#litrpg

[beleester]

Cinnamon Bun actually features this as a setting element. The LitRPG System everyone has is different depending on the user - the protagonist sees the classic popup menus and numerical skill ratings, because she's from Earth and understands video games, but other people see different symbols and scales that fit their own culture. Society has developed a standard for skill rankings to allow easier communication.

At one point she's giving first aid to a dog-man and asks how much HP he has, and gets "seven paws" as an answer.

rpg setting with multiple competing units of damage/resilience used in different regions. you gotta worry about the conversion between hp celsius and hp fahrenheit

[machinefey]

Here is the speed paint for my Cassandra Mercer and Thadwick Mercer drawing.

I woke up to 31 hits on the drawing! It made me so happy you all liked it!

Jason Asano you lucky guy.

Speaking on more design decisions, I like having the Mercer colors being this mixture of Greens, Teals, and Golds… just feels right one of the top families in Greenstone would make it their color.

Also the mention in the book of the colorful evening attire sold me on the idea.

I’m in the middle of writing chapter 4 and I’m trying to finish it up before I have to leave for a few weeks for work.

[prokopetz]

"But if this other world has always operated according to video game logic, why is the isekai protagonist literally the first person to figure out all these basic mechanical exploints" well, largely because litRPG isekai is merely the latest flavour of I've Been Transported To Another World Where Everyone Is Stupid Except For Me, a venerable genre that's been a going concern at least since Mark Twain.

When I was a kid, it was American sci-fi authors writing stories about shitass engineering majors getting portal-fantasied to alien planets and single-handedly saving civilisation on the strength of being the only person in the world who knows what a flowchart is, and very little has changed – right down to the weirdly inverted character arcs where the loser protagonist discovers that they don't actually need to engage in any self-reflection at all because the very traits that rendered them odious in their native society are what make them God here.

[esamastation]

Here's the prologue of what I'm currently writing which I'm calling

Gamer girl gets transmigrated into a farm boy Ao3 link

-

If you could choose a world to be isekaied into, you probably wouldn't choose the videogame Age of Tales. It's not that it's too dark or gritty or dangerous, quite the opposite. Age of Tales is boring.

It's a painfully generic mediaeval RPG with a very generic "farm boy becomes a hero" storyline. Or farmgirl, if you go that route. There's some moral choices, but overall the story is very linear from start to finish, and no matter how evil you try to play it, the game inevitably ends with the chosen farmboy (or girl) saving the world. Age of Tales has a very generic cast of characters with very generic backstories, even more generic villains with very basic evil plots, and side quests right out of early free to play mmorpgs. Overall the game is just very… mid.

It flopped within a week of being launched, deservedly so. It landed without a splash and was forgotten within the month, and its only saving grace was that at least it wasn't a live service and as such didn't have to go through the indignity of being shut down on top of being a failure. All in all, the game was a massive flop.

And Katie had sunk nearly six hundred hours into it. 

She would have explained the appeal, if she knew what it was. The weirdly cosy art design in a game where you eventually end up leading armies in hopeless battles? The character creator that let her create a beautiful two meter hundred kilo blue-eyed wall of muscle as her player character? The weird charm of 80' and 90's fantasy novels, as depicted by the game's story? The glitch that let her literally duplicate gold bars in the tutorial section? The way you can trip the big bad down a staircase if you just happen to fill the boss arena with chairs, benches and barrels?

Katie has hundred percented the game twice, found all known Easter eggs and best glitches, and she still couldn't say why she loved it so much. Why, even as Valthor the Vile generically monologues about how he would fill the world with darkness before the final boss fight, she's already planning to play the game again from the start.

Van the Valorous - as her character this time is called - met the big bad with a big sword in one hand and tall shield in the other, his build a pitch perfect Paladin this time. Katie has played through the final battle so many times that she knows all of Valthor's moves, and Van is fully leveled at 120, so the battle isn't exactly a challenge. She spends most of it admiring the battle arena and Valthor's design. He's a classic long-haired pretty boy, with a rapier and elaborate long coat with enormous shoulders. 

Valthor takes the coat off for the final phase of the battle, which Katie had always rather appreciated. She usually takes the opportunity to take Van's clothes off for the final round too, just for the aesthetic. It's not like Van needs the defence offered by clothing at that point anyway. 

