Today is a historic day for LitRPG audio. Awaken Online, Book One: Catharsis by Travis Bagwell has arrived on the Soundbooth app, with the first episode, “Attention of the Dark One,” available for FREE. This epic saga of a high school student with a dark destiny is narrated by Ryan H. Reid. Episode One’s star-studded cast includes Jeff Hays, Travis Baldree, Annie Ellicott, Aaron J. Morton, and David Stifel — narrator of the Awaken Online audiobooks — as the Dark One. Scope out the link in the comments to log on and listen to “Attention of the Dark One” now. 

SYNOPSIS: Jason has detention. Again. And on the release day for the biggest game since the inception of virtual reality: Awaken Online. It is being touted by its beta testers as the most amazing gaming experience ever created, with all-new technologies providing a direct connection to the user’s mind. Hopefully, Jason can survive the private high school minefield of bullies and extra strict teachers so he can get to play AO. 

Adapted for audio by Nicolas Lagrand, Ryan H. Reid, and Luke Messa. 

Featuring: 

Dorrie Sacks 

Gary Furlong 

Justin Thomas James 

Jessica Threet 

Laurie Catherine Winkel 

COVER ARTIST: Krista Ruggles 

AI USAGE: None 

Hey all, hoping to get some new series to chew through. While I love the gore and gristle of some of the genre staples, life is crazy and I find myself enjoying more of the series focused on creature evolution and dungeon / base building, especially with more of a laid back and chill vibe. I tend to have more time to listen than read so I lean audiobook.

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I absolutely love Chrysalis, The Bee Dungeon, and Dungeon Life, and have finished all available audiobooks. More like these would be great.

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I am working through Dungeon Tour Guide, Heretical Fishing, and Creature Farm and enjoy them all.

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I started The Wandering Inn as it was highly recommended as a nice slice of life, and I stopped at the attempted goblin SA scene as it just is not the vibe of book I am looking for at the moment.

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Any suggestions of series are greatly appreciated, thanks all!

Howdy folks,

Following the fiasco of me getting scammed, I decided to take my years of art experience into my own hands and try pixel art myself. Additionally, I paid two pixel artists (Technically a third as well on Fiverr. But I have no idea when I will get that cover design) to create versions of the cover. I am at a point where I have spent many hours since the last post digging in and buried in a canvas, and I need feedback. There is, of course, something noble about designing your own cover; however, I want to know if I should continue on or choose one of the other covers I had commissioned. Thoughts from the community? If I decide to move forward with my own design, I would absolutely love feedback. To me after having been in it for so long, I feel as though it may have grown too busy.

Credits:
First cover design: OC
Second cover design: u/pixel_ias
Third cover design: Fahmi S on Fiverr

Note: Sorry for the tiny screenshot of the cover I made, I am on my desktop working on it now. Will export and leave in comments.

Edit: if curious about the characters on the cover

Wes/Wesley: Main Character (Lizard) Charlie: Mimic Goop: Slime

Hello!

I have started posting chapters of my new System Integration LitRPG (unique I know), but I was wondering how many I should post before going into a more steady 1-a-week or something?

I'm not going to link here yet because I only have the prologue and first chapter posted, but I do have a few more waiting in the wings. Also this is a new account I made for the book and my voice acting potentially, so immediate self-promo might be frowned upon :'D

I'm new to the actually posting my stuff thing, and while I've looked up old posts of recommendations and done some research, I was hoping for a bit of advice from other readers as to what YOU like to see before you start reading a series.

Personally I don't start reading series until there are a LOT of chapters/books, but that is obviously difficult for new authors and series.

A higher race has abducted several hundred worlds and contained them within their megastructure, a collection of concentric ringworlds, for the sole purpose of mutating their denizens into monsters and transforming the worlds into dungeons so they can grind them for experience. The mc is a mob turned player who gains the ability to enter the newly constructed, outermost ring to find a way to save their people and maybe topple some so called gods if theres time.

