What is the crowd's opinion of The Two Year Emperor: The Deor War?
From 3.5 billion comments

By popularity online, this product is:

8 reviews of this product found across the web:

[Pokemon: The Origin of Species]
[Worm]
[Animorphs: The Reckoning]
[Luminosity]
[The Two Year Emperor]
[Worth the Candle]
[The Erogamer] (NSFW)
[The Gods are Bastards]

Responses in the order in which I thought of them within each category (don't take it as an order of preference or anything). Lots of fanfic in this list because it's what people tend to write. Assume they're rational unless stated otherwise.

Note that "rationalist" means "rational + demonstrates analytical techniques", so I note where that's applicable (if I remember; a lot of this is fuzzy due to sheer quantity).

Finished:

The Waves Arisen, rationalist Naruto fanfiction
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (HPMoR), rationalist Harry Potter fanfiction, possibly the ur-example of the concept of rationalist fanfiction (probably wrong about that however)
Shadows of the Limelight, original story (it's true, I do read original stories) about a world where fame literally grants superpowers (by one of this subreddit's moderators, /u/alexanderwales)
Worm, original story about an alternate Earth where superheroes are forged from "trigger events" (moments of intense emotional or physical trauma) by /u/Wildbow
Pact, original story about modern magic users and creatures where words have power and consequences (also by Wildbow)
The Two Year Emperor, original story (kinda) about an ordinary, albeit clever man transported to a world that runs on Dungeons and Dragons rules as written by /u/eaglejarl; (this one is no longer available for free, there's a purchase link on Amazon here if that sounds like your thing)
The Metropolitan Man, Superman/Lex Luthor fanfiction (by alexanderwales again; the next three are all by him)
A Bluer Shade of White, Frozen fanfiction (yes, it is rational)
The Last Christmas, Santa Claus fanfiction (ditto)
Branches on the Tree of Time, Terminator fanfiction
Fine Structure, original story about superheroes that appear yearly, doubling in power (and the damage done in their tumultuous "trigger") each time; the whole thing is so much more than just that, but I don't want to spoil it (by Sam Hughes, who wrote the next two as well)
Ra, original story about magic analysed as science; again, it goes on to be much more but I don't want to spoil it
Sam Hughes' author page at the SCP Foundation wiki, I recommend reading his entries from 2015 (you may want to read the Foundation's about page and some of the top rated pages from the wiki to get a feel for the setting first if you're new to SCP)
Friendship is Optimal, My Little Pony fanfiction about an AI that is definitely not horrifying, no siree, just your average friendly AI over here
Cenotaph, Worm fanfiction with a small deviation from canon
Wake, sequel to Cenotaph

Updating often:

Significant Digits, HPMoR metafic which is very different in character (it has a summary of HPMoR if you don't want to read it, but obviously heavily spoils the plot of that fic)
Pokemon: The Origin of Species, rationalist Pokemon fanfiction
r Animorphs: The Reckoning, Animorphs fanfiction by /u/TK17Studios
Mother of Learning, original story about a student mage caught in a time loop
Team Anko, Naruto fanfiction by eaglejarl (who wrote The Two Year Emperor above, so you can take this as a free sample of writing style if you wish)
Twig, original story about emotionally savvy, enhanced children fighting biopunk monsters in a world where the British defeated the American colonies using biological superweapons (by Wildbow)
Lighting Up the Dark, Naruto fanfiction by /u/Velorien
Juncture, original story about all sorts of time travel tropes by /u/AHatfulOfBomb

Updating rarely, possibly abandoned:

Harry Potter and the Natural 20, Harry Potter/Dungeons and Dragons crossover fanfiction (protagonist is an original character and a munchkin to his core)
Weaver 9, a Worm metafiction which swaps the role of two important characters (casting a significant villain in the role as, er, "hero")

I can go into more detail about what separates the Naruto/Harry Potter fanfictions on request. They all have their charms but differ quite a lot in theme and characterisation.

I've also probably forgotten a whole bunch of things. Apologies also if I got authors wrong or missed somebody who's active on this subreddit (I don't remember usernames for everyone who is, sadly).

