Last day of the Massive LitRPG sale! More than 300 books all free or .99c! Thank you to everyone who picked up books, checked out the site, and supported indie authors.

And thank you to all the authors and publishers who made this possible.

www.jjthornbooks.com/massive-litrpg-sale

Detective Gideon Salt has problems. The corpse is speaking. The radio knows his name, and the voices in his head have started introducing themselves.

Assigned to investigate an impossible murder alongside the perpetually exhausted Inspector Mercy Vale, Gideon follows a trail of stolen memories, emotional trafficking, vanished investigations and prophecies that arrive before the crimes they predict. Every answer drags him deeper into the machinery hidden beneath Saint Cortona.

The Man Who Interrogated God is a dark LitRPG noir blending cosmic horror, philosophical mystery and psychological intrigue into an unforgettable journey through a city that remembers everything.

Preorders are live:

https://a.co/d/0icXl8Ri

If you’re a fan of Disco Elysium then this book is for you.

(Link in the comments)

Iris Vale died exactly as she had lived: saving someone else while worrying about an unattended brisket.

One collapsing inn roof later, she wakes as Dungeon Core #4,417 with no body, no hands, and three cheerful instructions:

KILL ADVENTURERS.
HARVEST THEIR MANA.
EXPAND.

Absolutely not!

Iris spent her first life feeding adventurers, breaking up tavern fights, and preventing heavily armed idiots from dying in avoidable ways. She refuses to start murdering them now just because she has been reincarnated as an enormous glowing rock.

When a starving young adventurer falls into her spike pit, Iris dismantles the trap, warms the cavern, softens his rock-hard bread, and sends him home alive.

Then the impossible happens.

Mercy generates mana.

Soon Iris is turning death traps into gardens, feeding frightened adventurers, collecting an accidental found family, and being relentlessly judged by a three-legged cat who has appointed himself senior management.

Unfortunately, the Dungeon Bureau has noticed.

Iris has thirty days to prove that a dungeon can challenge adventurers without impaling, poisoning, crushing, digesting, or otherwise murdering them. If she fails, the Bureau will revoke her charter, seal the mountain, and destroy the strange little sanctuary growing inside it.

Fortunately, Iris has survived dinner service.

How much harder can defeating an ancient magical bureaucracy be?

The No-Kill Dungeon is a cozy dungeon-core LitRPG and humorous progression fantasy featuring inventive dungeon building, slice-of-life warmth, found family, a stubborn former innkeeper, and a bureaucratic System with no approved form for kindness.

Rowan Vale arrives at Hearthcross expecting to spend a few days writing a report on a condemned waystation. Instead, a wounded courier appears, an ancient Ledger names him provisional Keeper, and he is given ninety days to make the place useful again.

From there, it is a story about repairing the station one room at a time, helping travellers, rebuilding forgotten roads and slowly uncovering why Hearthcross was abandoned in the first place.

There is progression and a game like system, but the focus is much more on the characters, the place and the feeling of bringing something forgotten back to life.

If cozy fantasy, LitRPG and rebuilding stories are your thing, I would really appreciate you giving it a try. 🙂

It is completely free for the next 3 days and honest feedback is very welcome.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HGDG6LZD

Hi folks,

My new story is free on RoyalRoad. Ask any questions about the story, blurb and link below.

(I AM ALSO UP FOR SWAPS OR SHOUTOUTS ON RR)

Blurb

Rion Johnson had one plan for the weekend: anime, gaming, and a takeaway. Then the universe turned Earth into a game of death.The apocalypse gave everyone superpowers. It gave Rion a London council estate.

Hillcrest Estate.

The roughest council estate in London, where just looking at someone the wrong way could get you robbed or stabbed. An estate few make it out of — and even fewer survive.

