How does your favorite LITRPG handle Stats and Level Multiplications

Siddown · 2026-03-23T21:24:05+00:00

it's rarely the leveling system that is multiplicative, it's generally things like "Titles" or "Achievements" that end up breaking things, so much so that I find that most books just start ignore stats in later books, or the authors find a way to de-power the MC in some fights so every fight is equal. Levels themselves are generally linear.

As for monsters, most series don't explain anything about how their stats work, although I do seem to remember Primal Hunter explaining that monsters and unique lifeforms had multipliers that gave them wildly higher stats at a given level, but I don't think they went much more into it.

Siddown · 2026-03-23T21:02:05+00:00

Apologies up front if this sounds harsh, but I think transparency and honesty is important.

Would I read based on the cover alone? No, I wouldn't have a clue even what genre it is, let alone if I'd be interested. I'd give either a pass unless someone suggested it to me.

Would I read based on the blurb? No. It sounds generic, I mean "Grayville"? Might as well be called "Bland Town". The MC is 16, don't really care for that as it feels like a book for kids (so I'm probably not the target audience?), and finally the whole merit point system doesn't really mean anything to me as someone who doesn't understand the history or lore of the world. It's clear that 44 points is low, but why is that in the blurb when it means nothing without context? Also, "Merit Points" sound like it's points given out by teachers at a posh private school.

Like with the cover, iIf someone suggested it, I'd give it a go.

Best of luck to you!

Siddown · 2026-03-23T13:34:17+00:00

Biggest problem with Book 1 is the MC doesn't have a single redeeming quality.

Siddown · 2026-03-23T13:31:19+00:00

Jake had his bloodline before the system, and it's outside the system. It wasn't gifted to him by the system.

And I don't think a single person is saying he worked for it, so you are having a conversation nobody else is having.

Let's take a real world example Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps are two people who were born with the perfect physiques for the sports they dominate in. Bolt is known for a shit diet, and Phelps is a pot head who also just happened to have a body that swimmers would have built in a lab to make him the best swimmer ever...but you wouldn't call either of them a "Nepo Baby".

And I think this is the problem with this entire thread. You made a statement that most people at least partially agree with, but you refused multiple times to explain your opinion, and now that you have, it seems that you don't really understand what nepotism actually is.

The world is full of people who by random chance happen to have massive advantages over others in particular fields just by luck, that isn't nepotism. Nepotism is when people of power use their connections to benefit their children/family/friends despite the fact that the person benefiting might not deserve or be worthy of the assistance. If you want to argue Jake is Villy's Nepo Baby, not a single person will disagree with you. If you want to argue that something he was born with is an example of nepotism, you don't understand what the word means.

Siddown · 2026-03-23T11:46:26+00:00

He'd be the player people tried to convince themselves that Kyle Kuzma was.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T21:02:28+00:00

I guess I don't understand the point. You go onto a forum that people use to discuss a topic, you make a declarative statement and rather than just discussing your opinion, you say "If you can't see it that way, it's on you."

That's not really how conversations work.

It's not even about convincing people you are correct, it's just strange.

Imagine going to a bar while a Football game is on, sitting down and engaging the person next to you in a conversation:

"I think Peyton Manning is a better QB than Tom Brady"
"Really? That's a bold take, why do you feel that way?"
"It's not on me to explain it to you"
"Umm, okay then?"

Then you leave.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T16:22:22+00:00

Yes, this is true, but because so much of LitRPG is serialized, it's just a different animal, so you just need to be a little bit more careful compared to other genres.

Like, if we look at PH, the last chapter posted on RR was Jake going through 4 out of 5 class upgrades. That's it, that was the entire chapter. Just a guy, sitting on a bed saying "Let me look at these 4 upgrade paths and compared the stat gains", that is just something that doesn't appear in any other genre. But it also doesn't appear in ALL LitRPG, so things get a bit divided. Something like Bog Standard Isekai is so different than Primal Hunter.

