Demon Card Enforcer [A Noir Cardgame LitRPG]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

It’s Drop Night, the one night every decade when the gods hand out cards to a lucky few. If you get a deck, you’re adeckbearercapable of great feats—such as controlling frightening monsters.

Wolfe, top enforcer for the Grimm family mob, has already been overlooked on two previous Drop Nights. People of his ilk seldom receive cards, as the gods tend to favor people who follow their divine mandates, but that doesn’t mean he can’t hope.

Unfortunately, Wolfe doesn’t have time to celebrate. The rival street gang, the Cobras, hassixdeckbearers and they’re cutting in on the Grimm family’s trade. Someone has to do the dirty work, and it isn’t going to be the spoiled children of Big Man Grimm.

Against all odds, though, Wolfe does receive a deck, right at midnight.

And he just so happened to receive a rare card everyone would kill to have in their own deck…

[Mobsters meet Magic Card Games in this noir litRPG!]

[Copious cussing, lots of violence and dead people, a fair degree of trauma in multiple characters back stories, and a ton of cards and card game rules are present in this book. Some redemption will occur, and the MC verges on anti-herodom.]

Information

Status
Ongoing
Year
2024
Author
Tharsult

Tags

LITRPGACTIONFANTASYADVENTUREMAGICMALE LEADURBAN FANTASYPROGRESSION

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.7/ 5.0
Followers
2,926
Views
310,387

Chapters(36 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

  • Apannr1Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This is the rewrite of an already awesome story. It has been streamlined and that in some ways is good. But it also lost some of the early development of soul with it. It’s still an amazing story though that I highly recommend reading. And I can already see that interplay and personality being built back up. If some of the early stuff feels off or stiff that is likely why and you should expect that to get better later on.
  • BillBallerRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Just binged the first book and I truly did not know that a mob enforcer  card base litrpg was exactly what was missing right now.
    From the way we just jump straight in to the action packed fights that flow well into the story, to the nerdy talk of deck builds and synergy  it is wonderfully done. And the cards we have been seeing are so cool, can't wait to see them in action.!!
  • Kacey EzellRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Super fun story! Excellent character development and world building. Cool card based magic system that I definitely want to play in real life! :)
    Solid writing, too. Well plotted and paced, immersive descriptions without detracting from the action. A believable and sympathetic antihero who absolutely NAILS the noir vibe. Just really well done overall!
  • RRScionRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I found this to be fun and exciting. I really like this author and this book does not disappoint. Do not read if you do not like card games or Angels / demonic exploration. I love doggos and I hope to see a lot more doggos :-). It has interesting mechanics and I can't wait to see how it evolves.
    The artwork is amazing and it's quite interesting
  • dusansfRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Tharasult did a great job coming up with this one. The writing reminds me of the Dresden Files where the magic medium is the card game. The concept where gods of diferent factions give cards to their chosen champions is a great. The writing and grammar are good, wich makes for a easy read.
    Looking forward to future chapters.
  • mikato1Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I wasn't expecting to like it much because I'd been sifting through a bunch of stories and not seeing any I liked, but as soon as I finished the first chapter... Or ten... Fifteen? I realized I'd been reading several hours after I meant to go to bed. Absolutely worth it.
    Feels less like a card game and more like an RTS, but the way the cards work is fascinating! Plus the ways the world is very much like our own but also integrates knowing that the gods are real and they distribute trading cards, so everything feels weirdly natural.
  • Dungeon_Core_FanRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Mobsters, card magic, and a gate to Hell . . .
    A film noir epic from the very first chapter, Demon Card Enforcer is what Sin City (movies or comics) would be like if you mixed in the card magic from the Yu-gi-oh anime. Mobsters throwing down demon cards to waste rivals, cops calling on angels to hunt suspects, that one do-gooder who is able to keep the city's only homeless shelter open because it's actually an artifact from his deck . . . Expect a lot of sleaze, a lot of ultra-violent kills, and pretty girls hooking up with a protagonist who is only the "good guy" in comparison to everyone else.
    The plot kicks off on Drop Night, the decennial holiday marking the day when the gods hand out limited edition cards to their favorites in the mortal realm. As the rest of the world boozes it up, or blusters on about what they'll do if picked, Ethan Wolfe - chief enforcer for the Grimm crime family - has more profane problems to deal with. A rival gang just stole their latest shipment of coccaine, and the Big Man himself asked Wolfe to "fix" the problem.
    Except this Drop Night, the gods want to see blood on the walls.  Too many of their best creations have ended up locked away, maybe brought out for national holidays, but otherwise never seeing the light of day.  They have no intention of letting that happen again.
    Gifted with his own deck, and one of the six unique Gate of the Underworld cards, Wolfe is initially elated . . .until he realizes his friends, enemies, and rivals have the other five. . .
    Drugs, cards worth killing for, a budding gang war . . .and then an  innocent teen looking to avenge her brother turns up, hoping Wolfe will help. One with her own unique angel card.
    I love the card magic system in this novel. The author went to the trouble of mocking up actual cards (complete with original art), they all fit the owner's personality, and everything has an air of originality.  Don't expect Magic: the Gathering knock-offs here - while we only get to see five of th
  • Pirat6662001Royal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    Frustrating story because 4 different characters, all of whom are supposed to be smart, cant seem to connect any dots and are completely oblivious to betrayal that obvious  since first couple of chapters. Complete refusal to follow any breadcrumbs or clues and just blindly trust the person they know for a fact to be fucked in the head. Just a very frustrating part of the otherwise great story
    Edit - started book2 , unfortunately quality seemed to have gone down.
  • JwmcdanRoyal Road
    ★★★ 3.0
    The good:
    It's well written and a good way to past the time. The card system is fun and entertaining.
    The bad:
    This story like the authors Elf story has a bad case of "men writing women badly". In both stories you have a much younger, beautiful, virginal, inexperienced female lead being saved by the much older male lead. The FMC in this story seems to only exist to encourage the MC, remind him he's a good person deep down and become his future love interest. There is no real depth to the character. To add extra ick to the story there is almost a 20 year age gap between the MC and the recent highschool grad FMC. I could go on but I don't want to beat a dead horse. Do better author please.
    Characters are also a bit one dimensional. Good is good bad is bad. The only grey is the MC.
    Anyway like I said it's a good way to pass the time. I liked the first audiobook.
  • TermiiRoyal Road
    ★★★ 3.0
    I easily gave this story 5 stars in the middle of Book 1. It has that interesting System, an MC that jumps from trouble to trouble and that sweet progression-like feeling.
    But the lacking growth of the story makes it unnecessarily frustrating to me. I believe
    Book 1 deserves a 4.77 Royalroad rating.
    Book 2 is closer to a 4.60.
    Book 3 started of with less than 4.4.
    The MC is introduced as someone who gets into gunfights. This never changes, MC probably got into 15+ gunfights by now. And while some were fine, most are resolved by 'MC starts running and shooting' and 'MC luckily did not get hit and killed the enemies'.
    The MC doing that initially is something I can understand, thats fine. But he never buys bullet proof clothes? He hides his identy with a card, instead of buying a bullet proof helmet? He blindly attacks every time instead of using a drone for reconnaissance? He never upgrades his gun to a full auto rifle with spare magazines? He got shot into his leg multiple times, but never had to apply a tourniquet to stop a bleeding?