The Hammer Mage of Spinworld (A LitRPG Portal Fantasy Deckbuilder)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Max jumped through the portal, hoping to find his brother and gain magic. What he found was much more than he was expecting.

His brother went through the portal years ago, and Max is finally ready to follow him. A voice on the other side of the portal promised magic, stats, and leveling up in exchange for fighting their monsters.

What he finds is an alien world unlike anything he expected. There are no elves or dwarves, only four-armed Lunuk and long-tailed Paj. Instead of the strength and dexterity stats they were expecting, they got the option to increase their paranoia and flow.

On the other hand, everyone gets a magic card, just as promised. Max expects fireballs or lightning bolts, but gets the ability to create hammers. Instead of getting disappointed, he gets creative. There’s a lot he can do with a few good tools.

(Portal Isekai story with friends and magic card deck building. A unique LitRPG System and slow power growth. No harem, yes monster fighting. Not grimdark, but it’s a deadly world.)

The schedule is 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: Adam Sampson

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 908
Views: 227,568

Chapters(73 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

HobolobotomyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I honestly thought I had reviewed this before. The world is original and the characters are engaging. The magic system is harsh (even stat improvements come with a penalty). There are nuggets of what's going on in the world as a whole that come back and affect the characters. The main character is smart and a little bull headed, but likeable. It's been a great story.
Melrid_JomRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Not gonna lie, when I read "Hammer Mage" I was fully expecting silly comedy and little more.
I've been most pleasantly surprised by the depth and solid structure of the story.
It takes into account points of social structure and the danger of their adventures in a new and somewhat hostile world.
Great work Adam and I'm keen to see where you take your MC on this most interesting adventure.
Samwise the WizardRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Good writing, well paced so far. Really interesting magic and growth system with distinct specialties in abilities. I'm looking forward to which way the protagonist chooses each stat. Characters and monsters act believable but not predictable. Magic esekai but with more scifi elements. I'm 17 chapters in and keep coming back to it when I can.
VarnokRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Loved this story, the world building and magic system are peak. Cannot stress enough the amount of character building that has gone into it. Unfortunately the main character was lacking a bit but that’s going to be fixed with a rewrite. Love your stuff man I can’t wait to reread this and to read 9 to 5 monster hunter.
SeaDogRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Story has a unique stat set diff3rent then normal litrpg. I have yet to figure it out. The stats do not reflect the normal strength, dex, intelligence. Author uses some esoteric stats but pulls it off well. Few minor issues with grammar but the story flows well. Although, the first team in get hammered. The isekai is super dangerous from the start. I am really enjoying it so far.
Robin den HertogRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Early times and this author is certainly good at starting a story.
Warning, some very minor spoilers ahead.
This is a promising story with good characters that all show their own personality and agenda. My only complaint currently is that the main character might well be the least well developed. Max has a brother already in the world, he followes with some friends, that's about it.
It's a voluntary intentional isekai, and even prepared lots of people die, complain about the magic system, etc.
The introduction to the world is decently done but a lot of facts about the world are explained by an alien, or even the internal monologue of the mc.
There are some ommissions in the alien's explanation which makes for a nice show don't tell moment that alleviate this a bit. All in all it does get the story rolling relatively quickly.
The world has a card based magic system but that is hardly entirely new or even completely unique.
It draws you in but there are stories that do this better, for example i wouldn't care (yet) if the main character died and we continue with one of his friends. It does a lot of things pretty good, however nothing seems exceptional.
My conclusion it's a good start but we'll have to see how it develops.
versiasRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I really enjoyed this story! Spinworld is a fun take on the portal isekai adventure setting, with unique inhabitants that carry their own culture into the story. Likewise, the story itself is interesting: the building mystery of just who created Spinworld and for what purpose was an excellent base to be built upon. The author mentions that the characters were meant to be the focus of this story, and I think they really shine!
