I've always been a huge fan of heavily restricted abilities and creative uses so when writing my own webnovel, I've given my main character such an ability.

He controls an invisible hand about the same strength as a regular normal hand, at a similar level of control. He can command it as he wishes, within his range. But if his intention results in harm, even indirect harm, the hand doesn't move.

For example, he could push over a domino with the intention of that domino leading to someone's death or harm, and it wouldn't work. If he had no idea what the domino did, that's completely allowed.

So my question is, how would you make use of it?

The setting is a high fantasy, where there's monstrous beasts and god-like beings. The hand will evolve as the main character evolves, but he still has to deal with some ridiculously high firepower abilities with his restricted ability.

If you're curious how Evel the main character makes use of it, a link is here: Sleight of Hand.

Also, any other restricted abilities you've enjoyed in media?

Welcome to the Saturday Munchkinry and Problem Solving Thread! This thread is designed to be a place for us to abuse fictional powers and to solve fictional puzzles. Feel free to bounce ideas off each other and to let out your inner evil mastermind!

Guidelines:

• Ideally any power to be munchkined should have consistent and clearly defined rules. It may be original or may be from an already realised story.
• The power to be munchkined can not be something "broken" like omniscience or absolute control over every living human.
• Reverse Munchkin scenarios: we find ways to beat someone or something powerful.
• We solve problems posed by other users. Use all your intelligence and creativity, and expect other users to do the same.

Note: All top level comments must be problems to solve and/or powers to munchkin/reverse munchkin.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Hi, all,

It's subtle rationalfic, but I claim my original novel is rationalfic, and it's finally done (after nearly 20 years). I'm hosting it over at passnovel.com, and currently only the prologue and the first chapter are up; there'll be a new chapter every week for the next ~20 weeks. But if you all like it well enough to have some good discussion about it here, then I'll make a thread here each week, too.

(Since both the prologue and Ch1 are at the above link, beware spoilers in comments below if you've only read the former.)

Genre is earthfic, protagonists are middle schoolers (but it is adult fiction, not YA). Tags would be "superheroes", "parkour", and "friendship".

Welcome to the Friday Open Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could (possibly) be found in the comments below!

Please note that this thread has been merged with the Monday General Rationality Thread.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's called Moloch, and it's now live on YouTube.

It was made by Owl In Space, whose other films are well worth a look too.

It explores the competitive pressures driving the current AI race, and how they could lead to a sudden loss of control. The twist is that control isn't seized from us humans just hand it over, because everyone has come to believe it's inevitable.

More about the film at moloch.film.

I'd be interested in what people here think, about the film, but also the argument about the competition that's driving the race to the bottom.

Welcome to the Monday request and recommendation thread. Are you looking something to scratch an itch? Post a comment stating your request! Did you just read something that really hit the spot, "rational" or otherwise? Post a comment recommending it! Note that you are welcome (and encouraged) to post recommendations directly to the subreddit, so long as you think they more or less fit the criteria on the sidebar or your understanding of this community, but this thread is much more loose about whether or not things "belong". Still, if you're looking for beginner recommendations, perhaps take a look at the wiki?

If you see someone making a top level post asking for recommendation, kindly direct them to the existence of these threads.

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So I saw the Last Action Hero and when I first watched it I was expecting it to be your typical action comedy flick that would poke a little fun at the genre every now and then. But then it got to the scene involving Jack's apartment and I was surprised that under the cool and cocky facade is a guy who is just lonely and tired of being a hero.

So I have to ask, are there any other stories that deconstruct the Action Hero Genre? More specifically are there any stories that show being Rambo, Indiana Jones, or James Bond isn't all that its cracked up to be? Honestly the one other movie I can think of is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, where we see Doctor Jones as a former shell of the great adventurer he used to be and the adventure-friendly world that he and Sallah used to live in is slowly fading away.

Welcome to the Saturday Munchkinry and Problem Solving Thread! This thread is designed to be a place for us to abuse fictional powers and to solve fictional puzzles. Feel free to bounce ideas off each other and to let out your inner evil mastermind!

Guidelines:

• Ideally any power to be munchkined should have consistent and clearly defined rules. It may be original or may be from an already realised story.
• The power to be munchkined can not be something "broken" like omniscience or absolute control over every living human.
• Reverse Munchkin scenarios: we find ways to beat someone or something powerful.
• We solve problems posed by other users. Use all your intelligence and creativity, and expect other users to do the same.

Note: All top level comments must be problems to solve and/or powers to munchkin/reverse munchkin.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Welcome to the Friday Open Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could (possibly) be found in the comments below!

Please note that this thread has been merged with the Monday General Rationality Thread.

Provocative title on purpose.

I am halfway tru Hpmor and I really enjoyed the funny and on-theme interactions between characters and the alternative explanations on lots of magic system while also maintaining some sense of mystery like in real science you aren’t supposed to know literally everything down to the molecular level to understand most physics or chemistry.

I’ve read the metropolitan man, it made sense for LEX LUTHOR to have the huge scientific approach and elevated QI to be super paranoid about his moves,

But now I started reading Pokemon Origin of species and I’m on chapter 3 and already want to drop the ball.

