Precursors Of LitRPG

LitRPG is a phenomenon. Its readers are voracious, and its writers are prolific. It occupies an interesting position in literary circles that I still encounter people who don’t know the subgenre and need it to be explained to them, while at the same time there are people who read multiple LitRPG books a week.

The first LitRPG book I read was a surprise, and I found it enjoyable but was suspicious it would be a very niche interest. Instead, there’s a large, hungry group of readers. The tropes and conventions have solidified, readers know what they want, but in this post I wanted to detail a few of the primordial LitRPG books that predated (and led to) the subgenre. Younger LitRPG readers, or readers who came to the subgenre and never saw these works, should consider checking them out.

The Sleeping Dragon

Author Joel Rosenberg got into Dungeons and Dragons during its first wave of popularity. One evening, he was daydreaming about how much he’d enjoy living in the fantasy world he was gaming in. In the middle of the night, he woke up with the realization that he would NOT want to live there, that it’s a terrible place. His widow has described this ten novel series as a love letter to the industrial revolution.

The book itself begins with a group of college students playing a thinly veiled version of D&D. It’s interesting for younger people or readers who missed this part of history to get some insight into what was a unique time in gaming history.

It turns out that their dungeon master is actually a powerful wizard, who sends them into the world they’ve been role-playing in, putting each player into the body of their character. Each of them struggles to survive with their fantasy character’s mind and their 20th century Earth mind interpreting events differently.

The series became very self-referential, and followed the players as their characters through multiple generations. Rosenberg was willing to kill off popular characters throughout, so there’s an ongoing edge to the story, where no one is safe.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman pitched a new game setting to TSR, the creators of Dungeons and Dragons. They wanted to introduce the new setting with a series of novels, which TSR reluctantly agreed to. This books, released in 1984, kicked it off.

As part of the writing process, they wrote a module and played through it with their gaming group. After the adventure was completed, they wrote the novel based on it. Readers found a fantasy novel that’s authentic to a role-playing session enticing, and the franchise exploded.

The evil magic user Raistlin was a break-out character and many people who role-played in the 80’s and 90’s have gamed with someone playing a knock-off of him.

NPCs

NPCs by Drew Hayes is an, admittedly, unusual choice as an “iconic book leading into the LitRPG explosion” (which, full disclosure, it isn’t). It was published in 2014, after the introduction of the LitRPG term in 2013 and long after the genre had started to be explored in Russia and Asia.

I think it’s worthwhile to include as a “LitRPG adjacent” book.

In the introduction, a group of table-top role playing gamers manage to accidentally kill off their characters drinking in a tavern. The narrative switches from the player to the dying characters. It then moves to the non-player townspeople (such as a guardsman and the bartender) in the tavern who are afraid of being blamed for the heroes’ deaths, so they take on their identities and try to continue their adventures.

The strong connection between table-top gaming and the fantasy story, should be appealing to anyone interested in LitRPGs. The story plays with the characters gaining some awareness of the nature of their existence (as NPCs from a tabletop gaming session).

Ready To Mainline LitRPG?

If you’ve looked at these books and are ready to check out more modern LitRPGs, there’s a monthly post in /r/litrpg that has all the new releases. I’ve recently released, Dimensional Traveler, which is a LitRPG. It’s also available as an audiobook.

The conceit of it is based on the main character using a collectible card game (like Magic: The Gathering) based magic system.

It’s freely available, and I’d love to have as many people as possible check it out.

Have you read LitRPG? Which have been your favorites? What books have you read that are closest to the subgenre?