You couldn’t walk very far at New York Comic Con this year without running into Dungeon Crawler Carl. The bestselling fantasy series was everywhere on the convention floor, from merch booths to an author signing with Matt Dinniman. Even I couldn’t resist picking up a Princess Donut sticker. And while the premise of a man and his ex-girlfriend’s cat fighting their way through an apocalyptic, video game-inspired dungeon created by aliens might sound absurd, its popularity points to something much bigger happening in the world of books.
Welcome to LitRPG, a genre that combines the immersive storytelling of fantasy with the mechanics of role-playing games. Characters level up, earn experience points, and unlock new abilities, much like they would in World of Warcraft or Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a genre that’s been thriving in online communities for years, but now it’s having a mainstream moment, thanks in part to the runaway success of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
