I've been working on my first LitRPG novel and am wondering what peoples thoughts are on stat sheets at the beginning of the book, and how intricate you like your progression to be. Currently, I am keeping track of my character's level, his armor and weapon stats when he upgrades or finds something new, and where he's putting his experience, but I'm not going into explicit detail for each time he gains EXP, because I think it's overwhelming and detracts from the story. I think the way I'm describing his leveling gives a good idea to the reader of how the leveling system works, and I do explain it in decent detail at the start of the book, but I'm wondering how many of you actually dislike a book that doesn't include stat sheets at the start. To me, it seems a bit much and takes me out of the world.
I agree with the statement above but would like to add that I tend to skip them in most books, I'd only pay attention them if they were relevant to the current narrative. Example that gets ignored :- Once the fight was over and Stan was sure there were no more monsters to agro he finally looked over his stats. Congrats you've gained a level! your current stats are LV 10 HP 140 + 2 MP 80 + 1 SP 20 + 0 ATK 53 + 4 DEF 30 +1 INT 2 +0 HIT 34 + 2 MOV 12 +0 LUK 1 +0 NEXT 999998 Earth 20 Water 15 Air 15 Fire 55 Light 10 Darkness 10 Status NORMAL One that I would pay attention to :- Once the fight was over and Stan was sure there were no more monsters to agro he finally looked over his stats page and was shocked to see that he had gained a lot of fire resistance! The resistances hadn't moved an inch before this so that means battling elemental monsters or possibly just getting exposed to elemental attacks was what affected them. It made sense in a way but he really didn't like the idea of jumping into a lava pit to test it!
Well said! A peeve of mine is when authors put in stats too much, or show them each time there is a fight. It's filler. I think it is a good idea to exclude XP, it is not needed. I do enjoy stats, some authors do a good job only displaying them sometimes. I like kid's example of something good to see throughout the story, and with only occasional stat updates.
I think I am going to go the route I've been going -- which is no stat sheets but a decent explanation throughout the game. I don't think anyone will be lost!
I actually like stat sheets, but only the nicely formatted ones. If you can work it to get a prettified table displaying on Kindle, like Emerilia or Some of the Russian ones I've seen, please do! Not every chapter though, or what have you. Just every now and then, show me that crunch. People who end each chapter with the character sheet (especially if it's just straight text like the one that Kidlike101 posted above have their very own special place reserved for them in hell. ESPECIALLY if they overpost it. If nothing else, stick an appendix on with character sheets so that those who are interested can take a gander at them.
Haha, yeah that seems really overboard! What I'm doing now, to not interrupt the story flow, is mentioning level ups and any important exp gains or skills that are learned. I think ending each chapter with a leveling up summary breaks up the flow of the story, which is what I'm mostly concerned with. To me, progression in games comes in important steps anyway. When we play a game, do we really care about every single little stat point? Or are we more interested in that new sword or breastplate, or the new skill or what we get in the next five levels? For me, overdoing it breaks up the flow.
Yeah, by every now and then, I mean like 2-4 times per book. Beginning/middle/end is plenty - I know authors put a ton of work into basically designing an entire game and I like to see that work. Also, it keeps y'all honest!
Yeah, I'm definitely designing it and know how it works and the ins and outs! It's a combination of a lot of games I've played -- Asheron's Call, of course WoW and some Everquest, I just feel like too many details will bog the story down so I'm including all the major advancements and important stuff! I think that will strike a nice balance.
Another author that posts here couldn't participate in one of the LitRPG facebook groups promo days because his book wasn't all gussied up with game prompts and character sheets, so just a heads up if you plan to actually use words to tell a story; tons of reviews knock points off for infrequent updates on character progression as well. But if you take it out altogether then "That's not LitRPG!" even if its in a game. I don't agree with that, but thems the breaks.
Well, I don't think I'll include stat sheets, but I definitely discuss them! I let everyone know what the attributes are, give updates on his HP and his level and where he's putting his experience points -- new skills, item descriptions and damage etc. I think it's all mentioned there. If I was reading it, I wouldn't have any trouble figuring out the progression and how the game works. I just don't want to bog everyone down!
Yes, it's an unfortunate insecurity that some authors have as the genre grows....why you wouldn't want it to be open and welcoming is beyond me....it seems to be self defeating....
But by being a dick to new authors and making the talent pool and genre smaller, you actually get LESS money. If that's a trend and not just an outlier, I don't think it'll be good for getting litRPG accepted as a genre of its own.
I like the stat tables but I didn't want to have them at the end of every chapter so I've just put them in after the really epic events/battles and the rest of the time I'll mention level ups and bonuses and such, but as part of the story.
I noticed you mentioned two issues, and I think they cancel each other out exactly. First was you don't feel the sheet serves a purpose, second, keeping track of every stat detracts from the story. Well that seems like a good reason to have a sheet to me. You could make it a super complex one, and the story can explain all of the elements (though not necessarily right away or even in the first book), but every time there is character progression, readers who want to know the finer details can compare the new sheet with the old sheet, while the less patient reader can simply keep reading without.
I'll buck the trend, complicate everything, steal your jobs, seduce your women, and put the toilet paper rolls backwards by saying that I enjoy stat sheets. For me, porn = statistics. Yuli Ban has Leveled Down! -4 Endurance -8 Charisma -15 Stealth -16 Social Skills -23 Defense -42,000 Gold Next: 1015
I was listening to The Gam3. I listen to books while laying in bed an hour before going to sleep. There was literally 5 minutes of stats. So super boring I actually fell asleep. I'm more a proponent for GameLit than LitRPG. I'd rather focus on story than stats--not that LitRPG can't have great stories. Game mechanics should be important and clear, though only tell me what I need to know and gloss over the rest as quick as possible.
I keep them simple, and rarely do charts. You might get a line like this: Endurance +1. Your Endurance is now 57. Then you know endurance went up 1, and the stat is at 57. I might add a chart every ten chapters or so in this new one I am doing. Not because I want to haha, but some people do actually like them. I like the idea above about putting it at the end of the book, but in kindle people might not like to jump back and forth. So I'm thinking every 10 chapters is light enough that it won't bother most, and adds enough for the crunchy people to be happy too.