"So this is what you have chosen," Valthor says on the screen. "These people, with their puny concerns and petty squabbles. You, who like me, could've been a God!"

Katie is offered a final choice of dialogue. "You are no God, Valthor - a devil, at most," Van says and points his sword at Valthor. "And your evil reign ends now!"

"Fine. Let's end it," Valthor answers, and off goes the coat in a completely unnecessary bit of theatrical dramatics. "Have at thee!"

Katie sighs fondly, a smile stretched wide on her face as she plays through the final disappointing mini game of quicktime prompts while on her screen two shirtless men slash bloodlessly at each other.

Valthor loses and falls down. "I had… such plans," he rasps, reaching towards Van. "I was going to bring peace…and prosperity…"

"And yet you brought only war and devastation," Van says and kneels beside his fallen enemy - now, mysteriously, clothed again in his armour and cape. "Your reign is over, Valthor. It's over."

"So it is," Valthor sighs and lets his head fall to the floor. "I wonder… What kind of reign will yours be… oh Valorous one…"

And so Valthor dies and the game ends with the victorious player character walking determinately towards the camera with cape billowing behind them in the most dissatisfying sequel bait ending Katie has ever seen. It's supposed to imply what happens next, how the player character, now a General and Saviour, would probably go on to take charge of the land left behind by Valthor or whatever. 

Of course, the game never got a sequel, but there's something endearing about how hopeful they were, making an ending like that. The developers really thought they did something there.

"Ten out of ten, premium trash," Katie sighs with pleasure. "Would not recommend to anyone - except me."

She skips through the final credits and back to the starting screen, intending to start a new game. Maybe this time she'd make Van look older - a huge grizzled old man playing the part of an innocent farm boy should be hilarious.

She stops before hitting [New Game], because the starting screen has changed. There's a new option there, one she's never seen before. 

[New Game∞]

"What? I didn't know there was a New Game+," Katie mutters, confused. "Where was this the other times I finished the game, huh?" And why'd they use the infinity sign? Another of Age of Tales' weirdnesses?

Not sure if it would actually be any fun to play the game with a New Game+ but curious about what would actually transfer over with the save, Katie selects the [New Game∞]...

And is promptly sucked into her TV.

-

[Chapter 1>>]

-

Since some people were expressing interest, lmao. Still on a litrpg kick, pretty much everything I've tried to write lately has been litrpg. This one I'm more hopeful than the rest though. It has actual characters and stuff. Edit: replaced with version proofread by @nimadge, many thanks.

[alexanderwales]

One of the fantasies of litRPG is that the reader is immersed in a system that makes sense, one whose features are legible, where you know what you need to do and how you're meant to do it.

So how do you write a story that's the opposite of that? A litRPG where everything is illegible? Members of my discord have pointed out that litRPGs with fake bullshit numbers that mean nothing are extremely common, but what I mean is something that's designed to be illegible, even if it perhaps does make sense.

The games that I immediately want to go to don't end up working. Most of them are illegible at first and then become more legible as you play them, until you achieve mastery. This is interesting, but it's probably been done before, and it's kind of boring. litRPG but it's Dark Souls? litRPG but it's Noita? These are just plainly workable.

Legibility is important for good game design, so there aren't really games to draw from. A game that defies reason, where things never click into place, where you cannot have mastery, would probably be a profoundly unpopular experimental one.

So I'd need to design a system that gets more rudely complex with every turn, one that seems to get less understandable rather than more, and I'm not entirely sure how to do that for any appreciable length of time. Obviously it would be frustrating to read, there's a reason that people don't write books like this.

But it might be nice for just one example to exist, just for contrarian purposes.

[leafdoggy]

Hi read my book please

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/105805/why-do-only-guys-get-to-have-harems

This is a litrpg about, well... Kinda what it says on the tin! A girl named Jojo gets isekai'd, and during the process notices that the 'harem' option is hidden away if you're a girl, so she takes it out of spite (along with some more standard cheat powers :p )

Oh, and she's gay!

It's a chill story with a little comedy, a little action, a little romance, and a lot of cute girls all bundled together. I'd love it if you checked it out!

