are just as if not more screwed for lack of other options, questioning as to why people with literally no other option or choice in the matter would do what they're being forced to, and another assertion that women are inferior and these ones should have been shipped off to the rape camps.
I think I'm done talking to you.
u/Eryemil [-1] (a day later)
Good... and now the scary rape word. Ayyy
u/Murska1FIN [+1] (7 days later)
Well, the issue with your argument isn't claiming that at most 1% of the women would survive. That number, while not very well-founded, still sounds good enough for all the data we have. The issue is that the amount of men that would survive in such circumstances is the same, and the significance of these numbers is, for the purposes of the discussion, only in relation to each other.
You appear to be arguing that there is some sort of difference between men and women that makes men better warriors, and not just 'slightly better on average' but 'significantly better in almost every case', which is what is being addressed as false.
Reproduction is entirely beside the point, given that it is clear there is no population deficit involved.
u/Eryemil [+2] (7 days later)
What you call addressed as false I call begging the question. Pretty much all evidence we have show men being overwhelmingly better warriors than women.
But considering the hysterics I've encountered in this thread I should not expect much better.
u/Murska1FIN [+1] (7 days later)
Since you did not dispute any trained woman easily defeating any untrained man, and a fight with an untrained woman fighting an untrained man with both using lethal weapons being mostly down to luck, it seems to me that the difference is not particularly overwhelming.
u/kaukamieli [+1] (13 days later)
They kill the monsters with good planning, like with ogres, confuse sneak kill. Women can totally do it.
u/Eryemil [+2] (13 days later)
Theoretically.
u/OutOfNiceUsernames [+3] fear of last pages (a day later)
Firstly, your comment ignores things like the ineffective briefing, supplying, and training of the newcomers and for some reason focuses almost entirely on the absence of rape-facilities instead. Your comment also ignores that the girls could’ve been offered positions like medical assistants, technical \ informational advisors, etc.
Regarding the rape-factory suggestion itself: 1. much of the relevant and important information is still concealed from the readers for them to be able to determine whether the host governemts’ approach to visitors is effective or not. We don’t know why people get summoned into this world and by whom, what purposes are planned for them by their summoners and their welcoming parties (if these are two different agents), what’s so special about them in the first place, and so on. And without knowing all this, we can’t also tell how effective the hosts’ current approach is in advancing their perceived interests.
your scruples should not rebel at the idea of basically forcibly turning these girls into breeding machines — plenty of these girls would readily prefer this arrangement to almost certain death.
1. That’s a false dichotomy. 2. Plenty of people would also agree to be raped if you put a knife to their throats, which should not be the point. 3. I doubt the moral and value systems of modern-day women would allow most of them to agree to something like this. 4. Even if “plenty of them” agreed to such conditions it wouldn’t mean all of them would. And I can easily imagine a person shoehorned into the position of a sex slave deciding to kill whoever they perceived as their primary abuser and\or killing themselves with a stolen and concealed knife.
u/Eryemil [+2] (2 days later)
Firstly, your comment ignores things like the ineffective briefing, supplying, and training of the newcomers and for some reason focuses almost entirely on the absence of rape-facilities instead
So much for steel-manning arguments. Pathetic.
u/OutOfNiceUsernames [+1] fear of last pages (a day later)
(possible spoilers) If after the part where they head for city N2 you find yourself losing interest in the story, just drop it.
No special abilities
u/mooderino [+1] The Good Student (a day later)
I'd agree with both your points. Regarding the spoiler, he does develop slowly certain abilities but in the long run I think they will probably hurt more than help.
u/Vakuza [+1] (a day later)
u/Roxolan [+1] Head of antimemetiWalmart senior assistant manager (7 days later)
One thing I found very satisfying is how the protagonist keeps forcing people to "bet", to put their lives where their mouths are, instead of giving orders or caving in.
"If you actually think it's a good idea, if you're not just signaling, then do it. I'm okay with being left behind, but I won't try to save you either." It's a very LessWrong sort of attitude (though in the real world, things are often too entangled for anyone to be able to do it).
u/awesomeideas [+1] Dai stiho, cousin. (9 days later)
I made an epub, would you, /u/mooderino be cool with me posting it?
Sidenote: I learned regexes for this, which explains why I am up at 3:14 in the morning.
u/mooderino [+2] The Good Student (9 days later)
Actually I'd rather you didn't. I've only just put up my own ebooks on Amazon and plan to sell epubs too (currently I offer epubs/pdfs to donators).
I'm fine with you compiling ebooks of the the freely available chapters for your personal use but I'd prefer to keep control of how and where my stories are released in book form, if possible.
u/awesomeideas [+1] Dai stiho, cousin. (9 days later)
Sure thing, glad I checked.