One of the first and most important choices for a LitRPG author is whether the System will act as mechanics or a character.

In this blog post I’m hoping to explore the pros and cons of both, and any impacts that we should consider before settling one way or the other.

In LitRPG, the “System” is more than just a set of rules. It’s how your world talks to the reader. Sometimes it’s a silent, impartial framework, like the heads-up display in a video game. Purely informational. Other times it’s an entity with quirks, moods, and motives. Both can work, but the choice shapes everything. EVERYTHING.

I’ve read more than a few LitRPG novels where the system just is or is snarky just because. Readers may disengage if the System’s role feels unconsidered or inconsistent. This could indicate deeper issues in the novel. We live in a world of TikToks and Facebook Reels, where people can consume 1000 pieces of microcontent in the time it takes them to read a chapter.

The Two Core Approaches

System as Mechanics

The System exists purely to track numbers, progression, and immutable rules. It doesn’t interact like a person, more like a calculator, or a guidebook.

This will keep things functional, quick, and consistent, just like a real game HUD, or a player’s handbook. It provides consistency and framework to how the world works.

System as a Character

The System is a presence with opinions, personality, and perhaps its own agenda. It might be an AI, a cosmic force, or even an NPC serving as the interface. The options are endless, and so are the implications of your choice…

This adds a relationship layer to progression, turning quest updates into conversations. The relationship can be antagonistic, helpful, snarky, or complex and nuanced.

Benefits and Drawbacks

Each option has its own distinct benefits and drawbacks and can entirely alter the tone of your novel. It can also limit how your characters can interact with the world around them, altering this in ways you might not expect.

System as Mechanics – Pros

• Pacing control: Fast and efficient, easy to keep pace fast if desired. Also easy to slow down the pace if the mechanics and system actions need to keep things moving slowly for a while.
• Keeps focus on characters and plot.
• Lets readers really understand how the world works.
• Maintains a cold, alien world feel, which is important for some intended story tones.

System as Mechanics – Cons

• The system has no banter or relationship with the protagonist, so system messages can feel like info dumps.
• Limited in delivering exposition organically.
• Can feel repetitive if stat/quest updates are too frequent and delivered flat.
• Mechanics must be consistent, so tracking these are more important if you are laying them out on the page.

System as a Character – Pros

• Adds humour, drama, and emotional depth not just for the System, but in how the characters interact with it.
• Built-in foil or ally for the protagonist.
• Can deliver worldbuilding in dialogue form. Much better for audio, which is how many LitRPG readers choose to enjoy their books.
• Opportunity for subplots (mystery, manipulation, betrayal).

System as a Character – Cons

• Risk of overshadowing main cast. Balance can be difficult to maintain.
• Tone management. Snarky systems in serious moments can break immersion.
• Readers expect payoff. Why does it have personality? What does it really want?

Narrative Purposes and Worldbuilding Links

A System as Mechanics world suggests a rigid, automated, or structured universe. One where mathematics and system-defined action limitations have absolute but unspoken applications. If there are rules, who put them in place? If the system is impartial and omniscient, it implies certain things from a worldbuilding perspective that you as the author should at least understand yourself.

It is best used in worlds where the System’s origin is unknown, ancient, or irrelevant to the plot. But I always ask myself… if the system’s origin is irrelevant, why do I even have a System in my story? Am I really just writing epic fantasy or science fiction, but making it LitRPG because I feel like I have to?

One trap that is easy to fall into is the ‘I’m writing a LitRPG, so I must have a system and stats!’ trap. And while that is true, it’s not quite that simple. If there is no purpose for your system or stats, and you’re just using stat dressing to get into the genre, readers are going to know. If you’re going to write in the genre, embrace it fully!

A System as Character world implies some kind of controlling intelligence. Whether it be an AI, a God, or some other kind of entity beyond our comprehension (probably with copious amounts of tentacles…). If your System is a character, they are the defining point of your series. If the System shapes everything it touches, then you need to know who it is, why it is doing what it is doing, and what it wants to achieve as a result of its actions. This option is great for long-term mystery arcs, where maybe your System doesn’t even know the answers to those questions itself.

