The Quick Guide to LitRPG
Let’s start with the obvious question: what is LitRPG?
The obvious answer is,
- A shorthand term used by Dave Artman in his January 7th 2009 article about game text as literature. http://davidartman.com/games/rpg/litrpg
- A Russian coined term to describe a genre of novels inspired by Korean light novel, the Legendary Moonlight Sculptor by Heesung NAM. It was suggested by producer Alex Bobl in a brainstorming session with V. Mahanenko and EKSMO’s science fiction editor-in-chief Dmitry Malkin.
1 is an interesting coincidence but not relevant for our purposes. Let’s examine 2.
To quote Wikipedia:
Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, tells the story of Lee Hyun, a hardworking young man suffering from a life of poverty. Forced to work throughout his childhood and adolescence, his most redeeming trait is his perseverance. His tenacity is reflected in a once immensely popular game called Continent of Magic. A game in which his character "Weed" is undisputed as the absolute best. When he decides to focus on working, he sells his character online, and sparks a bidding war that concludes at 3,090,000,000 won (about 3,000,000 USD). As soon as he finds out, nearly all the money Lee Hyun earns is taken by debt collectors. This triggers him to vows to single-mindedly devote himself to making money in the new virtual reality game, Royal Road.
If you think this sounds very much like a sports-manga where the sport is gaming, you’d be right.
LitRPG is a new genre, with both authors and readers still defining exactly what it is. There is an ongoing discussion over at the LitRPG forum.
Sticking points include:
- Is it science fiction or fantasy?
- Are levels required?
- Are stats required?
- Are the ‘players’ and/or the NPCs meta-aware of the game?
- Does it involve explicitly stated progression?
- Are there digital elements?
- Are they portal fantasies?
There are successful LitRPGs where characters are playing a virtual reality game, and ones where the characters have ended up in another world that behaves just like being inside a game.
Explicit stats and levels are beloved by some of the audience, while they just get in the way of the narrative for others.
How can someone be meta-aware of the ‘game’ if it’s not a game, just a world with different rules?
The only real common ground seems to be the game-like mechanics being integral to the narrative.
A lot of the problems of defining the genre appear to come from a sub-genre being viewed as the entirety of the genre. Thinking that “protagonist stuck in an MMO high fantasy setting with lots of number crunching” is the entirely of a genre is similar to saying all romance novels are Regency historicals. (The majority of romance novels have contemporary settings, by the way.)
My own, broad definition would be:
LitRPG is a speculative fiction genre, where game or game-like mechanics are integral to the plot.
Sub genres could then specify if there’s number crunching, what type of game and if it is a computer game (VR or otherwise) or a portal.
In time the genre will sort itself out organically. It will be interesting to see where it ends up. What do you think the definition should be?
Useful links for further reading:
https://litrpgforum.com/threads/whats-a-good-definition-of-litrpg.150/