History Literature / WayOfTheTiger

* DreamTeam: Yaemon, Honoric, and Manse the Deathmage were a villainous version of this trope. Not only are they respectively the deadliest Scarlet Mantis master, the commander of the Legion of the Sword of Doom, and Orb's most powerful black magician, their plot for world domination would have brought even the gods of good to heel if Avenger hadn't stopped them.

** Honoric has this as well after surviving the first book. His god intervenes magically to keep him from dying from the Blood of Nil, and thereafter ordinary poisons (including your poison needles) are nothing to him.

** Honoric is saved in the nick of time by Vasch-Ro's interference, so that he may come back to haunt Avenger.

* TheCavalry: In ''Usurper'', if you were nicely social to a knight errant earlier in the book, he will suddenly appear when you most need help against a demon lord and his minions.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: As a spymistress and worshiper of a god famous for deception, Foxglove is definitely this. A lot of her favors have some hidden agenda attached. In the last book [[spoiler: practically everything she does will get you killed (or captured and THEN killed) if you accept her pleas for help.]]

* ConservationOfNinjitsu: The series observes this trope religiously. With one exception, Avenger never travels with other good ninjas and is thus a badass who can carry his own gamebook franchise. The exception proves the rule, as it happens in the prologue book, which tells the story of how Avenger completed his ninja training alongside several other prospective Way of the Tiger ninjas. All of these ninjas-in-training are plenty badass already, but none of them (including Avenger himself) are quite as awesome as Avenger in the main series. Meanwhile, the evil Scorpion ninjas are only tough when they're alone (on a special climactic mission to assassinate you, you've mowed through their ranks to face their Grandmaster one-on-one, etc).

* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: Old Ones are a race of squid-like, cave-dwelling evil humanoids of great power. You encounter one in an underground room of the royal palace in book 3 and later fights him to death in book 5.

** The inhabitants of the Rift and the Rift itself call to mind the Underdark from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', including a Lloth look-alike in the Black Widow, SpiderPeople serving her as high-ranked servants and Illithid-like Ancient Ones.
** The true nature of Sorcerak is a nod to Stormbringer.

** If you don't kill Honoric in book 5, you can encounter him in book 7 as a blind beggar, having being reduced to the shadow of his former self by his own egotistic sword Sorcerak.

* OrificeInvasion: In Book 6, an unlucky choice will result in a tiny spider known as Daughter of Nullaq going down your mouth and living in your head. Get two of them and is game over.

** Honoric has this as well, which is how he survived the first book. His god intervenes magically to keep him from dying.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: At the beginning of Book 2, you're told that you start the game without your dose of Blood of Nil, as you must use it to kill Honoric.
* GoldenEnding: If you stole Thaum's pouch from the second to last book, you can save Glaivas, Doré le Juine Thybault, Vespers and Eris (Taflur cannot be saved, he has a HeroicSacrifice at the beginning of the last book); and "get vengeance" on Tyutchev, Cassandra and Thaum.

* HeroesPreferSwords: Averted. Other than shuriken and poison needles, Avenger prefers to fight unarmed, using kicks, punches, and throws. In fact, in the third book, if he uses a magical dagger that can kill demons in one hit, you have to roll a [[LuckStat Fate roll]] because he's never trained with the weapon.

* GracefulLoser: After his defeat, with his last breath, Yaemon congratulates Avenger for his skills before dying.

* WorldsBestWarrior: Yaemon and Honoric are explicitly said to be this. Honoric is the greatest swordsman in the world, while Yaemon is the greatest martial artist. On top of this, Manse the Deathmage is best black magician in the world while Mandrake is the best assassin. The Forces of Evil just get the best of everything, it seems. No wonder the gods of evil get pissed when Avenger kills off their best toys. Avenger, himself is declared by the Grandmaster of the Island of Dawn to be the deadliest individual in the world after hearing of who you've killed.

* ChekhovsGun: In the first book if you spy on the 3 greatest champions of evil in the world, you'll see some hard feelings between Honoric and Manse the Deathmage. Manse is the world's best wizard and casts a spell at Honoric, only to find out -- as noted above -- that Honoric's magical sword instantly [[AntiMagic dispels any magic being cast]]. This becomes important when you decide the order of who to assassinate.

** In the last book, you can try to toss some Blood of Nil into the eyes of the Black Widow. All you get is a wound and her attention.