There's also a lot of great one-shots on the subreddit, some in the challenge threads that get posted every two weeks.

This is a repost of a previous recommendation list I made (with a few updates):

Note that "rationalist" means "rational + demonstrates analytical techniques", so I note where that's applicable (if I remember; a lot of this is fuzzy due to sheer quantity).

Finished:

The Waves Arisen, rationalist Naruto fanfiction
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (HPMoR), rationalist Harry Potter fanfiction, possibly the ur-example of the concept of rationalist fanfiction (probably wrong about that however)
Shadows of the Limelight, original story (it's true, I do read original stories) about a world where fame literally grants superpowers (by one of this subreddit's moderators, /u/alexanderwales)
Worm, original story about an alternate Earth where superheroes are forged from "trigger events" (moments of intense emotional or physical trauma) by /u/Wildbow
Pact, original story about modern magic users and creatures where words have power and consequences (also by Wildbow)
The Two Year Emperor (epub), original story (kinda) about an ordinary, albeit clever man transported to a world that runs on Dungeons and Dragons rules as written by /u/eaglejarl; this one was, at one point, only available for purchase on Amazon here but was generously rereleased for free by the author
Team Anko, Naruto fanfiction also by eaglejarl
The Metropolitan Man, Superman/Lex Luthor fanfiction (by alexanderwales again; the next three are all by him)
A Bluer Shade of White, Frozen fanfiction (yes, it is rational)
The Last Christmas, Santa Claus fanfiction (ditto)
Branches on the Tree of Time, Terminator fanfiction
Fine Structure, original story about superheroes that appear yearly, doubling in power (and the damage done in their tumultuous "trigger") each time; the whole thing is so much more than just that, but I don't want to spoil it (by Sam Hughes, who wrote the next two as well)
Ra, original story about magic analysed as science; again, it goes on to be much more but I don't want to spoil it
Sam Hughes' author page at the SCP Foundation wiki, I recommend reading his entries from 2015 (you may want to read the Foundation's about page and some of the top rated pages from the wiki to get a feel for the setting first if you're new to SCP)
Friendship is Optimal, My Little Pony fanfiction about an AI that is definitely not horrifying, no siree, just your average friendly AI over here
Cenotaph, Worm fanfiction with a small deviation from canon
Wake, sequel to Cenotaph
Significant Digits, HPMoR metafic which is very different in character (it has a summary of HPMoR if you don't want to read it, but obviously heavily spoils the plot of that fic)

Updating often:

Pokemon: The Origin of Species, rationalist Pokemon fanfiction
r Animorphs: The Reckoning, Animorphs fanfiction by /u/TK17Studios
Mother of Learning, original story about a student mage caught in a time loop by /u/nobody103
Twig, original story about emotionally savvy, enhanced children fighting biopunk monsters in a world where the British defeated the American colonies using biological superweapons (by Wildbow)
UNSONG, the only rational kabbalah story I've ever heard of, with a pleasantly high concentration of biblical whale puns
Glimwarden, yet another original story by alexanderwales featuring three rational protagonists fighting against anthropomorphic EM radiation (or at least that's my guess)
Hermione Granger and the Perfectly Reasonable Explanation, a rational Harry Potter fanfic that I'm really hoping keeps up the updates (it was in a long hiatus until recently) in part because it has the perfect title for a Hermione fic

Updating rarely, possibly abandoned:

Harry Potter and the Natural 20, Harry Potter/Dungeons and Dragons crossover fanfiction (protagonist is an original character and a munchkin to his core)
Weaver 9, a Worm metafiction which swaps the role of two important characters (casting a significant villain in the role as, er, "hero")
Juncture, original story about all sorts of time travel tropes by /u/AHatfulOfBomb (currently on hiatus)
Lighting Up the Dark, Naruto fanfiction by /u/Velorien

I can go into more detail about what separates the Naruto/Harry Potter fanfictions on request. They all have their charms but differ quite a lot in theme and characterisation.

