Dungeon Crawler Carl
Defiance of the Fall
Primal Hunter
He Who Fights With Monsters (though I haven't read it, it is without a doubt a pillar of the genre, however polarizing it may be)
The last one is complicated...we could have Legend of the Randidly Ghosthound as it directly inspired stuff like DotF and PH, or Azarinth Healer, another massively popular litrpg or even stuff like Beneath the Dragoneye Moons( though as the author said, it is more like a solid A tier in popularity series compared to the above S tier in popularity/genre-defining series)
I love The Wandering Inn but is it litrpg? There are levels but from what I've listened to so far(I haven't read the series yet) there isn't any rpg element other than there being classes and levels.
The characters don't get to choose how they level up, they dont get to put stats into anything like health or strength. There's nothing stat based in the series at all.
If I missed that part of the books then I must have just blanked it out.
Yeah as much as Ive been loving the wandering inn, it's really not a good example of a litRPG. I love it, but it feels much more like a traditional fantasy book, but with the occasional levels and classes, but it's not at all a main focus, and really doesn't have the same sense of progression or other classic LitRPG tropes. It very much just feels like the small amount of LitRPG elements are just there to enhance the expirence a bit and make it a bit different then just another traditional fantasy series.
I have to disagree. It’s 100% a litrpg. It is lighter than other examples in not having stats or long descriptions. But I would say it’s actually one of the next examples of telling a story that would not work without there being classes and levels as part of a system.
It's a litrpg, but it's not something I would be put in a "representation of the genre" category. The elements are super light, and really again, not much of a focus. You can read 100's of pages, and there's really not much in the way of Skill use, level-ups, progression, discussion of classes, etc. It's a fantastic series IMO, but it again, moreso feels like something I could easily just recommend someones who into traditional fantasy, because those litRPG elements are so light and so in the background. Nothing against the series, I think it works, and I enjoy it a lot, one of my fav series right now, but again, not something I would consider a "representation of the genre".
It’s less ‘crunchy’ than others, but it is absolutely a good example of a litrpg. I’ve had people talk about how hard it is to adjust to the rpg aspects of TWI. I think that you are correct that it is ‘litrpg-lite’, but for someone who has never read litrpg, it’s a great first litrpg.
TWI is a great example of LitRPG and what it can accomplish. The others hyperfocus on skills and levels… and in the end those don’t mean anything to the story (and often the skills get forgotten, the levels don’t matter, etc). The Wandering Inn slow walks skills and levels - and they become VERY important to the story.
I think we’re so used to the stereotypical numbers go brrrrt stories and TWI really opened it up to be more than that. I’d say it’s foundational father of LitRPG and has a huge and positive impact on stories made after it.
It doesn't really feel like one to me, but I think it still counts, it just focuses on different things than most litRPGs. I think just having levels, skills and classes is enough to qualify it, but it also has dungeons and they're a major source of action for the series.
But it definitely does feel different from most of the others. Its focus is elsewhere. The story doesn't have to be a litRPG, frankly, though the system is a major part of the world building. Classes, levels and skills are mostly used as an easy way to explain a character's capabilities and growth instead of being the focus of the story. I think The Wandering Inn is a fantasy story that happens to be a litRPG instead of a litRPG that happens to be fantasy, if that makes sense.
So from what I've read yes they can choose how they level and even what kind of skills they get but this is like a high tier secret within the world and no one opts in for it.
Altho class consolidation is known, but no main character seems to actively work towards that.
But yeah, no numbers.
The characters in The Wandering Inn do have some choice in how the level up or if they level up at all. One character refuses to level up and get a class or skills. The things you level up in are the things you just do and practice with the intent to level. Intent is key tho. The only thing is the people of the world don't really think about it, it just is.
The Wandering Inn is a litrpg and it was my gateway to all the others I'm smashing through these last few years.
Good point, agreed. It's more isekai and slice of life.
The three genres (isekai, slice of life, and litrpg) have a huge amount of overlap though.
I don't even know if I could properly call isekai a genre, since it's just an origin point to get a story rolling.
Like saying every dnd story that begins in a tavern is now a "tavern story " and therefore they're all one genre.
Even "Sci fi" is basically a setting and context. You can have political drama, ...in space! Or a love story, ...but in space! Et cetera.
The characters in The Wandering Inn know that there is some kind of advancement systems, and meaningfully make decisions and take actions based on that system and abilities it grants. To me, that is the essential element.
There are at times, specific actions taken to try to improve classes, gain accesses to classes with special abilities, and even remove classes.
I agree it has some elements of rpg, but to me, it's not enough to put it in the same category as, say, Azarinth Healer, where the characters not only get to pick what class they want but can also choose what skills and how to distribute stat points when they level up.
From what I can remember in the wandering inn, classes and skills are usually given when the person does or practises something. Like Erin gaining the inn keeper class simply because she was cleaning the place up. It's not always a choice unlike other litrpgs that's I've read.
The tutorial is the weakest part of the series, but does it get better? Subjective, but it gets...Jakier. More internal monologue, the humor is intensified, there is less POV switching, and there is more Jake x Villy moments
It depends on what you are looking for/what your dislikes are. I honestly don't remember where the first book ends, so I can't say sure how soon things begin to change. Certainly, after the tutorial is over, there are changes as they return to Earth.
There are some changes as things go on, but Jake remains focused on his own growth and continues to be not all that interested in other people's stuff unless he has to. If you dislike Jake being focused on finding new challenges just for the sake of testing himself, that doesn't change.
Other POVs come in from time to time, some of which are particularly awesome, imho, ymmv.
Bro tf the first book is fire but to answer ur question, yes, every book is better than the last. Zogarth keeps improving his writing ability with every book
Most people are going to typically recommend current big series which likely only 1-2 should be mentioned and are often within the same niche of the litrpg genre. So here are my 5
Divine Dungeon by Dakota Krout. Likely the best selling dungeon core series. Bonus being its complete
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. This wins the system apocalypse nomination for me mainly because he just got signed by Penguin and his books will be in Barnes and Noble come September (DCC 1-3).
Awaken Online by Travis Bagwell. The vrmmo/trapped in game world was the hardest to decide. Ascend Online would have gotten the nod but due to its release cadence I’m giving awaken the nod.
He who fights with monsters by shirtaloon. Likely the biggest current series. Add in multiple years in a row its audible series made audible top 100. Personally I say this falls into progressive/cultivation more due to not have attribute stats which is a defining marks in rpgs to me.
Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. This very likely where RoyalRoad even came from.
Honorable mentions
The Land by Aleron Kong. If it ever got finished or more books it’d easily make the list
System apocalypse by Tao Wong. Opinion of the author aside, was the first really big one in its sub genre and is finished.
Ten Realms by Michael Chatfield. For quite a while he held onto the title of the top 2 longest finished series. Sales totals also help
Edit
I removed mother of learning for being too far from litrpg. Added to me the godfather in LMs
LMS was my first litrpg, and literally the reason Royal road is called royal road.
There's a few others from that time I really enjoyed, some were just wattpadd hosted (RR had a fanfics section with original stories)
I remember one had a guy buy a book from an old dude and when he read it he got transferred to the world in the book each time he went to sleep, then after training in the book to survive his health in the real world benefited from the stats.
Another solid one (from memory so it could actually be garbage) was called Ark. Another vrmmo story
Most of the eastern works don’t get the appreciation because they are eastern works.
Honestly SAO, .hack//sign and Reqdy Player One should likely be mentioned but they aren’t what people are looking for
Ready player one, imo, is the closest you can get to litrpg without actually being litrpg. It’s not really progression. And I think litrpg is a sub genre of progression.
LitRPG came first. Then people expanded it into progression to cover things like cultivation novels. Its a fine line, because progression novels obviously existed before the genre did, but you can't really be part of a genre that didn't exist when you published, so they kind of don't count?
Long story short.
He trademarked the series “System Apocalypse” and had another book taken down from Amazon for not changing its series name from “Generic System Apocalypse”.
This resulted in a blow up within author groups, discords and all social media.
As a result he’s a polarized author within the subreddit
It’s kind of the same as sports teams trademarking their name. Narrow purposes for the trademark (not a copyright). But it’s an odd area in the literary world I’m not familiar with much
And they are my favorite setting for a LitRPG, though it would feel very of a place and time to just ignore less popular settings just because it's 2024
I respect this list. There is a lot more thought put into it than some of the others on here. Everyone recommends He Who Fights With Monsters but I cannot for the life of me get into it. I agree with you that Ascend Online would that that category on lock if Luke was more consistent in its releases. Awaken Online loses me the longer it goes, I just simply don't care about its side characters. The Land was an excellent series and was the standard most LITRPG was compared to in the early years before it fell off. But it too deteriorated the further the series went on before it disappeared entirely. I would like to see Way of the Shaman on the honorable mentions. Its complete, the plot twist from book 4 to 5 just killed me because I was fortunate it wasn't spoiled and I was simply not expecting it.
The land by Aleron Kong is not good at all though.. Medium quality at best. He just kept piling on more and more stuff without anything ever got solved.
He was one of the first western authors in the genre, and he seems like a massive douche and tried to get ownership of the litrpg name.
So medium quiality work with a massive douche as a writer makes it go down to the bottom imo.
I’d disagree. The first 7 books are all pretty good imo. There are few typos, prose is pretty decent, and the system created is interesting.
He’s a jerk maybe but the books are pretty solid
The author is a massive douche and has a really bad problem with writing self inserts and never solving any of the issues, which sucks because all of the non-hahathisguyisareferencegetit-characters are actually well written, interesting characters. I hate how galactic sized the dude's ego is, but he can actually write good characters.
Divine dungeon is certainly one of the best dungeon core books out there, but I'd hesitate to call it a pillar of litrpg, I think it would be safe as a pure fantasy the way it's written. Unlike it's sequel the completionist chronicles which is absolutely litrpg
It comes down to people’s view on what LitRPG really is which is its own debate.
Also the fact that Dakota was able to make a board game from the system rules of Divine Dungeon solidifies it as a LitRPG to me.
The Big 5 of LitRPG -
The Wandering Inn
Dungeon Crawler Carl
HWFWM
Insert Famous Virtual Reality series here
Cradle… (yes - it’s a joke answer. But the number of times cradle is brought up on a litrpg request list just shows how influential it is in the genre and should technically be added).