[ailishmaurafiction]

Indebted to the very demoness she was sent to kill, Thesa questions everything she’s ever known, bonds with the sexy [High Devil] Merijest, and practices her interpersonal skills. Can she help Merijest rebuild her army before it's too late?

Includes:

Slow-ish burn lesbian romance

[System]-lite LitRPG about two characters accustomed to life in a video-gamey world

Steamy tension

A reverse dungeon-crawl from the bottom of a kaiju-sized mimic

An ex-Paladin trying her best not to stare at a casually nude demoness

Weird monsters from the mind of a maniac author with art and simplified bestiary-like entries sprinkled in

Religious trauma. This one is especially going to appeal to the Catholic and Ex-Catholic girlies out there. Nobody does angst like we do, babey! (Nothing inside is strictly allegorical of any religion, but the sensibilities are definitely informed by a Catholic milieu.)

Updates Tuesdays at 11:00am PDT

Chapters hover around 1-2k words each

Cover and monster art by botjira

READ IT HERE

[lunchbagart]

People, I'm sorry to give you bad news: I'm publishing a novel. It's Isekai/LitRPG and its got lots of jokes, monsters and nonsense. I'm going to start pushing it here on this account, since my kids are too old to be impressed by art on lunch bags or me in general. Any objections?

[blowfliesorangeeyes]

shout out to the like four other people who read webnovels on Royal Road, I see you and I love you

seeing posts on the perfect run, mother of learning, borne of caution beforeitgotweird, super minion, super supportive, primal hunter, mark of the fool, and a few more has been wonderful you guys make my day single handedly holding up those tags

[madcat-world]

Scions of Sylum - Nele-Diel

[litrpgburrito]

Gnight my tiny tacos. Sweet dreams.

[machinefey]

So how do you draw a woman that Jason Asano is willing to look past Thadwick for… I tried my best.

Hence Cassandra Mercer.

Also I have drawn a lot of women in my art career… not a lot of cleavage, which was surprising to me.

Also this is the best you are getting out of me with a background right now.

Picture them at the Music Hall and call it good, yes I know Thadwick would rather catch a cold, though if you read my fanfiction stuff just think of it as Thad instead.

I feel like I did a good job making them look related!

Either way, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.

[fyeahwebnovels]

i have created a webfiction fandom community!

hello all, i have thrown my hat in the tumblr communities open beta ring and created a community for fans (and authors) of web serials, webnovels, and generally any serially published web prose/prose-centric mixed media.

as i said, authors are welcome to join as well, but with caveats: please do not advertise any pay-to-read webfiction in the community, and please do not fight with fans over your work or insert yourself into fan conversations as an authority. basically just keep appropriate artist-fandom boundaries if you're an author, thank you.

the communities beta is still in its earliest stages and not super functional, so you'll need to send me an ask or a DM, or ask in the replies of this post, to join. i have to send out invites manually, but i will approve everyone unless your blog is outright, like, a nazi or terf blog or something. you can also DM my main @valentinedagger if contacting this blog doesn't work (i've had problems with DMs on sideblogs in the past).

[esamastation]

Here's another original LITRPG thing I wrote a while back, which I just realised I never posted anywhere.

In which a guy named John has just died and is about to be Isekaied into a new world.

-

Upon his death, John remembers everything - and promptly fist pumps the universe. "Oh, hell yeah!"

Before him floats the Tutorial. "Welcome back, Ser Afathion - or do you prefer Mr. John Castle?"

"Just call me John, please," John says, grinning from ear to ear. "Man, that was a good life! How did I do, how are my points? Bet I got a whole bunch from that war! And the relationships - that love triangle must've netted me a fortune!"

"You did very well indeed, John," the Tutorial says and produces a logbook - a glowing rectangle of text that hangs in the air between them. "Your life as John Castle was evaluated at 4.7 million System Credits. Congratulations."

"Awww yes!" John pumps his fist again. "Damn, but Earth is good for points!"

"Indeed. Would you like to take a look at your balance sheet?"

"Yes please!"

Another glowing window of text appears, detailing the arcs of John Castle's life and their worth. By themselves the events of his life weren't worth much, but the various roles he'd played stacked up to a decent enough point total. He'd played minor roles in three big war narratives that had had a decent following, and though he wasn't the main character in the love triangle, his ex ended up as a popular drama lead with a big following. And apparently he'd played the part of an enemy for three different people!

