Character Stats and Other Cliches

droplet

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As the title says, what do people think about cliches like character stats, overpowered characters, and isekai? I'm less interested in whether it constitutes good writing and more into whether it's a draw or a turnoff. I always thought they were popular because they're comforting and familiar, but I really have no idea. I'd love to get some insight on it.
 

CupcakeNinja

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As the title says, what do people think about cliches like character stats, overpowered characters, and isekai? I'm less interested in whether it constitutes good writing and more into whether it's a draw or a turnoff. I always thought they were popular because they're comforting and familiar, but I really have no idea. I'd love to get some insight on it.
They are popular cuz people enjoy the concepts of being OP or being in a game where they dont gotta deal with life's bullshit.

Being comfortable or familiar has nothing to do with it. They werent always popular. As for other cliches, well if they werent liked as concepts either they wouldnt have become cliche, now would they?

I also like how my thread only lasted like a minute on the SH homepage before it got replaced by this. Someone doesnt wanna call attention to their bullshit, it seems. Feckin' disgusting. *spits*
 

AliceShiki

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As the title says, what do people think about cliches like character stats, overpowered characters, and isekai? I'm less interested in whether it constitutes good writing and more into whether it's a draw or a turnoff. I always thought they were popular because they're comforting and familiar, but I really have no idea. I'd love to get some insight on it.
For stats, I generally don't like them too much because they usually don't matter much? It feels kinda pointless for the most part.
... It doesn't turn me off though, I just don't like them much.

For OP characters, I like if the story is a slice of life novel that just wants to breeze through all combat.
If the focus is combat, I hate OPness.

Isekai is 100% fine, just make the previous world experience actually matter and you're golden~
 

Jemini

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For stats, I generally don't like them too much because they usually don't matter much? It feels kinda pointless for the most part.
... It doesn't turn me off though, I just don't like them much.

Yeah, I would have to say this is the real biggest weakness of the liteRPG genre with stats in the setting. The numbers just plain stop mattering, usually by the end of the 3rd story arc. The only reason for the stats is to measure how OP the protagonist is, and then as soon as they are head and shoulders above everyone else in stats the stats no longer matter and you just start ignoring them.

I have seen a few people try and find ways to mitigate this issue, such as eliminating the numerical stats and making it all about skills, but that also just gets out of hand pretty fast. I think about the one and only time I've ever seen stats work is in cultivation novels oddly enough, and the main reason for that is because the Chinese cultivation novels always operate under the theme of overcoming impossible odds using wit and exploiting the system, and the protagonist is almost always hopelessly outmatched. In this instance, it is the threat that is outrageously OP and the stats become a measure of how under-powered the protagonist is compared to the threat. That, and the cultivation novels also seem to keep more of a sense of proportionality. They seem to track by D&D proportions in which STR 30 is outrageous super strength that allows you to throw entire houses, and so stats rarely get over 100. This sense of proportionality where stats stay between 1 and 100 also helps to make the stats more meaningful, and for whatever reason it seems the Chinese writers are just better at doing that.

Another thing Chinese writers are good at in terms of using stats in the novel is translating stats into physical capabilities. The reader tends to get a much better sense from Chinese writing in terms of exactly what a person with X stat is able to do Vs. person with Y stat. So, that would be another tip. Probably if you want to use stats you should make some sort of table or spreadsheet tracking the physical feats a person with X stat would be capable of doing, and refference that table frequently as you are writing.
 

Ram5

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As the title says, what do people think about cliches like character stats, overpowered characters, and Isekai? I'm less interested in whether it constitutes good writing and more into whether it's a draw or a turnoff. I always thought they were popular because they're comforting and familiar, but I really have no idea. I'd love to get some insight on it.
My story had character stats but didn't visibly appear, believe me, keeping in track with them is horrible, let alone you have to monitor the Exp, Points, Money, and Item... OP character is fine as long the author knows how to utilize it, for example; the MC is powerful, but he had no control over it, so instead of increasing his strength, he tried to learn to control it instead. There are so many ways to make OP MC is fun, it's just the matter how someone crafts it... There is nothing wrong with Isekai, it's just a genre like Romance, Horror... if anybody hates it, then it's just a matter of preference...
 

Yiphen

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Eventually, I find almost every novel with a stat sheet gets boring as time passes. It might be interesting at first when there are only a few, but as they become longer and more and more op, I just breeze over them.
My story had character stats but didn't visibly appear, believe me, keeping in track with them is horrible
If their stats and exp don't visibly appear, why not just keep a general sense of their strength? I don't think the people reading keep that close of a track on what exact amount they get and what exact amount they use.
 

Ram5

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If their stats and exp don't visibly appear, why not just keep a general sense of their strength? I don't think the people reading keep that close of a track on what exact amount they get and what exact amount they use.

I am sorry but I don't understand this 'general sense of their strength'

The exp visibly appears, and the MC can view it on his status screen, but not his stats, because of stats in my world just like a normal attribute of human, we all have str, dex, end, stamina, but we can't view them like any video game, and I want the reader does not focus too much on stats.

Skill, experience, weapon, innate, strategy, awareness, attitude, and any other factors, these much more important things I want to write and the reader to focus on...
 

Yiphen

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The exp visibly appears, and the MC can view it on his status screen, but not his stats, because of stats in my world just like a normal attribute of human, we all have str, dex, end, stamina, but we can't view them like any video game, and I want the reader does not focus too much on stats.

Skill, experience, weapon, innate, strategy, awareness, attitude, and any other factors, these much more important things I want to write and the reader to focus on...
What I mean by a general sense of strength is that, why is listing their experience necessary? If you feel like they've been through something which is worth leveling up from, or had done enough of a simple task to level up from that, just make them level up. It's your story, so you should decide when its right for him to become stronger, not by the random amounts of experience he gets from killing things. Like, if you really wanted to, you could always just say, "That monster gave additional experience for [insert reasoning here]. Now he's able to level up!"
For his weapons, I can understand keeping track of what they have, but for things like his attitude, only you know that. So why not write a short summary describing them so you build an "expectation" for how they would act?

Random Note: So I know I'm shifting between he and they a lot, but ehh. I realized I was doing that a bit too far into writing this.
 

LostinMovement

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I rarely read liteRPG and Isekai doesn't bother me as long as it isn't your typical hetero cardboard MC with the endless harem.
I think rather than measuring a character's strength with a number, give them a visible feature, like the kind of weapon they yield, the color of their aura or what kind of spells they can perform. I mean this is how I'm doing it in my novel.

For example, I substitute the term magic in my universe with the word Divine Echo. So my MC has Earth Echo but he is not a high-level user. He is a mid-level one. How do the other characters realize this? It is because rather than simply manipulating the earth, he can also manipulate the essence of metal. However, he can't manipulate trees or fauna which means he is not a high-level Earth Echo user.

There is so many ways to go about showing different levels of strength and skills rather than just naming them and putting them in a list. The writer has to just do more showing than telling.
 
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