Dom R Is in the House!

Break Wind with him

Author

John B
January 01, 2025

This week on system analysis, we got to chat with Dom!

Dom has a stubbed fiction on Royal road, which means that you can get the full novel on Amazon!

You can check it out here:

(1) How'd you come up with this system?

I am at a fault, lazy as hell. So my system was created to be lazy. I built a lore around it that explains why it's lazy and a character who just doesn’t care about the intricacies of the system to help cover for the fact that I don’t want to invest a ton of time in building it out. The System is a plot tool, not the plot.

(2) Was it based off a game you played and loved or a book?

Bloodsworn is born out of me playing Doom Eternal, Halo, and reading a bunch of critical reviews on my first story about my main character having emotions and talking a lot. So I leaned in towards the stoic, powerful, hell cleansing warrior and Erak was born. There’s quite a bit in the story, little references and some of my favorite monsters or mythology stories. Bloodsworn has just become my dumping ground for all the dreadful, haunting, and murderous that I've absorbed over the years. Then I created a hero to kill them all.

So, me and math have a rocky relationship. I’m not good at it. There is very little in the way of advanced math used in Bloodsworn, with the majority of it being simple addition.

(3) Is math a constant obstacle for you?

I’ve read a bunch of stories where characters get multipliers or other more difficult to track stats and that’s just not what I'm good at. As an author I use stats, items, and all the other assorted math problems of Litrpg to further the story and not having it Become the story. At least, that’s the goal.

(4) What are the main skills and why did you choose those?

The main skills Erak uses are aura abilities. Again, I’m lazy, and I wanted to do something that isn’t seen often and is hard to quantify. When you read cultivation novels people often have a killing aura, or a murderous aura, etc. etc. I wanted Erak to be like that but in a litrpg. He uses wide range aura abilities that rely on his actions and how his allies and enemies perceive him. If he’s a war god on the battlefield, the aura’s reflect that and his allies and enemies react to it. He has a few other skills, Spear Thrust and a Bond with a spirit, but his main fighting Skills are based on his aura.

(5) Did you make the system first or work through the plot first?

The system came after the plot which came after the setting. I came up with the idea of the world while playing Doom Eternal. I’m a fantasy nut so I wanted to see Giants and Dwarves and Elves and everything in between, but I also wanted the technology and advancement, which is how we ended up with Erak being in the Empire when Essence ignites and Hell invades.

(6) Is there anything you wish you had done differently?

While Writathon was good for pure production, making the RS list and gaining a following, I wish I had taken more time on the story. I like the action and frantic pace and so far my readers have too. At the end of the day Bloodsworn is an action series with much more action than anything else, a problem I could have prevented with a bit more planning and careful preparation. And a backlog. Always release a series with a backlog.

(7) What's a "level up" in your system?

A level up in my System is when one has consumed enough Essence that they become More. They’re able to invest those points into either physical stats, or Essence stats, with every five levels offering a skill to use and every ten a title based on feats.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on Bloodsworn and Return of the Windmage (Releasing on Amazon on December 20th). I have some loose plans for a sci-fi series and some more concrete plans for a tower climber I'm hoping to debut this summer. All available currently on Royal Road

What do you want to shout out?

There’s too many people to shout out, but my fellow authors at Shadow Light Press have been extremely hardworking. FiddleSoup, EmrysAmbrosius, PolinaVolkova, and FobyWoby.

Check out Shadowlight Press here:

All four of them have excellent novels on Royal Road and Amazon. Also my friend Saga Scribe and his series Abyssal Curse. (Note that we Interviewed Saga Scribe last week.)

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