r/Fantasy • u/AcceptablePlatypus30 • 11h ago
LitRPG recommendations
I love LitRPG and have read a lot of it but find it’s becoming repetitive
Any fantasy recommendations that aren’t necessarily so heavy on the statistics
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u/Giant_Yoda Reading Champion II 11h ago
LitRPG is a subgenre of progression fantasy. So just zoom out to more general progression series.
Cradle by Will Wight is generally considered one of the best. Most of Wight's books would work for this.
Beware of Chicken is another of my favorites. A slice of life parody of the genre that actually becomes a really good progression series.
Mage Errant series is another good one.
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u/0XzanzX0 11h ago
The Wandering Inn
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u/slackerboyfx 10h ago
I'm on book 3 right now.
It definitely doesn't follow the same mold as most of the others.
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u/Mournelithe Reading Champion X 7h ago
I really need to put together a full list of what I’ve liked for reference purposes.
For now, here’s a bunch I’ve enjoyed or are following.
Completed:
Mother of Learning. Iconic time loop story. Skills over stats.
The Calamitous Bob. Reincarnated in the heart of dead kingdom, only blessing is luck. Good fun. Stats exist but aren’t key.
Beneath The Dragoneye Moons. Long running ascension story, starts pseudo Roman, becomes pseudo medieval after time skip. Stats heavy but ignorable.
A Practical Guide to Evil. Progression from orphan to ultimate power by siding with the Dark for a change. Do Wrong Right. No stats.
The Broken Knife. Kobold NPC becomes protagonist and gains significant growth. Really good slow burn. No stats iirc.
Ar'Kendrithyst. Portal slow burn, father and daughter protagonists, rethinking magic with our knowledge of science.
Paranoid Mage. The protagonist discovers supernatural is real, but refuses to be pigeonholed by their society. Rage against tyranny.
Ongoing:
Chrysalis. Reincarnated as monster, tower climber in reverse. For the Colony!
The Wandering Inn. Very VERY long running portal fantasy with classes and skills but no stats. Slice of life and war crimes.
Beware of Chicken. Subverted cultivation story, reincarnator steps off the grind to become a farmer instead. No stats.
He Who Fights With Monsters. Portal fantasy meets apocalypse meets Aussie humour. Skills growth rather than stats.
Legend of William Oh. Progression meets chuck norris jokes, as a self proclaimed legend takes on a life of its own. Always pays to have a good hype man. Stats but not the focus.
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u/Aphrel86 7h ago
Cradle by Will wright.
Bastion by Phil tucker.
Dungeon crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.
All 3 are great reads imo.
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u/Nova_Maverick 11h ago
I really liked He who fights with monsters. The first book or two does feel a bit heavy on the descriptions of abilities and things, but after that, it turns down quite a bit and becomes more about the fun while still being lit RPG
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u/fjiqrj239 Reading Champion III 11h ago
This might be the question where Sanderson actually is a good answer....
His stuff has very 'hard' magic systems (i.e. works like an RPG system and is exhaustively explained in the text), but the narrative is more a classic epic fantasy structure, without in-text stat dumps. The writing is also fairly straightforward, although better than most litRPG.
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u/miggins1610 11h ago
I just recently started palmer pickering's tales of temerity series. It follows a young girl called temerity who enters a dungeon game to follow in the footsteps of her father and brothers, accompanied by a goblin called half pint. Its pretty cosy so far but the stakes do raise as they get deeper. Perfect escapist fantasy if you dont want something super big and epic
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u/RegGonb 6h ago
There's Innwright which is vastly superior compared to anything what I've come across. It's very technical and way too realistic. I thought it was absolutely wonderful as the guy went on about how to repair a door or a window, even though he's supposed to advance in a skill. I would recommend Rank 0; Waystation Mage but _do not_ go past the first book. It's not exactly the same point of view as the first one.
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u/Rhubarb776 9h ago
Some litRPG I’ve enjoyed, that is lighter on stats:
Chrysalis (ants, fun) A Superhero Called Doberman (fun, surprise twists) Iron Prince (drama, school setting)
If you haven’t tried Dungeon Crawler Carl, I highly recommend. The stats aren’t too heavy, and they grew less important as the series goes on.
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u/narnarnartiger 11h ago
yeah that's why i dropped lit rpg, i read a few, and it just felt like menu slop. read these instead, it's the good stuff:
Name of the Wind, Stormlight Archives, The Crown Tower (Micheal J Sullivan), Legend (David Gemmel), Waylander (Gemmel)
These are my favourites. Read these and you won't want to go back
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u/birdymichael 11h ago
litrpg is repetitive slop as a whole, maybe find another genre, or better yet play actual rpgs
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u/CafeEspresso 11h ago
What a close minded comment to leave
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u/birdymichael 10h ago
same with progression fantasy and webnovels, quantity over quality by the numbers slop
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u/dumpgubblin 11h ago
I feel like Cradle if you havent read it really close. It feels like a fantasy shonen protagonist story that really gets power progresssion and makes everything feel natural along the way. The stakes ALWAYS feel real even as progress happens.
+1 for audibook if you go that route its incredible, especially later in the series.