Events in tabletop games that are not possible. Only add examples that fit the definition.
- Exalted:
- Killing the Primordials was so damn impossible that it created the Neverborn and The Underworld as a result.
- Merela strangled one of them to death with her bare hands. Primordials don't need to breathe.
- Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo wants to master Sidereal martial arts. She knows this is supposed to be impossible, canon says it's impossible and the default assumption is that she will fail. On the other hand, Exalted are known for doing the impossible.
- Two subversions: All Abyssal Exalted know they can be redeemed, just not how (GMs are encouraged to make it up and make it hard). Also, it is impossible to reach Malfeas (Hell...ish) in less than 5 days. There is a charm allowing a Solar to punch somebody straight through the sky and immediately into Malfeas...where the person lies in stasis for the five days it takes to get to Malfeas, because time itself needs five days to catch up.
- This is how Solars Exalt. A mortal realizes a task is impossible, then does it anyway. Other Exalted have elements of this in their own Exaltations (Lunars have to reach the Despair Event Horizon and keep going anyway), but Solars are the most explicit.
- An example similar to the Primordials occurs in Return of the Scarlet Empress. The book explicitly states that The Unconquered Sun cannot be killed, then immediately goes into detail about how such a thing might happen (including through the actions of a group of Villain Protagonist player characters) and what the repercussions would be.
- It's stated in the Alchemicals book that the Exalted can't create Alchemicals - that's a right reserved for specially-chosen mortals. It then mentions that "mere impossibility has never stopped the Exalted."
- Ryld Argith of Forgotten Realms has a (otherwise normal) Absurdly Sharp Blade that can cut through enchantments!
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Due to missing out on the mass Mind Rape inflicted by the Nightbringer on the galaxy at large, the Orks alone are a sentient race entirely free from the fear of their own mortality. They do not fear death at all, and indeed rush heedlessly towards it and love every second, but they still fear Commissar Yarrick!
- The 6th edition Chaos Space Marine codex mentions that Warp Talons have blades so sharp that they can slice the very fabric of reality itself.
- In the RPG adaptation, Dark Heresy, permanently expending a Fate Point will allow your character to survive anything — any one attack or situation that could prove fatal, doesn't (although just barely). For instance, a character may spend a point to downgrade a lethal lascannon shot to "merely" dealing tons of damage and knocking them out. The rulebook mentions that this can apply to any situation where one might die, no matter how outlandish, and conversationally suggests that it might require a bit of odd justification to avoid dying on a ship that explodes while in Warp transit.
- In another RPG adaptation, Rogue Trader, There is a note from an explorer who landed on a death world and had crew eaten by a rock. Not a creature: a plain, unassuming rock.
- So we all know the Warp, right? Realm of the gods, heaven and hell combined if heaven was an even worse hell. Hyperspace Is Scary personified. The sum total of every emotion, thought and soul of every living being that has ever existed. The Warp, despite being most of the reason this is a Crapsack World, is a vital part of nearly every sentient species in the galaxy. None of the empires could have existed without it. And then, the Tyranids come along, an alien hive whose subconscious buzzing is so loud that it drowns out the Warp!
- Munchkin:
- Two of the cards that can be played to make combat difficult are Last of Its Race and And Its Clone. They can both be played on the same monster. note
- "Cheat with Both Hands" (the seventh expansion for the main game) is this trope in card game form. Along with the titular card (which lets you cheat for two items), there are cards which provide extra or even unlimited Races and Classes.
- The card called "Cheat" allows you to disregard all restrictions when attached to an item card. Depending on how loosely your group interprets the rules, this may lead to physically impossible things (such as wielding more weapons than you have hands).
- Mutants & Masterminds: The Immunity power allows a character to No-Sell anything if they have enough points. You can even No-Sell the DM If the DM has granted the player a hero point. Considering The DM is always right this breaks internal logic in a weird kind of way.
- The Back to the Future edition of Chrononauts has one Ripplepoint early on that gets changed by future events. The way it's supposed to work is the other way around.
- Scion: Many, many years ago, Odin managed to kill Ymir. Odin killed the very concept of coldness. The universe freaked out so hard it caused the great flood in a desperate attempt to do a reset on that fatal error.
- Magic: The Gathering:
- Permanents with the ability "Indestructible" should be indestructible. For the most part this is true, as lethal damage and spells or effects that say "destroy" don't work, but there are still several ways to get rid of them anyway. These include reducing their toughness to zero so they self-destruct, or exiling them, or returning them to the hand or library.
- Played for Laughs repeatedly in the comedic Un-sets. AWOL
, after errata, sends a creature first to the exile zone, then removes it from the game (a mechanic that was replaced by the exile zone), and then removes it from that to the "absolutely-removed-from-the-freaking-game-forever" zone. Rocket-Powered Turbo Slug goes past the "haste" ability (which allows a creature to attack on the turn it's cast) into "super haste", allowing it to attack before it's cast...which eventually inspired some actual cards that used a slightly more balanced take on this mechanic. - Fblthp's ability to get lost is so out of control that at one point he managed to find his way to the Un-set multiverse. Even planeswalkers are usually stuck within the same multiverse they started with.
- This is the point of the "Cosmic" enhancement in GURPS. It's a general-purpose enhancement that allows powers to ignore limits that would otherwise be absolute. For example, Cosmic Damage Reduction might be able to ignore armor divisors.
- In Dungeons & Dragons:
- Planescape has egarus, a virulent fungus from the Abyss that infected a Prime world and ran rampant. The natives couldn't destroy it, but kicked it into the Quasiplane of Vacuum... where it adapted to use nothingness as a food source.
- The 3rd-Edition Epic Level Handbook lets players use mundane skills in impossible ways. A character can train to wiggle through a completely impenetrable Wall of Force, read someone's mind by studying their face, stand on clouds, and so on. These are described as extraordinary abilities, meaning no supernatural power is involved — the character is just that good.
- The Lich-God Vecna manages to pull of a two-in-one in the classic module series the Vecna Trilogy. He starts out trapped in Ravenloft, an Ironic Hell where mysterious Powers That Be keep the most evil creatures in the multiverse imprisoned for all eternity, suffering endless torment for their vile deeds. The Dark Powers keep a careful vigil, and no one can leave without their permission. Vecna, already a demigod when he was imprisoned, managed to lure another demigod, Iuz, into entering Ravenloft, then absorbed his essence to ascend to godhood. As a god, he was powerful enough to defy the Dark Powers and rip his way out by force. He proceeded to use the momentum of his escape to launch himself straight into Sigil, the center of the multiverse ruled over by a Domain Holder who has forbidden any god entrance under pain of oblivion. While he was ultimately kicked out by a party of adventurers, he got to keep his godhood, and accomplishing two impossible things in one day is nothing to sneeze at.