I've also probably forgotten a whole bunch of things. Apologies also if I got authors wrong or missed somebody who's active on this subreddit (I don't remember usernames for everyone who is, sadly).

There's also a lot of great one-shots on the subreddit, some in the challenge threads that get posted every two weeks.

My experience at this point is all on Amazon; I'm just branching out onto other platforms as a test. I've been told that the other platforms (B&N, Smashwords, Oyster, etc) aren't worth bothering with because the audience isn't big enough. Despite that, I want to give it a shot in order to see for myself.

Here is my advice; it's not terribly well organized because I'm looking to get to work ASAP and would rather not do a bunch of editing, but hopefully it's helpful:

There are two ways to make money on Amazon. First is selling the book, obviously. The second is the Kindle Unlimited program, which is effectively a lending library. It costs $10/month and allows you to read as much as you want -- you check out a book, read it, put it back, check out another one, etc. You can have up to 10 books out at a time.

The way authors make money on KU is this:

People sign up for a Kindle Unlimited membership.
When an author publishes something, she can choose to put it in the KU program.
A KU member checks out your book and reads it.
For every page they read, you get paid half a penny.
Amazon thinks that there are roughly 175 words to a Kindle page. (This is the only place in their entire system were they are nice to authors, so be grateful.) That means that 5k words is about 28 pages.

Here's the fallout of that:

Short form work is worthless. That 15k novella is worth $0.42. Don't bother.
Long form is good. A 110k-word novel like The Two Year Emperor (/shameless_plug) is considered to be 628 pages, so if someone borrows it and reads the whole thing I would get paid $3.14, which is a mathematically pleasing accident. (2YE is not currently in KU, though.)
People often don't finish reading something, so don't expect to make that figure.

The downside to being in KU is that Amazon requires exclusivity for KU books, so you can't publish them anywhere else. That includes giving them away on your website, although you are allowed to give away 10% as a teaser. They have scrapers that look for things, so chances are good that they'll eventually find you if you give the book away for free.

Depending on what you're publishing, you'll make 40-60% of your income from KU, so you need to be in it unless you're going wide and publishing with the other shops.

Backmatter is incredibly important. At the end of each book you want to have a section saying "hey, I hope you enjoyed this, here are links to my other things."

I have read but cannot confirm that Amazon tracks number of searches and bumps your ranking if there are a lot of them. Whether or not that's true, it's probably better if your backmatter links are searches instead of direct links. So, instead of:

Direct link (do NOT use this form): http://www.amazon.com/The-Two-Year-Emperor-Deor-ebook/dp/B011DQOT74
Search link (DO use this form): http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+two+year+emperor+storrs&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Athe+two+year+emperor+storrs

Amazon's interface bites, so you won't have information that you really want. The solution to this is Book Report. If you're publishing on Amazon, you can't afford not to have it, period. It's free unless you're making >$1,000 / month, and Liam (the author) is very responsive, so there's no reason not to. (I'm not affiliated with BR in any way except as a delighted user.)

Covers are critical. You can get them made on Fiverr or you can use a professional. I was going to provide a link to the professional that I've used in the past -- she does amazing work and is very inexpensive -- but her domain name has expired. If I can track her down I'll edit it in.

Keywords are critical. You are given 400 characters divided into up to 7 groups by commas. They all need to be used. Don't use spaces around the commas. Phrases will (I'm pretty sure) be indexed by both the phrase and its component words. Try to think of words that you would use if you were searching for the book. Do not use names of real people.

Blurbs are critical. They need to be short, and they need to pull the reader in quickly.

The first ~200 words is important. If someone likes the blurb they'll click on the "Look Inside". They will then be allowed to read the first 10% of the story. They aren't going to read 10%, they're going to read a few paragraphs and then either buy it or not. Those first few paragraphs need to be gripping.

Your first sentence is critical. People these days have the attention span of ADHD goldfish; if your first sentence doesn't grip them they aren't even going to read the few paragraphs mentioned above.

Have a Patreon but don't expect to make money from it.

Broadcast. You're not going to get a lot of sales unless people know you exist. Post on FB, Reddit, etc.