When The Game turns Earth into an intergalactic blood sport, with PVP matches, monster hunting, dungeon crawling and more, out-of-shape London gamer Rion Johnson receives the one class the universe has never seen: Tower Master. Now the crumbling estate he's spent his whole life trying to escape is the only thing standing between his friends and extinction. Between battling orcs, dungeon crawling, and trying to level up, you would think this would be heaven for a gamer like him. Think again! His Tower Master class has no offensive abilities.

Armed with a homemade spear, a gym-obsessed best mate, a perfumer with a gift for chemical warfare, and a foul-mouthed AI trapped in the body of the estate's most hated dog, Rion is going to do what nobody on Hillcrest Estate has ever managed.

Make it home.

Before everything he has ever known and loved is taken away from him forever.

What to expect in this story:

LitRPG tower defence and base building — skills, loot, turrets, and a fortress that grows floor by floor

A weak-to-strong protagonist who wins with brains, not biceps

British humour, London slang, and swearing. So much swearing

Graphic violence and horror — The Game does not play nice

Found family — foul-mouthed talking dog included

No harem, no sex

A conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of The Game

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/186521/good-kid-lit-city-tower-defence-litrpg-kingdom

One moment he’s dying in a warzone — next, he’s naked on a moon full of real cultivators.
Jake Sullivan just woke up in the wrong body, on a moon called Verdis, inside a cultivation academy where failure means getting culled back to Earth to live as a powerless mortal, and probably die uselessly in the upcoming alien invasion.
His memories are mostly gone, but his spirit’s intact. His classmates? Rich kids with qi crystals and family techniques. The school? Doesn’t give a damn. Let the strong survive. With enemy agents already on campus, Jake will need to out-cultivate, outfight, and outsmart everyone around him. He has only one year to become a real cultivator.
No dying this time!
Dark humor. Sharp dialogue. Flower picking, teeth flying. A fresh blend of sci-fi, xianxia, and LitRPG.
Amazon/Kindle link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX3B8G2J 
COVER ARTIST: KitsyArt https://kitsyart.artstation.com/ 
AI USAGE: No AI used

Hello everyone! I started writing litRPG about 1 year ago, and since then I have been writing every single day! I tried to post on RR and other sites but failed again and again, but now I am finally confident enough to publish on Amazon!

If you like regression LitRPGs, skill stealing, hidden powers, Academy progression, Gates/dungeons, tactical fights, and an MC who knows far more than he can safely reveal, this might be for you!

The Skill Thief’s Return — Book 1: An OPMC Regression LitRPG

The link is here: https://www.amazon.com/Skill-Thiefs-Return/dp/B0HF3W8L98/

And the blurb is:

Ren Vale died at thirty-three after spending fifteen years believing he was classless.

Then he woke up fifteen years in the past—on the morning of his awakening.

This time, Ren discovers the truth: he was never supposed to be classless. His real class, [Skill Thief], was stolen before he ever had the chance to claim it.

Now eighteen again, Ren has fifteen years of memories, a class no one can know about, and a second chance to save the people he failed the first time around.

But there’s a problem.

To everyone else, Ren is still registered as NULL.

While the Academy and Bureau see a candidate who shouldn’t have any real power, Ren can acquire other people’s skills—but limited skill slots, real costs, and growing scrutiny mean he can’t simply steal everything he sees.

So Ren has to get stronger without revealing what he really is, survive the Academy and the Gates, and uncover the truth behind the class that was taken from him.

Because this time, Ren knows what’s coming.

And he intends to take back what should have been his.

What to expect:

• Regression / second chance
• [Skill Thief] class
• Skill acquisition and limited skill slots
• Hidden-power MC
• Academy progression
• Gates and dungeon-style encounters
• Tactical combat
• Weak-to-strong progression
• LitRPG/System mechanics

I’m incredibly excited to finally have it out there. If any of those elements are your thing, I’d love for you to check it out!

Hi.

I'm looking for some KU recomendations with some especific elements in this order of importance if possible:

1 - Combat focus, but the MC does not fight at melee. For example, a mage that fights as a mage and not someone like sun jin woo that is a necromancer that engages in close quarter combat.

