Shaper: New Beginnings

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

George was a young college student just coasting through life when an accident sent him to reincarnate in another world similar to the online games he used to play. Suddenly life is very interesting as he struggles to learn the rules of the System that governs everything in this new universe.

This is a LITRPG with game mechanics, but you can skip the game aspects and just enjoy the story if that's not your thing :)

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2018
Author: blu3stone

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 782
Views: 389,330

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

zelot65Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So far I have read the first arch and i must say I have enjoyed doing so immensly
MyNameWasStolenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
for once i feel like the system is actually all powerful and can control the world.
the mc is getting lucky, but who would want to read a stroy about a normal person
booitsjwuRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Exactly what you'd be looking for in a fantasy LitRPG and nothing else. If you want to something incredibly creative this probably isn't the series for you but, if you're like me, and you're more concerned with avoiding the most annoying tropes of the genre, give it a try. You'll like it.
ragaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a well written LitRPG, with no real weak points.
I like the protagonist. Characters act relatively logically. Main character is powerful and a little special, but not OP. Power creep has been reasonable. Honestly, there's nothing I'd point to and say "this is lacking."
The protagonist's special spell/ability, shaping, is pretty cool too. Lots of applications, but high mana costs keep it from being an "I win" button. And I haven't seen something too similar that often.
Only real issue I have with it is the low number of reincarnated folks - I know I'd go for reincarnation, and assume most others would if given the choice, so having "natural" peoples outnumber the reincarnated seems weird.
Oh, and the update speed. Once a week just isn't enough! :) (and yes, if you've ever read one of my stories and are still waiting months later for an update, I do apreciate the hypocrisy).
Well, that and some of these wacky reviews. I'd probably give this 4.5 stars across the board (maybe 5 for story), but some people panning it for, as far as I can tell, no reason meant I bumped it up to help put the average rating closer to where I think it should be. As a note, yes I am a real person (check my profile page and see the stories I wrote here if you don't believe me), no I don't know the author (haven't even written anything to him, as far as I know, at this point), I just liked this story.
I almost didn't read it because of the low reviews - don't make that mistake. Read it! If you like LitRPG you'll like this.
Enjoyer_Of_BooksRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really like how this story is set up. The pacing seems very deliberate. The world and system for the litrpg make sense to me.
The story doesn't focus on a main character constantly being thrown from one fight to the next with no break in between. The character is reborn into a world where it takes time to learn about the system, world, and to train to be capable of handling themselves.
The character development feels to me like how some hard sci fi novels develop their characters. Lots of detail on day to day life, characters don't suddenly change from one day to the next but grow in depth over longer periods of time.
All in all I like the story a lot and am excited to see where it goes from here.
(Review as of end of arc 2)
mad-nessRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Fun new litrpg. There isn't any one thing that is totally unique and stands out but the combination of slightly different elements makes the story seem fresh and a nice change of pace from other stories in the same genre.
Really looking forward to seeing how this progresses as the first arc feels more like an arc in a novel rather than a novel in itself.
NobodySpecialRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
don't be put off if you read Mastersgtjames' review, if you look at the time it was posted then there hadn't even been 10 chapters out, a little more rant about it in spoiler box
Spoiler: Spoiler
so firstly, respawn? when was there respawn? the other things like system classes hp and quests are common in most litrpg books, fame is less common but still present in other litrpg books and the starter area actually has some lore about it like a certain jewler and why he is serving in the starter area, so the starter area to me is more like a unique aspect of this series than a borderline narrated video game characteristic
secondly if you have read chapter 18 you would know that people other than reincarnators appear in the starter villages, asking where he is from is a perfectly valid thing to ask a new person who just showed up, although some more perceptive people might notice his lack of basic knowledge and link it to possibly being a reincarnator
so where does this story contradict itself?
don't judge a book by it's cover
anyway with that out of the way, i actually like this book series, the actual people in the starter area actually have depth for instance how the jewler had reluctance in giving his quest
if you like litrpg then just give it a try, you might be suprised
the main complaint i have with this series is the occasional wall of text, while most chapters are fine with text blocks at most six seven or eight lines thick you do come across some places like in chapter 6 that had a twelve line thick block, this is something that is easily fixed however so the author should be able to do some reformatting themself without much hassle
i look forward to seeing where this series goes
i_spy_sarcasmRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
As at chapter 26:
While this story doesn't have a OP MC that knows how to do everything immediately, there doesn't seem much to the MC, there are large info dumps and inconsistencies so far.
However, there is a lot of potential here, and if/when the author gets a beta or editor for their work who can crosscheck facts, fix the grammar and weirdly grouped paragraphs/structured sentences, this story would go a lot smoother.
Currently, like many LitRPG fics, there is potential for great things. But here's hoping that the author remembers to stay consistent and doesn't attempt to do the normal LitRPG tropes that we see everywhere.
MastersgtjamesRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
had a lot of hope for the story.... but it only turned out to be a borderline narrated video game.... People have a system Classes, HP, Quests, Fame, starter area's/towns, even are able to respawn.
Story starts by describing that as a Harrow (MC Race) you comefrom a mysterious unknown land that is not spoken of. 1st day in a village and everyone is asking about where he came from and the tavern owner comments about people from other dimensions without magic. seriously.
So the story contradicts itself and instead of having realism or fantasy, it is just a narrated game... if you are not into that. Which I for one am not... I'd recommend avoiding.
The ValeRoyal Road
★★ 1.5
Style - It is a narrated game rather than a story that uses game mechanics as part of the narrative. If you ever played an old rpg walking around talking to people with stock dialogue and quests - it's like that till nearly half way. Not natural and lacks organic flow. The author has a tendancy to start sentences with "I." Try making an effort to drop this habit and move to external focus. Instead of "I woke up and rolled oout of bed I..." try "Waking from slumber and rolling out of bed I..." Move the focus external to the character. Instead of "I saw x" just go with "x thing happened." The less you relate external things to the mc ie "I saw x happen" or "I did x" vs "x happened" or "Doing x" the better. As first person we already know everything is through the mc's perspective but using "I" all the time limits the language you can use descriptively. Action scenes come off as very dry with little or no emotional investment or reaction by the character.
Grammar - spelling mistakes and perspective errors are present in early chapters. Needs work. Also there is a distinct lack of contractions which comes off as awkward and mechanical or overly formal rather than organic.
Character - Where things really fall down, particularly in dialogue. Characters come off as stiff and stilted, lacking individual personality and overarching motivations and agendas for almost all of the story - particularly the mc. They aren't real characters so much as generic cutout placeholders there to perform a function mechanically. This seems to generally improve as chapters progress with characters having more life. Dialogue still needs improvement. The mc has had no exploration of their motivations. All characters lack emotional investiture in anything at all which is the largest issue overall.
Story - There isn't one until around chapter 22 when external elements get introduced. Very slow starter. There is knowledge bleed between characters occasionally. The pacing and framing is somewhat aw