Drop The Hammer: LitRPG Apoc

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Only seconds into the apocalypse, Luke accidentally kills a man.

His reward from the system? A powerful cultivation domain centred around murder and a bloodthirsty hammer.

Can Luke hold onto his humanity whilst fighting for his life in an underground dungeon full of undead horrors? Is he willing to embrace his inner [Murderhobo] to fight off invading armies, space wizards and psychotic cultivators from beyond the Veil?

Was he born for this?

Chapters 5x a week, Daily whilst on rising stars. Patreon is 20ish chapters ahead!

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: Dark Jester

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 2,035
Views: 293,764

What readers say about Drop The Hammer: LitRPG Apoc

“"Pink intestines spilled out of the cavity like uncooked sausages." - Dark Jester *May contain spoilers.* Goodmeowning, This is a review of System of Man - A LITRPG Apocalypse. Story - I'm enjoying this one. It's fast-paced, but find time to deliver real ch…”
BakaPuppyRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“There are so many cool ideas like forerunner, the domain skill creation and Warhammer domain to name a few. The MC feels logical and his decision making makes a lot more sense than some other MCs. The boatman and the first dungeon’s concepts are really cool…”
Superjulian208Royal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

BakaPuppyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
"Pink intestines spilled out of the cavity like uncooked sausages." - Dark Jester
*May contain spoilers.*
Goodmeowning,
This is a review of System of Man - A LITRPG Apocalypse.
Story - I'm enjoying this one. It's fast-paced, but find time to deliver real character. It's what chock-full of funny little tidbits, like words of wisdom and subtle references.
Let's get into it.
Style - The style is grim and punchy. The descriptions are vivid and believable. There's wit, gore, violence, and a touch of insanity, but it's sincere and honestly... relatable.
Character - Luke immediately struck me as a genuine character. Which is great because with the high-intensity pacing, an unformed protagonist could have been the Achilles heel. But fortunately, we have Luke... he's kind of a mystery (Is the system changing him? Was he always a sociopath?), yet, at the same time, I experience the story with a very clear POV of his mindset. He thinks things through and grapples with ideas.
He's still a DM's worst nightmare though. Any Murder Hobo with a hammer will be.
Grammar - the writing is smooth. No issues at all. This is one of those things that when it's done right, you don't notice.
I don't want to give too much away, but the setting has some grimdark qualities, a hint of mythos, and a deft touch of LitRPG. Oh, and it's action-packed.
You won't regret giving this one a shot. It's fire straight off the bat.
Love & Rebellion,
Bakapuppy.
Superjulian208Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
There are so many cool ideas like forerunner, the domain skill creation and Warhammer domain to name a few. The MC feels logical and his decision making makes a lot more sense than some other MCs. The boatman and the first dungeon’s concepts are really cool and feel fleshed out.
SyntheticAberrationRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Interesting novel, no noticeable issues with grammar. I'm not sure if it's entirely unique but that doesn't bother me in the slightest, I know it does for others.
I like seeing an MC using a hammer as a weapon, nowadays it's all swords and spears. Swords were cool, spears were cooler, now it's the age of the hammer and we must embrace bludgeoning damage.
chickenchitRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I like it when numbers go up. Numbers go up in this story. I like story.
while not breaking new ground, the author does a great job of giving the genre a new twist.
im not too terribly good at reviews but I liken this to dotf. Great action, no choices where I get knocked out of the story asking myself why would the Mc do that.
just a solidly built story about mc getting stronger, meeting interesting people and bashing his way through obstacles. Also really glad the mc isn’t some “I can do everything” mc where they can heal, be a mage, tank, and dps. Really makes fights boring when mc has all the cards to play. It’s a much more enjoyable read when the author sets up a situation and you ask yourself how is the mc going to deal with xyz.
LordmilesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is the second story of this uthor. I was hooked to the first o e so i gave it a try.
The novel has the premise of the MC trapped in a dungeon at the begining of the system integration. There are a cople of twists to the system that i had not seen before, and it makes the novel, fun for me to read.
The atmosphere of the story is dangererous with fun. It is not careless but it is not of an MC buried in his own thoughts and overcomplicated agony of been trapped.
Sidekicks appears early in the story and bit by bit are been developed. I am like 20 chapters advanced in his patreon and i am happy with it.
The release rate looks decent and there are a lot of backlog to ensure it.
RocksNPebblesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I put defiance of fall near the top of my litrpg ranking and this feels like a parallel world and story with significant differences and is more inspired by and not a fanfic.
The pace, dialogue, prose, combat, clarity of expression, and grammar are all good, the story is fun, but thankfully avoids comedy. It has a clear promise, progress, and series of payoffs with reasonable long and short term goals. The MC is mature and acts his age and is fairly normal, not overly clever and avoids being dumb.
The system is good and makes sense, it is well reasoned and consistent in how it works so far. Power scaling and future expansions are built in and nothing seems random. Excited to see where this will go.
I'll keep and eye on this one and will return when there is more to binge. An easy 5 stars and new addition to my favourite list with a very strong start.
Silent_WolfRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
STORY: In "System of Man," we are quickly introduced to Luke, who had just been in a fight and was gloomily taking the train, reflecting on everything that had happened, when everything changes. Out of nowhere, a voice announces things that he can’t understand, and zombies, amongst other creatures, start to attack him. Without a second’s hesitation, Luke springs into action and shows us what he is all about.
First of all, I want to say: what a way to start a story! Immediately after the introduction, we are thrown into the thick of it; there are monsters, zombies, and lots of killing. I like it!
STYLE: As I mentioned before, the rhythm of this novel is really fast, and you won’t be wasting time with things that aren’t important to the story. Everything Luke does is to drive him forward and increase in power. Accordingly, the style of the story is very focused and very fast-paced. And I think that’s a merit of "System of Man."
CHARACTER: Despite the fast pace, the character's personality and tastes are slowly introduced through small comments during the chapters, making the process of getting to know him very interesting. I also enjoyed the introduction of the dwarf blacksmith in the later chapters, and I’m looking forward to meeting more people as the story evolves.
GRAMMAR: I didn’t spot any mistakes, but honestly, I wasn’t paying too much attention to it since the story did the job to fully immerse me in it.
Overall, a pretty good story!
Cocop (Cale Plamann)Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This review is based both off of the published chapters and a review copy where I read out to chapter 23.
Overall this is a solidly enjoyable book about the end of the world and using a system to fight back against that end. That part of the plot is hardly treading any new ground, but the actual elements of the system used are a lot more interesting. There's clearly some care that went into the worldbuilding/multiverse, but more than that in addition to their stats characters cultivate 'concepts' which are like archetypes that change who the character is fundamentally as well as granting them abilities. There's enough of the common LitRPG Apocalypse fair to keep you grounded and comfortable but there's just enough difference in how the system works and how the concepts grow/interact to keep you wondering what will come next structurally.
Style
There are some spots where the phrasing is a bit odd but they are infrequent and the story gets better and better as the writer improves. If you find a rough patch at first, remember that it's only 'at first.' I wasn't noticing much if anything later on.
Grammar
One or two misplaced comma splices but that was only because I was reading closely and paying attention. Very good grammar.
Story
The world and the story are interesting twists on things we already know. The author is pretty good at keeping the tension and desperation amped up. I usually only read the first 10-15 chapters on a review copy before giving feedback but I finished this one largely on the strength of the story.
Character
Its hard to give this a 5 just because there is a lot of solo adventuring and limited other characters. That said, the main character is likeable and I found myself rooting for him.
Schatt BatsuRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Didn't feel like making an advanced comment but I has to stay how much I like this story! It's very fun, and while the protagonist is not one of those exactly super heroic prots I often enjoy reading, and yes he is a "Murderhobo", but he is actually a pretty decent person. Something I cannot stand are edgy protagonists and writing, but this story has none of that, like I would have expected by reading the summary.
I will admit sometimes I get bored of reading some parts, like certain combat scenes, but the writing always manages to make me excited again at some point or another. Great story overall, I hope Frank can MAKE himself a shiny new soul!! :)
IstraRaugirRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
The title of this review pretty much sums it up. In every chapter so far, there were weird moments and choices that baffled me. Both in regards to why the main character would do something, and why the author would include certain events or details. Instead of engaging with the story itself, I spent more time trying to figure out seemingly nonsensical details and for what reason they are even included.
Suffice to say, the end result was not an enjoyable read.