You should read (or listen) to Dungeon Crawler Carl

[Ruin Explorer]

LitRPG sounds ghastly to me, however, a lot of people who seem to have decent taste really seem to like Dungeon Crawler Carl.

This is going to be like me finally deciding to listen to a Grateful Dead song all over again, isn't it?

Yes, probably.

"lots of people who seem to have decent taste" can be extremely, extremely wrong.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"lots of people who seem to have decent taste" can be extremely, extremely wrong.

See: any online discussion of food

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is going to be like me finally deciding to listen to a Grateful Dead song all over again, isn't it?

For the record, "Friend of the Devil" is a good song and easy to sing at karaoke.

 

[eudyptes]

I haven't read/listened to DCC, but I did the first Wandering Inn and it was fine. I felt no need to continue. I've listened to all of the extant He Who Fights With Monsters (11 or 12, can't remember) and that's plenty. I think I have one more in me but if he doesn't wrap it up in the next book, I'm out.

Roughly 30% of the attendees at GenCon this year were dressed as DCC. Anything that popular can't be very good, ha.

 

[Umbran]

I haven't read/listened to DCC, but I did the first Wandering Inn and it was fine. I felt no need to continue. I've listened to all of the extant He Who Fights With Monsters (11 or 12, can't remember) and that's plenty. I think I have one more in me but if he doesn't wrap it up in the next book, I'm out.

I have found, among my discerning reading friends, that DCC is Dinniman's best work. The other pieces are rather sub-par, by comparison. I'm told they don't have the same.. heart, for lack of a better term.

Roughly 30% of the attendees at GenCon this year were dressed as DCC.

It is, happily, a pretty easy cosplay. It is cool that folks found some joy in it.

Anything that popular can't be very good, ha.

The irony being that disliking the popular thing just for being popular is, in fact, a popular thing itself.

It seems better to like it, or not, based on its own merits as a work of fiction, rather than meta-qualities like popularity.

 

[jian]

I absolutely despise litRPG - when a character levels up in a novel I feel the urge to barf - but everybody recommends me these books so I guess I have to give it a chance at least... How obnouxious are the "RPG elements"?

They can be extremely intrusive and are always there, always reminding you that RPG rules are always transparently and explicitly in effect.

LitRPG is based on all the successful anime, manga (Japanese), light novels (mostly Japanese - basically text with some illustrations), manhwa (Korean), webtoons (mostly Korean), and manhua (Chinese) that incorporate video game portal fantasy elements. This includes but is not limited to isekai and often incorporates tropes from many sources - a common trope is qi cultivation (from Korean and Chinese media). I personally find LitRPG tiresome to read but I find the webtoons a pleasant diversion. The term itself is, rather randomly, based on Russian media along the above lines.

If you want to dip your toes in something LitRPG that isn’t going to go on for 15+ books and may never end, I would recommend New Game Minus by Sarah Lin, which is all about a fantasy villain who discovers (to his rage) that he’s a video game character.

 

[Retros_x]

They can be extremely intrusive and are always there, always reminding you that RPG rules are always transparently and explicitly in effect.

LitRPG is based on all the successful anime, manga (Japanese), light novels (mostly Japanese - basically text with some illustrations), manhwa (Korean), webtoons (mostly Korean), and manhua (Chinese) that incorporate video game portal fantasy elements. This includes but is not limited to isekai and often incorporates tropes from many sources - a common trope is qi cultivation (from Korean and Chinese media). I personally find LitRPG tiresome to read but I find the webtoons a pleasant diversion. The term itself is, rather randomly, based on Russian media along the above lines.

If you want to dip your toes in something LitRPG that isn’t going to go on for 15+ books and may never end, I would recommend New Game Minus by Sarah Lin, which is all about a fantasy villain who discovers (to his rage) that he’s a video game character.

Thanks for the info drop! My post was a bit older, in the meantime I have read the first book and paused the second book in the middle of it. Its ok, I liked the characters, but predictably hated the "game" elements. I believe all the fans that the later books are emotional, modern commentary, capitalism criticsm and what not, but I get all this stuff in other very good books that arent LitRPG, and I think I will stick to them.


but New Game Minus sounds like a hilarious premise, i might check that out.

 

[Vael]

My only experience with LitRPG is Dungeon Crawler Carl, so I won't comment on the genre in general.

I have really loved this series though.

 

[Umbran]

If you want to dip your toes in something LitRPG that isn’t going to go on for 15+ books and may never end...

While I understand the open-endedness is common in the genre, DCC is pretty clearly set to be 10 books, 8 of which have already been published.

 

[eudyptes]

The irony being that disliking the popular thing just for being popular is, in fact, a popular thing itself.

It seems better to like it, or not, based on its own merits as a work of fiction, rather than meta-qualities like popularity.

Agree. That's what the "ha" was for. I haven't actually disliked something for being popular since I was a 20-year-old superior indie rock kid, and that was well over half of my life ago.