Charas-Project
Game Creation => Requests => Tutorials => Topic started by: Bluhman on August 16, 2005, 04:30:22 AM
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Basically, after taking a good look at the grand list of console rpg cliches (at http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html), I decided that I'd try and guide people on what cliches can be avoided, should be avoided, shouldn't and can't be avoided. Please note that simply defying these cliche's will not make an instantly great game. A game needs graphics, sound, and, most importantly, a good story.
Now to quote the good old Italian plumber, "Let's a-go!"
Sleepyhead Rule
The teenaged male lead will begin the first day of the game by oversleeping, being woken up by his mother, and being reminded that he's slept in so late he missed meeting his girlfriend.
Avoidable?: Yes.
Reccomended avoidance: Yes. What it adds to the game is kind of rough...
"No! My beloved peasant village!"
The hero's home town, city, slum, or planet will usually be annihilated in a spectacular fashion before the end of the game, and often before the end of the opening scene.
Avoidable?: Yes.
Recommend?: Yes, but sometimes it's just neccesary. Sometimes cliches are unavoidable in a story, so don't try and dodge them if you're cornered by them.
Thinking With The Wrong Head (Hiro Rule)
No matter what she's accused of doing or how mysterious her origins are, the hero will always be ready to fight to the death for any girl he met three seconds ago.
Avoidable:Yes
Recommend: VERY YES. ARGH. This would be cliche palace. Don't ever do this unless cornered plot-wise (If you're cornered plotwise by this cliche', then I don't even want to know what the rest of your story is.)
Cubic Zirconium Corollary
The aforementioned mysterious girl will be wearing a pendant that will ultimately prove to be the key to either saving the world or destroying it.
Avoidable: Yes yet again.
Recommend: Maybe... If you can add a special twist to the gimmick, then that would be nice.
Logan's Run Rule
RPG characters are young. Very young. The average age seems to be 15, unless the character is a decorated and battle-hardened soldier, in which case he might even be as old as 18. Such teenagers often have skills with multiple weapons and magic, years of experience, and never ever worry about their parents telling them to come home from adventuring before bedtime. By contrast, characters more than twenty-two years old will cheerfully refer to themselves as washed-up old fogies and be eager to make room for the younger generation.
Avoidable: Yes. Very yes.
Reccomend: Yes. Really, when you think about it, a Teen in an RPG seems to act like someone of grown up-ness. Therefore, I'd recommend you age your main character anywhere from 20-40.
Single Parent Rule
RPG characters with two living parents are almost unheard of. As a general rule, male characters will only have a mother, and female characters will only have a father. The missing parent either vanished mysteriously and traumatically several years ago or is never referred to at all. Frequently the main character's surviving parent will also meet an awkward end just after the story begins, thus freeing him of inconvenient filial obligations.
Avoidable:Yes
Recommend: Yes. It's not that hard to make a story that doesn't involve the death of your parent.
Some Call Me... Tim?
Good guys will only have first names, and bad guys will only have last names. Any bad guy who only has a first name will become a good guy at some point in the game. Good guys' last names may be mentioned in the manual but they will never be referred to in the story.
Avoidable:Yes
Recommend: Yes. It's not that hard really, just make sure to mention the full name at some point.
Nominal Rule
Any character who actually has a name is important in some way and must be sought out. However, if you are referred to as a part of a posessive noun ("Crono's Mom") then you are superfluous.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: Yes. It's nice to see some NPC's with a bit more detail!
The Compulsories
There's always a fire dungeon, an ice dungeon, a sewer maze, a misty forest, a derelict ghost ship, a mine, a glowing crystal maze, an ancient temple full of traps, a magic floating castle, and a technological dungeon.
Avoidable: No. I'm sorry, but if you were to somehow dodge this, then you obviously are insane. See, an RPG NEEDS this stuff to go on and be good! It's things like this that would make the game just fall short if they weren't included.
Luddite Rule (or, George Lucas Rule)
Speaking of which, technology is inherently evil and is the exclusive province of the Bad Guys. They're the ones with the robots, factories, cyberpunk megalopolises and floating battle stations, while the Good Guys live in small villages in peaceful harmony with nature. (Although somehow your guns and/or heavily armed airships are exempted from this.)
Avoidable: Yes.
Reccomend: Yes. Any way possible. It isn't even that logical to have the two mixed together. Try and keep it a constant theme, you'll find your game more believable.
Let's Start From The Very Beginning (Yuna Rule)
Whenever there is a sequel to an RPG that features the same main character as the previous game, that character will always start with beginner skills. Everything that they learned in the previous game will be gone, as will all their ultra-powerful weapons and equipment.
Avoidable: No. You'd need a heck of a lot of coding to make the game recognise data from another!
Poor Little Rich Hero (Meis Rule)
If the hero comes from a rich and powerful family, it will have fallen on hard times and be broke and destitute by the time the game actually starts.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: Yes. Again, another simple plot kink.
The Higher The Hair, The Closer To God (Cloud Rule)
The more outrageous his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: ... ... Maybe... Sometimes if your character was to have a normal hairstyle and all the people around him had flattops, afros, and cloud-strife hairdews, then your character could feel a bit insegnificant. Of course, normal hair adds realism. Try and keep them hairs down.
Garrett's Principle
Let's not mince words: you're a thief. You can walk into just about anybody's house like the door wasn't even locked. You just barge right in and start looking for stuff. Anything you can find that's not nailed down is yours to keep. You will often walk into perfect strangers' houses, lift their precious artifacts, and then chat with them like you were old neighbors as you head back out with their family heirlooms under your arm. Unfortunately, this never works in stores.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: Unless you're an excellent programmer, then I'd say no. Otherwise, this Cliche can be meshed into a nice game feature!
You will accumulate at least three of these obligatory party members:
The spunky princess who is rebelling against her royal parent and is in love with the hero.
The demure, soft-spoken female mage and healing magic specialist who is not only in love with the hero, but is also the last survivor of an ancient race.
The tough-as-nails female warrior who is not in love with the hero (note that this is the only female character in the game who is not in love with the hero and will therefore be indicated as such by having a spectacular scar, a missing eye, cyborg limbs or some other physical deformity -- see The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Rule.)
The achingly beautiful gothy swordsman who is riven by inner tragedy.
The big, tough, angry guy who, deep down, is a total softy.
The hero's best friend, who is actually much cooler than the hero.
The grim, selfish mercenary who over the course of the game learns what it means to really care about other people.
The character who is actually a spy for the bad guys but will instantly switch to your side when you find out about it.
The weird bonus character who requires a bizarre series of side quests to make them effective (with the ultimate result that no player ever uses this character if it can be avoided.)
The nauseatingly cute mascot who is useless in all battles.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Maybe. Try and mix these character ideas up... It could end up with some weird ideas that just might work!
Hey, I Know You, Too!
You will also confront/be confronted by at least three of these obligatory antagonists:
The amazingly good-looking and amazingly evil long-haired prettyboy who may or may not be the ultimate villain.
The villain's loyal right-hand man, who comes in two versions: humorously incompetent or annoyingly persistent.
The villain's attractive female henchman, who is the strongest and most competent soldier in the army but always lets the party escape because she's, yes, fallen in love with the hero.
Your former ally who supposedly "died" and was forgotten about, until much later in the game when he/she shows up again on the villain's side and full of bitterness.
The irritatingly honorable foe whom you never get to kill because, upon discovering the true nature of his superiors, he either nobly sacrifices himself or joins your party.
The insane clown or jester who will turn out to be surprisingly difficult to subdue.
The mad scientist who likes creating mutated creatures and powerful weapons 'cause it's fun (and also handy if uninvited adventurers show up.)
The adorably cute li'l creature or six year old child who fights you and, inexplicably, kicks your butt time after time.
Avoidable/Reccomend: Look up.
Hey, I Know You, Three!
Furthermore, expect to encounter most of the following obligatory non-player chararcters (NPCs):
The townsperson or crewmember who wanders aimlessly in circles and never quite gets where he is going.
Hilariously incompetent or cowardly soldiers.
The NPC who has a crush on another NPC and can't quite work up the nerve to tell him or her, so instead tells every other person who wanders by about it at great length.
A group of small children playing hide-and-seek.
The wise and noble captain/king/high priest.
The wise and noble captain/king/high priest's splutteringly evil second-in-command. Nobody, including the hero, will notice the second's constant, crazed scheming until the moment when he betrays everyone to the forces of badness.
The NPC who is obsessed with his completely mundane job and witters on endlessly about how great it is. He's so thrilled by it that he wants to share it with everyone he sees, so given a quarter of a chance he'll make you do his job for him.
The (adult) NPC who has nothing better to do than play kids' games with passersby.
The group of young women who have formed a scarily obsessive fan club for one of your female party members.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommend: Yes. Remember to try and add some detail into your NPCs.
Crono's Complaint
The less the main character talks, the more words are put into his mouth, and therefore the more trouble he gets into through no fault of his own.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommend: Sure. It could be a bit interesting to use this one, but really, having the main character at least respond with single words adds a bit of personality.
"Silly Squall, bringing a sword to a gunfight..."
No matter what timeframe the game is set in -- past, present, or future -- the main hero and his antagonist will both use a sword for a weapon. (Therefore, you can identify your antagonist pretty easily right from the start of the game just by looking for the other guy who uses a sword.) These swords will be far more powerful than any gun and often capable of distance attacks.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: KIND of... Your main character should use a sword, but it should be a different type of sword. One of my characters used a sword that looked more like a meat-cleaver. Anywho... You SHOULD NOT have them be more powerful than any weapon in the game. They're just swords! Furthermore, why would swords mix with guns?
Just Nod Your Head And Smile
And no matter how big that big-*** sword is, you won't stand out in a crowd. Nobody ever crosses the street to avoid you or seems to be especially shocked or alarmed when a heavily armed gang bursts into their house during dinner, rummages through their posessions, and demands to know if they've seen a black-caped man. People can get used to anything, apparently.
Avoidable: Yes.
Reccomend: Sure! It'd be interesting for someone to come up to you and say "That is the largest butter knife I've seen in a while.".
That was stupid.
Aeris's Corollary
Just as the main male character will always use a sword or a variant of a sword, the main female character will always use a rod or a staff of some sort.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: Yes. Really, my secondary female character uses katars. There's just so much variation from just a staff.
MacGyver Rule
Other than for the protagonists, your choice of weapons is not limited to the prosaic guns, clubs, or swords. Given appropriate skills, you can cut a bloody swath across the continent using gloves, combs, umbrellas, megaphones, dictionaries, sketching tablets -- you name it, you can kill with it. Even better, no matter how surreal your choice of armament, every store you pass will just happen to stock an even better model of it for a very reasonable price. Who else is running around the world killing people with an umbrella?
Avoidable: Yes
Recommend: Not really. It's weaponry like that that is just so much more eye-catching from a sword or gun. Each and every one of the characters should stand out from one another, and one thing that helps are unique weapons.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Melfice Rule)
If the male hero has an older sibling, the sibling will also be male and will turn out to be one of the major villains. If the hero has a younger sibling, the sibling will be female and will be kidnapped and held hostage by the villains.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes
I'm not going to explain. I'm just going to say that siblings are lame.
Capitalism Is A Harsh Mistress
Once you sell something to a shopkeeper, he instantly sells it to somebody else and you will never see the item again no matter what.
Avoidable: No. You'd need a custom shop system to make something like that work, and that would take a while to program for every single town.
Dimensional Transcendence Principle
Buildings are much, much larger on the inside than on the outside, and that doesn't even count the secret maze of tunnels behind the clock in the basement.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: No. It's difficult to put details into tiny houses. For example, a three tile house from outside would be three tiles inside. Now seriously, that would be enough room for a bed and a stove. As you can see, this one is just bad to avoid (except for the secret passage part... ugh)
Tune in tommorrow for numbers 26-50!
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I got a few.
I befriend no beast!
Basically, anything not human is an enemy, no questions asked, even if they be sentient or not.
"Live long and prosper."
One of the main characters or more are elves.
Humans numbah one, baby!
Related to top one. All party members are human despite the fact that other species are very capable of doing so.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended Avoidance: Definetly, if your going to have a fantasy world filled with sentient lifeforms then you best have some as heroes, heck, try giving one the main char slot... as long as he (or she) isn't somthing dumb (like a goblin XD).
I have blue hair, guess I'm alien.
This is a rather silly cliche, somtimes another race will look EXACTLY human but have some silly skin color or hair color that is supposed to set them apart. SARCASTIC WOW!
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended Avoidance: Definetly, this plagues some animes as well as games and can be quite monotinous, another variable of this silly cliche is winged people, you see it a tad too often, they myswell be called winged humans (Example: Breath of Fire series) cause thats what they basicly are -_-'
Additional:
It just won't budge...
You can kill an ogre in one blow of your fist, but when a little boulder falls in your path you can't get by, what is it made of, lead?
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended Avoidance: YES!! Especially when there are multiple characters, make it somthing that can't be pushed or broken through if your going to block a player off.
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Broken Bridge
If there's ever a bridge that is broken, there is always a one-tile gap between the two halves of the bridge. The heroes are incapable of jumping this distance, even though they recently leapt 10 feet into the air to grab onto ledges just to get there.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Definitely! All you have to do is make the gap larger. Don't make it too big, but make it reasonably spaced.
Forgive me, O Lord.....Psyche!
Villains never seek repentance unless they are:
a. Not the main villain
b. About to die
c. Not really seeking repentance
Avoidable: Yes.
Recommended: Not really. It would be interesting to see the villain feel sorry for what he's done, but it's even more interesting to have the villain feel no regret at all. It makes him more evil.
Are You Heroes? If So, Get in Jail!
Everything that goes wrong in the world is the fault of the heroes. At least, it is through the eyes of royalty. Therefore, the heroes are put in jail with little to no proof of their wrongdoings.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes. Give your royalty some common sense.
Bet You Can't Beat Me
When you are nearing the final dungeon, you can often find at least one cheap-*** (with a great item) who wants to test your strength, despite the fact that the heroes have already wiped out 95% of the monster population.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Hell yes. This cliche really bugs me. Why does he want to test your strength? Didn't he notice that you defeated most of the villain's underlings, most of the monsters of the world, and saved towns from certain destruction? If you're going to make an optional boss, make sure there is a good reason.
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Return with greater strength
Very often the hero's party will fight someone or something that they can't hurt, and they will undoubtedly die. Then later on in the game, they meet again, but this time you can win for some reason never given.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended: Yes. Maybe make a reason why they can't beat him at first, but they can later. Maybe the heroes receive some item or something that helps. One thing about Tales of Symphonia that bugged me - "Oh no Yggdrasill is too strong!" Then later on the game, "We're gonna beat you this time!" And then you're allowed to beat him.
Chests, chests, everywhere!
Chests will be everywhere. In houses, in dungeons, etc. And these chests will always have useful items or traps in them.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended: Maybe. Games do need chests, but sometimes you might wonder why there are so many chests just sitting around in some forest. Instead of making a chest, make a tile that stands out, maybe by making it sparkling or something. Chests would be in houses, but as mentioned before, would the rightful owners just let you take what's in it?
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Local Control Rule
Although the boss monster terrorizing the first city in the game is less powerful than the non-boss monsters that are only casual nuisances to cities later in the game, nobody from the first city ever thinks of hiring a few mercenaries from the later cities to kill the monster.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: Yes. It would be interesting to have other people than you trying to stop monsters like that.
Nostradamus Rule
All legends are 100% accurate. All rumors are entirely factual. All prophecies will come true, and not just someday but almost immediately.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Try mixing this concept up; legends that are factual, rumors that are somewhat accurate, a false prophecy, or a true one that will come forth only after something big happens.
IDKFA
The basic ammunition for any firearms your characters have is either unlimited or very, very easy to obtain. This will apply even if firearms are extremely rare.
Avoidable: No. You'd need to program something to count every single bullet used... That would be painful.