The author mentioned that the main character, Max, didn’t come across well. He was more of a self-insert silhouette to begin with. It is true that the character grew as the writing continued, in the sense that the author seemingly discovered more about them as they went rather than revealing more to the reader. However, I wasn’t too bothered by that. I think going through and adding more hints of Max’s character and past wouldn’t be amiss, but it isn’t story-breaking.
story-spoiler comment:
I think the abrupt death of Ebba bothered me more, personally. Her death seemed cheap and unexplored—there was some attempt to imply Ebba was leading them into a trap, but that seems to directly contradict her previous characterization as a pragmatic but ultimately altruistic person. I can’t help but wonder if this was the author excusing the lack of emotional impact for her death, if it is a mystery that would be solved later, or simply a story choice that I don’t like. Oh well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ultimately I understand why the author has chosen not to continue with the story, but I personally hope to see more of Spinworld in the future!
I also think it’s still worth a read, even unfinished and imperfect. Give it a try!
varkolakRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
The setup has everything I could want. A MC who seemed confident and interesting in the first chapter, portal, a fantasy world of unique monsters and races, a card based system, and generally good writting. Then we're introduced to one character after another who all act like they were designed to frustrate the reader before being tossed away. The power system is unique but utter garbage for the characters who have to use it. The MC ends up letting himself be trod on by total strangers due to some sense of responsibility as the "leader". I kept up hope that this setback would be the one to make the MC grow a spine, and yet every time I was left frustrated. If you're into self punishment this is an amazing read, but if you want a satisfying payoff steer clear.
impRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Hammer Mage has a relatively unique system where people make binary choices to advance in opposite directions across a range of different stats. It also uses a kind of deck building power system that makes use of six different suits and tiered abilities. It's very different from most gamelit so for system theory crafters this may be a fresh and novel addition to the rotation. That said, I worry that the system doesnt have the legs to be interesting in the longer term as it seems quite limited.
The word building is also fun, making use of a stratified Dyson Sphere rules by dungeon masters and city states and populated with a various aliens and humans pulled from different worlds. It is familiar while being different and the author has clearly put some thought into how the pieces fit together.
The characters are not for me, though. None of them are particularly likeable and many of them make decisions or take stances that don't make much sense from what we see in the story. While I could jive with that with the right kind of story, this one also features a lot of genre savvy characters which makes it tonally weird. Just too much rubbing me the wrong way in the character department.
The overall narrative feels fairly typical of portal fantasy/gamelit, just with a different setting and system than usual. Tonally feels more like system apocalypse due to the high body count, but all characters being genre savvy also makes it feel like it should be more of a parody or satire than it is.
Overall, has some interesting and unique elements but also a lot that is frustrating or I don't enjoy. Ultimately not for me, but it might be for you.
wakadooRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
The story and premise are good. The magic system is interesting.
However, the weaknesses of this story are its characters, relationships, and justifications.
Unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good. Not enough to be bad but enough for me to roll my eyes every chapter - at a weird decision or forced character plot point.
the main character does not seem special (which is totally fine) but is for some reason treated as such when the plot needs it (becomes party leader for example). He becomes a tyrant within his own party for no reason other than cos he wants to (he’s not strong or capable or anything) and none of his emotions are adequately explained so every decision seems like an overreaction or under reaction.
This wouldn’t usually be a huge issue for me in other books of this style but interestingly the author has decided to make this story almost completely character driven, bringing the story down due to its reliance on its weakest aspect.
Don’t get me started on what I’m assuming is a budding romance with the first random woman (scorpion thing) he’s met. The author has decided to write every intrusive thought the character has about this woman so it seems like he’s just randomly infatuated with this average person who just popped into the story.
This sounds harsh I know and I don’t want people to be too influenced by this. I’m 68 chapters in so there’s definitely merit.
List of positives:
Imaginative magic system
Interesting world building/setting
Quick chapter releases
Character driven story
and more!
at the end of the day, it’s about personal preference. Get in there and have a look and decide for yourself.