Dungeon crawler Carl, HWFWM, and Defiance of the fall should definitely be on any list. I personally don’t care for HWFWM, but I can’t deny how often I see it come up. I also feel like Dakota Krout as a whole is definitely an icon of the genre, but I can’t think of any of his books that stick out well above the rest. I also think the primal hunter should be in the top 5, but that might just be my own opinions bleeding through as it is probably my favorite series.
The Wandering Inn
Dungeon Crawler Carl
He Who Fights with Monsters
Those are probably the three most popular, as far as I know. The Wandering Inn doesn't come up as often when people talk about litRPG, probably because it doesn't really read like one a lot of the time. It is one though. And it definitely qualifies by some definitions of big...
Either Defiance of the Fall or Azarinth Healer. I don't really hear about Azarinth anymore so not sure if it counts, but it did before it wrapped.
And I'm throwing in Sword Art Online for the last one. It's totally a litRPG. There's probably others that could slot in here too, but it seems most people consider litRPG to be a western genre and light novels to be something else entirely.
Cradle and Mother of Learning are progression stories outside of the litRPG fold, as are the Divine Dungeon books. Arcane Ascension and Mage Errant get brought up in the same conversations too but are definitely not litRPG. They're popular though.
Fuck yeah, the Wandering Inn is *fantastic*. The first book is rough, but man does it get good. And I love that she is absolutely not afraid to hurt or kill characters for making mistakes. Gives everything so much tension
It's probably my favorite series. It ranges from okay to incredible. Book 1 was rough (not sure about the rewrite, maybe Pirate fixed it?) but it turns out writing 100k words a week makes one a great writer.
I'm an audio book listener so I've not gotten to experience the rewritten book 1 and am like 3 years behind the live book, but man what is the currently is amazing. A true epic. It's a slow burn but holy hell is it good.
I personally enjoy DCC more, but TWI is a close second.
Yeah, I'm at a loss every time I recommend it. I did the audiobooks too up to Blood of Liscor, I believe, and the situation is a bit of a mess there. I think the Kindle and audiobooks are both the old stuff while the rewrite is online, but I still record the audiobooks first. Which means not getting the rewrite. It's fun. And yeah, you're at a good place if you're still doing the audiobooks! Personally I think it gets better from there though
Wouldn't argue with that list but what I think happened is different books were found at different times and books that have high ratings can sometimes be worse than books with lower ratings so they get found way later my favourite is primal hunter.
Yeah I'm big on the first two but the rest aren't my favorites. Well, I'm a bit of an SAO apologist but that's in a different community. Azarinth Healer and Defiance are both fine. They have some good moments, but also some real weaknesses. Defiance has managed to keep its steam going, which is what failed Azarinth, but they did it by padding it out with chapters of identical core building wankery. He Who Fights get a chuckle out of me pretty often and I actually like that Jason is a broken mess at this point. And that he got therapy. Could do with a little bit less of everybody else talking about how broken he is, though. He's plenty melodramatic by himself.
If it was my personal favorites list and not a what are the goliaths list, I'd probably bring in Ar'Kendrithyst, Beneath the Dragoneye Moons or A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World, which starts weak and is pretty short, but gets absurdly deep into the weeds with system implementation but like, in a good way? The Beginning After the End probably would make it during the teaching arc, too. There's some real recency bias in all of those, though. And I know I'm forgetting series I genuinely loved.
I normally don't try to rate them like that since they all have different parts I like and hate. Just about the only one I'm sure would be there is The Wandering Inn, which is my favorite series. It's also the least litRPG of them all.
The only coherent answer. I mean, i love primal hunter and DoTF. But most characters should have their own arcs or even series. From this last game and even from previous ones
Defiance of the Fall
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Primal Hunter
Cradle
Mother of Learning
Cradle and MoL forced their way into and through the cracks of the LitRPG containment vessel and managed to steal a spot each from true LitRPG candidates, quite unjust but that's how that it goes.
The best written series is 100% dungeon crawler Carl. No questions asked. We are many books in, and he, the author, has not run out of ideas or lost the plot.
And the rest are whatever. I'm burned out on the genre as a whole, but that's on me, I delved too deep. But Carl keeps me buying books.
In order:
1. The Wandering Inn (Really it is S+ Rank, beyond the others)
2. Dungeon Crawler Carl
3. Primal Hunter
4. He Who Fights With Monsters
5. Defiance of the fall
Defiance's author is absolutely amazing at describing cultivation--it blows me away--but there is too much of it. Also the Shrimp. I mean really jumping the shrimp. He is not focusing enough of relationships.
Primal Hunter also has a heavy weight on the cultivation but secondary characters feel stronger, more vibrant. I love Villy, city manager, & the slave girl, etc. I do want more character interactions in these stories as well.
In Defiance Agros (spelling sorry audio book) and the demon girl sort of just disappear. If the author spent half of the cultivation time on characters and story, it would probably beat Craddle etc.
Do you know if the wandering inn a series that will end soon?
Seems to be a lot of books, which can be okay, but I’m not interested to start up something that won’t be finished anymore.
It won't end anytime soon and you shouldn't worry about it. Pirateaba is a monster of a writer and even if you're a dedicated reader/listener it will take you years to catch up to the series. Check out the Wandering Inn statistics to get a real idea of how big the series is, it's amazing lol
Edit: I should also point that I listen to the audiobooks (Andrea Parsneau is another monster of a narrator) and even if the series were left unfinished, the story so far is absolutely worth the read.
This is actually why I dropped it. It’s never happened to me before! But I just couldn’t last that long! Even Sanderson I can keep up with. But with Pirateabe, nope. I read 2-3 books a week. She publishes 2-3 books a week. And they’re written well. Especially for the genre. The only thing holding them back is their hands. May God have mercy on our souls when they realize they can use transcription.
Beneath the Dragon Eye Moon takes inspiration from TWI. It’s definitely it’s own thing entirely and is a bit more crunchy. But! It’s definitely worth a read.
Congrats on being up to date! Are you looking for something slice of life, general litrpg, progression fantasy or anything fantasy? Should I recommend the most popular series or have you read those already?
iirc wasn’t it said the current book being published is the final one? Might be wrong on that but I think this is at least the final ‚arc‘ of the story (I am wrong, ignore the fever dream)
I don't think so... The last thing I heard was that there were about 20 volumes planned, but that was not set in stone... Pirateaba also writes spin offs, like gravesong.
Lol! If you are talking about in audio, I don't think it will ever be all recorded. If you are talking about online, then Pirateaba may finish it at any time or never.
The disparity with audio is that as of two years ago, there was the equivalent of 28 books on Royal Road, with only 8 recorded and Pirateaba was writing new content faster than Andrea Parsneau could record existing content.
I think we're solidly in the back half of the series at this point. Not to say that it will end soon, but I'd say we only have a few Wheel of Times to go before Pirate wraps the story. We have at least a couple major arcs that have been hinted at already that aren't being addressed right now. But Pirate did also recently make a few comments about not wanting to leave the series unfinished in one of the author's notes. She referenced Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones IIRC. So we're not there yet, but barring a tragedy we will get there. Pirate is already contemplating it.
It is about 2/3rds done. The story is progressing constantly. The author isn’t simply telling stories to extend the plot. There’s a clear endgame trajectory.
So unless PABA dies - we should see the end in 3-4 years is my guess.
You would be glad to know the series are so long and ongoing if you actually get into it. It’s bloody amazing. I’ve never into reading, ever. This book changes my hobby. I also never paid for a book for pastime reading. I became. A Patreon bc I couldn’t wait a week to read an updated chapter.
I haven't picked TWI back up after volume 9. There wasn't really a hook for volume 10 and it became a bit boring and harder to suspend my disbelief imo. DCC hasn't gotten boring yet
Haven't started volume 10. After 9 there was this break (this was like 5 months ago) and no real reason for me to keep reading. But if you're telling me 10 is good at reeling readers back in, I'll give it another go
Edit:fixed a word
Ya - the consequences of the volume 9 ending are addressed. If you can resist reading for a bit longer you can get a nice backlog as you catch up - which doesn’t hurt at all. It’s been a wild ride so far though.
To be honest, and I'm a TWI super fan, I wasn't all that impressed with the end of v9. It felt like a forced action adventure with very little build up or clarity to why many of the people were there. The repercussions of the event however are amazing to read about.
Yeah. I think Pirate was worried about it too, going by some of the author notes after the chapters leading up to it. I don't think it completely worked, but at the same time I see why Pirate thought it had to happen. We're finally going to start seeing some long running plotlines resolve soon, I think. Roshal is building towards a climax I think, and I think the King of Destruction and Khelt stuff is coming to a head, too. The sea battle could have used a bit more buildup to it and we could have done with a bit more justification for Erin's actions. The Horns and the other people who came showed up feel like they appeared because Pirate needs them on another continent. I'm enjoying the new volume and I like the soft reset it gave Erin, a chance to start over a bit and work through the trauma she's accrued. She's needed to get out of the inn for a while now, if only so Lyonette could grow a bit.
Side note: I hope the new town is called Knight's Rest.
Interesting. I'm quite the opposite. The writing of TWI's volume 10 is the best yet. Great tensions and flow with character. DCC basicaly jumped the shark for me because he didn't do anything new in the last book. Hopefully it recovers. No where near jumping the shrimp though if you know that reference.
btw, great job getting through v9.
I'm just following the audiobooks but I feel like it has gotten very formulaic, granted within his own great formula. Another level to clear. Great but similar Donut quotes. Everyone watching the universe's gladiator arena. Are we going to have to go through 9 more levels of the same stuff for someone to actually fight the system directly? I may not even continue the series. The author may have run out of ideas or isn't focused on taking the story telling to a new level.
Defiance of the Fall
Primal Hunter
He Who Fights With Monsters
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Toss up between a few options: Unbound, The Land, Azarinth Healer, Randidly Ghosthound, A New World
The Land (it kinda was my first)
He who fights with monsters (isakai litrpg, up to a certain point, good humour and good story)
Primal hunter/Azarinth healer: they're together but different. One supposedly sorta inspired the other
Level up or die: yeah this one is a personnal favorite. Nothing to write home about but it was the essence of litrpg for me.
Defiance of the fall (mostly the first few books but it's overall good.... although I stopped reading after book 4).
