I am currently writing a short story for my school's literary club during summer vacation and will most likely upload a complete story based on this short story to RRL. My question is what kind of power ranking systems people like more. Also if there are any i missed it would be great if you can comment the one you like the most. And thanks for the input!
I enjoy level based as its clear and has no room for misunderstandings however if your not doing a story with game elements you probably shouldn't use levels
Something that symbolize power. Never liked cultivation, ranking or levels much. I think its cheap to just show how the strength grow by adding more numbers or layers. When in actuality, I didnt feel the power growth much... Just bigger numbers.. or higher layers.
Yeah I prefer immense ambiguity in levels of power, such that skillful use of power becomes far more important then the power itself
If I need a ranking I prefer ranking raw power without check intelligence, agility, compatibility ecc. ecc and put them all on deathmatch.
I would say keep the raw strength clearly defined, but put more emphasis and ambiguity on skills . That way there is always a mystery around the characters true strength, and you leave yourself room so you don't get yourself trapped; to lessen use of plot armor.
You don't need "power ranking" for people , skills are fine as its similary used irl (people give levels to your english etc) Every time i read novel where people have rankings of power mc always breaks his realm or level anyways and it becomes useless.
I prefer cultivation ones... that way I can generally tell how strong the characters are instead of it being just random... level rankings also work somewhat... what's with HJC, isn't it also cultivation? Though it's based on how many of those jewels you got... well, whatever I've only got one set and don't need more.
I prefer it when there's an actual difference between cultivation levels. I don't see why, for example, someone would have a boost of power over a single day because his dantian is more pure even though he's also been making it more pure every single day for the past 10 years with negligible power gain per day. However, if the breakthrough was breaking through a blockage and thus now having access to more meridians, or of realizing hidden jin and thus now being able to use it, I would understand. But really, I prefer the traditional method of not having levels. Sure, people may vary widely in terms of power, and people may even develop a system to measure power, but power isn't defined by power levels. Like, in Japanese LN, they'll have a ranking system, but it's more of a way of classifying power, like this noob who just joined is weaker than that manticore, or this A-ranked adventurer can defend a caravan from bandits just find but can't do jack against the demon lord, than someone literally making a breakthrough into the S-rank after cultivating enough qi and having his power level rise significantly. I mean, the traditional wuxia don't have power levels and they manage to convey differences in power just fine and in a way that I better appreciate, which is why when I read a WN where Linghu is a 5th stage acquired martial artist I quit.