D&D 5E Which played-out D&D trope needs to die?

[jgsugden]

I'm talking stuff like "rangers suck" or "bards are always horny." I'm talking plots like rescuing the princess, meeting your evil twin, or finding out that it was all a dream. Sure these things can be done well, but they also tend to elicit an immediate eye-roll when they come up. So before you attack your keyboard with "I did THING in my game, and it was the best THING ever," remember that this is more about pet-peeves than never-do-this-under-any-circumstance. ...

You asked a question and then told people not to give the actual answer: That nothing needs to or should die. It just needs to be done correctly when it is done.

If a player rolls their eyes because something was not executed well - fine. Not polite, but fine.

If they roll those eyes immediately before waiting for the full delivery, then that player is doing a disservice to the DM and the other players at the table.

 

[Scott Christian]

I honestly think there are no tropes that need to end. Someone, inevitably, will come along with a slight twist, and boom, it becomes new again. The quote is: "The road of fiction is well travelled." This is true, but it doesn't stop writers from continuing down the road. Because sometimes, even though you have seen that road a hundred times, you spot something new.

And note, you can experience something that is the exact same trope but with a different group, and suddenly, it is refreshed in your eyes. Perception and attitude play a part.

 

[embee]

Tropes exist for a reason. It's clumsily trying to subvert tropes that is likely to cause a narrative problem.


This is a case in point. If someone has a stable happy homelife it doesn't make much sense for them to throw it all away and become an adventurer.

PC is a farmer with a large family. A blight resulted in a poor harvest. PC still needs to provide for his family that he loves but cannot presently feed.

The mayor has put a small bounty out for a group of goblins in a nearby cave...

 

[pming]

Hiya!

What trope, for me, needs to die. It's semi-recent, but pervasive. Multiple threads have been started over the years. Here it is: "Monsters listed as Evil aren't really evil...they're just misunderstood and haven't been given the opportunity to be good". Back when Drow were Chaotic Evil because it was infused into their very blood and souls....not because they just "had a rough upbringing". Kobolds, Orcs, Giants, etc...I much prefer them to be 99.999% irredeemably evil; one in a million individuals might not be evil.

I think that's the only "trope" (even if it's only 15 to 20'ish years old) that I think needs to die.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Trope-y things that should disappear from my table:

• Stoner druid, dumb barbarian (even with 14 Int, because we use rolled stat)
• That guy who brings a real instrument to play their bard.
• Lol-random-cat tabaxi character played like house cats instead of a real, living race & culture.

Those were okay the first 2 or 3 times, after 5 campaigns, you need to find something better than that.

Other than that, my group actually enjoy some tropes; they are not veteran players, so saving the world from a cult after meeting strangers in a tavern actually works pretty well.

 

[Dragonsbane]

Hiya!

What trope, for me, needs to die. It's semi-recent, but pervasive. Multiple threads have been started over the years. Here it is: "Monsters listed as Evil aren't really evil...they're just misunderstood and haven't been given the opportunity to be good". Back when Drow were Chaotic Evil because it was infused into their very blood and souls....not because they just "had a rough upbringing". Kobolds, Orcs, Giants, etc...I much prefer them to be 99.999% irredeemably evil; one in a million individuals might not be evil.

I think that's the only "trope" (even if it's only 15 to 20'ish years old) that I think needs to die.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

100%

 

[Oofta]

Jesus - I'm thinking you people would not like most of my games!

I'd write more, but I'm busy figuring out ways for these adventurers in a tavern to learn about the cosmic threat posed by the evil cultists' plot to open a portal to hell.

The truly sad thing? I tell myself I'm not going to trot out this tired old trope and then before I know it there's a cosmic threat and cultists running around secretly causing the problems. That game I promised myself would just be fun adventure time suddenly turns into an apocalyptic event (at least locally) because of caffeine-infused manic improvisation that sounded so cool in the moment or because I found a cool image during my procrastination caused last-minute prep.

 

[billd91]

Jesus - I'm thinking you people would not like most of my games!

I'd write more, but I'm busy figuring out ways for these adventurers in a tavern to learn about the cosmic threat posed by the evil cultists' plot to open a portal to hell.

That's the internet for you. A lot of people are WAY more tolerant of things in real life than they project on the internet because then they're dealing with real people and not just anonymous avatars and screen names. The impersonality just brings out all the negativity.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

played like house cats instead of a real

Because house cats aren't real?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Because house cats aren't real?

Yup. They are a myth!

I meant that a character that ''must'' sleep 14 per day, drinks milk in a bowl on the floor, run away from every fights in a tree or other high places, lick herself in the middle of a battlefield, refuse to go outside unless dragged etc makes for a lousy adventurer...

It might be funny for a one shot or, maybe, one character for a campaign, but 3-4 times the same character start to induce incontrollable eye-rolls