(Non) LitRPG

[CarburetorThompson]

As much as I think LitRPG is a trash genre, I’m curious to know if any LitRPG readers/writers play any mmorpgs, and which ones.

 

[Seaspecter]

What does it mean if you play WoW and EVE?

 

[CarburetorThompson]

What does it mean if you play WoW and EVE?

Out of touch boomer that is being monitored by the FBI

 

[melchi]

What does it mean if you played FF14 and Path of Exile?

 

[Syringe]

Wow, not even Realm of the Mad God?

 

[DemonOppai]

Skyrim is always eternal. Though I don’t play elder scrolls online.

 

[Cipiteca396]

I played old school RuneScape for a while when I was younger.
More recently I got pretty hooked on Warframe and ESO. I still do my daily logins on both, but I rarely play them anymore. Just don't have the time.

I experimented with a couple others, like Riders of Icarus (I liked the pet gimmick a lot) and some others I don't remember. That was all ages ago though. MMOs just aren't for me, I guess.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

I experimented with a couple others, like Riders of Icarus (I liked the pet gimmick a lot) and some others I don't remember. That was all ages ago though. MMOs just aren't for me, I guess.

I played a short lived open world sand box steam punk airship mmo called world’s adrift. Was awesome sadly didn’t get to play it much because my computer was ass at the time. Never heard If riders of Icarus but it reminded me of guns of icarus which reminded me of worlds adrift

 

[Jemini]

When it comes to RPGs, I generally play old-school or old-school mimicking games. The one I'm really big into right now is Another Eden.

 

[Generic.Archdemon]

guns of icarus

 

[melchi]

Wow, not even Realm of the Mad God?

That is just people reading Corty's novel.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

No.

And yes, I write LitRPG. The most LIT LitRPG of LitRPGs.

As much as I think LitRPG is a trash genre,

They are trash because the author doesn't know LitRPGs.

Here.

Spoiler: The Latest Chapter of Lord Edgelord, Lord of the Edge

"Start count and... Locate wyrm root."






As they walked along between towns, Andrew was using the spell locate object to find useful herbs while looking through a herb handbook he bought from the guild, "There we go! And Expedious Feet!" He started running twice as fast as normal as he homed in on his target while pulling out two small silver daggers from their belt holster. He cried out, "Sealstones's Slaughterhouse!" and the daggers flew from his hands to butcher the small group of plants, arranging them in piles. The useful parts were gathered while the detritus was cast to the side.


Andrew finished running over, touching the pile with his boot, "And Cantrip: pocket!" The pile vanished from the ground to appear in his backpack of storage, "TIME!"

"Twenty-four seconds." Miriam blinked, "Why are you having me time you again?"

Andrew resumed his stroll, angling back to the main road, "Because there is nothing you cannot do faster, better, or more efficient. You need to know how long something takes to be able to do it well. Besides, haven't you noticed the pattern?"

Miriam was quiet while Andrew made his way back to the road. Just as he stepped back onto the beaten path she said, "Wait..." She leaned forward from her perch on top of his head to look down at his face, "Why is everything taking a multiple of six seconds?"

Andrew rolled his eyes to look up at Miriam, "Finally sunk in, huh?" He refocused on the road ahead, "The default of the system is that you typically can do ten things in a minute. It took four separate unstackable actions to get those herbs since you can only cast one spell an action... typically."

Miriam made a face as she hopped down to sit on his shoulder, "That doesn't... It shouldn't..." She scratched her head, "But I can do things that only take a second... right?"

Andrew nodded, "Inside an action, you can take less than six seconds, but when doing spells, that's a hard rule. One spell is an action, ten actions a minute, six seconds a spell. I cast four spells, in twenty-four seconds. I'm testing the system, to see if there is some way around this. I tried a held action with the Locate spell, but that didn't get around the limit. I mean, there are ways to hold spells, trigger spells, chain spells, blah blah blah... for example, you can cast free action spells that take no time at all, but that's an exception to the rule, and free action spells still are limited by how many, so it might take no time, but you still have to wait six seconds before casting another."

Miriam scratched the side of her head, "I'm... impressed and terrified by this."

Andrew looked at Miriam sideways, "Why does this scare you?"

Miriam hugged herself as if she was cold, "Back in Hell, everyone worked for someone. Being a Mirror Imp, you are higher up on the minion ladder than most, but you still worked for someone. Among mirror imps, everyone knows, as soon as you get a new master, they are going to try to find some way to abuse your duplicating ability. Until I met you, I was too low-level to be of any real use, but some of the higher-level mirror imps..." She shuddered, "Sweatshop doesn't even come close to describing what they went through."

Andrew squinted at her, "And how do you know what a sweatshop is?"