Though it's a bit disappointing that his life hadn't gotten him the Protagonist title, John's fine having played the side and background characters in the lives of more interesting people. His life was nice, if a bit short, and he could've done much worse than 4.7 million credits.

The Tutorial shoots a party popper over him, and John beams happily. "Did I get any sponsors?"

"No, but you received these offers," the Tutorial says, and a number of logos appear in the air, arrayed in a grid. Some of them offer discounts, others promise unique opportunities and a couple proclaim to be spiritually the healthy option.

John dismisses those ones off hand and points at the one that caught his eye first. "The Adventure Guild? Aren't they fully booked for, like, centuries?"

"There was a war on the server," the Tutorial explains. "Over a million characters died, and they're looking to repopulate."

"Huh. And their character packages?"

The Tutorial shows him the standard packages for the Adventure Guild's server. They start from low level mob and peasant packages that cost a few hundred thousand - and have the expected lifespan of a couple decades at most - to a high elf noble package that costs billions of credits and might last for a couple of millennia. The best John could afford in the Adventure Guild's Server is a merchant family with 10 extra stats points to start with - stat points?

"Stat points?" John asks.

"The Adventure Guild server is System Enabled," the Tutorial explains. "These are all transmigration packages."

"Get outta here! Transmigration package, me? In an Adventure Guild server?" John sputters, and then narrows his eyes. "Those things cost a fortune! What's the catch?"

"It's part of a new World Narrative the Adventure Guild is starting," the Tutorial explains. "They're looking specifically for players that have just come from Earth - your last life will be the one you'll be transmigrating from."

"Wow," John murmurs, wondering what kind of story the Adventure Guild might be building up. They're pretty known for their big narratives, and they're super popular as galactic entertainment goes - there's a reason why even cheap roles in their server are always fully booked. Even playing the part of collateral damage in a random bar fight on Adventure Guild server could net you pretty decent royalties. Never mind being hella fun.

If they've opened the server to someone like him, that means the place probably has a lot of new players. And that usually means there's a big thing coming, a war or apocalypse or something, and they needed a lot of fresh cannon fodder. And a bunch of Earth transmigrations in a post war Adventure Guild server?

"I am so in," John breathes excitedly. "What kind of customisation options do I have?"

"These are the species available," the Tutorial says and pops open a whole array of character customisation windows. "From the most affordable to the less so."

"And stat points?"

"Each race starts with a set amount specific for the race. Extra points cost a hundred thousand System credits per point."

So, basically, John could be a goblin with a lifespan of twenty years and start with 44 extra points to allocate as he chose, or he could become a dwarf orphan with an estimated lifespan of three hundred years, but he'd be starting without any extra stat points. The human merchant family with extra 10 points is pretty good value for his money, honestly, seeing as humans already start with 10, but… it sounded pretty boring.

Running a hand over his chin John tried to think of how to make most of this opportunity. "What's the cost of ambitions in the server? How about natural talents?"

A lot, it turns out. Good ambitions cost millions, as did talents. Dang, but Adventure Guild is expensive.

"You start with all of John Castle's knowledge," the Tutorial reminds him. "And his ambitions."

Sure, but John Castle's biggest ambition in the end was owning a nice car and not dying of cancer - and he'd failed in both, pretty much. He can't even remember if he had any life goals when he'd been a young man. Probably not, seeing as he hadn't really amounted to much. It's why he hadn't gained more points during his life - he'd gone into that life without any interesting traits, and it showed. He'd lived and died pretty quietly.

It would be nice to live a little more interesting life this time.

"Let's try random generation," John says. "Maybe I'll get some ideas."

Obligingly the Tutorial opens an empty character creation screen, and John inserts the number of credits he wants to use, 3 million. That way he'd have 1.7 million to spend on stat points and other things.

The first he gets is an awakened dog with high stamina and potential as a special mount. The second is an orc from an exiled clan - classic minor enemy encounter fodder. The third is a bird familiar with fire abilities - which is honestly a little tempting, though he wouldn't be able to speak, except to his master.

"Rule out non-humanoid creatures," John decides and folds his arms. "I want to be able to speak and, you know, have hands."

