Transmissions

Best Grounded Realistic LitRPG

A reader's on-ramp for the Integration Era Grounded LitRPG asks a harder thing of its numbers. The level has to cost something you felt on the page. The world has to keep running after the fight ends, with weather and rent and people who have jobs. And the character holding the s…

What the System Sees

What the system sees Give it three ordinary things. Watch it work. Your overlay has been on since you woke up. It watched you decide whether to hit the alarm a second time. It watched which way you turned when someone said your name. You didn't feel measured, because you never do…

The Best Military and Squad-based LitRPG (and Where to Start)

A reader's on-ramp for the Integration Era The best squad stories in this genre all run on the same engine: the moment the team should break and doesn't. Someone holds a line they have no business holding. Someone spends themselves so the others get clear. And the system is right…

The Military: One Power that Trusts the Overlay

A field guide to the institution that built itself entirely inside the system's rules, and what that costs the people who live there. Walk onto a military installation and the first thing you notice is that nobody argues with their overlay. Everywhere else in the human sphere, th…

GM Modules for Free

Play the Integration Era: Two Free Tabletop Modules Two standalone one-shots, two very different nights at the table. Both free when you join. For a while now, the Integration Era has been something you read. Starting today it's also something you can run. Two tabletop modules ar…

The Fringe: Where the Overlay Starts to Lie

A field guide to the ragged edge of the human sphere, and the people who live where the system can't see straight. Cross into the Fringe and the first thing you notice is your own overlay getting a little dishonest. Nothing dramatic. A Signal read comes back a point low, then rig…

What is a System Apocalypse?

What Is a System Apocalypse? A Newcomer's Guide to the Subgenre A reader's on-ramp for the Integration Era It's an ordinary Tuesday until a box of blue text appears in the air in front of every human being on Earth at the same instant. The message is short. It welcomes you to a S…

The Soldier Standing Closest

The soldier standing closest when the world changed Meet Sergeant Voss, and the day the Integration began You know the person who gets up when there's work. The one who holds it together on the bad day, who leads when someone has to and carries the weight the rest of the time wit…

System Update: Story Ratings Enabled

Story Ratings Are Live You can now rate any story on integrationera.com. Five stars, right on the story page, and a comment box next to them so your score arrives with a reason attached. Ratings and comments are visible to everyone who reads the site. Submitting a rating requires…

Progression Fantasy Without Power Creep

Writing progression fantasy without power creep A craft note on power creep, and the design choices I use to keep the numbers honest. There's a moment in a lot of progression fantasy where the air goes out of it. The hero hits a new tier. The threat scales up to match. That happe…

The Unmapped

The people who let the system count them, and keep the rest The Purists refuse to be measured. There's a quieter movement that takes the system's number without a fight, and worries about what the measuring is slowly turning all of us into. There are people in this world who let …

If You Loved Dungeon Crawler Carl, He Who Fights With Monsters, or Cradle — Read This

A reader's on-ramp for the Integration Era You finished the last one. The series you were bingeing ran out of pages, or you caught up to the release schedule and now you're waiting like everyone else, and the gap where the book used to be is genuinely uncomfortable. You know the …