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Discount Dan: A LitRPG Adventure
Discount Dan’s Backroom Bargains · Book 1 · 2025
Audiobook available
Dan brings a hangover, military experience and a contractor’s practical habits into the Backrooms, an impossible dungeon where game rules govern survival. A powerful enemy has marked him, and finding shelter means making allies in a place full of monsters.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Noclip In, No Way Out...”Read the full description at Macmillan Australia publisher description
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What makes it funny?
An official warning tells Dan to prepare for death while carefully excusing the researchers responsible. His irritated response treats supernatural catastrophe as another encounter with useless corporate language. He also has plenty to say about his own drunken decisions.
The comedy at work
Croc, a dangerous mimic who resembles a dog made from footwear material, approaches trouble with an enthusiasm for Twilight. His innocent pop-culture comparisons sit beside accounts of travelers who made fatal mistakes, giving the companionship a darker edge.
Try this if…
Shop-building gives the adventure a practical goal: supplies and safe sleep for other travelers. Readers who enjoy scavenging strange equipment get ordinary consumer goods, including Pogs and old athletic clothing, repurposed as magical gear.
Good to know
The opening includes frequent profanity, drinking and grotesque monster violence. A flayed creature carries weapons made from body parts; the jokes accompany horror rather than removing it.
More funny portal fantasy LitRPG
Sources & further reading
- Publisher — paperback and cover
Publisher
- Review — The Audiobook Review
Review
- Author — book details
Author commentary
- Review — The Bookwyrm Speaks
Review
- Chapter-one excerpt — The Nerd Daily
Reading sample
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