"Limiting selection to creatures when hands and the ability to speak "

The selection is limited indeed. Peasant human born to farmers, ghoul foot soldier, peasant human born to a tavern wench, skeleton serving a necromancer, orphan peasant human, sickly elf with a lifespan of five years, peasant human born to a smith…

"Perhaps we could narrow the search criteria," the Tutorial suggests. "What kind of life are you interested in living?"

"Something loud and bombastic," John says and thinks about it. "Since it's basically a fantasy world, I want to fight a bunch. Like, properly fight, not just be caught in the crossfire as a poor hapless victim - I wanna be the person running headlong into trouble because it's fun, you know? Like, you know, a good old style fantasy adventure protagonist."

The Tutorial considers it for a moment and then says.  "You do not have enough credits for the protagonist tag. However I have sent a query to the Adventure Guild, and they have a suggestion. Would you like to take on a curse?"

John perks up interestedly. "What kind of curse? Would it cost me points, or would it award me points?"

In answer the Tutorial opens up a status window - with a whole dropdown menu of available options. And it turns out that while most curses had a cost, there were some curses that would give John extra System credits to use. Sadly he could only choose one, but even so…

The curse that would give him the most was called the Puppet Curse, which would give a viewer - or a Server Admin - the ability to puppeteer him for a while if they paid him for it. It was worth a million just by itself - with the potential of being paid more as the curse was being used.

"Dayyym," John murmurs. "That's interesting."

It kinda seems like a quick way to get himself killed, though - he can just imagine some bored rich viewer using him to instigate a war just for fun, and then he'd be hanging by the neck in the nearest tree. No thank you!

The next most profitable curse was the Mouthpiece which was kind of the same as Puppet Curse, but it basically would make him say things the viewers - or admin - wanted him to say. Very useful for instigating drama! Also a good way to get himself killed.

The curses that cost him rather than awarding him points are a bit better. Designed to make things more interesting, they range from the Werewolf Curse - 1.5 million - to Curse of Sleepwalking - 400 thousand. There's a whole lot of different ones, some more interesting than others, and the one that catches his eye is the Bad Luck Curse. At 750 thousand credits it's not cheap but it looks like it would definitely make things interesting for him.

… or get him killed.

Ugh. It's this kind of hemming and hawing that made his previous life kinda boring!

"You know what, to hell with it," John says, turning to the Tutorial. "Can I send a question to the Server Admins? I want to know if there's a way to limit the Puppet Curse to Admin use only - it seems like the most interesting one, but I don't like the idea of a random viewer using it and getting me killed for kicks."

"I will send the query," the Tutorial says. There's a moment of silence, during which John idly hits the randomiser on the character customisation screen, trying to settle on a character. Human, human, orc, human, goblin, human, human, human, skeleton, human, human, human… Well, as a human he could start with as many as 27 stat points, assuming he spent 1.7 million on extra points, which definitely isn't bad, but… it's so boring.

Why does everything more interesting have to be so expensive?

Then the Tutorial opens a contract screen.

[Puppet's Very Specific Curse] [Contract]

[The undersigned hereby accepts the Puppet's Very Specific Curse for their character for the duration of their stay in the Adventure Guild's server. The victim of this curse can be at any moment subjected to System control, and can be piloted by any employee of the Adventure Guild, to do with as they wish. The undersigned hereby acknowledges that Adventure Guild is in no way responsible for any spiritual, emotional or mental damages caused by this curse.]

[Time limit: ?] [Mana cost: ?] [Cure: ?] [Reward: 1 000 000 store credits now and 1 stat points per activation]

John reads through the screen once, twice, three times, and then looks at the Tutorial. "Store credits only - and no credits per activation?"

"Without viewer participation, the Guild isn't expecting any returns, so, no," the Tutorial agreed. "And you must remember, the Server Admins already have their own characters and do not need an agent on the server. You might come in handy, but you're not necessary."

"Fair enough," John muses, shrugs his shoulders and then accepts the contract. One stat point per activation is way too good to pass by, even if it's not as good as a flat fee of System credits would've been. "Alright, 5.7 million credits to use! Ka-ching! Here's hoping I won't regret this."

"You won't - you will have no knowledge of it," the Tutorial says ominously. "You won't remember any of this, only your life as John Castle."

"Sounds like I'm in for some interesting times, then," John says, grinning. It's about time, too. "Now, any chance of talking down the price on the Bad Luck Curse? No? Alright, let's try the randomiser again, shall we?"