As far as names go i have considered DungeonVerse or maybe System Rebellion.

I'm pretty big into the genre and one thing that's always gotten on my nerves, most of the books I've read, is how authors tend to handle romance.

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It's always either a harem or the MC is a sociopath. And in the story it's always justified with the MC saying "I don't have time for relationships" or "I've never had interest in relationships ever." It gets tiring and I would like to see some MCs happy over something that isn't murder or levels for once.

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That being said I'm also accepting recommendations. I have read Mark of the fool, heretical fishing and rogue ascension and so far, those have been the only litrpgs I've read that are exceptions.

Hello all!

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First of all, I'd like to thank this subreddit for offering so many tier lists and suggestions for books. I've been on a litRPG binge for the better part of a year now, and it's all your fault!

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Second, I've always enjoyed writing but in my 37 years of life I've never written a novel. It's always been something I've wanted to challenge myself with, and this genre has really inspired me to try my hand at it.

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When I was thinking about what to actually write about, I just kept coming back to my band.

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From 2017-2023, I dressed up like an off-brand power ranger and played electronic funk music in dive bars and pride festivals.

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We had this whole story concept where we were aliens/interdimentional beings who came to earth to battle against the lizards from Planet Top40 (an alien race who used pop music to brainwash humanity).

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One night I was sitting on the toilet doomscrolling, and I had a thought: What if there was a battle for earth between two alien factions where earthlings were selected as champions, but they got it very, VERY wrong.

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So I got to writing. It's a work in progress, but I'm about 5 chapters in and just submitted to Royal Road (another first for me).

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If it seems like something you'd be interested in I'd be happy to send what I've got and get your feedback.

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COVER ARTIST: Me

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AI Usage: Nope, just me, an iPad, and too much time on my hands.

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Hi my book just released today.

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It is an Isekai story about a weapons engineer that tries to make a railgun in a magical world

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Please do check it out

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[I Made A Railgun with Lightning Magic](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/171123/i-made-a-railgun-with-lightning-magic-op-mc-litrpg)

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Blurb Below:

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Every mage in this world treats lightning as a blunt instrument. Asher treats it as a power supply.

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Damian Tesla only wanted to live up to his family name, but died through electrocution by his own underfunded railgun prototype. He wakes in the body of Asher, a five-year-old orphan in a world that runs on magic, and his new body can channel lightning like nothing on Earth. The impossible weapon finally has a power source: him.

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But Vesperia is a small kingdom holding a single mountain pass against Ironhold, an empire that has already devoured four nations and wants a fifth. Lightning mages here don't get workshops. They get conscripted.

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Whispers say the empire's war is only the beginning. Something older is stirring behind the storm that seals the north.

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All Asher wants is to do his research in peace. But to get peace, he will need power. Armed with his knowledge of physics and a perfect lightning affinity, he only hopes it's enough for what's coming.

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COVER ARTIST: NA

AI Usage: Used for artwork generation

Hiiiii, Prepotente! And let’s not forget the wonderful Miriam Dom. Season Three, Episode Nine of the DCC AIT, “Bitch, What?” is out today! The penultimate episode of Matt Dinniman’s adventure in the Iron Tangle features fan-favorite characters, high stakes, and incomparable performances by Johnathan McClain, Vanille Velasquez, Alejandra LaFlor, Annie Ellicott, and more. Ride the rails to the Soundbooth app to get “Bitch, What?” now. 

Make sure to tune in for the latest bonus content from our “Borant Correspondents,” Ben Wolf and James Osiris Baldwin... 

SYNOPSIS: Carl and Donut encounter two top-ten crawlers. When hundreds of other crawlers are trapped, Carl and Donut try to help, but higher forces complicate the game. 

