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Well, I badly needed a good laugh today, and this was linked in another forum I visit: The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches (also available in German, French, Russian, and Spanish).

 

One of my favorites is #22, The MacGyver rule (not the least of which is due to the fact that I loved the TV show MacGyver):

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?

 

The only thing they forgot there was duct tape and a pocket knife, and then they'd be all set.

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:rofl: These are great! And I'm starting to see some eerie similarities...

 

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.

 

(Bastila, Brianna)

 

* 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.

 

(Visas)

 

* 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.)

 

(Juhani)

 

* The achingly beautiful gothy swordsman who is riven by inner tragedy.

 

(Bao-Dur, and Brianna again)

 

* The big, tough, angry guy who, deep down, is a total softy.

 

(Canderous, Atton)

 

* The hero's best friend, who is actually much cooler than the hero.

 

(HK-47, Jolee, and Bao-Dur again)

 

* The grim, selfish mercenary who over the course of the game learns what it means to really care about other people.

 

(Canderous again)

 

* The character who is actually a spy for the bad guys but will instantly switch to your side when you find out about it.

 

(Visas, Mical, and Brianna again)

 

* 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.)

 

(HK again, in both games...but everyone uses him because he's HK, so I guess it's the exception that proves the rule ;))

 

* The nauseatingly cute mascot who is useless in all battles.

 

(Mission, T3 in K1, Remote)

 

Did I mention ":D"?

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Choice picks:

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.

 

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.

 

Bed Bed Bed

A good night's sleep will cure all wounds, diseases, and disabilities, up to and including death in battle.

 

# 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.

 

# 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.

 

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.

 

Lololol!

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Woah...if you look at this stuff, it seems almost every RPG is the same :D

 

The first two rules just blatantly shoutet 'FABLE!'

 

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.

-Telos, Taris sewer system, Dxun, The Ravager, Paragus, Crystal Caves/Korrivan, the Korriban temples/Onderon...it's all there!

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97. 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.

Bastila, Mission, Juhani...

 

99. Law of Reverse Evolution (Zeboim Principle)

Any ancient civilizations are inexplicably much more advanced than the current one.

Hello Rakata...

 

182. 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.

I'm looking at you, TSL.

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:lol: Non-used good to better.

 

183 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.

 

26 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.

 

102 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.

 

18 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.

 

129 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

 

186 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.

 

 

189 Moral of the story

Every problem in the universe can be solved by finding the right long-haired prettyboy and beating the crap out of him.

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Choice picks:

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.

 

 

Sounds like the Kender in the Dragonlance books/games. Tasselhoff Burrfoot was just like that! :lol:

 

 

129 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

 

So true! Once, just for kicks, I used a cheat code to fully increase my dexterity and then played entirely through KOTOR in my underwear.

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20. Just Nod Your Head And Smile

And no matter how big that big-ass 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.

:nod:

41. 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.

:animelol:

43. 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.

I always thought Taris looked too much alike Midgar.

133.Last Rule of Politics

Kingdoms are good. Empires are evil.

 

153."Mommy, why didn't they just use a Phoenix Down on Aeris?"

Don't expect battle mechanics to carry over into the "real world."

:nod:

 

156.Sephiroth Memorial Escape Clause

Any misdeed up to and including multiple genocide is forgiveable if you're cool enough.

Hence why no one likes Malak.

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Wow, lol. That was interestingly funny...

 

No duh:

 

179: 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.

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