Role-Playing Game

"For when I want all the freedom of having a story revolve around my choices without being confined by the choices of either going to work or starving."

— Kyle Martin

This article refers chiefly to video games. See Tabletop RPG for old-fashioned pen and paper games.

Role-Playing Games (RPGs for short) are a genre of Video Games in which the player controls a character or party of characters in a statistically abstracted way. Most are based around one or more quests, items, stats, Character Customization, and experience points, as characters grow in power over time. While RPGs are a diverse genre, they are all defined by the core reason why people play them, namely, the desire for a sense of achievement that does not (usually) require an intense commitment to mastering them. To this end, most RPGs give you easy checklists to tick off (like side quests) at your leisure and clear success metrics and rewards (like leveling up), and also let you tune out and come back at any time. Another way a lot of RPGs engage players is by satisfying their desire to watch their characters grow as the game progresses (both in power and as people).

RPGs have their origin in pen-and-paper systems which traditionally have dice-based combat and character generation, descended from a combination of tabletop War Gaming (such as Chess and Go) and collaborative theater. Dungeons & Dragons was the first such system to be sold, followed by other early systems such as Empire of the Petal Throne, The Fantasy Trip, Space Opera RPG Traveller and Tunnels & Trolls. These type of role-playing games are now known as Tabletop RPGs.

The early role-playing video games like dnd and pedit5 focused mostly on simulating the combat aspects of tabletop games, with other aspects following after. Role-playing video games can be categorized in a number of ways, which are elaborated below:

It is debatable whether any actual "Role Playing" is involved in many "role-playing video games". See also Role-Playing Game Terms, How to Play a Console RPG, and PC vs. Console.

For the trope about assuming roles in order to practice something, see Comic Role Play.

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Types of Role Playing Games:

• Western RPG (WRPG): Often focus on greater Character Customization and free-roaming exploration. Player Characters tend not to have a predefined personality, allowing the players to determine their characterization via interactive dialogue. Western RPGs traditionally bore a resemblance to turn-based Tabletop RPGs, with many also having tactical War Gaming elements, but many modern examples use real-time combat, while deemphasizing tactical control of the Player Party, which is often delegated to the AI.

• Eastern RPG (ERPG or sometimes "Light RPG"): Often focus on cinematic narratives and memorable characters, usually with a more linear gameplay and less direct customization than Western RPGs. A good point of distinction is that WRPGs typically have some Character Customization, whereas an ERPG will more likely have a preset Player Character, who might have some customization applied to things like their abilities and equipment/clothing but their personality and physical appearance will always be the same. Eastern RPGs typically have a similar feel to visual novels, feature films or anime. Until recently, most such games came from Japan, and are thus nicknamed JRPGs. Eastern RPGs tend to use a turn-based or combatant cooldown system where the player individually inputs actions for every character in the team each turn. Examples of this genre are the Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Pokémon franchises.

• Dungeon Crawler: Focus on fighting, looting, and grinding, with little interest in the story or world exploration. The earliest Western RPGs fell into this pattern, codified by Wizardry and the earlier Ultima. It is conceptually related to Rogue and the genre it spawned (see below). This sub-genre had gone out of favor during The '90s, and only the Diablo series and its many clones still carry its tradition.

• Action RPG (ARPG): Is an amorphous collection of gameplay styles united mainly by having real time combat whilst still remaining an RPG (as opposed to an Action Game with RPG Elements, though the distinction is rarely easy). In the Eastern RPG context, ARPG is a distinct sub-genre, defined by its opposition to turn-based and menu-based combat of traditional ERPGs, while in the Western tradition, it is more of a "genre modifier" (see Video Game Genres), as real time combat can be introduced into any of its three above-named flavors. Most common categories of Western ARPG are Diablo clones, FPS/RPG hybrids in the vein of Deus Ex, and Hack and Slash/RPG hybrids like Dark Souls.

