I really enjoyed this one.
Discount Dan
Discount Dan’s Backroom Bargains #1
By James A. Hunter
Shadow Alley Press
March 2025
Dan noclips out of our world and into the Backrooms, an endless, ever-changing maze of abandoned malls, carnivals and laundromats. That Backrooms mythology is something different for LitRPG, and every floor feels like its own Backrooms level.
He’s immediately thrown into a battle between two titans, the Flayed Monarch and the Boundless Wanderer. Dan swipes the loot the Flayed Monarch drops while fighting the Wanderer (who may or may not be one of the good guys), and walks away with a couple of really important things. That makes the Flayed Monarch and the Skinless Court his enemies for the rest of the series.
Progression isn’t your standard grind-the-levels setup. Dan grows mostly through the relics and artifacts he loots and equips, and each one gives him new powers.
On the very first floor he meets Croc, a mimic who usually looks like a blue dog made of Croc-shoe material with googly eyes, and who becomes his sidekick. Croc is refreshingly fun. He’s comic relief, but he’s never harsh, sarcastic or rude. Think Ted Lasso comic relief: earnest, honest and kind, but also naive and incredibly dangerous.
Dan also starts taking over stores, so alongside surviving, getting stronger and looking for a way out, there’s some city building and merchandise building too.
I’ve read a lot of LitRPG, and of all of it, this is the most like Dungeon Crawler Carl. Honestly, there’s nothing quite like DCC, but this comes closest, with all the fun and weirdness plus a bit of cartooniness. If you want something lighter and easier, there’s Level One God, but if you want the most DCC-like read, this is it.
Fantastically fun and definitely worth your time.
