D&D Adventure Tropes

[TarionzCousin]

Where did the first pit trap appear?
And Gelatinous Cubes?

There is a pit trap in B1.

The Gelatinous Cube was in the very first Monster Manual. I didn't see a reference to it in anything earlier.

 

[Smoss]

TVTropes has a page for D&D, that might be a place to start.

(Insert standard TVTropes warning here.)

The first things I thought of were of all meeting in a tavern/inn (Which is in the tropes) - And the "Clearing rats out of a basement".

I did not see that one. Not that I know of these actually appearing in any published works... But those are the tropes I think of first for D&D...
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Smoss
Doulairen

 

[meomwt]

Here's my list of tropes:


The city sewers as a dungeon - Feels Warhammer-y

Sewers of Oblivion by Michael Stackpole, solitaire dungeon 13 for Tunnels & Trolls, many years pre-Warhammer I'm afraid.

 

[Bullgrit]

Does the dungeon as an adventuring environment predate D&D? I'm not talking about a place to pass through (like Moria) or a real-world-type dungeon (under a castle, as a prison) or just any interior location. I mean a dungeon like we think of in "Dungeons & Dragons"?

Bullgrit

 

[hamishspence]

Demons vs Devils

Rust Monsters

These are two things that make me think more of D&D than other settings. While some things (beholders, mind flayers) have been done, under different names, by other authors/games (possibly inspired by D&D) these two don't tend to be used.

 

[Echohawk]

The Gelatinous Cube was in the very first Monster Manual. I didn't see a reference to it in anything earlier.

From page 22 of Monsters & Treasure from the original 3-volume D&D set (1974): "Gelatinous Cubes: Underground creatures of near complete transparency which fit exactly the typical corridor of a dungeon. Metal objects absorbed into them would be visible thereafter within their bodies. These monsters would be difficult to harm and have a large number of Hit Dice."

 

[Tonguez]

Does the dungeon as an adventuring environment predate D&D? I'm not talking about a place to pass through (like Moria) or a real-world-type dungeon (under a castle, as a prison) or just any interior location. I mean a dungeon like we think of in "Dungeons & Dragons"?

Bullgrit

Conan in Tower of the Elphant? I'd consider that a dungeon crawl (albeit a wizards tower)

 

[Doug McCrae]

First haunted house - Tegel Manor by Judges Guild 1977. I6 Ravenloft made it a trope. Two is enough for a trope, right?

Think the first opposed factions might be Judges Guild too - Dark Tower 1980.

 

[JohnSnow]

I'll try to keep my list to things I feel actually originated with (or found their first full expression in) Dungeons & Dragons...

- The tavern party.
- The caravan guard adventure (this may be stolen from Westerns).
- "Kill monsters and take their stuff."
- Dungeon adventuring (although the "descent into the underworld" adventure is as old as myth).
- Adventuring spellcaster priests.
- Demons vs. Devils
- The gelatinous cube and other "dungeon cleaning" monsters.
- Dragons color-coded for your convenience.
- Death-trap dungeons set up by mad arch-wizards
- Planar adventures and transplanar travel.
- Lawful Good/Chaotic Evil/etc.
- Bag of Holding.
- Gnolls.
- Beholders.
- Mind Flayers.
- Ebony-skinned elves (drow).
- Trolls that regenerate.
- The henchmen sidekick.

Many D&Disms are so well-established that, in many places, you run into them more than the myths on which they were based. And that's ignoring ALL of the conventions of modern adventure gaming that originated with D&D, like hit points, classes, levels, XP, and so forth. D&D set the standard so solidly that for years, games basically defined themselves by how they compared to it.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Here's one: Fanes. Why is it everyone has Fanes? Fane of Lloth, inner Fanes, Outer Fanes, Lost Fanes, Fane of Monte Crtisto ... what, temples aren't good enough?

I'd blame Monte Cook, but Gygax beat him to it.