She looked back, "I share your skills, remember? Including Knowledge, your home world."

Andrew nodded, "Ah." They walked along in silence for a while before Andrew continued the conversation, "So, I remind you of those devils trying to game the system, huh?"

Miriam shook her head, "Oh no. Not even close. Those devils were amateurs compared to you. They weren't even close to your level of trying to abuse the system. I can't read your mind, but I have your knowledge. Yet, you keep surprising me. I might know what you know about the system, but I don't have the sheer creativity that you apply to that knowledge. Your mind is so slippery you keep surprising me, which shouldn't be happening."

Miriam looked away, "Just like the Dukes."

Andrew clicked his tongue, "If I remember correctly, you are talking about the rulers of Hell, yes?"

Miriam nodded.

Andrew was quiet as they walked along. he paused at the next rise of the hill. He turned to sit down under a tree, taking advantage of the view to keep an eye out for anyone who might approach, "I need you to complain more."

Miriam looked up, "Huh?"

Andrew took a deep breath, "Just being creative doesn't make someone evil, but it does make them dangerous. I can see why you are worried about me. The only people who were like me that you know of were people who ruled Hell. My knee-jerk response is to tell you, you're wrong. I'd never be like that, but..."


He looked to the path they came from, then the path ahead, "I can see how I might lose the forest for the trees. I already did something horrible to you without thinking about my actions' consequences. If you think I'm going off the reservations, I'd like you to point that out." He looked to his diminutive companion, "I promise I don't want to hurt you. If I start to, let me know." He gave her a half smile, "For what it's worth, I find you to be an absolute treasure, so I'd like you to be happy."

She humphed, "The first thing you asked when I made a mirror copy of myself was if my copy could make more copies."

"I didn't WANT to make an army of you! I just wanted to know if it was an option!" Andrew turned away with a frown.

Miriam nodded, "Of course, but it's just one of those things you can't copy. Or rather, if I did, then my copy would be me and I'd lose the power. The duplicates are always at half the power of the original and something has to give."

Andrew looked unhappy and stood up, "Look. I get your concerns, but lets be honest here, I've got my limits."

Miriam raised an eyebrow, "Could have fooled me."

"HEY!" He pointed a finger at her, "I didn't use anything from THAT book, did I?" He started walking along.

Miriam blinked, "That book? Which book?"

Andrew shook his head, "Nope. That name shall never be spoken."

Miriam slowly tilted her head to the side, "Uh... what?"

Andrew sighed, "back in the old days, back when the game this world is based on was first made, there was first edition then second edition. Second edition cleaned up MUCH of the game, but the game was floundering. They needed to give it new life, so, they came out with THIRD edition."

Miriam squinted, "Wait... the world is based on a game?"

Andrew shrugged, "Or the game is based on this world. Chicken, meet egg. Anyways, third edition was a bold new reimagining. Much more freedom. Much more customization. Experience points became something you could SPEND on top of just something to build your character. It opened up many... many new options... but..." He looked around, "Well, there were mistakes. Flaws. Excellent plan, but bad exicution. So, they came up with third edition... revised."

"Uh... why not just... fourth edition?"

"It was too soon. Nobody wanted to have to rebuy everything, even if that's what everyone wound up doing. But the vast majority of things stayed the same between third and revised. It was a good idea. It fix a lot of broken mechanics. It also created this... quasi-state of existence for third edition, non-revised material."

Miriam nodded and seemed interested, "Okay. Go on."

"Among the power gaming community, there was a huge argument. Its all third edition, but there were some people who thought nothing that was non-revised should be allowed. There were some that thought it should be up to the individual, where you should be able to choose whatever rule set fit your purpose." He shook his head, "That got shot down fast. There was some merit to it, but by the end, when they finally moved onto fourth, a consensus was reached."

"And that was?"

Anything that was replaced in revised was cannon. Anything not replaced was still usable. So, that left a whole lot of non-revised rules and what not that could be used and abused." He glanced sideways at Miriam, "Honestly, not much of a problem. Ninety nine percent of the stuff that was still valid was mostly useless, or only situationally abusive. Like stilts." He snapped his fingers, "Oh god. That'r right. I need a pair of stilts. Two feet should be enough."

"Stilts? The poles you can stand on?"

Andrew nodded, "Yeah. they aren't that useful, but there are a few situations where you can take advantage of the rule loop hole for stilts. I'll explain it someday. Because that's not the point."

"Okay. What's the point?"

"The point is the one book that was never revised. The one book that never had anything in it fixed. The rule book for playing... monsters."

"Playing monsters?"

Andrew nodded, but uch slower this time, "Oh yes. There are only so many races a player can choose to be. You can't play a... slime, for example. There are the playable races, and the monster races, never the twain shall meet."