Okay, I'm done for now. Hopefully this is helpful.

>I was under the impression we were assuming RAW, that is clearly legal.

Oh wow. People who think RAW is a thing actually still exist. I suspected earlier when you mentioned the Ur-GM (The GM who exists to counter any arguments I can't that my opponents make which could beat mine, who counter escalates only when I say he does, and who obviously wouldn't allow your cheese, but is fine with my cheese)

Well, alright. We can play that game. I'll note that in my group we call RAW RAICAALAIBMS (Rules as I can Argue As Long As It Benefits My Side). There is always a layer of interpretation involved in reading a ruleset.

Trust me, I'm in law school, that's what they teach you in the first day.

But we'll play pure RAW.

So, from this point I'm assuming I have infinite money and time.

These are easily gotten. As mentioned, a demiplane is created inside the Astral or Ethereal Planes. They exist in these planes according to RAW.

So, I create a Demiplane, and then use the 9th level Greater Demiplane spell to give it the Time trait, doubling the speed Time passes inside the plane relative to outside.

Then I cast Create Demiplane. I create my new Demiplane in the Astral Plane, inside my other Demiplane. I use the 9th level Demiplane spell to give it the Time trait, doubling the speed Time passes inside the plane relative to outside.

I don't need to explain the rest. Iterate X times, where X is how many demiplanes you can effectively nest (Down to a 5 ft cube from a full sized Greater Demiplane spell at CL 20, going in by 5 feet each time from the full 400,000 cubic feet, ~80,000 doublings Could be even more if you want to stack more spells.).

Time now passes... well, We probably want to slow it down a bit, because I think 1 second later the lich is now older than time. Exponential growth is fun, in that my calculator when asked what 2^80,000 is, just tells me to fuck off and throws an error.

Lets leave our final size at a 30 x 30 room, that's big enough to house a few people at least for a semi-eternity. Lets say 20 people. Put a sign down (maybe Lickmyorangeballshalfling) and bam, you're in a settlement.

Anyway. The fun thing about time, is that it is money. Thanks to the Downtime rules, you can make skill checks to generate Capital.

Capital is used for a variety of things, among them, Magical Capital can be used as 100 GP of value towards making magic items. And it only costs 50 gp to make with a skill check! That's pretty useful. Heck, you can even use other skill checks to make Gold!

Then just craft all of the magic items. Make a few copies.

"But Jack," I hear you say, "Where is all that Magic capital and gold coming from?"

"Woah there." I reply. "That's an awful lot of fluff and interpretation you're getting in my Rules as Written here. The rules say this is how it works, and so it works. It's the GM's obligation if playing by RAW at least, to make up some way how."

The best part is, the fact that others can do this doesn't matter, because since you have infinite money, time, and magic items, whoever starts this first wins forever ala Pun Pun. You get Graham's Number more actions than anyone else, and there is nothing stopping your (extraplanar) spells from effecting them. Divine every casting or person capable of casting Create Greater Demiplane by counting one atom in the universe per spell and then putting it all together, then kill them by throwing 4,000 Meteor Swarms through a gate at them. Nest a few Magnificent Mansions in there for some more living space.

Maybe learn the violin.

You have time.

> ALSO, even if you do insist that literally no magic, period, can get past a prismatic sphere, you're screwed anyway, because a lich's regeneration ability is Supernatural which is defined as a magical effect. > So lol, you just blocked your own (Su) magic from communicating with your phylactery at all upon death, and thus blocked your own rejuvenation, and you simply die forever whenever you get killed, the end.

Read the spell. It blocks 'spells'. Supernatural effects aren't spells.

Also, by RAW, a lich's soul never leaves its phylactery. It's placed in there upon creation, and it is never mentioned anywhere that it goes into the new body. The body is just remotely controlled. Upon the death of the body, the soul merely begins to build a new body at its location. Incidentally that would make a lich immune to trap the soul and the like. It must, since he has no soul in the body you're attacking.

>I'm not scrying, I'm Finding the Path in this case for sure, since a demiplane lich lair is completely unambiguously an important location the path to which can be found.