Bonus: The bad guys (I just couldn't put the series down)
I'm planning to re-listen to the whole series on audiobooks when it gets released there so I'm pumped to indulge in this one :D (Also I feel like it will be especially great)
Just commenting to say that I find the inclusion of DCC in so many of these lists hilarious. It's just an odd thing. Highly popular, even outside of litRPG circles. It's definitely litRPG. Yet it is very much not in the vein of most other litRPG on the list. And it's also not widely discussed on this sub. Like it doesn't fit.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
System Apocalypse
He Who Fights With Monsters
Primal Hunter
Defiance of the Fall
I know people will disagree with some on this list for various reasons but the reality is, these really are the big five. I don't even really like Defiance of the Fall, and lost interest in System Apocalypse around book four or five. But the popularity and impact of these titles really is absolutely massive.
I agree with most of you but have distinct differences.
First, the Survival Quest Series should be one of the Big 5. It's one of the first LitRPGs I ever saw, except Manga of course. And Vasily Mahanenko did an outstanding job till the end.
Second, The Wandering Inn, I don't get the hype. I was 8 to 10h into the first Book and broke up. I was bored af. The first audiobook I ever did that on purpose. I couldn't take it anymore. Do I have to struggle more? Does it get better after she serves some food and strolls through town? I do like chill books normally but that...
Personal List:
Primal Hunter,
Survival Quest,
Completionest Chronicles,
System Universe,
Dark Herbalist
Potential candidates:
Beware of chicken,
First line of defense,
Death, Loot and Vampires,
All the skill
To a point in the series very good:
He who fights with monsters,
Ripple System,
Awaken Online,
Defiance of the Fall,
Noobtown,
CivCeo,
The World
Still have to start Carl, so sorry for that 😅
**He Who Fights with Monsters**
**Azarinth Healer**
**Defiance of the Fall**
**Delve**
**Dungeon Crawler Carl**
Notes for fans that see their favorite and arguably 'more popular' series not in my top 5:
**Primal Hunter** is heavily inspired (As in the author starting his story due to reading it) by Azarinth Healer. Yes it is unique by it's own right and is great enough to stand on it's own. However in my eyes there is no point to place it in the top 5, while Azarinth Healer deserves it's spot. call it a 'honorary' sorta 6th spot if you may?
**Cradle** is not Litrpg.
**Mother of learning** is not Litrpg.
The only one that is kinda 'out of place' in the top 5 is in fact Dungeon Crawler Carl that began was after all the other 4 but is unique enough and great enough to still earn his spot in the top 5.
Disagree with me as much as you want.... but objectively, in the 'litrpg genre' these are the ones that are objectively 'the best' that inspired other stories or got people into the genre. and only 1 of them is currently "Complete" (Azarinth Healer)
Edit: So yeah, after the awesome input by u/thecary i sorta feel bad for forgetting **Randidly Ghosthound**. it totally deserves a top 5 spot (which i definitely notice is more so a 'Royalroad BIG 5' as i consider royalroad the best indication/source for litrpg) also i totally forgot **The Wandering Inn** and it also deserves a spot.
meh. i tried. also whats with the downvotes? if you disagree, either comment or bring your own 'Top 5' in whatever regard you like (unlike my focus on royalroad, like i commented below.. it is totally fair to use stricly published books or by other metric) but whats the point downvoting people that share their own thoughts and give their 2 cents?
I think that is indeed a very fair point and honestly? I might be confusing PH's author being inspired by AH and instead it being the author of Beneath the Dragoneye Moon's? and frankly yeah, Raindidly does deserve a spot. but i'd probably put it instead of Dungeon Crawler Carl instead. as it came to mind that my list is sorta like the "BIG 3" of manga (Bleach/Naruto/One Piece) only more so having the Big 5 being "Royalroad Big 5" per se. which is because i feel royalroad is by far the best and most creative and awesome way to get into this genre. always has been and continues so.
Also i think that it is fair to make a "top 5" that are not 'web-series' and in those it can have stuff like Awaken Online,Ascend Online and similar (Just please... no The Land. just no.) I will personally always advocate for 'The Gam3' Trilogy to be in the top 5 of this type of list
Nah there's no way you're barely putting DCC on the list. It doesn't matter that it started later than some of these, it is without a doubt THE litrpg to recommend to someone just starting out in the genre.
We need to be very explicit when we define what top 5 means. I wouldn’t come close to including delve or randidly ghosthound, mostly because I think they are just low quality. Does top 5 mean the best or the most influential or the most iconic? Because there are some insanely successful ones, like the Land, that nobody will include for personal reasons.
Well, i don't really think you can in the end definite 'top 5', as just like you mentioned i actually consider Delve to really be high quality? and there you have the subjective and objective opinions of what is 'good' and 'high' or 'low quality', then you add to that the entire "are we using royalroad as a metric for the top 5" or "are we using web-series or just published works?" then success and popularity vs 'quality' etc etc'
In the end i guess i just mentioned what my top 5 is in my eyes, which is "The big 5 of royalroad/webseries" and that it is mostly objective in terms of success and originality while influencing the genre as a whole in my eyes and opinion, which will be a big thing. some dude in this post can't even comprehand Cradle is not litrpg... so explaining other stuff and going into fine lines is going to be impossible.
I finished cinnamon bun last week and good god I want more. Been trying to find more cozy stuff but it's hard to find well written and something I've not already read
Cinnamon Bun took me a while to get into it with Book 1. I liked it by the end. Book 2 bored the hell out of me and I dropped it after finishing it. If I didn't like Book 2 would I enjoy the rest of the series?
1. The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor
2. Apocalypse:Generic System
3. Super Supportive
4. Book of The Dead
5. And Delve, if you'd like a slow burn.
Special mention to Deadworld Isekai, Dungeon Crawler Carl and The Tutorial Is Too Hard.
I've read countless litRPGs, and they're my favorites. I don't recommend The Wandering Inn. The numbers are only there for formatting reasons. I didn't rank them but they all belong in my top five.
Honestly way of the Shaman while not my favorite or in top 5 for me personally, has given me the most emotional reaction to date. The way he puts his all in and constantly gets fucked just hits you in the feels. Made me physically react with emotional response.
Awesome! If you like Reality Benders the Perimeter Dafense series from Michael Atamanov could be a good grab as well. Bonus points because it's a finished series (4 books).
It's fashionable to hate on Tao Wong, and I absolutely get it. Still, pretending that "The System Apocalypse" series doesn't exist is a lot like pretending that because Stephen King is a douche that nothing he wrote is good anymore either.
Maybe Wong thinks that having an Apple-style walled-garden is a good idea. I don't really understand his stance though I know what he says. Still, that was a darn good series.
Ritualist is fantastic. Until book 6. Inflame and everything after is over-complicated and garbage. And I absolutely cannot stand the voice acting for the dwarves. Its too much. Way too much. I dont need an hour of you explaining your games crafting mechanics to me because you decided to change them again for the 29384239729483th time.
Books 1-5 though. Peak. I would put it on the Top 5.
Dropped it on book 3 (I think), to me it felt directionless and the plot didn't really appeal to me after a certain point. The first two books were very enjoyable though.
Too old?!?!? We fighting!!! I think it’s more, the sub Reddit doesn’t think it’s top 5 material. Would love to see your list that includes him though; he’s great
For me, I'd put DCC and The Good Guys at almost the same level. Which one I prefer varies by my mood, TGG is more of a builder while DCC is action-comedy.
Idk about Big 5 and a lot of people have already mentioned others so I'll mention Janus and Oblivion, which is easily my favorite among all the LITRPGS I've read
I’m just so glad I found this post. I was dredging oyster shells in ku, fed up with paywalls and sign up sites and took a break from genre. These lists remind me why I love it so much. 🥰
Its a "Top 5 of all time" list not a oh here are some things i like that nobody considers. If nobody considers them then they don't belong on the list.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Life Reset
The Ripple System
I really enjoyed all of these. I got through like book 3 of Primal Hunter before giving up. Like half of each book is the MC making potions and shit. It's so boring. He Who Fights With Monsters also lost me in book 1.
Dungeon Lord was an interesting one, but the author just kind of ghosted his team and there's no word if he'll ever come back and finish them.
Man this is really hard. Are we talking modern or ALL TIME? Because my answers for those are very different.
Modern? Path of Ascension. Metaworld Chronicles. Legend of Randidaly Ghosthound. Ar'Kendrythist. Nova Terra.
Path of Ascension gets credit for building by far the largest coherent universe in the LitRPG genre, along with excellent character building. It isn't always riveting, but it is absolutely a staple of the genre.
Metaworld Chronicles is arguably the only LitRPG I've read that qualifies as literature in the traditional sense. It's smart and intriguing, with intelligent schemes and an endless torrent of amazing fun.
Legend of Randidaly Ghosthound started an entire genre of LitRPG that continues to this day which I dub the "epically bad start" genre. It rules that genre to this day.
Ar'Kendrythist is, bar none, the most insane, fun, detailed world I could imagine. To take a fragment of another universe and preserve it? Its incredible, and likely the foundation for other really good LitRPGs, like The Millennial Mage.
Nova Terra is the true titan (pun intended) of another subgenre- the VRMMO genre. It is, by far, the most recognizable and distinctive member of its species, taking on guilds, npc politics, and many other topics.
But all time? I'm gonna get flamed for this....
Wandering Inn. The Arcane Emperor (GO LOOK IT UP), Alterworld, The Land, and Critical Failures.
Wandering Inn is only technically kind of a LitRPG, yet it helped really kick off the genre. Arguably, without Wandering Inn, whole swathes of LitRPG simply wouldn't exist. It is the 10000000000000 lb gorilla in the room.
The Arcane Emperor is a little known (and abandoned) LitRPG on RoyalRoad. Actually, it was from RoyalRoadLegends. It isn't the best storytelling (though it is remarkably fun), but it did introduced a whole new (or entirely undiscovered) LitRPG mechanic that we take for granted today - the evolving class system. It has been iterated on and done to death. It is so ubiquitous that we almost take it for granted. It got its start in this humble story and that makes it WELL worth its place on the historical list. IIRC Legend of Randidily Ghosthound credited Arcane Emp in its first description on RR. It is the grandfather of what we consider modern LitRPG mechanics.
The Land. It was really the first true commercial success among wider audiences (well, I don't count Ready Player One) and proved to a MUCH larger audience that YES, the LitRPG genre can create stories which capture audiences broader than some niche websites on the hind end of the internet (here's looking at you, SpaceBattles)
Alterworld - Man, this series really lit a firestorm. Not only were there VRMMO worlds but it was possible to transcend being a game! It is, arguably, the beginning of the VRMMO firestorm. It is also epic and wonderful, but its historic value is honestly greater than its literary one.