Indestructible Weapon Rule
No matter how many times you use that sword to strike armored targets or fire that gun on full auto mode it will never break, jam or need any form of maintenance unless it is critical to the story that the weapon breaks, jams or needs maintenance.
Avoidable: No. You'd need a custom battle system or something to stop this from happening.
Selective Paralysis
Your characters must always keep both feet on the ground and will be unable to climb over low rock ledges, railings, chairs, cats, slightly differently-colored ground, or any other trivial objects which may happen to be in their way. Note that this condition will not prevent your characters from jumping from railroad car to railroad car later in the game.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Just program special points where the hero can jump over things. Better yet, make a special common event that allows the hero to jump at any time in the game.
Bed Bed Bed
A good night's sleep will cure all wounds, diseases, and disabilities, up to and including death in battle.
Avoidable: No. You'd need a special inn system. Even then, this is just something essential to RPGs.
You Can't Kill Me, I Quit (Seifer Rule)
The good guys never seem to get the hang of actually arresting or killing the bad guys. Minor villains are always permitted to go free so they can rest up and menace you again later -- sometimes five minutes later. Knowing this rule, you can deduce that if you do manage to kill (or force the surrender of) a bad guy, you must be getting near the end of the game.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: Yes. Just make them die earlier on.
And Now You Die, Mr. Bond! (Beatrix Rule)
Fortunately for you, the previous rule also applies in reverse. Rather than kill you when they have you at their mercy, the villains will settle for merely blasting you down to 1 hit point and leaving you in a crumpled heap while they stroll off, laughing. (This is, of course, because they're already planning ahead how they'll manipulate you into doing their bidding later in the game -- see Way To Go, Serge.)
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: Not really. If your game was just plain cruel, then I guess this could work.
Zap!
Most villains in RPGs possess some form of teleportation. They generally use it to materialize in front of the adventurers when they reach the Obligatory Legendary Relic Room and seize the goodies just before you can. The question "if the bad guy can teleport anywhere at any time, then why doesn't (s)he just zip in, grab the artifact, and leave before the adventurers have even finished the nerve-wracking puzzle on the third floor?" is never answered.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomend: Not really. If your game was just plain cruel, then I guess this could work.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (Grahf Rule)
It doesn't matter that you won the fight with the boss monster; the evil task he was trying to carry out will still get accomplished somehow. Really, you might as well not have bothered.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes, just don't make it the boss' fault that what he was to do was done.
Clockwork Universe Rule
No matter how hard you try to stop it, that comet or meteor will always hit the earth.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. I'm a bit confused why you'd make a comet or meteor hit earth, other than a powerful attack spell.
Fake Ending
There will be a sequence which pretends to be the end of the game but obviously isn't -- if for no other reason than because you're still on Disk 1 of 4.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Depends. This cliche can actually be niceley used with the RM2K system, as it doesn't use disks.
You Die, And We All Move Up In Rank
During that fake ending, the true villain of the story will kill the guy you'd thought was the villain, just to demonstrate what a badass he (the true villain) really is. You never get to kill the fake villain yourself.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. The fake villan could be killed by the heroes or The fake villan could survive.
"What are we going to do tonight, Vinsfeld?"
The goal of every game (as revealed during the Fake Ending) is to Save the World from an evil figure who's trying to take it over or destroy it. There is no way to escape from this formidable task. No matter whether the protagonist's goal in life is to pay off a debt, to explore distant lands, or just to make time with that cute girl in the blue dress, it will be necessary for him to Save the World in order to accomplish it. Take heart, though -- once the world gets sorted out, everything else will fall into place almost immediately.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Maybe, but this one will sometimes be undogdeable.
Zelda's Axiom
Whenever somebody tells you about "the five ancient talismans" or "the nine legendary crystals" or whatever, you can be quite confident that Saving the World will require you to go out and find every last one of them.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. This is just an easily dodged stereotype in every video game.
George W. Bush Geography Simplification Initiative
Every country in the world will have exactly one town in it, except for the country you start out in, which will have three.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Just put more detail into the world map!
Fodor's Guide Rule
In the course of your adventure you will visit one desert city, one port town, one mining town, one casino city, one magic city (usually flying), one medieval castle kingdom, one clockwork city, one martial arts-based community, one thieves' slum, one lost city and one sci-fi utopia. On the way you'll also get a chance to see the cave with rocks that glow from a natural energy source, the village populated with nonhuman characters, the peaceful village where everyone knows the latest news about the hero's quest (see Guy in the Street Rule), the snow village, the magical forest/lake/mountain, the shop in the middle of nowhere, the fantastic-looking place with lots of FMVs just showing your entrance, the subtropical jungle island populated by friendly natives, the annoying cavern maze, and a place -- any place -- that was destroyed in some past disaster.
Avoidable: No, but it is possible to mix these concepts.
Midgar Principle
The capital of the evil empire is always divided into two sections: a lower city slum filled with slaves and supporters of the rebellion, and an upper city filled with loyal fanatics and corrupt aristocrats.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Try mixing the population in such a city up.
Not Invented Here
Trade of technology will not exist. One place in the world will have all the techno-gadgets while all the others will be harvesting dirt.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Seriously, try and keep your RPG completley futuristic, or completley historical!!!
Law of Cartographical Elegance
The world map always cleanly fits into a rectangular shape with no land masses that cross an edge.
Avoidable: No. All maps in RM2k are distinctly square/rectangular shaped.
¿Quien Es Mas Macho? (Fargo Rule)
Every powerful character you attempt to seek aid from will first insist upon "testing your strength" in a battle to the death.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. This one is just lame.
We Had To Destroy The Village In Order To, Well, You Know The Rest (Selene Rule)
No matter what happens, never call on the government, the church, or any other massive controlling authority for help. They'll just send a brigade of soldiers to burn your entire village to the ground.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. As CoolZidane said, try and give your nobles some common sense!
Zidane's Curse (or, Dirty Pair Rule)
An unlucky condition in which every major city in the game will coincidentally wind up being destroyed just after the hero arrives.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Try and make only SOME of these get destroyed, or at least try and vary the reason why the city falls apart.
Maginot Line Rule
It is easy to tell which city/nation is the next conquest of the Evil Empire: its streets are filled with citizens who brag that the Empire would never dare attack them, and would be easily defeated if it tried. (This smug nationalism always fails to take into account the Empire's new superweapon.)
Avoidable: No. Unlike some other cliches, this one makes a bit of sense.
Short Attention Span Principle
All bookshelves contain exactly one book, which only has enough text on it to fill up half a page.
Avoidable: No. Really, who would want to sit through 200 text boxes of writing in a book!?
Tune in later tonight for numbers 51-75!
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Were items are put?
The hero have no bag, or if he does, it is a small one, but he can transport a hundred of weapons or items.
Avoidable : I don't think so...Maybe with a common event, but I doubt it.
This isn't normal.
Heores never need to eat, drink or go to the toilet. In some game, you can eat food to replenish health, but it is not necessary. Plus, they can sleep anytime during the day.
Avoidable : Maybe with a common event, but I'm not sure...
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The Whole Freakin' System's Out of Order!
A fair trial is never fair. Something will happen (suprise witness; villain does something), and the hero (or whichever member of the party is on trial) will be found guilty.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Depends. It all really comes down to how much of a change in the story there would be if the hero were innocent.
The Freakin' System Corallory
However, if the villain is on trial, he's always found innocent.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes. Throw his evil *** in jail for once. However, if you do make him innocent, make sure there is some importance to it (i.e. villain working his charms)
No Thanks, I'm Fine (but could you get my arm while you're over there?)
If there is ever a disaster that occurs in a crowded area (town, castle) and various bodies litter the scene, the survivors will never beg for help, but will instead go into great detail as to what happened.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes. Have the people begging for help, and the hero unable to do anything. It adds a whole new level of darkness to the scene if people are lying on the ground, almost dead, begging for help.
Escher Mines
Mines always have bizzare systems of tracks in which you must ride a cart through to complete.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes and no. You don't need to get rid of the cart riding part, but at least have the tracks look like they were built by someone with sense.
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How The Hell You Got Here?
Never shows how, but the last boss (or any boss) aways find a way to climb the mountain / go to the castle / run to the exit faster than you. In dungeons with 30 min/more time you need to walk, they can go thru in 5 sec.
Avoidable: Yes.
Recommended: Yes. You can show that the villain actually HAS a blimp or something like that to get in the top of the mountain faster.
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Planet of the Apes Rule
All cities and countries have ancestors that were wiped out by their technological advances.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. But if you are to use this one, please try and ELABORATE on how they died...
Insomnia Rule
A "free stay at the inn" is never really free. Expect to be woken up in the middle of the night for a mandatory plot event.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. By the time this happens, your player should have some money. Just make it so that the character pays.
The Bling-Bling Thing (Lemina Rule)
No matter how much money and treasure you acquire, the greedy member of your party will never be satisfied and won't stop griping about the sorry state of the party's finances.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Either don't make that character, or make a gold-checking variable to see wether the finances satisfy the character.
I Don't Like Gears Or Fighting
There are always giant robots. Always.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Sometimes. Something like this is OK in a setting in the future, but not ALWAYS. A game with a historical setting is not going to have robots.
Houdini's Postulate
Anyone, whether they are in the player's party or not, who is placed in any kind of prison, fortress, cell, or detention block will escape immediately. Party members will be freed either by a small child they just happened to befriend earlier in the day or by an unexpected disaster that overcomes the enemy base, NPCs will be freed by the released party members, and villains will break out all by themselves because they're such badasses. Once a person has escaped from jail, no attempt will be made by the police to recapture them in the future.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. It would be interesting to have the guards at least care you got away. Whatsmore, you should make a sort of time limit.
Zeigfried's Contradiction
Just because someone is weird doesn't mean they're important.
Avoidable: No... Unless you don't have weird people, but really, what game doesn't?
Natural Monopoly Rule
No city will have more than two shops, unless it is crucial to the story that there be a hundred vendors which you must visit in order (see You Always Travel In The Right Circles.) All of these shops will sell the same goods for the same price.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Try and make shops devoted to more specific things. Whatsmore, try and have certain towns only have certain services.
But They Don't Take American Express
Every merchant in the world -- even those living in far-off villages or hidden floating cities cut off from the outside world for centuries, even those who speak different languages or are of an entirely different species -- accepts the same currency.
Avoidable: No. You'd need many many variables and a custom menu system.
Apathy Principle
Your group is the only bunch of people trying to save the world. All other would-be heroes will either join your party or else turn out to be cowards and/or con men.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Look at what I said about Local Control Rule.
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Rule
a. Any male character who is ugly, malformed, or misshapen is either evil or so moral, spiritual, and/or wise that it's a wonder no one's proposed him for sainthood yet.
b. Any male character who has a physical disfiguration that doesn't seem to impede him (i.e. a prominent scar across the face or a bad eye) is evil, unless he is the male lead, since scars are cool and no other good guy can be as cool as the hero. An exception is made for characters who are clearly ancient, and therefore automatically not as cool as the young hero.
c. Any female character who is ugly, malformed, mishapen, or physically disfigured is evil, since all good female characters are there to be potentially seduced by the male lead -- see Know Your Audience.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: ...Nah... Who really would wan't a hero that's 80 years old with his love sights on an ogre lady? Really, it's just not the same without a cast that one can like.
Henchman Quota (Nana, Saki, and Mio Rule)
One of your antagonists will have three lovably incompetent stooges whom you fight over and over again. Although they're trusted with their boss's most important plans and equipment, they will screw up repeatedly, argue incessantly among themselves, blab secret information, and generally only come out victorious when their job was to be a diversion or a delaying tactic. A high point of the game will come when the True Villain reveals himself and you're able to convince the stooges you're all on the same side. They won't help you out any more successfully than they helped the antagonist, but at least you won't have to fight them any more.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Maybe. Sometimes you're better off without an evil henchman, other times it's just needed.
Thousand Year Rule
The Ancient Evil returns to savage the land every thousand years on the dot, and the last time it showed up was just about 999.9875 years ago. Despite their best efforts, heroes of the past were never able to do more than seal the Evil away again for the future to deal with (which brings up the question of just how exactly does this "sealing away" work anyway, but never mind.) The good news is that this time, the Evil will get destroyed permanently. The bad news is that you're the one who's going to have to do it.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Do I need a reason!?
Principle of Narrative Efficiency
If the main villain (or the enemy you've been trying to kill for most of the game before he summons the real final villain) was ever defeated in the past by another group of adventurers, one of them will secretly be in your party and one of them will be the hero's father.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. You do not need help on how to avoid this one either.
Ayn Rand's Revenge
Outside the major cities, there is no government whatsoever. Of course, perhaps that explains why it's so difficult and dangerous to get anywhere outside the major cities.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Makes the world more detailed!
First Law of Travel
Anything can become a vehicle -- castles, cities, military academies, you name it -- so do not be alarmed when the stones of the ancient fortress you are visiting shake underfoot and the whole thing lifts off into the sky. As a corollary, anything is capable of flight if it would be cool, aeronautics or even basic physics be damned.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. It's been done enough in other games, the complication of trying to implement this would be too dificult.
Second Law of Travel
There will be only one of any non-trivial type of vehicle in the entire world. Thus, only one ocean-capable steamboat, only one airship, and so forth. Massive facilities will have been constructed all over the world to service this one vehicle.
Avoidable: No. If you could avoid it, then it would require a ton of other vehicles to go sailing and flying around.
The only way to travel by land between different areas of a continent will always be through a single narrow pass in a range of otherwise impenetrable mountains. Usually a palace or monastery will have been constructed in the pass, entirely filling it, so that all intracontinental traffic is apparently required to abandon their vehicles and go on foot up stairs and through the barracks, library and throne room to get to the other side. This may explain why most people just stay home. (In some cases a cave or underground tunnel may be substituted for the palace or monastery, but it will still be just as inconvenient with the added bonuses of cave-ins and nonsensical elevator puzzles.)
Avoidable: Not really. You really need to reason exactly why such a thing is in the way. A forest or cave in the way of such a mountain pass would work.
Fourth Law of Travel
Three out of every four vehicles you ride on will eventually sink, derail or crash in some spectacular manner.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Nah. It would be better if you lost something in your travels.
Fifth Law of Travel
All vehicles can be driven or piloted by anyone. The main character just needs to find out where the bridge or steering wheel is, as he already knows all of the controls.
Avoidable: No. It would be a bit too much of a hassle to counteract this one.
Sixth Law of Travel
Nobody gets to own a cooler ride than you. If you ever do see a cooler vehicle than the one you've got now, at some point before the end of the game you will either take over this vehicle, get something even bigger and better, or else see it destroyed in a glorious blaze.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes, mainly because the second law of travel counteracts this one.
Seventh Law of Travel
When on a voyage to another continent, the journey will last only as long as it takes you to talk to all the other passengers and the captain.
Avoidable: Yes. Make a timer.
Reccommended: No. A timer might not be long enough for all essential conversations.
Eighth Law of Travel
There are no shortcuts, ever -- unless you are forced to take them, in which case they will be much longer and more dangerous than your original route.
Avoidable: Sometimes not.
Last Law of Travel (Big Joe Rule)
As has been described, you must endure great trials just to get from town to town: locating different vehicles, operating ancient transport mechanisms, evading military blockades, the list goes on. But that's just you. Every other character in the game seems to have no trouble getting to any place in the world on a moment's notice.
Avoidable: No. An NPC can't be programmed to show up only after a certain time without much hassle.
If You Meet The Buddha In A Random Encounter, Kill Him!
When you're out wandering around the world, you must kill everything you meet. People, animals, plants, insects, fire hydrants, small cottages, anything and everything is just plain out to get you. It may be because of your rampant kleptomania (see Garrett's Principle.)
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and make random encounters with things like merchants and other travellers! (or don't use random encounters at all.)
Law of Numbers
There will be several items or effects which depend on the numerical value of your hit points, level, etc., which makes no sense unless the characters can see all the numbers in their world and find it perfectly normal that a spell only works on a monster whose level is a multiple of 5.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. It's just not realistic to have a spell or something driven completley by numeric values in a stat.
