Grave Digger Gary

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Where is the last place you want to be when the zombie apocalypse begins?In a cemetary, digging a grave, of course - which is exactly where Gary finds himself when his world is abruptly initiated into the multiverse. And that's just the start of his problems. Due to a technical error, Gary doesn't get the same character sheet and upgrades as everyone else. Nope. Instead, Gary gets classified as one of the undead. He's a zombie now - except, Gary didn't die. And he doesn't want to, either!A LitRPG/Gamelit story of what happens when one man armed with a shovel takes on the undead hordes threatening to overrun his reality. Combines zombie apocalypse horror with pen and paper style RPG game mechanics.

Updates areMondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at just after 6PM UK time / 11AM PT / 1PM EST.

I've set up aPatreonaccount here:https://www.patreon.com/gravediggergaryif you'd like to support the story and read up to 15 chapters ahead. All support is very much appreciated!

The underlying system on which the story runs is a work in progress (like the story itself!) so there may be adjustments to character sheets etc as the novel rolls out.

Spelling and grammar are British English unless I mess up in which case it's just gobbledygook(please feel free to point out any typographical mistakes or obvious errors, I appreciate it!)Finally, this story is cross-posted on Scribblehub.

And I think that's everything!

Thanks for reading!All content copyright Robert Thorne 2021

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2021
Author
Rob Thorne

Tags

LITRPGACTIONFANTASYADVENTUREMAGICSUPERNATURALGAMELITMALE LEADHORRORPORTAL FANTASY / ISEKAIPOST APOCALYPTICLOW FANTASYGRIMDARKHIGH FANTASYURBAN FANTASY

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.0/ 5.0
Followers
819
Views
278,443

Chapters(65 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

  • RydeniusRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    A spectacular dumpster fire of a zombie apocalypse where Gary isn't the multi-verse's only screw-up—though many of them are named Gary. Well-paced and fun with dark turns and expectation-busting twists. The style has panache and a British sense of humor to keep the story from becoming too dark. Hints of a deeper plot are doled out regularly for the reader to gnaw on, giving hope that there's more than a skeleton of a plan guiding the journey.
  • MommaschunkymixRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Ilike it alot. I first thought the group of new people would play as a boring cliche, but instead they act in a way I did not expect that defeyd my expectations in the best way. The way his "class" works means his path to becoming strong will push his character to the breaking point.
  • David GilesRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    This isn't a grand masterpiece but it never pretends to be. It's a simple fun and fairly lighthearted story about a system apocalypse.
    Gary is a relatable protagonist and most of the characters act fairly realistically given their situation with the few times someone is acting oddly being a direct result of mind manipulation. Honestly I'm trying to wax philosophical here but the truth is the story is just good, solid fun.
  • AshroBuggerRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Pretty neat, I hope it doesn't become trash or anything like *points to corner of shame* never go there. They are shameful pieces of work. Also hey I love apocalypse litrpg and this one fits the mark.
    Keep on going writer-chan I want more, so I would like more, don't overwork yourself.
    love Brick-San
  • Bill501Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    This book has an excellent premise and is well written. Having said that I just don't like it so far. I maybe naive but I like to think more of humanity than is shown in this novel. Also for the record I dislike that I have to make all the reviews 50 words long. Why? What is the purpose of that? I've said all I need to say without spoiling the book or the plot.
  • ThrockmockerRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    I binged the first 18 chapters and enjoyed it quite a bit. I didn't follow the story simply because reading a realistic description of how people act in a disaster is rather painful these days. The writing is sharp, the humor is on point, the situations match the tropes of the settings, and protagonist is a good guy in a terrible situation. Unfortunately, the realities that he encounters are hitting an open wound in the psyche right now. I may try it again if Humanity gets our act together.
  • Gross ToadRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    4 Stars
    First of all, it needs to be stated, the atmosphere so far is far more like the Walking Dead franchise, rather than your common litRPG Apocalypse power up fantasy. The genre might probably be better described as litRPG Apocalypse drama.
    Gary is just a down on his luck guy, doing temp-work as a gravedigger, when his world is forcibly introduced to the interdimensional war between the living and the dead. During the transition, he was unfortunately caught in a magical mishap, and cursed into a half-living half-undead state.
    Interested? Now switch most of the fantasy terms with a litRPG term, and that is where there story's flow kinda hit a zig-zag lane.
    Readers are kinda used to mishaps being cheats for power-ups in the common popcorn litRPG genre. Here, it is treated not just as a change on the race column of his status sheet. Gary feels the growing urge to eat flesh of the living, and his teeth and nails now carry the touch of undead infection (magical infection, apparently).
    This is not played for laughs.
    This is an Zombocalypse litRPG with the Walking Dead scriptwriters on the helm.
    It is kinda well-written, but I feel like the clash between the more zany litRPG elements, and the sometimes fast switches the more serious tone of the character interactions and the more humorous ones, put off some number of the readers.
    Unsure where the story will go from here.
  • BullerRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    If I had a penny for each time I read a story about a dude in an apocalypse scenario with a shovel, I would have two pennies. This might not be many pennies, but it's weird that it happened twice.
    Anyway. I personally didn't take this story too seriously. I mean, there are some parts that are meant to be taken seriously. The style itself shows that off pretty well. However, the way the reader is shown the world just doesn't mesh well with it. Sure, it's a fun read but likely not in the same way that the author thought it would be. 4/5
  • MVVRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    This is not a master piece of writing.
    So what?
    It is fun and has clueless MC with a good heart trying to do the rigth thing in an impossible situation.
    It has random villains, seems to have a plot, the MC is underpowered and is not a leveling machine, so not a power trip so cliche in a lot of novel autors. Just for that it works for me.
    It may not be for you, but it cost nothing to give it a try.
    Also, I'm pretty sure at some point, the author will do a rewrite to retrofit some points in the starting and may even supress whole chapters and introduce them brand new to cater to the sensibilities of a wider base.
    This goes into the "Follow" list.Not yet in the "Love It", but it may.
  • Makata PlumaRoyal Road
    ★★★ 3.0
    At the beginning, I thought it wasn't too bad, decent even. But as the story goes on, I started to get bored.
    The MC isn't the witty or entertaining sort, he's just some random bloke that finds himself in an unfortunate situation. The tone that was set for the sfory didn't really mesh that well with the MC. And even that tone got wrecked when the party of would be mercs arrived.
    The pacing is another sore spot for me. We are 18 chapters in and we are still in the first day of the apocalypse, in the exact same setting, dealing with the exact same problem, just with more people in it.
    TLDR: it's not good, but not bad either. MC is bland and the story is going at a snails pace.