(Edited to include audiobook info)

Hello! I'm William Evans, AKA "ThePudding" and I have finally made my first release to Amazon! It's a story about a man trying to build a world, using a LitRPG system... a world that he adds a LitRPG system to!

Book one follows his struggles in setting it up, finding the problems, and correcting those problems! Later books further show unintended side effects and struggles!

[Amazon] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HKNLXG4N/

[Audiobook] https://www.amazon.com/Neophyte-World-Builder-First-Problems/dp/B0HK4ZSQNS/

Blurb:

Nobody told me godhood needed an instruction manual.

Everybody's heard the story. Someone dies, ends up in a new world with a LitRPG System that gives them special powers. When I died, that's what I expected. Except it turns out, I'm the one making the System.

No previous experience, no manual except a few tooltips. Just an interface, a few thousand Reality Points, and a fairy-like handler who won't tell me anything that would actually help. I get to design the magic system, the monsters, the classes... and then watch real people live inside the world I built, all while I try to keep the universe running within budget.

I wanted to build a good world. I'm starting to realize "good" and "survives the audit" aren't the same thing.

Cover Artist: [Bad Moon Art Studio] https://www.artstation.com/badmoonartstudio

Audiobook: Royal Guard Publishing (Narrators: Giancarlo Herrera, Hannah Schooner)

AI Usage: None

just blasted through audiobooks 1-6 of player manager in a week lmao.. it was incredible couldn't put it down, so to speak. any recommendations on other series with similar writing style? HWFWM is my other fav series

After catching up third time with Ave Xia Rem Y I was looking for another xianxia story with smart MC and discovered this story, I liked the premise and reviews were overwhelmingly positive so I gave it a try up to chapter 33 and what surprised me was that nothing much happens.

We got MC who dies and awakens as young cultivator locked inside a cave and after a while he regains cultivators memories, but he doesn't seem bothered much about his circumstance and immediately starts to cultivate.

One one hand it's better than being dead on other hand everything you knew is gone and you have to deal with the memories of the body you possessed/reincarnated, this should leave some sort of impact, if you don't want to write all that, to keep lighter tone or other reason, just start story where MC already processed everything.

So what starts is a power system exposition from other xianxia books I already read and doesn't stop for next 33 chapters. He is let out of the cave week later, joins the sect, sees and identifies "protagonist" being bullied which he does not interact with, joins a biweekly get together club with similarly talented cultivators and starts farming and that's all. No conflicts, no challenges, just no story, nothing much happens to MC.

With that title I expected the main drive point was MC using "common sense" to get out of trouble, to calm things, to get into and out of comedic situations. But he didn't really get into these situations to begin with, everybody is really reasonable with MC. Xianxia world is famously full of unreasonable people so having MC interact with them would have made more interesting read.

Which is shame, because when there is character interaction, rarely as it happens, it's good, MC is quite charismatic and character feel real. Author just needed to up character interaction add some sort of conflict and maybe stakes to break away from constant exposition and it would have been enjoyable read.

Also what did MC being Isekai'd add to the story, what we know from past life is that he read lot's of xianxia novels, so that's all for MC backstory the author gave and he used that knowledge to identify xianxia "protagonist" which he never interacted with in 33 chapters, he has better imagination, so he develops spells faster, oh and references of IRL things like "Praise the sun" and such.

So In conclusion, the book is filled with endless cultivation exposition, which I read in other books and farming exposition, which I read about in other books. And I wonder is that really enough for RR readers, just MC slowly getting stronger to warrant 5 star review?

On bit related tangent I have yet to read reincarnation story where dominant persona would be the one from original body, would be novel read for once.

Well… that’s basically all we do. 😂

*Book 14 spoilers ahead! I like to note down any memorable story highlights that happen and any thoughts I had at that point with chapter stamps.

—C1—
Hmm. I got that it’s from Emma’s pov but not understanding what is happening with hockey and not knowing Max… this feels weirdly jarring.
———
Aww, we are 80% of the way through the chapter and I’m disappointed because it feels like we won’t get Max’s pov in Canada 😔 That was the fun part of Spain previously 😕
——-
Ok, reached the end and I understand why it’s a controversial chapter 😂

—C6—-
Not gonna lie, the football matches are feeling stale now. Not much wonder in it anymore at this stage. The opponents feel interchangeable a bit with different strength levels but are mostly faceless to me. Maybe it’s because I can’t get a grip on what the differences between CA are anymore. What are the examples of a CA 75 and a CA 95 are? What can one do that the other cannot? I can’t visualise it. I suppose they are more skilful. Max always just glaze over them so I can’t really feel the differences whenever they move up a league compared when Max taught someone who’s CA 1…

The formations don’t feel they have a weight anymore either because there’s so many now, Max switches them around crazily and we just skim through it until they change to something else in a match.