That's all for now! Come back another time for numbers 76-100!
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Simple... here's one that I find annoying:
I feel pretty...
Male character dresses and looks feminine but is either really strong, or really annoying.
Avoidable: Yes
Should it be avoided?: DARN RIGHT! It's one of the stupid things SquareEnix is doing to the latest FF12, this guy, he looked like a pro-wrestler dressed like a woman with a woman's head!
Oh yeah...
I Don't Like Gears Or Fighting
There are always giant robots. Always.
An exception is futuristic settings. It's ok for futuristic settings since robots are better at certain things like lookout, sentry, and guard duty being that they can have inhuman senses and abilities to scan their surroundings. This cliche was rather crudely reported. Also it depends on the robot's designs and such.
Btw: You were exagerateing there.
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Originally posted by Bluhman
Henchman Quota (Nana, Saki, and Mio Rule)
One of your antagonists will have three lovably incompetent stooges whom you fight over and over again. Although they're trusted with their boss's most important plans and equipment, they will screw up repeatedly, argue incessantly among themselves, blab secret information, and generally only come out victorious when their job was to be a diversion or a delaying tactic. A high point of the game will come when the True Villain reveals himself and you're able to convince the stooges you're all on the same side. They won't help you out any more successfully than they helped the antagonist, but at least you won't have to fight them any more.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Maybe. Sometimes you're better off without an evil henchman, other times it's just needed.
*Paper Mario 2 spoilers ahead*
*Paper Mario 2 spoilers ahead*
*Paper Mario 2 spoilers ahead*
Paper Mario 2 did that kind of thing with Beldam, Marilyn and Vivian. The good twist on it, though, was the fact that Vivian joined up with you.
*End Spoilers*
*End Spoilers*
*End Spoilers*
Here's a few more for the long list.
An Empty World...
In so many rpgs, there will be a big world map, with many landscapes, and towns scattered across the map. But the problem is, in a lot of those rpgs, you are the only one even on the map. The map is completely deprived of life except you and the monsters.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended: Depends. If you plan on having some merchants and other peopl walking around, then that's fine, but otherwise the map would just be bustling with too many people and it would be kind of crowded.
No Roads Lead to Rome
There are many games with world maps that are completely deprived of roadways. Towns are scattered across, but people will have to journey across the fields, forests, and mud to get around.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended: For the most part, yes. If you have a modern type of game, make roadways like we have them today (well maybe not as complex, but you get the idea). If it isn't modern, make stone roadways or dirt paths. Anything of the sort. It sometimes gets to me when there's just grass, trees, water, and mountains, but no roads.
Stop at the Nearest Town
In pretty much every rpg, towns are spread out. If you think about, there usually isn't a town surrounded by a vast amount of land before another town. Towns usually aren't isolated like that.
Avoidable: No. It'd be extremely difficult to weld together a world where everything is interlinked, buildings are everywhere, and fields and forests don't take up so much space.
World Map
There's usually always a place in the game where you exit an area onto a world map. Really, what's a world map? Some birds-eye view type of place where you can see mini versions of towns, forests and caves, then when you go to them you enter a life-sized area?
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended: Up to you really! I think games with or without world maps can be fun.
That's all from me right now.
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World Map
There's usually always a place in the game where you exit an area onto a world map. Really, what's a world map? Some birds-eye view type of place where you can see mini versions of towns, forests and caves, then when you go to them you enter a life-sized area?
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended: Up to you really! I think games with or without world maps can be fun.
The world map is done actually as a conservative thing, so players don't have to constantly travel area after area which can get monotinous after a while... or very quickly for vast world games. Unless you plan to make some kind of teleportation system, use a world map because if people have to walk through the same paths over and over, with the same monsters... for a long time... to get somewhere... people lose interest rather quickly.
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Step 1: Wreak havoc on world; Step 2: Um.....
When a villain has obtained his ultimate power and has taken over the world, they simply take this opportunity sit on their throne and do nothing for 10 hours, possibly to relax. This relaxation may explain why the heroes beat them so easily.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Definitely. Make your villain more kick-*** by having him go out (or stay in his castle) and do things with his power.
I'll Mourn Later
When the heroes parents are killed, they hero never buries them or holds a funeral. Apparently, RPG bodies decompose very quickly.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes. Simply have the hero bury his parents. It adds time (and a possibly emotional scene) into your game.
ADD
Whenever the heroes are doing a sidequest, none of them ever stops to think that they shouldn't waste their time doing this when they could be stopping the villain.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: No. All this would do is annoy people.
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Are You Sure We Didn't Met Before?
Villains and heros are aways interlinked by:
A - Blood. Father and son, brother and sister, cousins, you choose it, we have it.
B - Magic. You're the choosen one to defeat him or her. How do I know that? Well, its MAGIC!
C - Adventures. Hero and villain were in the same war and fought togheter until the second decided to turn evil.
D - Flashbacks. I really don't need to explain this one.
E - Friendship. It isn't as common as the others, but I've saw many games where the hero and villain are good friends.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Maybe. "A", "B" and "D" are really annoying for me, but I like the concept of friends having to fight for whatever reason they are, even if they don't like it.
No Fashion Sense. (Suikoden's NPC Rule)
No NPC can or shall use any clothes that express any kind of individuality. All they must look alike dress alike, the exeption are heroes and villains.
Avoidable: Yes.
Recommended: Maybe... Try to do some different NPCs, it isn't like the girl that lives next to the hero door must be JUST LIKE the girl that live in the hidden village in the middle of the forest at the other side of the world.
There Was A Time On The Future...
Every sage has a book or knows a profecy where another sage wrote about a chosen one. The chosen one is you, and the sage knew that since the first time he saw you, because the book describes you anatomically, your personality, phone number and E-MAIL.(I'MAHERO@heroesguild.gaia).
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: YES. Or at least, put a explanation of HOW they got this information, maybe you'll travel to the past and tell that yourself, but explain.
I'll Call It... FireRock! (Pokemon Name Rule)
All the magics / enemies are named after what they do or are. If a magic is of the element Fire, it'll be called "Fire" the second magic of the element Fire will be "Fire2" or "Fira", not much of a change, uh?
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: ...yes, I think it is, unless you don't have a drop of imagination, then you should think in better names.
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What are you doing with money?
Every monster you fight have money...Fish have money, crocodile have money, bee have money... What are they doing with money?
Avoidable : Yes
Recommended : Maybe...But finding money will be much harder...
Are they clones?
Every same kind of monster have the same stats, and the same ammount of money.
Avoidable : Yes
Recommended : No, creating more of the same monster just to change their stats and money will take too much time.
Poor new commer.
Every party member you get, even if they've already been with you, come with no money...It's not like you're the only one bringing money!
Avoidable : Yes
Recommended : Yes, you should get some money when you get new member. And maybe loose some when a member quit the party.
You were waiting for me?
No matter how many days you spend at the INN, how much time you fight aor wait doing nothing, the villain's achievement will always be done or almost when the hero arrive.
Avoidable : No, I don't think so...
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Magical Inequality Theorem
In the course of your travels you may find useful-sounding spells such as Petrify, Silence, and Instant Death. However, you will end up never using these spells in combat because a) all ordinary enemies can be killed with a few normal attacks, making fancy attacks unneccessary, b) all bosses and other stronger-than-average monsters are immune to those effects so there's no point in using them for long fights where they'd actually come in handy, and c) the spells usually don't work anyway.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: No. If a boss was not immune to such effects, it would just take away it's purpose.
Magical Inequality Corollary
When the enemy uses Petrify, Silence, Instant Death, et cetera spells on you, they will be effective 100% of the time.
Avoidable: Usually, you just avoid this one automatically.
Pretty Line Syndrome (or, Crash Bandicoot: The RPG)
Seen in most modern RPGs. The key to completing your quest is to walk forward in a straight line for fifty hours, stopping along the way to look at, kill, and/or have meaningful conversations with various pretty things.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. What that cliche just explained is probabily dungeon siege, which is the most pointless thing I've played.
Xenobiology Rule
The predatory species of the world will include representatives of all of the following: giant spiders, giant scorpions, giant snakes, giant beetles, wolves, squid, fish that float in midair, gargoyles, golems, carnivorous plants, chimeras, griffons, cockatrices, hydras, minotaurs, burrowing things with big claws, things that can paralyse you, things that can put you to sleep, things that can petrify you, at least twenty different creatures with poisonous tentacles, and dragons. Always dragons.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Not really. It would take forever to make a completley origional set of creatures to inhabit your world. This is why I take my hat off to Morrowind.
Friendly Fire Principle (or, Final Fantasy Tactics Rule)
Any attack that can target both allies and enemies will hit half of your allies and none of your enemies.
Avoidable: Yes.
Reccommeded: Yeah. The effort to put into making a move that does that is just unneccesary.
Dungeon Design 101
There's always goodies hidden behind the waterfall.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommeded: Not really. Though you might want to try and mess with this one further.
Dungeon Design 102
When you are confronted by two doors, the closer one will be locked and its key will be hidden behind the farther-away one.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommeded: Yes. Make more than two doors.
Dungeon Design 103 (or, Wallpaper Warning)
Your progress through a dungeon will be indicated by a sudden change in decor: different wall color, different torches on the wall, et cetera.
Avoidable: Automatically. Your pallette of chips on a chipset it too limited to do that (Unless using the RTP).
Dungeon Design 201 (or, The Interior Decorators Anticipated Your Out-Of-Body Experience)
Most dungeons will include "hidden" passages which are nearly impossible to see from a bird's-eye view, yet would be blaringly obvious from the party's perspective.
Avoidable: No. You can't make a First person RPG in RM2k.
Dungeon Design 301
All "puzzles" in RPG dungeons can be sorted into one of the following types:
finding some small item and sticking it into a slot;
pushing blocks (rocks, statues) onto switches;
pulling switches or levers to open and close doors;
learning the correct order/position of a group of objects;
entering a certain combination of doors;
something involving a clock or elevator;
something that is unsolvable because a vital clue in the dialogue was mistranslated out of Japanese.
Avoidable: No. A true dungeon really requires at least one of these things.
Wait! That Was A Load-Bearing Boss!
Defeating a dungeon's boss creature will frequently cause the dungeon to collapse, which is nonsensical but does make for thrilling escape scenes.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommeded: Yes. AT LEAST TRY AND MAKE A LOGICAL REASON FOR THE COLLAPSATION OF THE DUNGEON!!!
Supply and Demand Axiom
Killing a powerful enemy will usually yield an item or weapon that would've been extremely useful if you had gotten it before killing that enemy.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Make the boss drop a randomly generated piece of trash... or a weapon for the enemies further into the game.
Edison's Lament
No switch is ever in the right position.
Avoidable: No. If there was in the right position, then why would it be there other than to
1. look nice
or
2. signify that a villan was recently here?
(Actually 2 is a nice twist on this cliche.)
Well, That About Wraps It Up For God
All major deities, assuming they actually exist and weren't just made up by the Church to delude its followers, are in reality malevolent and will have to be destroyed. The only exception to this rule is the four nature spirits who have preserved the land since time immemorial, but now due to the folly of mankind have lost virtually all of their power and need you to accomplish some ludicrous task to save them.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Definetley! It'd be nice to see an RPG involving a more god/church religion than this elemental religion. Really it was games like that that appealed to me, and rather why I like games more based on true midevial stuff instead of Japanese influinced midevial things.
Guy in the Street Rule
No matter how fast you travel, rumors of world events always travel faster. When you get to anywhere, the people on the street are already talking about where you've been. The stories of your past experiences will spread even if no witnesses were around to see them.
Avoidable: No, unless you made a type of timer.
Wherever You Go, There They Are
Wherever the characters go, the villains can always find them. Chances are they're asking the guy in the street (see above). But don't worry -- despite being able to find the characters with ease anytime they want to, the bad guys never get rid of them by simply blowing up the tent or hotel they're spending the night in. (Just think of it: the screen dims, the peaceful going-to-sleep-now music plays, then BOOM! Game Over!)
That last line seems to bring a bit of inspiration... heh
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommeded: Not quite. Unless you have side quests, then theres not much a reason to have a town without importance in the plot.
Figurehead Rule
Whenever someone asks you a question to decide what to do, it's just to be polite. He or she will ask the question again and again until you answer "correctly."
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommeded: Yes. Maybe if the player asked wrongly, then something horrible would happen and then they'd die!
Puddin' Tame Rule
The average passer-by will always say the same thing no matter how many times you talk to them, and they certainly won't clarify any of the vaguely worded warnings or cryptic half-sentences they threw at you the previous time.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommeded: Yes. Make a randomly generated number in a variable that determines what they say.
Franklin Covey Was Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
Sticking to the task at hand and going directly from place to place and goal to goal is always a bad idea, and may even prevent you from being able to finish the game. It's by dawdling around, completing side quests and giving money to derelicts that you come into your real power.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Y'know, it'd be nice if there was a game where you could finish, THEN do the sidequests, kinda like morrowind or GTA...
Selective Invulnerability Principle
RPG characters are immune from such mundane hazards as intense heat, freezing cold, or poison gas... except when they're suddenly not. Surprise!
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. If you have a scene where there is a gigantic attack of doom that you thought you'd make the main character survive, then try and make a plot twist... make the character DIE! I'll let you try and figure out the other things on that pointer.
I'm the NRA (Billy Lee Black Rule)
Opposition to gun control is probably the only thing you could get all RPG characters to agree upon. Even deep religious faith and heartfelt pacifism can't compete with the allure of guns.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: In the right setting, yes. This setting would be any one that is before the creation of gunpowder. _sweat_
Three Females Rule
There will always be either one or three female characters in the hero's party, no matter how many male characters there are.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Make there be less or more than 3, or make the female characters outnumber the male ones!
Experience Not Required
When the main character is forced to do some complex or dangerous task for the first time, even though he has never done it before he will still always be better than the oldest veteran.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes! Please put logic into the situation.
Law of Reverse Evolution (Zeboim Principle)
Any ancient civilizations are inexplicably much more advanced than the current one.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Once again, logic.
Then again, Greeks and Romans were more advanced than midevial english... Try working on something like that.
Science-Magic Equivalence (Citan Rule)
Although mages' specialty is magic and scientists' specialty is technology, these skills are completely interchangeable.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Please... Logic. Magic is definetley not scientific in any way.
I might be back for 101-125...
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Law of Productive Gullibility (Ruby Rule)
Whenever anybody comes up to you with a patently ludicrous claim (such as, "I'm not a cat, I'm really an ancient Red Dragon") there's an at least two-thirds chance they're telling the truth. Therefore, it pays to humor everyone you meet; odds are you'll be glad you did later on.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. A man comes up to you and says:
"I'm actually the hero of eternity!"
Hero: "Really?"
Man: "No."
Think about it...
Perversity Principle
If you're unsure about what to do next, ask all the townspeople nearby. They will either all strongly urge you to do something, in which case you must immediately go out and do that thing, or else they will all strongly warn you against doing something, in which case you must immediately go out and do that thing.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Unless your game has sidequests, then this one can be a bit hard to reccommend.
Near-Death Epiphany (Fei Rule)
If the party is not dealing damage to a boss character, then there's a better-than-even chance that someone in the party will suddenly become enlightened and instantly acquire the offensive skill that can blow the creature away in a matter of seconds.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Not really. How else would you introduce a powerful technique that demonstrates exactly how much power it has?
Wutai Rule
Most RPGs, no matter what their mythology, include a land based on ancient Japan. Full of pagodas, shrines, shoguns, kitsune, and sushi, this completely anachronistic place is the source of the entire world's supply of ninja and samurai characters.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: KINDA. Try and make an area Pseudo based on aincient japan.