* GracefulLoser: After his defeat, with his last breath, [[spoiler:Yaemon]] congratulates Avenger for his skills before dying.

* TheQuisling: The Priesthood of Nemesis is nominally loyal to the Overlord. This doesn't stop them from try to welcome invaders from the Rift or usurpers of his throne.

* TheUnderworld: The Bowels of Orb, a seemingly endless underground network filled with evil beings of every sort. Its entrance is inconveniently close to civilized lands, too.

* AnimalMotifs: Kwon and his cult has the tiger, Nemesis has the Hawk and the followers of Nullaq have both spiders and octopoids.

* AllmightyBystander: Solstice always praise the high powers of Time, but never once he'll lift a finger to help you, no matter the cause.

* {{Expy}}: The inhabitants of the Rift and the Rift itself call to mind the Underdark from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', including a Lloth look-alike in the Black Widow, SpiderPeople serving her as high-ranked servants and Illithid-like Ancient Ones.

* FemmeFatale: Foxglove.

* ClimaxBoss: The Grandmaster of Shadows is the strongest enemy of Book 4 and fought in an intese, epic duel similar to the battle against Yaemon, but he's only the midway point of the game.

* NotTooBi: In the reprint, it is stated that Foxglove's CharmPerson can be used on men and women alike. Yet, during Book 6 and 7, she always tries her skill on men, never once trying to captivate Cassandra.

* SpidersAreScary: The followers of the evil goddess Nullaq have an arachnid motif and attire, rule over venomous animals, can conjure web and feed their victims to giant spiders.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The world's mightiest wizards and warriors, primordial beastgods, giants, ifrit, an EldritchAbomination or two, demigods and demons -- all have died under the fists and feet of Avenger.

* {{Unwinnable}}: If you manage to capture Cassandra at the beginning of Book 6, do not take her magic sword away, or you will die at the end of the book. (This was avoidable in the original, it is not in the reprint.)

* KatanasAreJustBetter: Averted. In fact, Katanas are almost never mentioned; the only time being in the prequel by {{Ronin}} and Samurai. The evil ninja of the Way of the Scorpion have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjat%C5%8D Ninjato Swords]], but they aren't special (other than how cool you look when you inevitably disarm them, that is).

* AssassinOutclassin: This trope is zig-zagged when Avenger gets into it with Mandrake, the Guildmaster of the Assassins and greatest killer in Orb. When they first meet in book 2, it is Avenger who is so badly outclassed that (if he didn't take the right skills) he might need literal divine intervention to survive Mandrake's attention, and the latter escapes no matter what. But when Mandrake returns in book 4, it's possible for Avenger to be so on top of things that he not only sees right through Mandrake's expert disguise, but ''[[OneHitKO kills him with an easy die roll]]''.

* HandicappedBadass: Avenger himself. He loses an eye in a later book but gets better via magical implant. While he's one-eyed, though, he takes a significant hit to his combat abilities.

** As a ninja, Avenger specializes in these, as he is often able to instakill enemies with his razor garrote, shuriken, poison needles, or simply a well-timed (and, if necessary, Inner Force-boosted) strike or throw. If Avenger learns Yubi-jutsu (Nerve-striking), his opportunities for one-hit kills increase even more.

* WorldsBestWarrior: Yaemon and Honoric are explicitly said to be this. Honoric is the greatest swordsman in the world, while Yaemon is the greatest martial artist. On top of this, Manse the Deathmage is best black magician in the world while Mandrake is the best assassin. The Forces of Evil just get the best of everything, it seems. No wonder the gods of evil get pissed when Avenger kills off their best toys.

* HoneyTrap: The FemmeFatale Foxglove has the ability to entrance men, she can make it semi-permanent if she manages to kiss them.

* OneManArmy: In the first book, you can get the opportunity to spy on Honoric training. Using only a normal sword, Honoric has several soldiers attack him at once. Without much effort, he disarms three of them and drives the rest back, and Avenger can discern that Honoric could have killed them all at will. [[CherryTapping And this is without his evil artifact sword, Sorcerak, unsheathed!]]

* PressXToNotDie: The fights between you and Yaemon, then in a later book Honoric, is kinda like this. No dice rolls, instead you choose which attacks you wish to use against them. If you picked a good choice, then the enemy takes a set amount of damage that can be doubled by using Inner Force. Otherwise you take a set amount of damage and in some cases can wind up getting crippled in the fight. This can lead to a dissonance in play, where you can come out scoring a FlawlessVictory against epic villains like Yaemon and wind up getting carved by an orc mook.

