A world straight out of a Role Playing Game. Some are adaptations of either
computer RPGs or
tabletop RPGs. Others were created independently, inspired by these games and their cultural ancestors.
Will use some, if not most, of the
Role-Playing Game Terms, but how many obviously depends on the writers.
Often set in
The Time of Myths or
Medieval European Fantasy with any technology being
Lost Technology or perhaps
Schizo Tech. Compare
RPG Mechanics Verse.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Bastard!!
- Dragon Ball. You've got healing items (Hyperactive Metabolism, especially Senzu Beans), techniques, weapons, armor which alters attributes (Saiyan Armor boosts resilience, Weighted Training Clothes sacrifice agility for more experience points), status ailments (fatigue, heart virus), races with associated abilities (Sayians can transform and get a power boost after a near-death battle, Nameks can regenerate, merge, and create minions at will), and power levels.
- Elemental Gelade
- Fairy Tail. Guilds? Check. Mission board? Check. Stat improving armor sets? Check. Expansion Pack World? Oh yeah.
- The Slayers, though its cosmology is unusually complex. The Mazoku and Shinzoku took Order Vs Chaos as the basis for a fairly complex existential-religious debate—their war is a theological dispute over how best to honor the Lord of Nightmares, and whether her creation (the (multi)verse) is a good or bad thing.
- Pokémon
- Rune Soldier Louie, which takes place in Forcelia, the world created for Lodoss.
- Legend Of Crystania, which also takes place in Forcelia.
- Those Who Hunt Elves
- The first Alternate Universe in Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai was a spoof of the Role-Playing Game Verse.
- Magic Knight Rayearth. Fuu repeatedly even comments about how Cephiro is like a roleplaying game.
- The realm of Lacroa from the SD Gundam Force metaseries. Based on a one-shot gag short from the original SD Gundam OAV series that featured the protagonists of the first three Gundam shows as characters in an RPG.
- The anime and manga series MÄR.
- Tower Of God has several different character classes, scouts, close-range fighters, long range fighters, magicians, scouts and a Mission Control character class in which each cast member falls. They do this to have a functional team in their quest to reach the top of the Tower, scaling it floor by floor, in other words level by level. Their equipment and basic skills*
most characters have frickin' stat cards in the manual
are from F to A with a special S Class and decimal sub units (10-1). And once the Regulars reach the top, they get ranked based on how they performed during their ascension. The best thing about it: it takes some time until you notice that.
- Beet The Vandel Buster takes this a little further than most, with direct references to level grinding and all Busters having their level emblazoned on their chests in roman numerals. Vandals also have a similar system, but this is a slightly more organic 'star' system, where they're rated on the number of crystals implanted into them.
- Neo Angelique
- Magicus Mundus in Mahou Sensei Negima!.
- Mahoujin Guru Guru is an older example than many entries here.
- The Tower of Druaga is a world in which people get together on a regular basis with stock RPG archetypes to invade the giant tower, some merely for treasure, some hoping to reach the top and slay the evil god Druaga who created it.
- Persona 4 the Animation keeps the date-change and character-stats screens from the actual game, giving it this feel.
Literature
- Record of Lodoss War is a direct adaptation of an actual Dungeons & Dragons-like campaign played by its creators back in college. Sword World RPG was made out of the Lodoss setting; the first Lodoss light novel was based on the RPG.
- The fantasy series Guardians of the Flame has the college professor Game Master of a gaming group turn out to be a wizard from a fantasy world that operates under similar rules. He sends his players through once they've reached a certain point in the game to see if they can bring peace to his world.
- Or at least kill the enemy wizard who banished him to our plane.
- Novelizations of Role-Playing Game Settings fall here.
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen as fitting, the setting was born out of Dungeons & Dragons and GURPS gaming.
- David Weber's The War Gods series was born out of his personal game.
Video Games
Web Comics
- Many webcomics take place in a more or less literal Role Playing Game Verse.
- MSF High definitely qualifies, though it's not immediately obvious. Switches to the sister trope when characters become Inspired, a specific class.
- Problem Sleuth is both this and an Adventure Game Verse, leaning more heavily towards RPG mechanics in the later half of the series.
- Homestuck also utilizes many RPG tropes once the game of Sburb starts.
- Cucumber Quest is brimming with Affectionately parodied RPG story tropes. Although RPG game mechanics have not been significantly referenced in-story, the site's character bio page actually assigns RPG stats to each character.
Web Original
Western Animation
