About the Series
Oren is a top player in New Era Online who gets betrayed by his clan, forcibly reset to level 1, and permanently stuck in a goblin body — the weakest starting race. Using his knowledge of game mechanics, he builds a goblin settlement from a primitive camp into a thriving town, combining personal combat progression with town management, NPC recruitment, and resource optimization.
The dual-track progression (character leveling + settlement building) is the hook. Oren levels as a goblin shaman while simultaneously managing his growing town: building structures, assigning NPC roles, establishing trade routes, and defending against raids. The base-building layer gives the series a strategic dimension that pure combat LitRPG lacks. Playing as a monster race also creates interesting social dynamics with other players and NPC factions.
This works for readers who enjoy base-building games (Civilization, Rimworld) alongside their progression fantasy. The completed status is a genuine advantage — you get the full “camp to city” arc. The tradeoff: the VRMMO framing (it’s all a game) reduces stakes compared to portal fantasy or system apocalypse settings. The prose is functional. Some base-building sequences read more like game logs than narrative. If you need real consequences or literary prose, this will feel weightless. If you want completed LitRPG with satisfying town progression, it delivers.
Reading Order
- Life Reset (2017)
- Life Reset: EvP (2018)
- Life Reset: Hobnobbing (2018)
- Life Reset: Human Resource (2019)
- Life Reset: Conquest (2020)
- Life Reset: Salvation (2021)
If You Like This Series
- Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko — VRMMO with settlement building and party dynamics; completed
- Divine Dungeon by Dakota Krout — Building/management progression from a dungeon’s perspective; completed
- The Land of the Undying Lord by Dave Willmarth — System apocalypse with heavy base-building focus; completed
- The Good Guys by Eric Ugland — LitRPG comfort food at similar pace; less building, more combat; completed
- Defiance of the Fall by TheFirstDefier — Has base-building elements alongside combat; much longer, ongoing