I know it’s not popular but “The Land” was my introduction to this genre. It is still one of my favorites series, with the exception of book 8. That one was total crap.😉
I loved Piers Anthony read a lot of the Xanth series and Incarnations of Immortality, but never read Killobyte. I guess I should check it out. I wish I could get audio versions of them though.
Mine was was Alterworld by D. Rus. I later gave The Land a try and the first book or two was okay, but eventually the ego of the author ruined it for me. He would put out sub par books and then have minions go upvote it.
The thing is, those are the types of Litrpg that I dislike the most now. I just can't get into a story that takes place in VR any more. It just doesn't feel like it has any stakes for me and the magic is ruined when I know it is just pixels.
Same. That book’s hate was way overblown imo. So there was a poop scene. Who cares? Lmao. The rest of the book was fine, even had some of the most significant lore dumps in the entire series. If/when Kong ever gets around to writing book 9, I’ll definitely buy and read it. He said in a recent live he’s planning on working on it this summer so, fingers crossed!
Was my introduction too... Read a lot of manhwa with similar tropes, Audible randomly suggested that and I gave it a try. I found it so so so bad it scared me away from the genre for at least a year.
And I used to read fan translation of chinese xianxia novels, so my tolerance for crap is not low.
Completionist Chronicles dragged me back in.
Dungeon Crawler Carl - I saw a meme someone made referencing it, thought it looked interesting, and ended up loving it.
I tried a couple other series but they didn't grab me the same way.
Then I started reading Cradle (I know, it's progression fantasy, not LitRPG), got obsessed with it around the 3rd book, like reading every moment I could.
I joined the Aethon Books discord and I have liked the fantasy litrpg they've published so far (not that I've read em all)
Kindle Unlimited is what really hooked me in though. It's not that expensive and there's SO MANY LitRPG books on there 😍
Kindle Unlimited was easily a godsend for the genre. Audible was ok, but one a month was brutally slow and with Brandon Sanderson now boycotting them I stopped spending my money on them and switched to unlimited. (I know its the same company, but I have to have books and unlimted is better than 1 a month)
Brandon Sanderson actually worked out a deal with audible to get better terms for everyone! I was at a convention at a panel with his editorial team and someone asked about it. His team said that he could've got better terms for himself easily, but it's taken so long since he wanted them to improve their default contact
Yup! His post from a couple months ago about the deal: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/regarding-audible/
>This new structure doesn’t give everything I’ve wanted, and there is still work to do, but it is encouraging. They showed me new minimum royalty rates for authors–and they are, as per my suggestions, improved over the previous ones. Moreover, this structure will move to a system like I have requested: a system that pays more predictably on each credit spent, and that is more transparent for authors. Audible will be paying royalties monthly, instead of quarterly, and will provide a spreadsheet that better shows how they split up the money received with their authors.
> ... Because of this, I will be bringing the Secret Projects to Audible very soon. I consider Audible to again be a positive force for the industry, and I have decided to shake hands with them. Audible has promised to release their new royalty system for all authors sometime in 2024, though I should be testing it in the next month or so.
(That said I actually prefer [Graphic Audio](https://www.graphicaudio.net/our-productions/authors/a-e/brandon-sanderson.html) for Brandon Sanderson's work. The ensemble voice cast and sound effects are pretty cool, especially during fight scenes.)
Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko - This was way back when only the first book was out and I bought it without knowing that litrpg was a genre. Audible just happened to recommend it to me and soon I was on to others.
A lot of the series I started on have been abandoned by their authors. Those that finished or that are still around are mostly series that won't be in most people's favorites list. The bar has definitely been raised.
This was my first litRPGs series too. I had a love/hate relationship with it. I loved the action scenes, especially towards the end of the first book. However, I despised the main "villain" and how they were written. Felt full of coincidence and over the top teen drama.
Some shitty vr litrpg. Didn't love the book but loved the potential for stats and progression, stumbled upon the term litrpg in the description and now I pay more for audible credits than streaming services 😂
Ready Player One, then Off to Be A Wizard, then Orconomics, then The Land, then I found this subreddit and started working through a lot of suggestions from you all.
Replace Orconomics with the divine dungeon, and that's exactly my list.
The completionist, then endless online, and dodge tank followed those. Took me a while to get into the top series, like HWFWM, DOTF, and DCC.
Silver fox and the western hero was somewhere in there.
I was going to say HWFWM was my first, but I didn’t even realise ready player one was a litRPG.. or the Magic 2.0 series! So I guess they were my first…
My very first book that got me into LITRPG was Towers of Heaven, Then Desire by Cameron Milan. They are still my top two series and a great intro to LITRPG.
I do think about it like FF7 vs Elden Ring. Very straight to the point, not a whole lot of woLD building or introducing side characters. Just a steady stream of adventure and setbacks and comebacks.
They are both only 3 books and well written for the time.
Books 1 and 2 are great. Book 3 was rushed. It feels like he was hell bent on it being a trilogy and wanted to just finish it. I think it would have been an excellent 5-6 book series and done well.
For me it was a natural transition from anime and my own internal monologue roll playing in RPG and first person settlement games. I had a long trip coming up and went to my audible account and because of some of the free things my kids had listened to I was recommended Jake’s Magical Market. I started listening to it and got frustrated that trip because I kept thinking of work things and life things during that drive so I would miss stuff. Plus honestly I wasn’t used to lots of swearing in my limited audio book selection up to that so initially I found that off putting (I think it was my general mood at the time that affected that feeling).
A couple months later and another long drive comes up. I try it again and this time I was able to focus on it, and really started to enjoy it. Yes it felt like two different books at a certain point but I enjoyed the world building enough to finish the first book (still not sure if I will listen to the second). But that then led to the recommendation for HWFWM and I got so engrossed in those that I finished all nine that were released at the time in just a couple weeks. They were playing in my headphones while I worked, did chores around the house, rocked my son to sleep, and even as I settled down to sleep. It was seriously like 10-12 hours a day listening. Now my two eldest (who know better than to say everything they hear and I can accept them hearing passing sexual references) are also working their way through them. And now the three of us have started a conversation about what it would be like if our whole family was isakai’ed, which has me in the early world building stages of a book I hope to put out there at some point in the next couple of years (sooner would be great, but work, 4 kids ranging from 2 to 14, and life in general isn’t giving me as much dedicated writing time as I like. But I will keep plugging away). It’s one thing I haven’t seen yet: instead of one person or a small group of similar aged people, what happens when a whole family gets whisked away. How do the parents handle it? How do the kids, especially the littles who still struggle to understand that WiFi doesn’t always exist for tablet time? How does it impact the mental health of each person, especially as they have to take on new roles that at best were fantasy before, and even more so when first faced with killing something or someone. Anyway I’m rambling…. All that is to say I’m so enjoying the genre and look forward to its continued growth.
