Cliches are all over the place in RPGs. Hawt Elf chicks who marry noble fighter-types, evil corporations who drop asteroids on hackers, wizards in high towers who plot the end of worlds.
You love 'em, you know you love 'em. You just won't admit it at the game table.
So which ones are your favorites? Which embarrassing, old-as-dirt cliches do you secretly love and wish you could drop into your games?
Me, I can't get enough of odd couples. The more out of place they seem, the more I love to stick 'em together. ("Illiterate barbarian, meet merchant princess from beyond the staaaaaaaaaaaars!") Romance, comedy or multiversal beatdown, I just love watching the straightman and the stooge.
And, God help me, I long for the day I can shamelessly drop them into every game I run.
The "crazy old genius kook". I've used him a lot, but rarely as impactfully as in my Roman campaign, where Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger both ended up being that cliche, and ended up affecting the campaign in huge ways (and scarring my players for life).
The "Big Fat Warrior Simpleton". Another character cliche of mine that shows up a lot.
There are lots of other Cliches I know I use (overuse?? I guess you'd have to ask my players that), but I can't think of them at this time, since I'm on the verge of collapse from lack of sleep.
RPGpundit
The Man With No Eyes
The Misunderstood Villian Who Is Actually Saving The World
The Dragon With A Thorn In Its Paw
fun stuff like that.
Evil Necromancers!
Dungeons with room after room of large carnivorous monsters and eeeeeeeeeevil humans with no sense of "ecology" or anything lame like that.
Chuck
Cthulhu-esque cultists who worship Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Know. (Strangely, I use this a lot in FRPGs, but never actually run CoC.)
The good-and-powerful-guy-turns-out-to-be-evil switcheroo on the players half-way through the campaign.
Quote from: SettembriniEvil Necromancers!
Yeah, those guys rock.
(My God, I actually agreed with Settembrini on something. :eek: )
Nazis/fascists/Scarlett Brotherhoodists/Whatever : everybody likes kicking totalitarian racist butt !
Quote from: SettembriniEvil Necromancers!
Yeah, them too.
Even better : Nazis Necromancers unknowingly worshipping Something Man Wasn't Meant To Know...
The retired fighter who owns a tavern and has a magic weapon hidden behind the bar. :D
The scary child.
Theiving bastard yet cheerful halflings.
Quote from: One Horse TownThe retired fighter who owns a tavern and has a magic weapon hidden behind the bar. :D
The retired fighter who owns a tavern and has a magic weapon
on display behind the bar. :D
QuoteThe retired fighter who owns a tavern and has a magic weapon on display behind the bar.
Now, that´s so a must, that I took it for granted...
Quote(My God, I actually agreed with Settembrini on something. :eek: )
Didn´t know I´m such a polarizing person :confused:
The tired old fighter who goes on One Final Adventure.
I use the hell out of that one, unapologetically and enthusiasitically.
QuoteThe tired old fighter who goes on One Final Adventure.
Cool as an NPC, but utterly bodacious if you can reactivate your own grognard as a player.
The Evil Overlords Girlfriend/Daughter Who Might Be Saved
The Evil Overlords Girlfriend/Daughter Who Pretends That She Might Be Saved
The Younger Version Of A PC
(young street urchin/apprentices, who show them what/who they were)
Young Conan
Quote from: fonkaygarryWhich embarrassing, old-as-dirt cliches do you secretly love and wish you could drop into your games?
Embarrassed? Ha! I'm utterly shameless. I reach out and grab old cliches and make them my own. I
celebrate them at every opportunity. I start adventures in bars. I send players out to rescue princesses. Gods appear in dreams and send my PCs on urgent missions. If it's been in a cheesy novel or B movie I won't hesitate to use it.
The Stupid Paladin.
Player Character waking up the next morning in bed together, cuddling.
Wearing armor, to bed!
The Great Magic That Comes with a Terrible Price.
The mysterious old tower in the woods, long thought abandoned but in fact possessed by a terrible Power.
Jillions of pagan gods and goddesses from hundreds of cultures and fictional settings, all mixed up into a cult-licious mess.
Brotherhoods of assassins who drag the players into their baroque machinations.
Bawdy, ignorant but essentially decent barbarian kings and their manipulative, sophisticated femme-fatale queens (a la Queen Mebde from "Tain bo Culaigne.")
Ravaging Pict warbands as both Noble Savages AND sub-human menaces.
Quote from: jrientsEmbarrassed? Ha! I'm utterly shameless. I reach out and grab old cliches and make them my own. I celebrate them at every opportunity. I start adventures in bars. I send players out to rescue princesses. Gods appear in dreams and send my PCs on urgent missions. If it's been in a cheesy novel or B movie I won't hesitate to use it.
Yes indeed!
I completely forgot the
Awfully Cute Progeny Of The Horrid Monster You Just Obliterated
Quote from: RPGObjects_chuckDungeons with room after room of large carnivorous monsters and eeeeeeeeeevil humans with no sense of "ecology" or anything lame like that.
Chuck
This one is the top on my list. I like an old school Dungeon Crawl where none of the monsters seem to have any particlar reason for being there and in fact your not sure how the could live there.
Quote from: mattormegThe Great Magic That Comes with a Terrible Price.
Yeah that XP costs for Wish is pain isn't it.
Quote from: SosthenesI completely forgot the
Awfully Cute Progeny Of The Horrid Monster You Just Obliterated
How about the Awfully Cute Progeny of The
Horny Monster You Just
Impregnated?:D
Quote from: mattormegHow about the Awfully Cute Progeny of The Horny Monster You Just Impregnated?:D
Sir, I don't run a Wraethtu campaign at the moment.