Cliches

[Juju EyeBall]

What are some cliche's that you love to see in the game?

I'm partial to moments like this:

[tacojohn4547]

PCs who fail their save vs. fear auras and flee the scene, leaving their companions to defeat 'the evil beings'. Especially Paladins and LG Clerics who do it.

[grodog]

One of the interesting things about this photo is the relative depth of the water for the guy banging futilely at the door vs. the skeleton sneaking up on him---unless the skelton is a halfling or some other shorter humanoid, it must be rising up from a deeper section of water in the center of the room.

Given that the guy is ignoring the skeleton, my hunch is that he's standing on a ledge that runs around the center of the room, or at the top of stairs that descended into the room, and that he's distracted by the entering water, which makes the skeleton especially deadly (striking from behind with surprise, perhaps!).

Allan.

[Juju EyeBall]

One of the interesting things about this photo is the relative depth of the water for the guy banging futilely at the door vs. the skeleton sneaking up on him---unless the skelton is a halfling or some other shorter humanoid, it must be rising up from a deeper section of water in the center of the room.

Given that the guy is ignoring the skeleton, my hunch is that he's standing on a ledge that runs around the center of the room, or at the top of stairs that descended into the room, and that he's distracted by the entering water, which makes the skeleton especially deadly (striking from behind with surprise, perhaps!).

Allan.

In my imagination the skeleton was just a heap of bones on the floor, the fighter came in the room to investigate it, the door shut behind him, water started to flow, the fighter turns his attention to the door unaware that the skeleton is rising behind him.
Skeleton gets a back stab, unprecedented!

[rredmond]

In my imagination the skeleton was just a heap of bones on the floor, the fighter came in the room to investigate it, the door shut behind him, water started to flow, the fighter turns his attention to the door unaware that the skeleton is rising behind him.
Skeleton gets a back stab, unprecedented!

This is the way I pictured it as well.

You know what's great, as a player, a really good TPK. I know there are tons of (new-ish) players who'd disagree. But if the game ends in a really exciting TPK, or nearly so, man I tell that story for years afterward. I don't mind re-rolling a character if his predecessor went out in a blaze of glory!
--Ron--

[Juju EyeBall]

You know what's great, as a player, a really good TPK. I know there are tons of (new-ish) players who'd disagree. But if the game ends in a really exciting TPK, or nearly so, man I tell that story for years afterward. I don't mind re-rolling a character if his predecessor went out in a blaze of glory!
--Ron--

Somewhere along the line computer games made people who play RPG's start to expect to be superheros able handle any situation single-handedly.
That is NOT how AD&D is meant to be played!

[Jeffery St. Clair]

Here are some off the top of my head:

I like watching my players discover that the cool artifact they found isn't quite all it's cracked up to be, when those side effects start kicking in.

Or watching the party react when they encounter what looks like one thing but is really something different, such as ghouls/ghasts, skeletons/bone constructs, etc.

But I also enjoy when, through a well-executed plan, the party kicks the crud out of a foe that I thought was going to put up a much better fight. That's always fun, even if I did get out-thunk. Case in point - monster terrorizes town, party tracks monster and sends up an aerial assault on their flying carpet, party defeats monster almost without a scratch. When I wrote the encounter years ago, nobody had a way to fly, so prior groups that came through had to slug it out, while this one had little trouble.

I know there are more, but I don't know how cliche they are.

[gizmomathboy]

It's almost a cliche at my table that Francisca or the other players make a comment about an encounter or room or something that I have barely fleshed out and I take that idea and run with it since it's way better than what I came up with.

In fact it happened last night. Not some much something better but a really cool explanation for the effect a maze has on spellcasters.

[Ragnorakk]

The random magical boon-or-bane feature (magical pool, weird statue, Deck-of-Many-Things, etc). I loove that shit both as a DM and as a player.

[francisca]

In fact it happened last night. Not some much something better but a really cool explanation for the effect a maze has on spellcasters.

Imma keep my big mouth shut.

[EOTB]

Dopplegangers

[Melan]

The random magical boon-or-bane feature (magical pool, weird statue, Deck-of-Many-Things, etc). I loove that shit both as a DM and as a player.

Those never get old.

I am also fond of the old "secret-door-in-the-well", "treasure-on-the-bottom-of-the-pool" and "cave-behind-the-waterfall" tricks. The players know there will be something there, you know the players know there will be something there, and they will experiment.

[DungeonMonkey]

My favorite is not a particular in-game situation or trope, but a familiar, recurring player-DM dynamic:

When a player announces an incredibly ill-considered course of action; one so stupefying that the DM involuntarily reacts with disbelief: "Really?!?" It's even better when the player somehow manages not to be dissuaded, which happens more often than it should.

[benjoshua]

I love a good twist in a movie, like what happened in Sixth Sense, and I like them in adventures as well. The cleric who casts Flame Strike on the party at the beginning of I2, Tomb of the Lizard King, or the magic user in N1, Against the Cult of the Reptile God, who acts senile and fumbling but can help the party defeat the naga at the conclusion of the adventure are some examples.

[grodog]

What are some cliches that you love to see in the game?

- cursed scrolls that teleport you to locations rife with hideous death
- teleporters and levers placed in alcoves
- pit traps that are more than they appear (secret doors, treasures, monsters at their bottoms)
- classic monsters in usual situations that still surprise the party: like when PCs literally walk into a gelatinous cube after seeing a strange distortion in the air ahead
- the clean-up crew
- prisoners, hirelings, and NPCs---most you can trust, but some you can't
- treasure maps, false and true
- glyphs of warding that PCs know are there, but decide to trigger anyway because they can't figure out its name/how to avoid/erase them
- walking past those portcullis holes in the ceiling, that will later come down at an inopportune time
- illusions, especially on treasure
- splitting the party, especially across multiple levels

Allan.