Otherland

This one has been around for a long while now and pre-dates the whole LitRPG movement. However, as the premise of the story takes place partly in a massive, realistic virtual game world, we can squarely put this one in the LitRPG category, even if it's treated as a strict science fiction.Tad Williams is a talented writer -- one of the best wordsmiths and fantasy authors in the entire genre; he penned celebrated fantasy classics such as the great Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, probably THE singular coming of age fantasy story of the 20th century (and one that inspired Martin to write A Game of Thrones).So what does Williams have that most of the authors in the LitRPG genre don't have? Well for one, he's a better wordsmith than every single one of them. Second, he knows how to write a deeply plotted, character driven story through and through.All of the LitRPG landscape features similar conventions to those found in the Otherland series. The thing is, Tad Wiliams did it first with his series of novels before LitRPG was a thing. In terms of writing and character development, and arguably the sheer scope of the story, Otherland stands unique in the genre. I wouldn't technically categorize it as LitRGP, but rather a full-fledged science fiction work, but one that takes place in a game.So for probably the best character-driven LitRPG story, and one that predates the entire genre by a good decade), read Tad Williams Otherland series.