• Souls-like RPG: A very specific sub-genre that focus heavily on managing stamina and dodging, as well as observing enemy reactions to avoid incredibly hard hitting attacks. As the name suggests, the Dark Souls franchise popularized the genre.

• Tactical RPG (TRPGs): Related to Eastern RPGs but with a focus on moving around a gridlike system, often with abilities that take advantage of this to strike multiple enemies at the same time or to fight from a distance. There are also similiarites to Western RPGs with wargaming-like tactical combat. What separates the Tactical RPG subgenre from other RPGs is that they tend to greatly resemble Strategy Games, but with RPG Elements. On TV Tropes, this type of game is thus lumped in with Turn-Based Strategy, as the two genres are very close. More recent examples of Eastern Tactical RPGs, however, have also incorporated Real-Time Strategy elements. (Tactical RPGs, however, can usually be distinguished easily from strategy games, as Real-Time Strategy and Turn-Based Strategy games tend to be much more open ended, and about conquering territory, whereas Tactical RPGs usually have an overarching plot typical to an Eastern RPG.)

• Strategy RPG: Closely resembles Real-Time Strategy or Tabletop RPGs. The distinction separates games that are on a grid system with standard Eastern RPG characters (with abilities, more attack options, and so on) and games that are on a grid system but characters are more properly units (they typically have only base attacks, may not have equipment, and so on). A good comparison would be Final Fantasy Tactics to the Fire Emblem series. The former is a "Tactical RPG" and the latter a "Strategy RPG". ^note On this wiki they're grouped together under Strategy RPG out of convenience. Also of note is that though listed as a subdivision, Strategy RPGs were a viable genre before TRPGs.

• Sandbox RPG: Codified by the aforementioned Ultima series from the fourth installment onwards. This subgenre is all about free-roaming exploration, character customization, and environment interactivity. Its incumbent king is The Elder Scrolls series, though the growing number of Wide-Open Sandbox games with RPG Elements threatens to erase the distinction between the two categories (old-school purists would claim that the distinction between the two would be that the Sandbox RPG focuses on simulating a world and allowing the player character to systemically interact with it, as opposed to simply delivering content, although by this definition the genre is arguably already extinct given the evolution of its tent-pole franchises, its closest living relatives being the more tightly-focused Immersive Sim).

• Narrative RPG: The youngest sub-genre codified in the late '90s by Planescape: Torment and the Baldur's Gate series, which put the spotlight on their storytelling aspects. These games usually have a compelling character cast and an engaging storyline and, in this, are often compared to contemporaneous Eastern RPGs, though on the whole they still provide broader choices (both in gameplay and story) than their Eastern counterparts. More recent examples of this category include Mass Effect, The Witcher, and Dragon Age series.

• Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG): Can be any of the above genres, though they gravitate around a fusion of Action and Western RPGs (as the Trope Maker Ultima Online arose out of a Western RPG series). They also have their own distinct elements, mainly focusing around large boss battles known as "raids" and Player Versus Player interactions, as well as more tedious grinding such as fetching 20 Bear Asses.

• Play-by-Post Games: Commonly referred to as an RP or a forum roleplay, they predate both computers and tabletop role-playing games. They rely on the imaginations of the players as, quite simply, you're taking an online bulletin board and you're running an RPG on it.

• Roguelike: Their name comes from the early 1980s ASCII graphics game Rogue. They are defined by the combination of randomly generated worlds and Permadeath, meaning that every time time your character dies you must start over in a different set of levels. The focus also tends to be much more on complex Nintendo Hard gameplay than on story with the player relegated to practical decisions but having no decisions pertaining to the inner life of the protagonist(s).

• Mascot RPG: The Role-Playing Game equivalent to the Mascot Fighter and Mascot Racer, this genre can encompass any of the above as long as it features pre-established characters or mascots either in a Massive Multiplayer Crossover (like Super Robot Wars) or a spin-off of a video game franchise outside of the genre (like Super Mario RPG).

