LitRPG Forum discussion

Someone asked me to describe LitRPG, so I left the words to someone I greatly respect, and that is Ramon aka author R.A. Mejia who hosts the LitRPG Podcast found on YouTube.* Without further ado, here are the defining guidelines.

LitRPG translates to 'Literary Role Playing Game' and the basic tenets cribbed from Ramon's vodcast page are:

1) The story exists in an RPG game world or world with expressly stated RPG game mechanics. This can mean that the story is set in an MMO, a VR game, an RPG game, a parallel or alien world, or anywhere else as long as there are expressly stated game mechanics.

2) The main character progresses in an expressly stated way according to those game mechanics. For example: Leveling up, Increasing skills or abilities, increasing ranks, or increasing reputation. Also by expressly stated, I mean that it says it in the text of the book and isn't something that's inferred or something only the author would be aware of.

3) A significant portion of your story should be set in the RPG world. Even if the story has a section in which the characters go on a LitRPG adventure in a game, if it's only a few pages long out of the hundreds that the novel is, it probably isn’t LitRPG. I usually look for at least 50% of the story being in the LitRPG game world.

4) Additionally, the LitRPG sections of the story have to have meaning. It can't just be something that characters do for few pages but doesn't have any impact on the story. As a general rule of thumb, if you can take out all the VR/LitRPG stuff out of a story and the novel is almost exactly the same, it probably isn't a LitRPG story.

Here is an older and broader description found on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/genres/litrpg

Examples of Ramon's LitRPG reviews can be found in the video section.

Only think I disagree with Ramon about is his interpretation of cyber thriller. But that's a whole other argument. Cheating in games is a thing :D