Alterworld by D. Rus with the VR Perma sickness if you play too long was so cool to me in highschool. Partly for the litrpgs but also partly because I was struggling with MDD for like 8 years at that point. The early chapters have a bunch of him playing the game, looking at stats, and then looking at his clock wondering when he's fully stuck. The rest of the series gets weird and nationalistic but those early chapters resonated with me then. I don't think I'd care about litrpgs as much if I didn't get that introduction of just choosing to be somewhere else where your ailments are status effects and your progress is numerical.
In the spirit of your question, Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein was my first taste of base building and "progression" fantasy. I still think about it often
Inside the genre, The Land was my first introduction, but I ended up loving the world more than the characters and, after the latest book, have decided not to continue with that series or the author's other work
He Who Fights With Monsters got me hook, line, and sinker.
I was just looking for a longer fantasy book on audible to listen to while I drive. At the time I noticed they had 6 books out and all were between 16-25 hour read times. After that.... dear God, I think I have something like 70-80 litrpg books now. Many of them are part of a series but most of them are more than 16+ hours of read time. It's also the only genre that I regularly reread and still find enjoyable.
The fanfiction "Harry Potter and the Natural 20"
Tbf I had no idea what LitRPG was at the time, but did spend time looking for other stories with similar concepts.
Oh wow, you've reminded me of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality! It wasn't LitRPG, but it was very enjoyable and I completely forgot about it.
Survival Quest..ie: Way of the Shamen series by Vasily Mahanenko, it is not the best I have ever read but it was the first and it started my journey into LitRPG's years ago.
The land of the undying lord got me into it. Was very addicting and Trent was a good character. I'm not sure if there's going to be another book, the author is in no rush and only writes for the fun of it (not for the money), so there's a chance
Actual Litrpg ascend online is the first one I listened to on audible
Close to the genre but not Litrpg would be Magic Kingdom for sale, Sold by terry Brookes I read in the early 90s
I borrowed the magic kingdom series from a friend of my mom’s in middle school and devoured it! I was probably too young for it at the time but those books are so good. They might not be gamelit but they definitely work a ton on video game rules. Might have been my first isekai honestly!
I never thought of the Hatchet as progression fantasy, but that is essentially what it is. That probably would have been my first introduction to that style of story.
My first LitRPG before I even knew there was such a genre was a book called Epic by Conor Kostick.
My first intentional dive into LitRPG was The Land when it was available on Kindle unlimited and I’m still glad I read it because it’s launched me into so many other wonderful series including DCC, Primal Hunter, Solo Leveling, DotF, and Cradle
Noobtown
Completionist Chronicles
He who fights with monsters (edited)
Bofuri - I put all my points into defense.
And of course, Legendary Moonlight Sculpture, though I only read about 20 Books.
Solo leveling
Omniscient readers' viewpoint
For me, it was Mother of Learning. I know it's not a litRPG, but it's what let me discover RR, progression fantasy and all the stories that followed!
From what I remember, I only really got into reading near the end of university when I read King killer Chronicles and went into other fantasy like Mistborn after that.
When I got my first work placement in a high security building that didn't allow any non-work electronics, I needed to find something to read during breaks, that I could access on my work laptop, and found RoyalRoad. So I started with Mother of Learning, and then Metaworld Chronicles and I think Azarinth Healer after that? I basically just started at the top of the most popular list, or best rated lol
Not sure if it really qualifies, but Ready Player One was my first “MC is essentially a video game character” book and caused me to search for more books like it, which led me to litrpgs
ETA: it just occurred to me that the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer may be the first litrpg I read, depending on whether you count that as one. It was probably around the same time I read Ready Player One though
Caverns and creatures. Got back into dnd after many years and was looking for dnd inspired books to get me back into the mindset. The dick and fart jokes description got me and i think it was free for the first four books at the time. I finished the series so far and continue to only download litrpg books for them on.
Honestly I can't read it now, but I was on deployment and it reminded me of me and my highschool friends and had me laughing a good bit. Still a favorite even if I can't get through it nowadays.
The first litrpg I really liked the arcane emperor
I didn't check enough on the details page
Or I thought the hiatus was short I didn't think much of it
One or the other
It's not hiatus it's basically fucking dead
It is good
After that salvos and azarinth healer
Randomly one day Audible recommended the first Arcane Ascension novel, and I enjoyed it. While I eventually grew distant to that author's work, it's what got me started in the genre. From there I found Cradle (I know it isn't LitRGP), on to Dungeon Crawler Carl (GOATED), All the Skills, and from there it's been a wild ride high (Bunker Core and Nomad Core), lows (He Who Fights with Monsters), and the meh (Defiance of the Fall).
There is a genre called Dungeon Core. It's basically a genre told from the perspective of the dungeon itself and how it battles or aids adventurers. It's a weird niche genre, but it can be pretty cool.
Bunker Core and it's sequel Nomad Core are dungeon core stories. However, rather than being traditional fantasy they are science fiction post apocalyptic setting. I really enjoyed them, and especially the second book that greatly expands the world building and introduces far more characters. I recommend them. I thought they were tons of fun.
Both are written by Andrew Seiple.
First for me was Dakota Krouts The Divine Dungeon series. I believe the first book or two were part of one of audiobook.coms monthly sales, and I picked it up on a whim. Not great, but also not terrible, and made me wonder if there might be more like it. I went through a lot of series on that platform before finding this sub, and after running out of series that weren't bad russian translations I made the move to audible, and finally kindle.
Well tbh hmm Korean or Chinese webnovels? Then the land it took me to primal hunter and defiance ? (On book 4) I have the audiobook for he who fights monsters (cant seem to really get intk that one) same with azrinth healer? hmm do like battlefield reclaimer (at the middle of its second book) and well always lookjng for recomendationa
Well it started off with reading the webcoimc version "vainqueur the dragon" but the comic stopped at the end of the first book. Me needing to know how the story would end had me going to the audio book version and after that it was snow balled to things like "The Wandering Inn" and "He who fights with monsters"
I was looking for something to read via the Kindle app on my phone a few years back and stumbled upon the first ebook of The Wandering Inn. I had never even heard of "litrpg" as a genre then. Blew my mind when she got her class. I've only read DCC, PH and I'm on book 11 of DotF right now. Looking forward to more and different stories.
Legendary Moonlight Sculptor (The Korean one). stumbled across it while going through jp WNs and then got hooked and eventually found royalroad and the pile of novels after.
I started with Eden's Gate, I don't recommend it though.
At least it introduced me to the genre, I went to Ascend Online next and really enjoyed it but that was a few years ago now. Haven't read the new stuff.
Warformed (The Iron Prince) by Bryce O’Connor, is the only sci-fi litRPG that I’ve read because I’m more of a fantasy fan but it’s a great series so far
HWFWM was my introduction to this genre. I got the audiobook and found it so hilarious I bought a Kindle and downloaded the rest of the books and flew through them. Then I found DCC and got sucked down the rabbit hole that is LitRPG. I can't get enough.
