The defining distinctions between various litrpg tropes; and some problems associated with them.

There’s a rising genre of literature that heavily relies on Stat points, Experience Points, HP\MP, Level ups, Skills, Achievements, Quests, NPCs, mobs (and sometimes mob re-spawns), item drops, and so on for worldbuilding and storytelling.

For quite some time, TVTropes’ own two main categories for stories like this were RPG Mechanics 'Verse and Sudden Game Interface, and it was mainly ok because there weren’t that many stories included under those pages. Now, however, having only these pages — without any strict definitions discussed and agreed upon by the community — is starting to show some problems.

For instance, several other rather large communities — including the field of Russian modern fantasy literature and the Goodreads community — use the term LitRPG for stories like this. The Russian fanbase seems to even go as far as to be distinguishing three different subgenres for stories like this: “LitRPG”, “LitRPG + Fantasy” (?), and “RealRPG”. I think the first is supposed to be about stories that are about people playing VRMMORPGs, the second — about similar stories but with elements of fantasy, and the third — about RPG environments influencing real world. If there’s someone reading this who’s more knowledgeable about the notions of the Russian fanbase in this regard, please feel free to correct or elaborate on my desctiption.

So anyway, one problem is that because of poorly established definitions (e.g. with RPG Mechanics 'Verse), people are now starting to edit that article’s description trying to point out what they think should be included on that index page and what should not. I suggest deciding what each article should be about early on so that no useless conflicts will be rising out of nothing down the line.

Another problem is that outside of the TVTropes community, the “RPG Mechanics Verse” term isn’t being used that often; and it’s often just plain awkward to use in conversations, compared, for instance, to the same above-mentioned LitRPG. So on one hand, renaming RPGMechanicsVerse into LitRPG would better connect TVTropes’ categorisation efforts to other communities; but on the other hand using a term that’s also actively being used by at least some publishing houses and marketing groups could backfire if such groups decided to change the meaning later own and\or hijack it. What do you think should\could be done regarding this?

And finally, regarding the distinctions between RPG Mechanics 'Verse and Sudden Game Interface — almost by definition all stories included in the RPG Mechanics 'Verse index should also be included under Sudden Game Interface, which makes keeping the two articles at the same time if not redundant, then at least counter-efficient at its current state. What could be done to make having\keeping them both more useful?

There needs to be a good page for litrpg specifically. That simple.

Sudden Game Interface refers to a GUI-like HUD, whereas RPG Mechanics 'Verse requires everyone follow the same set of rules. They do not always go together. The Gamer does not operate in an RPG (but the titular protagonist does have a SGI which allows him and a few others to operate as if it were) while The Order of the Stick does operate in an RPG (but there's no GUI).

Bump because I was thinking of making a genre page for this. I've been on a LitRPG kick recently.

I found two unlaunched TLPs; the first seemed well-written and had enough hats to launch, but got nuked. The second is less well-written and has enough bombs to nuke it. Neither one has a specific explanation listed for why it was nuked.

Any thoughts on this?

- Mine was nuked 'cause apparently RPG Mechanics 'Verse was supposed to take it?

I was going to go to Locked Pages, then thought to go to TLP. ... Maybe make the redirect then try the TLP again?

LitRPG has 3 wicks, currently.