The First Circle: A Deckbuilding Apocalypse LitRPG

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

One day, Devin received an unexpected text from his long estranged sister. Then came the apocalypse.

Cards and shards fell from the sky as blue holographic screens appeared in front of everyone’s faces. It marked the age of monsters, mutated beasts, and magic-wielding superhumans while throwing the world in turmoil.

Almost a year later and after a harrowing journey, Devin was back at his childhood home. It would’ve been nice to see it still standing if his sister wasn’t still missing.

Now, all Devin wanted to do was gain enough power to take back control of his life, but unfortunately, he wasn’t a Super. At least, not yet.

It was a good thing he had a plan to change that; all Devin needed to do was steal a monster core from a pyromaniac.Despite the threat, Devin resolved himself to keep moving forward. Be it the government, military, or even the world itself to gain his independence.

Or die trying!

[Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

What to Expect:

-Action

-Deckbuilding

-Soft and Hard Magic System

-Duels

-Superpowers

-Progression

-A cute animal companion

[Posting M-W-F]

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: GK.Vaughn

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.0/ 5.0
Followers: 748
Views: 123,105

Chapters(49 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

CowboyChamplooRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm leaving a review for that next chapter! I'm new to this site and the RPG genre but I have always been into fantasy, this was pretty light-hearted. It’s got a great mix of humor, character growth, and some cool magic stuff. I can’t wait to see what happens next for Devin and his crew! Along with Devin’s trial-and-error approach to magic, it made for some entertaining moments. I especially enjoyed how you showcased the challenges of being a novice arcanist, emphasizing the importance of patience and creativity in mastering their powers reminds me of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. This is something I can read during lunch or before bed
DamianalexanderRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Really interesting magic system. I'm new to stories where the MC uses cards but this is really cool! The story is well paced, some very small grammatical errors here and there but nothing that takes away from the story. Great characters that don't feel 1 dimensional, with great world building so far as well. Worth a read for sure!
Uncle SashimiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Your novel is the first deck building novel that I've read, and I'm loving it so far! As a longtime MtG and new FaB player, I always thought the premise of building out abilities sets this way was interesting. I'm interested to see how the deck building mechanic builds up as the book/series goes on since it seems like such a novel premise with tons of room to grow.
Devin is a fun PoV character so far. I like his sense of humor and personality. I also really like the overall flow of the narrative. The action is well-paced, and the premise is interesting. I generally like the apocalypse theme anyways and definitely know I'll enjoy this take on it.
The prose seems really clean too. I haven't found any typos or anything (something that's the bane of my existence!), and i like the flow of your sentences. In particular, I think your dialogue is well written.
Your character sheets and system dialogues are also well designed. I'm still playing around with my own as I'm writing, so it definitely helps to see strong examples of how to do them.
I'm very much looking forward to reading your future chapters! Keep up the great work.
Just_Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Was extremely skeptical at first, but the first full chapter had me hooked. I grew up a huge fan of Yugioh and other card games, but one critique i always had of that story was how at the core, they were a commercial for the actual cards. The stories had close to no stakes and the characters felt so detached from actual danger.
But this story really impressed me, which i dont say lightly, the pacing is my favorite part, it feels very natural, it doesn't suffer from the generic padding a lot of similar stories have. It reminds me a lot of the Greed Island arc in Hunter x Hunter, but a more fleshed out version of that and without the dragging in the middle.
Another thing i have to praise is the characters, they become extremely likeable just as fast, i think the author does a solid job of making them feel like real life people you would see every day, getting sent into a more shonen esque world.
Would highly recommend if you like Magic the Gathering, Yugioh, Solo Leveling and games/stories of that nature.
NightmareShamanRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Well written with good descriptions.
Interesting characters with cool magic system.
I think the MC's character Developement is good. It feels like the MC's power path was forced somewhat by the author when the character was described early on as more scholarly than brute. But then the MC turns scholarly whenever needed to progress and brute whenever he needs to fight. I guess it's fine but it feels a bit unorganic.
Also feel that the relationship and fallout with MC sister was somewhat unrealistic for the circumstance. Feels less real and more "I need this character to go away for awhile".
Some plot points yet to be explored to the future for this story is promising.
Read till the recent chapter and excited to read more.
JaaaaaaaacobRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
This is a good story in spite of it not explaining anything. The whole time the main character is learning and acting on information the reader doesn't get an explanation for. The story is very entertaining and that does help keep me reading. I'm through 43 chapters at this point and I still dont know if I will finish it for the above frustration.
Tiny0_0TimRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
I've read a number of great card based deck building stories, unfortunately they almost always don't continue. Seeing the number of chapters, frequency of release and the glowing reviews, my hopes were high.
We get right into the action and I quickly get immersed. Nothing is explained much but I understand its an apocalypse and the MC hasn't had the best time. It is also implied that people are being people and are trash.
So you can imagine my surprise almost 30 chapters in, when still nothing is explained. The MC gains a ridiculaous level of attachment for some people he just met; runs away from, ignores and chases away his greatest source of information (and the reason he's in this town in the first place). Ignores the results of an entire year's worth of effort. Acts blindly and very wishy washy. And we are just supposed to...... go along?
There is so much the author has here. The grammar is good. The style is okay. The character? Some guy who can make connections most can't but then also never thinks anything through and jumps at his first thought. The story? What story.. its fight after fight, set up after set up and to what ends? There is quality material here, without a doubt. But the author needs a re write and to maybe flesh out what he wants to achieve.
And lastly.... im still salty about how long he took to look at the cards but then complains about not having time (he did, he just didnt use it) and makes decisions that would have been influenced by looking at them. Too many chapters went by where all the comments were basically begging for him to look at them. Mind you..... this has been his dream and he just ignores it!
impRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
Written well enough, but the plotting is inconsistent. Reads like the author is very excited to get to the next thing, but never finishes anything before moving on. Feels like stakes, motivations, and relationships are not properly established which leads to developments or decisions not making much sense.
It does get a bit better around chapter 25, but the opening arc (if to can call it that, see above about plotting issues) is initially promising before becoming frustrating. Author appears to be trying to create an atmosphere where our protagonist is harried and doesn't get to rest, but it feels more like the story is rushed than the characters are under pressure.
I think a fair amount of work needs to be done to rearrange and replot the opening sections. Without that I think likely to lose a lot of people who would otherwise be onboard.
Another hurdle is the characters. Better establishing them would help a lot, but our lead seems all over the place. He doesn't need to be smart, but we do need to understand why he does things even if he's doing them for stupid reasons. It's a bit weird that he goes from reading the Art of War to impulsively doing all kinds of things that are questionable.
Not exactly bad, but underbaked.
Mark w1234Royal Road
★ 0.5
If you want a smart m.c., this is not the book for you. the main character done some stupid Stuff Spoilers. Sister comes back to help her younger brother guess what MC scorns her help. Takes forever to decide on cards gets a crap ton cards to help him does nothing with them for like 10 chapters Great story idea needs to be rewritten for the main character quit being a idiot.
nereusRoyal Road
★ 0.5
The main character repeatedly makes exceedingly poor choices. The first couple chapters are actually pretty good, but around about the time that he awakens he also loses all semblance of intelligent thought. He complains about abilities being weak when they are over powered, he doesn't make use of any of the resources that he has available, plot events progress in weird ways.
When he finally meets his sister, who he traveled across the country to find. She has advanced knowledge of the apocalypse, so what does he do? Ignores everything she says and pushes her away, doesn't discuss a single meaningful thing with her.