Related Genres:

• Dating Sims
• Farm Life Sims
• Text Adventure/Gamebooks
• LARP
• Multi-User Dungeon (MUD)
  • MUSH or Multi User Shared Hallucination
  • MUCK: A Multi-User Text-Oriented Game that emphasizes role-playing and player intervention.
• Tabletop RPGs (Pen & Paper RPGs)
• Turn-Based Tactics

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Tropes that are commonly found in Computer Role Playing Games:

Categories:

• Levels and Experience Tropes

• Actually Four Mooks
  An enemy appears as a single sprite, but turns out to be a whole party of baddies in actual combat.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts
  The farther you get in a game, the more expensive stuff will be.
• An Adventurer Is You
  A description of the class-based systems common to many Role Playing Games.
• Alliance Meter
  Succeeding in making friends or enemies of NPC factions.
• All in a Row
  The party follows behind the leader like a lot of little ducklings.
• All Swords Are the Same
  All weapons of a specific type look and play exactly the same.
• Arbitrary Gun Power
  Video game guns don't kill instantly. They do HP damage.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit
  Arbitrary requirement that stops you from having too many characters in a party or unit.
  • Lazy Backup
    If you're only allowed to take three out of eighteen party members into battle, you get a Game Over if those three are killed, even if the other characters are nearby and could logically step in to finish the job.
• Armor and Magic Don't Mix
  Mage characters don't wear armor.
• Awesome, but Temporary
  That weapon that looks like an Disc-One Nuke? You lose it by the next cutscene.
• Bad Luck Mitigation Mechanic
  That Rare Random Drop just won't drop? The game rewards your persistence by overriding the Random Number God.
• Background Music Override
  Let's keep the Awesome Music going through this sequence's battles instead of the Battle Theme Music.
• Bag of Holding
  An object capable of holding other objects in hammerspace.
• Bag of Sharing
  There are many characters but they share one inventory.
• Bag of Spilling
  Said sharing most likely won't happen between sequels.
• Battle Theme Music
  Feel those awesome riffs, man!
• Beef Gate
  The game prevents you from going to places out of order by putting very tough enemies in the way.
• Better Off Sold
  Items that are usually sold by players because they're outclassed by items players already have access to.
• Betting Mini-Game
  Let's pause our quest to play craps!
• Black and White Magic
  Hmm, do I get to roast the bad guys or heal the good guys?
  • Black Mage
    Prefers his bad guys extra crispy.
  • White Mage
    Keeps the good guys from becoming extra crispy; may also stock a Holy Hand Grenade for emergencies.
• Boss-Altering Consequence
  Some boss battles can be uniquely affected by the choices or the sidequests completed by the player.
• But Thou Must!
  A dialogue tree where your choices are irrelevant, because the game will not proceed until you pick the 'intended' option (or ignore your decision altogether).
• Carrying the Weakness
  Enemies dropping items they're weak to.
• Character Alignment
  Your character's morality, usually on the good vs. evil and/or lawful vs. chaotic scales.
  • Unconventional Alignment
    Your character's morality, not on the above scales.
• Character Level
  You level up as you gain Experience Points.
• Class Change Level Reset
  Your level drops back to one when you swap jobs/classes.
• Combatant Cooldown System
  A.k.a. Active Time Battle. A combat system where how soon combatants can act again is determined by their Speed stat and by the complexity of their respective previous actions.
• Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth
  You can either fight, talk, or sneak your way to victory.
• Combination Attack
  A special attack that occurs when two or more characters use certain attacks at the same time or in rapid succession.
• Common Tactical Gameplay Elements
  Rules that add a tactical dimension to RPG combat.
• Convenient Questing
  Your next destination will be the closest area that you haven't been able to get to before.
• Critical Encumbrance Failure
  You're perfectly fine with 87 pounds of weight, but add one more item and you'll collapse in a heap.
• Critical Hit
  An attack randomly does extra (often double) damage.
  • Critical Hit Class
    A class or character's strategy is based on getting critical hits.
• Crutch Character
