Big Sneaky Barbarian

Mc is kinda dumb, but hey thats ok. I like him how he is in this story. Anger issues etc, it all might seem off putting at first, but it'll grow on u

The comedy in this is amazing. I'm actually genuinely laughing from reading this. 

Highly recommend giving this a try!

The story itself is fine, if a bit reliant on deus ex machina to bail out the MC from the many, many dangerous events he has faced.

However, the biggest weakness for me is the disconnect between the MC's supposed intelligence and his vocabulary. He has a fantastic range of words for someone who is supposed to be an idiot - to the point that it breaks immersion. The first person perspective doesn't help with this.

Good to see more of your work out there. Love your style! Your character development is well thought out and executed. Chuckled at the name Steroid Steve (if you know you know). Also appreciate your grammar and proofreading skills. I need that in my life. Don't stop doing what you're doing, it's great work!

Note: The review is mostly based on the Kindle version, but having read several chapters of the sequel up on Royal Road, I stand by my conclusions.

Progression fantasy and litRPG feature no end of square-jawed heroes and voluptuous heroines that rocket through the levels, finally achieving godlike powers as they bend the world to their will.

Then there is Gabriel.

Fat, surly, and friendless with anger issues, Gabriel finds himself in a new world where he can start over again. Eager to escape his pudgy body and strongly influenced by death metal album covers, he decides he is going to be a badass orc barbarian named Loon.

That is pretty much the last thing that goes right for him.

Other heroes have adventures. They clear dungeons. Loon careens from disaster to disaster, lucky to stay alive by the skin of his teeth (I think he spends the first 2/3 of the book at 10 hit points out of 190). When he finally makes it into a dungeon, he is literally catapulted into it, much against his will.

Loon is an "anti-hero" like a positron is "anti-matter." Basically, put him together with a real hero, and you are going to get an hilarious explosion.

This is a fun romp that basically tramples most of the cherished litRPG tropes into the mud, all the while insulting them in the most crude and obscene manner possible.

The one issue I have with the story is the supposed stupidity of the main character. It is pretty hard for someone smart (the author) to write someone dumb. Now, the character certainly does a number of dumb things, but he is eloquent enough and self-aware enough that it is a really hard sell. The dumb things seem more to be driven by his self-destructive tendencies than a real lack of intelligence. That is a small quibble though. Whether he is smart or stupid, he is still enough of a fuck-up to endlessly entertain the reader.

Warning: There is a LOT of bad language in this book. However, the insults are works of art.

The MC is very unlikeable. It doesn't help that he knows his faults and does nothing to really improve on them.

He's also pretty stupid. It's as if one of a disney channel supervillain's much dumber goon became the MC.

At first, the MC is a bit intriguing, and one wonders what the author has in store. That feeling quickly disappears after a few chapters, and it becomes a slog to read through as the MC continuously self-sabotages himself with his interactions.

This reads like a game of single-player homebrew D&D that the DM has transcribed for us. I'm really not kidding, this has almost the exact same pacing as a hack-&-slash campaign with a murder-hobo preteen finally starting to learn that he likes roleplaying a more conversational character. With a bit of obvious embellishment that is absolutely necessary to make the transition to a written format.

For those who wouldn't recognize the formatting, I'm uncertain how to proceed. I enjoy this, but I'm a long-time GM with a dedicated player base with a wide range of player ages. I would probably just label this as an acquired taste and stop there, for you. I'm spending most of this story laughing when I imagine what sort of convoluted shenanigans that would have to occur for this stuff to happen at my table. Stuff that I'd enjoy occuring, but couldn't really imagine one of my players doing without getting the idea to play this exact kind of campaign.

Just to be clear, I wouldn't ever normally run a campaign like this. Player agency is the #1 rule of GMing, lest they realize they aren't the ones in control of their character. That's how you ruin friendships and destroy session interest. The way that Luck plays a part in this is the sort of thing you only introduce as an 'opt-in' sort of mechanic, where everybody at the table is fine with it.

I'm sure that whoever would be playing the big, sneaky barbarian would be having a blast if they were fine with the level of shenanigans abounding here.

Very enjoyable story so far.  Author has done a great job editing!

Characters and dialogue are excellent, so far not a ton of world building.

The system itself is full of mystery at chapter 14, and it has left me wanting more.

I really hope the author continues with the novel

Its a good story but the posting is sporatic i found this story when it was on chapter 6 after a few more chapters the auther stops writing for a month honestly i thought they had run out of steam then all of a sudden two new chapter's and then nothing.

Protagonist is an imbecile with anger issues i've met goldfish smarter than he is. Author seems to go out of his way to show how unlikeable the mc is without any redeeming qualities except for a mention out of nowhere that his only redeeming quality is that he doesnt hate gay people. Maybe the mc will grow as a person throughout the story but just getting there is going to be painful, it's fine if he doesn't min-max his build or contemplate every decision but at least think a bit about your actions, the dude is 18 years old but acts like he's a psychopathic 5 year old

Firstly the character is sold really well you know exactly how he feels and even if you don't like him you can kind of see where he's coming from and how he could get better. Also kinda has a few zingers without ruining his status as a moron.

Grammer is great no complaints.

What really stands out to me though where the action scenes, the absolute choas is really entertaining you never get the sense that the mc is at all safe it's always tense and messy.