To add something a little more salient to this conversation (as opposed to my previous post!), here's a different suggestion. When you watch a movie on HBO, you get a screen at the beginning telling you the movie's MPAA rating, or its TV rating, plus a list of additional letters in boxes - [AS] for Adult Situations, [N] for Nudity, [V] for Violence, etc. Maybe we could adopt something like that to LitRPG, instead, taking a cue from @Windfall and his Tag system.
Yeah, for LitRPG I think a [Harem] tag or [Wish-fulfillment] tag would be very welcome! And I'll keep pushing my agenda again that wish-fulfillment isn't a bad tag! Sometimes you just want a pizza dinner that ends with double servings of ice cream -- nothing wrong with that! (It's a she btw -- I thought the apple tree was a dead giveaway ) But back on topic... I think a discussion about what is crunchy or lite "LitRPG" would be very interesting, as I've been told by different readers that my story is "not really LitRPG" and that it's "got too much numbers". So... to throw more stuff into the discussion, let's say 'numbers' usually include: - Stat sheet - Quest text - Notification text - Combat text - Loot text A crunch scale can be used to see how much of any of these occur, from: 1: never/not important 2: important but not explicitly shown 3: sometimes, only when important 4: frequently 5: always Then a 'total' is calculated, then you average it out and you have things to work from?
I've been told my story (Epic) is "not LitRPG" for the opposite reason . Running it through your scale: Stat Sheet. 2. Very important. If Erik hadn't have maxed Beauty at the start of his character build he wouldn't have found a winning strategy. But I don't refer to the rest of his stats much. Quest Text. 3. Notification text. 2. Just for skill use like #mock. Combat text. 2. Described through the character's viewpoint e.g. 'the drop in his hit points was shocking...' Loot text. 2. Overall 2.2 My WIP (The Dragon's Revenge) Stat sheet. 3. Quest text. 3. Notification text. 3. Combat text. 4. Loot text. 3. Overall 3.2 That feels right. DR is definitely crunchier. When a character levels up, would that be addressed under the 'stat sheet' category? This is useful and I think @Simon Fiasco is right tags will help as well, why not? At least for the eBook versions. Can I use your tagging system @Windfall ? I will, of course, credit you on the Level Up website.
@Conor Kostick I can't believe it works! Sure, please feel free to use the scale! But maybe wait till other people test out their stories first. Now that I've thought about it... my own story would be something like: Stat sheet. 1. Quest text. 3. Notification text. 2. Combat text. 2. Loot text. 2. Overall: 2 Dang... no wonder why it's "not LitRPG"
I remembered the other night I bought rpgbooks.net a while back. Might be a good place to include both litrpg/gamelit books with your tags and perhaps a numerical scale now? Are the tags completely done? I should get started on it soon.
The following are also currently available: litrpgtags.com litrpgratings.com rpgtags.com rpgratings.com
I agree. As long as it's not enforced by the government. HBO has to put those things on or they'll get sued by "concerned parents" had no idea that 'random' horror film had gore in it.
