The Boundaries of LitRPG

So the post yesterday with the hard numbers about how high the percentage of books on Rising Stars are from the LitRPG genre has made me think about it more than I have before. I knew it was popular and even the most popular, but I didn't realize exactly how completely dominant it was. If I'm being honest, I can't see myself writing a fully typical LitRPG work; I just don't enjoy the idea of writing someone fiddling around with their character sheet over and over again, and that seems to be the #1 signifier of the genre.

I wanted to see where the community thinks the "boundaries" of being able to call a work LitRPG really are. I don't want to slap the label on something that readers would disagree deserves it, because that's a bait-and-switch and will only hurt me in the long run. But if there's some wiggle room around the edges, well, I'm comfortable with that.

So with that in mind, which of the following set-ups would you be fair to call LitRPG without expecting reader pushback:

1. There is no inherent underlying system, but the main POV character has a superpower or device that allows them to analyze the world in RPG-like terms, so that they can (for example) scout an enemy and learn its strengths and weaknesses in a numerical context.
2. There is an underlying system but it does not have verbal/numerical representation on a character sheet. The main character enters a trance and sees a roadmap of nodes, each representing a different increase in ability in a symbolic way (i.e. seeing a flame for increasing destructive magic), and takes steps forward to unlock new nodes when leveling up.
3. There is an underlying system but the main character never consciously interacts with it. Information is given to the reader, possibly in out-of-narrative boxes, and reflected in the character's abilities, but the character spends no time thinking about their stats. Basically like watching a typical D&D game where the characters are affected by their character sheets but aren't aware of them.
4. Only the main character has an underlying system, because of something specific about their nature (for example, they're a robot with an internal operating system they access and use to upgrade their abilities piece by piece). The entire rest of the world operates as normal, and in fact isn't even aware of the existence of the system.
5. Only magic has an underlying system, with stats like Spirit, Aura, etc., but general nonmagical aspects of a person (strength, intelligence, etc.) are normal and not systemized. So a wizard would interact with the system while a warrior or merchant in the same world would not, and wouldn't even know about it.

In full transparency, one of these describes my current WIP, which I was not planning on labeling LitRPG when it launched but I'm now wondering if maybe I should. Two others are ideas I have on the backburner but am not currently working on, and the last two are just me spitballing.

Also, if anyone has any specific thoughts on what, exactly, are the defining characteristics of LitRPG that absolutely need to be present, I would be interested in hearing those, too.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

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