Beta Life


David M. Zahn - 2019
    The beta promises eternal life in a video game, but as Ryland is soon to discover, he should’ve read the instruction manual first. The corporation failed to mention that it populated his new world with slavers, sadists, supremacists, and one very trollish elf. All right, that last one isn’t really their fault. Sure, he might live forever but with a serious lack of RPG knowledge this isn’t going to be the fun and relaxing retirement he imagined. He might not be the world’s greatest gamer, but he won’t let anything keep him down-not even fish herpes.

Mind Games


Marc Whipple - 2020
    But instead of the long weekend get-together they planned, they're suddenly caught up in the end of the world as they knew it!They just met for the first time in real life last night, and today's group wake-up call is strange messages floating in the air telling them that something called a "System Start" has just happened. Now magic works, and technology doesn't. Cell phones won't work, cars won't start, and it's ten miles to the nearest town. Some of them have families to worry about. Some of them don't even believe this is real. And all of them have secrets they'll have to overcome if they're going to work together and make it back to town alive.On the way, they'll meet other survivors, also confused, scared, and questioning what's happening. Ten miles doesn't seem that far, but by the end of it, they'll have faced some of the worst that the System can throw at them.And then things really get interesting.The small Tennessee town they're trying to reach is isolated, cut off, and surrounded by a new and terrifying world. Outside the town, ordinary creatures are becoming things out of nightmare. And inside the town, legends are coming to life...Mind Games is a new GameLit/LitRPG novel in the tradition of Tao Wong's "System Apocalypse". If you enjoy books by William Arand, Scottie Futch, and other contemporary LitRPG writers, you'll love Mind Games!

Dungeons of the Crooked Mountains


Alexey Osadchuk - 2019
    But the joy of gaining a son was overshadowed by the newborn’s terrible affliction. Eric was completely nulled – level zero and no characteristics points. The only things keeping him from dying were his tiny base supplies of “life” and “energy.”The medicine woman who delivered Eric believes this to be the work of the evil spirit Bug. Due to the peculiar laws of the Great System, Eric cannot use experience essences or characteristics tablets, so he risks having to spend his whole life confined to a bed. But his father finds a solution. He takes out a large bank loan and goes to the capital where he buys a few artifacts of the Ancients on the black market, which have no level restriction.Despite having the artifacts, Eric is still very feeble and everyone in town thinks him a freak. But at least he can move on his own and that gives the Bergmans hope. But alas, it isn’t for long. On Eric’s fourteenth birthday, his father and mother die in a mining accident. The bank takes their house, and Eric is left with no choice but to work off the remaining debt in the Dungeons of the Crooked Mountains.And so begins the story of a nulled boy’s struggle to survive…

Thinblade


David A. Wells - 2011
    Seven were forged by the first Sovereign of the Seven Isles and bound to the bloodline of each of the seven Island Kings in exchange for their loyalty to the Old Law. Each sword is as long as a man’s arm, as wide as a man’s thumb and so thin it can’t be seen when viewed from the edge. Thinblade is the story of Alexander’s quest to find the ancient sword, claim the throne of Ruatha and raise an army to stand against the enemy that has awoken to claim dominion over all of the Seven Isles.

Resurgence


Joshua W. Nelson - 2016
    Since the beginning of online gaming this has always been the norm; you paid the company and they let you play their game. So it's no surprise that Alex Stanton was living every gamer's dream. It was the opposite for him. He was getting payed to play. The latest generation of virtual reality gaming, in both appearance and hardware, was being beta tested by the largest retailer of online gaming, AltCon. Never before seen graphical detail, joined with a first-time, fully functional, whole body immersion system was likely to put AltCon entirely out of reach of their competitors. But before they could go live, they wanted Beta testers. Serious Beta testers. So serious, AltCon was willing to pay a salary to each tester, ensuring their lives revolved around the Beta, and the Beta only. Beta testers join for one reason, to experience new content never seen by another player. Alex, along with his group mates Dan, Jason, and Wayne will experience every nuance the game has to offer, and all before the rest of the world. The entire scenario is unreal; from the tests to be selected as a Beta candidate, to the six month wait to qualify, to the almost life-like quality of the game itself. The company pulled out all the stops. If there was a heaven for gamers, it would look exactly like this game: Resurgence. But odd things start happening from the outset. Things Alex can't explain. But like every hard-core gamer, Alex has no problem ignoring the little things to focus on the grander design; winning the game. Whether that be discovering new content, finishing epic quests, or finding the rarest of items. In time, even the littlest of things can pile up, and Alex is forced to ask himself, “What’s really going on in Resurgence?”

Starcaster


J.N. Chaney - 2020
    Steel. Blood. Victory.The Earth’s navy is left drifting among the stars as Nyctus ships swarm, their purpose unknown as they continue their advance, burning one system after another.Humanity's extinction seems inevitable.But on one of the forgotten worlds, a boy is left behind, and he holds a talent unlike anything the galaxy has ever known.Thorn Stellers is a mage, made to lead and fight. With a renegade division of warriors at his side, and with weapons far different from those of old Earth, Thorn stands a chance at standing up to humanity's enemies. For these mage-soldiers, armed with power that had once been thought the stuff of legend, the outcome is no longer certain.Each Starcaster has a talent—except for Thorn, who has many. With his childhood companion Kira Wixcombe, he’ll confront a threat from beyond the stars, meeting them in the darkness with a light born of magic... and a lust for revenge.Is his power enough? Or is Earth a forgotten memory, lost forever to history?

