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  1. - Top - End - #61
    Bugbear in the Playground
    Join Date
    Nov 2013

    Default Re: Are stats in LitRPGs just an excuse to avoid writing?

    About the original question: Frequented use of full stat blocks and system pop ups are imo just padding. They add very little and usually describing the change with a short paragraph would be preferable to me. But some readers seem to love stat blocks so maybe it is for them.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    I dunno, people are counting parody webcomics about dnd in a rpg mechanicsverse manner as litrpg, and I've read those, so I wouldn't say 0% exactly, and sometimes you just look at something and you can see the trainwreck coming a mile away before it ever gets out of the station, y'know what I mean? and then you hear people's stories who actually gotten on the train and your like "yeah I don't think its a good idea to get on that train". and then you don't get on.
    Yeah sometimes you can, but other times someone just thinks they can and others can tell that they have no idea what they are talking about. And in this case you don't really know what you are talking about and are criticizing it based on ideas that have little to do with reality. I mean litrpgs are on average low quality even though there are some good ones. Their problems just have little to do with the things you said.

    Quote Originally Posted by Psyren View Post
    Ok, I can get how that would work in a video game/MMO-style isekai like SAO - but how does that work in an actual fantasy setting that isn't part of a simulation? Or does it?
    It varies. The mapping of game mechanics to a world can get rather weird. If it is just base stats it usually isn't much of a problem you just have a different way to mark how strong/tough/smart someone is. Adding hp can lead to weirdness but isn't that much of a problem. Other things can get weird like I have read some with barter skills or similiar that actually lower the costs based on a formula which is odd when trading with other intelligent beings. In many cases a story would be better if it wasn't a litrpg. But sometimes the world just works by weird gamelike rules but it is well integrated in the setting and works fine.

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    It is probably telling that of all the LitRPG novels I've read - a fair bit cause there are a lot of them on Kindle Unlimited and they're decent mindless fodder - the only one I ever really enjoyed was a loving satire of the genre. Written by an author who also produced serious LitRPG books, so it was obviously poking fun rather than pretentious 'durr look how original i am by subverting tropes'. But a satire all the same it was, and the fun was in the characters rather than the stat blocks.
    Do you have a name, am interested in reading a good litrpg satire?

  2. - Top - End - #62
    Eldritch Horror in the Playground Moderator
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Are stats in LitRPGs just an excuse to avoid writing?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ibrinar View Post
    Do you have a name, am interested in reading a good litrpg satire?
    Sure, it was called Cat Core, by Dean Henegar. From the Amazon-page blurb:

    It was just supposed to be a quick trip to the pet store for some cat food, but the universe had other plans for Florence Valentine.

    Good-for-nothing kids and some annoying store employees were giving her a hard time, and then things got worse when she was killed by a delivery truck. Instead of angels, pearly gates, and eternal rewards, a voice in her head keeps telling her that she’s become a dungeon core, whatever that is.

    Now people keep coming into her new home, wrecking stuff, and stealing from her. But not everything about this whole ordeal is bad. Not only can Florence decorate her home with a thought, but she can also create the best things in the entire universe—she can create kitty-cats.

    Should these hooligans keep insisting on coming into her home, well, Florence and her kitties are going to have something to say about that.

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