"I'm generally a very pragmatic person: that which works, works."
— Linus Torvalds
Here are the tropes which deal with characters doing whatever it takes to meet their goals, personal or otherwise.
See This Index Fights Dirty for the combat version. Compare Cynicism Tropes and A Dishonorable Index.
Tropes:
- Against the Grain: A character goes against what is expected of them
- The Anticipator
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership
- Attack Its Weak Point
- Attack the Injury: Attacking someone's injured part of their body.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: When a situation is so serious, The Hero must break their Heroic Vow.
- Better to Die than Be Killed
- Big Brother Instinct
- Break His Heart to Save Him
- Bribing Your Way to Victory
- Chaotic Good: A character alignment which involves a hero who breaks the law to do what's right.
- Citadel City
- Combat Pragmatist: A character uses whatever weapons, tactics, and strategies they can to fight someone.
- Cowboy Cop: A cop who doesn't play by the rules and does what they can to protect others.
- Crazy-Prepared: A character has a specific plan devised to help them with their current circumstances, no matter how unusual or unlikely those circumstances are.
- Crazy Survivalist
- Crippling the Competition: Sabotaging a competition so that the opponent can get an edge.
- Dark Shepherd: A pragmatic moral leader who uses threats of punishments to keep people in line.
- Death by Pragmatism
- Despotism Justifies the Means
- Dirty Business
- Dirty Coward: Doing what they can to escape danger, especially if it means leaving others behind.
- Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us
- Don't Create a Martyr
- Dystopia Justifies the Means
- Enlightened Self-Interest: Sometimes, people will do the right thing because it benefits them too.
- Fair for Its Day: The full reform would fail, so you try an intermediate step.
- Fair-Weather Foe: Being nice to people you don't like as a means of getting something out of them.
- Godzilla Threshold: The situation is so dire that almost any idea is a good idea.
- Good Is Not Nice
- Good Is Not Soft: Sometimes, good has to be brutally pragmatic.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics
- Idealist vs. Pragmatist: A person with ideals conflicts with someone who's willing to do whatever it takes to get results.
- I Did What I Had to Do: A statement of justifying your questionable acts.
- Improvisational Ingenuity
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies
- Just Like Robin Hood
- Kill the Host Body: Why bother removing a body snatcher if you can just kill them along with their disposable body?
- Kind Restraints: Restricting a character in order to prevent them from harming themselves or others.
- Knight, Knave, and Squire (the Knave)
- Knight Templar: Very pragmatic to the point of being entirely convinced that your acts are righteous.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Going the extra mile to protect their younger siblings.
- Knight Templar Parent: Going the extra mile to protect their children.
- Know When to Fold 'Em
- Loophole Abuse: Exploiting the specific phrasing of a rule in order to accomplish a task without violating it.
- Love Makes You Evil
- MacGyvering
- Mama Bear
- Might Makes Right
- Moral Pragmatist: Switches to the good alignment because it benefits their goal.
- Munchkin: A Player Archetype based on metagame-based pragmatism.
- Murder Is the Best Solution
- Necessarily Evil: When committing an terribly evil act because it needed to be done.
- The Needs of the Many: If you can't save everybody, save the greatest number of people.
- Neutral Evil: A character alignment which is about doing whatever it takes to accomplish an evil goal.
- No-Harm Requirement : For the sake of a mission or someone/something's well being, the character avoids actions that inflict much, if any harm.
- No Place for Me There: Showing remorse for pragmatism.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis
- "No Rules" Racing: A race without specified routes or rules, so characters can do whatever it takes to win.
- One-Track-Minded Hunger
- Papa Wolf
- Pragmatic Adaptation: An adaptation makes changes to the source material because making a completely faithful adaptation is either very difficult or outright impossible.
- Pragmatic Hero: A hero who will go the extreme length to save the planet.
- Pragmatic Pansexuality
- Pragmatic Villainy: When a villain doesn't cross a line because it would hurt their goals.
- Percussive Prevention: Attacking someone in order to protect them from getting hurt.
- Pure Is Not Good
- Rainbow Pimp Gear: Wearing a statistically practical combination of mismatched clothes in a video game.
- Realpolitik
- Restrained Resistance, Reckless Rebellion: depending on the work, a character may fall on the Restrained side because they recognise outright conflict isn't feasible and is biding their time, or may fall on the Reckless side because they realise they need to somehow galvanise opposition to The Empire.
- Salt the Earth: Destroying resources to prevent an enemy from rebuilding or making use of them.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: A character breaks the law in order to do good.
- Screw the Rules, They're Not Real!: A character abandons rules they have no external reason to follow.
- Shoot the Dog: Committing a morally reprehensible act because it needs to be done.
- Shoot the Hostage: Shooting through a hostage to neutralize a threat.
- The Social Darwinist
- Stealth Mentor
- Tactical Withdrawal: An organized retreat from a position, done for tactical gain rather than out of fear.
- To Be Lawful or Good: A hero must choose to abide by the law or break it to achieve a good end.
- Too Desperate to Be Picky
- Totalitarian Utilitarian
- The Unfettered: A character who will do anything to meet their goals.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway
- Victory by Endurance
- Vigilante Man: Taking the law by your own hands.
- Violence is the Only Option
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Doing questionable deeds to achieve a good end.
- The Extremist Was Right: It turns out doing so was the right thing to do after all.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: It turns out you were only doing this to achieve something for yourself.
- Utopia Justifies the Means
- Wishing for More Wishes
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?
