Jürgen Hubert
First Post
When creating Urbis, I made the deliberate design decision to use a large number of elements that readers might be familiar with - parallels to Real World history, societies and cultures, as well as common tropes (even cliches) of fantasy and other fiction (including gaming in general and D&D in particular). The reason for this was that Urbis has some fairly strange and unusual concepts at its core for a D&D setting - its culture is based on 19th century Europe instead of the usual medieval paradigm, it has extremely large city-states (sometimes with populations ranging into the millions of people), limited mass production of magic items is possible, and so forth. Thus, anything that players are likely to be familiar with will also make it easier for them to understand and "get into" the setting.
And recently, I found a brilliant resource for this which I really wish I had found earlier - the TV Tropes Wiki. Despite its name, it has gathered common tropes not just from television, but also movies, novels, comics and other kinds of fiction and dissected them and listed a large number of examples.
This is perfect for my purposes, as readers will immediately understand them when they are found in the wiki - or, if they are subverted, serve to make the setting more unique and interesting while still being recognizeable.
I have spend some time gathering a list of interesting tropes which I plan to add to the setting (some of them already exist within the setting - in this case, I will try to find new ways of using them. Here is my current list:
A House Divided - Danaan's Hope
Ancient Conspiracy - Flamekeepers
Arranged Marriage - Irda
Artifacts of Doom - Eridan
Attack Of The Killer Whatever - The Hive
Back From The Dead - Zirvash the Undying
Balance Between Good And Evil - Guardians of Balance (login required)
Baraar Of The Bizarre - Taris
Bedlam House - Kurova
Black Box - Armand
Bottomless Pits - The Cloud Pillar
Brother Sister Incest - The Inverted Circle (login required)
Buried Alive - Karmak
Campbell Country - Seventhford
Church Millitant - Temple Knights
Creepy Child - Princess's Men
Crystal Spires and Togas - Tamaras
Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday
Documentary of Lies
Drowning Pit
Dystopia
Everything Trying To Kill You
Freak Lab Accident
Grimmification
If Jesus Then Aliens
I Love Nuclear Power
Inn Between The Worlds
Invisible Man
King Arthur
Knight Templar
Last Dance With Mary Jane
Lava Pit
Lovecraft Country
Man Eating Plant
Messianic Archetype
Moral Dissonance
Mordor
No OSHA Compliance
No Plans No Prototype No Backup
No Sex Allowed
Plant Aliens
Quicksand Sucks
Rage Against The Heavens
Recurring Traveller
Sealed Room In The Middle Of Nowhere
Shark Pool
Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter
So Bad It's Horrible
The Little Shop That Wasnt There Yesterday
The Virus
Torture Cellar
Urban Legend
Values Dissonance
Very Loosely Based On A True Story
Wax Museum Morgue
Weirdness Magnet
What Happened To Mommy
What You See Is What You Get
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
Whenever I can think of a way of using a certain trope for the setting, I will post it to this thread and mark the appropriate entry in the list. If you have any suggestions for using specific tropes listed here - or if you think that other tropes from the wiki might be worth including as well - please don't hesitate to tell me.
I hope that other world-builders will find this thread useful in filling out their own settings as well.
And recently, I found a brilliant resource for this which I really wish I had found earlier - the TV Tropes Wiki. Despite its name, it has gathered common tropes not just from television, but also movies, novels, comics and other kinds of fiction and dissected them and listed a large number of examples.
This is perfect for my purposes, as readers will immediately understand them when they are found in the wiki - or, if they are subverted, serve to make the setting more unique and interesting while still being recognizeable.
I have spend some time gathering a list of interesting tropes which I plan to add to the setting (some of them already exist within the setting - in this case, I will try to find new ways of using them. Here is my current list:
A House Divided - Danaan's Hope
Ancient Conspiracy - Flamekeepers
Arranged Marriage - Irda
Artifacts of Doom - Eridan
Attack Of The Killer Whatever - The Hive
Back From The Dead - Zirvash the Undying
Balance Between Good And Evil - Guardians of Balance (login required)
Baraar Of The Bizarre - Taris
Bedlam House - Kurova
Black Box - Armand
Bottomless Pits - The Cloud Pillar
Brother Sister Incest - The Inverted Circle (login required)
Buried Alive - Karmak
Campbell Country - Seventhford
Church Millitant - Temple Knights
Creepy Child - Princess's Men
Crystal Spires and Togas - Tamaras
Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday
Documentary of Lies
Drowning Pit
Dystopia
Everything Trying To Kill You
Freak Lab Accident
Grimmification
If Jesus Then Aliens
I Love Nuclear Power
Inn Between The Worlds
Invisible Man
King Arthur
Knight Templar
Last Dance With Mary Jane
Lava Pit
Lovecraft Country
Man Eating Plant
Messianic Archetype
Moral Dissonance
Mordor
No OSHA Compliance
No Plans No Prototype No Backup
No Sex Allowed
Plant Aliens
Quicksand Sucks
Rage Against The Heavens
Recurring Traveller
Sealed Room In The Middle Of Nowhere
Shark Pool
Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter
So Bad It's Horrible
The Little Shop That Wasnt There Yesterday
The Virus
Torture Cellar
Urban Legend
Values Dissonance
Very Loosely Based On A True Story
Wax Museum Morgue
Weirdness Magnet
What Happened To Mommy
What You See Is What You Get
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
Whenever I can think of a way of using a certain trope for the setting, I will post it to this thread and mark the appropriate entry in the list. If you have any suggestions for using specific tropes listed here - or if you think that other tropes from the wiki might be worth including as well - please don't hesitate to tell me.
I hope that other world-builders will find this thread useful in filling out their own settings as well.
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