LitRPG

Short for "Literary Role-Playing Game", LitRPG is a literary genre about characters playing within a role-playing game or virtual reality environment. The story tracks the progress of the characters gaining experience and leveling up along with their exact stats. This often involves a full character sheet for the readers like those displayed to players in a game.

LitRPG blends traditional narration with elements of a gaming experience by describing quests and Sidequests, an Achievement System, Hit Points, and other events typical of video games or tabletop RPGs. Expect to see mention of Gaming Stat Tropes and explicit Min-Maxing. The narration in a LitRPG work must abide by the rules of a game while filling it with conflict and drama. The important part is describing for readers the experience of playing that game and its associated mechanics as if the reader could play it themselves.

LitRPG works are typically set in a game invented for the work, and commonly feature advanced VR technology or outright Brain Uploading, though sometimes the existence of the game mechanics remains completely unexplained when overlapping with the RPG Mechanics 'Verse trope. LitRPG's use of gaming mechanics and attributes sets them apart from traditional game novelizations, which are simply story adaptations without the mechanics. Expect to see lots of Cyberspace, virtual reality gaming, and getting trapped in the game. Consider brushing up on Video Game Culture and Role-Playing Game Terms.

Many writers in the field after 2014 argue that a character’s progression within a game should be a key aspect of LitRPG, which has led to the creation of the term GameLit. GameLit encompasses stories set in game-like universes that may not necessarily involve traditional elements such as leveling up or skill improvement. Early examples of this broader genre include Chris Van Allsburg's 1981 children's book Jumanji, featuring a magical board game; Neal Stephenson's 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, which introduced the concept of the metaverse; and Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series (1983–2004), where college students are transported into a fantasy role-playing game.

Recent examples of this genre include Ernest Cline’s novels Ready Player One (2011) and Ready Player Two (2020), which explore a virtual reality world called the OASIS filled with 1980s and 1990s arcade game references; Marie Lu’s Warcross (2017) and Wildcard (2018), which follow an online bounty hunter in a game; and Louis Bulaong’s sci-fi books Escapist Dream (2020) and Otaku Girl (2021), which depict a virtual reality world where fans can role-play and harness the abilities of their favorite comic book, anime, movie, and video game characters.

LitRPGs tend to fall into several broad categories that can, and sometimes will, overlap with each other:

• Virtual Reality LitRPG: The character is inside an actual game. Being trapped in the game is common, as are uses of Brain Uploading, but not actually required. These stories also tend to have some form of Plot Parallelbetween events in-game and those in the "real world" though it varies on how significantly the latter events tie into the former.
• Gamer LitRPG: Based on The Gamer, a character suddenly gains RPG abilities, with them typically being the only person with such abilities. Quite common in fanfic, since it can easily be applied to any world or character. This is also common in isekai LitRPGs, as a character is Trapped in Another World and their New Life in Another World Bonus is a set of unique RPG abilities.
• System Apocalypse LitRPG: A sudden apocalypse kills a majority of the world's population, but the survivors gain access to "the System" (names vary), which means RPG abilities. The nature of the apocalypse varies drastically; sometimes it might not even be related to the emergence of the System.
• RPGVerse is a world that simply works on RPG mechanics and the residents are aware of it, although they don't always know why (though its usually explained In-Universe as devised by the gods/God). This one often turns out to be the Virtual Reality setup, with the eventual reveal that they are either NPCs, players who have forgotten that they're logged into a game, or are digital echoes of the original players.
• The Meta LitRPG is similar to the usual RPGVerse, but with the caveat that the characters don't know their world runs on RPG mechanics. Usually the characters will have stat sheets, health/experience points, and other RPG systems, but these are maintained by the author entirely out-of-universe (with status updates appearing as side notes or parentheticals) and the characters never acknowledge them explicitly. Many works in this category use Haara Brightwater's formatting style thanks to her stories being some of the first popular examples.
• The Harem LitRPG follows the format of a harem game. The main character is a typical dude who finds himself inexplicably surrounded by and enticing to insanely gorgeous young women. They are, by some accounts, occasionally well written with both hands.
• Dungeon Core
• TCG LitRPG: This genre blends Trading Card Games with LitRPG, where players utilize cards both on the table and in their story to battle and advance. Example: Goblin Summoner.
• 4X LitRPG: In this genre, the focus is on exploring, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating within a game world. It can be a bit dense and detailed for some, though it's popular among many readers. Example: CivCEO.
• Dungeon Lord: Similar to Dungeon Core, but with the twist that the main character has a physical form instead of being just a core. Example: Rise of Mankind series.
• RTS LitRPG: Combines Real-Time Strategy games like Starcraft and Warcraft with LitRPG elements. While not overly common yet, there are some emerging titles. Example: A beta version I've tried.
• Tower Climber: This genre involves a protagonist scaling a tower where each level presents increasingly difficult challenges. Example: Tower Climber.
• Tower Defense: Focuses on defending against waves of enemies. The protagonist's goal is to prevent the invaders from reaching their objective. Example: Clearing Waves.
• Game World: Often more aligned with Gamelit, where the setting is heavily influenced by game mechanics. My favorite in this category is the Greyblood series.

See also A Dungeon Is You, Campaign Comic, Deep-Immersion Gaming, Role-Playing Game 'Verse, and RPG Episode.

Not to Be Confused with a role-playing game that's lit, fam.