Source & Soul: A Deckbuilding LitRPG

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Hull is living on the streets of Treledyne, scrabbling to survive. He’s sure that if he can just find a card that he can use, things will turn around and he’ll start building a deck that will let him take revenge on the ones who have wronged him. It’s hard to get started, though, when the only cards he can use come from the Demon Realm.

Basil might be a noble, but the third son of the baronet in charge of the City Watch doesn’t exactly have his pick of the King’s Card Reserves. If only he can shine at the Rising Stars Tournament, he can enter War Camp, finally raise his soul to Rare, and step out of his older brothers’ shadows.

When these two young men duel, they will set each other on a path to greatness that neither could ever imagine. In a world where every accomplished soul leaves a card behind, the one with the most cards has the most power…and can maybe, justmaybe, do the most good. The Orc tribes gather on the horizon and other enemies lurk unseen, wishing to unseat the Legendary Sun King of Treledyne. Great heroes will clash; some will fall and others will rise. Wherever they think the peak of power may be, they’re wrong. It’s always higher.

*Chapter releases Tuesday & Saturday*

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Inspired by Magic: the Gathering, Hearthstone, Legends of Runeterra, and other collectible card games, as well as more recent LitRPGs like All the Skills and Goblin Summoner,Source & Soulis a deckbuilding progression fantasy that aims to scratch that gamer itch and give you an epic story at the same time. Here’s what you can expect from this story:

Fully-realized duels:Friends, this is an actual card game with its own mechanics and card set. Hopefully one day I can make an IRL version of it! In the meantime, though, I am playing through all the matches described in this book.How the match plays out in the real world determines how the book gets written.

Contrasting viewpoint characters:Are you a fan of the starts-from-zero protagonist, or would you rather dive immediately into the deep end of the dueling metagame? Why not both?

A world full of magical cards and the creatures who wield them:It’s not just dueling – though there’s lots of that to be found here! – there’s a whole society built on the back of this magic system, and if you stick around, you’ll get to see all of it. I’ve gone deep down this rabbit hole and made cards for all the cards that show up in the book, and you’ll start seeing them in Chapter 1. I can promise that if you’re a CCG gamer (and probably even if you’re not) you’ll love them.

Plenty of character development and emotional hits: I get it, you’re here for the game and so am I. But along the way our boys are gonna go through the wringer in the very best way. They will laugh, they will cry, and they will bleed – and hopefully you will too. Except maybe not the bleeding. If you experience exsanguination while reading, please discontinue use of this product and consult your doctor. Then come back, because this story is worth a few nosebleeds.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Author: Furious Scribe