  A party member strong in the early game who falls behind the power curve (or gets killed off) once your other characters catch up.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff
  A negative status ailment which in some way increases the damage its subject takes.
• Damage Over Time
  A unit receives a negative status that inflicts a small amount of damage at regular intervals.
• Defend Command
  A command that lets you take less damage, but you don't get to do anything else in the meantime.
• Diminishing Returns for Balance
  As you increase your stats, each increase has less effect, forcing you to balance your stats more.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon
  A dungeon that pretends to be the last one in the game, but is nowhere near it.
  • Disc-One Final Boss
    Likely takes up residence here.
• Disc-One Nuke
  An exploit where a powerful item or technique is achieved early on in the game.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?
  You've saved the world, but durnit, you're not too good to deliver my apples to the baker!
• Dungeon Maintenance
  Game mechanics may be a given to the players, but they're a lot of work for the locals.
• Easing into the Adventure
  Before you start the adventure properly, you'll be shown cavorting around your tiny home town.
• An Economy Is You
  All stores in a city are centered around selling things you in particular will need.
• Elemental Crafting
  The most important aspect of a piece of armor? What material it's made from!
• Equipment-Based Progression
  Occasionally an RPG will make characters more powerful by having them find better equipment, instead of leveling up with experience points (or by having them level up their equipment).
• Equipment Spoiler
  Finding an unusable piece of equipment means that someone able to use it will join the party at some point.
• Evolving Attack
  Your attacks and skills can level up on their own, if you use them enough.
• Experience Points
  You get them by killing enemies (or possibly completing other tasks or objectives), and when you get enough your Character Level or abilities increase.
  • Experience Booster
    You get more Experience Points when this is in effect.
  • Experience Penalty
    You get less Experience Points when this is in effect.
  • Money Is Experience Points
    In-game money can be used in place of or in addition to experience points to level up characters.
  • Tech Points
    Like Experience Points, but they're only good for unlocking abilities.
• Exponential Potential
  As you level up, you get so many spells that gameplay starts getting confusing.
• Fairy Battle
  A friendly monster disguised as a random encounter that does something other than attack your party.
• Fake Longevity
  Things that pad out a game's length so they can brag about having "100 hours of gameplay!"
• Fake Ultimate Mook
  A massive, terrifying monster that is surprisingly easy to defeat.
• Fantasy Character Classes
  The most common character classes in a medieval fantasy setting.
• Fetch Quest
  A subquest unimportant to the actual plot which must be completed to continue.
  • Broken Bridge
    Any arbitrary obstacle that blocks your progress until you finish a Fetch Quest or something.
• Fight Woosh
  Graphic effect that happens when you go into a Random Encounter.
• Final Dungeon Preview
  The player pays an early visit to what will be the game's final dungeon.
• First Town
  The place you start the adventure from. Usually the hero's hometown.
• Follow the Plotted Line
  You somehow always end up where the plot says you should be, no matter how little sense it makes that you should be there.
• Game System
  • Point Build System
  • Character Class System
    • Class and Level System
    • Common Character Classes
    • Fighter, Mage, Thief
• Gaming Stat Tropes
  The numbers behind the game.
• Gladiator Subquest
  At some point, you will have to fight in an arena in gladiatorial combat. Either as part of the main quest or as a subquest.
• Get on the Boat
  In an RPG, at some point you will have to cross the ocean to reach another continent.
• Global Airship
  A mode of transport that lets you reach any part of the world map easily.
• Good Morning, Crono
  The main character starts the game in bed, as his mother or friend wakes him up.
• Go Wait Outside
  You are asked to wait outside while something is finished; even if you come back in immediately, it's already done.
• Guest-Star Party Member
  Someone who joins your party temporarily as a "guest".
• Guns Are Worthless
  In RPG systems, guns are generally weaker than swords.
