TRPG Player Aims For The Strongest Build In Another World ~Mr. Henderson Preach the Gospel~

Description

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「Data Munchkin」- Oddballs who would merrily attempt killing god if the data showed it to be possible.

Erich, one of these Data Munchkins, a boy with past life, schemes to turn himself into an ideal broken character using his character build authority which he was blessed with on the occasion of being reincarnated into a different world.

While hanging out with his aggressively seductive childhood friend and taking care of his brocon younger sister, Erich racks his brain as he analyzes data from head to toe, cleverly managing experience points trying to fumble his way onto a heinous broken combo build.

But sooner than he thinks the story(Session) begins to unfold as Erich throws himself into the fray fighting(rolls dice) to protect those who he holds dear!?…..

Curtains rise on the adventures of data munchkin of Henderson scale plot derailment!

Associated Names
One entry per line
Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World
TRPG Player ga Isekai de Saikyou Build wo Mezasu
TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す  ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を~
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Abyss Domination (1)
Kono Sekai ga Game da to, Ore dake ga Shitte Iru (1)
Moto Sekai Ichi’i no Sub-chara Ikusei Nikki (1)
The Amber Sword (1)
The Legendary Mechanic (1)
The Wizard Raised Through TRPG is Still the Strongest in the Other World (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Next Gen
  2. Mage MC
  3. My Favorite Novel

Latest Release

Date Group Release
06/17/21 Ariandel TL v1c2
06/12/21 Ariandel TL v1c1 part2
06/03/21 Ariandel TL v1c1 part1
05/27/21 Ariandel TL prologue
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Raestloz
Raestloz rated it
October 26, 2022
Status: v2
tl;dr:
Utterly disappointing. Do not be fooled by its claim of TRPG, it doesn't happen in this novel.

Let's start with the one, single aspect this novel claims: the TRPG concept. Unlike the standard MMORPG system other novels use which basically amounts to "raise to this level, unlock perks at certain milestones" tabletop RPG relies on dice rolls to supplement the usual skill level thing. This simulates things like accidental mishaps or strokes of luck that would naturally cause major problems if deliberately introduced nilly willy during an interactive game

This novel goes so far as introducing various TRPG concepts to readers such as the xDy nomenclature and even started by explaining the 10 base stats a player character would have, which is a novel idea, so to speak. The reference to Old Man Henderson is also very welcome

With that explanation, one would be forgiven to immediately think of Order of The Stick, a western webcomic which uses TRPG mechanics as its core and fully embraces it: death can be reversed by way of diamonds and gods can be interacted with, characters openly discussing the tropes that come with certain classes, lamenting the fact that they ran out of spell slots, and using feats to help solve a problem in a cough novel way. The Battle for Azure City for example used the concept of dice rolls to simulate an epic battle between a wizard and a warlock, all in a simple rock-paper-scissors style interaction

The core problem with this novel, is that it immediately discarded the whole concept of TRPG and fell back directly to MMORPG system within the first 2 chapters. Despite the gung ho of explaining the concept of TRPG, complete with base stats, dice rolls, and role playing, the MinMax character works precisely the way he would in an MMORPG isekai novel: he gains skills simply by purchasing them with abstracted "experience points" with little to no regard as to why he can take said skills. The protagonist openly declared that he's got a blank slate and he'll sculpt the most optimized build possible (thus the MinMax part of the title) only to immediately succumb to purchasing skills out of convenience, ruining the whole concept right at the beginning

The exciting part of building a minmaxed character is the theorycrafting: the part where you think of various ways to gain as much power as possible while minimizing the disadvantages that come with it. I expected this novel to show me the ingenious ways the protagonist tackles his assignments to do as little as possible while gaining the maximum reward, consisting mostly of his inner monologue of how to deal with the current situation. You know, like the title says.

