Seeking Advice on Approaching the LitRPG Genre

[EternalEscape]

Hello fellow forum members,

I hope this message finds you all in good spirits. As some of you may know, I am an aspiring writer who is eager to dive into the world of LitRPG. However, I find myself faced with some questions and uncertainties regarding the genre, and I would greatly appreciate your insights and guidance.

First and foremost, I would like to hear your thoughts on the level of complexity that works best in a LitRPG story. How deep should I delve into the mechanics and systems that govern the world? Should I aim for a more intricate and detailed approach, or would a simpler and more accessible style be more enjoyable for readers? I want to strike a balance that keeps readers engaged without overwhelming them with excessive complexity.

Additionally, I would like to hear about your experiences as readers of LitRPG. What kind of systems do you find most enjoyable to understand and explore? Are there particular aspects that you appreciate or find compelling in a LitRPG story? I want to create a narrative that resonates with the community and delivers an immersive experience that captivates readers from start to finish.

Lastly, I would like to hear your thoughts on the challenges of writing within the LitRPG genre. How demanding is it to create a cohesive and believable gaming world while maintaining a strong narrative? Are there any pitfalls or common mistakes to avoid? Your advice and firsthand experiences would be immensely valuable to me as I embark on this creative journey.

Thank you in advance for your time and valuable input. I eagerly await your responses and look forward to engaging in a meaningful discussion with all of you.

Best regards,

The Eternal Escape For One's Soul

 

[Notadate]

Depends. Also depends on what made the system. Personally I like lighter system’s. Devoid of stats, but instead rely on abilities. But if stats are used I want a good damn reason why they make one stronger, not a description on what they do, but how do they make you stronger.

For skills I like ones where it is instinctive knowledge. But also like ones where it is an activation and it happens — less so than the foremost.

But abilities. I want it devoid of knowledge, and the characters mustfind out what they do, and grow them.

---

Also don’t fucking make skills for everything. Keep it to special effects. Unless the skills are a physical representation of one’s abilities then don’t. Because having a whole paragraph of skills is unejoyable.

---

But give me exactly what you want to do. Hard to give my opinions without something to fully grab off

 

[sanitylimited]

noone likes exposition dumps, exspecialy early on in a new story. keep it simple and slowly build up the complexity. not enough information is far better than too much information.

also inspect abilities are far too overpowered and drag down the progress of the story. it's extremely rare for them not to be detrimental to the overall story

 

[Notadate]

noone likes exposition dumps, exspecialy early on in a new story. keep it simple and slowly build up the complexity. not enough information is far better than too much information.

also inspect abilities are far too overpowered and drag down the progress of the story. it's extremely rare for them not to be detrimental to the overall story

They kinda suck, if not done right. Which they never are.

The closes I have (my none litrpg book) is the mc having a high soul sensitivity, allowing him to get vague senses of wisps. Then that’s all.

 

[Syringe]

The complexity depends on what you want, but believe me, somewhere along the line it won't be as simple as you started off with. I recommend making a plan before tackling the genre or you're going to face some trouble along the way/fall into some pitfalls where you have to bend the rules you've put in to get out of it (which can feel like a cop out).

I'm biased towards a more 'lighter' system, solely because of the freedom you'll have especially if it's your first time writing one. You can always make it heavier as time goes on/things unravel. You can use that as a narrative device too!

The hardest part by far will be keeping track of everything. Remember this - your readers will know more than you do about your own story, so they'll be the first to spot discrepancies/interruptions in continuity regarding your system/story.

One piece of advice I can give is to not focus too much on the numbers especially if you're trying to strike a balance. What I mean is how much damage X is dealing every time they hit. That part can be skipped and just show up when it matters during the scene/fight. But at the same time, it can help build tension by throwing around numbers, as it can convey the battle better than words sometimes (not always, but when used right it can be awesome).

Ultimately, there's no right or wrong choice. Here a lighter litRPG would probably do better than on other sites. A heavy one would do better on say Royal Road.

