How do you use cliches in your game?

[The_Universe]

Cherry pick the cliches you like, and mess with everything else. After all, if you use *none of them* your players have no basis for identifying with the world - if elves aren't traditional fantasy elves, what are they? Isn't *anything* familiar?

There's nothing wrong with cliches - they're what make imagining pretty much the same thing at any given time in the game possible.

 

[fusangite]

Cherry pick the cliches you like, and mess with everything else. After all, if you use *none of them* your players have no basis for identifying with the world - if elves aren't traditional fantasy elves, what are they? Isn't *anything* familiar?

There's nothing wrong with cliches - they're what make imagining pretty much the same thing at any given time in the game possible.

I think there's a difference between a cliche and an archetype.

 

[The_Universe]

I think there's a difference between a cliche and an archetype.

Only a semantic one. Cliches are archetypes that people are presumably "tired of." They've been done and overdone because they are the archetypes - by playing against the archetype, you break the cliche.

The two words are synonymous, with the same denotation, but a different connotation. Archetypes are good, cliches are bad, even if they might be referring to the exact same thing.

 

[shilsen]

I think there's a difference between a cliche and an archetype.

I've got to go with The Universe here. One man's cliche is another man's archetype.

 

[Crothian]

I have fun with them. Most of the time there are no cliches buecause a clishe is usually a good idea that someone didn't bother to put the time into.

 

[warlord]

Well I'm running an Angel so naturaly the good guys dress in black.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I embrace the cliche. I break them every once in a while, too. If you forgo all cliches, then that good fiend, that crazy dwarf wizard, and that good guy in black all become the norm. In essense, you have done nothing but create new cliches. The PCs now see the third good fiend in the campaign and wonder what amazing thing converted yet another one, see the town full of dwarven wizards and its just another town, and see yet another guy in black who is obviously their newest bestest friend in the whole wide world and you have accomplished nothing substantial at all. Don't break a cliche just because it's a cliche.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Depends on the cliche...

For my current campaign, there are elements which definitely harken to some of those cliches: northern pseudo-Scots/Nordic dwarves with clan kilts, spagenhelms, & waraxes; forest-dwelling archer elves; orc hordes; etc. For the most part, it's due to player expectations--typical D&D for them, in a way.

But then again, it's good to have something else present alongside the cliches, or to separate the cliche elements. For example, IMC, the aforementioned highlander-viking dwarves are anything BUT lawful--they're typically more chaotic, with a more barbaric/tribal society. The southern dwarves, OTOH, dwell in the southern desert mountains, & are much more lawful than their northern cousins. Their culture is a sorta pick-&-pull fusion of Al-Qadim & Oriental Adventures styles--a society focused on honor & tradition, quite spiritual & introspective; these dwarves are typically the lawful warriors (if not samurai, paladins, monks, etc.).

I think the level of cliche present is based upon how much of it that you & your playes are comfortable having present in the game.

 

[Rackhir]

I have absolutely no time for Pratchett and the approach to gaming that he spawns. I find that fantasy novels, generally, tend to be cliche-ridden and campy enough. I don't need someone like Pratchett to come along and say, "this is silly -- look how absurd I can demonstrate it to be." I already feel that when I try to read most fantasy novels so I generally avoid the genre.

For me, Pratchett seems to be shooting fish in a barrel -- "look at all these moderns in medieval drag in variants of Star Trek plots." I find his social commentary to be too modernist, over-simplifying and blunt to say anything meaningful about real human societies and the pulp fantasy genre to be unworthy of an author dedicated to showing just how pulpy it is.

My goal in GMing is to make my facade of a world real enough that people can lose themselves in it for a moment or two. The last thing I would choose to put in an adventure is a person or event pointing out, "This is a facade! A facade! Ha ha ha!"

Uhm. Are you sure its Terry Pratchett you've been reading? If it is, not all of his books have been gold. Some of them do suck, but a substantial number of them have been great.

He doesn't mock the conventions of fantasy. He has fun with them, like the Tick does. Do you actually feel everything has to be deadly serious? That seems to be a large part of your complaint.

OOOoooppppps. Bugger. Forgot to just lurk and pick up clues on Shilsen...