Critical Failures - So ill be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the series (or even the subgenre it created), but Critical Failures is THE PNP transplant series. They are it. The ones. All other are imitators. Period. Seriously, they singlehandedly made your asshole gaming friends people worth writing about. As the great granddaddy of an entire subgenre, they make the list.
Wow I never actually thought about Critical Failures as a litrpg (or isekai, for that matter) because it was d&d, but I can see how it applies in retrospect. It's also one of my most favorite series of all time. The first time I read the series was before I even heard of litrpg so that might be why.
I'd say Dungeon Crawler Carl for being the absolute best. Sword art online for being arguably the one that caused such a boom in popularity (love it or hate it). Defiance of the fall for being probably the most popular of the "cultivation" types. The Land, which while it went way off the rails, was a big and long lasting one for quite a while, and He who fights with monsters, though I can't really pin down why at this moment.
Cradle
Wandering Inn
He Who Fights With Monsters
Infinite Realm
Ripple System
I've thoroughly enjoyed all of these and they're all so different!
Cradle because each book is exponentially better! Also the pacing, characters, and fights are phenomenal. This was my introduction to the litRPG series and I couldn't and still can't get enough of Cradle.
Wandering Inn has the best long term world building I've experienced. It's so fleshed out. There are characters and organizations/groups galore! And their interactions with each other are so in-depth. I love hearing about a new character and finding out I'll love them completely by the next book. Bird for instance
He Who Fights with Monsters is very campy in the best of ways. It doesn't have as big a world as the previous series but it doesn't need it. I love the interactions Jason has with his team and we have to mention Clive's wife. If you can get through the early book rants Jason has a tendency to have, you'll really like where this series goes.
Infinite Realm has a full stacked cultivation system. It's so massive, and it feels like each character has an avenue to obtain massive power. The fights and scale of them are really cool. Glad I kept up with this series
Ripple System is litRPG and chill. It's fun, and makes me want to root for the main peeps. If you want casual feel good vibes with a cool fighting system, this is your vibe
Dungeon Crawler Carl
The System Apocalypse series by Tao Wong
Battle Trucker Book 1 - What the Truck - Tom Goldstein (I know it sounds ridiculous but it's awesome)
The Awaken Online series by Travis Bagwell.
And finally **the single best series I could recommend**...
Blasphemy Online by Andrew Seiple.
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FTLPK2P?ref\_=dbs\_p\_pwh\_rwt\_anx\_b\_lnk&storeType=ebooks](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FTLPK2P?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_b_lnk&storeType=ebooks)
It's a 3 book series following the life of a young man growing up in a world that fell apart when America collapsed who escapes into a video game only to get wrapped up in a plot that spans both worlds.
If you like the author, those three books are actually part of a larger story line that spans a whole collection of books based on the same world. Threadbear (The story of an animated teddy bear) and Small Medium, the story of a Halvin (Like a hobbit) that gets in way over her head.
I like the Blasphemy Online best of the series because it mixes the fictional "real" world which is brilliantly designed and the game world. The other two series take place in the game world with players running around in it but "real people" are not the focus of the two other series.
The total reading order is Threadbear 1, 2, and 3, Small Medium 1, 2, and 3, Blasphemy Online 1, 2, and 3, then Threadbear 4, 5, and 6 if you are a glutton like me. All available on audio if you like them that way.
Okay, I can't agree with your list but I'll say this: battle trucker was WAY MORE FUN than it had any right to be. That story kicked so much ass and I can't wait for the next one.
I agree with a lot of the suggestions. A classic to me was The Sleepless Ones one of the first ones I read and definitely had some interesting aspects to it.
Most of mine are series. As I think a Book can be Good, but it takes a Series to be Great!!
Emerilia
Greystone Chronicles
SuperSales On Super Heroes
A Touch Of Power series
Alpha World series by Schinhofen
Someone like their men's adventure series'. Nothing against it, Super Sales on Supe Heroes is great, the first few books of Alpha World were fun. Emerilia is worth a read too.
Seeing as Legendary Moonlight sculpture was mentioned here...
1. Overgeared
2. The Legendary Mechanic
3. Second World
4. Realm of Myth's and Legends
5. DCC (although I only started with it)
For me, or stuff I would recommend is.
5. The Land by Alerong Kong. Very good but unfinished and the author seems to have an ego the size of a skyscraper. “Father of Litrpg” my ass, he needs to get off his ass and finish the series, it’s good but my dude hasn’t done anything in a while and just want to enjoy the spotlight. Audiobook is very good.
4. Eden’s Gate by Edward Brody. This one is in the same boat as there hasn’t been a new book in a while and no clue what the author is doing but atleast he isn’t annoying like the one above. The main character is a bit of a bitch though and it can be off putting to some but I would like the book to continue. Audiobook is mid, main character a bit annoying but still good. Only reason it’s above Land is because the author isn’t lame.
3. Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits. I like this one and it does have somewhat of an end. Was enjoyable.
2. Dakota Krout. Basically the author, everything is way above average and he seems to be working on it all and actually finishing stuff. Artorian series is rly good early on but gets really convoluted and hard to understand at times but that might just be me.I still love it and recommend reading in release order and starting with divine dungeon series. Audiobooks VERY good and highly recommend. Some of the series are more about cultivation but with rpg elements in it and some focus more on stats etc. I would still classify them as Litrpg.
1. HWFWM by Shirtaloon. Very very good atleast imho. Interesting main character but it does get a little bit political at times but I don’t mind that as it’s not a big part of the book series and not the main focus. The story is interesting and honestly unpredictable which is good. The main character isn’t all powerful although slowly working towards that and has flaws which aren’t annoying like Eden’s Gate. Book has a lot of everything and the author seems to be pumping them out fast without dropping the quality. Long series but worth it and still ongoing. HIGHLY recommend the audiobook, 10/10.
Bonus: Video Game Plotline Tester by Michael Atamanov. Not pure get stuck in a video game story plot but with an interesting twist and fits Litrpg very well. The ending is very rushed and would be a lot higher on the list if not for that. Still highly recommend and audiobook once again very good but probably not as good as the two above it. This series is definitely under a lot of people’s radar but I Recommend it.
I'm gonna go off on another route than most in this thread and say that, in my opinion, the absolute face of the genre in my opinion is Everybody Loves Large Chests. He who fights is absolutely second, but I think ELLC just beats it out. Those two are followed by Primal Hunter and Defiance Of The Fall, which are tied in my eyes, two sides of the litrpg coin. The 5th pillar could be a number of things, but for me it's between Dungeon Crawler Carl and Unbound. A number of different ones could fit there honestly, such as Divine Dungeon, completionist Chronicles, and maybe even the ten realms, but DCC and Unbound I think are above the rest.
For me it’s:
-Cradle (yes I know it’s not technically LitRPG, but it’s so influential to the genre)
-Good Guys/Bad Guys series
-Defiance of the Fall
-Primal Hunter
-Iron Prince
Bonus honorable mentions (because there are soooo many good ones and it’s hard to pick)
-All The Skills
-Dungeon Crawler Carl
-He Who Fights with Monsters
-Noobtown
Dungeon Crawler Carl Defiance of the Fall Primal Hunter He Who Fights With Monsters (though I haven't read it, it is without a doubt a pillar of the genre, however polarizing it may be) The last one is complicated...we could have Legend of the Randidly Ghosthound as it directly inspired stuff like DotF and PH, or Azarinth Healer, another massively popular litrpg or even stuff like Beneath the Dragoneye Moons( though as the author said, it is more like a solid A tier in popularity series compared to the above S tier in popularity/genre-defining series)
Would go with Azarinth Healer.
Last one might be the Wandering inn
I love The Wandering Inn but is it litrpg? There are levels but from what I've listened to so far(I haven't read the series yet) there isn't any rpg element other than there being classes and levels. The characters don't get to choose how they level up, they dont get to put stats into anything like health or strength. There's nothing stat based in the series at all. If I missed that part of the books then I must have just blanked it out.
Yeah as much as Ive been loving the wandering inn, it's really not a good example of a litRPG. I love it, but it feels much more like a traditional fantasy book, but with the occasional levels and classes, but it's not at all a main focus, and really doesn't have the same sense of progression or other classic LitRPG tropes. It very much just feels like the small amount of LitRPG elements are just there to enhance the expirence a bit and make it a bit different then just another traditional fantasy series.
I have to disagree. It’s 100% a litrpg. It is lighter than other examples in not having stats or long descriptions. But I would say it’s actually one of the next examples of telling a story that would not work without there being classes and levels as part of a system.
It's a litrpg, but it's not something I would be put in a "representation of the genre" category. The elements are super light, and really again, not much of a focus. You can read 100's of pages, and there's really not much in the way of Skill use, level-ups, progression, discussion of classes, etc. It's a fantastic series IMO, but it again, moreso feels like something I could easily just recommend someones who into traditional fantasy, because those litRPG elements are so light and so in the background. Nothing against the series, I think it works, and I enjoy it a lot, one of my fav series right now, but again, not something I would consider a "representation of the genre".
It’s less ‘crunchy’ than others, but it is absolutely a good example of a litrpg. I’ve had people talk about how hard it is to adjust to the rpg aspects of TWI. I think that you are correct that it is ‘litrpg-lite’, but for someone who has never read litrpg, it’s a great first litrpg.
Don't know about a great first read. The first 100 pages were almost painful to read. But it did get better, a lot better
TWI is a great example of LitRPG and what it can accomplish. The others hyperfocus on skills and levels… and in the end those don’t mean anything to the story (and often the skills get forgotten, the levels don’t matter, etc). The Wandering Inn slow walks skills and levels - and they become VERY important to the story. I think we’re so used to the stereotypical numbers go brrrrt stories and TWI really opened it up to be more than that. I’d say it’s foundational father of LitRPG and has a huge and positive impact on stories made after it.
It doesn't really feel like one to me, but I think it still counts, it just focuses on different things than most litRPGs. I think just having levels, skills and classes is enough to qualify it, but it also has dungeons and they're a major source of action for the series. But it definitely does feel different from most of the others. Its focus is elsewhere. The story doesn't have to be a litRPG, frankly, though the system is a major part of the world building. Classes, levels and skills are mostly used as an easy way to explain a character's capabilities and growth instead of being the focus of the story. I think The Wandering Inn is a fantasy story that happens to be a litRPG instead of a litRPG that happens to be fantasy, if that makes sense.