• Hard-Coded Hostility
  A faction which cannot be negotiated with and is perpetually at war with every other faction.
• Healer Signs On Early
  One of your first party members will bring healing abilities with them.
• Healing Potion
  An item that restores health.
• Health/Damage Asymmetry
  Playable characters have low health, high damage output, while monsters have high health, low damage output.
• Heavy Equipment Class
  A class or character that stands out due to their proficiency with heavy weapons and/or armour.
• Heroes Prefer Swords
  In an RPG, the main character always uses a sword.
• Hit Points
  A number attributed to your health that indicates how badly injured you are.
• A Homeowner Is You
  You get to buy a house, basically just because.
• Hub City
  The biggest city in the game, the center of everything.
• Hub Level
  Locations in an RPG that are usually safe from enemies and are used for checking mail, topping off supplies, and talking with companions.
• Hub Under Attack
  A Hub Level is attacked as part of the storyline.
• Impossible Item Drop
  Enemies drop weapons that they could not plausibly have.
• Improbable Power Discrepancy
  Enemies are given statistics based on how powerful you are expected to be at that point, not how strong that enemy would be based on common sense.
• Inevitable Tournament
  If there is a fighting tournament held somewhere in the game, chances are 99% that you will compete in it.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests
  Where did they come from? Who put them there? Why does nobody else but you ever open them?
• Infinity +1 Sword
  The absolute most awesome weapon EVER! You must collect twenty thousand bear asses first.
• Infinity -1 Sword
  Not quite as good as the Infinity +1 Sword, but it requires significantly fewer Bear Asses to acquire.
• Informed Equipment
  Characters' equipment won't show up visually on their character model; they may be wearing Diamond Armor, but it looks like the same old Stripperiffic costume to me...
• Inn Security
  Whenever the plot requires a stay at the inn, you will always wake up in the middle of the night for a plot event.
• Irrelevant Sidequest
  Everyone seems to constantly ask you to do sidequests that have absolutely nothing to do with your main objective.
• Item Crafting
  Creating your own items and equipment out of handy-dandy ingredients.
  • Just Add Water
    Items can generally be created by just sticking two or three things together and hitting "MIX".
• Job System
  Eastern RPG system whereby classes have distinct equipment and abilities but can be changed at any time.
• Joined Your Party
  You now have 18 party members! Good luck figuring out which ones to use.
• Karl Marx Hates Your Guts
  Where it's impossible to make money because everything always costs the same, so you can never sell at a profit.
• Kleptomaniac Hero
  Looting is a very important aspect of RPG. Everything that's not nailed down is yours to take.
• Last Disc Magic
  In Eastern RPGs, although magic is usually less efficient than melee attacks, a spell or set of spells later in the game will be much better than the rest.
• Law of Cartographical Elegance
  Land masses will never extend across the edge of the (usually square) world map.
• Leaked Experience
  Characters not in the active party will get some percentage of the experience that the active party gets.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!
  At some point your party will be split up into two or more independent groups.
• Level Grinding
  You gain statistics and abilities by killing monsters over and over again.
• Level Scaling
  As you level up, so do your enemies.
• Level-Up at Intimacy 5
  As you build an emotional (or sexual) relationship with an in-game NPC, your character gets physically stronger or gains skills because of it.
  • More Friends, More Benefits
    Games where the best result can be gotten by seducing or wooing every single person who seems even remotely interested in you.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards
  Melee classes are better at lower levels, while wizards are better at higher ones.
• Low-Level Advantage
  Don't level up as much as possible for optimal advantage.
• Mana Potion
  An item that restores spellcasting ability.
• Manual Leader, A.I. Party
  The player controls one character and the rest of the Player Party are controlled by the game's AI.
• Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest
  Annoying quest to kill X number of a specific enemy, frequently randomly encountered enemies.