One thing I think is very important in litRPG is planning, and to avoid making the character insanely powerful too fast (unless this is inentional). I say this because often times characters like these needs to either be artificially dumbed down or some BS needs to occur to level the playing field with them.

Hope you have fun! litRPG is one of the funnest genres to write in imo. So long as you're having fun, then I think that's what matters the most.

Good luck!

 

[Notadate]

Don’t pull a delve

 

[melchi]

I would suggest only putting in things that are used and can be shown. The biggest pitfall I think is sacrifice of clarity. Ironically clarity should be a strong point for litrpg but if it becomes unclear what the numbers represent then it takes away from the story more than it helps.

Like if someone gains 3 stats in a day of fighting and a normal human has 9 on average what does that mean after doing the same for an extended amount of time? It someone is 18 are they twice as strong? What if they have 90 in a stat? Having lots of increases is fun to write but it is easy to paint yourself into a corner.

The other big pitfall is info dumps. How many boxes are okay? Is the character sheet getting too long? If it gets reposted at the end of every chapter people are going to cry copy pasta.

 

[Notadate]

I would suggest only putting in things that are used and can be shown. The biggest pitfall I think is sacrifice of clarity. Ironically clarity should be a strong point for litrpg but if it becomes unclear what the numbers represent then it takes away from the story more than it helps.

Like if someone gains 3 stats in a day of fighting and a normal human has 9 on average what does that mean after doing the same for an extended amount of time? It someone is 18 are they twice as strong? What if they have 90 in a stat? Having lots of increases is fun to write but it is easy to paint yourself into a corner.

The other big pitfall is info dumps. How many boxes are okay? Is the character sheet getting too long? If it gets reposted at the end of every chapter people are going to cry copy pasta.

Best way to counter act this is. Yes, one of my systems, but hey. The mind, body, nerve. Instead of magically improving you, they instead increase your limits. How strong you can grow.


Mind opening gates. Body increasing your physical limit. Nerve increasing the limit of information between the nervous system

 

[Maldrasen]

The book I'm writing now is sort of quasi-litRPG. Characters have class-like architypes, named spells and skills that can be unlocked and upgraded, an inventory they can pull items from, and it all takes place in a very dungeon-crawly game inspired world. However, I'm not putting in anything like character sheets or stat blocks. I personally think this is a pretty good balance. An RPG system should focus on the characters and their abilities, showing them getting stronger over time. All of this should be shown narratively though. Big blue stat blocks don't really add anything interesting to the story. Avoid long exposition dumps and long winded explanations of the systems. Instead interweave them into the narrative when they become relevant.

Like Melchi was saying, clarity is key. Make it clear what your characters can do, and then have them use their abilities in interesting ways. To me this is one of the best parts of the genre.

As a counter example, take Harry Potter. The world building is good, but for a book about wizards the magic system is kind of trash. It's never clear what spells and powers any character might have. Sometimes you need to say magic words, sometimes you don't. Wands are a big deal, but sometimes they aren't needed. Magic is just whatever the plot needs it to be. A good litRPG book though works when you know what a character can do, but they still surprise the reader by using their skills in clever ways.

 

[owotrucked]

There are many aspects to enjoy from litRPG, two of which shouldn't be overlooked:
- justification of explosive growth in power provided by an apparent system
- quantification of power growth. Seeing numbers grow big from exploits or smart decisions is a primal enjoyment wired in our monki brain

God, I wish I could make games instead of writing stuff lol

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Writing littpg is easy as it is simply writing about a character in a game-like setting. Sadly, there is an audience for it but most writers despise the genre at it is considered to be an overused style of writing with little to no new tropes or character ideals it is usually an OP main character with little to no background and personality. A person can create a good litrpg but like Isekai, it is an overexhausted genre with lots of hype and very little joy. If you intend to write a litrpg then I have no reason to stop you but be warned that it is better to play an RPG than to write one if you have no intentions of it actually becoming a game. Good luck on your journey and please, if anything, avoid stat sheets and menu statuses in you're writing. It is considered lazy and usually unreadable.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

D20 3.0/3.5 is not dead.