Law of Mooks
Soldiers and guards working for the Evil Empire are, as a rule, sloppy, cowardly and incompetent. Members of the heroic Resistance Faction are, as a rule, dreadfully weak and undertrained and will be wiped out to the last man the moment they come in contact with the enemy.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Like real people, try and vary how the guards preform, just follow the above as a VERY BASIC and easily deniable guideline.
Law of Traps
No matter how obvious the trap, you can't complete the game unless you fall into it.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Make the trap so that it simply obscures your progress.
Arbor Day Rule
At some point, you're going to have to talk to a tree and do what it says.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Once again, how many talking trees are there? Why not try... a talking rose or something?
You Do Not Talk About Fight Club
Any fighting tournament or contest of skill you hear about, you will eventually be forced to enter and win.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Make it a sidequest.
Invisible Bureaucracy Rule
Other than the royal family, its shifty advisor, and the odd mad scientist, the only government employees you will ever encounter in the course of your adventure are either guards or kitchen staff.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Make butlers or maids. Those charsets are there for a reason in the RTP.
The Miracle of Automation
Similarily, any factory, power plant, or other facility that you visit during the course of the game will be devoid of any human life except for the occasional guards. There will not be a single line worker or maintenance person in sight.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. There are many things you can do to counteract this one; make a dungeon out of it where you fight factory workers, make a minigame where you work on the production line, I don't know, just don't make them deserted!
Principle of Archaeological Convenience
Every ancient machine you find will work perfectly the first time you try to use it and every time thereafter. Even if its city got blasted into ruins and the machine was then sunk to the bottom of the sea and buried in mud for ten thousand years, it'll still work fine. The unfortunate corollary to this rule is that ancient guardian creatures will also turn out to be working perfectly when you try to filch their stuff.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Just make it so that you have to repair the machine.
They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To (Cid Rule)
Modern-day machinery, by contrast, will always break down at the worst possible moment (for example, when you only need one more shot from the giant cannon to defeat the final boss.)
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: No. Not doing something like this would make the game too easy.
Place Transvestite Joke Here (Miss Cloud Rule)
If the male lead is required to dress up like a girl for any reason, he will be regarded by everyone as much more attractive than any "real" girl. If the female lead cross-dresses as a man, she will be immediately recognized as who she is by everyone except the male lead and the main villain.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Mix up the above concept!
Make Room! Make Room!
There are always more people in a town or village than there are houses for them to live in. Most of the village is made up of shops, temples, bars, secret passages, inns, and the mansion that belongs to the richest man in town.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes, though it will take some effort.
Law of Scientific Gratification
If the hero needs a new invention to progress, he will find out that somewhere in the world someone has spent his or her entire life perfecting this invention, and usually just needs one more key item located in a monster-infested dungeon before it is completed.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. At least make it retrieved in a different fashion!
You Always Travel In The Right Circles
Whenever you meet a villager or other such incidental character who promises to give you some great piece of needed knowledge or a required object in exchange for a seemingly simple item, such as a bar of soap or a nice straw mat, be prepared to spend at least an hour chasing around the world exchanging useless innocuous item after item with bizarre strangers until you can get that elusive first item you were asked for.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. DON'T DO IT. PLEASE.
Talk Is Cheap Rule
Nothing is ever solved by diplomacy or politics in the world of RPGs. Any declarations of peace, summits and treaty negotiations are traps to fool the ever so gullible Good Guys into thinking the war is over, or to brainwash the remaining leaders of the world.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes, of course the game would be a bit boring, so try and make some other incedent happen...
Stop Your Life (Setzer Rule)
No matter what kind of exciting, dynamic life a character was leading before joining your party, once there they will be perfectly content to sit and wait on the airship until you choose to use them.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Really, it'd be interesting to have such a character sometimes just wander off at the worst times in order to adventure...
Don't Stand Out
Any townsperson who is dressed oddly or otherwise doesn't fit in with the rest of the townsfolk will either:
Join your party after you complete some task,
Be in the employ of your enemy, or
Befriend any female member of the party, and then be immediately captured and held hostage by the villains.
Avoidable: No. If you did, then people would have no idea who to exactly talk to.
Little Nemo Law
If any sleeping character has a dream, that dream will be either a 100% accurate memory of the past, a 100% accurate psychic sending from the present, a 100% accurate prophetic vision of the future, or a combination of two or all three of these.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Unless you plan to have a very comedic game, then I'd suggest you don't do this.
Child Protection Act (Rydia Rule)
Children 12 and under are exempt from death. They will emerge alive from cataclysms that slaughter hundreds of sturdily-built adults, often with barely a scratch. Further protection is afforded if the catastrophe will orphan the child.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: If your game has a more "T-M" Rating, then go ahead.
Missing Master Hypothesis
Almost every strong physical fighter learned everything he/she knows from some old master or friend. Invariably, the master or friend has since turned evil, been killed, or disappeared without a trace.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Either don't make this person, or just don't make it such a humongous hassle just to find the person.
Missing Master Corollary (Sabin Rule)
If a fighter's master merely disappeared, you will undoubtedly find him/her at some point in your travels. The master will challenge the student to a duel, after which the student will be taught one final skill that the master had been holding back for years.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommend: Yes. Don't make the silly duel, or look above.
Gojira Axiom
Giant monsters capable of leveling cities all have the following traits:
Low intelligence
Enormous strength
Projectile attacks
Gigantic teeth and claws, designed, presumably, to eat other giant monsters
Vulnerable to weapons 1/10,000th its size
Ecologically sensitive
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. The enormous strength thing isn't dodgeable, but it'd be very interesting to meet a giant monster that was super intellegent, looked like a big human, and didn't care anything for any ecological things.
"You Couldn't Get To Sleep Either, Huh?"
If any character in the game ever meets any other character standing alone at night looking at the moon, those two will eventually fall in love.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. I'm actually REALLY thinking about doing this with two male characters in my game... Don't thing anything naughty please, they are both very normal people.
I'll be back... WITH 126-150!!!
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Holy crap this is basically listing any plot or story line used in ANY RPG game EVER made. You might as well just type in big letters
BE FRIGGIN ORIGINAL!!!
and be done with it.
Luckily only one of these so far applied to the story (I should say backstory) of my game :D
so Nya! :p
EDIT: Okay, maybe 2 of them... actually, I'm not sure if this applies at all because all I have is history and backstory. Anywho.
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Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely (Althena Rule)
If a good guy is manipulated to the side of evil, they will suddenly find a new inner strength that will enable them to wipe out your whole party with a wave of their hand.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. It's no fun to have a battle that the opponent always wins.
All Is Forgiven (Nash Rule)
However, when the trusted member of your party turns against you, do not give it a second thought. They will return to your side after they're done with their amnesia/mind control/hidden noble goal that caused them to give away all your omnipotent mystical artifacts
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and do something different with this. When their Mind control or something is done, try something else... I don't know, just get out of the box!
First Law of Fashion
All characters wear a single costume which does not change over the course of the game. The only exception is when characters dress up in enemy uniforms to infiltrate their base.
Avoidable: No. There's very little reason for this one.
Second Law of Fashion
Any character's costume, no matter how skimpy, complicated, or simply outlandish, is always completely suitable to wear when climbing around in caves, hiking across the desert, and slogging through the sewers. It will continue to be completely suitable right afterwards when said character goes to meet the King.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and not make skimpy outfits. I hate them. The other two are ok, but NPCs should reply to fashion statements like that in different ways than normal.
Third Law of Fashion
In any futuristic setting, the standard uniform for female soldiers and special agents will include a miniskirt and thigh-high stockings. The standard uniform for all male characters, military or not, will include an extraordinarily silly and enormous hat.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and come up with something more conventional; try and base it off of other sci fi games- not just RPGS.
First Rule of Politics (Chancellor's Axiom)
Any advisor of a major ruler has been scheming after his throne for quite a while. Thanks to the miracle of timing, you will arrive at the king's inner sanctum just in time for the coup.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: No. If you show up at the castles inner sanctum 15 days before the coup, then what's the fun in that? Games are supposed to be fun, not tedious. Remember that.
Second Rule of Politics (Scapegoat's Axiom)
If the advisor works for an evil ruler, the advisor is as bad or even worse, and there's a good chance he's the final villain. (See Fake Ending Rule.) If the advisor works for a good ruler, he usually has the good of the kingdom at heart; not that that helps, because your party will invariably be made the scapegoat for all that's wrong with the nation and immediately thrown in the dungeon.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and mess with this concept.
Last Rule of Politics
Kingdoms are good. Empires are evil.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes, in fact, Empires could actually be less evil than Kingdoms. Kingdoms are ruled by a king, who has complete and utter control over all of those in the kingdom, whilst Empires are ruled by emperors. Whilst they also have very large ammounts of imbalance, they have a bit more; Greece was an empire, and Greece was very well the birthplace of the republic, a system where equality of people existed.
Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics (Ramus Rule)
Twenty-three generations may pass, but any person's direct descendant will still look and act just like him.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and make descendents look and act like completley different characters. Just try.
Pinch Hitter Rule
Whenever a member of the hero's team is killed or retires, no matter how unique or special he or she was there is a good chance someone will show up to replace them that has exactly the same abilities and can use the same weapons with the same proficiency.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Just make a bit of a gap, and have the character replaced with a completley different archetype of character.
Dealing With Beautiful Women, Part 1 (Yuffie Rule)
All good-looking young females are there to help you. This rule holds even when the girl in question is annoying, useless, or clearly evil.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and make a pretty, female main villan. I haven't seen a game do that yet...
Dealing With Beautiful Women, Part 2 (Rouge Rule)
All good-looking middle-aged females are out to kill you. This rule holds even when the woman in question has attained your unwavering trust and respect.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Think out of the box.
Well, So Much For That
After you have completed your mighty quest to find the object that will save the known universe, it will either a) get lost, b) get stolen, or c) not work.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Depends; if you feel you could drag the game along a bit further, use this one. Otherwise, don't bother and forget trying to use it.
The Ominous Ring of Land
The classic Ominous Ring of Land is a popular terrain feature that frequently doesn't show up on your world map. Just when you think things are going really well and you've got the Forces of Evil on the run, monsters, demons and mad gods will pour out of the center of the ring and the situation will get ten times worse. The main villain also usually hangs out in one of these after attaining godhood. If there are several Ominous Rings of Land or the entire world map is one big ring, you are just screwed.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and do some other kind of thing than a ring. Maybe a square? Maybe a ray of light? Maybe even a toaster?!
Law of NPC Relativity (Magus Rule)
Characters can accomplish superhuman physical feats, defeat enemies with one hand tied behind their back and use incredible abilities -- until they join your party and you can control them. Then these wonderful powers all vanish, along with most of their hit points.
Avoidable: No. The limit to a characters HP is approxametley -1000/-10000 of a monsters, thus rendering a perfect transition from enemy to ally impossible.
Guards! Guards! (or, Lindblum Full Employment Act)
Everything will be guarded and gated (elevators, docks, old rickety bridges, random stretches of roadway deep in the forest) except for the stuff that actually needs to be.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Put some logic into your NPC placement.
Thank You For Pressing The Self-Destruct Button
All enemy installations and city-sized military vehicles will be equipped with a conveniently located, easy-to-operate self-destruct mechanism.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Again, logic; WHY do they have a self-destruct button?
Falling Rule
An RPG character can fall any distance onto anything without suffering anything worse than brief unconsciousness. In fact, falling a huge distance is an excellent cure for otherwise fatal wounds -- anyone who you see shot, stabbed, or mangled and then tossed off a cliff is guaranteed to return later in the game with barely a scratch.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. It could be a way for a character to die!
Materials Science 101
Gold, silver, and other precious metals make excellent weapons and armor even though in the real world they are too soft and heavy to use for that purpose. In fact, they work so well that nobody ever melts their solid gold suit of armor down into bullion, sells it, and retires to a tropical isle on the proceeds.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Don't make those weapons/armor, and use commone sense.
Materials Science 201
Everyone you meet will talk enthusiastically about how some fantastically rare metal (iron, say) would make the best possible armor and weapons. Oh, if only you could get your hands on some! However, once you actually obtain iron -- at great personal risk, of course -- everyone will dismiss it as yesterday's news and instead start talking about some even more fantastically rare metal, such as gold. Repeat until you get to the metal after "mythril" (see The Ultimate Rule.)
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Again, metal ain't a fad. Use even more sense.
Seventh Inning Stretch (Elc Rule)
At some point in the game the main hero will receive a deadly story-driven injury and will be put in a hospital instead of having a mage heal him. This will leave him out of commission for at least the length of two sidequests; the female lead will also be temporarily out of commission as she steadfastly refuses to leave the hero's side. Ultimately a simple vision quest is all that will be required to bring the hero back to normal.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes, but this one you could be cornered on. Try and manipulate this idea; try and make the wound a disease instead.
Vivi's Spellbook Principle
Over the course of the game, you will spend countless hours learning between twenty and one hundred skills and/or spells, approximately three of which will still be useful by the end of the game.
Avoidable: No. It's impossible to have the spell "Tickle" useful by the end of the game... Hmm... ... ...
Gender Equality, Part 1 (Feena Rule)
Your average female RPG character carries a variety of deadly weapons and can effortlessly hack or magic her way through armies of monsters, killer cyborgs, and mutated boss creatures without breaking a sweat. She may be an accomplished ninja, a superpowered secret agent, or the world's greatest adventurer. However, if one of the game's villains manages to sneak up and grab her by the Standard Female Character Grab Area (her upper arm) she will be rendered utterly helpless until rescued by the hero.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. More sense. If you must do this one, try and make a good reason.
Gender Equality, Part 2 (Tifa Rule)
If any female character, in a burst of anger or enthusiasm, decides to go off and accomplish something on her own without the hero, she will fail miserably and again have to be rescued.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Use reason here; Why would she go off? What caused the zeal or anger? Why did she fail? All things you should take into account. If you can't fit 2 and 2 together in this equation, then don't use this cliche.
Gender Equality, Part 3 (Luna Rule)
All of the effort you put into maxing out the female lead's statistics and special abilities will turn out to be for naught when she spends the final confrontation with the villain dead, ensorcelled, or held hostage.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. I believe that, by the end of the game, every character you spent a ton of time on should be accessable for the final battle.
Stay tuned, as I go on the final strech... of 151-192!!!!!!!
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Basic Rule To Mansions
Every mansion needs at least one secret passgeway, often located behind a mirror, picture or clock. If its behind a wall, you'll need to push an statue's head to open it.
Avoidable: Yes.
Recommended: Yes. If you want a secret passageway, think in a better place to put it.
Bond, James Bond (Cait Sith Rule)
You won't ever find a spy. If theres a spy in your party, he will tell you personaly. If theres a spy in the enemy's army, he will be found and killed, unless the hero rescue him or the hero is the spy himself.
Avoidable: Yes.
Recommended: Yes. Try to make some signals that the spy is a spy, and maybe some variable, if the number of times you saw the spy doing something suspicios is X or more, you find him, if no, he tells you and run aways with your money.
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The Cold Mercenary Cliche
At some point of the game, that mercenary that was in your party will left out for later come test you strenght / fight with you at the enemy's side.
Avoidable: Yes.
Recommended: If you have a Cold Mercenary in you party, make him quit because the main character couldn't pay him more or the evil villain paid him more than you. And if he comes battle with you try to offer money for he doesn't fight you.
The Pure Evil Villain Cliche
No matter how was is infancy was disturberd, no matter how many motives the villain had, he always will get killed and he was always evil and the teenager hero was always good. And he never get arrested and then becomes good after some time. He always die.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccomended: This is one of the most cliche things on RPGs -__-, try to make you villain has motives for what he is doing, and try to make him as a normal person as well your hero (no always evil villain and always good hero).
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Gender Equality Addendum (Rynn Rule)
In the unlikely event that the main character of the game is female, she will not be involved in any romantic subplot whatsoever beyond getting hit on by shopkeepers.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes!!! This one really seems to tick me off. If so many games with male main characters have romance stories, why can't one with a woman... It's so perplexing.