• Match Maker Quest
  A Quest where the player helps an NPC win over their true love.
• Mechanically Unusual Class
  A character class whose mechanics are unusual in comparison to its fellow classes.
• Metal Slime
  A monster that appears and runs away very quickly, is hard to kill, but gives very good reward if you do kill it.
• The Minion Master
  A player character whose role is to create many, many NPC minions.
• Modern Day/Sci-Fi RPG Class Equivalents
  A collection of classes or class-equivalents for non-fantasy RPG-settings.
• Money Spider
  Even monsters need to carry money. (What do they spend it on?)
• Monster Allies
  Where monsters fight alongside the party instead of against it.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members
  Certain characters will refuse to join you if other characters are already in the party, or will leave when someone else joins. Sometimes controlled by the plot, but other times it's just that the two simply can't be in the party together.
• Neglected Sidequest Consequence
  Ignoring optional missions makes the story sadder or makes gameplay harder.
• News Travels Fast
  As soon as something important happens in the plot, everyone in the world will know about it.
• Nintendo Hard
  Want to defeat that Superboss? Get ready for a long and brutally hard battle.
• No Experience Points for Medic
  Only killing nets a character rewards, healing and defending don't.
• No Hero Discount
  Even though you're out there saving the world and their lives, shopkeepers will still charge you full price.
• Nominal Importance
  Only people that are relevant to the plot or a sidequest will be blessed with names. Everyone else will be nameless or be referred to with generic or descriptive titles.
• Nonstandard Skill Learning
  Certain skills/perks cannot be acquired by regular means within the game system—only by clearing certain story events.
• Noob Cave
  Because even god-slaying heroes need to start somewhere. May include a Rat Stomp and probably a Warm-Up Boss
• No Stat Atrophy
  Once you raise a stat, it will never go down again.
• Now, Where Was I Going Again?
  OK, I saved my game three months ago and I'm picking the game up again... so where was I supposed to go?
• NPC Roadblock
  When NPCs stand in your way and prevent you from getting where you need to go.
• One-Man Party
  An RPG where one character can easily become far stronger than the rest of his party.
• One Size Fits All
  Clothing and armour can be worn by anyone, regardless of its source or the wearer's size or gender.
• One Stat to Rule Them All
  Put as many skill points into this stat as you can, because it's much more helpful than any of the others.
• Only Shop in Town
  When a town you pass through only has one shop for buying and selling weapons and armour.
• Opening the Sandbox
  The point in a game where you're finally able to do all the sidequests, go anywhere on the map, and so on.
• Optional Boss
  An additional boss that's not required to finish the game.
  • Superboss
    An optional boss that is significantly harder than other bosses in the game, including the Final Boss.
• Optional Party Member
  Someone who may not join your party, if you don't fulfil the requirements to get them.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic
  Certain enemies are weak to tactics that are bizarre or otherwise not intuitive at first glance.
• Overly Long Fighting Animation
  An animation attack in which the Rule of Cool is applied in excess, making it just too long.
• Pamphlet Shelf
  Whenever you see a bookshelf, there will never be more than one book (and often one line) that you can read.
• Parabolic Power Curve
  A situation where, as your character gains levels, they begin getting less effective in certain tasks.
• Party in My Pocket
  Only the main character is shown walking around; other party members will appear when needed, or even walk out of his body.
• Party of Representatives
  A party of characters that comprise of multiple races/species throughout the game's world.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling
  A place where Level Grinding is exceptionally easy.
• Perpetually Static
  Rules in an MMORPG that prevents the game from being changed unduly by the players.
• Player Party
  A set of characters whom you control together throughout the game.
• Player Personality Quiz
  A quiz during character creation that determines your alignment or statistics.
• Plunder