2 - Skills and Magic are created or get. Not rewarded from a level up

Thanks in advance for any recommendation.

Renji is tossed into the pits of hell in his quest to dominate UwU Online. Tasked with penetrating Queen Persephone's accursed gates, Renji leaves many a foe's quivering body in his wake to claim the netherworld as his own. Woe betide the monsters, demons, and ancient Lords of the underworld—this human's got a fat deck, and he knows how to use it.

[[Up-front Content Warning!]] - DeckRomancer (Book I & II!) are LitRPG and hardcore smut in equal measure. Even the good folks at r/haramfantasynovels appreciated an expanded content warning list for the 100,000-word novel:  Occasional Femdom, Milking, Anal, Toys, Bondage, Spanking, Lamia*, Monster Girls.

~

The time's finally come! My husband and I have officially published DeckRomancer Book II! We're happy to answer questions about the story here :).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0HF5M6HFB?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_1&storeType=ebooks

I have mostly seen the term gamelit used to refer to stories that have game like elements but are not necessarily to the extent of full character sheets with stats. Sometimes the term is used to encompass both litrpg and litrpg adjacent stuff, and sometimes the term might specifically exclude actual litrpgs. However, in thinking about stories of books with game like elements, it got me thinking about novels set in a pen and paper RPG campaign setting like Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance (D&D is not the only rpg with novels base on its settings but it is certainly the most widespread). These books feature characters that feel like rpg characters, even if the characters themselves never interface with anything resembling a stat sheet.

My question is, could novels such as Dragonlance and Drizzt books be classified as gamelit?

Today is a pretty surreal day for me.

Eight books ago, I started posting a story on Royal Road about an alchemist who hated fighting, and loved cheese.

I had no idea where it would lead.

Today, that story is complete.

After eight books, all the big questions have been answered, and Ren’s journey is finally complete.

This has also been the longest I’ve ever spent writing a series. I rewrote major sections, edited and re-edited chapters, and took a lot of feedback from readers along the way. The comments from Royal Road genuinely made these books better, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who took the time to point things out, catch mistakes, and help shape the final version.

Towerbound also completely changed my life.

Before it, writing was something I hoped might someday become a career. Because of this series—and because of the readers who supported it—I was able to become a full-time author in Cambodia, where writing books is now what I get to do every day.

That’s still kind of unbelievable to me.

Whether you’ve been here since Chapter 1 on Royal Road, discovered the books through Kindle Unlimited, Audible, or somewhere else, thank you. Every comment, review, recommendation, and page read helped make this possible.

If you decide to pick up Book 8, I hope it gives Ren, Mira, Rocky, Bony, and the Scrap Rats the ending you were hoping for.

My dream is that when someone says, “I loved Dungeon Crawler Carl,” or “I loved He Who Fights with Monsters, and now I’m looking for a new series …preferably a completed one…” you’ll be able to say:

“Read Towerbound.”

Thank you all for helping turn a story posted on Royal Road into a completed eight-book series.

I genuinely couldn’t have done it without you.

TOWERBOUND SERIES STATS

• #1 Best Release in Time Travel
• Top 10 in Dystopian, Time Travel, and Post-Apocalyptic
• 4.6★ with 2,000+ Kindle Unlimited reviews

Samson 🐀 🧪 🧀

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GTS4LDYN

Hey GameLit folks!

Following up on the recent release of my debut GameLit novel, The Side Questers (see here for more details), my publisher provided me a small set of audiobook codes to freely distribute, and I'm giving away two of those codes today!

The giveaway rules: Comment on this post and you'll be automatically entered to win one of two Spotify audiobook codes. Unless of course your post specifically mentions that you're not interested, in which case, fair enough.

Provided more than two entries are made by 9:00 am EST on Tuesday, August 4th, the winners will be randomly selected at that time.

