This one is a little self-explained in the title, but what I mean here is generally: “What writing habits, clichés, and tropes do we seem to utilize the most as players or GMs?” – this doesn’t mean it has to be necessarily things you perceive as negative (though a little deconstruction can go a long way). The idea is to start a bit of discussion about what we do, how we perceive ourselves, and other self-aware nonsense.

It's not so much a 'trope,' but my writing style tends to naturally mimic whatever (good) author I happen to have read most recently. So I bounce around between wannabe-Tolstoy, wannabe-McCarthy, wannabe-Dick, etc. It's always a trip when I look at my old stuff -- I can always tell what book I was reading at the time.

BUT TROPES THOUGH

I have to constantly fight the five-man band trope, especially when roleplaying. Also Conservation of Ninjutsu, but then again, pretty much everyone conserves ninja.

I tried to submit a pair of opposing tropes a while back, because they really should be tropes -- "Take the money and run" versus "Leave the money and walk." You know that scene, because it's all over the place -- the hero and/or badass just leaves the money on the table and walks out of the room, and later the bad-guy-slash-coward furiously tries to scoop it all into their pockets while fleeing after his or her defeat.

I'm into the Rule of Three, and that doesn't really bother me. Three is a nice, comfortable number that I am perfectly OK adapting. Because the RP I am most involved with is 20th century Alt History but I am personally more interested in earlier history, I definitely do a lot of Born in the Wrong Century stuff. I have Generals who yearn for older ideas about honor, a mad neurologist who dresses and speaks like a Victorian gentleman, and plenty of characters who make historical comparisons or references that are somewhat out of place. And, of course, the main character if I have one is absolutely The Wise Prince. Like, to a tee.

I've had to deal with I just want to be special and those that don't know when to fold em quite a bit. It's pretty sad. I really like writing characters that are rebellious spirits and/or defiant to the end though. Not all of my characters are like that and some rebels do have a reason to rebel, but those two tropes are probably the ones I enjoy using the most myself. Defiant to the end can be especially fun when others expect you to surrender or give in at some point.

Rice and roads.

That should be a thing. Maybe there is already a name for it?

For anyone who is wondering, that is what we have been calling world-building posts that are entirely about technical details. Like, if you make a post it an NRP where everyone is discussing road building, or the rice harvest.

@Vilageidiotx

The next level we've termed as tech-wanking. That's when you go on-and-on about the mundane technical specifics of something technical, like a car: or commonly a gun, tank, or something for combat.

It's usually dry but it crops up a lot I feel in NRP where people want to be absolutely sure everyone knows they have DA BEST WEY-PAUN.

@Vilageidiotx

The next level we've termed as tech-wanking. That's when you go on-and-on about the mundane technical specifics of something technical, like a car: or commonly a gun, tank, or something for combat.

It's usually dry but it crops up a lot I feel in NRP where people want to be absolutely sure everyone knows they have DA BEST WEY-PAUN.

I am fairly sure that one HAS to be a real trope. I mean, Tom Clancy exists (or existed), and if there is one thing that man loved more than America, it was intimate descriptions of military tech.

Usually I try to avoid tech descriptions because I figure that, if I go into detail there, I will reveal that I am absolutely a dip-shit.

When it comes to the crime fiction stuff I use, I often like to use a Knight in Sour Armor or an Anti-Villain in a Crapsack World

I'm in the process of working on something that'll invoke the Vice President Who? and Richard Nixon the Used Car Salesman tropes.

One habit of mine is to use the same character over and over.

I keep the name, appearance, personality, and typically the same skillset, and then completely adapt her for the new Rp I'm in.

She's actually a fairly fluid character, I'm always changing and altering her to fit whatever new direction I want to take things in, or how the RP world looks. I wouldn't use the same version in a gritty crime RP as I would a high-fantasy Rp. They're different universes, and require some differences to make them make sense.

I am quite fond of one character of mine in particular; an Anti-Villain of the Chaotic Neutral sort who is a Well Intentioned Extremist and a Shapeshifting Beast Woman. Much of her character draws on She Who Fights Monsters because she's getting closer to the Kill All Mortals trope with every day, and achieving it by being a Nature's Hero Warrior-Woman who uses Unstoppable Rage and her Roaring Rampages of Revenge with a good dose of Antimagic and being downright Implacable and Determined; there's enough fervor and violence in her that she's not afraid of Taking You with Her if it calls for it because it is a Crapsack Fantasy World. Surprisingly, previous players I've dealt with in this setting don't seem to get that Anyone Can Die and tend to avoid her, even though she is effectively the story's main Big Bad. Her hobbies include being a Mage Killer, Walking The Earth and avoiding Naming Her Weapon despite it being a Legendary and essentially bait for The Heroes.

