Re: RI March 2025

On 5/2/2025 3:21 PM, William Hyde wrote:

Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
 

>
As you may have guessed from my mention of mana and the Interface,
the world here is litRPG, but not annoyingly so.

 "LitRPG"?
 Does this mean the author rolls dice to determine plot twists?  Or is the world/magic system just taken from some RPG?

Some Web-based "quests" [1] use dice, but most LitRPG books do not. To quote from the definition used by https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/ :
 > Games or game-like challenges form an essential part of the story and visible RPG statistics (for example strength, intelligence, damage) are a significant part of the reading experience.
Most LitRPGs form a subset of "progression SF". In progression SF the emphasis is on characters progressing in some fashion; in LitRPG their progress is quantified using RPG-like statistics. Other commonly used game-like mechanics include some kind of "System" or AI governing the world. After all, someone needs to decide that killing 5 wolves or 50 rabbits is worth 100 points of "XP" [experience].
The two most common types of LitRPG novels are:
1. Isekai/portal fantasies in which the protagonist is transported to another world governed by an RPG-like System.
2. "System Apocalypse"-like stories in which our Earth is transformed, often in an apocalyptic fashion, and is now run by a System.
[1] Think of them as volunteer-run "choose your own adventure" projects with online readers voting at the end of each chapter.