What is LitRPG?

What is LitRPG?

LitRPG, or Literary Role-Playing Game, is a growing writing style here in the U.S. I say writing style instead of genre because the style can be applied to many genres. The two most popular are fantasy and science fiction. In theory, it could apply to any genre, although I’d have a hard time with Amish romance being LitRPG.

The common trope starts with a character who is transported to another world, either physically, mentally, or to a virtual reality world. This world is governed by game rules. The character will have a class (like Fighter, Mage, Thief, Cleric), stats (strength, intelligence, agility, plus more), abilities (spells, attacks, defenses, special moves), and levels. As the character defeats monsters or completes quests, they gain “experience,” usually a numeric value or represented as a bar. Once the experience has exceeded the threshold for the level, they progress to the next level, gaining more abilities and maybe increases in their stats.

Most LitRPG novels lean into “power-gaming,” where the character rapidly gains experience to level as quickly as possible. This tends toward OP (over-powered) characters, which is the goal. If you’ve played any online MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game), this is the goal of every player. Consequently, when they read LitRPG, they want the same thrill. Usually, every single battle, quest, and NPC (non-player character) encountered is described in rather verbose detail.

These books tend to run well over 300 pages. In fact, I saw on a LitRPG Facebook group where someone was complaining they were cheated because the author’s first book was 400 pages long and the second book was “only” 300 pages long. Oh, and they were overcharged for the ebook at $6.99. Um. Wow.

Where and when did it start?

The term was coined in 2013, but its roots go back much further. Remember Tron (1982) or Jumanji (1995)? Those are early types of LitRPG-ish movies. But even further back, you have the original RPG, Dungeons & Dragons, in 1974 and the stories written by players.

Believe it or not, LitRPG started in Russia in 2012 with a self-published novel called Class Dominance: The Sleepless Ones. According to Wikipedia (LitRPG – Wikipedia), the Russians came up with the term.

Since then, there have been a couple of LitRPG series which have been well received in the mainstream: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman and He Who Fights With Monsters by Travis Deverell. Dungeon Crawler Carl has even been picked up as a TV series.

Where do I fit?

As it stands, Canthany Rising isn’t true LitRPG. I didn’t get into the numerical stats. I only touched on it. My first book was only 80-ish pages, well under what the snob in the Facebook group would consider LitRPG. In fact, since I used 5-by-8 paper instead of 6-by-9, Canthany Rising would probably be in the 60-page range. This was on purpose, as I thought since I am new, I would give people a lower price point to sample what my world would be like.

I may never reach the word/page count for a typical LitRPG novel. It’s possible I’ll have to rebrand my stories from LitRPG to GameLit. What’s GameLit? I’ll write about that next month.

What else is going on

You may have noticed changes to the homepage. I’ve added words! This is to help the search engines know just what I’m about. According to ChatGPT, I’ve increased my SEO score, but it will take some time for this to filter through and make a difference to my Domain Authority. Yes, I want to be a (somewhat) leading authority for Christian science fiction and LitRPG fantasy.

More changes to other pages will be coming, as time permits.

Writing Progress Report

I have completed the final edits of The Prodigy and the Telepath. The book cover is revealed below and also on Instagram and Facebook. As of right now, I’m targeting October 20 as the release date on Amazon.

Book cover for The Prodigy and the Telepath by Kenneth Bliss

Orders of Canthany is well underway. I had outlined the story to be twelve chapters long of approximately 2,500 words each, for a total of 30,000 words. However, I’m close to finishing the rough draft of chapter 6. This is the end of my outline’s chapter 3, and I’m at 15,000 words total already. Yep, this story is going to be longer than I originally planned. Hey, more reading for you!

That’s it for now!

God bless and have a great day!