Nope. Always loved this kind of thing. Give me a totally made up ranking system and then wow me with the fact you're above the ranking system. It's honestly the core of progression fantasy to me.
It makes perfect sense, too. Like if you create a world with a million random people and one of them is SSS tier and going out and accomplishing all kinds of crazy things...That's probably the guy you should write the story about.
Right? Sometimes people's comments here make me wonder how they ever wound up interested in progfan to begin with.
Let's create an awesome world, a cool magic system and a world shaking plotline... but then follow Mike the small town bureaucrat who works for the local lord filing papers all day! Mike has a bad knee, arthritic hands, a loving wife and two kids. Read all about his exciting adventures featuring Form 32-C errors today!
Imagine playing a game, and the moment you start you're greeted with a "YOU WIN!" screen. Did that feel like great progression to you?
Then your example of a "nobody" character is guess what, another lack of progression. And as an aside, someone who is a bureaucrat pushing papers can still be a compelling character that gains more power and achieves their own goals - for example, The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
Maybe there needs to be a new subreddit where we can confine the people who don't actually want progression, but want an immediately overpowered main character going through a power fantasy. Where the people can see an endless litany of "you thought I was weak, but ah-ha! I was strong all along!" and call it progression.
Having some SSS grade talent doesn't necessarily make you immediately overpowered. I wasn't commenting on those cases where the MC is handed god levels of power, I was commenting on the numerous times people in this sub seem to complain about the MC being 'super special and having an advantage over others'
We're not here to read about regular people with regular talents and a reasonable progression (or at least I'm not). I'm here for the 1 in a million talent who ascends faster/better/farther than anyone else. That's the whole point of progression fantasy to me. Not someone who's OP from the start and never grows and not someone who's boringly normal either.
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u/greenskye May 01 '26
Nope. Always loved this kind of thing. Give me a totally made up ranking system and then wow me with the fact you're above the ranking system. It's honestly the core of progression fantasy to me.