Noobtown is a series of LitRPG novels by Ryan Rimmel. It currently consists of six books:
- The Mayor of Noobtown (2019)
- The Village of Noobtown (2019)
- Castle of the Noobs (2020)
- Dungeons and Noobs (2020)
- Noob Game Plus (2021)
- Nautical Noobs (2021)
A guy named Jim is killed in a car accident and finds himself reborn in another world called Ordinal that appears to function like an RPG game (with Stat-O-Vision and skills and everything). He quickly partners with a demon (well, more like they're forced to work together), whom he names Shart for lack of a better name (and because he doesn't like him). Guided by Shart, he looks for a Green Hill Zone in order to get his starting gear. However, this world is old and long-abandoned by the higher beings, so many things are not what they used to be. Jim finds that not only has the First Town of Windfall been abandoned by its people, but it has been occupied by goblins afterwards. After clearing out the goblins, he becomes the founder and mayor of the town, restoring its protective barrier. Not much later, he rescues a group of people from goblins and brings them back to the town, slowly building it back up to what it used to be.
But this is just the beginning of his adventures in this new world. And would people please quit making fun of his name?
The series provides examples of the following tropes:
- Brick Joke: Earlier on in Book 1, Jim uses a dead Goblin to help him make a bow. Later on after a couple of days in-story the goblin starts to rot and Jim has to clean it up.
- Brutal Honesty: When Shart asks Jim to rank up enough to be able to open the demonic doorway for him, Jim sarcastically wonders when Shart is going to betray him, not really expecting an answer. Shart immediately says that he'll do it as soon as they're through the doorway. When Jim asks why he just told him the truth, Shart says an obvious lie, and Jim realizes that their magical bond allows him to sense when Shart is lying, so there's no point in Shart telling an obvious lie. Omissions are fine, though.
- Dem Bones: Animated skeletons may be quick and strong, but they also weigh only about 30 pounds (Truth in Television, human bones are only about 15% of total body weight) and are pretty fragile. Jim is able to easily pick them up and either slam them against the ground or walls or just use them against their fellows.
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Demonic Spiders: Feckin Pumas. The three main character have legit PTSD after two days of constantly being ambushed by them in the Feckin Puma Forest. - Dire Beast: Wargs are dogs or wolves that have been fed a special potion by goblins to make them significantly larger. They are typically used as mounts. A warg's abilities depend on the breed of dog or wolf that originated them. For example, those that come from mountain dogs are able to climb walls. Jim manages to befriend a warg named Kappa by learning to speak Warg (well, understanding their growls and ear movements as speech).
- Domed Hometown: Windfall originally had a magical barrier protecting it from outsiders. But a barrier requires a mayor, and the town hasn't had one in a long time (or any residents for that matter). After Jim kills the goblins occupying it and claims mayorship, the barrier is reinstated, although attacking from within the barrier drops it for 5 minutes. Any enemy passing through the barrier instantly becomes a Man on Fire. Only the mayor can permit outsiders to enter either by marking them as residents or visitors. Visitors can freely pass through the barrier, but if they attack any resident, their status automatically changes to "enemy", and they get incinerated by the barrier. The second novel reveals that the shield doesn't extend underground, which is why there could still be animated skeletons and man-sized rats under the town. However, should they go up to the surface, they'd instantly catch fire. When Jim captures a nearby mine from the goblins and claims it, it likewise generates a shield... that doesn't extend underground, so any goblin that fled down there will need to be hunted down by Jim personally.
- Everyone Has Standards: Shart is pretty self-interested, rude, obnoxious, and just unpleasant. However there's been a few times where he's just been horrified by what's going on, both comdically and not comedically.
- When Jim uses a Goblin Corpse that's gone stiff to help him craft, he goes "What the fuck Jim!?"
- Evil Overlord: The Dark Overlord is a godling who rules over much of this world. Shart plans to destroy him and claim the world for himself. But he needs Jim for that.
- Freudian Trio: Badgerlor, Jim, and Shart. However unlike most examples, Badgelor and Shart's plans both favor murder, just either instinctually or well thought out.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Subverted. Shart advises intelligent, tactical murder while Badgelor favors barbaric, mindless murder.