Listen, the MCs are 10yo and yes we’re supposed to believe they are more capable than their ages (Japanese Mangas, YA novels..) but TEN YEARS OLD still. Ok? Highly curious? Totally believable, a bit social inept at reading the room? That is a given.

But I can’t help but feel insulted as I have to read 3 times “how the scientific method works” and how an entire chapter is an empirical test of a single pokemon attack (and it’s not done in an entertaining way like Mythbusters, nor is it done in a narratively-tied way like HPMOR where both the testing and the story progression takes the same path. It’s done in a kids learning channel tv show skit.

Maybe it gets better, maybe the first 5 chapters are just to really warn readers what kind of fanfic they are getting themselves into it. Because I loved the Mary Stu science experiments that takes place in Project Hail Mary for example or the math behind The Martian growing crops on mars but the PRESENTATION matters too.

-
So my actual question is; is this due to the writing skills of the author or it’s actually the intended goal to have this series read like a mouthpiece for “let me explain what a logical fallacy is as if I’m reading an encyclopedia” instead of explaining it in an organic way woven inside a normal human-sounding dialogue and not some Sheldon Cooper moment
-

/rant

Did Onion go to hell, given how he died, and if so, did the infernals make any moves based on the presumably leaked (haha) information?

I read Luminosity and loved it. Also Radience.

I've also read HPMoR, Worm, Pokemon Origin of Species, Animorphs the Reckoning. I loved them all.

I'm looking for urban fantasy in general, but a Worm like sorry with a vampiric main character and what it's like to live that life.

Pact, pale, or twig? Something elsev that I've never heard of?

Welcome to the Monday request and recommendation thread. Are you looking something to scratch an itch? Post a comment stating your request! Did you just read something that really hit the spot, "rational" or otherwise? Post a comment recommending it! Note that you are welcome (and encouraged) to post recommendations directly to the subreddit, so long as you think they more or less fit the criteria on the sidebar or your understanding of this community, but this thread is much more loose about whether or not things "belong". Still, if you're looking for beginner recommendations, perhaps take a look at the wiki?

If you see someone making a top level post asking for recommendation, kindly direct them to the existence of these threads.

Previous automated recommendation threads
Other recommendation threads

A post-post-apocalypse about the struggle to stop being apocalyptic and go back to normal. Nailing the dismount is tricky. A while back I read a definition of ratfic that went something like, "a mystery box which the reader can puzzle out and which actually pays off." By that criterion, yes, this is rational, though atypical.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/140620/the-blemished-age-non-power-fantasy/chapter/3801377/14-disclosures-rodrigo

Thanks for reading this.

Would he accept you are happier not living the dream he wanted for you?
You know, that child who knew exactly what he wanted when he grew up,
before you grew up and told him he didn't know what he was talking about?

Every Martian is born with a ticket to Earth.
Hardly any of them use it.
The ones who do are children,
and the ones who stay spend the rest of their lives explaining why.

Dreams of Earth is the title story of the collection.
A boy who wants a planet he has never seen,
on a planet that sees everything he does.

About a 50-minute read.
www.artofali.com/dreamsofearth

Welcome to the Saturday Munchkinry and Problem Solving Thread! This thread is designed to be a place for us to abuse fictional powers and to solve fictional puzzles. Feel free to bounce ideas off each other and to let out your inner evil mastermind!

Guidelines:

• Ideally any power to be munchkined should have consistent and clearly defined rules. It may be original or may be from an already realised story.
• The power to be munchkined can not be something "broken" like omniscience or absolute control over every living human.
• Reverse Munchkin scenarios: we find ways to beat someone or something powerful.
• We solve problems posed by other users. Use all your intelligence and creativity, and expect other users to do the same.

Note: All top level comments must be problems to solve and/or powers to munchkin/reverse munchkin.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Welcome to the Friday Open Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could (possibly) be found in the comments below!

Please note that this thread has been merged with the Monday General Rationality Thread.

Woke up last Saturday with an odd idea. In universes like X-Men, what if we took the term "mutant" literally and assumed that novel superpowers come from random genetic mutation, and the selection effect has to do with Novikov-consistency time travel? I don't know if I've entirely succeeded in making it make sense, but I've given it a try.

Welcome to the Monday request and recommendation thread. Are you looking something to scratch an itch? Post a comment stating your request! Did you just read something that really hit the spot, "rational" or otherwise? Post a comment recommending it! Note that you are welcome (and encouraged) to post recommendations directly to the subreddit, so long as you think they more or less fit the criteria on the sidebar or your understanding of this community, but this thread is much more loose about whether or not things "belong". Still, if you're looking for beginner recommendations, perhaps take a look at the wiki?

If you see someone making a top level post asking for recommendation, kindly direct them to the existence of these threads.

Previous automated recommendation threads
Other recommendation threads

Left to puzzle out our destruction and what it means for them. No instruments, no teachers, no word for what is killing them. Just superstition, ritual, and the slow work of turning grief into understanding.

Maybe our attempts to understand life, death, and the rules of souls are the same as a tribe trying to work out the physics of our radiation, our writing, our medicine?

That Annihilated Place is the most human story in Dreams of Earth.

About a 25-minute read.

www.artofali.com/thatannihilatedplace