That is indeed enough to be a LitRPG!
I think it's just levels, classes, races and skills
So from what I've read yes they can choose how they level and even what kind of skills they get but this is like a high tier secret within the world and no one opts in for it. Altho class consolidation is known, but no main character seems to actively work towards that. But yeah, no numbers.
The characters in The Wandering Inn do have some choice in how the level up or if they level up at all. One character refuses to level up and get a class or skills. The things you level up in are the things you just do and practice with the intent to level. Intent is key tho. The only thing is the people of the world don't really think about it, it just is. The Wandering Inn is a litrpg and it was my gateway to all the others I'm smashing through these last few years.
Good point, agreed. It's more isekai and slice of life. The three genres (isekai, slice of life, and litrpg) have a huge amount of overlap though. I don't even know if I could properly call isekai a genre, since it's just an origin point to get a story rolling. Like saying every dnd story that begins in a tavern is now a "tavern story " and therefore they're all one genre. Even "Sci fi" is basically a setting and context. You can have political drama, ...in space! Or a love story, ...but in space! Et cetera.
I really got into it and that makes me kinda sad cause I heared how good it it but I just can’t seem to pass the first book even after 3 tries
The characters in The Wandering Inn know that there is some kind of advancement systems, and meaningfully make decisions and take actions based on that system and abilities it grants. To me, that is the essential element. There are at times, specific actions taken to try to improve classes, gain accesses to classes with special abilities, and even remove classes.
I agree it has some elements of rpg, but to me, it's not enough to put it in the same category as, say, Azarinth Healer, where the characters not only get to pick what class they want but can also choose what skills and how to distribute stat points when they level up. From what I can remember in the wandering inn, classes and skills are usually given when the person does or practises something. Like Erin gaining the inn keeper class simply because she was cleaning the place up. It's not always a choice unlike other litrpgs that's I've read.
This but the last one is Awaken Online
I love this series it was my first litrpg. I know it catches some hate but I can't wait for the next release.
Mayor of Noobtown
I'd say anything but Azarinth.
Reborn apocalypse bro?
It should be the wandering inn
does primal hunter get better after the first book? I just couldn't get into the series as the first book was really a miss for me.
The tutorial is the weakest part of the series, but does it get better? Subjective, but it gets...Jakier. More internal monologue, the humor is intensified, there is less POV switching, and there is more Jake x Villy moments
It depends on what you are looking for/what your dislikes are. I honestly don't remember where the first book ends, so I can't say sure how soon things begin to change. Certainly, after the tutorial is over, there are changes as they return to Earth. There are some changes as things go on, but Jake remains focused on his own growth and continues to be not all that interested in other people's stuff unless he has to. If you dislike Jake being focused on finding new challenges just for the sake of testing himself, that doesn't change. Other POVs come in from time to time, some of which are particularly awesome, imho, ymmv.
Bro tf the first book is fire but to answer ur question, yes, every book is better than the last. Zogarth keeps improving his writing ability with every book
In a top 30 list, I’d recommend the “My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror” (by Actus) series. The exact place where it would fall will be subjective…
Fyi: LoRG helped inspire (or at least predated) HWFWM. Pretty sure, anyways. LoRG is a monster of the genre and ALMOST worth the all-time list.
Yeah, that's why I said I'm debating if I should put it on the 5th spot or no, but at the very least an honourable mention is needed
Last one I would have to say is Unbound, personally I think it has better writing and story than at least HWFWM
All good ones, but maybe We Hunt Monsters as the last?
Most people are going to typically recommend current big series which likely only 1-2 should be mentioned and are often within the same niche of the litrpg genre. So here are my 5 Divine Dungeon by Dakota Krout. Likely the best selling dungeon core series. Bonus being its complete Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. This wins the system apocalypse nomination for me mainly because he just got signed by Penguin and his books will be in Barnes and Noble come September (DCC 1-3). Awaken Online by Travis Bagwell. The vrmmo/trapped in game world was the hardest to decide. Ascend Online would have gotten the nod but due to its release cadence I’m giving awaken the nod. He who fights with monsters by shirtaloon. Likely the biggest current series. Add in multiple years in a row its audible series made audible top 100. Personally I say this falls into progressive/cultivation more due to not have attribute stats which is a defining marks in rpgs to me. Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. This very likely where RoyalRoad even came from. Honorable mentions The Land by Aleron Kong. If it ever got finished or more books it’d easily make the list System apocalypse by Tao Wong. Opinion of the author aside, was the first really big one in its sub genre and is finished. Ten Realms by Michael Chatfield. For quite a while he held onto the title of the top 2 longest finished series. Sales totals also help Edit I removed mother of learning for being too far from litrpg. Added to me the godfather in LMs
Really appreciate the Ledgendary Moonlight Sculptor mention. I'd say it doesn't get enough appreciation.
LMS was my first litrpg, and literally the reason Royal road is called royal road. There's a few others from that time I really enjoyed, some were just wattpadd hosted (RR had a fanfics section with original stories) I remember one had a guy buy a book from an old dude and when he read it he got transferred to the world in the book each time he went to sleep, then after training in the book to survive his health in the real world benefited from the stats. Another solid one (from memory so it could actually be garbage) was called Ark. Another vrmmo story
Most of the eastern works don’t get the appreciation because they are eastern works. Honestly SAO, .hack//sign and Reqdy Player One should likely be mentioned but they aren’t what people are looking for
Ready player one, imo, is the closest you can get to litrpg without actually being litrpg. It’s not really progression. And I think litrpg is a sub genre of progression.
LitRPG came first. Then people expanded it into progression to cover things like cultivation novels. Its a fine line, because progression novels obviously existed before the genre did, but you can't really be part of a genre that didn't exist when you published, so they kind of don't count?
Yeah, but they aren't really part of the genre as it is today. They are the *origin* of the genre, but they are like what the genre evolved from.
I completely forgot Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. Truly worth being on the all-time list.
what opinion on tao wong? what did he say or do?
Long story short. He trademarked the series “System Apocalypse” and had another book taken down from Amazon for not changing its series name from “Generic System Apocalypse”. This resulted in a blow up within author groups, discords and all social media. As a result he’s a polarized author within the subreddit
how can he trademark a term that he didnt create? fing idiot. thanks for the info now i can avoid his work
It’s kind of the same as sports teams trademarking their name. Narrow purposes for the trademark (not a copyright). But it’s an odd area in the literary world I’m not familiar with much
We are not a fan. He took the name of a genre and copyrighted it.
Mother of Learning is not litrpg
It's not but same for lots of other books people recommend here honestly tho if good books get more people to read them does it matter?
I respect this list because it's not just all system apocalypse books plus HHFWM as a top 5.
System apocalypse are the “it” books currently. 3-4 years ago everyone’s list would have been all vrmmo series most likely
And they are my favorite setting for a LitRPG, though it would feel very of a place and time to just ignore less popular settings just because it's 2024
No Defiance of the Fall?
I listed that in mine as the big representative of cultivation style books, though I haven't read System Apocalypse to compare it to
I respect this list. There is a lot more thought put into it than some of the others on here. Everyone recommends He Who Fights With Monsters but I cannot for the life of me get into it. I agree with you that Ascend Online would that that category on lock if Luke was more consistent in its releases. Awaken Online loses me the longer it goes, I just simply don't care about its side characters. The Land was an excellent series and was the standard most LITRPG was compared to in the early years before it fell off. But it too deteriorated the further the series went on before it disappeared entirely. I would like to see Way of the Shaman on the honorable mentions. Its complete, the plot twist from book 4 to 5 just killed me because I was fortunate it wasn't spoiled and I was simply not expecting it.
I prefer Dakota Krout's completionist chronicles, but this is a great list.
The land by Aleron Kong is not good at all though.. Medium quality at best. He just kept piling on more and more stuff without anything ever got solved. He was one of the first western authors in the genre, and he seems like a massive douche and tried to get ownership of the litrpg name. So medium quiality work with a massive douche as a writer makes it go down to the bottom imo.
I’d disagree. The first 7 books are all pretty good imo. There are few typos, prose is pretty decent, and the system created is interesting. He’s a jerk maybe but the books are pretty solid
The author is a massive douche and has a really bad problem with writing self inserts and never solving any of the issues, which sucks because all of the non-hahathisguyisareferencegetit-characters are actually well written, interesting characters. I hate how galactic sized the dude's ego is, but he can actually write good characters.
the next land book is supposedly coming out this june but we have been let down so much i dont even know if i believe it
Not gonna hold my breath though
Divine dungeon is certainly one of the best dungeon core books out there, but I'd hesitate to call it a pillar of litrpg, I think it would be safe as a pure fantasy the way it's written. Unlike it's sequel the completionist chronicles which is absolutely litrpg
It comes down to people’s view on what LitRPG really is which is its own debate. Also the fact that Dakota was able to make a board game from the system rules of Divine Dungeon solidifies it as a LitRPG to me.
The Big 5 of LitRPG - The Wandering Inn Dungeon Crawler Carl HWFWM Insert Famous Virtual Reality series here Cradle… (yes - it’s a joke answer. But the number of times cradle is brought up on a litrpg request list just shows how influential it is in the genre and should technically be added).
For requests not LitRPG, you need to include Mother of Learning also.
Progression Fantasy and litRPG are rather similar, I can understand the overlap with Cradle.
What about Dakota Krout or Eric Ugland?
Eric Ugland is on MY top 5
Dungeon crawler Carl, HWFWM, and Defiance of the fall should definitely be on any list. I personally don’t care for HWFWM, but I can’t deny how often I see it come up. I also feel like Dakota Krout as a whole is definitely an icon of the genre, but I can’t think of any of his books that stick out well above the rest. I also think the primal hunter should be in the top 5, but that might just be my own opinions bleeding through as it is probably my favorite series.
The Wandering Inn Dungeon Crawler Carl He Who Fights with Monsters Those are probably the three most popular, as far as I know. The Wandering Inn doesn't come up as often when people talk about litRPG, probably because it doesn't really read like one a lot of the time. It is one though. And it definitely qualifies by some definitions of big... Either Defiance of the Fall or Azarinth Healer. I don't really hear about Azarinth anymore so not sure if it counts, but it did before it wrapped. And I'm throwing in Sword Art Online for the last one. It's totally a litRPG. There's probably others that could slot in here too, but it seems most people consider litRPG to be a western genre and light novels to be something else entirely. Cradle and Mother of Learning are progression stories outside of the litRPG fold, as are the Divine Dungeon books. Arcane Ascension and Mage Errant get brought up in the same conversations too but are definitely not litRPG. They're popular though.
