What Exactly is LitRPG

LitRPG stands for literary role-playing game. LitRPG is a subgenre in the speculative fiction category. During my studies in my undergraduate program, the question I always got asked was, “What is LitRPG?” My answer was always something to the effect:

“LitRPG are stories where the characters exist in a game world, in which the RPG mechanics of the game are visible to the characters.”

Another pitch I offer when talking to avid fantasy readers is; Imagine a Brandon Sanderson book, but with quantifiable numbers in the Magic System of the novel. However, nowadays I only mention Dungeon Crawler Carl in passing, and everything is suddenly understood. But when talking to dedicated gamers, I would just say, “It’s basically Twitch but in book form. Imagine that you wanted to take on a raid with friends in World of Warcraft but can’t; LitRPG offers an answer, in the form of a book.”

The Rise of a New Narrative

While few publishers specialize in LitRPG, companies like Level Up Publishing, Aethon Books, and The Legion Publishers have great resources to help you navigate the trenches of this wonderful genre. If you are interested in the history of LitRPG, I often find that understanding the beginning will give one more insight into the genre itself. Perhaps this is the consequence of studying Victorian literature for a time during my undergraduate; however, I promise that the history lesson will be short compared to a lot of other genres. I believe this is what makes LitRPG so exciting.

Consequently, The Legion Publishers offers services for independent clients who are self-publishing. I find this awesome because publishers don’t normally offer services of this nature. While Aethon has teamed up with Webtoon to form a comics division. On the contrary, Level Up even gives aspiring authors comprehensive tips and tricks to create their own LitRPG novels. As someone who is interconnected to the publishing industry, these LitRPG publishers are doing things that no traditional publisher would do. Unfortunately, gatekeeping is still prevalent within the industry, and resources for writers are important to shed the old ways of the publishing industry, LitRPG publishers (in my opinion and experience) are impacting the publishing landscape in such a cool way.

The Royal Road

For those who are newer to the genre and want to explore LitRPG in-depth, Royal Road is a wonderful place to get started. This is an extraordinary community that has many great LitRPG stories and various other genres within the speculative fiction landscape. And these stories are FREE (don’t forget to leave authors’ reviews). Unlike Wattpad, everything on Royal Road is of no cost (for now, as of this writing) and isn’t hiding behind a paywall.

By no means do I offer a comprehensive guide to LitRPG, I only offer a quick overview to get someone new to the genre in the right place. Perhaps this is because of how my teacher brain works; or because many others have covered LitRPG in great depth as it is becoming more mainstream.

The only thing I know is — LitRPG is here to stay!