What is LitRPG? A beginner's guide to the fantasy subgenre

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There’s a newish subgenre that’s been gaining popularity in the bookish community lately, especially with those of us who read science fiction and fantasy. Even if you don’t read SFF regularly, I bet you’ve stumbled upon the term LitRPG at one point. It may sound a little complicated for those who are unfamiliar with the concept. But I’m here to give you a beginner’s guide to all things LitRPG so you can understand it better!

What Is LitRPG?

First things first, what is LitRPG? The acronym stands for literary role-playing game. Think about your favorite adventure video game or a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in book format. You have health and attack stats, equipment, and maps. There are quests and monsters—and all of these rules are clear to you as a player. Or in this case, as a reader.

Another big part of LitRPG fiction is that the main character has the ability to level up, gain more powers, and generally make progress through the different levels of the story. This game element is inextricable from the plot. To make a distinction, books like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow are not LitRPGs even if they feature a video game in the story.

The Origins of the Genre

LitRPGs are not new, and their origins are quite varied. You can trace them back to Dungeons & Dragons for sure, the first ever table-top roleplaying game. As a matter of fact, in the 1970s, Andrew Norton wrote Quag Keep . A book in which the main character is sucked into the world of D&D . I’d say that’s definitely a LitRPG.

But to fully understand this genre as it is now, we have to jump forward to the early 2000s, when different Asian countries began playing with the idea of portal fantasy. In Japan, it evolved into what we call the isekai genre. The word itself means something like “different world,” and it follows characters who are sucked into other, often gamified, realities. It’s not quite a LitRPG yet, but you can see how this inspired it. Both Japan and Korea have produced these kinds of stories in different formats, such as light novels, webcomics, manga, and manhwas. But there are two in particular that incorporate a video game aspect to them, making them full LitRPGs before the term was even coined.

Sword Art Online by Reki Kawahara

Sword Art Online is a foundational work of LitRPG. It began as a web novel in 2002, and now boasts different films, manga volumes, anime series, video games, and even card games. But if you’re not familiar with the story, it follows Kirito and Asuna, two players in the new Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VRMMORPG). The game sounds really fun and immersive at first. But players quickly discover that there is no log-out button. So if they die in-game, they die in real life. That is, unless they conquer all one hundred levels of it.

Legendary Moonlight Sculptor by Heesung Nam

Next is another early web novel, which began in 2007 on KakaoPage (a Korean content platform). Nowadays, you can find unofficial translations of it around the web, but you can also explore the first volumes through the webcomic adaptation. The story follows an impoverished student named Lee Hyun. In order to make money and help his family, he joins a new VRMMORPG called Royal Road. He quickly gains popularity in-game for his ability to sculpt beautiful works of art, even though that character class is considered “weak.” And so his adventure begins!

In 2013, not long after these two foundational works were released, the Russian publishing house EKSMO coined the term “LitRPG, ” and more stories in this genre began popping up (most of them originally self-published). You might be very familiar with some of them, as they’ve become quite popular online.

Solo Leveling by Chugong

This LitRPG has gained a lot of traction lately, and what began as a web novel in 2016 now has a webcomic, an anime series, and a live-action in the works! Solo Leveling is a little different from the stories I’ve mentioned so far. Instead of a video game, it is set in a fantasy world in which human hunters protect the world from monsters. One such hunter is Sung Ji-woo, our main character. Ji-woo is a rather weak hunter, at least until a strange program called The System chooses him and he acquires the ability to level up. Oh, and did I mention no other hunter has that ability?

Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint by singNsong

This Korean web novel began in 2018, and while it was mostly popular in Korea, it’s being translated into English in its entirety by Yen Press this year. This fantastical story follows an ordinary man named Kim Dokja. His only escape from reality is reading his favorite web novel (yes, it’s very meta), of which he’s basically the only reader. The day the final chapter is supposed to be released, the author mails him a strange file that doesn’t yet have an epilogue. A little later, Kim Dokja sees a familiar scene: he’s now living the very beginning of the novel he loves. With the lines between reality and fiction blurred, he sets out to change the fates of some of his favorite characters.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Now, I can’t talk about LitRPGs without mentioning what is probably the most popular book in this genre today! Originally published as a web novel and then picked up by Ace Books in 2024, Dungeon Crawler Carl tells the story of a Coast Guard vet. His name is Carl, and he’s just trying to survive the end of the world with his ex-girlfriend’s cat. Why, you ask? Well, there was an alien invasion, and the survivors are being used for a sadistic game show that consists of dangerous dungeon crawls.

So now that you understand the LitRPG genre and where it came from a little bit better, I think it’s time to dive into more books!

More Books to Get Into LitRPG

Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui

If LitRPGs sound like your thing, but you enjoy cozier slice-of-life stories, then you should definitely check out Delicious in Dungeon ! Especially if you like funnier fiction with a foody vibe. This manga series follows the young adventurer Laios and his companions. They recently faced a dragon and lost one of their own. Now trapped without provisions inside a dungeon, they must complete a quest in order to revive their friend. But if they want to survive, they must find food. And well, there are tons of edible monsters around…

Winter Harvest by Dawn Chapman

Now, if sci-fi and virtual reality stories are more your thing, but you’ve already read the other LitRPGs I mentioned today, then you might want to check out Winter Harvest ! This novel follows Kyle, who is forced to become a soldier in a VR war. Every time he dies, though, he loses some of his memories. The more he loses of himself, the more he becomes a “perfect” soldier in the eyes of the organization. Which is something he’ll have to risk now that his last mission has gone sideways.

Calamity by Rachel Ní Chuirc

Let’s go back to the stories in which our main character is sucked into a different world. Calamity follows a woman who is now trapped in the body of an arcade game villain. Now she’s known as Zara the Fury, and she doesn’t quite know how she went from being feared to being a prisoner in her own home. Or why, exactly, she has memories of a different life. What happened to her, and what is her quest? You’ll have to read it to find out!

The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba

Last but certainly not least, if you want a very long LitRPG series, then The Wandering Inn might be for you! It began as a web novel that is now being published by HarperCollins, so you have plenty of ways to read it. The story begins with a young woman named Erin Solstice. Much like other heroes on this list, she’s transported into a new world. One that is full of dragons and goblins, in which people can level up and gain classes—like a [Necromancer]. But Erin is no warrior or mage; instead, she becomes an [Innkeeper], and she must adapt to her new life or die in the process.

If you already devoured these books and are looking for more, we’ve got you covered with more recs ! You can also learn more about the Dungeon Crawler Carl stories if you’re new to the series and want to know what all the fuss is about.