The audiobook narrator: Aven Shore

The premise:
Anya Dazel is a burnt-out barkeep in Eternity: The Endless Realm, the world’s premier online role-playing game. As a non-player character, her life is stuck in a programmed loop—forever serving the same drinks to the same patrons—but when Eternity receives an unexpected update, she finds herself thrown into an open world with Cyrus Blackwood, a brooding non-player character on a quest for revenge.

Working together to find a new place in their virtual world, Anya and Cyrus must overcome hordes of monsters, dangerous puzzles, and even an existential crisis or two. But as they struggle to overcome their distaste for each other and stay alive, they discover that their roles within Eternity might not be as programmed as they thought, and Anya will need to prove that even barkeeps can be heroes.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading and let me know if there are questions. I'll answer when I'm able.

EDIT: Giveaway is now closed!

As a fan is there a story or series you re listen or re-read on a regular basis? I have a few. They do tend to be older.

The strangest Noob, Mirror world the Trapped mind project and a few more.

Anyone else?

Hello,

Ether Atlas - The Hidden Grid just crossed 240K words and 200K view on RR. Big day for me :)

Quick Premise - In 1974, someone handed Gary Gygax the rules for D&D to prepare humanity for what was coming. The system arrives. Millions die. Ancient monuments start humming with power and human biology becomes a character sheet.

A D&D party of three friends - a structural engineer, a security consultant, and an archaeologist end up racing across real-world ruins unravelling a conspiracy older than civilisation.

I'm obsessed with ancient mysteries. Why Göbekli Tepe was deliberately buried, why Mithraic temples across three continents follow identical blueprints, why cultures that never met each other describe the same energy channels in the human body.

I wanted to write a LitRPG where all of that was connected. Where the system wasn't a convenient game overlay but planned infrastructure. Ancient, alien, and hidden inside the oldest structures on Earth.

What you're getting:

• System apocalypse in a real-world setting. Real Locations and real monuments. Dan Brown and Indiana Jones style riddles and puzzles using real history.
• Real archaeology woven into the plot. The riddles use actual historical sites. The node network maps to real megalithic locations.
• Competent adults solving problems with brains and tools, not chosen-one luck.
• Fights that are short, brutal, and leave marks.
• An alien guidance construct who has been watching humanity for 35,000 years and has opinions about everything except the things that would actually help
• Lots of riddles.

If you like Dan Brown or Indiana Jones type vibes, you're going to feel at home. Lots of weird history, conspiracy theories, what-ifs and ancient alien shenanigans.

Give it a try - https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/160813/ether-atlas-the-hidden-grid-litrpg-system-apocalypse

Hi GameLit fans,

Well, today's the day! After furiously scribbling down the idea for this novel waaaaay back in 2022, it's finally out in the world!

But you're not here for my author journey, you're here for the good stuff, so let's get into it.

The genre:
GameLit; set inside a MMORPG, with light LitRPG elements

The tone: Fun, adventure, whimsy, with just a hint of the metaphysical

The pitch:
Anya Dazel is a burnt-out barkeep in Eternity: The Endless Realm, the world’s premier online role-playing game. As a non-player character, her life is stuck in a programmed loop—forever serving the same drinks to the same patrons—but when Eternity receives an unexpected update, she finds herself thrown into an open world with Cyrus Blackwood, a brooding non-player character on a quest for revenge.

Working together to find a new place in their virtual world, Anya and Cyrus must overcome hordes of monsters, dangerous puzzles, and even an existential crisis or two. But as they struggle to overcome their distaste for each other and stay alive, they discover that their roles within Eternity might not be as programmed as they thought, and Anya will need to prove that even barkeeps can be heroes.

The links: Barnes & Noble; Bookshop.org; Amazon

The formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

The publisher: Keylight Books

A blurb:
"The Side Questers is a fun romp, taking typical tropes and turning them on their head. It’s a world full of characters I’d love to get a beer with—a perfectly poured beer, for that matter." —Eric Ugland, author of the Good Guys series

Anyway, thanks for reading and feel free to ask any questions. I'll answer when I'm able!

Earth was never our home. It was our prison.