Instead in this novel the character simply lives his life normally, the only difference being he can gain xp by doing an activity and use said xp to raise a completely unrelated skill, such as playing tag to make him a master craftsman. While he declared early on that he doesn't know what combos would be acceptable in the world, he doesn't even attempt to theorycraft. While his logic of "I'd rather not be an amazing warlock only to find out it's heretical and I get executed", there are bound to be incredibly safe choices in life that will never be banned: a powerful warrior is always welcome to defend the country, for example. Instead, the protagonist lives his life without much thought going into his build beyond the very basic "I'll be a jack of all trades with good base stats" and squandering his skill points on various "unnecessary" skills

While extolling various concepts of TRPG and repeatedly claiming that he has bad luck with dice rolls, the concept of dice roll was never used, because the universe that the protagonist lives in is a normal, non TRPG world, he only has access to character sheets that allows him to pick and choose skills and stats.

This is not to say that abandoning TRPG concept is in itself bad. To refer to Order of The Stick again, they also do not use dice rolls during melee combat, dice rolls are more used for the jarring breaking 4th wall effect it has. Again, the problem is this novel promises TRPG mechanics as its sole differentiating factor from other generic isekai novels. Abandoning it entirely betrays the expectations that people have to pick up this novel in the first place

Had this novel not tried to lure people in with the promise of TRPG mechanics, I could deign it with 2 stars for the lackluster writing, but this treachery really hurts

Aside from that, this novel also falls to a frequent mistake that GMs make: overexplaining. Walls and walls of text are given in an attempt of worldbuilding, which promptly falls flat because quite frankly, there's no reason to care, considering that it never comes up again. For example, the novel goes to great length explaining how the nation the protagonist lives in works (that is to say, Fantasy Switzerland with cantons and elector counts), the various races in the world, even going as far as providing a clear population ratio for humans : demihumans : beastmen

But none of that matters, because those explanations were provided in chapter 1, when the character was a freaking 5 year old who can't even get out of his village. Those population ratio numbers? That never came up again, nor was it useful in the story, because the entirety of volume 1 was strictly limited to his own village. That's right: an explanation that would have been useful had he gone exploring the country was provided back when it's entirely impossible to be useful or even relevant in the first place

Such exposition dumps are frequent, and incredibly annoying, because they're irrelevant to the current context and prevents the story from moving on. Such information would be welcome if you're a GM attempting to build a campaign, not when you're trying to read a story based on said campaign

There's no real reason to read MinMax TRPG. It doesn't live up to its own premise, and the mistaken attempts at worldbuilding drains whatever excitement you may have left
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Jake1230929
Jake1230929 rated it
December 12, 2021
Status: v4epilogue
This story is amazing the first volume of the light novel was great 2nd was alright but still good. I was expecting this to be a overpowered guy at the start of it but he levels up considerably or his way to level up don't wanna spoil it. MC is really naive but not afraid to do what needs to be done and learns from his naivety. I'm the last part of volume 2 this is shown clearly because of what he had done. Great read really reccomend it to... more>> anyone who wants to buy the light novel. The romance is nice a dynamic couple with him and his childhood only wish is that they put her in more chapters don't know if it'll be harem hoping it's not considering the last chapter in volume 1.

edit: well I can still say the same about this novel. I still love it though there have been some problems I still like it.
Spoiler

latest volume Elisa has finally gone full yandere. It wasn't a surprise since she's an Alf and she wishes to possess our dear protagonist. I don't know what the author is going for with Mika though. Right now they are a weird enigma I kinda what them to be in a harem with her and Margit but at the same time I want Erich to only marry margit. It looks like Mika has feelings for Erich but keeping in the pretense of friendship.

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all in all I love the story still. Volume 5 or part two of 4 will come out in October and I can't wait. <<less
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yamibae
yamibae rated it
December 23, 2023
Status: v8
Eh, I guess it was okay, honestly the part that peeved me more in the whole novel is the MC more than anything else, he is strong and broken in his own way but he's often drawing the short end of the stick due to his own issues with morality ie not being able to kill, trying to minimise losses, helping the damsel in distress, not trying to elevate his standing in society.

