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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DarkKestral" data-source="post: 4150473" data-attributes="member: 40100">I personally believe there are only 3 basic stories, but...As far as the general topic: I think a good operational definition of a cliche is one you can find at TVTropes: A trope is a recurring element of a plot or story. A cliche is a trope used to the point that it normally must be subverted, inverted, or avoided or at least lampshade hung if the audience is to find it interesting. By the point that something becomes a widely recognizable trope, it is almost assuredly on it's way to being a cliche. So, in other words, we're talking things that are basically "mined out," at least in terms of their dramatic potential. So really, what are we talking about, at least in terms of the fantasy milieu of D&D? I don't rightly know. It's hard to say. I'd guess Drizzt and the drow come closest, in some respects, as do elves more generally. Usually, when I see drow campaigns that are interesting to me, they're usually involving evil drow as PCs, because every good drow at this point has shades of Drizzt, at least if they angst about it. At the same time, the overall drow are uninteresting to some, as they are often portrayed solely as a matriarchal society with a love on for spiders, Lolth, and some interesting marriage practices, and this hasn't changed in years.So how would I go about making a game about drow that isn't cliche? Make the good and evil ones work together. One campaign I've been kicking around in my mind has the drow as one of the few bastions of civilization in the Underdark, so they are both a force of good, in that they keep the Underdark semi-civilized and the nastiest beasties away from the surface, but a force of evil because this is through slavery and oppression. So you have a case where good drow and evil drow can co-exist. The good drow are trying to unite the Underdark against the worst evils, and the evil ones trying to wrest control of it from those evils. So both groups have similar goals, and have to work together, but eventually want to gain the upper hand; the good ones work to end the slavery and make a better life in the dark for all, while the evil ones work to bring more power and comfort to themselves, but don't care what happens to anyone or anything besides themselves. One goal would be to see if it can't be doable to make some good drow that aren't Drizzt clones...</blockquote>

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