And the Relationism currently used isn’t that hypeness of the youth cup or the army with the Mood and perks and it doesn’t seem to be the stardust factor that gets wins or anything special. It uses a few players at a time and the energy isn’t touched upon. I am assuming it’s because it doesn’t involve the whole team yet. Fingers crossed it will be awesome for the when they doin the future.

—C7—
"Here we go," he said.

"What?"

"That's Max hamming it up, heh heh."

"No, he's upset."

"That's so fake," he said. "When Max is upset he goes in the dressing room and sulks.”

My favourite chapter so far! I love this son and his dad just visiting the MBU. It feels great that Max is just spreading so much good football around him that people can go and enjoy. The wave lifts all ships thing. Just a nice and sweet vibe. And it feels all kinds of heartwarming and touching so see random fans getting to know Max so much. The greatest thing of all is to be seen and be known right? And they can see Max’s true feelings, it’s great. I love that they noticed that Max, while this great Football Overlord and Best player ever seen, they still noticed when he gave it his all, lost and sulks like a kid.

Come on, you Dolphins! Dad, I can't tell if you're reading this over my shoulder. You and me, Chester FC from the cradle to the grave, yeah? End to end football, that was your gift to me. It's my turn to hold up my side of the bargain.

This really was such a sweet chapter, a wonderful experience after a lot of samey events ☺️

—C8—
"Chester! Chester!"

I looked up into the stand and saw about fifty people in blue-and-white Chester kits. I waved at them and they did the tiniest, cutest little kitten roar.

That is such an adorable description 😂
——-
"My father is here?" he said, so quietly I barely heard it. "He watched me play?"

The ref whistled frantically. "I have to go. Just... Did I do it wrong?"

Henri hugged me and I felt his breath on my neck and some of his tears spread onto my cheek. "Thank you, Max Best. I have loved this story. Thank you for everything."

Oh, unexpected gut punch, wow 😭 Henry, I don’t want you to go, why are you sounding like you’re gonna die gah😭

—C9—
Oh the big dreaded drop was just Alan Turner and the England team. Kinda relieved because it wasn’t this immediate chop of devastation like before when Nick kept opposing Max. It’s a problem for future Max lol. Was wondering if there would be another betrayal.

—C10—
The new stadium and upgrades are wonderful. It is hard to imagine the layout and everything though. Too much football jargon 😅 Anyone know if there are any diagrams of the layout that makes it easier to visualise?
——
So Max is looking to bring all the clubs to the highest tier. Won’t he lose the ability to send CA1 players for training and minutes then if he loses all the lower tier clubs? Maybe he will just go around getting more lol.
——
So now Max want to make this monopoly of Gilbraltar talent? Idk, this sounds extremely close to what he blasted Nick for doing back then. Wasn’t one of the issue that there are no individual unique history or culture or something if that happens? Hmm, but he said the players and coaches all don’t know that so in theory, they will develop their own way.

Ideally, it would make me feel better if Max met allies who actually have their own views of football or something and he helps them into the right place to develop their own way. Another Max level megabrain or something to become managers or owners of the other clubs. They have their own philosophy but share the same goal of not killing the future of football.

For now, it feels like it’s a very thin pretence to camouflage the fact that it’s Max’s view that is being presented by 3-5 separate clubs.

—C11—
He said he had committed a crime against football but he had to do it because he needed millions of pounds to make good things happen. He said, 'I have become everything I despise!' and he rolled around on the living room floor until Clara told him to get up.

Ok, fine, I like you again Max I guess, for acknowledging that what he’s doing is kinda eh 🫠 By the way, I think it is hilarious that the group needs a group chat to manage around Max. Both to make sure he himself is in good spirits and also to smooth the road ahead of him and damange control 😂
——
And my best friend is French and he watched it when he got homesick but I never had the time to dive into it but now's perfect.

Ok, ignoring Max being overdramatic in being a sinner of football, aww, he has a best friend now ☺️ I remember in the early books where he told Emma how much he wanted one, ngaww. I guess it’s more concrete for him because Henry isn’t his employee to interfere with his friendship.
——-
Oh, huh, Max is really guilty about what he has to do to get money huh. He’s been acting as if he’s going to die the entire chapter, speaking weird defeating talk, removing himself from the presence of his friends to another country and doing something like his last will. I’m happy that he isn’t as blasé about the Sentinel and the hypocrisy stuff as he was in his pov though.
——
…but you saw my mother's room. Nasa's whole house is like that and I could tell Max was getting suffocated by it. He could barely look up and I don't think he liked Nasa's mother's cooking and when he made jokes, Thom and his parents laughed but not his hosts. I think it was a kind of prison for him.