- Immediate Sequel: The second novel starts moments after the first. In fact, it starts with Jim saying the same words that end the first novel.
- The Lost Lenore: Jim often thinks back to his wife and kids back on Earth, knowing he'll never see them again, but at least somewhat mollified by the fact that his life insurance policy should set them up for life.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: "I'm going to send an invite to everyone I want to bring in with me. I will also send one to Bashara."
- Narnia Time: Grebthar introduced many '80s pop culture references to Ordinal about a thousand years ago in Ordinal time.
- Noodle Implements / Take Our Word for It: Anytime Jim uses Improvised Tools, the text humorously describes what the bizarre and unlikely items are that he's using to accomplish the task, but never how they're used.
- The one time it's obvious how it was used, a Goblin body in rigor mortis and a broom to make something to hold a bow he was working on, it's most likely for the best.
- Only One Name: Still groggy from his recent death and resurrection, Jim sees his character sheet and a strange name, so he edits it to what he can recall of his own name. He regrets it later on, when anyone he meets wonders why his parents hated him so much they named him Jim, "just Jim". See also We Named the Monkey "Jack" below.
- Our Demons Are Different: Shart is a powerful demon at the start of the novel, but when he follows Jim into this world, he's forced to appear as a small imp with baby arms and legs. After Jim kills him with a stick, Shart reappears as a level 1 demon, barely able to do anything. He's forced to partner up with Jim, explaining that he'll need Jim to be a much higher character in order to open the demonic doorway out of this world for Shart.
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Everyone is aware of character sheets, levels, skills, etc. Everyone can see another person's name and basic stats, while those with the Lore skill can see additional details. When Jim wonders how this can work, Shart explains that this is the norm in The Multiverse. Earth is the odd one out, being a non-magical world without any such mechanics, created largely as an experiment. Jim occasionally makes sarcastic comments regarding the way Ordinal functions, like the fact that a level 4 sawmill can double the quantity and sturdiness of wood compared to that of a level 2 sawmill.
- Running Gag: Jim has a few.
- "I hate this place" or "I miss my wife" whenever he has to deal with the insanity that is the Ordinal system.
- Jim, Shart, and Badgerlor being paranoid over Pumas continue for the rest of the series after book 2.
- Shout-Out: The descriptions of the skills, classes, perks, and jobs occasionally make references to Earth's pop culture, which is odd given that Ordinal is supposed to be significantly older than Earth.
- The description for the Dodgeball skill says, "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."
- One of the longest demon-summoning chants starts with "You know the rules and so do I".
- Straight for the Commander: In massed combat (i.e. battles), it's impossible to use a ranged or magical attack on the enemy commander, although killing them in melee combat is acceptable. When Jim tries to aim his crossbow at a goblin in charge of a pack, he finds that his aim is all over the place. When Shart asks if things weren't like this on Earth, Jim says that it's common to shoot commanders in battles. All Shart can do is wonder how weird our wars must be.
- Title Drop: The last words of the first novel are "I'm the fucking mayor of Noobtown."
- Too Dumb to Live: In the first novel, one of the higher-level goblins, a caster, gets really close to Jim after the barrier goes down, since Jim bluffs him into believing that it's still up, and the goblin is unwilling to test it himself, and his subordinates are too scared to try as well. So he goes right to the edge of the barrier, with Jim on the other side, forgetting that Jim is quite good with daggers. Naturally, Jim grabs him with one hand and drives a dagger into his eye with the other (sneak attack bonus). The other goblins run away.
- Virtuous Character Copy. While Sir Dalton is quite explicitly based physically and mentally on Gaston, he's actually a genuinely good and honorable person.
- We Named the Monkey "Jack": Near the end of the first novel, Jim learns that one of the reasons the people of this world find his name so ridiculous is because it's this world's equivalent of "Spot", i.e. a common dog's name. There's even an in-universe book series for very young children titled "Jim, The Curious Puppy".
- You Have Researched Breathing: Given that everything that can possibly be done is a learned skill on Ordinal, Jim wonders why breathing isn't and wouldn't be surprised if it was. Some skills are learned if you happened to hear someone mention it.
