Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World - Volume 6 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

First, a word of thanks to my gentle grandmother, who would make cool barley tea every day to stave off the heat of summer.

Next, to my editor, who didn’t yell about the submissions made dangerously close to deadline, and who high-rolled on a difficult Negotiation to make one of my dreams come true. And of course, to the wonderful Lansane, for taking my nitpicky requests and delivering illustrations beyond my wildest imaginations. But most of all, to you, the readers who have supported me for long enough to make my grandest hopes a reality.

This makes the seventh afterword I’ve styled after science fiction authors from abroad. In terms of volumes alone, I’m on par with The Lord of the Rings series (’93 edition). The thought that I’ve caught up to a work that I’ve read to the point of memorization—that is, if you ignore metrics like units sold or societal acclaim—makes me tremble with emotion.

This has only been possible thanks to your support, your comments, and at times, your gifts. By all means, please feel free to brag at the bar that there’s a guy out there who can keep writing his little novels because your purchase has bought me, say, a bowl of ramen.

Silliness aside, it really is thanks to you all that my deepest desires have come true: we have dice! Those of you who prefer e-books or who don’t check social media may be scratching your heads, but the preorder bonus for this volume has realized my wildest dreams.

It’s dice—dice! As the author of a TRPG-inspired series, I can ask for no greater honor. Not only that, but they have a completely custom design. Similarly to the manga adaptation, I initially brought the idea up with no expectation of being heard out; to think my hopes would be overtaken so impressively!

Better yet, the dice come with a dice tray as well. Making her first appearance in four volumes, Margit claims the center of the illustration, ready to embrace the dice rolling into the tray. Isn’t this design marvelous?

I can almost hear someone off in the distance asking whether putting the blondie on a die won’t curse the thing to only come up with 1s, but that isn’t true at all. Move along, citizen: dice are manufactured to extreme degrees of precision, and the one-in-six odds won’t be affected just by the symbols making it up. Got it?

Even if you use the dice and end up with 250 extra experience in pity points, crit in the most worthless of spots, or roll into the worst possible encounters, we will take absolutely no responsibility. The issue is entirely with the user’s real-life luck. Please roll only after reading the disclaimer statement in full. (This section is to be written in fine print.)

Okay, admittedly, when I next find myself having to determine what kind of calamity befalls my labyrinthine kingdom; picking up a forbidden tome as a mage; protecting emblems from the Other in a mind-bending setting; or discovering the fate of my sanity in a world trapped in eternal epilogue...I might pull out my usual set of dice. But I promise that the odds are the same one-in-six for each side as any other dice.

As has been reinforced over the course of this series, probability is a metric only fit to be determined at the end of an infinite number of trials. Until then, the statistics may lean in one direction or another, but the odds will ever remain the same. Feel free to use them without worry—please, I insist.

My joy at this arrangement is intensified by all the fond memories I have of dice in general. All the best parts of my college experience were spent with these little knickknacks clattering on tables and deciding my fate. The experiences that gave rise to this humble work of mine were all given life by the outcome of dice, and thinking back to the dimly lit game room I inhabited makes this achievement feel even greater than it already is.

I could go on and on and on about the euphoria of seeing one of the foundational parts of my hobby—the very hobby that inspired this series—brought to life, but in the interest of not using up all my afterword space, I will leave it at this. May these dice find their way to your hands, ready to spell your fates forevermore.

I’m aware I just touched on having limited space in this section, but the truth is that I’ve received about ten pages for the afterword this time around. Last volume, I struggled to shave off anything I could, so I began the drafts for this one determined to keep everything neatly organized.

In that process, my editor came to me to say, “I’ve crunched the numbers, and we’ll need about ten pages of material for the afterword. You really don’t know how to hold back, do you?”

That makes this one the longest yet, I believe. What is an unwashed plebeian like me meant to talk about for ten whole pages?

Well, I suppose an afterword ought to touch on the main work it’s attached to, so humor me while I dance around outright spoilers. While I imagine few are the mavericks who crack open novels and head straight to the afterword, I see no reason not to show them consideration.

In the process of going from an online publication to a serialized work, I’ve added a great deal of material to two ends: one, to give loyal readers a fresh experience, and two, to make something worth buying for the same price as a particularly fancy bowl of ramen. Those who’ve read the web novel have surely caught themselves scratching their heads and thinking, “This wasn’t in the original!” at points before, but I suspect it’ll be all the more common in this work.

As a matter of fact, for the second volume in a row, you may have looked at the front cover and asked yourself, “What? Who is this?”

