Hey Veeky Forums what are your favorite tropes?
What tropes are in your current campaign? What tropes would you love to see in your next campaign?
>I don't use it in every campaign but I can't help but love the retired warrior called back for one last battle. Bonus points if it's against an old adversary.
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I've always been really partial to the
"Sir, I'm going to have to check your weapons. please leave them here with me"
> dude proceeds to pull an alarming amount of weapons off his person in increasingly ridiculous areas
and always the
"That, one, too."
> small gun under the hat
makes me laugh every time.
Favorite: Non-action big bad, I'd use it in every campaign if I could.
>pic related
Pic related. People, living or dead, that get beaten down and refuse to stay there. As long as they've got a little left in them, or something to fight for, they keep getting back up.
In a similar vein, PCs getting a little help from beyond the grave.
youtube.com
Finally, that version of the power of friendship where all the people you've helped over the campaign show up during the climax to give that last little push.
Combining these things gives me a raging storyboner.
>PCs encounter a restless spirit
>Find out its the soul of an ancient general that died defending his homeland
>PCs stop his rampage and put him to rest
>Later, the BBEG is laying siege with his army
>PCs outnumbered a thousand to one
>A sword rises up out of the ground, followed by a spectral army
>"General Brown reporting for duty, with apologies for tardiness."
>Mysterious and powerful honorable villain wearing black armor.
I just love the whole feel of it.
Also
>Secret bloodline relationships
is my jam. Don't think I've ever run a game without one.
I live for scenes like that. Thanks user
Completely delusional villains who take their nicknames really seriously
When wizards and warriors are hating each other's guts.
pic related
tvtropes.org
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mostly because I don't think anyone genuinely believes that they're evil
>I" am sitting in the charred remains of my once-mighty flying Cocoon!"
>"Anyone... wanna... explain to me why my Cocoon is charred?"
>Be me playing Warhammer RPG with some people on Rolls 20
>Enjoying myself as a swordsmen.
>Come across a ancient stone arch, with a stair way
>Ohshitcrypttime.mov
>Walk down, it's a small crypt nothing special
>Ancient ghost sitting on his coffin, unhappy as all hell
>Ask him "What troubles you restless spirit?"
>He looks up "I've lost my sword, my one true companion, can you find it"
>End up spending 4 hours looking around the area to find his sword, found it in a bandit camp that looted the crypt
>Return it, the spirit thanks me and returns to his rest, he leaves me nothing, feel a bit defeated but at the same time smile to myself
>4 weeks later IRl time for session 5
>Im fighting off a trope of Bandits that had begun raiding a small fishing village, I swore i'd defend them on my honor and life because reasons, i'm a Hoachland swordsmen.
>Lost my sword during a duel with one of the bandits, crit failure and threw it.
>Backed against a hillside, no way to climb, time to fight
>Put my fists up, get into parry stance
>Sigmarhelpme.jpeg
>Green figure leaps out from the hillside
>Whatthefuck?
>It's the ghost from the crypt
>Bandits are facing a specter with no magic weapons, didn't last too long
>Spirit turns to me and says
>"Seems you've lost your sword now, maybe I can be of some assistance!"
>Spirit offers his blade to me, hard to accept but I do anyway
>Through the rest of this campaign this spirit follows me around, we talk and laugh. Seems like we both found a companion after all
And that's the story of how my simple swordsmen became friends with a ancient warrior spirit.
His name is Sir Louval de Calcor, and he's a Bretonnian, he was a questing Knight who fell in battle defending a village against a horde of beastmen.
>the villain used to be best friend with either the hero or the mentor
>both still wish things had turned out differently, but are too committed now
Especially combined with as a backstory.
>time-travel/n-universe flashbacks
>one person is so radically different in one period vs another (supreme badass vs ordinary loser, reckless fool vs world-weary and wise, hero vs villain, etc...) that the protagonists don't even recognize them at first.
"Grunts" and "non-important/helmetted soldiers" doing cool shit.
One of my favorite campaign hooks
>You losers are all in the city guard
>No ones knows your names
>Oh no! Disaster strikes!
>You're the only ones left to avenge your village
>Time for the misfits to make good and save the kingdom
>Villain at the brink of death
>doesn't know the names of the characters
>right before dying asks them their name
>"Soldier #1923, #9831 and #7231, reporting for duty"
nameless, faceless grunts whom everyone underestimates are my jam
>cleric being all about god and shit
>fighter being all about stronk and shit
>wizard being all about immortality and shit
>monk being all about clarity of mind and shit
>druid being all about nature and shit
>paladin being all about honor and shit
>thief being all about stealing and shit
it's so goddamned rare that someone makes a good PC that's completely stereotypical of a class. probably the most fun I've ever had as a player in a campaign was being a hyper-religious cleric who prioritized god, prayer, conversion, and doomsaying heathens and sinners above all else, and actually acting that way instead of just describing my character like that. using turns trying to get enemy NPCs to repent as they lie on the ground dying, being 100% inflexible in expressing my religious views and performing ceremonies, taking literally every opportunity I could to talk about god. so much flavor.
One man vs. an army.
Every time....
I'm 100% stealing that.
Big fan of any tropes where a twist turns everything the players believe on its head.
>sci-fi specific: bad guy was really a virus in the system, not a real person, and everything the players have been seeing and doing was through an AR lens generated by the virus [Somewhat cf. System Shock 2]
>general: BBEG is doing their thing because it's the only way to prevent something worse [cf. Fable III, Watchmen]
>items that start weak but grow power, history and fame through association with someone
Please kys
>Something wicked this way comes.
A force so powerful, so feared that uttering its name can bring unwanted attention. Forcing characters to reference the BBEG in euphemistic terms if they want to avoid their wrath.
>Pic Related
Patrician taste.
Not sure what you would call it, maybe hype power up or something but that bit in Sword of the stranger where the main guy draws his sword and instakills some guy is so hype just a shame its really hard to replicate in rpgs without heavy dm fiat
Jesus christ learn to write ffs
A cool flying homebase.
>tvtropes.org
>tvtropes.org
>tvtropes.org
Bois if you can run your campaign like an episode of Billy and Mandy my ass will be in your seat every week no question