#ellc

Before talking about specific stories, I should mention the few sites I know which do organize and recommend web serials.  First is obviously Top Web Fiction and its sister site, Web Fiction Guide.  These two are a great first stop if you’re looking for something popular, or something in a specific category, or something similar to what you’ve already read.  They’re not hosting sites, though-- you go from these two to whichever page the serial is on.  

Second on my list of sites is Royal Road.  A hosting site for all sorts of stories, but focused on original LitRPG fiction, Royal Road is a great place to find interesting stories.  This is where I usually go these days when I’m looking for something new.  

Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the Spacebattles forums.  This site hosts a lot of original stories, but it’s not really set up to help you find new stories.  Feel free to explore, though-- this is where much of the web serial community lives.  

Now, on to the promised rec list!  Let me start with the first web serial I ever read:  Super Powereds!  Set in a superhero universe, Super Powereds is the story of five Powereds (people with uncontrollable superpowers) who, through a sketchy experiment, are made into Supers (people with controllable superpowers) and go to school to become Heros (government authorized and trained superheros).  If you’ve ever read BNHA or Civil War or X-Men, this is the story that will make you go “ah, so that’s how it should be done.”  Cannot recommend highly enough.  Regrettably, however, it seems that at the time of writing this, the first three volumes of the series have been removed to comply with Amazon regulations.  With luck, they’ll be back soon.  

Next, Mother of Learning.  One of the best-regarded series I know, Mother of Learning started as a worldbuilding project for the author, and grew to become an absolutely magnificent story where a young irritable student of magic stumbles into a time loop and is forced to gain maturity and power in order to escape... before the dangers of the time loop catch up with him.  Recently completed, this story is perhaps my highest recommendation.  

Threadbare is a fantastic LitRPG story starring an intelligent teddy bear golem (the eponymous Threadbare) and his magnificently bizarre family and friends.  With a story that initially appears stereotypical (if well-written) but which grows complicated, mysterious, and even quite dark, this story currently spans three different arcs, each focusing on a different character in the same setting.  Start with Threadbare, then read Small Medium, and then Dragon Hack in order to follow along as the mysteries of the world of Generica are slowly revealed.  Just be ready for a lot of puns along the way...

Everybody Loves Large Chests is the first of these stories which I hesitate to recommend, though not because the quality is in any way bad.  But it is a rather fanservice-filled story, up to and including sexual content (although that’s usually clearly marked), which may be offputting to some readers.  I will say only this-- of all the fanservice-filled stories I’ve ever read, this is the one where I most felt that the characters, not the author, were making the decision.  If that’s tolerable to you, then let me recommend the delightful story of a mimic who’s power-hungry, money-hungry, and just plain hungry.  The very best kind of power fantasy, ELLC is a hilarious delight to read.

Black Blood Tales is actually a site with two different stories by the same author, and it’s also the only rec on this list which is both unfinished and abandoned.  For that reason, and also because it’s rather dark and occasionally a touch sexual, I hesitate to recommend this one as well, but what the hell, why not.  The two stories are Taint and Trials.  Taint is a xianxia power fantasy story with an antivillain protagonist, and my favorite of the two stories.  It also leaves off at a pretty good point, so it’s definitely worth a go.  Trials, on the other hand, is much lower-powered.  It’s your standard “protagonist dies and goes to another world while getting to choose new powers” story... except the world she enters has no magic, only slightly better technology than ours, and the protagonist can barely choose anything that even qualifies as a power.  If you don’t mind abandoned stories, both of these are well worth a read.

There is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns.  Among the various kinds of LitRPG stories, a fairly popular one is the idea of the “Dungeon Core”-- stories where the main character is effectively a changing, evolving dungeon with a mind.  Of those stories, this is probably my favorite.  It stars a Dungeon Core who’s terribly bad at being a dungeon, but pretty darn good at finding friends and making family.  Adorable, funny, and occasionally heartwrenching, this is definitely a story worth trying.

Vainqueur the Dragon is the most recent of the stories on this list, but I definitely feel it’s worth including.  “Dragon wakes up to discover a thief raiding his hoard” is a cliche start, but everything that happens after that is about as far from a cliche as possible.  Constantly hilarious, frequently fascinating, and on rare occasions deeply touching in a way I did not expect.

The Wandering Inn.  Even among web serials, which are often extremely long, this is The Big One.  The Wandering Inn is the story of Erin Solstice, a girl from our world, who walked into a fantasy world... one that she’s almost completely unprepared to survive.  Stumbling into an inn, she attempts to make her home there and gains her first level as an [Innkeeper].  This magnificent portal fantasy LitRPG stars a huge world, a huge cast of characters, a huge story, and a really, really huge wordcount.  Settle in for a long ride with this one, but I promise it’s worth it.