One thing that's interesting in writing in LitRPG is that formatting has rules that go outside normal English grammar, yet still has expectations. So like, trying to figure out when I should and shouldn't put abilities in bold is fun.
Genuinely. I bitch about my genre a lot, but I do believe LitRPG has a lot of merits as an art form, and it's just going through it's version of Sci-Fi in the pulp era of the 1920s-40s right now, where the classics will be decided by future generations and the remainder will be forgotten. I write in this genre, in part, because it's a space where I can shape the genre as it grows - and in fact, I know I have to some degree in small ways.
(I really want more queer authors to enter this space and start making our mark here.)
Glad you asked!
So LitRPG is a subgenre of fantasy that's a bit hard to describe sometimes. My joking go to answer that is technically true is "It's a fantasy story where the magic is so well defined it has RPG mechanics attached to it," but that doesn't tell the full story.
LitRPG is a broad genre that encompasses any1 book where video game mechanics and progression take place with a video game like system. The progression part is important - if you were to write a book where magic worked on Mushroom Kingdom power up logic, you'd have written a cool book but people would complain about calling it a LitRPG because there's not the sense of progression. Characters will have stats, clearly defined abilities, and equally importantly clearly defined limitations. They'll often level up and have classes, but that's not mandatory - some use a Skryim style "level up individual skills" system while others have progression only happen in Tiers.
LitRPG does not need to take place in a video game, although many of the early ones did. More often now, however, the system is portrayed as rule of the universe, or a result of intervention of a divine being, or is just a fact of how magic works that isn't questioned in universe.
I write in two major subgenres of it - Dungeon Core and LitRPG Apocalypse. Dungeon Core stories are where the main character is a crystal or other disembodied entity that controls a dungeon, summoning monsters and creating traps for adventurers. LitRPG Apocalypse (AKA System Apocalypse, although for complicated trademark reasons I just use LitRPG Apocalypse) is one where aliens, gods, or some other outside force imposes a magical system using these rules on Earth - often resulting in widespread death and destruction before thing stabilize.
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Since novel authors in Japan, China, and Korea often write similar stories but with their own internal rules and genre conventions, it's debatable if the Western LitRPG novels are part of the same genre. I'd personally argue that yes they are, but will be very different in the same way that if you call The Chronicles of Narnia an Isekai or Warrior from Another World a Portal Fantasy you'll set expectations for those stories that aren't quite met.