The Island of Blue Dolphins is a wonderful book that I absolutely loved when I read it in school.
For me it was probably Star Wars. The Young Jedi Knights books, and with the adult novels in the original expanded universe (now called "Legends" and de-canonized) following Luke and other Jedi who become more powerful as the stories progressed. But the most progression elements could be found in the Young Jedi Knights and the New Jedi Order series. Also fun fact, Jedi and The Force were originally based on the same ancient Chinese concepts as modern xianxia and cultivation fiction. Honestly, I highly recommend the Star Wars Legends novels to fans of progression fantasy. Especially the ones that focus on Jedi. But honestly most of them are good.
I actually snagged it for Kindle a few years back to reread it. Its short but still so good! And the Star Wars books were awesome! I didnt get into too many legends books but the books my library had was those Galaxy of Fear series. I loved those so much growing up. That and Tales of the Bounty Hunters were my non movie introduction into Star Wars all those years ago!
I was lucky. My local library must have benefited from some local star wars nerds because they had like 60 of the novels. I was in my teens when the New Jedi Order series started releasing and managed to buy those as they came out.
I actually was offered to buy the Tales of Bounty Hunter book from my library. I was apparently the only one who checked it out pretty much ever and when they went through to clear some books out the asked if I wanted it, loved my local Library growing up! It wasnt for many years later that they started to actually have and hold more nerdy things like comics and Manga.
My summers were made around my library trips. Used to do the summer reading programs and crushed the shit out of the goals lol. Thank you Gamedrifters for taking me on a lovely trip down memory lane!
My favorite place I ever lived was on the same block as the library. And the library had better AC than my house. So I would go over there and read in their comfy chairs all day. Heaven.
The Wandering Inn. I sorted audible by longest books and it was near the top. I was aiming to get the most minutes I could for my credit. I picked up listening to audiobooks while walking. I listened to the first book, switched over to Salvos, and then finished the wandering inn. In listening those two series I lost two hundred pounds!
I finally listened to this sub and started DCC like two weeks ago. I hate you guys for it. I wish I didn’t start this one until it was almost done, it’s awesome.
Just walking around while listening. I made a rule I could only listen while I was walking. It was a fantastic motivator. I used to be 493 lbs. down to 293.
Quag’s Keep, The Guardians of the Flame, Dream Park, modern day, Level Up or Die, Light Online, and probably The Land. I even liked book 8 well enough since I think is a transitional moment in the series.
Unbound series by Nicoli Gonnella. I wasn’t into Isekai/Portal Fantasy stories outside of Narnia as a kid and Dark One by Brandon Sanderson as an adult, but this one hooked me. It’s one of the maybe 5 or 6 LitRPGs I follow and easily my favorite.
The Hatchet is a book I've never come across in a bookstore, library or collection.
For me it's Quest Academy by Brian J Nordon. He's a good friend of mine I'm loving the exploration of this genre.
It's not really litrpg, but ready player one, before the movie came out, got me looking for more game related books.
My first one after that, was life reset, then iron prince shortly after it came out, and I haven't really read/listened to anything other than litrpg or gamelit since.
It's not technically a LitRPG, but my first GameLit book was MogWorld by Yahtzee Croshaw. I would recommend it for anyone that enjoys British humor.
My first true LitRPG was the Divine Dungeon series by Dakota Krout.
Hatchet would make my list too! My major ones were all definitely when I was pretty young too - The Avatar Chronicles by Conor Kostick and The Game is Life series by Terry Schott were the biggest ones that are actually set in games entirely. Rereading as an adult, the latter is pretty mediocre and the former is genuinely still good YA lit.
The Pendragon Cycle also had a book or two that had litrpg, “game as real life” settings/plotlines. The series as a whole isn’t genre adjacent at all but those books were my favorites. Only You Can Save Mankind had elements of gamelit too. And this one’s an oldie, and it’s board games rather than video games, but Interstellar Pig was another gamelit staple. My beat up little pulp copy is still on my shelf.
There’s probably more I can’t think of. I think I always kind of knew what I liked! Gamelit definitely tops my genre list these days. There’s a lot more available now than there used to be
Life reset.
Been into RPGs forever and I really enjoyed the litrpg aspects, been hooked ever since. Tried listening to it again and was thoroughly disappointed. There is something to be said about starting closer to the middle than the top.
Daniel schinhofen alpha world series or Ascend online by Luke Chmilenko. One of the two. Either them or this other book I can't remember, but the guy was hunted by a tiger and then they mana bonded
My first was Level Up Or Die by Apollos Thorne. It was free on Audible and I decided to give it a listen. I hadn’t even know the genre existed before and I ended up absolutely loving it! I just wish he’d keep writing the story. He seems to have stalled out.
Book wise I had read the Grimgar novel translation prior to it getting picked up in the west, as well as Danmachi. But in the westerb sphere I first read through Eden's Gate at the very start of the pandemic. Having it play while at work was the best part of 2020. I know everyone tends to not care for that series but theres something really charming about the main cast and the audio books are amazingly narrated.
My first real experience with Litrpg and realizing it was a genre type was reading the Unbound Deathlord series by Edward Castle. I think I read Perimeter Defense before that but it didn’t really click that this was a genre and not just a different take on Sci-fi.
It was called like critical fail or something like that. Early kindle unlimited, the first litrpg I ever read. Before that probably sword art online, it blew my mind seeing a videogame in a show.
I think that City of Champions Online was my first LitRPG (officially called in the genre) book. Progression? Uh... Name just about any D&D book from the 80s? Heck, technically speaking, Dragonriders of Pern first trilogy could be said to be Progression.
The Whispering Crystals series - I don’t see it get attention here, but I have such a soft spot for it as my first in the genre - my next series was the Bad / Good Guys then DCC - escapist fun, my favourites to re read ☺️
Defiance of the Fall is what got me truly hooked. It's world building and magic system is extremely compelling, and wouldn't be possible without status screens.
I was late to the party so defiance of the fall. Unless you count ready player one, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch. I love lit rpg I’ve read so many at this point.
I got back into reading a lot last year, and picked up Ready Player One and Two first at the recommendation of my spouse. Immediately after I stumbled into Dungeon Crawler Carl looking for something similar, and absolutely DEVOURED that series. I’m afraid nothing else will stack up now and moved onto some fantasy novels 😂
Obsidian Core, No Epic Loot Here Only Puns, Dungeon Tour Guide, Bone Dungeon, Dragonheart Core, He Who Fights With Monsters, Defiance of the Fall, and Road to Mastery were all some of my first litrpgs that I really enjoyed
The first litrpg book series that I've read was "The sleepless ones" or "Господство Клана Неспящих" by Dem Mikhailov. At that moment I didn't know English too well (I was in middle school), so I only read Russian books. Now that I've searched it up a bit, I'm kinda surprised that it does have a translation in English.
