Royal Road: The Complete Guide for Readers
Everything you need to know about Royal Road. How to find good stories, understand the rating system, and get the most out of the platform.
Royal Road is the biggest platform for English web fiction. Thousands of stories, millions of readers, completely free.
But it can be overwhelming. Here's how to actually use it.
What Is Royal Road?
A web fiction platform focused primarily on:
- LitRPG and GameLit
- Progression fantasy
- Isekai
- Cultivation
- Fantasy in general
Free to read, ad-supported, with optional premium for authors. The largest concentration of progression fantasy anywhere on the internet.
Finding Good Stories
The Rankings
Best Rated: Highest average ratings. Tends toward proven favorites. These are the classics.
Trending: Currently popular. Good for finding what's hot now. Updated frequently.
Popular This Week: Recent momentum. New stories can appear here. Shows what the community is reading right now.
Rising Stars: Newer stories with strong early performance. Great for discovering fresh content before everyone else finds it.
The Tags
Use tags to filter. Most useful:
- Genre tags (LitRPG, Isekai, etc.)
- Content warnings (Gore, Sexual Content, etc.)
- Protagonist tags (Male Lead, Female Lead, etc.)
- Setting tags (Magic, Sci-Fi, Virtual Reality)
Combine tags to narrow down. The more specific, the better your results.
The Advanced Search
Don't ignore it. You can filter by:
- Word count (minimum/maximum)
- Page count
- Rating threshold
- Update frequency
- Completion status
This is how you find exactly what you want. Spending five minutes on advanced search saves hours of browsing.
Understanding Ratings
Royal Road uses a 5-star system with some quirks:
Overall Rating: What you see prominently displayed.
Style, Story, Grammar, Character: Component ratings that average to overall.
Rating Count: A 4.8 with 50 ratings means less than 4.5 with 5,000. Volume matters.
Advanced Reviews: Written reviews count more for rankings than simple star ratings.
What Ratings Actually Mean
- 4.5+: Generally considered good to excellent
- 4.0-4.5: Solid, probably with some issues
- Below 4.0: Reader beware (or unfairly bombed)
Note: New stories often have inflated ratings that settle down over time. Early ratings skew high.
The Follower/Favorite System
Follow: Get updates when new chapters post. Basic engagement.
Favorite: Stronger endorsement. Affects rankings more. Shows commitment.
Read Later: Just a bookmark. Doesn't affect rankings.
Authors notice the difference. Favorite what you love. It helps stories get discovered.
Content Warnings
Stories can be tagged:
- Profanity: Strong language
- Gore: Graphic violence
- Sexual Content: Ranges from fade-to-black to explicit
- Traumatising Content: Heavy themes
These are author-applied. Accuracy varies. Check reviews if you're sensitive to specific content.
Completion Status
Ongoing: Still being written Hiatus: On break (may or may not return) Completed: Finished Dropped: Abandoned
Check update history. "Ongoing" with no updates for a year is effectively dropped. Many promising stories are abandoned—check before getting invested in long works.
Platform Culture
Comments: Authors often respond. Be thoughtful. The community is generally positive but honest.
Patreon: Many authors have advance chapters. Support if you can. It's how authors pay bills.
Grammar: Varies wildly. Some stories are professionally edited, some aren't. Grammar tag helps filter.
Updates: Daily to monthly. Check the schedule. Consistent authors mention their frequency.
The Algorithm
What affects visibility:
- Follower/favorite ratio
- Advanced reviews
- Update consistency
- Reader retention
New stories get a visibility boost. First impression matters. This is why early chapters need to hook readers.
My Recommended Starting Points
Stories that showcase what Royal Road does best:
Mother of Learning - Time loop fantasy. Completed. Essential reading.
The Wandering Inn - Slice of life isekai. Ongoing forever. Massive. Over 10 million words.
Dungeon Crawler Carl - LitRPG with excellent humor. Ongoing.
Beware of Chicken - Comedy cultivation. Ongoing. Cozy vibes.
Super Supportive - Superhero academy progression. Ongoing.
When narrator Fits
Royal Road is vast. But even vast platforms have gaps:
Abandoned stories. You're 200 chapters into something perfect and the author goes on "hiatus" forever. Check update history—it happens constantly.
Specific combinations. You want dungeon core meets cultivation with a female lead and base building. That exact combo? Good luck finding it.
Quality lottery. You want progression fantasy without the grammar issues or first-draft prose.
Niche crossovers. LitRPG with romance focus? Cultivation with slice-of-life pacing? The combinations get harder to find.
That's where narrator comes in. Describe exactly what you want—"progression fantasy, female lead, dungeon core, cultivation elements, 80k words"—and generate it. No abandoned stories. No waiting for updates. Exactly the trope combination you want.
Not replacing Royal Road. Filling the gaps when even the biggest platform falls short.
Get Started
- Create a free account
- Set content filters to your preferences
- Browse Rising Stars for something new
- Check Best Rated for proven quality
- Use Advanced Search for specific tastes
- If you can't find it, generate it—narrator creates the exact progression fantasy you want
The platform is free. The content is vast. Dive in.