4 near-perfect RPG books to read if you need a Dungeon Crawler Carl replacement

LitRPG is all the rage, but these books take a slightly different approach to the tabletop experience While Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl has arguably popularized LitRPGs — a blend of fiction and RPG mechanics that features characters who level up like you would while playing a game — there are plenty of books out there that have taken an entirely different approach to porting the experience of role-playing games to the fictional realm. The following four novels, which range from heartwarming romance to bone-chilling horror (and two of which hit shelves this year), all feature characters who play RPGs (tabletop or otherwise) over the course of their story. Published in 2004, Vivian Vande Velde’s young adult sci-fi novel might have flown under the radar for some, but is not to be missed if you’re a fan of fantasy roguelike RPGs. Set in a world that is not dissimilar from our own, Heir Apparent begins with teenage Giannine Bellisario heading to a local arcade to celebrate her birthday by playing a totally immersive, single-player, virtual reality game called Heir Apparent. In the game, Giannine plays Janine de St. Jehan, the illegitimate child of a deceased king who pronounced

Apr 28, 2026 → Apr 28, 2026