3 LitRPG Tropes You've Never Heard Of
Discover fresh takes on litRPG.
LitRPG gets weird. Yes, this is hard to believe. Royal Road is saturated with clones. "Oh, your MC is now an OP archmage with dual elemental affinities? Yawn. Been there, read that."
The weird stuff rarely stays weird long. The curse of weird done right is that everyone copies it. Here are a few tropes that have somehow not been copy-pasted into oblivion, and where to find them.
1. Vending Machines
These are vending machines that replace system screens. Walk up to the machine, scan your eyeball, access rewards. It's fresh because it feels visceral. You must wait in line to level up. Your rewards must fit within the machine. Rewards can be gatekept by gatekeeping the machine.
Scourged Earth introduced me to this trope. I hope more stories adopt it. Cyberpunk stories use vending machines as props. They deserve center stage.
2. Cultivation Techniques Are Mind Control
This trope takes the "cultivation changes people" trope and dials it up to eleven. It's when the mind-affecting properties of cultivation techniques are so strong that even the mildest cultivator is slightly insane.
The Undying Immortal System introduced me to this trope. It then did something amazing: it added time travel and a roguelite progression system.
3. Magical Girls Get Systems + Trauma
There's a whole weird subgenre of magical girls being forced to save the world. The quality of these stories tends to be high. Why, I don't know. But I like it. I like it very much.
Magical Girl Gunslinger introduced me to the trope. I went in a skeptic and emerged a convert. Holy shit. Magical Girl litRPG should not be this good.