Hey, guys. I'm a writer coming over from the urban fantasy side of things. I've self published before to moderate success, but under a different pen name. I'm super excited to try my hand at litrpg, but also nervous about getting all the game development stuff right. That said, I haven't actually written anything, so I'd put myself firmly in the reader camp for now.

What I like to read and what I like to write are related though. I'll mostly talk about game systems here, but veer a little bit into general preferences as well.

What I like:

--Character progression being tied to personality and "character arc" in-game.

I love, love, love this element in Awaken Online. When Jason gives into the coldness and behaves amorally, he gets rewards. This is a very cool way to do character progression, creates a very nuanced interesting character through the game mechanics.

I think it's brilliant.

That said, every other page I find myself deeply curious about fire, water and earth. What kind of choices did they have to make to access their powers? In my own writing, I really want to play with a game system that gives you powers not just based around the Skyrim understanding of "swing the sword get the points for Sword skill", but also, "behave empathetic ally, gain healing abilitiy" or "endure lots of pain instead of fighting back" gain increased HP and stamina.

I love the idea of class being tied to who you ARE.

For my own writing, exploring the link between personality and statistics is something I'm VERY excited about.

--The characters impacting/creating the world.

One thing that I think makes LITRPG unique is the feeling that the characters can change the world around them. In a traditional MMORPGs, there are so many people, I always feel like my contributions amount to little more than a fraction of a percentage point in whatever largescale PVP instance I might be in.

However, in LITRPG I get to literally live the the fantasy that I can /create/ the world. I LOVE the scene in Awaken Online when he creates the Twilight Throne. Even little moments are really enjoyable, such as in Ascend Online, when they grow the oak.

--I love when characters find out clever solutions for problems.

Again the opening act for Awaken online is so satisfying because we get to see him be clever from the very start. In the beginning he's able to avoid the thieves by planning ahead. Then, using the undead to take over the city is an inventive, exciting choice.

--Characters doing things they wouldn't be able to do in traditional games.

Anytime a character does something you can't do in games now makes me absurdly happy. That can be on the big scale, like wipe out a town of NPCS and turn it into their own. Or it can be small scale, such as creating new crafting recipes from their own imagination.

--The little touches

Sometimes the littlest touches are the best. I love in Ascend online, how a character gets a scar after they die. That's such a cool visual way to represent death, that gives it a physical weight. I love the death-depression too, mostly because it feels like what would actually be the consequences of dying in game.

--Strong female characters.

This doesn't have to do with gaming systems, but just a note:

I've been really pleasantly surprised by some of the female characters in LITRPG. I came in with bargain basement expectations and to find even a few that were well-rounded people with their own motivations was super exciting. Even the ones that didn't have a ton of depth still didn't feel offensive. (And often their male counterparts were just as thinly drawn so I didn't feel weird about it.)

That said, I plan to have my protagonist be female, and I have some cool ideas about what to bring to the character.

I am nervous though, because I know the readership does skew male. Even female readers tend to like female characters less on average. Whether that's because of inborn biases or because females are harder to write likable, I don't know. Probably a little bit of both.

What Irks Me:

--Bland Weapons & Monsters

I'm frankly surprised by the lack of really interesting world building I've seen in LIT RPG. I really don't mind elves and dwarves still sticking around, but I do mind the fact that every single hero seems to start out with the same studded armor or rusty sword. I'd love to see more creativity in terms of monsters. I don't mind starting with rats, but after rats I'd love to see something I haven't seen before.

--Character Magically Discovers Game Breaking Flaw.

I love stats. I love the visceral pleasure of seeing a character leveling up and finding out what loot they get. I love seeing all the options on the character creation, and learning about the character through what they pick. However, I do get annoyed when an average seeming protagonist is magically the first to get to do everything.

I don't actually mind the game-breaking flaw, but I'd love to see other players be just as tricky with their own kits. I'd love to get the sense that while the MC was out learning tattoo magic, someone else was learning how to make the perfect wands.

I think it would be especially cool to feel the sense of dread, that even as you found your town, someone else has founded there's, ala Civilization. I also really want to see more consequences for characters actions. Unintended consequences are the cornerstone of any good plot, and all too often I feel like LITRPG authors either have encounters be victories or defeats, instead of more nuanced.

All in all, yes I want my MC to end up an overpowered bad-ass by the end of the series, but I want it to hurt along the way.

--Boring Magic Systems

This sort of goes along with point a, but come on people! Do we all really have to copy and paste magic systems whole cloth from D&D. I'd love to see more unique magic systems that feel familiar without feeling copy & pasted.

--Lack of Creative Thinking on the Part of the MC

I'm always baffled when someone wakes up in game to this magical wonderland, and there first reaction is to do the same old same old fetch quest. If the world really is openly infinite, I'd spend a little time just exploring and testing ala Breath of the Wild.

I'd want to climb trees, try to ride monsters, pick the grass and see if I can sew it into armor, try to psychoanalyze the NPCS, try and find obscure skills. My first impulse would be to see if anything really IS possible. Often times in game systems where the system is learned through doing, I'm surprised by how little inventive doing the MC's actually do.

--Bland Worldbuilding in General

In general, I find world building to be a balancing act in LITRPG. Too weird, and I'm not drawn into the story. Too normal and I'm bored. More than that, though, one of the joys of LITRPG is seeing the characters create the world by their choices.

Trying to decide how much of the world is a blank slate for characters to draw on, and how much lore exists before hand is a challenge for me.

A struggle I'm having with my world building currently is deciding how much do I want to already be present in the game world, and how much do I want my characters to create.