The following are the assumptions being made here:

You know the Demiplane exists.
You know the phylactery is in the demiplane.

These are important assumptions, since half of hiding something is through obscurity. You have to be able to define the destination you are searching for.

If you are about to argue "I search for the lich's demiplane" without knowing it exists, I don't think you can do that. The spell says 'specified destination', you have to know exactly what you are looking for. (Maybe he has 45 demiplanes).

>Also, not sure where you're getting this idea from that prismatic spheres block everything

The RAW part in the spell description which says:

5th Blue Stops divination and mental attacks.

6th Indigo Stops all spells.

You don't get to argue pure RAW in one segment on spell text vis a vis demiplanes and etherealness, and then ignore it in another because it benefits your side. That's disingenuous. It is precisely the same argument.

>Discern location and Find the Path do not say anything that clearly implies they need to reach out and touch the target in any way

Semantics. They are divination effects gathering information about an object. Mind Blank for example prevents all divination spells from "gathering information about you". That's directly and indirectly. Locate Object on your socks gathers information about you (the location of you, via your socks) and thus is blocked by Mind Blank.

This is assuming that the properly paranoid lich is ever actually in a position where you could come into physical contact with them. Permanent Image in your throne room of you on the seat, view and respond through concentrating on the spell and a scrying window. If you need to be seen to cast spells, Project Image and sit invisibly under a mind blank in a different part of the room/house with a pinhole sized line of sight.

>This was at one time the standard "scry and fry" tactic at my table, prior to certain house rules (re-edited to be a one man show for fairness, obviously easier with a party): 1) I make a teleport circle going to where the lich is. Don't step on it yet. 2) I ready an action with my standard: "if a lich within [100+10ft/lvl] of me has a contingency begin to trigger, cast Threnodic Spell Feeblemind on that lich" 3) I use my move now to step into the teleport circle. 4) Lich's contingency to immediately escape an encounter triggers. In interruption of that, and resolving BEFORE it, my readied action triggers, feebleminding him. His contingency then completes, perhaps teleporting him somewhere, let's say. 5) He's now teleported somewhere, but also is a drooling idiot. Go find him again, or gate him to me. Should be pretty easy and harmless now, restrain him, dispel his Memory Lapses, blah blah. Or perhaps just polystone him and stone-> mud and dissolve him in the ocean or whatever and call it a day. Like you say, pretty much.

Hoo boy.

Assumptions made here:

You know the lich is a lich
You know where he is
His contingency was to escape, and not, y'know, maximized horrid wilting you. Or dispel himself.
He doesn't have his own readied action
The 400 paving stones who are his transmuted simulacra don't have their own readied actions nested to respond to up to 400 levels of readied actions, perhaps to brute force counterspell. (I ready in response to someone readying...)
He doesn't have Teleport Trap active. *I'm just going to put a catch all here that's "all of his other defenses fail", as in he didn't have a wall of force blocking line of effect, he wasn't spell immune to feeblemind/dominate/other 1 shot kill spells, he didn't have a mind blank up since that works anyways against that plan, etc.
All of that works, He fails the save against Feeblemind. Yes there's a penalty. It's still a Will save for an undead with that save favored, who is maybe even a cleric with Wisdom: Yes.

I once read that a master plotter never makes a plan which requires more than three things to go right for it to succeed. And since only an idiot would use the most complex plan possible, the real limit is two.

As an aside, there is a story called "The Two Year Emperor", available on Amazon which I think you'd really enjoy. It's about a world that really does run on D&D RAW, and a guy who gets transported there, put up against impossible odds, and told to go nuts.

He does. It goes 'ok'.

The Two Year Emperor is great, but be warned, it’s harder to find a copy of than most fanfiction.

The author started selling it on Amazon two months ago, and had to take down the FanFiction.Net version because of Amazon’s exclusivity clause. If you want to read it for free, you can search for someone’s mirror of the full download of the story that the author provided before he took the FFN version down. Or you can start a one-month free trial of Kindle Unlimited and read the Amazon version.