Stealing The Spotlight (Edea Rule)
The characters who join your party only briefly tend to be much cooler than your regular party members.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Really, avoiding this cliche is a cliche in itself. Having an incompetent doof join you for something is probabily worse than doing this cliche, so I'd say No to avoiding this one.
"Mommy, why didn't they just use a Phoenix Down on Aeris?"
Don't expect battle mechanics to carry over into the "real world."
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: No. It's losses like this that add dramatism to the game. However, many people with losses like these have to keep the following in mind if they want their scheme to work:
1. Name the "Dead" Status aliment "Unconcious"
2. Make this aliment end after battle, meaning they'll be revived with 1 hitpoint.
Therefore, a character won't be truly dead until all of his comrades are dead, or s/he is killed in the storyline.
Gold Saucer Rule
The strongest weapons/items/spells in the entire game can only be found by doing things like racing birds.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. If you do wan't to apply this one though, make the relation indirect. For example, by gambling very well, you'll earn yourself a name, catching attention of the mafia. The godfather asks you to come to his office, where he offers you a trade in of all the casino chips you got for a key to his arsenal, where many powerful things are kept locked up. Of course that's a really bad example, but then again, I don't know what would of been better.
Evil May Live Forever, But It Doesn't Age Well
Even though it took the greatest armies in the world and all of the world's greatest magicians to seal away an ancient evil in an apocalyptic war, once said ancient evil breaks free three fairly inexperienced warriors can destroy it.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Maybe. If you do avoid this, take extensive care to making the main characters become more heroic as the game goes on. This also means that the game will be much longer than a normal one. If you're not up to this task, then either make a final boss that is not the appidomy of pain with 2 hitpoints, or just give up and don't avoid doing this cliche.
Sephiroth Memorial Escape Clause
Any misdeed up to and including multiple genocide is forgiveable if you're cool enough.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes, obviously because the same doesn't transfer over to real life.
Doomed Utopia Theorem (Law of Zeal)
All seemingly ideal, utopian societies are powered by some dark force and are therefore doomed to swift, flashy destruction.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Not really. If there was a utopia, then you'd need a good reason for it to be there, and if that reason is positive, it almost seems like the entire game is idealistic. You have to keep in mind that life it'self is very unidealistic, so the thought of an unscathed utopia is a bit weird. Either don't have this utopia, or don't avoid this cliche.
Party Guidance Rule
Somewhere in the last third of the story, the hero will make a stupid decision and the rest of the party must remind him of all that they have learned from being with him in order to return the hero to normal.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Either have each of the characters apply what they know to cure what happened to the hero, or just don't make this happen.
Bad Is Good, Baby!
The heroes can always count on the support of good-hearted vampires, dragons, thieves, demons, and chainsaw murderers in their quest to save the world from evil. And on the other hand...
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. It'd be interesting to see a deceptive vampire or chainsaw murderer...
Good Is Bad, Baby!
Watch out for generous priests, loyal military officers, and basically anyone in a position of authority who agrees to help you out, especially if they save your life and prove their sincerity innumerable times -- they're usually plotting your demise in secret (at least when they can fit it into their busy schedule of betraying their country, sponsoring international terrorism, and stealing candy from small children) and will stab you in the back at the most inconvenient moment, unless they fall under...
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes, but remember, if you DO apply this cliche to your game, give the authoritic person a reason to stab you in the back.
General Leo's Exception
Honorable and sympathetic people who work for the Other Side are always the genuine article. Of course they'll be busily stabbing you in the front, so either way you lose. Eventually though, they'll fall prey to...
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. The same of what I said above applies here.
The Ineffectual Ex-Villain Theorem (Col. Mullen Rule)
No matter how tough and bad-*** one of the Other Side's henchmen is, if he bails to the side of Good he'll turn out to be not quite tough and bad-*** enough. The main villain will defeat him easily. But don't weep -- usually he'll manage to escape just in time, leaving you to deal with the fate that was meant for him.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Not quite. Having the henchman just defeat the main villan is no fun! Once again, games are about fun, not watching someone cooler than you kill a baddie.
All The Time In The World (Rinoa Rule)
Unless there's a running countdown clock right there on the screen, you have as long as you want to complete any task -- such as, say, rescuing a friend who's hanging by one hand from a slippery cliff edge thousands of feet in the air -- no matter how incredibly urgent it is. Dawdle or hurry as you will, you'll always make it just in the nick of time.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Just put a timer in.
Ladies First (Belleza Rule)
When things really start falling apart, the villain's attractive female henchman will be the first to jump ship and switch to the side of Good. Sadly, she still won't survive until the end credits, because later she will sacrifice her life out of unrequited love for the villain.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Either try and twist one or two of these atributes of the cliche, or don't make this happen.
Trial By Fire (Cecil Rule)
Any dark and brooding main characters will ultimately be redeemed by a long, ardous, quasi-spiritual quest that seems difficult at the time, but in the great scheme of things just wasn't that big of a deal after all.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Really, the main character would probabily just get redeemed for just killing the villan.
Key Item Rule
Never discard, sell, or otherwise remove permamently from your possession any items you begin the game with or acquire within the first town. This is especially true for items that seem to have no practical use, because of...
Avoidable: No. If the player DID sell the posession, then the game would be unpassable.
The Law of Inverse Practicality (Key Item Corollary)
Any item that you can acquire will have some sort of purpose. Those that seem to be useless and have no practical value at all, always tend to have great power later on. The earlier you get the item, the later in the game it will be used. The longer the span of time between acquisition and use, the more powerful the item is.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Instead, base it off of what it is, and what it relates to.
Way To Go, Serge
It will eventually turn out that, for a minimum of the first sixty percent of the game, you were actually being manipulated by the forces of evil into doing their sinister bidding for them. In extreme cases this may go as high as 90%. The clear implication is that it would have been better to not get involved in the first place.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. If you do use this one, then remember that the main character needs to REALLY wan't to do it, or has to be forced into doing it.
Gilligan's Prescription
Any character who has amnesia will be cured before the end of the game. They usually won't like what they find out about themselves, though.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Sometimes not. See, having a character who doesn't remember a thing in the intro will actually form a "hook" for the game, pulling the player in further to actually play the game instead of stating that the game sucks and turning it off before the first cutscene is done.
Luke, I Am Your Tedious, Overused Plot Device (Lynx Rule)
If there is any chance whatsoever that major villain X could be the male lead's father, then it will turn out that major villain X is the male lead's father.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Think about it:
Man: Hey, it might turn out that EVIL MON is actually the father of a blue haired person!
Blue haired hero: That's great.
Later...
EVIL MON: HA HA HA HA!!! I HAVE THOROUGHLY KILLED YOU!!!
Blue haired hero: Why father!? Why!?!?!?
EVIL MON: I'm not your father. _sweat_
World of Mild Inconvenience
The devastating plague, noxious gas, planet-obliterating meteor or other large-scale disaster that led to the death of millions will affect your party (and your party's friends and family members) in no way whatsoever, save that a few party members may become lost and you can find them later.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Some losses must be made, have a character or two die in such an event.
Golden Chocobo Principle
There will be at least one supremely ultimate improvement for your weapon or some way to make your trusted steed capable of going anywhere and doing anything, requiring hours and hours of hard work to acquire. Once you do achieve this, you will use it once, and it will be completely useless for the rest of the game.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Once again, a game is about fun and not tedium. Try and make the obtaination of the item easy if it's only used once.
Golden Chocobo Corollary
The magic formula for acquiring this supreme upgrade will be only vaguely alluded to in the game itself. Ideally, you're supposed to shell out $19.95 for the strategy guide instead.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Make there be some sort of puzzle you have to put togther with what different people said.
Flow of Goods Rule
The quality of goods in the world is dependent upon the shop's distance from the final dungeon. It doesn't matter if the town you start in has a huge thriving economy and is the center of world trade, it will always have the game's worst equipment; and even if that village near the end is isolated and has only three people in it, it will have the game's best equipment.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. You have to apply logic! In other places where it's more linear, it might have to be so...
Master Key Rule
Any and all locked doors that the characters encounter will be unlocked by the end of the game.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. D'ya know how many locked houses I have in my game with no keys!? Actually that's due to lazyness and non-wanting to make the insides of the said houses.
"Evil will always triumph, because Good is dumb!"
If the villain needs all ten legendary medallions to attain world domination and you have nine of them, everybody in your party still thinks it is neccessary to bring the nine to the villain's castle and get the final one, instead of hiding the ones they've already got and spoiling his plans that way. After you foolishly bring the legendary medallions to the villain's hideout, he will kidnap one of your companions (usually the main love interest) and you will trade the world away to rescue your friend.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Once again, common sense must be applied to people in the game.
Dark Helmet's Corollary
After you give up the medallions to save your friend/parent/lover/other miscellaneous party member, don't expect to actually get that person back. Sucker!
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. The villan really should have a good sense of honor in my opinion.
It's Not My Department, Says Wernher Von Braun
All space stations, flying cities, floating continents and so forth will without exception either be blown up or crash violently to earth before the end of the game.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Either don't make it crash, or don't make it exist.
The Best-Laid Schemes
The final villain's grand scheme will have involved the deaths of thousands or even millions of innocent people, the clever manipulation of governments, armies, and entire populations, and will have taken anywhere from five to five thousand years to come to fruition. The hero will come up with a method of undoing this plan forever in less than five minutes.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. If done correctly, you can make your game much more believeable. For example, the villan came up with an idea to rebuild the world into kill the king and take place on his throne. That's it. No death of innocents, no ripping down of cities, just the claiming of the throne. After he succeeds, the main character doesn't know what to do and nearly gives up, making a small side-part of the story.
Pyrrhic Victory
By the time you've gotten it in gear, dealt with your miscellaneous personal crises and are finally ready to go Save the World once and for all, nine-tenths of it will already have been destroyed. Still, you've got to give your all to save the remaining one-tenth.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Really try and make your game on a smaller scale than the whole world.
Poetic Villain Principle (Kefka Rule)
All villains will suddenly become poets, philisophers, and/or dramatic actors when a) they first meet the hero, b) they are about to win or their evil plan is finally ready, c) some major event in the game is about to begin, d) right before the final battle, and e) right before they die, when they will frequently be feeling generous enough to reward you with some homespun wisdom about making the most of life while you have it.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. If they're going to suddenly rhyme in a place, then why!? Are they completley poetic or completley crazy? Much like a character, you have to make the villan believeable as well.
Compression of Time
As you approach the final confrontation with the villain, events will become increasingly awkward, contrived and disconnected from one another -- almost as if some cosmic Author was running up against a deadline and had to slap together the ending at the last minute.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Really, you should pay as much attention to the end of the game as the beginning, seeing as you have no deadline...
Adam Smith's Revenge
By the end of the game you are renowned everywhere as the Legendary Heroes, every surviving government and authority figure has rallied behind you, the fate of the world is obviously hanging in the balance, and out of nowhere random passers-by give you a pat on the back and heartfelt good luck wishes. However, shopkeepers won't even give you a discount, much less free supplies for the final battle with evil.
Avoidable: No. You can't make discounts in RM2k without a custom shop system.
Adam Smith's Corollary
No matter how thoroughly devastated the continent/planet/universe is, there's always some shopkeeper who survived the end of the world and sits outside the gates of the villain's castle, selling the most powerful equipment in the game, like nothing ever happened.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. You have to make a reason of why he's there.
The Long Arm of the Plot
Any bad guys, no matter how far they run, will always end up in one of two ways by the end of the game: obviously dead, or on your side. There is no in-between.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Make an inbetween. Have them restore the world to its former state before he dies, or make him escape to another world or something...
Apocalypse Any Time Now
The best time to do side quests is while the huge meteor hovers in the sky above the planet, waiting to fall and destroy the world.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. If you're going to have sidequests, they should be accessable at any time.
"So, Andross, you reveal your true form!"
You will have to kill the evil villain at least twice at the end of the game. First the villain will look like a person or some creature and be rather easy to kill. Then he will grow to about 50 times the hero's size and be much harder to kill.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Don't make him become 50 times larger, make him grow to like 16 feet, or don't grow at all...
In Your Face, Jesus!
Even if you manage to deal with him that time, you're not done -- the villain will then transform into his final form, which is always an angelic winged figure with background music remixed for ecstatic chorus and pipe organ.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Too many a final boss either a demon or angel. Do somewhere inbetween...
The Moral Of The Story (Ghaleon Rule)
Every problem in the universe can be solved by finding the right long-haired prettyboy and beating the crap out of him.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Design the villan better, don't make him a longhaired wimp.
Weapon Rule
There's always a hidden creature who is much harder to defeat than even the ultimate bad guy's final, world-annihilating form. It's lucky for all concerned that this hidden creature prefers to stay hidden rather than trying to take over the world himself, because he'd probably win. As a corollary, whatever reward you get for killing the hidden creature is basically worthless because by the time you're powerful enough to defeat him, you don't need it any more.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Try and make rewards REWARDING...
The Ultimate Rule
Anything called "Ultima (whatever)" or "Ultimate (whatever)" isn't. There's always at least one thing somewhere in the world which is even more.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. If you name something ultimate sword, then make something called poo cleaver that does twice as much damage, then what's the point of the ultimate sword being ultimate? If you make the ultimate weapon, try and make it stay true to it's name.
Know Your Audience (Vyse Rule)
Every woman in the game will find the male lead incredibly attractive.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommended: Yes. Boy you wish it was true in real life, eh?
And so there you have it; 192 cliches , 192 awnsers to how to avoid them all. It was tough. Very. But still, I probabily didn't need to do this. All you need to remember is Get inspired, know what you're doing, use logic, have time, and most importantly, said by Drighton, BE FRIGGIN ORIGINAL!!!
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The random battle rule #1
In your hometown, monsters are weak. As you progress through the game, they get stronger and stronger. If the main character just happened to be born in a town near to the final dungeon, they wouldn't have even been able to walk outside, as they would have been killed in one hit 0_o
Avoidable: No, I'm afraid.
The random battle rule #2
No matter how strong the random monsters, the merchant/hiker that happens to be standing by the side of the road won't be harmed, even if they've clearly never fought a battle in their lives.
Avoidable: Yes! Maybe have a merchant with a weapon, or bodyguards?
Nice list, by the way.
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But still, I probabily didn't need to do this. All you need to remember is Get inspired, know what you're doing, use logic, have time, and most importantly, said by Drighton, BE FRIGGIN ORIGINAL!!!
I like this thread :D
I'm very tempted to spill my story before I'm even halfway done with the game... nah. nevermind. :p
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I have something to add to this:
Magic stones/gems/jewels/crystals. Don't use them.
Final Fantasy has clearly overused this, what makes you think you can get away with it? :p
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Some of the things that annoy the crap out of me...
They were sealed away a thousand years ago......but are still there
The ten mystic medalions, the four elemental stones, or the magical pendant that is key to the planet's survival, is still conveniantly in the dungeon it was placed a thousand years ago.
Avoidable: Heck yeah. Make a few of them missing, one or two destroyed/needing to be fixed, or have a few theives plunder them, just to be killed by the villian and have them stolen from them! BE ORIGINAL PEOPLE!!!
A spooky cave littered with bones.........let's go check it out!!!
All of the companions, especially the female ones, never object to the hero's actions, even if you KNOW that it's going to end very badly.
Avoidible: Well...kinda. Have a character say something like "Are you nuts?! I ain't goin' in there!" and have them stay behind, or through much persuation, reluctantly come along.
Okay, my rant is done :D .
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"Mercenary? What's that...?" (Kratos rule)
Any self-proclaimed neutral character will be either: a)working for the order of angelic beings that rule the planet, b)working for the Bad Guys, or c)both.
Avoidable: Yeah.
Recommended: Yeah. Maybe the person could just be someone hired by the party.
"Uh... um... I inherited it?"
Whether it's underground, in the air, on a different planet or not even in the same period of time, every bad guy has a castle.
Avoidable: ...Maybe.