Critical Failures


Robert Bevan - 2012
    The next minute, they're in a horse-drawn cart surrounded by soldiers pointing crossbows at them. Tim now has the voice and physique of a prepubescent girl. Dave finds that while he lost a foot or two in height, he somehow acquired a suit of armor and a badass beard. Julian's ears have grown ridiculously long and pointy. And Cooper... well Cooper has gotten himself a set of tusks, a pair of clawed hands, and a bad case of the shits. He also finds that he's carrying a bag with a human head in it - a head that he had chopped off when they were still just playing a game.Shit just got real, and if they want to survive, these four friends are going to have to tap into some baser instincts they didn't even know existed in their fast-food and pizza delivery world.It's fight, flight, or try to convince the people who are trying to kill them that they don't really exist.Meanwhile, a sadistic game master sits back in the real world eating their fried chicken.

Earth Tactics Advance: Volume 1


Scottie Futch - 2017
    Those who manage to survive the first day of the new world must survive in the wake of a new reality, life lived as a turn-based tactical role playing game. Feel the horror, and revel in the humor, as battles take place one turn at a time. Can one man survive a world gone tactical? Will he ever understand the need for background music and strange announcer voices? It's your turn... to find out!

Initializing


K.T. Hanna - 2018
    Determined to overcome the unexpected setback, she assembles her guild, intent on the coveted #1 spot. Twelve keys stand between her and victory, but finding them is only part of the puzzle.Armed with telepathic abilities, Murmur rises to the challenge. However, old rivals have followed her to Somnia Online desperate for revenge. Intricate quest lines become more dangerous as NPCs absorb powerful artifacts, and Murmur begins to wonder just what sort of AI controls the world. Murmur questions her sanity as the real and virtual worlds mesh together. Everyone is keeping secrets from her, even the AI, and Murmur’s determined to uncover them.

The Skull Throne


J.A. Cipriano - 2017
     Enter "iron" Jack Russo. able to drop newbs with a single headshot and the king of online games. At least he used to be before his sister got pregnant, and he had to get a job to help take care of them. But when a particle accelerator explodes, causing Jack to get stuck in his favorite game “Kingdom of Heaven” he'll have to conqueror Heaven and seat himself on the skull throne. If not, he'll be trapped in the game forever.

Homebrew


Xavier P. Hunter - 2018
     Gary Burns just wanted to create the greatest RPG campaign of his gaming career. But a freak magical accident sucks him into the very world he created—as himself. Surrounded by heroes who look and sound like his friends, Gary is forced to play out the story he wrote. Worthless in a fight, Gary must prove himself valuable even if it means feeding the team insider knowledge. Because he needs keep his friends close—and himself alive—until he can solve the puzzle he never designed: how to get everyone back home.

The Broken Battlemage


D. Levesque - 2020
    Little did he know that the job that only he could do would end up having him looking after thousands of uploaded minds for what would amount to more than 10,000 years. Earth is one step away from a nuclear war, and Paradigm Alpha’s solution to saving what they can of humanity is to upload their brains to The Doomsday System. But while most of the minds would be stored while they sleep, Jeff doesn’t have that option. As the only one who can seem to be uploaded digitally and remain awake, he will be kept alive, as it were, in order to help humanity 10,000 years from now. However, thanks to time compression in the system, it will only be 1,000 years for him. Can Jeff survive mentally for that long? That is where The Doomsday System’s game might help. Join Jeff as he explores this unknown world from one end to the other for the next thousand years. However, there is one tiny little issue. The class the AIs gave him, Battlemage, which sounded so awesome at the time, is broken. He is a Battlemage who can’t seem to use magic as a normal Battlemage. This is safe for teens as there is no sex and no extreme swearing.

Warrior Academy: A Hiro's Journey - Episode 1


G.L. Rathweg - 2017
    Now in a world forever changed, a place where magic is real, and monsters have come to life. A place where magic and science blend with pop culture

The Legacy Builder


Ember Lane - 2018
    Barakdor, a world sliding helplessly to war. Lincoln wanted to be a warrior, a rogue or a mage, but he'd made a promise to himself, so he chose builder. He wasn’t supposed to play the game on his own, but now he wanted to build a legacy for Joan, a sanctuary in a virtual world. It was supposed to be a place where folk could come to get away from the terrors that the land held, a utopia he would create with his bare hands. It was supposed to be Joan’s legacy. But as the growling thunderheads of war gather, he begins to think it might be a last refuge. He begins to think it might be the land’s only hope. Fantasy collides with LitRPG in this first novel from The Land of Barakdor. Scroll up and get your copy.

Forge of Destiny


Yrsillar - 2017
    It is only by the strength of the Immortal Sects which lie on that border that keep their sky raiders from reaching the richer and more prosperous provinces further north.It is only the continued recruitment of those with the talent for shaping Qi and binding spirits that the Sects maintain the line, for despite their name, very few of those who walk the path of the warrior or sage reach the status of true Immortality.Ling Qi is among those who have been brought to the foot of the mountains to be inducted as a disciple of the Argent Peak Sect, one of the three great sects of the province. As the quest starts, it remains to be seen whether she will make a name for herself… or simply be lost among the crowd.