Who can blame you when ninety-five percent of the book is freshly written? I’ve given it my all to supply you with a story that is all but completely new, while keeping the thickness of the paperback about equal with the last. I can’t say that was the smartest move on my part, but we’ll call it a net positive if my plight has been to your enjoyment. The contentment of my readers has more value to me than a one-mana draw-three.

The actual content of what has been added details the string of ridiculous one-off campaigns Erich encounters on his way home. Where the web novel flashed back to a handful of these, they have now been neatly arranged into one story arc.

Back then, I received feedback disappointed at the perceived overuse of arthropods. Consider this an official patch: a new heroine has been added. Note that the balance team’s tastes are plain to see in the rebalancing, and, as such, Urza’s Tower has also been banned in the name of a better experience.

I kid. I know I’m playing around a lot, but please just laugh it off—I have space to fill. You know, with how many tabletop games revolve around cards, my success in petitioning for dice has gotten me daydreaming about card sleeves. On a tangential note, I once had to double-mulligan four times in a row, two of those being triple mulligans.

Please don’t be afraid. Misfortune isn’t contagious. No, really, the merchandise is safe to use, I swear.

Getting back on topic, the totally new story comes with the debut of a race that has only been mentioned in passing elsewhere. Horse girls are popular right now, aren’t they? If you squint a little, the cover girl is an Umamusume too, kind of. Look, can’t we at least give a warm welcome to our first mammalian demihuman?

Until now, most of this series’s heroines have had strongly developed personalities—that is, most of them have a solid idea of what their path in life holds. Margit is a ball of unshakable resolve, and for all their whimsy, the alfar are rigid in their ways. Mika has their future laid out before them, Cecilia is devout in her faith, and Nakeisha is a loyal agent from head to tail. Of them all, perhaps the only one still formative is Elisa; yet she, too, has grown into a full character in her own right as she’s found the determination to pursue her goals in earnest.

Maybe this is simply what you get when you have a hero who can do anything but ends up merrily choosing to throw himself into harm’s way. Birds of a feather, as they say. To be honest, I can’t envision a normal girl being able to keep up with our golden boy.

But into this mix comes Dietrich, who is much less grounded in comparison. Despite having the strength to be a warrior, she lacks a vision for what she might become; despite being physically mature, she isn’t quite an adult. With Elisa’s arc finished for the time being, I wanted to take the opportunity to dial in on the idea of growing up as a person.

Initially, I’d conceived of her as a sort of class clown, but the end result is as you see in the work. Everyone else was too well put together with clearly defined ambitions for me to portray the struggles of naive soul-searching until now. Mika’s struggle was close, but ultimately not rooted in their own immaturity.

All this to say, the new addition isn’t just to add a new girl, but to give me an avenue to write in ideas I wanted to cover. As someone who went through the same struggles in my youth, the desire for recognition without knowing what for has been on my mind for some time.

And, at long last, Margit has made her return. It truly has been a long journey. I’m not sure if leaving the cover girl of the first volume to sit for four whole volumes was quite my cleverest moment, but I wanted to emphasize the depth of an everlasting faith and love overcoming barriers of time and distance.

From the next volume on, not only will the arachne get plenty of screen time, but the main premise of going on an adventure will finally come to fruition! I promise to make it interesting, so I ask that you please share your thoughts, comments, and reviews to keep the publication going. Please!

By the time you all are reading this, I suspect progress on the manga adaptation will be chugging along, and I’d love for you to read that as well. I can’t announce anything yet as I write this in June, but I’m sure the serialization date will be set in stone by the time this afterword is released. Boy, am I glad we made the spring deadline! (I am currently in talks with Overlap Inc. to adopt the FGO system of seasonal measurement, wherein spring lasts until August, as company standard.)

Lansane’s wonderful designs need no introduction, but the mangaka Uchida Temo has done a splendid job drawing arthropods too, not even to mention their patience with my quibbling requests when reviewing the rough drafts. Seeing the adaptation in all its glory has moved me, and I’d like for you to feel the same; if you have any interest, please read the manga when it releases.

The pandemic may not be over, but with the ebb of danger, I’ve managed to get my hands on a new space I can share with others; I hope to play some tabletop games again soon. I pray for the day when I’ll be able to roll these dream-come-true dice without any restrictions at all.

This is especially pertinent with how Little Miss Reiwa must not have gotten the memo from Mister Heisei on what acceptable summer heat should be like. May we all keep ourselves and others safe, but while staying cool enough to avoid heatstroke. Surely the weather won’t last; Old Man Showa will come out hollering if this goes on any longer.

With all that said, I pray we might meet again in the seventh volume.

[Tips] The author uploads side stories and world-building details to @Schuld3157 on Twitter as “extra replays” and “rule book fragments.”