Recommended: If you wanted to be original, you could put the villian in a cave or something, but it's kind of tough to work around it.
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This, along with Rune's Story tutorial, is a good tool for making stories. Stickied - if anyone disagrees, please say so.
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BOO-YAH!!! :D
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Wow. This means that (when I finally get around to working on it again) my ABS game is almost completely uncliche'd! And now my not-at-all-even-slightly-serious game has so many cliches that exist that will be pointed out in-game. All according to plan as well! That naked bad grammared poor pronunciationed guy in my game will have one hell of a workout now!!! (Don't ask)
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I have one!!!!!!
Dragon Rule:
Dragons are EVIL, there is no way that they can be of help, and if they are, it's after you had a hard-*** fight with one of those.
Avoidable: Well, dragons are often mighty in legends and it's always a hero's hardest task to fight one, but it is avoidale. In the game I'm making, I have the idea of letting a small dragon join the party.
About secret Passages...:
They are always bookshelfs, big stones that you can see.
Avoidable: yes, if you have imagination.
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Originally posted by Grandy
Bond, James Bond (Cait Sith Rule)
You won't ever find a spy. If theres a spy in your party, he will tell you personaly. If theres a spy in the enemy's army, he will be found and killed, unless the hero rescue him or the hero is the spy himself.
Name another instance of that, right now.
When it's been used once, it's not a cliche.
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1. Out of the way, citizen! Your Goods Are Mine
The indiscriminate stealing of normal people's objects has got to go. I have seen two interesting ways to deal with this:
1A. Morality Matters
Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, being entirely concerned with virtuous behavior, makes it an end-game requirement that you do not steal (much). You cannot get the end-game special armor and weapon or beat the game if you have done too many bad things. If your game includes a reward or sidequest dependent on virtuous behavior, the player will at least have some reason to play nice.
1B. The Law Has Teeth
While Exile/Avernum has made random stealing annoying (you find hundreds of pieces of odd clothing worth pennies at the shops), some games have added better consequences: cops. If a citizen finds you rifling thru his drawers, he'll call the police, who cart you off to jail or fine you or something. Not that the jail term lasts very long, but it does provide a measure of incentive to avoid random stealing. You can vary this by having the citizen attack you, or set the dogs on you, or by having traps in the drawer, a trap that locks you in the room, etc.
The Kleptomaniac Hero is covered on TV Tropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KleptomaniacHero
2. Hide-and-Seek Is All We Know
Well, I've seen tag, too--but you're right. On the other hand, these two games are very visual (and don't require custom graphics), whereas sitting in a circle betting on how many rocks the leader's holding is not that visual (and does require custom graphics). So making new games would take some effort, but then, creating a game the player hasn't seen before is well worth it, don't you think?
3. TOKEN KIDDIES CLICHE
Despite the abundance of townsfolk (too many for the houses to hold), a town never has more than five kids, and they are all the same age (no babies, toddlers, adolescents, or teens, except older teens indistinguisable from adults).
I do understand that this is mostly a graphical problem (not many pixels to work with there), so it might be difficult to avoid. One way is to mess with movement: A toddler could look identical to a six-year-old, but walk off-balance, sit down or fall down, struggle to get to his feet, sometimes crawl, etc. Or he could be always looking up. It's all a matter of designing good sprites and making good use of poses and movement planning. Another method is to distinguish by color: Kids start by liking red, then blue, and then start to split into gender-distinct colors--and a group of preteens might wear hot pink while older teens wouldn't be caught dead in it (same might go for pigtails).
4. Buyback
It's a bit out of the ordinary to allow for buying stuff you have already sold, but other games have done so (e.g. the Game Gear Shining Force, if I recall aright). One solution that might be simple is to ignore the town, and just shift every sold item into an array that can be accessed as...um, a global routine? (I'm not that familiar with RPGMaker terminology.) Or, you could hold an array of just-sold items until the character leaves the area.
Another idea is to tag all items in inventory as either 'sold' or 'notsold', and then to show only the 'notsold' in your inventory and only the 'sold' in the buyback menu.
5. Token Non-Humans
Here is not so much a solution, but me begging game designers (and, well, people who design other storytelling mediums too) to stop using a human bias. I first got alerted to this trend in Star Trek. Makes sense in the first series, because it was assumed to be rare that the aliens would deign to serve on human ships. By Next Generation, they have plenty of aliens to choose from, but the captian is always human. If you take a look at the progression, Star Trek gives us Young Human White Male, Experienced Human White Male, Experienced Human Black Male, and finally Human White Female (not sure whether to call her Young or Experienced). I kept waiting for the next series, when surely they'd give us an alien captain! But no.
Now, I do understand that you can't make the main character's thought processes too different from a human's, or their culture too distinct, or else the poor audience members will get lost and won't be able to relate. But surely there is room for creativity in this area. What if the entire group is alien, and lands on a human world?
And don't let the racial stereotypes pin you down. Try to figure out why a stereotype might exist, and how other people might be mistaken. I took the "evil hobgoblin" idea and made a slave race under a goblin/orc alliance, so that humans see hobgoblins as simply part of the larger evil forces--but the hobgoblins are planning a revolt, and will in the end ally themselves with the less barbaric races, such as the humans and dwarves. I took the "evil ogre" stereotype and worked out some physical and cultural differences that could provoke such a negative view of ogres (for one thing, their large mouths and long teeth leave them spitting and drooling a lot)--then had a group of elves meet the ogres, cross the language barrier, and develop a mixed culture, creole language, and hybrid race.
I even took the "evil vampire" idea and messed around with it, from the initial idea that their powers weren't real. What could provoke such a longstanding belief system? Well, first of all, the "vampire race" is a clan of humans with a specific genetic illness that (among other things) gives them pronounced canines and makes them albino and anemic (they had to eat a high-iron, and thus high-meat, diet). This, combined with some odd cultural behaviors (garlic disgusts them), led to mistrust among the townsfolk. Feeling the level of mistrust, the vampires stayed out of sight most of the time, and began showing up in town only at night. The mistrust led to gossip that started inventing superstitious traits: They're demons, they're harmed by holy water and crosses.
The mob mentality became a danger to the vampire clan. In order to protect themselves, they tried to reduce their distinctiveness (which led to the tradition of dying their hair black). And two beliefs were started by members of the clan when they were in danger: First, "Look! If I were a demon or dead, I wouldn't have a soul, so you couldn't see my reflection in that mirror!" ("Ah, he's right! Let him go, guys.") Second, "You'd try to kill me with pitchforks and spears and arrows? You cannot harm me unless you drive a wooden stake thru my heart!" (Well, not exactly like that, but notice how the stake first of all is not a long-range weapon and secondly makes darn sure that the vampire is not tortured to death or alive when they bury him.) Eventually, all this became jumbled into one general idea of "vampires" with the various origins lost.
So break out of the stereotypes! If you start to think about all the little details, you will start to see how they could be viewed in a different way, and maybe a whole new idea will open up to you.
6. Infinite Bullets
What's wrong with counting bullets? FFIV counted arrows. And I may be recalling this wrong, but didn't RPGMaker allow for a type of attack to use up an item?
Personally, I'm sick of being unable to gather my arrows back again. When you kill an enemy using arrows, you should have a chance to gather back some unbroken arrows (see Legolas--at least in the books), and probably some broken ones that you can salvage parts from or even repair. This won't hold true for certain types of bullets, but it probably could hold true for some (you could find casings, and either reuse them or melt them into raw metal).
7. Villain Teleports to Trophy, see page 5
Why didn't they teleport in there ages ago? You have to explain the power. There are plenty of reasons for this limitation. Perhaps the villain must see where he is going, and was using a spell to see thru the hero's eyes. Or, similarly, he could teleport to an area near an object, an object that he has contrived to get the hero to carry (or that a spy in the party is carrying). It's also possible that he can't teleport thru the substance that the door is made of. Once you explain the limitations, the audience can accept them--even if they're not all that good, at least you put some thought into it.
Oh! And who says he teleported? Maybe he was invisible and followed you inside, then just ran forward and appeared. The teleporting away might be turning invisible again, or his only power might be teleporting to one specific spot or item in his home base.
8. Personal Pocket Universe
Okay, bags that can carry infinite pieces of loot, or infinite weight of loot, are a gaming anomaly. On the other hand, when you put a number of items limit, you could end up with the Dragon Warrior IV bag, where eight bobby pins means your bag is full. You won't be able to make a semi-realistic system without a ton of time and effort, and gamers get much more frustrated by lack of space than by illogical abundance, so there's not much of a reward for trying.
However, putting some measure of logical limitation on items makes the player collect and carry with strategy, rather than the collect-everything-you-possibly-can-because-you-might-need-a-tenth-of-it mentality that plagues RPGs. Take a look at Exile/Avernum (can you tell that I really like that game?) for an idea of how they handle weight. Each item gets assigned a weight variable--the unit, if I recall, is pounds. Each character has his or her own backpack, and can carry an amount of weight dictated by his or her Strength attribute. Up to a certain percentage of total weight, the character is unencumbered (suffers no penalties in combat), but add any more and the character can't act as fast during combat. It's a satisfying system because it deals with that "I'm carrying five hundred sets of iron armor, whee" annoyance that makes the game less real.
Note that if you do put an upper limit on items, you should provide access to a bank or storage service where the party can leave excess items, especially treasure that won't become important until the last quarter of the game. And try to work in the weight of the armor that the character is wearing. Furthermore, a character who uses a particularly active or agile combat style (such as dancing or jumping) might find the weight more encumbering than the other party members do.
9. Anorexia Ain't a Problem in THIS Universe!
Okay, so heroes need to eat. On the other hand, they shouldn't turn into Tamagotchi pets ("Ooh, let's feed you Caviar today!"). Furthermore, if the player gets to choose the food, she's going to choose the cheapest and most readily available. You might alter this technique by giving certain bonuses to good food, or by addressing deficient diets with certain diseases ("No citrus in a month, eh? Scurvy for the lot o' ya!"), but that's going to be a mess of trouble for both the game designer AND the player ("Wait, did I give them enough servings of grain? What's the nutritional info on this juice drink?"), and it's much more complex than you will ever need.
The easiest way to deal with this, in my experience, is again with Exile/Avernum (altho I saw it in Ultima: Exodus also, I think): Buy food, which goes to a specific food stock (one variable), and depletes on a regular schedule. Once the food is gone, the party's health depletes regularly--and, if you take this at all seriously, the party's magic should not be enough to keep them sustained in the face of starvation.
The main concerns with this are to make sure that the player knows that food is necessary and to make the food readily available. My first experience with Exile was The Dance of Death, wherein I left town, walked fifteen spaces, and keeled over. I did this numerous times before I realized that, had I paid attention to the first character in the game, he would have directed me to a guy handing out free food and equipment. You might make this discussion a scripted one at the start of the game, or you might allow for the first Death by Hunger to trigger a rescue by town officials, who hand you the forgotten supplies and offer other words of wisdom for newbies.
Oh, and one of the neat bits of Exile/Avernum is that certain towns sell the basic food for a lot less than other towns, which saves you money and makes you feel good about finding the right town ^_^
10. I Didn't Know Gold Was Red, claims Princess of Tolnedra
I love multiple currency systems! I'm sure that many others don't. Secret of Evermore dealt with it well and any decent game designer should be able to work out a system if they want to. However, you don't need to add multiple forms of currency to get the same effect. That town that doesn't recognize the Elven Silver Wyvern might be willing to bargain for, say, cacao nuts--a rare delicacy. And you just happen to have found cacao nuts on all the enemies in the forest beyond (which is why the townsfolk are too scared to venture into the forest hunting for cacao nuts). Barter is an excellent system, and a well-designed bartering exchange can add flavor to an otherwise featureless currency system.
I would love to see more examples of the "market day" scene in Secret of Evermore: twenty-odd booths, each willing to trade Item A if you give them Item B and/or Item C. But why confine this to a single place? Make the hero a delivery man who has to move between cities anyway, and can barter and haggle while he's waiting for the ship to arrive.
Be aware that my love of barter appears to contrast with the rule entitled "You Always Travel in the Right Circles"...some people may hate the idea of running errands for NPCs. You could make it a side quest, or have it coincide with travel that you had to do anyway ("Long as you're headed for East Killingstad, mind giving this package to m'wife?").
11. But Only Killing Yields Experience
Having the major portion of the game taken up with "grinding" (killing random encounters to gain experience in order to improve one's stats and/or pocketbook) may appeal to some people, but it doesn't much appeal to me. On the other hand, this isn't a tabletop RPG, and you can't do much to reward "playing in character." However, if you maintain a good sidequest system, you should be able to allow characters to gain experience (and money) from that, which means less pointless killing. Furthermore, designing a system of choices, mostly implemented in dialog or with "which door/stairway/dark hallway do I enter first?" decisions, could allow for a gradual buildup of a character profile that determines things near the middle and end of the game. E.g., is the hero the type to rush straight into battle, or to try to talk things out? Does she listen to the townsfolk's troubles (showing compassion) or try to cut to the point? Does she donate money to the orphanage, the beggar, or the shopkeeper--or, in lieu of money, does she donate time and effort by trying to find the orphan's long-lost uncle, the medicine that would cure the beggar's crippling disease, or the rare item that would bring the shopkeeper the publicity he needs to keep his shop open? These side quests can open up possibilities near the end of the game that make up in some way for having less experience or less protective armor, etc.
12. It's LeviOsa, not LevioSA
Name spells "Fire3" and "Bolt5" and you've just shown that you put no thought at all into the system. Naming your health-refilling spell "Cure" and your poison-destroying spell "Heal" show that you need to pick up an Engrish Dictionary. But let me call your attention to the other end of the spetrum: Phantasy Star IV. Here we have a unique naming language that must be memorized in order to be used. After a while, it becomes clear that, for example, the prefix "gi" intensifies the spell (so "giwat" is stronger than "wat")--but how long does a player wait before he pulls out the instruction book or just picks spells at random? ("Oh, that's targetting my party, guess it's not the fire spell...um...shoot, that was a global. Hope it does something useful.") I love languages, so my annoyance at having to learn the system was minimal, but you could reduce the annoyance further by having someone "teach" the spells (at least some of them) to the character: "So just wave your wand and say 'Alohomora' and the lock will open, see?"
Also, depending on how alien you want the system to be, it might help to give the words a familiar ring to them. Most English-speaking people are familiar with a number of Greek and Latin roots, whether or not they have actually studied them, so 'Leviosa' isn't hard to remember: It sounds like "Levitate." Ergo, the spells can sound familiar and foreign at the same time. And isn't "Incinerate" better than "Fire3"?
13. Nobunaga Moves Quickly
Well, the 'were you waiting for me?' bug might be difficult to fix, but it's certainly not impossible. Inindo ends the game after a certain amount of time if you haven't beaten it (Nobunaga has taken over the world). I'm sure that certain things can "go wrong" for the heroes if they don't stay on track. I've always found a DWIV scene annoying, where the kidnappers tell you to 'bring the bracelet to the town tonight by midnight' and then you mosey in five months later and they just show up as tho nothing happened. On the other hand, usually when I get to that point I truly lack the stats to go headlong into the dungeon, grab the crystal, and come back to town without resting at least once. So if you're going to make time limits, make sure that the heroes will have the necessary skills and goods to survive the quest within the time limit.
A related bug is the "Why Won't You Listen to Me?" bug, where you're actually ahead of the game. Here, you (having played the game before, or watched a friend play it, or having figured out subtle clues far ahead of everyone else) know something before the game wants you to. You know the password that the guy wants--the game still makes you trot across the world to learn it. You know that the spy is hiding behind the pillar--the guard won't turn around and look. You know that General Peters is going to betray the troops, or that a dragon is going to lay waste to the city, but the game refuses to let you warn the people ahead of time.
