Archetypal RPG Plots?

Nathan P. Mahney

First Post
It's been said that there are only seven basic stories in fiction (along with a whole lot of other numbers, but seven is the one I hear most often). I was wondering, has anyone ever actually boiled RPG plots down to a list of basic archetypes like this? A list of like, the 7 possible basic RPG stories? I'm curious as to whether it differs from fiction a great deal (I think it would).
 

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There are the stupid plot tricks which eveyone seems to use in books and movies which are the inspriation to most gaming material. And then there's S. John Ross's big list of rpg plots.

The best list of the limited list of plots is 36 plots. I still use this list when my muse has decided to take a vacation.

Of course these aren't boiled down. But I like slightly larger lists as some details matter.

Thanks to google I found the list of seven plots( or 20 or 36 or 37).
 
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I tend to like my plots to be based on more than 3 or 4 words, but I do recall hearing that in college. I think it was 7 but I don't remember. Either mythology or english was the class.
 

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