-

If you guys remember that series poll I did a while back, making a generic fantasy character who then turned into a fox beast person Bard, lol. I wrote 6 chapters of this, and then it sort of petered off - but I still like it.

... I didn't even give the poor story a name, it's just called "LITRPG" in my files, haha

[alexanderwales]

Pitchposting: New Class on Death

Pitchposting is when you put up a partially fleshed out idea, free to a good home. I can't guarantee that I won't ever want to write this one, but you can't copyright an idea, so I think we're good, and if you wrote it, you'd do different things than I would do.

There was a web serial called Reroll that I never read, whose premise was that it was a time loop with superheroes where the protagonist got a different power each time they looped. This is a great idea, though I think I heard that there were some issues with the execution (and cannot speak to that).

The main thing that this gets you, the broad concept of "time loop with variation" is that there's always some opportunity for variation, which keeps the loops from getting too stale. At the same time, it opens up temporary paths that then close when the loop ends, raising the stakes for any given loop, which helps shore up the tension problem that time loops have. And because the powers will be different every loop, there's a real option for having "reveals" that are much more natural.

So the idea here is to take it and tweak it. Rather than superpowers, which I'm never a huge fan of, we do some kind of fantasy thing, and we do some kind of litrpg system with the main thing that's changing every time the protagonist's class.

You know that thing in Skyrim where you do a playthrough as a stealth archer, then another playthrough as an archwizard, then another playthrough as a warrior? This is something that I have never seen nor heard about in the litrpg space, and it seems ripe for someone to do it.

Our protagonist starts every loop by making a choice: what class are they going to take? And though the people and scenarios in each loop are always the same, this fundamental choice alters everything.

So you start with the protagonist in some kind of contained environment, since I'm strongly of the belief that a time loop story is better if it has some kind of cause to unfold slowly. Maybe it's a castle under siege, maybe it's a prison, maybe it's a ship about to make landfall, whatever. They're in dire straits and need to get out, and that first "discovery" loop happens either without any kind of power, or with a generic fighter class. They learn about getting experience points and levels and improving in skills.

And when they inevitably die, they get a choice of another class, or their class is randomized, or there's some kind of incentive to try something different, and they wake up in the same place they were, having forgotten all their old skills but keeping their memories, and importantly, with new skills.

The first time they get out of their contained environment, they fight their way out, but there are other ways: slipping past the guards using stealth, scaling the walls, or smooth-talking the guy at the gatehouse. There are maybe three different magic systems, and only one of them is usable in a single run, each locked to a specific class, each with their own peculiarities.

So in a given "run" we're getting:

More information on what a specific class does

More information on the world as seen through the lens of that class

More "progression" information that leads us toward completing goals and "permanent" widening of the world

Our protagonist slips into the warden's office as a thief and read the documents that implicate him in a scheme against the queen. He talks to the warden as a silver-tongued bard and get him to admit to an affair he's having with the prince consort. And after that, though the silver tongue is gone, the information remains, and getting out of prison is a matter of just saying the right words in a clumsy way to the right people, which works no matter which class the main character is wearing.

I think for me, a nascent novel exists as a constellation of scenes, the things that stand out to me as something cool and worth doing. Here, it's the context switching, meeting the same characters under different circumstances. The sly street rat is mistrustful of a mage, since there's an enormous class difference, but if you meet them on their terms they're warm and kind. The princess is actually kind of a terrible person, if you're not presenting as an aristocrat. You get a chance to look into the mind of the vizier and recoil in horror at what you find there.

I think it's important for the concept that the protagonist keeps rotating through the classes. If they lock in as "thief best class" then you're not leveraging the possibilities of the idea. And for this, you either need mechanical limitations (inability to select the same class twice, vital xp bonuses for switching it up), or you need carefully arranged possibility spaces that routinely encourage variation simply because that's how goals are accomplished.

One of the other things that I like about this idea is that whenever you write a litrpg, you have to ask "okay, but why is it a litrpg", and here, you get a lot of stuff that just doesn't really make much sense without it, and explores a videogame space that's underexplored right now. This is something that people who play videogames already do, switching things up to experience the story from a different perspective, getting all the routes. It's just a lit version of that.