I suppose at the heart of it this is meant to be a coming of age story of... more>> a boy who wants to be an adventurer, it's just that the concept of it is so lame and boring at this stage compared to everything else and he already gets derailed by the end of vol 1 that it's relatively pointless to keep reading about for the early stages. In fact I'd say everything before his "adventurer" plot starts seems pretty irrelevant to how he wants to live so it begs the question of why the author even included it.

The novels feature bonus chapters that are often more interesting takes compared to the main plot where the MC makes a different decision. Probably the best part of the novels really.

Overall, it's a very long series but not a very interesting series, in fact I would consider it infuriating for anything other than a light read because of how pointless a lot of decisions become. His main goal is to become an adventurer but this has no solid concept or grounding in reality... <<less
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chad001
chad001 rated it
April 8, 2022
Status: v3 epilogue
I've never seen a novel more obsessed with lolis and shotas without veering straight into r18 content. It constantly reminds you that the MC is 12 or under from when he's meeting eternally young fairies, elves, sold in backroom deals with 200+ yr old shotacons, sorry I meant vitality glorfiers the term the novel specifically introduces due to how often it comes up, or when he's being seduced by his SEDUCTIVE 14 year old love interest who looks 10 and will look 10 forever and has been attracted to him... more>> since she was 10, which constantly pops up in illustrations.

If you can ignore all of that it's alright enough. The use of Trpg terms to get concepts is pretty cool, and while his apparently OP skills put him just above most bandits in this world it gives one of the more nuanced takes on the whole Isekai protag who doesn't kill; he acknowledges that he doesn't kill (usually) because of his own fear and distaste not because it's this mystically wrong concept that the narrative will never allow good people to be forced to do. And when he finally kills someone he doesnt instantly vomit, but also remains consistently distasteful of it, acknowledging both the need and more importantly the greater harm he'll do to innocent people by allowing the enemies to live.

So yeah, an interesting enough take on the Isekai and Trpg genres if you can stomach the uh.... Vitality glorification.

P.S. Mr. Brother has got to be the most distracting translation of Onii-chan I've ever read in my life. And it comes up a lot. From his 8?year old clingy fairy sister. <<less
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Amoki
Amoki rated it
January 8, 2024
Status: v2
Nothing about it is TRPG besides that stats exist and the author goes on ridiculously long and unecessary rants about how he used to play them. Speaking of unnecessary rants and exposition, this novel is absolutely full of it. Prepare to be in the middle of an important scene and then read 12 paragraphs of unrelated thoughts that absolutely spoil the mood before you get back to the scene. It is comical.

It's not good. I wanted to like it but it really isn't good. It's painful to read.
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FunnyFear
FunnyFear rated it
November 9, 2023
Status: v3
I've read almost half of it and will likely read the whole thing, but I won't say I've recommended it to everyone or that it's a good novella.

There's a lot of useless exposition – right from the get-go we're loaded with how and who usually chooses the next emperor in this country. Why would I need this information? The character was born in a remote village, the story hasn't started yet, I don't know any of the characters! Whoever decides to read this should be prepared that the story will... more>> be constantly interrupted by twenty paragraphs of nonsense.
This includes his "brilliant, blissful memories" about his TRPG experience, where he made an imbalanced character that made the game master's plot break, or where he died pathetically (but nothing specific to evoke emotion).
But prices and how much he sold the carvings for – not a word. Not about the price of medicine, not taxes, nothing, just unnecessary stuff for the plot.

MC can distribute the accumulated experience as desired – usually we are given vague information about like "There was an endless supply of interesting things that caught my eye" — what's so interesting? I haven't seen anything interesting yet.
He says that it is almost impossible to increase the main characteristic to the maximum (IX, Divine Favor) – it requires an exorbitant amount of experience. But in the end he can do it at the age of twelve. So we can conclude that the protagonist is a liar.

