The litrpgest litrpg?

[CharlesEBrown]

Biggest advice I give to anyone writing litrpg is to know your limits and the story end. You need to know your power scale. If you sat down to play D&D, but you didn't know whether each level was the end of the game or if there were hundreds more, it wouldn't be fun, it'd be frustrating.

I take it you didn't learn with BECMI boxed sets then... third level was the limit in Basic, Expert took it to 7 IIRC, Master to 12, Companion to 20 and Immortal to "beyond 20"
And until AD&D you never really did know because some classes had charts that went well over 20 but most "topped out" at around 15 and, though the PHB implied there was no upper limit for humans or demi-humans with Unlimited advancement, it never explicitly stated it - some groups ended play around 12, some at 20, some got well into the HUNDREDS. 2e put an implied 20 level limit in on all classes, and that pretty much was baked into later editions (barring the books that opened higher levels).

 

[1011010]

The only thing I can add is what alignment you want the system to be.
Is it helping humanity survive,being a neutral party,or actively hindering people.

Determining weather it is sentient, a force of nature, or ran by someone ect, is also important.

Does it patch or restrict certain "broken" actions people or skills.
Is it completely neutral like a dnd style system.
Does it hand out titles or skills for milestones helping push people to live.
Or some sort of combination of different styles.

Its a story about the world being remade with an RPG system, and 99% of the population is turned into mindless NPCs. The few "players" that are left have to continually do quests to earn XP to keep their minds from fading. They've found a way to share that XP with others, so they have a small community of their friends and families that they're struggling to keep alive and sentient. The main character is an NPC who was brought back to sentience, and he decides to become an adventurer to help earn XP for the rest of the village.

It can really go any direction for your story, from a malevolent force taking peoples sentience if they don't pay exp. To a chaotic force acting with little rhime or reason, something no one can predict.

Litrpg is a genre so diverse you can play an make your sistem anything from hard rules and numbers to breakable and exploitable to a crutch of power ect.
Following or subverting the genre doesn't matter since it's all just a literary device, and the actual characters and story are what matter.

 

[Alski]

I tried to keep constant track of HP and MP ("A fireball shot from his hand, hitting the monster right in the face. -15 appeared over its head in red numbers, leaving it with 35 points of life, while -7 appeared over his own head in blue numbers, reducing his magic points to 13. Then it hit him with its claws for 12 damage, lowering his life points to 68. Then he...")

We want a game like system, we don't want you narrating ever change of hp and mp with numbers. If I wanted that I would go play an actual game.

 

[Arkus86]

If your story is about getting dragged into an MMO or something like that... then that is the only reason I would say RPG stuff is a valid option.

Generally I agree with you, though as always there are exceptions.

I remember seeing seeing a relatively unique concept, in which the LitRPG was not the System governing the world, but merely interpretting/translating people's abilities, health etc. into a game-like interface through some sort of brain impants / cybernetic augmentations in a cyberpunk setting.
So no juggling with experience/power scaling, randomly getting skills without appropriate effort towards them and ballance in general, only a LitRPG overlay over a mundane world.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure where I have seen it, and it was probably just that - a concept, not an actual story.

 

[AYM]

Ahh yes excel spreadsheet gaming like dwarf fortress and CCDA

 

[Alski]

*

You have to keep that shit away from ESL people, we dont need them mixing up more words

 

[AYM]

You have to keep that shit away from ESL people, we dont need them mixing up more words

No it's bussin

 

[Airyl]

Solo Leveling is a good suggestion. I would also add the likes of Reincarnated as a Slime, So I'm a Spider, So What?, and Log Horizon.

I think the last two will be particularly relevant to the idea that you are cooking for your story.

 

[Elohimiel]

Litrpgest litrpg?

The Gamer webcomic and all its derivatives
The Games We Play by Ryuugi is probably the best imo

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

Too many numbers will ruin a litrpg. Sometimes its better just to have a list of skills with no stats. Here is an unconventional example that is more comedic in tone. https://www.scribblehub.com/series/760579/an-unborn-hero/