Normal Cultivator Quest - Review by archivebro

So, Normal Cultivator Quest. The premise is straightforward for anyone vaguely familiar to Wuxia. (You) live in a world of martial and spiritual artists capable of incredible techniques... and (you) won't be one of the big names. No Huan or 2nd Primarch Lieren here, (you) start as a 5-year old in a class of several others with a mix of strengths, middlingtalents, and laughable weaknesses. Really, the protagonists should be either the girl who gets along with animals like a Disney Princess or the guy with a death glare so strong it can cause the sun to dim slightly. But (you) were just... normal. Not that it stopped anons from putting on a good enough showing to end up with a few choices for their sect, and they picked the one that said "protags" ended up going into as well.

My main concern when first picking up the quest was in how well it'd stick to its premise. It's hard to ask anons to play a truly ordinary person since it feels like it'd be hard to give them agency in their decisions. After all, agency implies enough power to be granted it in the first place, or at least enough to prevent someone else from taking said agency away from (you). The verdict on that? Well, I certainly stand by my previous comment re: other Wuxia and Wuxia-adjacent quests that I've read. It's not entirely a matter of a vast power gap though. In fact, as of the current thread Quiet Word is the furthest ahead in cultivation among his generation. The difference is in HOW he got there. It came from anons collectively pushing QW to grind his ass off. Every. Single. Turn.

Powergaming, a natural state of /qst/.

That said, DrDragonfagQM has shown the mental toll this has inflicted on the soon-to-be 8-year-old kid at multiple points, with several others intervening at times (thanks to generally good relationships anons have forged when not EMBRACING THE SPIRITUAL GRIND) and the "slack off" option now being actively bad for QW's mental health... which anons didn't learn until several threads in when they used it for the first time in spite of it being there for ages. They thought they'd finally follow someone's IC advice to relax a bit since it was true that QW was getting ragged again over some of his recent failures. It backfired, and they had to find other ways to fix his (now even worse) mental state afterward. The correct option is gardening for herbs that'll eventually help his cultivation, because even when he relaxes it needs to help his grind.

I can't recall any other Wuxia protag actually reflecting the wear that it takes to stay close to the head of the pack. Certainly none of his other top-of-the-class sectmates reflect that. Most of them keep up with him just fine dedicating far less time to cultivating than he does.

That, I suppose, is where the main interest lies with me for now in the quest. Anons have forced luck to be on their side by rolling the die many, many times. Every turn that comes up, cultivation is pursued as a primary goal with many other things being secondary. But at some point, luck will stop being enough to keep up. With a character that has kept up with other geniuses through dedication first and foremost, and gameplay that has actively reflected the mental costs of that pursuit, I'm really curious how anons and QW will handle that moment of realization. His current path of a strategist, working through others to bring about a desired outsome, will help lessen that sting, but I'm unsure if it'll be enough.

Alright, review over. Now it's time for general feedback and things not related to the quest but to the writing instead! Because it feels pointless to write these things without constructive criticism (and/or praise) tossed in.

I have read some of DrDragonfagQM's other quests, and the ESL is more noticeable here than in them. It's due to the nature of the genre ultimately - Wuxia just isn't right unless it goes into detail on how characters are fighting and that means actively paying attention to what's written (as an anon) and a need to be very particular about what is being called out and what isn't (as a QM). It's made it a little harder to get into as a result, but I admit I'm well-armored against the errors I see and I've enjoyed it regardless. I was an amateur editor for a decent while, I know where my berserk buttons are and none of them are getting pushed.

It's also not the sort of thing I can offer a huge amount of advice for short of finding an editor. I learned most of my writing habits from reading hundreds of fantasy books and whatever my school tossed at me. Much like QW, it's something I've been indirectly grinding for a while. There is no shortcut if you follow that route.

There are far less text blocks than in Heretic Cultivator at least. It's probably the main reason I held up better reading through these threads than when I was doing catch-up in HCQ a long time ago. Spacing is important to give my eyes a checkpoint when I need one, and I appreciate the lighter touch re: text blocks through most of NCQ.

A small thing that DrDragonfagQM does (in this and other quests) is opportunites for all anons to roll for a write-in benefit of some stripe. In this case, anons have ended up in other realms where semi-random loot exists and they can try to call for something they might be able to find there. Low enough rolls do have negative consequences, but I see it as an excuse to bring lurkers out of the woodwork and get something neat they can think about. If they succeed, it gives them an excuse to start discussing with other anons on how to use it, and I know that's the real ambrosia for a number of QMs.