Plot. For example – first three chapters include only 6 lines of dialog. The author readily comes up with nonsense like serial numbers at swords (and spell it out in dozens of paragraphs), but when it comes to plot the scenes are very short. You can cut at least half the text out of a light novel and it will only benefit the immersion. This is clearly shown by the manga, which is the most interesting thing without any graphomania. It's a pity there are only 7 chapters (which cover the whole first volume of the novel).

The story with Helga he calls "my failure and sin" is natural hubris. The quirks of the capital and the Institute of Magic feel implausible. The meeting between his master and the dean is just a pitiful level of writing.
I ran ahead to read his return home after a long absence – two lines of communication with his father and zero with his mother (the author simply retells that he was scolded for not bringing stuff home first thing).

Of course it's not all bad – genre templates like the imbalanced magical swordsman who magnetizes women into the harem still work (although there's no real dating here, just friendships). The girls are unusual and interesting.

The author takes his best shot, but his writing level is just disappointing. <<less
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FishCream
FishCream rated it
February 6, 2023
Status: v2
I'm sure there will be people that like this one but it's not at all what I was hoping for based on the title. It seems to me that the absolute bare minimum of min-maxing a strong build would include some kind of research and planning, all of which is noticeably absent in this novel. The only thing that even remotely resembles planning in regards to the MC's build is a general outline of prioritizing stats above luck based skills, but beyond that he's mostly just picking up whatever skills... more>> he feels like in the moment including a few combo skills that might be what the author actually meant with aiming for the "strongest build". However, even with these skills he's only showing how they can interact with eachother at the moment and makes no effort in actually presenting how (or if) he's planning to make a full build around it.

Unlike the choice of skills the world building actually looks like it got a lot of thought, the problem is just that these thoughts are spread out in the novel like sticky notes and most of the time completely useless for whatever is happening. I'm happy the author took the time to flesh out the details of his world but if it's not presented in the actual story they should remain hidden until a later day. To get a full breakdown out of character of a new kingdom, race or monster the MC just met is useless information and only serve to disrupt the story. <<less
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Ixcez
Ixcez rated it
December 6, 2022
Status: v6
I have to say that I did not expect that I would like this one as much as I did. The story overall is pretty well thought out and the plot has a flow that makes it nice to read. There is a lot of effort put into the world building though it is heavily based on DnD added in a mixture of mostly norse and european folklore so far. What can be a gripe for some and a boon for others is the fact that the author spends quite... more>> a lot of time explaining how the world and it's races are. Which can become tedious since the story is seemingly catered towards DnD/RPG fans who in most cases already knows these things or at least the world setting by a fair bit so it to some degree's can be seen as a beginners guide to DnD/RPG's while aiming at veteran DnD/RPG fans.

When it comes to the MC and the other characters, while the MC himself for instance has expressed a dislike for loli's at least initially the author on the other hand seems to be a lolicon and a monster girl fan, best thing seems to be if it's a loli monster girl. It's actually a bit disturbing how much the author leans into this since it has even affected the MC to some degree since he has become an eternal shota pretty much.

Spoiler

The MC as a youngster is said to be very handsome and pretty much the "ideal" shota with the added fact that his soul is supossedly extremely pure these things together made it so that all fairykind are in love or rather obsessed with the MC going as far as wanting to steal him away and forcefully turn him into another fairy. But since the MC convinces them not to do this they "bless" him with pretty much eternal youth as in his face will never get scarred, he will never grow a beard, never grow taller and so on, which will make him pretty much stuck in the form of a youngster, don't remember his exact age at the time but around 14 years old I believe.

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The story so far hasn't exactly turned into a "harem" though it has been heavily implied that at least three or well maybe four heroines are pretty much set to eventually marry him. While some other have been hinted at potentially becoming together with him in the future.

The heroines (some fairly heavy spoilers ahead)

Spoiler

The pretty much confirmed heroines (in my opinion)

Margrit - So far the self-proclaimed wife of the MC who has pretty much always loved him, she is an archne who will until her death look like a ten year old girl with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a spider, has recently started to turn yandere like.