3.5 IS LIFE.

Look up Harry Potter and the natural 20 for the definitive example.

The problem with most litRPG is that the author doesn't actually know the system. If you are just making up shit as you go along, don't do it. The point of the litRPG is the RPG.

If your mc does not use, abuse, minmax, and in such a way the reader can follow along, then your story will suck.

Don’t pull a delve

What's a delve?

 

[miyoga]

The problem with most litRPG is that the author doesn't actually know the system. If you are just making up shit as you go along, don't do it. The point of the litRPG is the RPG.

This. Exactly this. There are writers out there who are skilled enough and know their systems well enough to do litRPG justice. The majority that you see posted arbitrarily include it as a bit of clickbait to gain readers. Like me, they don't plan anything for it and just include it for whatever reason they see fit. Unlike me, they actually want to make it important to the story. Unlike them, my rpg elements were meant to be arbitrary and tongue-in-cheek mocking those others who just include it to have it.

 

[EternalEscape]

I appreciate everything, fellow creators and readers. I have seen my path.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Writing littpg is easy as it is simply writing about a character in a game-like setting. Sadly, there is an audience for it but most writers despise the genre at it is considered to be an overused style of writing with little to no new tropes or character ideals it is usually an OP main character with little to no background and personality. A person can create a good litrpg but like Isekai, it is an overexhausted genre with lots of hype and very little joy. If you intend to write a litrpg then I have no reason to stop you but be warned that it is better to play an RPG than to write one if you have no intentions of it actually becoming a game. Good luck on your journey and please, if anything, avoid stat sheets and menu statuses in you're writing. It is considered lazy and usually unreadable.

I strongly disagree. Please don't make it seem like an entire genre is dead simply because you cannot bring yourself to enjoy nor peruse it for the gems it has. And making sweeping conclusions such as "it is lazy" or "usually unreadable", or even how much joy it brings to the table, is completely idiotic, given you are in no way an expert or even researcher of LitRPG. It burns me to see others make completely unsubstantiated claims that are so broad.
This is exactly what is said for Romance and Sci-Fi, and literally whatever genre you could think of.

 

[EternalEscape]

What if I just make... everyone in the world have LitRPG system.

The Eternal Escape For One's Soul

 

[Representing_Tromba]

I strongly disagree. Please don't make it seem like an entire genre is dead simply because you cannot bring yourself to enjoy nor peruse it for the gems it has. And making sweeping conclusions such as "it is lazy" or "usually unreadable", or even how much joy it brings to the table, is completely idiotic, given you are in no way an expert or even researcher of LitRPG. It burns me to see others make completely unsubstantiated claims that are so broad.
This is exactly what is said for Romance and Sci-Fi, and literally whatever genre you could think of.

I never said it was dead. In fact, it is a very popular genre. What I called lazy and usually unreadable were the extensive stat sheets that usually serve very little to the plot or story due to most litrpg writers not doing anything with them after the initial chapters. One of the best litrpgs I've ever read didn't have the MC discover his stat sheet until way after the intro period for the characters because he didn't know it existed. It actually had a role in the story instead of being a tell, rather than showing method of power introduction. I am no expert on the genre but I have read quite a lot over the years as I used to really enjoy them. It is sad but over the years a lot of the plots feel like the same cookie cutter story, same as many romance and other genre's. These aren't to say that there aren't outliers but due to the oversaturation of the genre's, it can be very difficult to find those amazing stories among the many, many poorly made ones. Perhaps I had articulated it poorly but I was trying to explain that it would be difficult to get an audience due to sheer volume of stories overtaking the genre now, to a point that many people, like myself, ignore the genre outright due the the overwhelming number of them that is needed to be sorted before finding a good one.

 

[owotrucked]

View attachment 20097

What if I just make... everyone in the world have LitRPG system.

The Eternal Escape For One's Soul

My opinion about "What if I just make... everyone in the world have LitRPG system."