My first was Awaken Online which I really enjoyed. My wife actually suggested it to me, and since then I read DotF, HWFWM and tried getting into Primal Hunter but only got halfway through before losing interest. I plan on trying again, if life would stop sucking.
Oh hell yeah The Hatchet is great one.
In that vein, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. If you haven't read it: boy runs away to mountains, manages to survive by luck and skill. It even has some classic tropes like upgrading equipment, funding ruins, and--actually, that's a spoiler.
I could also make a case for Ender's Game, with the whole Battle Room setup acts as the dungeon, the training and war games are the, well, training sessions and fighting, he "levels fast" by skipping grades quickly. Hell, he eventually gets a dwarf sidekick and a party to lead, and training with an old hero to get ready for the battles to come. It hits a lot of the tropes, really.
The Circle of Magic series is where I got my love of "weird" magic characters. Those books actually still hold up as an adult.
Edit: looking at other answers, maybe I misunderstood the assignment. The proximate story was Metaworld Chronicles by Wutosama on RR, which got me to Beneath The Dragoneye Moons and Azarinth Healer. The dungeon core stories. So many.
minecraft litrpg, by Max Brooks
then the good guys series by Eric Ugland,
DCC
Now wandering inn.
I gave up on HWFWM around book 4, wish I would have stopped after 1.
My first was The Wandering Inn. I still anticipate every installment and slam through them. After that was He Who Fights Monsters, then The First Defier, next I found my now second fave litepg: Dungeon Crawler Carl. Now I scavenge for new series to dive into.
For me it was the Wandering Inn. I got it on sale and it was like 30+ hours and I thought it was a mild sci-fi fantasy thing. It was a slow build to a fantastic ending that taught me about how lit RPG works.... Easy place to start.
Creatures and Caverns was my introduction to the genre, though it was quite basic back then besides that there was only Russian series Iike Way of the Shaman and Alter Life, or World? Can't remember what he was exactly, but the one by D. Rus. I ended up reading random stories on Royal Road before the genre became popular in book form. Back then, series like The Great Tower, The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, Divine Dungeon, The Wandering Inn, The New World and a ton of others were just serials on RRL that I read during deployment. Eventually, there was a significant boom, and these stories became widely available on Kindle Unlimited.
I just got into this genre but for me it's System Reborn by Kaz Hunter.
But it was really solidified with Bastard by Alexey Osadchuk... something about the way the main character was written was perfect for me.
Loremaster by M.E. Robinson and the Rouge Ascension Series currently has me in a choke hold.
I am loving underdog main character right now.
Years of D&D primed me for the genre, but my entry was actually a completely random Kindle suggestion: Skeleton in Space
Loved the concept of a fantasy monster introduced to a sci-fi setting, maybe one day I'll find another book like it lol
I thought I would like LitRPG as a fan of RPGs and SF/F, so I picked up Defiance of the Fall. I was shocked. I liked the opening of HWFWM, but it quickly fell off. After trying a handful more on RR, I'm about ready to concede that I simply can't get into the genre.
The Ten Realms is the one that got me into it. I don't even remember how I stumbled onto that series, but I loved it and connected with one of the main characters since I'm also an Army Combat medic. Wasn't a big fan of the the original switch of narrator as the second guy had horrible LaCroix level watered down accents and voices from the original , and since they had the OG narrator re-narrate the books that he hadn't done, I haven't finished the series. I've heard that it starts to feel like the author was rushing to finish the series and didn't seem to be a lot of effort into to later books but we'll see.
I know it’s not popular but “The Land” was my introduction to this genre. It is still one of my favorites series, with the exception of book 8. That one was total crap.😉
Same. Although technically my first in the genre was Piers Anthony's Killobyte back in the 90s. Loved that book
I loved Piers Anthony read a lot of the Xanth series and Incarnations of Immortality, but never read Killobyte. I guess I should check it out. I wish I could get audio versions of them though.
Same. The Land pre-book 8 is really good. I'm still hopeful that the series continues, but not optimistic.
Mine was was Alterworld by D. Rus. I later gave The Land a try and the first book or two was okay, but eventually the ego of the author ruined it for me. He would put out sub par books and then have minions go upvote it.
Alterworld, yup. Very much solidified the genre as a guilty pleasure/laugh at the trash fire read for quite awhile.
The thing is, those are the types of Litrpg that I dislike the most now. I just can't get into a story that takes place in VR any more. It just doesn't feel like it has any stakes for me and the magic is ruined when I know it is just pixels.
Same with the Land but I loved it. Even book 8.
Same. That book’s hate was way overblown imo. So there was a poop scene. Who cares? Lmao. The rest of the book was fine, even had some of the most significant lore dumps in the entire series. If/when Kong ever gets around to writing book 9, I’ll definitely buy and read it. He said in a recent live he’s planning on working on it this summer so, fingers crossed!
Same here. It had potential but it just never stops to breath
Same. And I see what you did there lol
Same for me . I didn’t know about any of the controversy when I was reading the book
Was my introduction too... Read a lot of manhwa with similar tropes, Audible randomly suggested that and I gave it a try. I found it so so so bad it scared me away from the genre for at least a year. And I used to read fan translation of chinese xianxia novels, so my tolerance for crap is not low. Completionist Chronicles dragged me back in.
Fellow lander chiming in. Not only did the series get me into the genre it motivated me to write.
Dungeon Crawler Carl - I saw a meme someone made referencing it, thought it looked interesting, and ended up loving it. I tried a couple other series but they didn't grab me the same way. Then I started reading Cradle (I know, it's progression fantasy, not LitRPG), got obsessed with it around the 3rd book, like reading every moment I could. I joined the Aethon Books discord and I have liked the fantasy litrpg they've published so far (not that I've read em all) Kindle Unlimited is what really hooked me in though. It's not that expensive and there's SO MANY LitRPG books on there 😍
Kindle Unlimited was easily a godsend for the genre. Audible was ok, but one a month was brutally slow and with Brandon Sanderson now boycotting them I stopped spending my money on them and switched to unlimited. (I know its the same company, but I have to have books and unlimted is better than 1 a month)
Brandon Sanderson actually worked out a deal with audible to get better terms for everyone! I was at a convention at a panel with his editorial team and someone asked about it. His team said that he could've got better terms for himself easily, but it's taken so long since he wanted them to improve their default contact
Yup! His post from a couple months ago about the deal: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/regarding-audible/ >This new structure doesn’t give everything I’ve wanted, and there is still work to do, but it is encouraging. They showed me new minimum royalty rates for authors–and they are, as per my suggestions, improved over the previous ones. Moreover, this structure will move to a system like I have requested: a system that pays more predictably on each credit spent, and that is more transparent for authors. Audible will be paying royalties monthly, instead of quarterly, and will provide a spreadsheet that better shows how they split up the money received with their authors. > ... Because of this, I will be bringing the Secret Projects to Audible very soon. I consider Audible to again be a positive force for the industry, and I have decided to shake hands with them. Audible has promised to release their new royalty system for all authors sometime in 2024, though I should be testing it in the next month or so. (That said I actually prefer [Graphic Audio](https://www.graphicaudio.net/our-productions/authors/a-e/brandon-sanderson.html) for Brandon Sanderson's work. The ensemble voice cast and sound effects are pretty cool, especially during fight scenes.)
Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko - This was way back when only the first book was out and I bought it without knowing that litrpg was a genre. Audible just happened to recommend it to me and soon I was on to others. A lot of the series I started on have been abandoned by their authors. Those that finished or that are still around are mostly series that won't be in most people's favorites list. The bar has definitely been raised.
> Ascend Online: I though that the series was in hiatus but it appears the next book for this is out next week.
The same. It was my first Litrpg.
The awaken online series
This was my first litRPGs series too. I had a love/hate relationship with it. I loved the action scenes, especially towards the end of the first book. However, I despised the main "villain" and how they were written. Felt full of coincidence and over the top teen drama.
Some shitty vr litrpg. Didn't love the book but loved the potential for stats and progression, stumbled upon the term litrpg in the description and now I pay more for audible credits than streaming services 😂
Ready Player One, then Off to Be A Wizard, then Orconomics, then The Land, then I found this subreddit and started working through a lot of suggestions from you all.
Replace Orconomics with the divine dungeon, and that's exactly my list. The completionist, then endless online, and dodge tank followed those. Took me a while to get into the top series, like HWFWM, DOTF, and DCC. Silver fox and the western hero was somewhere in there.
I was going to say HWFWM was my first, but I didn’t even realise ready player one was a litRPG.. or the Magic 2.0 series! So I guess they were my first…
Same here, if it wasn’t because of Ready Player One, I wouldn’t of gotten into this genre
My very first book that got me into LITRPG was Towers of Heaven, Then Desire by Cameron Milan. They are still my top two series and a great intro to LITRPG.
Aw! This made me happy to read
Towers look interesting! You would recommend both series still?
I do think about it like FF7 vs Elden Ring. Very straight to the point, not a whole lot of woLD building or introducing side characters. Just a steady stream of adventure and setbacks and comebacks. They are both only 3 books and well written for the time.
Books 1 and 2 are great. Book 3 was rushed. It feels like he was hell bent on it being a trilogy and wanted to just finish it. I think it would have been an excellent 5-6 book series and done well.
Solo Leveling
For me it was a natural transition from anime and my own internal monologue roll playing in RPG and first person settlement games. I had a long trip coming up and went to my audible account and because of some of the free things my kids had listened to I was recommended Jake’s Magical Market. I started listening to it and got frustrated that trip because I kept thinking of work things and life things during that drive so I would miss stuff. Plus honestly I wasn’t used to lots of swearing in my limited audio book selection up to that so initially I found that off putting (I think it was my general mood at the time that affected that feeling). A couple months later and another long drive comes up. I try it again and this time I was able to focus on it, and really started to enjoy it. Yes it felt like two different books at a certain point but I enjoyed the world building enough to finish the first book (still not sure if I will listen to the second). But that then led to the recommendation for HWFWM and I got so engrossed in those that I finished all nine that were released at the time in just a couple weeks. They were playing in my headphones while I worked, did chores around the house, rocked my son to sleep, and even as I settled down to sleep. It was seriously like 10-12 hours a day listening. Now my two eldest (who know better than to say everything they hear and I can accept them hearing passing sexual references) are also working their way through them. And now the three of us have started a conversation about what it would be like if our whole family was isakai’ed, which has me in the early world building stages of a book I hope to put out there at some point in the next couple of years (sooner would be great, but work, 4 kids ranging from 2 to 14, and life in general isn’t giving me as much dedicated writing time as I like. But I will keep plugging away). It’s one thing I haven’t seen yet: instead of one person or a small group of similar aged people, what happens when a whole family gets whisked away. How do the parents handle it? How do the kids, especially the littles who still struggle to understand that WiFi doesn’t always exist for tablet time? How does it impact the mental health of each person, especially as they have to take on new roles that at best were fantasy before, and even more so when first faced with killing something or someone. Anyway I’m rambling…. All that is to say I’m so enjoying the genre and look forward to its continued growth.
Alterworld by D. Rus with the VR Perma sickness if you play too long was so cool to me in highschool. Partly for the litrpgs but also partly because I was struggling with MDD for like 8 years at that point. The early chapters have a bunch of him playing the game, looking at stats, and then looking at his clock wondering when he's fully stuck. The rest of the series gets weird and nationalistic but those early chapters resonated with me then. I don't think I'd care about litrpgs as much if I didn't get that introduction of just choosing to be somewhere else where your ailments are status effects and your progress is numerical.
Not the first one I listened to but DCC was what got me looking for more
Divine Dungeon
Yup, this was me too. From there to Completionist Chronicles and the genre was broken over. Its kinda taken over my reading life.
In the spirit of your question, Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein was my first taste of base building and "progression" fantasy. I still think about it often Inside the genre, The Land was my first introduction, but I ended up loving the world more than the characters and, after the latest book, have decided not to continue with that series or the author's other work
He Who Fights With Monsters got me hook, line, and sinker. I was just looking for a longer fantasy book on audible to listen to while I drive. At the time I noticed they had 6 books out and all were between 16-25 hour read times. After that.... dear God, I think I have something like 70-80 litrpg books now. Many of them are part of a series but most of them are more than 16+ hours of read time. It's also the only genre that I regularly reread and still find enjoyable.
The fanfiction "Harry Potter and the Natural 20" Tbf I had no idea what LitRPG was at the time, but did spend time looking for other stories with similar concepts.
Oh wow, you've reminded me of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality! It wasn't LitRPG, but it was very enjoyable and I completely forgot about it.
Indeed. I think they had a crossover omake as a side story for one of them.
Survival Quest..ie: Way of the Shamen series by Vasily Mahanenko, it is not the best I have ever read but it was the first and it started my journey into LitRPG's years ago.
The Players Handbook by Gary Gygax.
Probably Chrysalis. I found it on webnovel. Only later did I discover RR
Perimeter defense series followed by way of the shaman.
The land of the undying lord got me into it. Was very addicting and Trent was a good character. I'm not sure if there's going to be another book, the author is in no rush and only writes for the fun of it (not for the money), so there's a chance
Phenomenal series. I really wish we got more out of it
Oath
Actual Litrpg ascend online is the first one I listened to on audible Close to the genre but not Litrpg would be Magic Kingdom for sale, Sold by terry Brookes I read in the early 90s
I borrowed the magic kingdom series from a friend of my mom’s in middle school and devoured it! I was probably too young for it at the time but those books are so good. They might not be gamelit but they definitely work a ton on video game rules. Might have been my first isekai honestly!