Officially this has been the most painful, cringe worthy post I've ever written because of cramming all of these tropes in here - and the fact I still use them to much more minor lengths and combinations elsewhere - but it felt appropriate and actually made me laugh at how absurd she is when I take a step back and look at only the ones I actually found for her.

Thank you for the topic, @Gowi. I needed this.

Expies tbh

I'm not original but i can rip somebody off with the best of them

I think my favourite tropes that I love using are Genious Ditz, Amazonian Beauty, and a degree of Super Toughness to survive heavy slapstick comedy scenes :P

I, for the life of me, don't fucking know. I probably use a fuckton of tropes. I probably don't even realize it, because I don't even have the faintest clue of what half of the tropes are.

I'm partial to http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AwesomenessByAnalysis

Most of my ideas are trope-ridden that I don't even know how to stop my own crazy rampage... However, the few that I use most frequently are:

• Deconstruction
  From genre to world to characters...you name it, I most probably have done it.

• Mind-Screw / Mind-Screwdriver
  As a big fan of two of the most mind-boggling animanga series ever existed (Neon Genesis Evangelion and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle), let's just say that those two left such a lasting impression on me that I feel the need to do this whenever I have the chance.

• Mind Rape
  I'm a closet sadist - I don't torture anyone but my own characters. 'Nuff said.

• Ambiguous Ending
  It's my favorite kind of ending. I'm ok with bittersweet or sad endings; not fond of happy ends.

• Star System
  

  One habit of mine is to use the same character over and over.
  
  I keep the name, appearance, personality, and typically the same skillset, and then completely adapt her for the new Rp I'm in.
  
  She's actually a fairly fluid character, I'm always changing and altering her to fit whatever new direction I want to take things in, or how the RP world looks. I wouldn't use the same version in a gritty crime RP as I would a high-fantasy Rp. They're different universes, and require some differences to make them make sense.

  
  I do this very often too. I dunno about others, but personally I don't see the point of creating "new" characters when they don't feel different from any of my existing characters at all. /shrugs

Oh-kay, Starbucks wifi just thought that it's funny to double-post on my behalf.

Oh well.

I do this very often too. I dunno about others, but personally I don't see the point of creating "new" characters when they don't feel different from any of my existing characters at all. /shrugs

I’ve done this before too, you can ask my friend @DruSM157 on that. I’ve used a variation of Mikael Sentarous, Zrefre, and a few others in several different iterations. I do like making new and fresh characters but sometimes it is just as fun to reimagine and redesign an authorial favorite.

I use way too much Determinator. Like, way too much. WAY too much. there's also Heroic Resolve, which I use way too much of as well. I also have an unhealthy obsession with Anti-Nihilist characters.

Don't forget Humanity Is Special, Humanity Is Superior, and Humans Are Warriors.

Trying to do this more serious beyond my Rice and Roads joke (which is a qausi-legit trope from PoW), one legit trope I've been utilizing in Precipice of War recently is the Vestigal Empire, taking part in the former Russian territories.

In PoW the Russian tzar and the royal family was killed off by a pair of Finnish badasses. With the czar's only heir and daughter is killed, he has no direct heir and no replacements could be made before he himself is killed with throws the Empire into a medieval collapse. It's now home to a bunch of squabbling petty states, and in some cases these quasi-states are themselves home to even more squabbling sub-nations, or defacto independent factions fighting over Imperial resources, now cut-off from the rest of the world politically and economically.

And as well the main Chinese agent I'm using to explore the depth of the Russian depravity is probably close to a Sociopathic Soldier. He's something of a spec ops intel agent sent to originally coerce a ghost of a general to assist the Chinese, but he turns gets sent out by the general to kill the Mafia agents ruling Russia. The character in this is socially distant and doesn't really make an effort to connect with anyone, only really engaging in conversation to get information in the field. His clinical immunity to pain might also lead into another trope.

On the flip-side his partner is also divided from him to go on his own grand adventure. But I don't know what sort of character trope he might tippify. He's a soldier, but he's misplaced in his field being more suited for desk support work but the same ghost general sends him out with another guy to kidnap the president of the main Russian sub-state they're all fighting.