LitRPG and the Lessons of Zelda

A scenic view of a beach with two palm trees on sandy shores, overlooking calm teal waters. A large, rugged rock formation rises prominently against a clear blue sky with a couple of lens flares.

I was reading an article at Wired this evening (With Breath of the Wild, Zelda Finally Loses Its Way. And I Love It), and a certain paragraph reminded me of the current state of the LitRPG genre. This isn’t a mind-blowing observation …

Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy Books: LitRPG?

Cover of You Are The Hero by Jonathan Green. Features a group of fantasy characters, including a warrior, wizard, and creatures, in a dynamic battle scene. Text: A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks with a circular emblem at the bottom center.

I would say these are probably some of the very first LitRPG books – even though they didn’t have the moniker that a group of Russian writers came up with back in 2010. Anyway, here’s a look at some books that gave me hours of role-playing excitement when I didn’t have any friends around to play D&D with. Do you remember these books?

My Gaming History: Part One

An ASCII art styled RPG game screen showing options and stats: HP, ATK, MP, and Gold. A quest to Destroy the raiders in the Rogue Camp is listed. Options include locations like Grassy Fields, Blacksmith, and Tavern.

Oh, my. Where to begin. I guess it came with writing my own Zork-like adventure in Basic on an IBM PC clone ordered via phone direct from China. The 80s, a wonderful decade as Ready Player One so masterfully shows. Back then, …