"Wait... am I a monster race?"

Andrew nodded, "Oh yeah. You are BRO-KEN. That's the problem. If you allow playing monster races, the combination of player only choices, and monster powers gets INSANE. there is already a whole lot of abuse with polymorph and mind control. Both of which I LOATH and DESPISE. It is the road to ultimate cheese. It is the path taken by the weak. But even then, beyond shapechange and mind thrawl abuse is the Book-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. The Monster as players book. The book that never got revised, because under revised, they never wanted to allow players to be monsters."

He stopped at the top of the next hill to look out across the thick and verdant forest, "The book was broken as soon as it was released. It got banned by most people who played the game, and justly so. Knowing this, the game designers just desided to... ignore it. Pretend it never existed. The problem is... they never actually said it was banned, or non-cannon. By ignoring it, it became a loop hole. A festering wound in the game mechanics."

Andrew took Miriam in his hand and held her where he could see her. She sat on his hand, looking up at him with a rather curious expression, "You said you think what I do is evil? No. What I do pushes the limits, but they don't shatter reality. Abusing shapeshift and mind control is abhorrent to me, but to abuse... THAT BOOK?"

He shuddered, "Imagine taking a Duke of Hell and all of his powers available to a human, and that human was just first level. Imagine you could change your species on a whim, at no cost, without even using a spell. Imagine you could drain all your experience into a bottle, level up, drain all your experience into that bottle AGAIN, and do that over and over. It is so much easier to level up from first to second then second to third. So when you finally have enough experience in the bottle, you pop the top and jump from first to twentieth overnight."

Miriam's eyes kept getting wider and wider as Andrew spoke, "And... you have read this book?"

Andrew nodded, "Indeed." He put her back on his shoulder, "So I know what to watch for."

Miriam was deathly quiet as they walked on, "But... it was just a game before. Now... it's real. At least to you. Aren't you tempted to-"

"NO." He cut her off, "I am not tempted in the slightest. I may abuse the rules, but I do not BREAK the rules. THAT BOOK is broken. It is wrong. It should have been banned. Technically it isn't allowed. No SANE person managing a game would allow it. That book is evil. It is a sin. It is broken. It is... Just... WRONG." He slowly shook his head, "I know what I am, and there are lines I will not cross. Using THAT BOOK... is one of them."

She nodded and thought out loud, "But... you would use polymorph and mind control if the need was great enough?"

Andrew stopped dead in his tracks.

He was silent for a while before he started moving again, "I want to say, I'd never use those things, but if I met someone who was cheesing polymorph or mind control, then yes, I'd show them WHY you don't use cheese. I can cheese with the best of them. I choose not to, but if I was backed into corner, I'd do it to win, but only if they were using cheese first."

"And the same with THAT BOOK?"

"NO."

Miriam lept into the air and fluttered into his line of sight, "What's the difference?"

Andrew stopped walking, "Polymorph and mind control are cheese, but they have some good applications. Gease is cheese, but when used correctly, it can have a positive outcome. It can save a life, or provide a form of mental resistance for the weak. You can't be mind-controlled to do something against your will if you are mind-controlled to ignore mind-control." He started walking along, "Alter form is a sort of polymorph, but it's so useful. It doesn't let you become a dragon, it just gives you some perks. I think it's acceptable, because when you try to cheese alter form, you have to get REALLY creative to abuse it, not the sledgehammer approach of just straight-up shape change and then deliberately failing resistance checks."

He started walking again, "But THAT BOOK?" He shook his head, "My father once told me, you can't use the tools of evil for good. THAT BOOK is just... evil. It's WRONG. Sorry, no matter what the reason, that book can only make things worse. To use THAT BOOK is to cross the Rubicon. There is no coming back from using that book. I can't imagine any reason to use that book, except maybe... if the world was going to come to an end, and even then... I know in my heart of hearts, that to use that book would just make everything WORSE."

He glanced at Miriam, "You can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

Miriam nodded, "Because a handshake makes any verbal contract binding when dealing with a devil. Never shake a devil's hand if you can avoid it. Always get it in writing, so you can go back and read the details."

"I..." Andrew blinked and kept looking at Miriam, "did not know that. Thanks for the protip."

Miriam nodded and went silent for a while. Eventually, she said, "Sure."

Andrew frowned, "Sure what?"

"I'll complain more. I guess I'm just used to a different type of creative. Maybe you aren't as evil as I think you are. Maybe what I think evil is isn't the same as what's evil outside of Hell." Miriam hopped back up on top of his head, "I guess I feel better knowing you have some standards."