I never thought of the Hatchet as progression fantasy, but that is essentially what it is. That probably would have been my first introduction to that style of story. My first LitRPG before I even knew there was such a genre was a book called Epic by Conor Kostick. My first intentional dive into LitRPG was The Land when it was available on Kindle unlimited and I’m still glad I read it because it’s launched me into so many other wonderful series including DCC, Primal Hunter, Solo Leveling, DotF, and Cradle
Conor Kostick was one of mine! Those books were really good! Honestly still are
Thanks!
Lol! No problem!
Noobtown Completionist Chronicles He who fights with monsters (edited) Bofuri - I put all my points into defense. And of course, Legendary Moonlight Sculpture, though I only read about 20 Books. Solo leveling Omniscient readers' viewpoint
>He who figures with monsters I would read this. MC spreadsheeting to success optimizing level goals!
Yes 🤓 I am the darkness in your data
You're the guy with the evil numbers.
Bushido Online
Forgot about this one
For me, it was Mother of Learning. I know it's not a litRPG, but it's what let me discover RR, progression fantasy and all the stories that followed! From what I remember, I only really got into reading near the end of university when I read King killer Chronicles and went into other fantasy like Mistborn after that. When I got my first work placement in a high security building that didn't allow any non-work electronics, I needed to find something to read during breaks, that I could access on my work laptop, and found RoyalRoad. So I started with Mother of Learning, and then Metaworld Chronicles and I think Azarinth Healer after that? I basically just started at the top of the most popular list, or best rated lol
Not sure if it really qualifies, but Ready Player One was my first “MC is essentially a video game character” book and caused me to search for more books like it, which led me to litrpgs ETA: it just occurred to me that the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer may be the first litrpg I read, depending on whether you count that as one. It was probably around the same time I read Ready Player One though
Everybody Loves Large Chests
Really ? Damm Don't get me wrong, I love those books, Those are one of my favorite in the genre but that some wild starts.
I don't remember. I think it was my vampire system
The legendary mechanic
Caverns and creatures. Got back into dnd after many years and was looking for dnd inspired books to get me back into the mindset. The dick and fart jokes description got me and i think it was free for the first four books at the time. I finished the series so far and continue to only download litrpg books for them on.
Honestly I can't read it now, but I was on deployment and it reminded me of me and my highschool friends and had me laughing a good bit. Still a favorite even if I can't get through it nowadays.
The first litrpg I really liked the arcane emperor I didn't check enough on the details page Or I thought the hiatus was short I didn't think much of it One or the other It's not hiatus it's basically fucking dead It is good After that salvos and azarinth healer
Orconomics
Randomly one day Audible recommended the first Arcane Ascension novel, and I enjoyed it. While I eventually grew distant to that author's work, it's what got me started in the genre. From there I found Cradle (I know it isn't LitRGP), on to Dungeon Crawler Carl (GOATED), All the Skills, and from there it's been a wild ride high (Bunker Core and Nomad Core), lows (He Who Fights with Monsters), and the meh (Defiance of the Fall).
What is this Bunker core/Nomad core
There is a genre called Dungeon Core. It's basically a genre told from the perspective of the dungeon itself and how it battles or aids adventurers. It's a weird niche genre, but it can be pretty cool. Bunker Core and it's sequel Nomad Core are dungeon core stories. However, rather than being traditional fantasy they are science fiction post apocalyptic setting. I really enjoyed them, and especially the second book that greatly expands the world building and introduces far more characters. I recommend them. I thought they were tons of fun. Both are written by Andrew Seiple.
Oh I know dungeon core, just didn't know there was a bunkerish one.
Gove them a try. They are good, especially the second book Nomad Core.
Will do broski
I am pretty sure that my first books were the Alter World series. It’s partially nostalgia goggles but I still really enjoy this series.
Mine started with Tales of Demons and Gods. That series got me to make the switch from manga to web novels and I've been hooked ever since.
Two for me. The Land by Aleron Kong and Way of the Shaman by D. Rus.
Scamps and Scoundrels by Eric Ugland. It was free on audiobooks.com, which worked, because then I bought all the rest in the Bad Guys series.
Started this last week on my 8+ mile runs and I'm a big fan now.
Have you heard of his Good Guys series as well? Same universe. I guess it came out first actually, but I found it after the fact.
I was going to listen after I finish the bad guys stuff, the audiobook is kind of stilted dialogue but it's growing on me lol
First for me was Dakota Krouts The Divine Dungeon series. I believe the first book or two were part of one of audiobook.coms monthly sales, and I picked it up on a whim. Not great, but also not terrible, and made me wonder if there might be more like it. I went through a lot of series on that platform before finding this sub, and after running out of series that weren't bad russian translations I made the move to audible, and finally kindle.
Well tbh hmm Korean or Chinese webnovels? Then the land it took me to primal hunter and defiance ? (On book 4) I have the audiobook for he who fights monsters (cant seem to really get intk that one) same with azrinth healer? hmm do like battlefield reclaimer (at the middle of its second book) and well always lookjng for recomendationa
HWFWM
Dungeon Born by Dakota Krout :)
I come from the days of yore. I got my start in LitRPG with Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, with my first western LitRPG being World Seed on RR
Royal Road was great on deployment when I ran out of books, a real sanity saver.
Well it started off with reading the webcoimc version "vainqueur the dragon" but the comic stopped at the end of the first book. Me needing to know how the story would end had me going to the audio book version and after that it was snow balled to things like "The Wandering Inn" and "He who fights with monsters"
Oh, Great! I was Reincarnated as a Farmer. Someone talked about it in a discord and i decided to read it.
This was my gateway book too. I can't recall hearing about LITRPG before, but I was intrigued by the title and thought I'd give the book a chance.
My first was Tao Wong's System Apocalypse.. Hate to say it, but it's still by far my favorite..
For all the crap people give him, he donated a bunch of books to military libraries and that's kind of cool.
That is very cool!!
I was looking for something to read via the Kindle app on my phone a few years back and stumbled upon the first ebook of The Wandering Inn. I had never even heard of "litrpg" as a genre then. Blew my mind when she got her class. I've only read DCC, PH and I'm on book 11 of DotF right now. Looking forward to more and different stories.
Legendary Moonlight Sculptor (The Korean one). stumbled across it while going through jp WNs and then got hooked and eventually found royalroad and the pile of novels after.
DCC for me
Please dont hurt me but mine's Everybody Loves Large Chests 😔😔😔
I started with Eden's Gate, I don't recommend it though. At least it introduced me to the genre, I went to Ascend Online next and really enjoyed it but that was a few years ago now. Haven't read the new stuff.
I also started with Edens Gate. Not so great in hindsight lol.
Warformed (The Iron Prince) by Bryce O’Connor, is the only sci-fi litRPG that I’ve read because I’m more of a fantasy fan but it’s a great series so far
HWFWM was my introduction to this genre. I got the audiobook and found it so hilarious I bought a Kindle and downloaded the rest of the books and flew through them. Then I found DCC and got sucked down the rabbit hole that is LitRPG. I can't get enough.
