D&D General Flip or Twist A D&D Cliche

[the Jester]

The Twist: I once decided that Elves and Dwarves were the same species, and the elves were the "feminine" expression of the species while the Dwarves were the "masculine" expression. Not that all elves were female and all dwarves were male, mind you. They were both androgynous creatures. You usually had a Gimli and a Legolas because they were a bonded pair whose bickering wasmore like a sitcom marriage.

IT WAS YOU!

I say you post about this years ago, loved the idea, but could never find the post again. So until now, I didn't know whose idea it was!

 

[MarkB]

The twist(?): Adventurers are dangerous and mercurial vigilantes who are a menace to society. You are part of an elite force of town watch guards tasked with taking down these maniacs and dealing with the fallout of their reckless actions.

 

[Reynard]

The twist(?): Adventures are dangerous and mercurial vigilantes who are a menace to society. You are part of an elite force of town watch guards tasked with taking down these maniacs and dealing with the fallout of their reckless actions.

I'd play that convention game.

 

[Stormonu]

The princess who is to be rescued is actually a villain, luring heroes to die to keep her Obsidian Soultower fueled.

Now I want to run a one-shot where a eldritch "green knight" is harboring a kidnapped princess in a fortress whose access is concealed by magical means. Turns out, the green knight is the princess and she's taken up the role to thumb her nose at her parents - who want to see her married off. Moreover, she enjoys what she's doing and the woe she's causing in her secret identity as she torments, defeats and humiliates the other knights of her realm.

 

[the Jester]

The twist(?): Adventurers are dangerous and mercurial vigilantes who are a menace to society. You are part of an elite force of town watch guards tasked with taking down these maniacs and dealing with the fallout of their reckless actions.

If you've never read China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, there's a scene where you see a group of adventurers through a non-adventurer's eyes, and man. You just brought that scene to mind hard.

Strong recommend on that book if you're into weird urban fantasy.

 

[Lanefan]

Three times over the years, I've run the "princess paid to have herself kidnapped" bit - one was just a merchant's daughter trying to blackmail her old man for a fortune, one was a duke's daughter who was a political radical working with an extremist movement, and the third was a willing pawn of demons...

I did one where they were to rescue a maiden from a dragon - when they got there the dragon was out hunting so they unchained the maiden and brought her back to town. Problem is, the "maiden" was the dragon polymorphed into Human form, and the PCs took her inside a city she couldn't otherwise get into.......

Yeah, that got messy.

 

[Lanefan]

The world was already destroyed, long ago. A group of heroes failed to stop the Generic Evil Wizard, and millions of people died in a major geological catastrophe that rearranged the surface of the planet.

A thousand years passed. People adapted, and new nations rose from the ashes.

Now the "villain" is a survivor of that cataclysm, who is trying to put the world back the way it was. If he succeeds, a second geological catastrophe will rearrange the surface of the planet again, killing millions.

Huh. That sounds frighteningly like a major plot arc in the game I play in, only in that case we were the ones trying to put things back they way they were...and unwittingly causing immense catastrophe in the process...

 

[Oofta]

The princess who is to be rescued is actually a villain, luring heroes to die to keep her Obsidian Soultower fueled.

 

[DeviousQuail]

PC ability scores get a +5 modifier at 10 and 11 and decrease by one point the further away they get from them. Players must still use 4d6 drop the lowest.

 

[ninjayeti]

Dwarves have French accents instead of Scottish ones. They love wine but wouldn't be caught dead drinking ale or mead.