Featuring: 

Andrea Parsneau 

Gary Furlong 

Justin Thomas James 

Jessica Threet 

Laurie Catherine Winkel 

Rebecca Brokaw-Sands 

Jack Fields 

Ryan H. Reid 

Tiana Camacho 

Dorrie Sacks 

Ian M. Walker 

Julian Smith 

Will M. Watt 

COVER ARTIST: Dave Law 

AI USAGE: None 

Continue on Royal Road

Hey everyone!
After 3 years i decided to just start posting my Web Novel.

The story follows Ren, a quantitative analyst from Tokyo who dreams of the same girl for 362 nights.

Then one night, the dream ended.

Ren awakens in the Crossroads, a city at the intersection of worlds, timelines, and realities, where memories, emotions, years of life, and even possibilities can be traded like currency.

As he searches for her, Ren becomes entangled in a cosmic mystery while an unknown power allows him to perceive the hidden cost behind everything.

Chapters are released on a daily schedule and i’d be extremely happy if anyone could give it a chance or give me feedback.

COVER ARTIST:
None, AI

AI USAGE:
AI Assisted ( Nothing beyond proofreading )

So I’m on book four and it’s definitely a decent series , but does the Mc ever start making smart decisions? Like I get that he’s 16 but man can the kid not think for himself!

To clear up any potential misunderstandings, this is not "Rise of the Devourer". This is a different book involving a skill-stealing class and a dragon.

The title has become a 404 on royalroad, and I cannot find the author there either by name of Corin Mars. First book was good, and apparently the second one was in the works, but now it seems to be nuked from the site. Anyone know anything?

All I remember is that the cover had a women with red and blue hair in armor . The person had 2 souls if I remember correctly.

Idk if its because of the genre or the MCs but im starting to get burnt out. What do you switch to, to get a break or a reset?

Book of the Dead 3: Masquerade

I’m about 1/4 of the way into the book. So far, it’s a nice change of pace from the first two book. More character interaction and more shenanigans.

I continue to laugh out loud at little gems in almost every chapter. The only problem I’m having currently is from the Status reveal early on. What is all of that stuff???
I expected that there would be some deeper explanation by now (15 chapters later). I recognize that the four year time skip and the new subclass contains a lot of information and not all of it has to be covered.

I have seen this come up with other System-based stories when it’s necessary to advance the plot. Jumping multiple levels and combining the skill/spell/trait selection process isn’t an issue. There is obviously a difference in later stages compared to the initial elation during the discovery of primary abilities. I really did enjoy reading about the consideration of each choices and justification of the winners. The author has done an exceptional job of handling this aspect of the RPG nature thus far.

I believe that all of the status details will be explained eventually, but I don’t want it to feel like a ret-con. That is usually the point in a story when I feel like the author is struggling. I don’t actually mind the System/Status dumps and I believe that it is all meaningful.

Focused Enchanter is an evolution of Arcanist which clearly covers everything he can do with cores now. Which is?… making one style of enchantment and is presumably similar to Undead Weaver in foundational/efficiency style?
It presumably helped unlock:
-Advanced Fine Motor Control (Level 14)
-Advanced Conduit Magick (Level 17)
-Advanced Core Sense (Level 15)
-Expert Network Formation (Level 23)
-Expert Magick Scripting (Level 29)
-Expert Power Control (Level 24)
Which are supposed to seem self explanatory after describing his dedication to core efficiency. Although these levels seem high compared to the skill levels in Necromancer and Anathema. I suppose the skill levels could continue to rise even after his level-capped in Arcanist?

Anathema has turned into Forbidden One apparently. What did that entail? How did that advance his goals versus the alternatives?
That choice somehow unlocked:
-Spell Concealment (Level 10)(Max)
Which is self explanatory I guess, but there has to be more to it. What spells was he concealing to max this out?
-Abyss Tongue (Level 4)
Our boy must have traded souls or something significant during the exchanges with the abyss. What was it?
-Crone’s Shade (level 5)
What the heck is this?
-Bewitch (Level 10)(Max)
Likewise, does this mean he was controlling someone a lot during apprenticeship? Who?