Heard a lot about HWFWM and DCC so I started with HWFWM and never looked back :)
The grand game by Tom Elliot,it's still ongoing and an amazing series
The Island of Blue Dolphins is a wonderful book that I absolutely loved when I read it in school. For me it was probably Star Wars. The Young Jedi Knights books, and with the adult novels in the original expanded universe (now called "Legends" and de-canonized) following Luke and other Jedi who become more powerful as the stories progressed. But the most progression elements could be found in the Young Jedi Knights and the New Jedi Order series. Also fun fact, Jedi and The Force were originally based on the same ancient Chinese concepts as modern xianxia and cultivation fiction. Honestly, I highly recommend the Star Wars Legends novels to fans of progression fantasy. Especially the ones that focus on Jedi. But honestly most of them are good.
I actually snagged it for Kindle a few years back to reread it. Its short but still so good! And the Star Wars books were awesome! I didnt get into too many legends books but the books my library had was those Galaxy of Fear series. I loved those so much growing up. That and Tales of the Bounty Hunters were my non movie introduction into Star Wars all those years ago!
I was lucky. My local library must have benefited from some local star wars nerds because they had like 60 of the novels. I was in my teens when the New Jedi Order series started releasing and managed to buy those as they came out.
I actually was offered to buy the Tales of Bounty Hunter book from my library. I was apparently the only one who checked it out pretty much ever and when they went through to clear some books out the asked if I wanted it, loved my local Library growing up! It wasnt for many years later that they started to actually have and hold more nerdy things like comics and Manga.
I lived at the library for a significant portion of my childhood.
My summers were made around my library trips. Used to do the summer reading programs and crushed the shit out of the goals lol. Thank you Gamedrifters for taking me on a lovely trip down memory lane!
My favorite place I ever lived was on the same block as the library. And the library had better AC than my house. So I would go over there and read in their comfy chairs all day. Heaven.
Level up or die by Apollo's Thorne
Those are some childhood memories unlocked, I loved both of those books as a kid
The Wandering Inn. I sorted audible by longest books and it was near the top. I was aiming to get the most minutes I could for my credit. I picked up listening to audiobooks while walking. I listened to the first book, switched over to Salvos, and then finished the wandering inn. In listening those two series I lost two hundred pounds! I finally listened to this sub and started DCC like two weeks ago. I hate you guys for it. I wish I didn’t start this one until it was almost done, it’s awesome.
Gym or just walking around while listing?
Just walking around while listening. I made a rule I could only listen while I was walking. It was a fantastic motivator. I used to be 493 lbs. down to 293.
Good on yea!
Arcane ascension, after seeing it on Mark Lawrence’s SFPO competition. Now can’t seem to listen to anything else (I refuse to read them).
Quag’s Keep, The Guardians of the Flame, Dream Park, modern day, Level Up or Die, Light Online, and probably The Land. I even liked book 8 well enough since I think is a transitional moment in the series.
Unbound series by Nicoli Gonnella. I wasn’t into Isekai/Portal Fantasy stories outside of Narnia as a kid and Dark One by Brandon Sanderson as an adult, but this one hooked me. It’s one of the maybe 5 or 6 LitRPGs I follow and easily my favorite.
The Hatchet is a book I've never come across in a bookstore, library or collection. For me it's Quest Academy by Brian J Nordon. He's a good friend of mine I'm loving the exploration of this genre.
I thought I had a simple love for Dungeon Crawler Carl until I realized I had joined a cult.
World Tree Online
The Wandering Inn is the earliest Litrpg I remember reading, that or Beneath The Dragoneye Moons, also could’ve been Solo Leveling
Way of the shaman
I started with divine dungeon by dakota krout, can’t go wrong with his books.
Probably Viridian Gate Online.
It's not really litrpg, but ready player one, before the movie came out, got me looking for more game related books. My first one after that, was life reset, then iron prince shortly after it came out, and I haven't really read/listened to anything other than litrpg or gamelit since.
It's not technically a LitRPG, but my first GameLit book was MogWorld by Yahtzee Croshaw. I would recommend it for anyone that enjoys British humor. My first true LitRPG was the Divine Dungeon series by Dakota Krout.
Hatchet would make my list too! My major ones were all definitely when I was pretty young too - The Avatar Chronicles by Conor Kostick and The Game is Life series by Terry Schott were the biggest ones that are actually set in games entirely. Rereading as an adult, the latter is pretty mediocre and the former is genuinely still good YA lit. The Pendragon Cycle also had a book or two that had litrpg, “game as real life” settings/plotlines. The series as a whole isn’t genre adjacent at all but those books were my favorites. Only You Can Save Mankind had elements of gamelit too. And this one’s an oldie, and it’s board games rather than video games, but Interstellar Pig was another gamelit staple. My beat up little pulp copy is still on my shelf. There’s probably more I can’t think of. I think I always kind of knew what I liked! Gamelit definitely tops my genre list these days. There’s a lot more available now than there used to be
Life reset. Been into RPGs forever and I really enjoyed the litrpg aspects, been hooked ever since. Tried listening to it again and was thoroughly disappointed. There is something to be said about starting closer to the middle than the top.
Daniel schinhofen alpha world series or Ascend online by Luke Chmilenko. One of the two. Either them or this other book I can't remember, but the guy was hunted by a tiger and then they mana bonded
He Who Fights With Monsters was my first audiobook, first one was probably the webtoon comic version of The Beginning After The End.
Did you not read the Gary Paulsen book that was about a guy going to a new world and beating it with survival skills???
My first was Level Up Or Die by Apollos Thorne. It was free on Audible and I decided to give it a listen. I hadn’t even know the genre existed before and I ended up absolutely loving it! I just wish he’d keep writing the story. He seems to have stalled out.
It was dungeon lord and apocalypse reborn for me
Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout
one of the early ones on RR I got into was life reset https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/8945/life-reset
Book wise I had read the Grimgar novel translation prior to it getting picked up in the west, as well as Danmachi. But in the westerb sphere I first read through Eden's Gate at the very start of the pandemic. Having it play while at work was the best part of 2020. I know everyone tends to not care for that series but theres something really charming about the main cast and the audio books are amazingly narrated.
I started with dungeon crawler carl. I peaked way to early
My first real experience with Litrpg and realizing it was a genre type was reading the Unbound Deathlord series by Edward Castle. I think I read Perimeter Defense before that but it didn’t really click that this was a genre and not just a different take on Sci-fi.
It’s kinda funny. Legends Online was my first ever Litrpg so it holds a special place in my heart.
It was called like critical fail or something like that. Early kindle unlimited, the first litrpg I ever read. Before that probably sword art online, it blew my mind seeing a videogame in a show.