To avoid this problem, make sure that the inability to relay the info fits the story logically. I don't just mean that it's metagame knowledge and you're not allowed to use it. I mean, instead of fetching a password, fetch an item (you can't quibble about that). Instead of having a guy really hiding there, make sure that he disappears after you see him, so that instead of trying to convince a guard that he's RIGHT THERE BEHIND YOU, you're trying to convince him that some mysterious guy snuck into the palace (and the guard is right to consider you a loony without any evidence--or, if you've built up enough trust, he believes you (and so does the king) but there's not much they can do about it).
On the larger story events, you could force their conclusion (no one listens to your story of approaching doom), or you could make your knowledge actually matter: Some citizens pack up their families and leave, thus escaping the doom, or the people as a whole do listen, and the destruction is avoided or in some way changed (instead of dying when the volcano explodes, they flee by ship and are sunk by a tidal wave).
Personally, I hate games that destroy whole cities or continents just for the BOOM! factor, or, worse, in order to make the player feel that the bad guy is bad. Or that the hero has lost everything. So being offered a way to save the people before the disaster hits is wonderful--even if it doesn't have later story effects (like that they thank me by offering me the town's one treasure).
14. You Believe in God? You Must Be Evil!
I agree with the poster: Please find some way to include religious references that aren't negative. I certainly have my preferences--every person with a strong belief system would--but anything is preferable to having the only godlike figure being an evil megalomanic creature for the heroes to ultimately defeat. Or to "I believed in God until I realized that magic was real, and now I can't reconcile the two, so bye-bye God."
On the other hand, if you don't respect the religious beliefs of others, don't attempt to include a system that will poorly represent people of faith, or mock them, or act as though a belief in God is held only by fools.
Also, judging from the vast majority of the movies I have seen: If a religion is portrayed positively, it's either Eastern, American Indian, Pagan, or CATHOLIC. Star Trek seems to hold that religion is outdated and not to be taken seriously (except for Chakotay's Indian mysticism). I don't think I could point out a single movie that dealt with Christianity without representing it as Catholicism. I don't want to get into a debate on whether or not Catholicism is part of Christianity, but it certainly doesn't represent all Christians or even the beliefs of "the average Christian" (if you could conceive of such a creature). In other words, there's plenty of room for non-Catholic Christians to start writing stories (and games!) that openly include their beliefs.
Another fertile field to plow: an evolution of belief. That is, a character who starts out believing one thing, then receives evidence that it is not true. This can go in one of two major directions: either he accepts the evidence and stops believing, or turns a blind eye to the evidence and holds onto his beliefs. Either course may be right! Perhaps the evidence is misleading, or actually untrue.
Assume, however, that the evidence is true. The first character stops believing. Then, afraid of being tricked again (it is a very serious thing to lose a lifelong belief, so don't take this step lightly!), perhaps he will not belief in a new system that presents itself ("If the person I thought was God isn't, then there truly is no God."). Finally, the character comes to a point where he can take a leap of faith and accept the new system, and by the end of the story he is at peace again, just as sure of the new system as he had been of the old (altho, we hope, with better evidence, and better chance of it being true).
The second character, tho, having turned a deaf ear to the evidence, holds on to his patently false belief fiercely, even desperately. If this is false then what is left? Finally, he accepts that he cannot belief in this any longer. As with the first character, this character cannot rush into a new faith. But perhaps someone convinces him that it wasn't an either/or (either I'm right about God or there isn't any God), but rather a choice among a bunch of belief systems, any one of which might be true. And at the end of the day (or the game), the character is left with the belief that (pardon me) The Truth Is Out There, whether or not he will find it in his lifetime--and he intends to search for it, to weigh the evidence for and against each system, and to try to find a belief that he can embrace wholeheartedly.
I'm writing a short story to this effect (the second example here), and it's an excellent opportunity to get to the bottom of a character. The main thing is to realize that this person's need to believe in something is very, very strong. What other sort of man won't accept the very clear evidence that he is wrong? And it's this lifelong belief that he is right that makes it hard to accept that there may be another path. That's character development. That's what makes a vibrant, living person instead of a hollow soapbox shell.
15. I'm Sorry, You Did Mean "Yes," Right?
I saw this on a spoof ballot in which all roads led to voting for Clinton. The "character who won't take no for an answer" is identical to--no, worse than--the telemarketer who phones you at seven a.m. two hours after you got back from the bar and ten hours before your headache will go away. I find this bug even more horribly annoying when the question is whether or not to (1) do a stupid thing, (2) do an illegal thing, or (3) do a disloyal thing. The start of Breath of Fire II has an optionlock question of whether or not you want to run away from the orphanage and enjoy a life of crime. I think I've seen one where it's "Come on, let's not wait for him, come with me" and one would think that if I said "no" long enough the guy would come back anyway.
Same with forcing the party to jump into a trap to further the game. Don't force us to be stupid.
Covered on TV Tropes as But Thou Must: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButThouMust
16. You Pick Up That Gun, Boy
Well, the rampant use of deadly force by the most devout clerics is odd, but doesn't have to be outside their belief system, especially if they're only hurting villains and/or killing monstrosities that threaten the town. But it's possible to make a pacifist--I don't mean like FFIV Edward, ducking behind a corner if he's hurt, but rather a guy who cannot harm the enemy. Obviously, he'll have to be paired with other characters (or very good at running away), but it's possible and, in fact, I have created such a character during a draft of one of my games. Don't know if he's going to work out, but hey, it's original.
Another possibility is of course to start the maze over, or port you back to the house you were just at ("oooh, my head"), whenever you're attacked. But this won't work for the entire game, and is likely to annoy the majority of players.
17. Mind If We Change First?
Well, with such limited graphics, it's difficult to change costumes, and the effect is minimal when you do. However, that "we've been slogging thru the sewer and now we're going to meet the king" could allow for a short sequence to shower--or, similarly, the soldier costumes don't work cuz every henchman smells you miles away. Another possibility is to make only two or three costume changes, one with armor, one with night clothes, one with clothes for going thru town looking inconspicuous. These simple changes might be all that's needed to make a ho-hum graphical style into an aesthetically pleasing one.
Additional: In, I think, Slayers Reflect (a fanfic that I can recommend), they postulate that one of the characters holds to the belief that the amount of protection is inversely proportionate to the amount of skin covered--and that by that calculation she is wearing six-inch-thick titanium battle armor (you can guess what she is actually wearing, right?). Please, please, please make the amount of protection sensibly related to the vital areas covered and the type of material used. And, realistically, the end-game wool robe shouldn't have any greater defensive capabilities than the start-game wool robe, so explain the defense by giving them magical protection or something. Or saying it's made from pushmepullyu hair and is virtually indescructable.
18. But You Look Just Like--
One way to avoid the Direct Descendent Lookalike Syndrome is to have it appear to be the lookalike but really be another party member (Bob, who looks nothing like Great Grandfather Beauregard). Or, change the gender--or race. One of the stories I've been planning turns on a phrase that is translated "son of a Persian" (well, not Persian, but just for example's sake), which in the priests' dialect means Pureblood Persian, but in the dialect of the people who spoke the prophesy means "one whose father was Persian but who is not Persian himself," so the guy who is pretty much the opposite of a Persian finds out that his father was a Perian and...etc. Depending on the particulars needed for this Descent, it could even be that the genetic material was transfered to someone in a way other than having children, or the mind of a descendent could have been switched with someone who isn't.
19. You Sure We're Related?
Okay, so a villain's loss of power when becoming a party member might be something we have to live with. But can we avoid the Cecil/Golbez graphical factor? I realize that the battle chars are iconic (representative of reality), but still, Golbez in battle is seven or eight times as tall as Cecil. On the other hand, later on when they're fighting Yang (who had previously been a party member), he's just his battle char. Now, I do love the rendition of Golbez in battle--it's a pretty cool picture. But in a sideways battle system, where the characters are represented with little battle chars...I don't know, it bugs me. I don't have a clue whether this is fixable or not.
20. Men Weren't Meant to Change Belief Systems
Regarding bad guys turning good and then dying, don't know what to recommend, but I did want to point out a version of the problem you mentioned. In Sailor Moon (ignoring the filler Alan/Ann stuff), fully half of the bad guys who turn good do live. Which half? The female half. Apparently that makes you safe from the forces that immediately destroy a turncoat male. I don't know if this holds beyond the first two seasons, but so far there have been Nephlite (male--fell in love, turned good, died), Mamoru/Darien (male--originally good, brainwashed, recovered, and died (tho technically every cast member died that day)), The Four Sisters (all female--all turned good, and lived happily ever after), Sapphire (male--tried to nobly save his brother, turned away from evil, died), and Prince Diamond (male--finally revealed his positive motives, turned away from evil, died). This horrifying trend drove me to write a fanfiction, but that's another story.
Make sure to have good reasons for the death of any character, but especially for the death of a love interest or a character who turns good. And if many people are going to switch sides, and there are good reasons for many of them to die, make sure that the deaths aren't split down any recognizeable line--or that the line is integral to the plot. And the reason should be more than just "Well, it's a loose end--he could've helped them win the game much more easily" or "Hey, it's an emotionally charged moment, and what's more emotional than the death of a noble character?" I should also point out that sometimes the continued life of a character who has been bad has more depth to its emotion than their death could ever have: Will the ones I've hurt ever forgive me, can I even forgive myself, can I figure out how to live a normal life, can I get along without my magic powers (if his powers must be destroyed or he must refrain from using them ever again), can I get along without the luxurious comfort of my floating palace, must I get a job and serve a master when I'm used to bossing all the henchmen around?
Redemption Equals Death is covered at TV Tropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedemptionEqualsDeath
21. People Pay for This Stuff?
In answer to the "Flow of Goods Rule" (you find the worst stuff early and the best stuff late), I offer that you could offer the best stuff early but make the price astronomical (pocket change, once you're ready to use it), make a status requirement to be able to buy it ("Well, you're great heroes now, and the world knows it, so I'm willing to let you buy anything in my shop"), or make a level requirement for each weapon ("Well, you can buy it, but it'll take a while before you can swing a thing like that..."). If you pair the level requirement with a custom backpack system that involves weight and/or only a few items, the player won't carry the sword around for the rest of the game, so it should still work out okay. Or, the player might have to "learn" how to use a type of weapon--one way I can think of to do this is to make multiple heroes, with and without the (say) Use Spear ability, and just switch heroes (and match levels and transfer equipment) once the character learns the skill. So the higher-level items, tho available, all look like nobody can use them.
22. Refuting Dark Helmet's Corollary
The villan really should have a good sense of honor in my opinion.
Depends on the villain. Most villains, I would say, and especially villains on epic-level stories, are chasing goals that prove that they care about nothing but power and/or their own comfort or fulfillment. The villain who wants to resurrect the Demon Lord so he can destroy or enslave the world is unlikely to care about a few starving orphans, not even enough to steer his car around them instead of run them down (and if he does steer around, it's because he didn't want to damage his Rolls Royce). On the other hand, if you can make a villain whose motives are good, by all means give him a sense of honor and nobility that makes us sad to see him die.
More important than the Villain's sense of honor is the Hero's sense of intelligence. Which is to say, the Hero should know (from some understanding of the type of villain he's dealing with) that he is dealing with a dishonorable Villain. Knowing that, he should also realize that if he drops his weapon(s) and/or hands over the Key to Ultimate Power, the Villain is not going to feel horribly guilty about ignoring the deal they had made. Furthermore, if the Villain is planning to destroy or enslave the village/city/nation/world, what's the point of freeing the girl? She's going to die like everyone else if the Villain succeeds, and you've just handed him the key to the city.
I admit that the possibilities change when the scale is less than global, but I haven't seen too many villains who go for the small-scale victories. I am glad that you mentioned that as a weakness ^_^ but anyway, you can probably tell that I grew up with my dad shouting at the movie characters. If you make a dumb Hero, you've made a dumb story--unless you can show the Hero's growth from Gullible to Streetwise. Good luck with that one, because it would probably make for a great story.
23. Addendum to The Long Arm of the Plot
The Sailor Moon fanfic "Tacky Yellow No-Name" posited four classes of people: Heroes, Villains, Mentors, and Innocent Bystanders (any and all who don't fall into the first three classes). According to this system (it was quite comically used), a Villain who repents (becomes a non-Villain) but does not join the Heroes and doesn't qualify as a Mentor thus is obviously an Innocent Bystander, who therefore can get easily beaten up or killed by other Villains. (So Malachite, who managed to take over a WalMart, turn it into MalMart, and almost make a life of his own apart from both the Heroes and the Villains, found out that he couldn't even begin to defend himself against the current Villains (altho previously he could've kicked their butts but good), and ended up becoming a Sailor Scout just to save his own skin. A wonderful if comic example of how a Villain can't just walk away from the battle. Please don't write like this, unless of course you're writing parody.)
A villain who, in turning evil, loses all his cool powers is covered on TV Tropes as Good Is Dumb: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsDumb
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
You make me want to name my final weapon "The Penultimate Sword" (and then make nothing better)...only I don't think enough people would get the joke, because too many people think that "penultimate" is an intensive form of "ultimate."
What are they doing with MONEY? What are they doing with SUITS OF IRON ARMOR stuck in their teeth?
Magic can be "scientific." Scientists can study the, oh, magical energies that provide the power behind the spells, or something. Or magic might be a racial trait, not open to just anyone. "Scientific" means that it can be studied, tested, that the results of the tests can be independently and reliably duplicated, and there's no reason to say that that can't be done with magic.
This does not mean that scientists can automatically store magical energies into technological wonders and create e.g. a firebolt gun. You'll have to decide for or against that in your magic system; perhaps magic can be gathered technologically, or perhaps it requires a soul/spirit (or whatever makes a person different from an animal or machine). Or, you could stick pixies into little cages in the gun, and poke them so they breathe fire down the tube. :P
every store you pass will just happen to stock an even better model of it
What I hate is all the stores selling items just slightly better than what I already have--items that I will find in the next dungeon or as drops from the next set of creatures. Therefore I never buy weapons or armor unless I find a dungeon/monster that kills me repeatedly (time to upgrade!).
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It's there because I put it there! (Zelda rule)
Nomatter what, the item given to you will always be completely out of reach and while it is possible to obtain it, there are people nearby that could get it for you without any problem, they won't. Instead, they will give you useless information when spoken to.
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1. Final Fantacy fangames.
Fianl fantasy games suck.
So, don't make them.
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Originally posted by Black Massacre
1. Final Fantacy fangames.
Fianl fantasy games suck.
So, don't make them.
And you bitched to me about telling someone to not make a pokemon game, lil n00blit.
That's not a cliche, that's an over seen title, there's a difference.
And, it's FantaSy.
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COME TO THE DARK SIDE,HERO(Vader rule)
Just about in every game,the Villain wants the hero to join him or her,usually about creation and destruction.
Avoidable:Yes,very.
Recomended:Somewhat,depends if your villain is persuasive,if you have a forceful villain,DO NOT USE IT!
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Originally posted by Big_Duke
COME TO THE DARK SIDE,HERO(Vader rule)
Just about in every game,the Villain wants the hero to join him or her,usually about creation and destruction.
Avoidable:Yes,very.
Recomended:Somewhat,depends if your villain is persuasive,if you have a forceful villain,DO NOT USE IT!
Er... bump?
But technically, the thread is stickied, so it don't matter too much.
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Die Moron!
You fight the boss of the game, he's all powerful, you lose. Towards the end of the game, you beat him, he runs away. You hunt him down, he has some big all powerful form that has one big weakness. You beat him. You jump for joy. OMG THE PLAC IZ GUNA BLO! You run to the exit. The boss comes back super powerful, no weakness, you just have to kick his butt.
Avoidable: Yes moron...
Recommended: All depends on you, you can do it if you want, but at least give him a reason for surviving, you can't kill him then him magically come back to life even stronger. A good reason would be, you kill him, his giant computer activates a program for when he dies, the place starts to blow up, you run out of the room, the computer hooks up to him, becomes part of him, and makes him super powerful.
Good thing it was a stunt double!