"Well, I wasn't expecting my life to take this turn, but if it has." Andrew shrugged, "If this is my life, so be it. I'm going to take advantage of what has been set before me, but only in a way where I can live with myself. So... no polymorph cheese. No Mind-control cheese. And... never. Ever... THAT BOOK." He paused a second before adding, "And no cheats."







Miriam nodded and echoed, "No cheese. No cheats."

I'm getting the story organized with at least 20-odd chapters before I release it.

This is what a LitRPG needs to be, about the LITERAL. Most LitRPGs are just fantasy stories with someone posting a character sheet to pad the word count.

 

[J_Chemist]

I've played all of them. MMOs are a good time and I honestly enjoy the grindy nature. Though, WOW and Ultima Online are two that I won't go back to. They're old.

• Runescape I'll play only with a mod to automate it these days because you're literally just doing the same action for 200 hours these days and the community is pretty bad. It used to be a lot more open and community driven, now it's the opposite. I can't talk to anyone on that place.
• Maplestory I gave up because friends quit.
• SWOTR was a ride but I fucked myself a few too many times on it and ruined my plays.
• BDO is p2w and ass.
• ESO I dropped. I'd rather play the solo games with mods.
• W101 is childish and I dropped it years ago.
• POE was very grimdark but I didn't like the system and dropped it. It reminded me of a Diablo knock off and I really didn't like Diablo.
• EVE is wild. The space ships are great but hoboi am I not a fan of getting jumped by pirates.
• FF14 and Guild Wars are the only two I'll actually play, but FF14 requires friends to dungeon dive with and I'm lazy. I do love being a tank, though.
• Tera was good but very constrictive with its system. I didn't like that. Plus, the rabbits were everywhere.
• Luna Online I played a lot. Me and my buddy maxed out like 4 accounts worth of characters on that game. When it closed, I was super sad.
• ROSE Online is P2W and I ruined it for myself by throwing money at it.
• Scarlet Blade Online was a trip. I bought into that and played for a few days but it was just booby and booty simulator. Neat system but pass.

Yea, the list goes on but overall most games I've dropped. Either the game gets overly grindy to the point that it takes days to do anything or you end up min/maxing and it ruins the game. I do like hunting for gear and guild events, but that typically requires finding a fun group to play with. Really difficult to do these days.

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

I play WoW, but, I play single player on my private server. Does that count?

 

[Anon2024]

I never played mmo’s.

I kind of miss good games that have an ending.

 

[BlackKnightX]

Minecraft, of course~

 

[HungrySheep]

I've played all of them. MMOs are a good time and I honestly enjoy the grindy nature. Though, WOW and Ultima Online are two that I won't go back to. They're old.

• Runescape I'll play only with a mod to automate it these days because you're literally just doing the same action for 200 hours these days and the community is pretty bad. It used to be a lot more open and community driven, now it's the opposite. I can't talk to anyone on that place.
• Maplestory I gave up because friends quit.
• SWOTR was a ride but I fucked myself a few too many times on it and ruined my plays.
• BDO is p2w and ass.
• ESO I dropped. I'd rather play the solo games with mods.
• W101 is childish and I dropped it years ago.
• POE was very grimdark but I didn't like the system and dropped it. It reminded me of a Diablo knock off and I really didn't like Diablo.
• EVE is wild. The space ships are great but hoboi am I not a fan of getting jumped by pirates.
• FF14 and Guild Wars are the only two I'll actually play, but FF14 requires friends to dungeon dive with and I'm lazy. I do love being a tank, though.
• Tera was good but very constrictive with its system. I didn't like that. Plus, the rabbits were everywhere.
• Luna Online I played a lot. Me and my buddy maxed out like 4 accounts worth of characters on that game. When it closed, I was super sad.
• ROSE Online is P2W and I ruined it for myself by throwing money at it.
• Scarlet Blade Online was a trip. I bought into that and played for a few days but it was just booby and booty simulator. Neat system but pass.

Yea, the list goes on but overall most games I've dropped. Either the game gets overly grindy to the point that it takes days to do anything or you end up min/maxing and it ruins the game. I do like hunting for gear and guild events, but that typically requires finding a fun group to play with. Really difficult to do these days.

It's been a while since I've heard the name "Scarlet Blade Online" but man... That game was a genius cashgrab. Underwear unlocker for $20? This was the era where MMOs were unhinged and didn't care about censorship. We need to go back.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

As much as I think LitRPG is a trash genre, I’m curious to know if any LitRPG readers/writers play any mmorpgs, and which ones.

roblox

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Rainworld is great fun! You are an adorable ferret traveling through an alien ecosystem, with amazing mechanics and realistic creature movement.

 

[Zinless]

Phantasy Star Online 2 (degen weeb (can't accept that their game is dead))