  Frequently referred to as 'loot', and like Experience Points, it's rewards (but of a physical manner) from defeating your enemies, from money to useful equipment. Arguably, stuff you get from other people as a reward for completing tasks from them count as well (the tasks of which may involve collecting 20 Bear Asses.).
• Plot Tunnel
  Linear plot sequence that forces you to put your usual sidequests on hold while important plot events develop.
  • Point of No Return
    There is no turning back once you cross this line near the end of the game — you can only finish the game or die trying.
• Poor, Predictable Rock
  When a player or opponent uses a single strategy that is very easy to counter.
• Power Equals Rarity
  The more powerful an item/Mon/etc. is in a game, the harder it is to find.
• Pre-existing Encounters
  Encounters with enemies which you can see coming (as opposed to Random Encounters).
• Prestige Class
  A character can choose to advance from a basic starting class to a more powerful, but more specialised class.
• Quest Giver
  An NPC designated somehow as someone who will give you a sidequest.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear
  When players equip their characters with gear solely based on stat bonuses without consideration to how it will look on them.
• Random Encounters
  Encounters with monsters that occur randomly as the player travels.
• Rare Random Drop
  You have a 1 in 128,983,234 chance of getting the Infinity +1 Sword from that Metal Slime. Happy grinding!
• Random Drop
  You have a one in fifty chance this monster will drop the Disc-One Nuke weapon.
• Random Drop Booster
  With this active, the monster will drop the Disc-One Nuke weapon three times more often.
• Rat Stomp
  Rats - the ultimate noob enemy.
• Relationship Values
  A usually hidden meter that measures the depth of your relationship to other characters.
• Required Party Member
  Someone who you have to have in your group, usually due to plot reasons.
  • Can't Drop the Hero
    The main hero of an RPG can never be taken out of the active party.
  • Missing Main Character
    When said hero is temporarily removed.
• Resting Recovery
  Put the characters into a dormant state for a certain time to rapidly recover their HP/MP/etc.
• Romance Sidequest
  A sidequest which has the player character enter a romantic relationship with a party member or NPC.
• RPG Elements
  Where a non-RPG is given some aspects of one (menu battles, equipment, levels).
• RPGs Equal Combat
  The only way to get equipment, skills and levels is to fight things.
• Resources Management Gameplay
• Role-Playing Game Terms
  A glossary of common RPG terminology.
• Save Point
  A specific spot where the player is allowed to save their game and restart it should they get a Game Over.
• Scratch Damage
  All successful attacks must inflict some damage, no matter how little.
• Shop Fodder
  An item that's useless for anything but selling for cash.
• Sidequest
  Any part of a video game that is not required to complete the game.
  • Loads and Loads of Sidequests
    Do stuff, get stuff. Repeat 100 times.
• Sidequest Sidestory
  A sequence of optional sidequests reference/join up to each other to create a seperate story.
• The Six Stats
  The six attributes that help or hinder you in gameplay.
• Skill Point Reset
  Optional reset of a Player Character's skill and ability scores, allowing you to redistribute them.
• Skill Scores and Perks
  Abstract conventions of how playable characters' skills and abilities work in the game.
• Skill Slot System
  A character can only use a limited number of active skills but can replace them with better ones under certain conditions.
• Sole Entertainment Option
  In the entire in-game world, there is only one kind of entertainment or only one city where you can find it.
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear
  A party member leaves the party for some part of the game, taking whatever you equipped them with in the process. Hope it wasn't anything you needed!
• Sorry I'm Late
  When you're separated from your party, they will join up with you in the course of one or more random encounters.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil
  Villains must appear in strictly ascending order by menace.
• Spell Crafting
  A game lets you create your own spells.
• Spell Levels
  Each known spell is assigned to a category roughly reflecting its power.
• Standard RPG Items
  We got potions, ethers, remedies, and revives, and dangit if they aren't all the same color!
• Status Effects