Function:
- Establish a strict power hierarchy about who can defeat who
Giving the litRPG to all characters can serve as a telling device (as opposed to showing) that support the exposition of power hierarchy. In practice, litRPG levels performs similarly like cultivation stage for xianxia, or nobility rank for influence and authority.

Advantage:
- Satisfying subversion: By establishing odds (like underdog MC party), you can subvert it through interesting methods (being smart, carefully trained tactics, strategy, deceit, diplomacy)
- Tactics/Competency is always a degree of freedom for subversion. Raw stats like reach, speed, striking power can be overcome with experience.
- The world is slightly fairer
- Big dick contest: Chasing the highest level, stats, etc satisfy the reader greed. Having other foil character being impressed by the MC's size is satisfying


Disadvantage:
- If you keep subverting the hierarchy, it'll lose its relevance and make it pointless. Therefore you need to balance things so that most victories/defeats are fulfilled as expected.
- As author, you risk overspending resources to make it consistent
- The MC is slightly less unique


A telling device that supports showing:
You have to properly show the impact of gaining levels from litRPG system with satisfying pay offs, so that readers get a pavlov like reactions.
The bell is the level up, the food is well crafted pay offs.
Then you can remove the food, and spice your story with occasional level ups, and make the reader happy and eager to see how amazing the next pay offs is gonna be.


Before you go too deep in, you have to understand your setting.
1. Is your world a game universe? All informations and rules are explicit. If a limit isn't explicitly stated, then it's free real estate. Meaning that world is made to be abused and gonna be broken as fuck. It is EldritchGod's preference.
In IRL games, like Slay the Spire, you can stack armor very high, and find a synergy with an attack that scales with armor, dealing hundreds of damage to one shot enemies. There's no scaling limit.
In a story this would manifest like this: Goblin Slayer's portal scroll has no explicit limits about volume, mass/energy, momentum transfer limit. Therefore, it can be abused to become weapon of mass destruction.
In Overgeared or Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, the setting is a VRMMORPG, so it gets abused by the MC. Unfortunately, there can be occasional patches or ways to nerf the MC. For instance, Overgeared's MC makes a self duplicating metal ore that just add mass out of nowhere in the server, and makes everyone freak out (devs and NPC alike).
Making litRPG system available to everyone in world like this can leave readers questioning how the fuck is that world still in one piece.

2. Is your world a stable universe? The game system is only a framework of quantification and viewing the world. It only informs overall functions, but limitations are implicit and must be tested. Diminishing returns appear and disappoint, just like how real world engines can't achieve perfect efficiency.
In Second Coming of Gluttony, the system is a communication tool between gods and humans to motivate and educate them about the level of blessing they are granted. Hence, the system isn't the only way to learn and power up. The litRPG system is available to lot of people.
In Solo Leveling, the system is a device to raise an entity's heir by gradually infuse them with the entity's power as the heir can handle. the litRPG system is only available to MC and it's mostly relevant for the beginning when the MC is in explosive growth stage.

 

[Absolution]

Its easy to make a videogamey system that would actually make for an AWFUL game
If you choose to have more number crunching, its always better to refer to real life games like final fantasy, dragon quest, or even stuff like souls likes or tabletop games for stats, scaling, leveling and abilities.
If you want it to be as light as possible, you can straight up just have a level, a health bar, and skills. That's it. Keep in mind that the sussy wussy floating magic window that makes your MC OP is actually connected to their body. HP literally translates into how many hits the character can take, so, naturally, characters can get stronger, faster, smarter, etc without having to spell out their DEX rating just by leveling. Many actual games have hidden stats or skill progression bars like in Project Zomboid, and that's also good enough.
It really comes down to what the actual purpose of this system is in setting and in the story from a writers perspective.
Lighter gamelit systems are generally more pleasant to read tbh, because there arent 10 million blue windows between every line of text. Its also a good idea to omit certain notifications as the story progresses, because power creep. When your gigachad level 99 protagonist is mowing down full countries' worth of enemies, or even like, 8 or 10 of them, showing an EXP gain notification for each of them, or for each group he takes out, is just not feasible and way too crunchy. But you can go pretty far on the small scale, like showing ability use as windows, or even things like damage taken and dealt. Just keep in mind that the more of this game stuff pops up, the more it devalues whatever drama is going on. More serious and somber moments in stories are genuinely made worse by gamelit elements.

