And it's even more LitRPGs! I'm honestly trying to get off this train, but I seem to really need the fix. At least this one isn't video game related for once.
No, we're now in the world of pen and paper RPGs. I'm still not entirely sure how the basic conceit of the universe is meant to work. I'm just going to go with "a wizard did it" and leave it at that.
So, basic principles first. When players pick up a particular RPG module, which is similar to but legally distinct from D+D, they are actually taking control of "adventurers" in a parallel world. Where these adventurers come from, the people who live in this world (the eponymous NPCs) have no idea. But they tend to be a bit obvious when they finally appear, running around murdering things and stealing everything.
This leaves our set of NPCs in a bit of a tricky spot, when a team of adventurers, summoned by the king, happen to die after a rather silly accident involving a deadly mushroom and some booze. For you see, the king tends to get a bit murdery when people he's summoned hasn't turned up. Such that the entire village the NPCs live in is likely to be slaughtered. Their little dog, too.
Which means that our NPCs will just have to pop along, and try and pass themselves off as adventurers. With skill levels, classes, the occasional critical failure and everything.
It's an interesting twist on the LitRPG (for me, at least, as this is the first I've read in which this happened), with those you would usually expect as the protagonists taking a backseat. It allows a different view on the usual "good lord I'm in a fantasy world" trope, while still allowing a bit of fun with the various fantasy world rules. There's also some interesting goings on with the way the "real" world and RPG world interact, which I'm lead to believe progresses through the series. I may pick those up at some point.
Nice set of characters in this one, which are a bit more 2-dimensional than the usual fawning people you often see in portal fantasies (wait till I review the next one of these I found myself reading - so much wish-fulfillment) and the world itself is nicely fleshed out. I think this benefited from not obsessing as much over the game mechanics of the universe as others in the genre do, being more about the people than the skill tree.
For fans of the LitRPG, this is probably quite a nice one to take a look at.
Recommended.
Tagged: Book GameLit Fantasy world Novel Print