Fiction where characters exist within a game-like system with visible stats, levels, skills, and quantified progression.
LitRPG is fiction with a visible game layer. Characters have stats, skill trees, experience points, levels, and loot, and these mechanics are shown to the reader, often through literal status screens on the page. The setting might be a virtual game world, a real world that operates on game logic, or a fantasy world with RPG-style systems. The appeal is watching a protagonist optimize, level up, and problem-solve within defined rules.
LitRPG is one of the fastest-growing genres in self-publishing and web fiction. Its readership is massive, engaged, and very specific about what they want. If you're writing in this space, understanding the conventions (stat blocks, progression arcs, system consistency) is non-negotiable. Readers will hold you accountable for your math.
Earth becomes a dungeon-crawl reality show. Dark humor, genuine stakes, and a game system that's both absurd and internally consistent.
An isekai LitRPG with a sharp-tongued protagonist navigating a game-like world with strategic depth.
An early English-language LitRPG that helped establish the genre's conventions.
If your game mechanics don't create meaningful choices and constraints, they're just decoration. The system should drive plot decisions.
LitRPG readers track your system closely. If Strength 10 lifts a boulder in chapter 3, it better still lift a boulder in chapter 30.
Design a character class with five stats, three skills, and one obvious weakness. Write a scene where the character must solve a problem that their highest stat can't handle, forcing them to use their lowest stat creatively. The constraint should drive ingenuity.