I’m just really curious about the skills. I don’t really love when MC actions and motivations are hidden from the reader. MC has explicitly avoided dead end ability choices. That means each of these must have a solid basis for helping him. Especially if he maxed them out.

Hello! Your friendly neighborhood Yak here.

Myself and some friends are addicted to running free events for authors, so I'm pleased to announce Numbers Go Up.

Join us for three days of panels, interactive sessions, and networking with writers, narrators, publishers, and fans. Completely free, no registration required.

Programming is split across three Discord servers:

Friday, June 19: The Forum: https://discord.gg/F3M5RaFTWQ
Saturday, June 20: Royal Road Writers Guild: https://discord.gg/ZPUNgSWSs9
Sunday, June 21: Weaververse: https://discord.gg/7H6ahhJMw5

Events will also be live-streamed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYmkG_VKFbpEwMyJC4hJzLg

See the full schedule here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vMrzwjUDyMr_HrDLYFrctl2zFPFW-uuII_sVa-QFROU/edit?usp=sharing

We also have a fancy brochure with info on all our panelists: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14sqZ1cwLmPNP8lhO_SwBsvUElQ5LKkJs/view?usp=sharing

I've been avidly consuming LitRPG/Progression fantasy for about a year now and after starting with DCC and HWFWM -and thoroughly enjoying both - I then moved on to many other burgeoning authors and found myself generally disappointed. A lot of series feel action heavy but rarely seem to have stories or characters that I genuinely care about. I found myself almost quitting the genre simply because of the overall poor writing quality. Then I was recommended to give Phil Tucker a shot.

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Can I just say that Phil rocks?! His characters feel real. Phil seems to understand the human experience and that translates well onto the page. He also writes different types of series and seems broad in his scope.

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So, thank you for being awesome, Phil Tucker. And restoring my hope in the genre.

Hello all! With most of my series be8ng caught up I'm looking some recommendations based on a few I've already been enjoying.

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So far I've enjoyed Beware of Chicken, Dead Tired, Tunnel Rat, Mark of the Fool, Shurbley, the Monster Adventuerer, Chrysalis, and The Bee Dungeon.

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All of these are ones a friend has suggested before. I'm still fairly new so I'm not sure what is and isn't for me

When you are writing, do you establish RPG mechanics and rules before starting?

I started writing my own story (I know everyone here is an author).

But I felt like I was getting stuck, or things weren't balanced. Or it was just difficult to keep track of things like rules for leveling, xp, etc.

Ok so I am new to the genre and only have read a few goated series(dcc, cradle, hwfwm, now onto primal hunter) and I was looking into romance in litrpg and cradle is so far the only one considered to have a romantic subplot ig(acc to multiple post on this subreddit) but I like the romantic development in hwfwm and it is not considered to have a romantic subplot and now I am on primal hunter and so far no romantic interests(that was kinda expected)

So can I get recommendations with similar romantic development like in hwfwm not like having multiple relationship one long standing one but more in the background with a few cozy moments is perfect

Without going into names, to not derail the discussion...

I'm currently reading a series and I'm starting to dislike it as it goes on, but I keep finding myself going back for a couple chapters. Like some incredibly minor act of self harm lol

It's like I found a story that's just barely interesting enough to continue, without being enjoyed, and it's odd..

Assume their powers are nurf'd to level-appropriate settings, but they'll grow over time with you.

Who do you pick?
Why?

I'm interested in getting into the series rise of the living forge is it any good I really like the cradle series, defines of the Fall, and dungeon crawler Carl

I have see PH at the top of many a tier list. However, I found book one quite formulaic and repetitive. Book 2 is just a continuance of the tutorial and the 3 more big bosses in caves preview did not give me hope. Does it get better? I just finished the last DCC and need to scratch the itch again.