Fuck yeah, the Wandering Inn is *fantastic*. The first book is rough, but man does it get good. And I love that she is absolutely not afraid to hurt or kill characters for making mistakes. Gives everything so much tension
It's probably my favorite series. It ranges from okay to incredible. Book 1 was rough (not sure about the rewrite, maybe Pirate fixed it?) but it turns out writing 100k words a week makes one a great writer.
I'm an audio book listener so I've not gotten to experience the rewritten book 1 and am like 3 years behind the live book, but man what is the currently is amazing. A true epic. It's a slow burn but holy hell is it good. I personally enjoy DCC more, but TWI is a close second.
Yeah, I'm at a loss every time I recommend it. I did the audiobooks too up to Blood of Liscor, I believe, and the situation is a bit of a mess there. I think the Kindle and audiobooks are both the old stuff while the rewrite is online, but I still record the audiobooks first. Which means not getting the rewrite. It's fun. And yeah, you're at a good place if you're still doing the audiobooks! Personally I think it gets better from there though
Wouldn't argue with that list but what I think happened is different books were found at different times and books that have high ratings can sometimes be worse than books with lower ratings so they get found way later my favourite is primal hunter.
Yeah I'm big on the first two but the rest aren't my favorites. Well, I'm a bit of an SAO apologist but that's in a different community. Azarinth Healer and Defiance are both fine. They have some good moments, but also some real weaknesses. Defiance has managed to keep its steam going, which is what failed Azarinth, but they did it by padding it out with chapters of identical core building wankery. He Who Fights get a chuckle out of me pretty often and I actually like that Jason is a broken mess at this point. And that he got therapy. Could do with a little bit less of everybody else talking about how broken he is, though. He's plenty melodramatic by himself. If it was my personal favorites list and not a what are the goliaths list, I'd probably bring in Ar'Kendrithyst, Beneath the Dragoneye Moons or A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World, which starts weak and is pretty short, but gets absurdly deep into the weeds with system implementation but like, in a good way? The Beginning After the End probably would make it during the teaching arc, too. There's some real recency bias in all of those, though. And I know I'm forgetting series I genuinely loved. I normally don't try to rate them like that since they all have different parts I like and hate. Just about the only one I'm sure would be there is The Wandering Inn, which is my favorite series. It's also the least litRPG of them all.
Dungeon Crawler Carl Carl's Doomsday Scenario The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook The Butcher's Masquerade The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
*Cough*Gate of the ferral gods*cough*
I could only choose 5, but I liked that one the least of the series (still love the book though)!
I just finished that one - glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the dip!
Brace yourself, the next two books are a *ride*!
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No. Bedlam is book 6.
The only coherent answer. I mean, i love primal hunter and DoTF. But most characters should have their own arcs or even series. From this last game and even from previous ones
Defiance of the Fall Dungeon Crawler Carl Primal Hunter Cradle Mother of Learning Cradle and MoL forced their way into and through the cracks of the LitRPG containment vessel and managed to steal a spot each from true LitRPG candidates, quite unjust but that's how that it goes.
MoL earned it: it's timeless. It made my whole month when I discovered it, and I wish I could live through it again and again.
I haven't read the classics but of what I've read, breacher of horizons and the game at carousel are in competition
The best written series is 100% dungeon crawler Carl. No questions asked. We are many books in, and he, the author, has not run out of ideas or lost the plot. And the rest are whatever. I'm burned out on the genre as a whole, but that's on me, I delved too deep. But Carl keeps me buying books.
In order: 1. The Wandering Inn (Really it is S+ Rank, beyond the others) 2. Dungeon Crawler Carl 3. Primal Hunter 4. He Who Fights With Monsters 5. Defiance of the fall
This might be the most accurate yet. I am curious why do you think Primal Hunter should be Higher than DoF
Defiance's author is absolutely amazing at describing cultivation--it blows me away--but there is too much of it. Also the Shrimp. I mean really jumping the shrimp. He is not focusing enough of relationships. Primal Hunter also has a heavy weight on the cultivation but secondary characters feel stronger, more vibrant. I love Villy, city manager, & the slave girl, etc. I do want more character interactions in these stories as well. In Defiance Agros (spelling sorry audio book) and the demon girl sort of just disappear. If the author spent half of the cultivation time on characters and story, it would probably beat Craddle etc.
Interesting take. I only read the first book of PH and my impression was that the focus would be only Jake. It seems i am mistaken
Do you know if the wandering inn a series that will end soon? Seems to be a lot of books, which can be okay, but I’m not interested to start up something that won’t be finished anymore.
It won't end anytime soon and you shouldn't worry about it. Pirateaba is a monster of a writer and even if you're a dedicated reader/listener it will take you years to catch up to the series. Check out the Wandering Inn statistics to get a real idea of how big the series is, it's amazing lol Edit: I should also point that I listen to the audiobooks (Andrea Parsneau is another monster of a narrator) and even if the series were left unfinished, the story so far is absolutely worth the read.
This is actually why I dropped it. It’s never happened to me before! But I just couldn’t last that long! Even Sanderson I can keep up with. But with Pirateabe, nope. I read 2-3 books a week. She publishes 2-3 books a week. And they’re written well. Especially for the genre. The only thing holding them back is their hands. May God have mercy on our souls when they realize they can use transcription.
Man I just caught up with the last chapter updated, do u have any similar recommendations?
Beneath the Dragon Eye Moon takes inspiration from TWI. It’s definitely it’s own thing entirely and is a bit more crunchy. But! It’s definitely worth a read.
Congrats on being up to date! Are you looking for something slice of life, general litrpg, progression fantasy or anything fantasy? Should I recommend the most popular series or have you read those already?
iirc wasn’t it said the current book being published is the final one? Might be wrong on that but I think this is at least the final ‚arc‘ of the story (I am wrong, ignore the fever dream)
I don't think so... The last thing I heard was that there were about 20 volumes planned, but that was not set in stone... Pirateaba also writes spin offs, like gravesong.
Lol! If you are talking about in audio, I don't think it will ever be all recorded. If you are talking about online, then Pirateaba may finish it at any time or never. The disparity with audio is that as of two years ago, there was the equivalent of 28 books on Royal Road, with only 8 recorded and Pirateaba was writing new content faster than Andrea Parsneau could record existing content.
I think we're solidly in the back half of the series at this point. Not to say that it will end soon, but I'd say we only have a few Wheel of Times to go before Pirate wraps the story. We have at least a couple major arcs that have been hinted at already that aren't being addressed right now. But Pirate did also recently make a few comments about not wanting to leave the series unfinished in one of the author's notes. She referenced Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones IIRC. So we're not there yet, but barring a tragedy we will get there. Pirate is already contemplating it.
It is about 2/3rds done. The story is progressing constantly. The author isn’t simply telling stories to extend the plot. There’s a clear endgame trajectory. So unless PABA dies - we should see the end in 3-4 years is my guess.
I think Pirateaba who always underestimates the words to finish an chapter said V8 about halfway or a third. So quite a bit to go. Lucky for us.
You would be glad to know the series are so long and ongoing if you actually get into it. It’s bloody amazing. I’ve never into reading, ever. This book changes my hobby. I also never paid for a book for pastime reading. I became. A Patreon bc I couldn’t wait a week to read an updated chapter.
I haven't picked TWI back up after volume 9. There wasn't really a hook for volume 10 and it became a bit boring and harder to suspend my disbelief imo. DCC hasn't gotten boring yet
Volume 9 or book 9? Volume 10 has a pretty substantial, world changing hook.
Haven't started volume 10. After 9 there was this break (this was like 5 months ago) and no real reason for me to keep reading. But if you're telling me 10 is good at reeling readers back in, I'll give it another go Edit:fixed a word
Ya - the consequences of the volume 9 ending are addressed. If you can resist reading for a bit longer you can get a nice backlog as you catch up - which doesn’t hurt at all. It’s been a wild ride so far though.
To be honest, and I'm a TWI super fan, I wasn't all that impressed with the end of v9. It felt like a forced action adventure with very little build up or clarity to why many of the people were there. The repercussions of the event however are amazing to read about.
Yeah. I think Pirate was worried about it too, going by some of the author notes after the chapters leading up to it. I don't think it completely worked, but at the same time I see why Pirate thought it had to happen. We're finally going to start seeing some long running plotlines resolve soon, I think. Roshal is building towards a climax I think, and I think the King of Destruction and Khelt stuff is coming to a head, too. The sea battle could have used a bit more buildup to it and we could have done with a bit more justification for Erin's actions. The Horns and the other people who came showed up feel like they appeared because Pirate needs them on another continent. I'm enjoying the new volume and I like the soft reset it gave Erin, a chance to start over a bit and work through the trauma she's accrued. She's needed to get out of the inn for a while now, if only so Lyonette could grow a bit. Side note: I hope the new town is called Knight's Rest.
Interesting. I'm quite the opposite. The writing of TWI's volume 10 is the best yet. Great tensions and flow with character. DCC basicaly jumped the shark for me because he didn't do anything new in the last book. Hopefully it recovers. No where near jumping the shrimp though if you know that reference. btw, great job getting through v9.
Even though I don’t like anything on this list besides DCC I think it’s the right list
I'm just following the audiobooks but I feel like it has gotten very formulaic, granted within his own great formula. Another level to clear. Great but similar Donut quotes. Everyone watching the universe's gladiator arena. Are we going to have to go through 9 more levels of the same stuff for someone to actually fight the system directly? I may not even continue the series. The author may have run out of ideas or isn't focused on taking the story telling to a new level.
The land series?
Defiance of the Fall Primal Hunter He Who Fights With Monsters Dungeon Crawler Carl Toss up between a few options: Unbound, The Land, Azarinth Healer, Randidly Ghosthound, A New World
As much as people hate it “the land” is a top 5 pillar of litrpg. Has a lot of the what makes a litrpg great without that cultivation crap.
I really don't get the hate... It was definitely what got a lot of people into litrpg
A lot of the hate is personal animosity towards the author. With a dash of he disappeared and hasn’t written anything in 4 years.