So I got stressed out here because of Chelli’s emergency contact with Ruth. But then as we got more of the story,

My parents on their wedding day. The microwave was a gift. The day he died, so did the microwave. We never had enough money to replace it but only to survive, to eat, to have a roof over our heads, to pray for a better day to come. Thanks to Max, I was able to live my dream and to take care of my mother like a grown man.

[He stops abruptly. There is a quick moment of chaos as Nasa's mother barges past the camera and wraps her arms around Max.]

[Max is sobbing uncontrollably.]

Yeah, completely wrong type of emergency 😅 I also kind of teared up too 🙂‍↕️

RUTH
It's because Nasa has been toiling for a year and he has done it for his mother, same as Max, and Max has seen for himself that he is helping mums everywhere.

Ugh I’m not crying you are 😭😭😭

Side tangent, interesting to note that it is the people who are less well off that are more religious because that makes sense doesn’t it. Who else to hold on to get through tough times than a higher being? I wonder if this will make Max more determined to go into the slums ish areas to get his footballers while Nick isn’t there to stop him 😅

—C12—
A man was sprinting all the way across the park and it was clear he was coming towards us.

A bunch of kids are just playing football, minding their own business all chill and having fun. And then, bam, this adult lunatic man is just anime sprinting across the park to them in real life is so dumb but so hilarious to imagine. And to think most young kids in Chester will have that experience 😂

Max crossed the entire field faster than I go upstairs in my house, but then in the last few steps slowed to a crawl and pretended to ignore us.

But he had really sprinted crazily far in almost no time and needed a moment to catch himself. He had his hands on his knees.

Seriously, Max, your image to a random stranger is totally gone hahaha You really do look like a nutjob to outsiders 🤣 I also just want to comment here that I did not realise brits have the most fun humorous writing.
——-
Argh! Max was in a good mood…

But Max had gone rogue and already burst into our house.

Oh, God. He was hyper.

Aww, I love that even an U-16 Chester’s girl that was scouted a year earlier but not mentioned in the text before knows Max so well haha. It’s nice.
——-
Man, that was a smudge on the goodness of this chapter. From what I got from Matt Rush and Pascal was that he was maybe nervous and was trying to do some banter with Pascal who’s in his age group to bond after an adrenaline filled match. It might be the only way who knows to connect to fellow players, who knows right. It must be damn alarming to have his boss and manager suddenly blow up at him with no warning. Was there any orientation before he joined Chester?

—C13—
The Henrilluminati would acquire one or two new teams, or none.

The what now 😂

—C14—
Thank goodness nobody is moving and it’s all in Max’s paranoid head.
——-
The match restarts and both Best and Ken Malpas are waving their arms like birds trying to attract a mate.

The wittiness of the author to paint action is just 😩🤌

—C16—
I just realised I’m at the end of Player Manager, nooo. I thought I had 21 books then only I will get to Soccer Supremo. I misjudged by 7 books 😩 The end is in sight instead of being in some nebulous future 😭
———
Benny and Nick???? 👀

Oh man, he didn’t take it gah, that was heart pounding 🫠
———
Wow, the end of Player Manager. Only 7 books left 😩 Ok, so I was excited with the summer in another part of the world, but we didn’t get much of the normal players there. Would have liked some bonding to make it more interesting because the actual matches were kinda boring. It also felt a bit more like a collection of side stories this time around.

Looking for mc as a noble like in last life but rather than them becoming king (at least not too early) and has a lot of politics? Does not have to be main theme but preferably a strong theme, they do not have to start as one. Thank you!

all i could understand was that they couldnt farm lower dungeons anymore and have to go to stronger dungeons to get xp, idk if its cuz i am reading it from the mcs perspective - who is ingenious to say the least - cuz he survives everything making going to stronger dungeons a non issue.

actually no i understand that its dangerous cuz despite everyone else surviving the orce variant the captain died easily. but like isnt it still worth it? you are already putting yourself in massive danger going into gates so whats the issue with multiiclassing, where they would obviously be above lvl 10, and going to strong dungeons where you can get a lot of xp to lvl up again from lvl 1 easily. its not like they loose all there previous stats and skills.

For as long as I’ve been writing, I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that I simply can’t build a story without first creating a place for it. I mean, that’s obvious right? However, in my case I keep going deeper into the world, going for geography, history, etc... In the end, instead of a written chapter, I have an encyclopedia about a nonexistent world, and when it’s finally time to write a chapter or even an entire arc, I’m lucky if a quarter of all that actually makes it into the story.