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 2,127
Views: 1,356,983

Chapters(202 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

strapoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Great story! Fun world, interesting magic sistem. The Card art is so well done and look so good! All characters are really interesting and fun to read about. I just keep coming back for more and more. There for am unavailable to can wait for the new chapter every time!
ArnavguptaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
What an Absolute amazing find this story was. I was searching for something new and then stumbled upon this and let me tell you it is absolutely perfect. The style, the pace, the characters , the story, the grammar, everything you could ask for is amazing.
You can't help yourself from reading the next chapter with this one. Try it !!
bnazRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
First off, I like the urchin story more than the noble, but both are well written and show their own unique paths, which is great. The story is well written, the card system is logical so far. There are still some elements of the system that probably will be elaborated on but overall nothing stands out as problematic. The author has done a great job of establishing characters and motivations, as well as foreshadowing where the story is likely to go - at least at a high level. I am most excited to see how the urchin progresses but it will be interesting to see the noble move forward and perhaps what it might take for the 2 to cross paths. I don’t typically enjoy multiple perspectives and if I’m being honest I speed through the nobles to get to the urchin chapters, but that doesn’t mean it won’t change. The action is currently more intense for the urchin but I’m confident that will naturally fluctuate. Anyways, I’ll see you in the comments section of Patreon.
iridium248Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
[Disclaimer: I'm a casual TCG player. I have a passing familiarity with Magic: The Gathering, Duel Monsters and Hearthstone, so I'm not the best judge of balance. If you have more experience, your mileage may vary.]
STYLE: Novel-quality, and that's the highest praise possible I can give on this account.
In truth, I've always felt that the deckbuilders in general sit very poorly with the written format in general - Anyone who's had the misfortune to watch an episode of Duel Monsters can probably attest to that fact. It just takes a massive narrative leap to justify a world where some variant of a magical card game is a major aspect of the 'verse, without raising more questions than it answers.
Source & Soul makes it work. The setting reminds me very much of Arcane or Arcanum, where magic very much holds sway, and is sufficiently integral to the universe that it's a fact of life...But with the titular duelists effectively taking the place of magic-users. The magical card game is enough of a core underpinning of the setting that it actually makes sense, and doesn't have an 'artificial' feel to things - Like when a system window pops open in your standard portal / fantasy / hunter / LitRPG tale.
It doesn't feel jarring, and that's a great hook for anyone just jumping in. While (as of reading) we've only seen one city and its slums (the Lows), there's enough to form a cohesive world that stands up to the quick-read test.
STORY: Source & Soul, very broadly, follows the tale of two very different young men - Hull, a hard-bitten, streetwise orphan from the slums of the city (who might have an unusual lineage, or who may just be deluding him), and Basil, the youngest son of a nobleman.
Their paths end up crossing at the Rising Stars tournament, with each participating for their own reasons: Basil wants to enter the War College, but he mainly wants to impress this one girl he has his eye on. Hull mostly wants to avoid having his throat slit by a street gang and their murderou
Apannr1Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is a fun and well-written story following two(or more?) character points of views that have very different starting backgrounds, outlooks and natures that come together and fairly organically mesh to give interactions and story that is greater than what their individual consituents would be.
The system is good and balanced/unbalanced in ways that benefits/impacts different situations and scenarios. The reactions and attitudes to those are mostly good and realistic. With those that are not explainable by the characters being actual people with flaws, oversights and biased.
There are chacters to love, to pity and to love to hate. Watching them grow and learn is great and something I’m greatly looking forwards to getting more of as the story progresses.
in conclusion. If you enjoy a well-crafted fantasy deckbuilder system that accounts for politics, war, intrigue and reality then this is a story for you.
If you enjoy pampered naive characters learning more of the the world and growing as an individual while also getting an unfortunate deprived and hate-fueled character learning that the world isn’t just exploitation, hate and violence and that there is community and trust to be had. This story is for you and you will not be dissapointed. Give it a read!
FlickerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Easily the best card based story on rr right now. I would recommend it even if you dont like card novels.
Professional level prose, characters speak with unique voices to each other, interesting world, ect.
The protagonists act like actual humans and have real strengths and weaknesses. Reading it, it feels like they make decisions based on their character not just because the plot needs to move forward.
The very first chapter really sells the atmosphere of the world. I could tell in the first page that this was going to be a banger.
I think the author does a great job at pacing exposition.
The 'non-official-duel' fights feel quick and vicious. Some card magic based books read like someone dictated their last few mtg arena games. While some authors can pull that off, it also is super easy to write a snooze-fest.
I bring that up because we are looking dangerously close to entering a tournament arc where we will likely be seeing more ritualistic duels. I'm cautiously optimistic the author can keep it interesting and avoid the common pitfalls. The fighting out of "official duels" is great, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle the tournament.
It's still early on, but if the author keeps up the current quality and posts a chapter or two a week then this story is going to the top of the site for sure.
GivingTreeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Dual protagonists from different walks of life, each with their own interesting perspective. A card game that holds the promise to be something you can sink your teeth into. And a lack of obnoxiously repeated text boxes intruding where you don't want them. These are the signs that make me think that Source & Soul is going to keep on impressing me going forward.
I'm hesitant to give the story a higher rating at only 7 chapters, but I hope it finds itself drowning in 5-star reviews in the future.
KieflerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really enjoyed the content, which is very much in the “cards work like a collectible card game, but in real life” style. Most others I have read they work more like permanent powers or skills, or like cultivation but with cards.
In this format there is a marketplace for the cards, they get bought and sold and swapped. Unlike the other style, while someone has a preferred deck, they are also able to swap them out at a moments notice completely changing it up.
Makima's DogRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I found this story while looking on RR for good deckbuilding stories of which I have read quite a few good ones like A Summoner Awakens, All the Skills & Demon Deck Builder and the truly terrible like Card Mage: Slumdog Deckbuilder and even the ones I have liked have not truly scratched that itch until now.
Okay lets get the boring category out the way first.
Grammar: there are no grammar issues the author does occasionally make a minor spelling mistake but it is always swiftly rectified.
Style: this book is superb the author makes the cards himself using AI and photoshop that it would not look out of place in a professional TCG.
Story: one of my top 3 favourites on the whole site I love the effort put into this story the deck strategy & the smaller more personal chapters are my favourite. Also they actually play cards in this story as well they are not just stand ins for different abilities granted to the user its a well thought out game that keeps you on the edge.
Character: This story had two main POV characters Basil the third son of a middle of the pack noble family & Hull a street kid that can only cultivate Nether a demonic source. I find them both fascinating but I think you will always inevitably gravitate towards a favourite, for me that is Hull mainly for the simple reason that demons are just really cool but in there own way both of these characters are really relatable Hull trying to deal with his abandonment issues & anger and Basil his overthinking and inferiority complex.
Lastly as a big worm fan I adore the interlude chapters and the POV switches in the prologues and epilogues please keep these up,, they are excellent and add a a vast amount of depth to the world.
Favourite Chapters: Fowl Play, Tending to Unfinished Business, Harker Epilogue & Walking the Walk
This is the only RR story I support on Patreon because it is just that good and I need to know what happens next. The discord community is also really nice and welcoming.
SimpleMindedRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've always been a fan of deckbuilding stories on RR and saw this on Rising Stars, so I had to give it a shot. I am VERY happy that I did!
Grammar: Absolutely impeccable. Story may as well have been written by a professional author or an english major.
Style: Absolutely awesome. I love how much effort the author puts into this story. They literally hand create each and every card used in the story (using a mix of AI and photoshop, I believe). Additionally, the card game created has well-made rules and has obviously been thoroughly thought out (it is a game I would consider playing IRL if it was available).
Story score: The main thing that made me hesitant to pick this story up was the fact that there are two main characters, but it really hasn't retracted from the story so far. Only about 14 chapters in at this point, but things look like they might be starting to ramp up!
Character score: At this point in the story, the characters are still slightly one-dimensional, but I think that is only because we have not learned more about the characters so soon in the story (this one dimensionality decreases every chapter). I wanted to put a score lower than 5 for this, but considering the quality of this story so far, I have faith the author knows what they are doing.
Legitimately go read this. It's free and, even if it wasn't, I'd probably buy it knowing what I know now! Thanks for the story author :)