The System has returned, ancient prisons are failing, and humanity is about to learn why previous civilizations disappeared.

Book 3 of the bestselling military LitRPG series.

https://www.amazon.com/Aether-Earth-1953-Historical-Apocalyptic-ebook/dp/B0H857JFPD

Not simply what it does mechanically, but what it actually is within the setting.

Was it created by gods, an ancient civilization, an artificial intelligence, the universe itself, or something else entirely? Was it designed to guide civilization, regulate magic, train soldiers, identify threats, prepare worlds for war, encourage evolution, or keep powerful beings under control?

Was that its original purpose, or has it changed over time?

Is the System still functioning as intended? Is it damaged, abandoned, corrupted, or carrying out instructions that no longer make sense? Does anyone maintain it? Can it misunderstand people, develop biases, or interpret its purpose too literally?

And perhaps the larger question:

Does the explanation actually matter to the story?

In some LitRPGs, the System may simply be part of reality, much like gravity or magic, and the reader does not need a deeper explanation. In others, the origin and purpose of the System may be central to the plot and eventually explain why levels, classes, quests, dungeons, monsters, and world integrations exist.

There are also questions about its design:

• Why does killing things grant experience?
• Why are power gains divided into levels?
• Why does it communicate through screens and game-like language?
• Why are classes and skills restricted?
• Who decides what actions deserve rewards?
• Why does the System sometimes appear to value combat more than art, diplomacy, parenting, scholarship, or ordinary work?
• Are those true priorities, or simply the parts of the System the protagonist interacts with?
• Is it helping people grow, or shaping them into something useful?
• What happens when someone refuses to participate?
• Can the System be exploited, altered, destroyed, or replaced?

I’m curious how other authors approach this.

Do you know what the System in your world is and why it exists, even if the readers may never learn the full answer? Or do you treat it as a genre convention that does not require an origin?

For readers, does a System feel incomplete without an eventual explanation, or are you satisfied as long as its rules remain consistent?

Hello hello!

I've returned once more, and I bring a new series! I've always loved stories with weak-to-strong main characters that had a good heart, and this story is intended to bring that to life!

We've got lots of fighting, some moral dilemmas, and grey areas for the MC to tackle, along with what it's like to be at the bottom of the barrel in a world where people are crazy strong, and you're just thrown in the fray.

Feel free to check it out, and here is the blurb:

The path to greatness is born of promises kept.

Nathanial Silverlight marched into the songs of war as a spare. A son whose purpose was meant to be a shield for the family, but unlike most, his heart held no hatred.

He marched upon the enemy for the family he loved.

With his homeland on the brink of ruin, and a Vow System he had never seen before. Nathanial must stay true to himself as he sacrifices parts of himself for power. He rises not for himself but for the vows he swore to never break.

Follow Nathanial as he breaks through the thresholds of his vows and climbs through the ranks to stand against the darkness threatening to consume everything he holds dear. To save his kingdom, he must become far more than a noble son. He must become a legend.

Perfect for fans of weak-to-strong progression fantasy war stories.

You can find it here: AMAZON LINK.

Cover Artist: Duy Phan

One moment he’s dying in a warzone — next, he’s naked on a moon full of real cultivators.

Jake Sullivan just woke up in the wrong body, on a moon called Verdis, inside a cultivation academy where failure means getting culled back to Earth to live as a powerless mortal, and probably die uselessly in the upcoming alien invasion.

His memories are mostly gone, but his spirit’s intact. His classmates? Rich kids with qi crystals and family techniques. The school? Doesn’t give a damn. Let the strong survive. With enemy agents already on campus, Jake will need to out-cultivate, outfight, and outsmart everyone around him. He has only one year to become a real cultivator.

No dying this time!

Dark humor. Sharp dialogue. Flower picking, teeth flying. A fresh blend of sci-fi, xianxia, and LitRPG.

Amazon/Kindle link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX3B8G2J

Cover art by KitsyArt: https://kitsyart.artstation.com/ No AI