Making Tropes Work

According to Google Dictionary, a trope is “A conventional idea or phrase.” In other words, it’s something seen throughout literature, movies and games that is kind of a grand-scale meme. They’re the plots you see frequently make an appearance in sci-fi, such as “A.I. Is a Crapshoot” and “Aliens Speaking English“.

It’s in fantasy, you see “Magitek” and the “Magical University“.

Visit TVTropes.org to see thousands more tropes.

I’d like to ask the question, however: Can you avoid tropes in your game? If so, should you?

I’m going to front-load the discussion: You can’t avoid tropes.
Believe me, there are tropes for everything. Everything. Anything you can imagine has been done before. Any plot line you conceive of has been done before. Any character concept you imagine is old hat. You can’t avoid it.

Does this mean you shouldn’t try to stretch and find something you’ve never thought of before? Hardly.

Should you actively avoid tropes, as much as you are able to? I don’t think so.

Tropes are things which make elements of a story instantly familiar. It helps players get a quick sense of what to expect, and to understand the greater story around them. The very idea of an adventuring party is a trope in and of itself. There’s no reason you can’t use tropes to help bolster your story, to combine tropes in interesting and new ways to create a greater narrative that is both familiar and new.

In the same vein, you should avoid your tropes falling into cliché. The difference between the two is that a trope is a familiar story element, while a cliché is the exact same thing, but done to death. If your players roll their eyes at you when you explain a plot point, you’ve hit a cliché.

The best way to keep the former from becoming the latter is to avoid overplayed ideas. Use the less familiar tropes. If it’s something you’ve seen in every single movie in the genre you’re playing, avoid it. Instead, draw plot ideas from more obscure books or movies.

I hope to talk more about tropes soon. Keep your eyes peeled.