What is LitRPG?

What is LitRPG?

LitRPG is the genre you’ve been looking for!

My name is Aleron Kong and I am a writer in a relatively new genre called LitRPG.

My series, The Land, has 100,000 5-star reviews and I am Audible’s Customer Favorite of the Year. I have been blessed to meet and connect with fans and readers around the world. Despite that, most people have zero idea what LitRPG even is lol. I have been writing in the genre for years, and the entire time I have been explaining what it is, but I realized I never really took the time to formally write it down. So here goes.

LitRPG, or Literature Role Playing Game, is a new book genre that incorporates video games with classic SciFi/Fantasy. If you’re confused, you’re not the only one.

LitRPG novels follow 2 broad rules:

1. A component of the story follows an “explicitly stated” form of progression.
   Put another way, in a classic fantasy story, the character might practice with a sword master. The author skips forward a month, and the main character is just “stronger.”
   In a LitRPG novel, that progress would instead be explicitly stated,
   Example: You have reached level 2 in Swordmanship. +4% to damage with Swords. +4% to attack speed with Swords

2. The story involves a “game type” world that is integral to the story
   A popular trope of LitRPG is that the main character becomes stuck in a Virtual Reality world. Other stories have characters that live in a universe that operates by game principles, ie questing, leveling and finding amazing loot.

These two rules are broad for a reason. Just as there are many different types of games with many different types of rules, there even more potential LitRPG stories. Definitely more in fact, as a LitRPG novel is only bounded by the author’s imagination, rather than a computer’s processing power.

If you are still confused, again, you’re not fully alone, so don’t despair! The true definition of a LitRPG is a story that makes you feel like you are playing a video game. That finger tingling excitement, controller chucking frustration and hero awakening struggles come through in a well done LitRPG. Wether you’re a young game or an elderly retiree who misses old games of 1st gen DnD, LitRPG scratches that gaming itch for the millions of us that are both readers and gamers.

For reading this blog, you have been offered a Quest: Discover your next great love!

WARNING: If you start reading LitRPG, you might never turn back!

Aleron Kong