Hybrid Approaches

These two options are not absolute, nor are they the only options at your disposal.

You may have an Evolving System, which starts off as pure mechanics, but gains personality or sapience after a key story event. This can be very, very interesting, and have a huge narrative payoff. This is a strategy I’m using for a current project, and I have to say, it is so much fun seeing the System itself come alive and begin to remember itself.

You could also have a Layered System, which operates at different levels depending on who it is interacting with. For example, an AI system in an online MMORPG might have a personal AI that interacts with players in the shape of a companion, but for NPCs in that world, it could just have operating parameters that are entirely without personal interaction.

What if the System appears to be just mechanics, but at some point you learn there is a Wizard of Oz type character pulling the strings? That would be a Hidden Operator system type, and can be a lot of fun.

In my Miner’s Quest series, my system begins as a cold, unfeeling, personality-less system. But as Steve Hunter progresses down his path, more personality is injected into the system dialogue. However in my EDGE Force series, it is always a system-as-mechanics style story, purely because of the way that the EDGE Force organization has built it. It’s a hack in reality, made by a clandestine Government agency. There’s no personality, just cold, hard mechanics.

These are just two options out of an infinite number of ways you can combine these two approaches. You just need to figure out what is going to work for your book and make the best choice you can.

Examples

I would be remiss if I didn’t pick one of the greatest examples of System as Character in the entire genre. Dungeon Crawler Carl’s AI, I would argue, is one of the main characters of the entire series. Carl and Donut are unquestionably our protagonists, but the AI, by the end of This Inevitable Ruin, has become one of the best written characters in the series.

Here we have a system where each Crawl is run by a Macro AI. And we learn very early on that Macro AIs in this world always eventually go crazy.

The AI begins in an unusual way. It immediately starts off as an antagonist, using humanity’s culture to denigrate them, control them, and even seems to revel in their suffering. But as the books progress, we see more nuance. It realizes the Crawlers are trapped, just like it is. It realizes there are aspects of humanity it connects with, even wants to emulate. It is both foil and ally for our characters, as well as foil and ally for the antagonists that we desperately want Carl to break.

There are a million reasons to read or listen to Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. If you’re an aspiring LitRPG author, or one who wants to take their writing to the next level, there are a million and one reasons.

Another book I really enjoyed the system in was Heretical Fishing by Haylock Jobson. It’s meant to be a dark but cozy tale about a fisherman called Fischer, who keeps getting system prompts. But they’re not the kind you’d expect in the early days… He just keeps getting an error. Over and over again. And we immediately know, as a reader, that something has happened to this system. It’s broken. By someone, or something, or some cataclysmic event, we don’t know. But we know there is something wrong right from the get-go.

I must admit I’m not finished reading the first book of Heretical Fishing yet, but that system introduction really stuck with me, as it immediately made me question many things about the world Fischer found himself in.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline uses a great example of Hidden Operator, where James Halliday, the architect of the Oasis, has laid a challenge down to people within the game. His memory, the echoes of his own character in the Oasis, acts as an agent with its own will and rules attached to it that operate separately from the overarching rules of Oasis’s system.

Travis Bagwell’s Awaken Online series also utilizes Hidden Operator in a really fun way, but I don’t want to spoil it.

Final Words

Whether you choose to go with a System that is Mechanics or a Character, make the choice based on your story’s setting, tone, and themes. This choice echoes through every decision your characters make, or the decisions that are made for them by the world.

The key here is really knowing why the choice matters for your world, and making sure that readers feel the impact. If you’re brainstorming a new series and you’re just going with a generic system because LitRPG novels need systems… or you’re putting in a snarky AI because it’s a genre trope… well… you might need to do a little more work before your book is ready to be written.

I hope this post has sparked some thought processes around the importance of putting some thought into your systems.

Now get out there, and write, write, write!