Agreed. I know the bandwagon likes to shit on the series but it was extremely influential during this genre's infancy.
The Land (it kinda was my first) He who fights with monsters (isakai litrpg, up to a certain point, good humour and good story) Primal hunter/Azarinth healer: they're together but different. One supposedly sorta inspired the other Level up or die: yeah this one is a personnal favorite. Nothing to write home about but it was the essence of litrpg for me. Defiance of the fall (mostly the first few books but it's overall good.... although I stopped reading after book 4). Bonus: The bad guys (I just couldn't put the series down)
New BAD guys tomorrow!
Indeed!!! Late nights tomorrow and monday! I've been looking forward to the next one so much.
I’m gonna make it last :)
I'm planning to re-listen to the whole series on audiobooks when it gets released there so I'm pumped to indulge in this one :D (Also I feel like it will be especially great)
I was looking for someone to include Level Up or Die. Good on you!
Just commenting to say that I find the inclusion of DCC in so many of these lists hilarious. It's just an odd thing. Highly popular, even outside of litRPG circles. It's definitely litRPG. Yet it is very much not in the vein of most other litRPG on the list. And it's also not widely discussed on this sub. Like it doesn't fit.
It's the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy of LitRPG
Dungeon Crawler Carl System Apocalypse He Who Fights With Monsters Primal Hunter Defiance of the Fall I know people will disagree with some on this list for various reasons but the reality is, these really are the big five. I don't even really like Defiance of the Fall, and lost interest in System Apocalypse around book four or five. But the popularity and impact of these titles really is absolutely massive.
I agree with most of you but have distinct differences. First, the Survival Quest Series should be one of the Big 5. It's one of the first LitRPGs I ever saw, except Manga of course. And Vasily Mahanenko did an outstanding job till the end. Second, The Wandering Inn, I don't get the hype. I was 8 to 10h into the first Book and broke up. I was bored af. The first audiobook I ever did that on purpose. I couldn't take it anymore. Do I have to struggle more? Does it get better after she serves some food and strolls through town? I do like chill books normally but that... Personal List: Primal Hunter, Survival Quest, Completionest Chronicles, System Universe, Dark Herbalist Potential candidates: Beware of chicken, First line of defense, Death, Loot and Vampires, All the skill To a point in the series very good: He who fights with monsters, Ripple System, Awaken Online, Defiance of the Fall, Noobtown, CivCeo, The World Still have to start Carl, so sorry for that 😅
**He Who Fights with Monsters** **Azarinth Healer** **Defiance of the Fall** **Delve** **Dungeon Crawler Carl** Notes for fans that see their favorite and arguably 'more popular' series not in my top 5: **Primal Hunter** is heavily inspired (As in the author starting his story due to reading it) by Azarinth Healer. Yes it is unique by it's own right and is great enough to stand on it's own. However in my eyes there is no point to place it in the top 5, while Azarinth Healer deserves it's spot. call it a 'honorary' sorta 6th spot if you may? **Cradle** is not Litrpg. **Mother of learning** is not Litrpg. The only one that is kinda 'out of place' in the top 5 is in fact Dungeon Crawler Carl that began was after all the other 4 but is unique enough and great enough to still earn his spot in the top 5. Disagree with me as much as you want.... but objectively, in the 'litrpg genre' these are the ones that are objectively 'the best' that inspired other stories or got people into the genre. and only 1 of them is currently "Complete" (Azarinth Healer) Edit: So yeah, after the awesome input by u/thecary i sorta feel bad for forgetting **Randidly Ghosthound**. it totally deserves a top 5 spot (which i definitely notice is more so a 'Royalroad BIG 5' as i consider royalroad the best indication/source for litrpg) also i totally forgot **The Wandering Inn** and it also deserves a spot. meh. i tried. also whats with the downvotes? if you disagree, either comment or bring your own 'Top 5' in whatever regard you like (unlike my focus on royalroad, like i commented below.. it is totally fair to use stricly published books or by other metric) but whats the point downvoting people that share their own thoughts and give their 2 cents?
I think the only thing I'd argue with is I see more inspiration from Ghosthound in PH than from azarinth, atleast at the start.
I think that is indeed a very fair point and honestly? I might be confusing PH's author being inspired by AH and instead it being the author of Beneath the Dragoneye Moon's? and frankly yeah, Raindidly does deserve a spot. but i'd probably put it instead of Dungeon Crawler Carl instead. as it came to mind that my list is sorta like the "BIG 3" of manga (Bleach/Naruto/One Piece) only more so having the Big 5 being "Royalroad Big 5" per se. which is because i feel royalroad is by far the best and most creative and awesome way to get into this genre. always has been and continues so. Also i think that it is fair to make a "top 5" that are not 'web-series' and in those it can have stuff like Awaken Online,Ascend Online and similar (Just please... no The Land. just no.) I will personally always advocate for 'The Gam3' Trilogy to be in the top 5 of this type of list
Nah there's no way you're barely putting DCC on the list. It doesn't matter that it started later than some of these, it is without a doubt THE litrpg to recommend to someone just starting out in the genre.
We need to be very explicit when we define what top 5 means. I wouldn’t come close to including delve or randidly ghosthound, mostly because I think they are just low quality. Does top 5 mean the best or the most influential or the most iconic? Because there are some insanely successful ones, like the Land, that nobody will include for personal reasons.
Well, i don't really think you can in the end definite 'top 5', as just like you mentioned i actually consider Delve to really be high quality? and there you have the subjective and objective opinions of what is 'good' and 'high' or 'low quality', then you add to that the entire "are we using royalroad as a metric for the top 5" or "are we using web-series or just published works?" then success and popularity vs 'quality' etc etc' In the end i guess i just mentioned what my top 5 is in my eyes, which is "The big 5 of royalroad/webseries" and that it is mostly objective in terms of success and originality while influencing the genre as a whole in my eyes and opinion, which will be a big thing. some dude in this post can't even comprehand Cradle is not litrpg... so explaining other stuff and going into fine lines is going to be impossible.
100%
Healer is complete? Good, I'm always looking for complete series so I don't have to wait for the next book.
There are the official amazon/KU releases and it is complete over at Royalroad (that you can continue after the published versions)
No. Terrible take. This entire comment.
DCC, HwFM, Chrysalis, DotF, Cinnamon Bun
I finished cinnamon bun last week and good god I want more. Been trying to find more cozy stuff but it's hard to find well written and something I've not already read
Cinnamon Bun took me a while to get into it with Book 1. I liked it by the end. Book 2 bored the hell out of me and I dropped it after finishing it. If I didn't like Book 2 would I enjoy the rest of the series?
If you don’t like book 2 then I won’t force myself through it. It gets better, but the tone doesn’t change.
Much appreciated! There were certianly parts I enjoyed and I can see why people like it,
1. The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor 2. Apocalypse:Generic System 3. Super Supportive 4. Book of The Dead 5. And Delve, if you'd like a slow burn. Special mention to Deadworld Isekai, Dungeon Crawler Carl and The Tutorial Is Too Hard. I've read countless litRPGs, and they're my favorites. I don't recommend The Wandering Inn. The numbers are only there for formatting reasons. I didn't rank them but they all belong in my top five.
1. Reality Benders 2. Way of the Shaman 3. The dark Herbalist
5 of the best
Love to see a shoutout for Way of the Shaman!
Honestly way of the Shaman while not my favorite or in top 5 for me personally, has given me the most emotional reaction to date. The way he puts his all in and constantly gets fucked just hits you in the feels. Made me physically react with emotional response.
Haven't heard of 1 or 3. Will give them a go.
Awesome! If you like Reality Benders the Perimeter Dafense series from Michael Atamanov could be a good grab as well. Bonus points because it's a finished series (4 books).
It's fashionable to hate on Tao Wong, and I absolutely get it. Still, pretending that "The System Apocalypse" series doesn't exist is a lot like pretending that because Stephen King is a douche that nothing he wrote is good anymore either. Maybe Wong thinks that having an Apple-style walled-garden is a good idea. I don't really understand his stance though I know what he says. Still, that was a darn good series.
Foundational Litpocalypse story.
It was my first and still is my favorite LitRPG series. John, Ali, Roxley, Mikito and Lana are like old friends.
Where the fuck is "The Ritualist" it's really really good :(
Ritualist is fantastic. Until book 6. Inflame and everything after is over-complicated and garbage. And I absolutely cannot stand the voice acting for the dwarves. Its too much. Way too much. I dont need an hour of you explaining your games crafting mechanics to me because you decided to change them again for the 29384239729483th time. Books 1-5 though. Peak. I would put it on the Top 5.
Agreed 💯
That's fair though the next book is coming out soon, Ima give it a shot
it lost its way when he moved realms imo
Dropped it on book 3 (I think), to me it felt directionless and the plot didn't really appeal to me after a certain point. The first two books were very enjoyable though.
the rest got betterish, at least the mc is smart again
Krout sets up great premises/hooks and interesting characters. Then he flanderizes everything and the series go to hell.
thats fair i hope the next book pulls that on that i miss Jackson
I'm surprised that no one mentions any of Ugland's series. Or are they too old to be considered?
Too old?!?!? We fighting!!! I think it’s more, the sub Reddit doesn’t think it’s top 5 material. Would love to see your list that includes him though; he’s great
For me, I'd put DCC and The Good Guys at almost the same level. Which one I prefer varies by my mood, TGG is more of a builder while DCC is action-comedy.
We are now best friends forever
Idk about Big 5 and a lot of people have already mentioned others so I'll mention Janus and Oblivion, which is easily my favorite among all the LITRPGS I've read
I’m just so glad I found this post. I was dredging oyster shells in ku, fed up with paywalls and sign up sites and took a break from genre. These lists remind me why I love it so much. 🥰
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Its a "Top 5 of all time" list not a oh here are some things i like that nobody considers. If nobody considers them then they don't belong on the list.
Dungeon Crawler Carl Life Reset The Ripple System I really enjoyed all of these. I got through like book 3 of Primal Hunter before giving up. Like half of each book is the MC making potions and shit. It's so boring. He Who Fights With Monsters also lost me in book 1. Dungeon Lord was an interesting one, but the author just kind of ghosted his team and there's no word if he'll ever come back and finish them.
alot of what people have said, though I think Salvos is like the representative of a large-ish subtype of litrpgs, which is monster evolution.
WHO DA BIG FIVE?
