this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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Just started the audiobook for Dungeon Crawler Carl a few days ago. Love the narration. Genre is LitRPG, which I understand to mean you're reading about someone playing a game, as I understand it. So it's not literature, but it is fun.
I feel like the pitch meeting or whatever inspired him to write this book went like this:
Teacher/Instructor: Write what you know
Matt Dinniman: I don't know shit. All I'm good at is, I've beaten NetHack over 37 times!
Teacher/Instructor: Well write about that then...
...and he did.
I'm not sure if there's a closer game than NetHack (or Hack or Rogue) that the game part of DCC would be about. Obviously the end-of-the-world stuff is tacked on, and the achievements and loot boxes make it modern, but the core gameplay seems to be taken from NetHack. And if you've ever played that damned game, you know how hard it is and how rare wins actually are. But we're not here to talk about games, so I won't get into what it is.
LitRPG doesn't necessarily mean you are reading about someone playing a game, although there are definitely those types of books as well. I'm my eyes it is a story that has rpg elements built into the story. MC's gaining levels, items with stats, or even building a town that a building increases x resource per day.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a great series. I just don't recommend listening to it in the car with the little ones lol. If you like the DCC books there is another LitRPG book. The name escapes me at the moment but it's about a guy that is working at an RV Park in the desert when the apocalypse comes. It's also a very good series, I'll see if I can't find the name somewhere.
Thanks. I'm new to LitRPG and that was my impression. I realise Crawler Carl isn't playing a game, it's his reality (unless it ends up being all a dream or something), but it's very game-like.
Then there's Ready Player One where they're playing a sort of real-life game (the egg hunt), but I wouldn't call it a LitRPG.
You are thinking of BuyMort the Shopocalypse Saga and it is also great!
More litRPG would come in the form of Beware of Chicken which is actually referenced a few times later on in the series of books when he talks about the cloudy sword sect and Raul the Crabs general existence seems to be to nod to beware of chicken.
Also Solo Levelling is great too