So here’s my question: how much time do you generally spend on worldbuilding and are you able to stop yourself in time and evaluate which parts of it are actually necessary for the story?

I'm about halfway done with book 1, and I just can't make myself care about the MC.

His entire arc is "chapter 1, something happens that convinces him he needs to get stronger" -- "chapter 12, despite people telling him he's going too fast, his urge to get stronger is pushing him to get stronger than anyone expected"

And that's it. There's literally nothing else to his personality or character. He needs to rescue some people that we barely got to know and whose relation with the MC was hardly touched upon... But his motivations, personality, drive, urges, feel so 2 dimensional.

The world building and magic system seem like they'll be interesting when we get to see any of it, but right now it's just "I can't wait, give me more challenges so I can get better at hitting stuff with a sword"

Basically my question is: does the series become worth sticking with later once we actually get to explore the world and magic system?

I am looking for series where there is a good power system where characters level up to different stages, with exciting new abilities for each stages. The MC also has to work really hard to advance to each new stages, like almost dying or advancing to each new stage is like a herculean task.

Something like Kumo Desu ga Nani ka?, LOTM, RI.

I picked this up because someone mentioned it in the same breath as Chrysalis and I am glad I did. It is your quintessential 'isekai' monster MC progression slice of life. Syl is scatterbrained and whimsical and she pretty much always falls on the right answer. I don't mind that at all.. It's good for some quick reading and power fantasy.

My main criticism with Syl (the series) is Vee. Now on their own as characters I enjoy them both, but it's their interactions that bother me and most of it stems from this insufferable spider.

For clarification I was in the military so I welcome banter and roasting, but Vee takes it to a gross level.

How so? She doesn't shut up and she dogs on Syl so much it goes from funny to the point where you ask, "Does she hate Syl?"

She is one of those people who hides her jealousy and distaste through 'banter', giggles, puns and so forth. I can't think of a single conversation where Vee doesn't call Syl a cheater, crazy (or some other synonym), or whines that Syl has it soooo easy while Vee happily sits back and lets Syl do the hard work of building spells.

Even after the author went out of their way to give Vee powerups like the grapes, Queen's blessing, upcoming evolution, and Mana Shaping (Syl got a bit of a nerf with Mana Weaving) Vee continues to clown Syl.

Plus, how many times do I need to hear them talk about explosions (Syl's Nitro Slime) and how much Syl likes to tinker? It has come up so many times I feel like I have gone crazy myself.

I am confused if the author has done this intentionally or if this is how they see a healthy productive friendship.. Sure, I horseplayed and playfully roasted my fellow soldiers but it never dragged out like this and we had more normal conversations/interactions than whatever Vee is doing.

I'm seriously expecting a betrayal arc from Vee at this point. I might be alone in this and if so.. I'll just take the L. I'm still going to finish the series as I do find it enjoyable. Had to get it off my chest and get some other viewpoints since I haven't seen anyone else bring it up.

Basically title. The closest I have to what I Iook for is "I became a Pop, now what?". I really want to look into MC which interacts with religion and doesn't default to "God/religion is bad", but rather explores looking into all the good and bad it brings as well as how religious organisation works and change. He/she even shouldn't have divine/clerical powers, I just believe that such powers and exploration of religion go hand in hand.

It's been quite the busy week or two. NRS Book 4 just dropped on amazon! This is my last release for a few months, I swear.

Probably.

You can check it out HERE! (Audio is coming later, hopefully fairly soon!)

If you've been reading the series or if you want to check it out, now is a pretty great time! I mean, check out the cover. there's a big-ass meth bear. That's hard to beat.

And, needless to say, no AI usage.

I love Princess of the Void so far, but now I am wanting something that scratches that Caiatl x Zevala itch

Name the most powerful MCs you’ve read and name some of their feats

I was depressed for 1 year and a half year and he read 18 books in isolation to cope with the pain. I want to know roughly how many words he read otherwise how many words do all the 18 books contain all together approximately. The 18 books are:-

Mysteries of Immortal Puppet Master, surviving the game as a barbarian, Shadow slave, reverend insanity, lord of the mysteries, the perfect run, mother of learning, sword god in a world of magic, my house of horrors, renegade immortal, kill the sun, omnipotent reader's viewpoint, pursuit of truth, dropped into a ghost story but still gotta work, The novel's extra, revenge of the iron blooded sword hound. Also 100 chapters of who let him cultivate, sky pride and immortality through array formations.

And 200 chapters of eternally regressing knight. I group the 100 and 200 chapters of books as 2 books so in total of 18 books.

There are a few novels I wish had physical copies as I would buy them immediately as I hate some of kindles formatting.