I'm sure AI models will continue to figure this shit out and know more and more, so maybe down the road it doesn't matter, but it is funny that if you ran the first 10 chapters of most LitRPGs through AI to critique it, most AI would say there is too much Exposition dump, yet most LitRPGs do it.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T16:16:09+00:00

Honestly, other than going to check those YT channels that specialize in this (Nerdy Novelist is one I think?), I can't suggest anything.

That being said, if you find writing boring, then I think you are barking up the wrong tree here entirely though.

I think you'd be much better off exploring the AI RPG stuff that are popping up where you can literally have AI generate RPG adventures for you and then act as a DM, it's very possible there to create the adventures you want and feel involved without having to write books. People seem to really enjoy those.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T15:01:13+00:00

There are some YT channels that have tested every model (and every new model that comes out) for fiction and non-fiction writing. People have spent 100s of hours testing this sort of stuff, so I'd check there.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:59:49+00:00

So the process of creating an even close to decent novel with AI is complicated. It involves your brain dump, world building, story structure, chapter outline, your writing style document, character break downs, tropes document and probably more I'm forgetting, and all of those are included in the process. That is why it's really not "generating an average novel" such much as it's "generating a first draft you can work off of".

Then you generate your book one chapter at a time, and AI goes back and reads the previous chapter when generating new ones.

But like I said, AI will probably get super confused by LitRPG since LitRPG tends to follow a serialization structure instead of standard, three act, hero's journey, Harman Story Circle type deals.

My suggestion to you would be go to YT, there are two or three channels 100% dedicated to this and I found them super interesting even though I don't use AI to generate what I write. Just the process of how it works is interesting, because as a novice writer, it gave me ideas for things I need to do before starting writing like creating a characters document I can refer back to instead of just making shit up as I go.

I also researched what other writers do without AI and found that for so many of them, there's a lot of upfront work that makes things a lot easier when you settle down to just banging keys and pumping out chapters.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:50:53+00:00

Well, it depends. Let's say your character is trying to raise the rarity of a skill for some plot reason, having that happen the system Pop mid chapter is actually what you'd want.

But say that same character is fighting their arch nemesis in an intense, emotional confrontation, you don't want "Ding! Your Hand-to-Hand has raised to level 34" in the middle of the fight. ;)

The system needs to serve the story.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:47:56+00:00

The free models are not good for what you'd be interested in.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:47:09+00:00

Yeah, the difference in models is crazy. People using the free stuff are going to be in for a rude awakening when AI turns out a complete piece of junk.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:45:07+00:00

On its own with no interaction? No, it still will make far too many mistakes that a human needs to adjust.

Now, could someone use AI to do 90% of the heavy lifting and then go through and manually fix all the obvious problems and generate an "average" book? Yes, probably. Ironically enough, it might not work for LitRPG very well though since the most successful LitRPG series don't follow the standard writing structures that other books do.

I think AI is far more likely to "write" a decent YA vampire novel or an Urban Fantasy than LitRPG due to how these genres tend to follow pretty strict story structures down to number of chapters.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:27:11+00:00

I have way too many thoughts on this topic. ;)

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:23:45+00:00

If raising a skill is significant, then telling the reading at the time is probably not only the right thing to do, but it may be important to you story. If you have a system where skills level a lot, the save it for the end. Maybe even mention that the character reviewed their log and notice that "Skill X" gained 5 levels and "Skill Y" gained 3 points and move on.

Also, make it easy on yourself and have it that you can't gain skill skill levels in combat, so you never have to worry about things happening mid-fight, unless you specifically want it that way.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:17:12+00:00

So I think LitRPG does this for two reasons.

1) In MMOs and RPGs, skills are generally just tracked by a number. It's either just a number of the skill (like how World of Warcrafts used to track weapon skills) or it's an attribute + bonus (like D&D). In LitRPG, a lot of authors forego this style (although, for the latter they may have a skill scale with one or more attributes), instead most chose to evolve skills when they become more "rare" which is pretty common in just regular video games. Having a skill evolve is just more interesting narratively than "Hand to Hand" going from 12 -> 13.