Mika - They are a student that the MC meets while learning magic and while they look like an androgynous 14 year old boy they are a "semi-trap". Mika is from a race that has no fixed gender and will go through cycles where they are a boy for a month then genderless for a month then a girl for a month then a boy for a month and so on. While the cycle can be disrupted it is mostly when they either become pregnant or imp**gnate someone. Becoming pregnant will make them fixed as a woman until the baby is weaned of while the reverse will happen if they imp**gnate someone and then the cycle starts again. They will however always look like a androgynous shota wether their in their male/genderless/female form.

Cecilia - She is a vampire that the MC comes across and is pretty much the only semi-confirmed harem member so far that doesn't look like a 10-12 year old but more like a 16ish year old girl though she is in fact over 40 years old.

Eliza - She is a bit of an odd one to add here since she is the sister of the MC but because of her circumstances she is also in my opinion semi-confirmed as part of the MC's future harem. While she is the "sister" of the MC she is in a bit of an odd position since she's a changeling. What this mean is that she was previously a fairy that wanted to become a human and to do this she entered the MC's mom's womb. It's not exactly explained in the story if she imp**gnated the mom or if she simply entered and grew in the mothers womb, though it is explained that compared to changeling rumours in the world she didn't steal the body of an unborn child. So she is in fact either a half-sibling to the MC or not connected to the MC or his family biologically. So while she has forgotten her fairy past like every other fairy she is obsessed/drawn/in love with the MC and will like many other heroines seemingly stay an eternal loli because of her changeling status.

Potential future harem members

Agrippa - She is a mature dark elf that pretty much forcefully took Eliza as her apprentice so that she could live the life of a shut-in again and then tricked the MC into working for her so to pay for Eliza's tuition, which was never really needed since she needs Eliza to get back into the magic academy and live a lazy life. She later on becomes accustomed to the MC working for her and being so darn good at fixing her problems that she is dissapointed when the MC leaves because he wants to be an adventurer and has gotten a scholarship for Eliza through Cecilia's family.

Magdalene - She is the master of Agrippa that used to be an extremely busty mature human woman but was mu*dered by her lover and turned into a ghost. She is an extreme shotacon + lolicon and crazy about the MC and his sister, she is kind of only a maybe potential harem member. I kinda see her as the authors embodiment in the story...

Nakaisha - She pretty much looks like Margrit in that she's has the upper body of a ten year old girl but with dark skin and the lower body of a centipede.

Lauren - An ogre, in this story their of the giant kind so she is I believe about 10-12 meters tall with a mature look and ogres in this setting is pretty war/battle crazy which seemingly makes her attracted to the MC.

Diedrich - She is a battle hardened centaur with the upper body of a mature woman but the lower body of a horse.

Pretty much all the potential harem members are so far only a maybe potential with the exception being Agrippa because of a side story and how much focus she has gotten.

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What is interesting and something that I haven't read that often in other stories is the inclusion of the henderson scale. While it doesn't actually have any impact so far on the main story it is included in the way that the author adds what if side stories at certain points of the story. Like for instance what would happen if the MC decided not to become an adventurer after all or what would have happened if the fairy's actually kidnapped him and turned him into a fairy.

I am a bit torn if I like the inclusion or not since the side stories don't actually bring anything to the main plot outside of a what if something else happened at this point in the story. Most of them are seemingly a hint at if the MC or someone else made a different choice it would have led to a "early/bad end" at that point in the story. But because of their inclusion it also means that the actual main story is not as developed as it could have been and the side stories are not actually used to flesh out the story or add depth to other characters which is usually the focus of a side story.

