LitRPG

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Short for "Literary Role-Playing Game", LitRPG (or alternatively GameLit) is a literary genre about characters playing within a role-playing game or virtual reality environment, or are otherwise in a world that has game-like elements in it.

LitRPGs are often set in a fictional video game, and commonly feature advanced VR technology or outright Brain Uploading, though sometimes the existence of the game mechanics remain completely unexplained when overlapping with the RPG Mechanics 'Verse trope. Though unlike full examples of the aforementioned trope, the way LitRPGs utilize gaming mechanics and attributes set them apart from traditional game novelizations, which are simply story adaptations without the mechanics. In this case, a LitRPG blends traditional narration with RPG Elements by describing quests and Sidequests, an Achievement System, Hit Points, and other events typical of video games or tabletop RPGs, with the story and plot usually abiding by the game's rules set forth.

While the main protagonists — who are typically human males — of these stories are aware of the game's nature (regardless of being able to log out or not), this trope is in effect for NPC characters controlled by AI. The story also keeps track of the characters' stats and progression — often through character sheets for the readers, not unlike those shown to players during gameplay — as they gain experience and level up. 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. Expect to see mention of Gaming Stat Tropes and explicit Min-Maxing.

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

• The 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 Parallel between events in-game and those in the "real world", though it varies on how significantly the latter events tie into the former. Made popular by Sword Art Online.
• The 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.
• The RPGVerse is a world that simply works on RPG mechanics. The residents may possibly be aware of it, but they don't always know why the world works this way, if they question it at all (though its usually explained In-Universe as being devised by god(s)). This one sometimes turns out to be the Virtual Reality setup, with the eventual reveal that they are either players who have forgotten that they're logged into a game, digital echoes of the original players, or even NPCs.
• The System Apocalypse LitRPG: A sudden apocalypse kills a majority of the world's population, but the survivors gain access to "the System" (names vary) — meaning RPG abilities, effectively turning the world into an RPGVerse. The nature and scale of the apocalypse varies drastically; sometimes it might not even be related to the emergence of the System.
• The Harem LitRPG follows the format of a harem game. Typically, the main character is a human male who finds himself inexplicably surrounded by and/or enticing to insanely-gorgeous females. They are, by some accounts, occasionally well written with both hands.
• Dice Fiction is a subgenre where the author uses RNG (usually by rolling dice, but can also flip a coin(s) or use some other form of RNG) to influence the outcome of events while writing the story. The characters don't know their world runs on RPG mechanics, instead their stats or stat sheets are maintained by the author as out-of-universe side notes and updated via in-text parentheticals. The end result reads like something between a fanfiction and a single-player tabletop RPG campaign. Many works in this category use Haara Brightwater's formatting style, thanks to her stories inventing the format and coining the term.

The depth of the RPG mechanics in the story can vary, with some delving heavily into the numbers and the stats and so on, while others (coined "LitRPG-Lite" or "LiteRPGs" by a few) may be more loose in how they apply the "game" mechanics, eschewing hard numbers in favor of a more broad and flexible system like using graded tiers as a rough measurement of ability or difficulty.

Expect to see lots of Cyberspace and Trapped in Another World (because they're usually written by nerds, you can see the word "isekai" repeated a lot; the Japanese word for the genre) tropes at play here. Some works may also blend this genre with elements from the Spirit Cultivation Genre, such as cultivation. Consider brushing up on Video Game Culture and Role-Playing Game Terms.

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

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