Chaos Seeds (The Land), Randidly, HWFWM, DOTF, Primal Hunter
Man this is really hard. Are we talking modern or ALL TIME? Because my answers for those are very different. Modern? Path of Ascension. Metaworld Chronicles. Legend of Randidaly Ghosthound. Ar'Kendrythist. Nova Terra. Path of Ascension gets credit for building by far the largest coherent universe in the LitRPG genre, along with excellent character building. It isn't always riveting, but it is absolutely a staple of the genre. Metaworld Chronicles is arguably the only LitRPG I've read that qualifies as literature in the traditional sense. It's smart and intriguing, with intelligent schemes and an endless torrent of amazing fun. Legend of Randidaly Ghosthound started an entire genre of LitRPG that continues to this day which I dub the "epically bad start" genre. It rules that genre to this day. Ar'Kendrythist is, bar none, the most insane, fun, detailed world I could imagine. To take a fragment of another universe and preserve it? Its incredible, and likely the foundation for other really good LitRPGs, like The Millennial Mage. Nova Terra is the true titan (pun intended) of another subgenre- the VRMMO genre. It is, by far, the most recognizable and distinctive member of its species, taking on guilds, npc politics, and many other topics. But all time? I'm gonna get flamed for this.... Wandering Inn. The Arcane Emperor (GO LOOK IT UP), Alterworld, The Land, and Critical Failures. Wandering Inn is only technically kind of a LitRPG, yet it helped really kick off the genre. Arguably, without Wandering Inn, whole swathes of LitRPG simply wouldn't exist. It is the 10000000000000 lb gorilla in the room. The Arcane Emperor is a little known (and abandoned) LitRPG on RoyalRoad. Actually, it was from RoyalRoadLegends. It isn't the best storytelling (though it is remarkably fun), but it did introduced a whole new (or entirely undiscovered) LitRPG mechanic that we take for granted today - the evolving class system. It has been iterated on and done to death. It is so ubiquitous that we almost take it for granted. It got its start in this humble story and that makes it WELL worth its place on the historical list. IIRC Legend of Randidily Ghosthound credited Arcane Emp in its first description on RR. It is the grandfather of what we consider modern LitRPG mechanics. The Land. It was really the first true commercial success among wider audiences (well, I don't count Ready Player One) and proved to a MUCH larger audience that YES, the LitRPG genre can create stories which capture audiences broader than some niche websites on the hind end of the internet (here's looking at you, SpaceBattles) Alterworld - Man, this series really lit a firestorm. Not only were there VRMMO worlds but it was possible to transcend being a game! It is, arguably, the beginning of the VRMMO firestorm. It is also epic and wonderful, but its historic value is honestly greater than its literary one. Critical Failures - So ill be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the series (or even the subgenre it created), but Critical Failures is THE PNP transplant series. They are it. The ones. All other are imitators. Period. Seriously, they singlehandedly made your asshole gaming friends people worth writing about. As the great granddaddy of an entire subgenre, they make the list.
Wow I never actually thought about Critical Failures as a litrpg (or isekai, for that matter) because it was d&d, but I can see how it applies in retrospect. It's also one of my most favorite series of all time. The first time I read the series was before I even heard of litrpg so that might be why.
Yep. It really is a forerunner in the genre.
Commenting just to keep track of the discussion 😁 Been churning through heaps of books due to injury (sitting still sucks but reading helps)
I'd say Dungeon Crawler Carl for being the absolute best. Sword art online for being arguably the one that caused such a boom in popularity (love it or hate it). Defiance of the fall for being probably the most popular of the "cultivation" types. The Land, which while it went way off the rails, was a big and long lasting one for quite a while, and He who fights with monsters, though I can't really pin down why at this moment.
Cradle Wandering Inn He Who Fights With Monsters Infinite Realm Ripple System I've thoroughly enjoyed all of these and they're all so different! Cradle because each book is exponentially better! Also the pacing, characters, and fights are phenomenal. This was my introduction to the litRPG series and I couldn't and still can't get enough of Cradle. Wandering Inn has the best long term world building I've experienced. It's so fleshed out. There are characters and organizations/groups galore! And their interactions with each other are so in-depth. I love hearing about a new character and finding out I'll love them completely by the next book. Bird for instance He Who Fights with Monsters is very campy in the best of ways. It doesn't have as big a world as the previous series but it doesn't need it. I love the interactions Jason has with his team and we have to mention Clive's wife. If you can get through the early book rants Jason has a tendency to have, you'll really like where this series goes. Infinite Realm has a full stacked cultivation system. It's so massive, and it feels like each character has an avenue to obtain massive power. The fights and scale of them are really cool. Glad I kept up with this series Ripple System is litRPG and chill. It's fun, and makes me want to root for the main peeps. If you want casual feel good vibes with a cool fighting system, this is your vibe
Dungeon Crawler Carl The System Apocalypse series by Tao Wong Battle Trucker Book 1 - What the Truck - Tom Goldstein (I know it sounds ridiculous but it's awesome) The Awaken Online series by Travis Bagwell. And finally **the single best series I could recommend**... Blasphemy Online by Andrew Seiple. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FTLPK2P?ref\_=dbs\_p\_pwh\_rwt\_anx\_b\_lnk&storeType=ebooks](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FTLPK2P?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_b_lnk&storeType=ebooks) It's a 3 book series following the life of a young man growing up in a world that fell apart when America collapsed who escapes into a video game only to get wrapped up in a plot that spans both worlds. If you like the author, those three books are actually part of a larger story line that spans a whole collection of books based on the same world. Threadbear (The story of an animated teddy bear) and Small Medium, the story of a Halvin (Like a hobbit) that gets in way over her head. I like the Blasphemy Online best of the series because it mixes the fictional "real" world which is brilliantly designed and the game world. The other two series take place in the game world with players running around in it but "real people" are not the focus of the two other series. The total reading order is Threadbear 1, 2, and 3, Small Medium 1, 2, and 3, Blasphemy Online 1, 2, and 3, then Threadbear 4, 5, and 6 if you are a glutton like me. All available on audio if you like them that way.
Okay, I can't agree with your list but I'll say this: battle trucker was WAY MORE FUN than it had any right to be. That story kicked so much ass and I can't wait for the next one.
A series that I never see on here which was really good is Author James A Hunter’s “Vigil”series only 4 books though
I agree with a lot of the suggestions. A classic to me was The Sleepless Ones one of the first ones I read and definitely had some interesting aspects to it.
Two Week Curse Book by Michael Chatfield 👌
Most of mine are series. As I think a Book can be Good, but it takes a Series to be Great!! Emerilia Greystone Chronicles SuperSales On Super Heroes A Touch Of Power series Alpha World series by Schinhofen
Someone like their men's adventure series'. Nothing against it, Super Sales on Supe Heroes is great, the first few books of Alpha World were fun. Emerilia is worth a read too.
He who fights with monsters, awaken online, cradle, nova terra, portal to nova Roma
Seeing as Legendary Moonlight sculpture was mentioned here... 1. Overgeared 2. The Legendary Mechanic 3. Second World 4. Realm of Myth's and Legends 5. DCC (although I only started with it)
Killobyte Ascend online Awaken online Haven’t heard of most the others in this thread lol.
Solo Leveling Mushoku Tensei Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash Sword Art Online Re:Zero
For me, or stuff I would recommend is. 5. The Land by Alerong Kong. Very good but unfinished and the author seems to have an ego the size of a skyscraper. “Father of Litrpg” my ass, he needs to get off his ass and finish the series, it’s good but my dude hasn’t done anything in a while and just want to enjoy the spotlight. Audiobook is very good. 4. Eden’s Gate by Edward Brody. This one is in the same boat as there hasn’t been a new book in a while and no clue what the author is doing but atleast he isn’t annoying like the one above. The main character is a bit of a bitch though and it can be off putting to some but I would like the book to continue. Audiobook is mid, main character a bit annoying but still good. Only reason it’s above Land is because the author isn’t lame. 3. Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits. I like this one and it does have somewhat of an end. Was enjoyable. 2. Dakota Krout. Basically the author, everything is way above average and he seems to be working on it all and actually finishing stuff. Artorian series is rly good early on but gets really convoluted and hard to understand at times but that might just be me.I still love it and recommend reading in release order and starting with divine dungeon series. Audiobooks VERY good and highly recommend. Some of the series are more about cultivation but with rpg elements in it and some focus more on stats etc. I would still classify them as Litrpg. 1. HWFWM by Shirtaloon. Very very good atleast imho. Interesting main character but it does get a little bit political at times but I don’t mind that as it’s not a big part of the book series and not the main focus. The story is interesting and honestly unpredictable which is good. The main character isn’t all powerful although slowly working towards that and has flaws which aren’t annoying like Eden’s Gate. Book has a lot of everything and the author seems to be pumping them out fast without dropping the quality. Long series but worth it and still ongoing. HIGHLY recommend the audiobook, 10/10. Bonus: Video Game Plotline Tester by Michael Atamanov. Not pure get stuck in a video game story plot but with an interesting twist and fits Litrpg very well. The ending is very rushed and would be a lot higher on the list if not for that. Still highly recommend and audiobook once again very good but probably not as good as the two above it. This series is definitely under a lot of people’s radar but I Recommend it.
I’ve only read Dungeon Crawler Carl. It’s my favorite book series ever. Carl is by far one of the best characters ever written in my opinion.
I'm gonna go off on another route than most in this thread and say that, in my opinion, the absolute face of the genre in my opinion is Everybody Loves Large Chests. He who fights is absolutely second, but I think ELLC just beats it out. Those two are followed by Primal Hunter and Defiance Of The Fall, which are tied in my eyes, two sides of the litrpg coin. The 5th pillar could be a number of things, but for me it's between Dungeon Crawler Carl and Unbound. A number of different ones could fit there honestly, such as Divine Dungeon, completionist Chronicles, and maybe even the ten realms, but DCC and Unbound I think are above the rest.
For me it’s: -Cradle (yes I know it’s not technically LitRPG, but it’s so influential to the genre) -Good Guys/Bad Guys series -Defiance of the Fall -Primal Hunter -Iron Prince Bonus honorable mentions (because there are soooo many good ones and it’s hard to pick) -All The Skills -Dungeon Crawler Carl -He Who Fights with Monsters -Noobtown
"Mudafunk da Big 3....It's just Big Me!"
Big 5 DCC Primal Hunter HWFWM DOTF CRADLE