* PoisonIsEvil: Averted, as Kwon (and by extension Avenger) has no problem with this method of killing enemies. Specifically, Avenger has poisoned needles with Spiderfish Toxin, and the much rarer BlackBlood of Nil.

* DespairEventHorizon: In the final book, you can once again encounter Honoric, who has clearly passed this point due to being blinded and abandoned by his magic sword after you defeated his army in book 5. Despite all the shit the two of you have done to each other by this point, Honoric is content to let you kill him (if you choose).

Interestingly, this series was ''not'' the first appearance of Orb. The setting was previously used in the 11[[superscript:th]] ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' book, ''Literature/TalismanOfDeath''. ''Way of the Tiger'' was written by the same authors as ''Talisman Of Death'', and several characters from that book return for this series.

The ''Way of the Tiger'' is a series of {{Gamebooks}} written by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson, set on the fantasy world of Orb. The player takes the role of a {{Ninja}} named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Avenger]], who seeks [[YouKilledMyFather revenge]] against the killer of his [[MentorOccupationalHazard mentor and father-figure]], a quest that ends up drawing him into larger events on his world's stage.

The ''Way of the Tiger'' is a series of {{Gamebooks}} written by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson set on the fantasy world of Orb. Orb was the setting of the 11[[superscript:th]] ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' book, ''Literature/TalismanOfDeath''; written by the same authors and having many of the same characters. The series is about a {{Ninja}} named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Avenger]]; who is getting [[YouKilledMyFather revenge]] against the killer of his [[MentorOccupationalHazard mentor and father-figure]]. Naturally, this leads to much larger events.

The series was originally six books long and ended in a very large {{cliffhanger}} where Avenger fell into the bottom level of [[TheUnderworld The Bowels of Orb]]. However, a Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign was recently [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1615043334/the-way-of-the-tiger-gamebooks-new-collectors-edit successful]], and work is being done to make hardcover versions of the books, as well as a prequel and a finale. At this time, the prequel and the six books have been [[http://megara-entertainment.com/ done]], and the finale was written in November 2014.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Avenger may find to his cost that a demon can survive an inner force powered punch directly to the face.

* ArrogantKungFuGuy: The ninja in ''Assassin!''.

* AssassinOutclassin: This trope is zig-zagged when Avenger gets into it with Mandrake, the Guildmaster of the Assassins and greatest killer in Orb. When they first meet in book 2, it is Avenger who is so badly outclassed that (if he didn't take the right skills) he might need literal divine intervention to survive Mandrake's attention, and the latter escapes no matter what. But when Mandrake returns in book 4, it's possible for Avenger to be so on top of things that he not only sees right through Mandrake's expert disguise, but ''[[OneHitKO kills him with one hit]]''.

* {{Wutai}}: The [[HiddenElfVillage hidden bases of the Tiger and Scorpion Ninjas]] as well as the Isle of Plenty. But for the most part, the setting is roughly traditional HeroicFantasy.

* {{Ninja}}: Good-aligned ninjas practice the Way of the Tiger and follow the god Kwon; evil ninjas practice the Way of the Scorpion and follow Nemesis, the Supreme Principle of Evil. And yes, the ConservationOfNinjitsu ''is'' in play here -- Avenger never travels with other good ninjas and is thus a badass who can carry his own gamebook series, while the evil Scorpion ninjas are only tough when they're alone (on a special climactic mission to assassinate you, you've mowed through them to face their Grandmaster one-on-one, etc).

* {{Ninja}}: Good-aligned ninjas practice the Way of the Tiger and follow the god Kwon; evil ninjas practice the Way of the Scorpion and follow Nemesis, the Supreme Principle of Evil. And yes, the ConservationOfNinjitsu ''is'' in play here -- Avenger never travels with other good ninjas and is thus a badass who can carry his own gamebook series, while the evil Scorpion ninjas are only tough when they're alone (on a special climactic mission to kill you, you've mowed through them to face their Grandmaster one-on-one, etc).

** As a ninja, Avenger specializes in these, and he is often able to instakill enemies with his razor garrote, shuriken, poison needles, or simply a well-timed (and, if necessary, Inner Force-boosted) strike or throw. If Avenger learns Yubi-jutsu (Nerve-striking), his opportunities for one-hit kills increase even more.