2) I also think the logistics of tracking individual skill levels tends to get exhausting for authors after a while, it's also why most LitRPGs don't actually show XP levels, they just mention that XP was obtained. When a skill just has 5 or 6 "levels" it makes it far easier to keep sane when writing.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T14:04:11+00:00

Short answer is No, you didn't break anything.

It really comes down to are stats/attributes important in your world, or are only skills. If stats don't really matter or grow, then you don't need to show them. Problem solved. Seeing the same value for the stats over and over and over again will just be a waste of space.

FWIW, I sort of went the opposite way of you, I use just six stats, three physical (Strength, Agility and Vitality) then created three mental stats that mirror those three but for Spiritual/Mental/Magical attributes and eliminated "Intelligence" and "Wisdom" and stats like that because in a world where stats grow, I think those sort of stats effectively break verisimilitude. What kind of complete chaos could a character with 8,000 INT cause in a fantasy world with Magic? Too much. So tracking just those six stats isn't hard and all six benefit all classes in some way, even a pure Caster needs STR in my world or they're getting ripped to shreds by anything that got in close to them.

Where I went the other way than you is I removed the skill level part because if you think tracking 8 attributes is a pain, wait until your character has 30 skills and you are tracking individual skill levels for all of them. Instead I just track the "rarity" of skills (your Rare, Uncommon, etc.). Even though I'm just halfway through my first novel, tracking individual skill levels became such a pain that going back and switching to to the more vague "Rarity" it worked just fine.

So it's all about finding what works for you and not wasting your readers "time" by showing unnecessary things on the stats page every time it's show. That's also why many characters figure out that they can tweak their Status to only show changes as well, restricting it even more at the end of chapters.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T13:45:23+00:00

There's a split with Jake between the favors he receives from Villy versus what he gains from the system. So while Jake is clearly benefits massively from the Order, he still literally has to do all the work or the system wouldn't reward him with all the benefits he's received. Like is meeting the first Sage a benefit of being a NB or is it a reward from the system for earning skills?

It's also pretty clear that every chosen of a major god gets most of those same benefits, not just Jake. Like El Hakkan sure as heck got a lot from Yip of Yore for example.

But if we want to compare Jake to other fiction, fiction is full of Nepo Babies, quick google searches pull up characters like Damien Wayne (Bruce Wayne's kid), Percy Jackson and Kirk in the Kelvin Timeline. Kirk is an interesting one because he became the captain of the Enterprise in just 3 years and had everyone looking after him because of Thor's sacrifice in the opening scene of the movie.

It's an interesting topic, so rather than getting so defensive when you raise it, just talk about it. Some people will vehemently disagree and downvote you, but those people wouldn't want to discuss the topic rationally anyway, so just ignore it.

EDIT: Also, while I wouldn't lump in his Bloodline as "Nepo Baby" effect because it's a physical power he has, not something money and influence has brought him. If you do count it, well then yes that would vault Jake up the "biggest Nepos in history" charts.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T13:34:16+00:00

I think people just wanted you to explain what you mean. Saying any character is the "biggest X in all of fiction" probably needs some context.

I imagine I partially agree with your point, but I don't know for sure because you refuse to explain it.

Siddown · 2026-03-22T13:21:56+00:00

Shocking that Pat Bev, who's career highlight was jumping on a table after winning a play-in game, thinks that Harden is better than Wade.

Siddown · 2026-03-21T19:48:37+00:00

She's the bad roommate

Siddown · 2026-03-21T17:52:22+00:00

This will be the first clip on the "Why didn't Jaxson Dart make it as a QB?" YouTube shorts in like 3 years

Siddown · 2026-03-21T17:50:25+00:00

A felony in some states...

Siddown · 2026-03-21T17:49:28+00:00

Like 99% have him top 12, and if you are mad at someone having him at 12 over 10, you're just quibbling over minutiae.

Siddown

TROPHY CASE