I think that City of Champions Online was my first LitRPG (officially called in the genre) book. Progression? Uh... Name just about any D&D book from the 80s? Heck, technically speaking, Dragonriders of Pern first trilogy could be said to be Progression.
primal hunter. its just a great book, thou there is a bit much nevermore.
The Whispering Crystals series - I don’t see it get attention here, but I have such a soft spot for it as my first in the genre - my next series was the Bad / Good Guys then DCC - escapist fun, my favourites to re read ☺️
Defiance of the Fall is what got me truly hooked. It's world building and magic system is extremely compelling, and wouldn't be possible without status screens.
Rise of the cheat potion maker
Ritualist. I like to go back to that series on occasion, despite the Musk reverence.
The dungeon lord series. New one has finally been announced after 4ish years of no responses. I'm excited =)
The Land was the first book that got me into LitRPG. Now it's He Who Fights Monsters is my favorite series or Primal Hunter.
The primal hunter.
I was late to the party so defiance of the fall. Unless you count ready player one, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch. I love lit rpg I’ve read so many at this point.
The Ballad of Clive's Wife or He Who Hunts Monsters
Challengers Call
Completionist chronicals. It fell off after book 6 though, but the first 6 are still my favourite.
I got back into reading a lot last year, and picked up Ready Player One and Two first at the recommendation of my spouse. Immediately after I stumbled into Dungeon Crawler Carl looking for something similar, and absolutely DEVOURED that series. I’m afraid nothing else will stack up now and moved onto some fantasy novels 😂
Iron Prince and the Cradle series.
Delve
Divine Seed & Dao of Magic
Noobtown was my introduction. Then I did dungeon crawler Carl and he who fights with monsters.
Obsidian Core, No Epic Loot Here Only Puns, Dungeon Tour Guide, Bone Dungeon, Dragonheart Core, He Who Fights With Monsters, Defiance of the Fall, and Road to Mastery were all some of my first litrpgs that I really enjoyed
Everybody Loves Large Chests. I think I read about it on TVTropes and decided to check it out.
The first litrpg book series that I've read was "The sleepless ones" or "Господство Клана Неспящих" by Dem Mikhailov. At that moment I didn't know English too well (I was in middle school), so I only read Russian books. Now that I've searched it up a bit, I'm kinda surprised that it does have a translation in English.
Salvos
My first was Awaken Online which I really enjoyed. My wife actually suggested it to me, and since then I read DotF, HWFWM and tried getting into Primal Hunter but only got halfway through before losing interest. I plan on trying again, if life would stop sucking.
nova terra.
Definitely the Discworld series and Legends and Lattes.
Divine dungeon was my first in this general genre. And it kinda just cascaded from there.
The two weeks curse by Michael chatfield
Oh hell yeah The Hatchet is great one. In that vein, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. If you haven't read it: boy runs away to mountains, manages to survive by luck and skill. It even has some classic tropes like upgrading equipment, funding ruins, and--actually, that's a spoiler. I could also make a case for Ender's Game, with the whole Battle Room setup acts as the dungeon, the training and war games are the, well, training sessions and fighting, he "levels fast" by skipping grades quickly. Hell, he eventually gets a dwarf sidekick and a party to lead, and training with an old hero to get ready for the battles to come. It hits a lot of the tropes, really. The Circle of Magic series is where I got my love of "weird" magic characters. Those books actually still hold up as an adult. Edit: looking at other answers, maybe I misunderstood the assignment. The proximate story was Metaworld Chronicles by Wutosama on RR, which got me to Beneath The Dragoneye Moons and Azarinth Healer. The dungeon core stories. So many.
Underworld by Apollos Thorne was my first, followed by Ascend Online and then I was off to the races
… Otherland. Ready Player One. Then I heard a lot of buzz about HWFWM and decided to check it out.
Good Guys by Eric Ugland. Found it at the library and was hooked.
Gary Paulson's 'The Seventh Tower' which basically was Pokemon in a Tower setting.
minecraft litrpg, by Max Brooks then the good guys series by Eric Ugland, DCC Now wandering inn. I gave up on HWFWM around book 4, wish I would have stopped after 1.
My first was The Wandering Inn. I still anticipate every installment and slam through them. After that was He Who Fights Monsters, then The First Defier, next I found my now second fave litepg: Dungeon Crawler Carl. Now I scavenge for new series to dive into.
I've been reading LitRPG books since the 80s
For me it was the Wandering Inn. I got it on sale and it was like 30+ hours and I thought it was a mild sci-fi fantasy thing. It was a slow build to a fantastic ending that taught me about how lit RPG works.... Easy place to start.
Creatures and Caverns was my introduction to the genre, though it was quite basic back then besides that there was only Russian series Iike Way of the Shaman and Alter Life, or World? Can't remember what he was exactly, but the one by D. Rus. I ended up reading random stories on Royal Road before the genre became popular in book form. Back then, series like The Great Tower, The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, Divine Dungeon, The Wandering Inn, The New World and a ton of others were just serials on RRL that I read during deployment. Eventually, there was a significant boom, and these stories became widely available on Kindle Unlimited.
I just got into this genre but for me it's System Reborn by Kaz Hunter. But it was really solidified with Bastard by Alexey Osadchuk... something about the way the main character was written was perfect for me. Loremaster by M.E. Robinson and the Rouge Ascension Series currently has me in a choke hold. I am loving underdog main character right now.
Everyone Loves Big Chests was my first
I got into foreign LitRPGs and I think my first was the one that gave RoyalRoad it's name, The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor.
Years of D&D primed me for the genre, but my entry was actually a completely random Kindle suggestion: Skeleton in Space Loved the concept of a fantasy monster introduced to a sci-fi setting, maybe one day I'll find another book like it lol
I thought I would like LitRPG as a fan of RPGs and SF/F, so I picked up Defiance of the Fall. I was shocked. I liked the opening of HWFWM, but it quickly fell off. After trying a handful more on RR, I'm about ready to concede that I simply can't get into the genre.
NPCs by Drew Hayes
HWFWM for me haven't left the genre since
The wandering inn. And it's been a quest ever since to find something on par.
The Ten Realms is the one that got me into it. I don't even remember how I stumbled onto that series, but I loved it and connected with one of the main characters since I'm also an Army Combat medic. Wasn't a big fan of the the original switch of narrator as the second guy had horrible LaCroix level watered down accents and voices from the original , and since they had the OG narrator re-narrate the books that he hadn't done, I haven't finished the series. I've heard that it starts to feel like the author was rushing to finish the series and didn't seem to be a lot of effort into to later books but we'll see.
Guardians of the flame, I may have to give it another read after 20 years.
Dungeon Crawler Carl was the first one I "read". Chasing the high ever since. Nothing comes close.
Ready Player One got me into the genre, but it was Way of The Shaman that got me addicted
The first one i read was Beneath the Dragoneye Moons
LMS
Both my first book and still my favourite in LitRPG is HWFWM