If someone dies, shout at the top of your lungs and kill the guy how killed him. No burial, no mourning, he just died. Sometimes they remember him at the end of the game.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: If he like pushes you out of the way from getting knocked into a volcano or something and gets pushed in himself, then they sorta can't get buried. But don't just run up and kill the guy who did it and move on. I saw one time that when the hero's best friend was killed, the hero got a new super attack.
How come I didn't see that?
You go into a place, talk to people, come out, everything except for the building you were in is destroyed.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes, must I explain.
Very Leaning Tower of Pisa
In some places going up, you take the stairs on the right side of some very big room, and you end up on the far left side of another huge ruge.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes, just think about the whole place! Make you map more detailed.
I took the stairs
You see a town surrounded by a ring of mountains. You go through some ridiculously long quest to get the airship and fly in, get attacked by some boss on your way in, and get there just to find people who say they came from some really far of land. "How'd you get here?" "I came through the mountains!"
Avoidable: No, unless you're going to make a lot of events to make your character be able to hike through the mountains. But don't make people in the town be from far off lands, make then a whole new race or something, or make it a ghost town!
Earthquake, could you make me a tunnel?
You go through some really long dungeon, get to the boss, the place begins to fall apart. While the place is collapsing, a conveniantly built tunnel leading almost right back to the start.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: No, don't make the good people run all the way back through the dungeon!
Dungeon cleared, TAXI!
You beat a dungeon, and you're magically out 5 seconds later.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Big yes, 3 solutions!
1) Make some magic portal taking them out
2) Show the hero leaving, (jumping off of the giant flying thingy, running out the way they came in, taking a secret exit, ect)
3) Let the players get out themselves, see "Earthquake, could you make me a tunnel?"
We saved the world and are bored, part 1
The hero saves the world, and it never shows them escape the big bad guys place.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: See "Dungeon cleared, TAXI!"
We saved the world and are bored, part 2
Once you get to the boss of the game, you save, and now you can only fight him, can't get out, can only fight him.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes, let them be able to escape...
We saved the world and are bored, part 3
You beat the game, yay! Now all you can do is run up to beat the boss of the game or leave and go train to beat him up harder.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes, add plenty of side quests for once they beat the boss of the game, if the beat all of those, give them some other short quest to follow, beat that, give them some cool ultimate weapon, and one small quest. After that, they rock.
Butterknife is still the middle weight champion
The small little weapon give the hero or villan more stat boosts than the big ultimate cool sword that might be in the game.
Avoidable: No, some weapons just need to be stronger than the big one's, but don't the little weapons all powerful, they should be weaker than some big ones, and big ones should generally be strong and such. But liek if your Ultima Weapon's small, then make it better than all the big weapons you want and I won't argue.
Cooler is stronger (Ultima Weapon Rule)
The cooler looking the weapon, the stronger.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: No, cool weapons should be strong, and strong weapons should look cool.
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Oh, but I do love this thread.
"It wasn't my fault!"
Any antagonist who ends up becoming a Good Guy will claim that they were possessed, brainwashed, blackmailed, etc.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Even if you do have a villain-turned-hero in your game, there's better reasons for them to switch. Or why not have them switch sides, but keep the same morals? That would make for some interesting conversations.
Selective Omnipotence Rule
Any god-like figure that isn't just an invention of the Church will do nothing to stop the current crisis on the planet, even if they possess the power needed to do so.
Avoidable: Probably.
Recommended: Having a god solve everything is a pretty deus ex machina ending, but like any cliche, there is a couple of interesting applications for it.
Thinking Ahead
Dungeon layouts will be perfectly designed so that the hero, with his current abilities, can progress through it unhindered (excluding any areas that contain secret, usually useless collectibles). This begs the question - if the ancients knew so much about the hero, why didn't they do something to prevent the current crisis from ever happening?
Avoidable: Not usually.
Recommended: If you take a look at the Metroid or Castlevania series, the layouts are designed so that they can be explored gradually, and have to be returned to several times to finish the game. This doesn't really work in RPGs, but it's an interesting application. Otherwise, it's unavoidable.
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I took the stairs, 50 times...
You meet some merchant early in the game, and he's in pretty much every town, no matter what, no matter the trials to get there, no matter how much HP you lost doing it, he will always be there.
Avoidable: Hardly
Recommended: Yes, just don't put him in every town.
We are famous rocks, (FFI Rule)
You either go restore power to four crystals, or something that has to do with the elements earth, wind, water, and fire.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Yes, unless it's majorly important
Would you like to take part in our, "Save the World" program?(FFIII Rule)
You are chosen by someone or something to be the great hero.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: Depends... You don't have to be chosen...
Laws of Time? What's that? (Ocraina Rule)
The game has to have something to do with time travel, or be linked to some far off time period's prophecy.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: No, most RPG's do come forth because of some ancient prophecy or some ancient evil.
Oh all mind controlling sword
As soon as you start the game, you instantly know how to use all equipable types of weapons.
Avoidable: No, though you could give him a reason for why he knows how to use a sword, like my main character for my RPG knows because he was drafted into war and had gone through some training.
Amnesia, you can't touch my skills. (Desch Rule)
If you get amnesia, you don't lose all sword skills and magic skills, even through you claim to only remember your name and some task or promise.
Avoidable: Yes
Recommended: At the start of the
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I love reading about clichés (the better to avoid them in my own work), and I enjoyed adding my piece to this list. There are hundreds of lists out there, easily sought out by a beginning with a search engine. But I thought I'd bring up this site, which I only discovered a couple weeks ago:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/
A trope, as far as I currently understand the term, is a pattern that isn't yet a cliché. (When it does become a cliché, it's called a "dead trope" or a "discredited trope.") Some tropes are so general or useful that they will never become clichés.
Clichés are only useful (in good material) when you avoid them, or set the audience up to expect them but change the outcome. Tropes can be averted (avoided) or subverted (changed), but they can also be used straight, and so this site helps you understand how to do that by going over the standard trope and any subversions already seen in stories, movies, anime, games, etc.
E.g., say you want to use the situation where the Villain has a Hostage, with a gun pointed at her head, and tells the Hero to drop his weapon. You want to do something different. You go find the page about this trope (Put Down Your Gun And Step Away: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PutDownYourGunAndStepAway ), which points out several versions that have been seen in television shows and the movies, including (a) Hero shoots Villain anyway, (b) Hero puts his gun away and tells Ally to shoot Villain, and (c) Hero shoots Hostage (with a phaser set on stun). You may decide to use one of those forms, or make up something new, but at least you know what's been done and where to look it up.
TV Tropes has a section on Anime Tropes, Comic Book Tropes, and Video Game Tropes, as well as Television Tropes. It also has an amusing section on commercials (my favorite page is Cereal Vice Reward: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CerealViceReward ).
I hope this information helps you avoid clichés as well as learn from the best patterns we have built into our collective literature. :smurf:
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A large portion of the cliches people talk about were done in a single game, but because the game was so popular people assume it's a cliche. Or, even better, some were never used but people call them cliches so much that everyone assumes it's a cliche.
Just make a freaking game and don't worry about if someone else did the same thing before you. Worries like that are a sign that you aren't confident in your game.
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Originally posted by MrMister
Originally posted by Grandy
Bond, James Bond (Cait Sith Rule)
You won't ever find a spy. If theres a spy in your party, he will tell you personaly. If theres a spy in the enemy's army, he will be found and killed, unless the hero rescue him or the hero is the spy himself.
Name another instance of that, right now.
When it's been used once, it's not a cliche.[/B]
(Sorry, haven't seem this thread for ages)
When I meant "Spy" it was anyone who is in the party with second intentions, usually regarding how the hero will die.
Therefore, I could mention:
-Etna from Disgaea and her mission to finish off Larharl (true, she changes sides later, but it stil counts)
-Lady Sialeeds from Suikoden V, who succedeed in fooling the main character.
-Big Smoke and... the slim guy in GTA San Andreas. Not an RPG, maybe, but it's a cliché nonetheless.
And, if we're counting other forms of media, I could also mention that angel chick from One Piece, who was forced to try and kill Luffy, but still fooled him around and had to tell him for he to know.
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Dragon Rule:
Dragons are EVIL, there is no way that they can be of help, and if they are, it's after you had a hard-*** fight with one of those.
I completely disagree, in fact some of my main characters are dragons.
oh and why not give a small twist on the whole dragon concept:
maybe the dragons are a race of super human creatures working for the greater good or something?
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Originally posted by Osmose
A large portion of the cliches people talk about were done in a single game, but because the game was so popular people assume it's a cliche. Or, even better, some were never used but people call them cliches so much that everyone assumes it's a cliche.
Just make a freaking game and don't worry about if someone else did the same thing before you. Worries like that are a sign that you aren't confident in your game.
Why yes, this IS a shitty guide!
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Dragons Are Not Always Evil
First, there's a distinction between Western and Eastern dragons. Western dragons have often been all about greed, hoarding things they cannot enjoy (treasure, and human women). Eastern dragons are quite different from this, and, if I recall, they sometimes embody wisdom. Anyone have more info on that?
At any rate, for one example of "good" dragons, go watch the anime series Slayers. There were two groups of dragons; one group destroyed the other group; the remaining group considers themselves to be the servants of order/Good in direct opposition to the Mazoku (demons) who serve chaos/Evil.
On video games? Does Breath of Fire portray dragons as evil? I mean, c'mon, they're the heritage of the main character (but then, I've forgotten much of that series... should go play it again, sigh).
Reason for Cliché Training
Osmose, I generally appreciate your input, but you're dead wrong on this subject. Studying the clichés and patterns of the past helps you to see things from a new direction. It helps you avoid some of the more common eye-rolling moments, understand certain things that drive gamers up the wall (check TVTropes.org for a page on a waist-high impassable fence... I forget the exact title, and the site's down at the moment), and turn a pattern on its head to give the audience a bit more bang for their buck.
The line between clichés and tropes, and between tropes and "occurred once in one movie that everybody has seen," is not always clear. Some people may consider a certain thing to be a pattern when it isn't. They may consider something to be a cliché when it isn't. Some people get it the other way around, and think that their favorite game (or show) invented X when X has been around since Greek theatre (or since, say, some 50's film noir)--TV Tropes again has a page on that subject. This doesn't mean that lists of clichés aren't useful or that they shouldn't be studied.
Realistically, you can't make a good piece of original writing--game or otherwise--without studying the writing of the past. Well, perhaps I'll soften that a bit. If you haven't studied what other people have done, your chance of making a good piece of original writing drops drastically. Originality comes directly from understanding what others have done. It builds on the past. Consider any invention: Cars came from wheels and gears and experiments with explosive power. Refrigerators came from ice boxes and understanding how pulling heat over to one spot makes another spot cooler. Computers came from electricity, circuits, LED, magnetism, etc., etc., etc. Everything you have in your life is built on a foundation of what has come before.
The point of clichés, as opposed to just general studying? Well, the whole point of writing is to communicate some thought or feeling, and to make the audience react in a certain way. And clichés tend to make the audience react in an undesirable way: They laugh when they should be crying, or get irritated when they should be anxious and jumpy. Since a good deal is known about which patterns cause the wrong reaction, studying these patterns can help you steer the audience toward the right reaction without getting derailed on the details.
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The first couple were funny and true, but the longer I read the more I realized that these were becoming downright useless. I think the breaking point was this one:
Dungeon Design 102
When you are confronted by two doors, the closer one will be locked and its key will be hidden behind the farther-away one.
Avoidable: Yes
Reccommeded: Yes. Make more than two doors.
What kind of recomendation is that! Make more than two doors? Sometimes rooms have two doors! It's okay for rooms to have two doors!
A lot of the suggestions involved letting relatively minor things fatally kill a character, such as falling from a height or getting poisoned. Yeah, that's a great game. I leveled this guy up to 54 and he ate a berry in the woods and died.
Circumventing even a fraction of these so-called cliches (as Osmose pointed out, the vast majority of them seemd to be one specific event from one specific game) and basing everything firmly in reality and common sense would either 1) bog down the game with insane numbers of meaningless systems caculating how fast people should be able to walk, the last time they ate, who the stole from and if they have the means to take revenge, and God only knows what else and 2) squeeze every last drop of fun out of the game.
Eliminating "the hero needs to be a guy using a sword" cliches in the name of variety is good. Eliminating "the characters need to shower after working up a sweat" in the name of reality would just draw attention away from the fun parts that matter.
The key is abreviated reality. It's assumed that the characters eat when hungry, sleep when tired, wash their clothes and bathe themselves in inns, spend some downtime relaxing every so often, get minor illnesses and injuries, and all the normal stuff that happens to people. But it doesn't need to be shown unless it adds something to the story. Most RPGs programmed in the maker have far too little content as is - no sense wasting a progammer's time with the completely trivial. Save the energy for the fun parts of the game that matter!
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Wow. Someone actually posted a cliche on mapping?
Hey. My houses have roofs. I guess my game is cliche. Oh ****, they have walls too. Someone help me around this :yell: NO! FLOORS TOO!?
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I could avoid that one easy. Guess you've still got a thing or two to learn about mapping, eh Meis?
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go archem, fight fight fight!!!
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SaiKar, on the subject of "abbreviated reality," you're absolutely right: Bogging a game down with minute "realistic" detail is one of the most time-consuming ways to kill a game. I've had to realize that myself at times. Sometimes I think I've figured out a way to fix something about World of Warcraft that bugs me, only to realize that the alternative I've come up with would be so much worse (in terms of fun).
So, yeah, we needn't shower after every few battles. And even if we march straight from the sewers to the throne room, most players won't give a second thought to the incongruity. Might even be a culture in which bathing is frowned upon (likely to make you sick, either in folk tales or in reality (contaminated water?)).
Doesn't mean we can't get a "bathe and change clothes" moment before a royal audience. I know I've seen movies where this was a big deal (and a chance for the snooty steward to disparage your peasant aroma). Can't think of an example, but I know I've seen this, and more than once.
Cliché? No, the lack of personal hygiene is an example of abbreviated reality, as you said. Most people won't notice or care. Those who put a little extra time in can deal with it, but most game crafters won't need to worry about it.
Food? Most games, not necessary. Some games, an interesting add-on. After I found out how to get food, I enjoyed that aspect of Exile. Also Might and Magic...3, I think. Again, judge your audience; there's a sliding scale between abstraction and realism, and your game falls somewhere on that scale. If you're a gritty post-Apocalyptic tale of survival, gathering rations might take on a major focus. A more cartoony style, such as Secret of Mana, is far less likely to highlight the chance of starving in the desert (except via cutscene of being rescued).
I won't say I have the best continuity between posts, but in skimming my previous post, I see that I pointed to one negative effect of a cliché: It causes the wrong emotional reaction in the player. A scene that is meant to make them cry instead makes them laugh. A hair-raising escape from the clutches of evil leaves them rolling their eyes. The heroic quest to locate the only weapon capable of defeating the demon boss comes off as less than heroic because you're hunting down the Sword of Ultimate Power via a trek through the Forest of Evil and the Swamp of Unending Despair.
Seeming unrealities that the player never notices, or never focuses on--such as the lack of sustenance over a five-day hike, or the King's lack of comment on the mud you just tracked across his floor--those aren't clichés in the sense of something you should Really Avoid. They're just video game oddities.
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This thread is becoming a class of philosophy on how to make a game or something :( .i liked this thread until that happened, now i try to avoid this thread... anymore cliches? please?... this post is ritorical, please don't get mad at me. :blue-eye:
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I think pinning down a distinction between the useful clichés and the ones that don't belong on this post is probably a good thing. But, yeah, too much talking.
If you want a good supply of useful patterns that you can browse from here till The End of the World As We Know It, go check out that site I mentioned, TVTropes.org -- it's a Wiki with tropes (patterns before they become clichés) about many different media, including video games. You'll likely find several dozen pages that relate directly to some of the clichés listed on this thread. It's the main reason that I'm not adding to this list at the moment -- it's all on TVTropes, and I don't want to duplicate too much.