So what is Litrpg anyway?
So in my last post I gave a brief description of litrpg, then jumped right into what I saw as errors common in the genre. Today, because I am responding to some comments made by friends, I’m going to do something of a vertical slice of the tropes, as well as some common forms that exist within the genre.
The Tropes
Litrpg, like every genre, has a collection of tropes associated with it. This is something I alluded to in Litrpg Sins, but I’m going to spell out the ones that I find most defining about the genre.
First and foremost, litrpg is a Power Fantasy and Self Insert genre. The self insert, in this particular case, is the reader not the author (as can be found in many fanfics), but it’s still a self insert. The Power Fantasy is often demonstrated as a contrast; e.g. in real life they’re a loser (poor, friendless, weak, etc) and in the game/new world they have found some way to be one of the top/most powerful/most influential people in the world. Possibly the most blatant example of this (to my knowledge) is the Touch of Power series by Jay Boyce (one of the rare female authors) in which our heroine is granted the power to Siphon (that’s also the title of the first book) power from those she touches, growing in strength and power with every touch.
Second, is Everything can be Overcome by my Brilliant Plan. This one is one of the staples of the genre where our main character is actually (although generally unsuccessful in the real or past world) quite intelligent. Through conniving, guile, cleverness, and genius, our hero who is so very smart can overcome the enemy! This shows up in countless examples, from Life Reset (by Shemer Kuznits) where our hero leads the foolish goblins to prosperity to Joe from Completionist Chronicles (by Dakota Krout) whose clever rituals consistently get him out of snag after snag because of his careful planning.
Third, Together we can Succeed. Teamwork is a common theme in most litrpgs. No main character is complete without a coterie of compatriots. Given the frequently fantasy nature of these books, those compatriots are often a diverse and colorful cast (often literally), but occasionally are all in our protagonists head (such as in Space Seasons by Dawn Chapman).
Fourth, Big Brother is Watching You. Virtually every litrpg has an ever present system watching everything you do. Sometimes they can interact with you (such as the deities from Viridian Gate Online by James Hunter), sometimes they can make life difficult (such as the censoring of characters speech in Ether Collapse by Ryan Debruyn), and other times they’re just there (such as Red Mage by Xander Boyce (yes, he’s related to Jay Boyce) or Axe Druid by Christopher Johns).
Finally, nearly every litrpg is at least a little campy. Even the dark and grim litrpgs have some camp. Litrpgs are a lot like Saturday Morning Cartoons for Adults (borrowing this one from Steve Campbell). You have cartoonish fights, anime esque charge ups, overly long attack names, slapstick humor, and exaggerated character traits. The best example I have of this is Tower Climber by Jakob Tanner. It leans heavily on anime tropes such that the story is rather predictable (at least in terms of plot) but he flawlessly executes within that framework, hitting each scene like a highlight reel of greatest anime scenes.
These aren’t all of the tropes in litrpg, but they’re some of the most common, at least in the dozens of books I’ve read. Now that I’ve beaten the tropes to death, I’m going to give a sample of some of the major theme/settings.
The Styles and Settings
The Standard: The most basic and standard setting in litrpg is the FIVR, or Full Immersion Virtual Reality. This is usually started with a HOT NEW GAME coming out with the LATEST AND GREATEST tech. Often described as the “Most immersive experience and best thing since Betty White (or something)”. As the most standard, it also has the most variety in execution, something I might dig into in a later post, but for now, satisfy yourselves with the examples of Altered Realms by B. F. Rockriver and Limitless Lands by Dean Henegar.
The Isekai or Alien World: these two are flavors on the same Theme (the difference between them being the origin of the protagonist). Basically, upon this world, things are run by a game system (for reasons that may or may not be explained in the story). What is important here is that it is Not Earth, but Someplace Else. Notable examples here are Full Murder Hobo by Dakota Krout for the Alien World, The Hall by Frank Albelo and The Ten Realms by Michael Chatfield for the Isekai.
System Apocalypse: This one differs from the previous by taking place on Earth. Usually (but not always) we have our hero live through the world-as-we-know-it end. Everything that comes after is now governed by a magic system that measures you and allows superhuman activity. Examples of this are plentiful, but two good examples are Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman and Ether Collapse by Ryan Debruyn.
Dungeon Core: While not always a litrpg genre, Dungeon Core books take after the genre creating game Dungeon Keeper. Your main character is not a person (although they may have once been) but a crystal. Your typical compatriot is a Dungeon Fairy. Some examples I’ve enjoyed are Bone Dungeon by Jonathan Smidt and Dungeon Fairy by Jonathan Brooks (this one is a funny twist: the dungeon fairy becomes the dungeon core)
Miscellaneous: While the above four categories catch a ton of the genre, there are still exceptions. Stuff like Superhero litrpg (such as Super Sale on Super Heroes by Willian D Arand and Henchmen by Carl Stubblefield), Necrotic Apocalypse by David Petrie (honestly Dave, I have no idea exactly where this one fits, it’s almost system apocalypse, but it isn’t really), Puatera Online by Dawn Chapman (again, no idea exactly where this fits, Dawn. Feel free to let me know where you’d put it), and a bunch of others which aren’t coming to mind off hand.
In Conclusion
To be honest, there’s probably more here to dig into, but I’m going to call it good enough for today. Let me know what you think, what your favorites are, which tropes I missed, and which story types I didn’t catch. I’m going to probably write something about my work(exact topic TBD) next instead of more on litrpgs, but I’ll be circling back because there’s a lot more to look at here.