Lastly I'd like to point out that while the MC is given pretty much one of the most OP starting power I've ever read of since it allows him to learn whatever he wants whenever or increase his stats however he likes and he calls himself a TRPG expert that would always build OP/broken/cheat builds in the story the MC instead at least at first and honestly in my opinion for some time just seemingly played around with his skills and just learned whatever seemed fun/interesting. Which just left him as sort of a jack-of-all trades that is barely stronger then the common bandits who in turn are barely stronger then the common villager.

Example of it (some light spoilers on mostly the first few chapters)

Spoiler

To give an example at a young age he remembers his past life and his power but at the same time starts to notice that he is also slowly forgetting his past lifes memories. Then instead of like a normal person note down his memories / TRPG build plan he instead invests years of xp earning into buying skills that improves his memories so he won't forget and skills that increases his way of thinking to better use the memories but even with those skills he still forgets the past life memories, though he "conveniently" remembers tid bits at times to help him grow stronger. For instance because he's sunk so much xp into his dex stat he learns something similar to weapon finesse from dnd that let's him use his dex stat instead of his str stat for actions that normally uses the str stat.

On a side note it's actually kinda strange why he would need to improve his thinking ability by skills when he's shown to pretty much become a 30 year old man on the inside and mentally once he remembers his past life when he's just a few years old in this new life but I guess the author just didn't want him to grow powerful too easy which is why they did what they did.

This does result in the MC not being OP at least early on and again more of a just a bit stronger then the average adventurer kind of MC for quite some time while in the what if stories which are often played out a decade or more in the future shows the MC as being quite powerful in most of them. It does however in my opinion clash with the character setting of the MC since I can't stress enough how much the MC is portrayed as some TRPG munchkin but in the story he instead comes out as a TRPG noob who just keeps on doing mistakes and not having a character build at all and just picks whatever.

Especially since his power seemingly allows him to pick and choose skills as he likes, though it is kinda iffy how it works and the author hasn't exactly explained it in great detail and sometimes seemingly makes it up as they go. Like for instance to learn the previously mentioned weapon finesse skill he might have normally needed to learn the skill ambidexterity and several other dex based skills before he could learn weapon finesse but because of his powers he can just pick weapon finesse instantly or if he wanted to learn teleport he might have needed several magic skills to learn it but now he just needs to pick the teleport skill so he can just skip all the normal steps to unlock the OP skills and just from the get-go pick all the OP skills. Though he rarely does this and instead unlocks them in a steady fashion like in a game, even though the whole point of his cheat is that he can skip these steps...

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Overall the story even with all my seemingly negative opinions portrayed here has become something I wanna keep reading, at least for now, so I'm gonna rate it at 4, 5/5 <<less
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kutuzov
kutuzov rated it
February 20, 2024
Status: v8
Good story writing, so-so character development, good, diverse situations. Author is at least smarter and more capable than many of his peers.

The main hero is not too overpowered and basically a human with better abilities. But, there is no character ark for him during this 8 volumes. Yes, he met many people, got some things to his sleeve. But thats it. We don't learn anything special about his companions and thair character.

In terms of worldbuilding this novel is in better part of spectre. Somewhere near Overlord.

All in all this is... more>> a good book to read. <<less
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wordslatent
wordslatent rated it
June 26, 2023
Status: Completed
I was lured in by the promise of meta gameplay strategy, which weren't realised at all. There's no minmax tradeoff shown -- MC spends his exp to develop master-level artisan skills for extra income, is the town guard captain's protege, and is a good enough hunter to keep up with his monster girl love interest. Plus various other skills I kinda forgot because there's a lot of exposition not relevant to immediate context (or the book at all. Maybe in later volumes which I won't be reading) and I started... more>> skimming halfway through.

Speaking of which, the story keeps mentioning how intriguing the various monster girls he encounters find him, and goes on and on and on with the lolicon messaging, assuring us he's a 40yo adult reincarnated into a child's body who's not going to give into his arachne childhood friend's seduction.

Spoiler

(except of course, he does. He assures us this is after they both come of age or something.)

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Idk, the vibe is sort of like Jobless Reincarnation, just ugh. <<less
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