  If you're poisoned, blinded, mute, and confused... better take it easy on the magic mushrooms.
• Starter Equipment
  The equipment you're given by default at the beginning of the game.
• Stat Death
  You can be killed if certain stats (other than HP) are brought down to zero.
• Stat Grinding
  As you do specific actions, your statistics related to those actions will increase.
• Statistically Speaking
  No matter how high your strength, speed, etc. goes, you still will not be able to, for example, just smash that Insurmountable Waist-High Fence to pieces.
• Stats Dissonance
  A character's stats are to be interpreted outside their usual context.
• Support Party Member
  A party member whose primary abilities are mostly non-offensive.
• Surplus Damage Bonus
  Damage an enemy more than is strictly necessary to kill it, and you get a reward.
• Take Your Time
  The only time you actually need to hurry is if there's an onscreen timer counting down.
• Talk to Everyone
  It's the only way to get that sneaky clue about the dinosaurs!
• A Taste of Power
  Where you are given a strong character or ability early on, but lose it quickly.
• Teaser Equipment
  Shopkeepers in video games sell powerful equipment, but you won't be able to afford them until later.
• There Are No Bedsheets
  When a character lies down on a bed, they will never get into sheets or blankets, but just lie on top of it.
• There Are No Tents
  You can only rest the night at an inn; you can't just set up camp somewhere.
• Thriving Ghost Town
  Cities and towns are much, much smaller than they should be for sustainability.
• Tier System
  The Rank of your equipment or enemies dictates how powerful they are
• Took a Shortcut
  You spent all that time going through the dungeon and beating all the puzzles, so how the heck did these guys get here first?
• Trauma Inn
  Got killed in combat? Just spend a night at the inn, and you'll be healed up by morning!
• Treacherous Quest Giver
  The person who sends you off to kill the Big Bad is actually manipulating you for their own unsavory ends.
• Trespassing Hero
  Go everywhere you can in an RPG, even into private homes without an invitation!
• Turn-Based Combat
  When the combat mode of the game is turn-based.
• 20 Bear Asses
  Annoying Fetch Quest where you have to collect a certain number of whatever item, usually dropped by randomly encountered enemies.
• 24-Hour Armor
  You wear your armor everywhere. You eat with it, you sleep with it, you take baths in it.
• Unconventional Alignment
  For when the standard good/evil and law/chaos alignment scales just aren't flexible enough.
• Underground Monkey
  Enemy types get recycled from one area to another, with stronger stats.
• Universal Poison
  There is only one type of poison, and generally one type of antidote for it.
• Unknown Item Identification
  Generic-labelled items that must be appraised/identified as a separate step before you can actually use them.
• Utility Party Member
  The character you keep in your party for their non-combat skills.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon
  The Final Boss lives here; you'll know it when you see it.
• Video Game Delegation Penalty
  By delegating a certain in-game task or mechanic to the AI or a NPC, you get a less desirable result than when you do it yourself.
• Video Game Geography
  The world map is square and wraps around on both edges. How exactly does that work? Who cares?
• Video Game Weapon Stats
  Common attributes for weapons.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind
  Where the villain is still at the same level he was at ten hours ago, but the heroes are ten levels higher and therefore beat him handily.
• Wallet of Holding
  Where you can collect millions of gold coins and not have your pants fall down.
• The Wandering You
  You got your towns and dungeons and everything between them are just empty land full of monsters.
• Warp Whistle
  Instantaneously teleport to any location you've been to before.
• We Buy Anything
  Want to sell that rusty suit of armor at a grocery store? They'll take it, no questions asked!
• We Cannot Go On Without You
  You get a Game Over when the main character is killed, regardless of how many of his companions are still alive or whether they can quickly revive him.
• Welcome to Corneria
  NPCs keep saying the same thing over and over again.
• You ALL Look Familiar
  There are only a few NPC models; you'll see it repeated over and over again.
• Zip Mode
  Go anywhere you've been before, in a fraction of the time!

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