 

[EternalEscape]

My opinion about "What if I just make... everyone in the world have LitRPG system."

Function:
- Establish a strict power hierarchy about who can defeat who
Giving the litRPG to all characters can serve as a telling device (as opposed to showing) that support the exposition of power hierarchy. In practice, litRPG levels performs similarly like cultivation stage for xianxia, or nobility rank for influence and authority.

Advantage:
- Satisfying subversion: By establishing odds (like underdog MC party), you can subvert it through interesting methods (being smart, carefully trained tactics, strategy, deceit, diplomacy)
- Tactics/Competency is always a degree of freedom for subversion. Raw stats like reach, speed, striking power can be overcome with experience.
- The world is slightly fairer
- Big dick contest: Chasing the highest level, stats, etc satisfy the reader greed. Having other foil character being impressed by the MC's size is satisfying


Disadvantage:
- If you keep subverting the hierarchy, it'll lose its relevance and make it pointless. Therefore you need to balance things so that most victories/defeats are fulfilled as expected.
- As author, you risk overspending resources to make it consistent
- The MC is slightly less unique


A telling device that supports showing:
You have to properly show the impact of gaining levels from litRPG system with satisfying pay offs, so that readers get a pavlov like reactions.
The bell is the level up, the food is well crafted pay offs.
Then you can remove the food, and spice your story with occasional level ups, and make the reader happy and eager to see how amazing the next pay offs is gonna be.


Before you go too deep in, you have to understand your setting.
1. Is your world a game universe? All informations and rules are explicit. If a limit isn't explicitly stated, then it's free real estate. Meaning that world is made to be abused and gonna be broken as fuck. It is EldritchGod's preference.
In IRL games, like Slay the Spire, you can stack armor very high, and find a synergy with an attack that scales with armor, dealing hundreds of damage to one shot enemies. There's no scaling limit.
In a story this would manifest like this: Goblin Slayer's portal scroll has no explicit limits about volume, mass/energy, momentum transfer limit. Therefore, it can be abused to become weapon of mass destruction.
In Overgeared or Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, the setting is a VRMMORPG, so it gets abused by the MC. Unfortunately, there can be occasional patches or ways to nerf the MC. For instance, Overgeared's MC makes a self duplicating metal ore that just add mass out of nowhere in the server, and makes everyone freak out (devs and NPC alike).
Making litRPG system available to everyone in world like this can leave readers questioning how the fuck is that world still in one piece.

2. Is your world a stable universe? The game system is only a framework of quantification and viewing the world. It only informs overall functions, but limitations are implicit and must be tested. Diminishing returns appear and disappoint, just like how real world engines can't achieve perfect efficiency.
In Second Coming of Gluttony, the system is a communication tool between gods and humans to motivate and educate them about the level of blessing they are granted. Hence, the system isn't the only way to learn and power up. The litRPG system is available to lot of people.
In Solo Leveling, the system is a device to raise an entity's heir by gradually infuse them with the entity's power as the heir can handle. the litRPG system is only available to MC.

Dear owotrucked,

I want to express my deepest gratitude for your invaluable advice and support. Your input has been instrumental in shaping my understanding of the LitRPG genre, and I am truly grateful for your guidance. I have carefully considered all your suggestions, and I am pleased to inform you that I have developed the perfect LitRPG system for my upcoming novel.

Your expertise and insights have been invaluable in refining my approach and ensuring an enjoyable reading experience for my audience. I cannot thank you enough for your contribution to my creative process.

Once again, thank you for your time, dedication, and willingness to share your knowledge. Your support means the world to me, and I am excited to embark on this writing journey with renewed confidence and enthusiasm. I will keep you updated on the progress of my novel and the implementation of the LitRPG system.

With utmost gratitude,

The Eternal Escape For One's Soul