Basic Trope: Something stops the party from going to a certain area, and they must do something before it is gone.
- Straight: A bridge falls, and Prince Bob, Lady Emily, Lord Charlie, Lord Dave, and Lady Alice are unable to progress to the villain's base. They go and defeat some of said villain's minions, and the bridge is fixed.
- Exaggerated: There's a bridge, an NPC Roadblock, a boulder on a mountain path, a little kid, a roadblock, carnivorous plants, two people talking, a closed shop that will be open tomorrow, Mooks saying they're conducting research in some ruins and you can't enter, a group of Mooks in the Ruined Castle Tourist Attraction blocking of the west half if you haven't done the east half, someone doing the Ragecandybar gambit, a Mook doing an NPC Roadblock, a bridge at the same ruined castle leading out of it, people saying "something came up", Snorlax, Sudowoodo, a parade, an area where you must go another way because you'll meet someone there, a wall near the sea, puppies playing, and a guard blocking entry... not in that order.
- Downplayed: A little kid asks you to get medicine for his mother. Alice takes pity on him and demands you stop and help.
- Justified:
- The bridge was over a strong river. Unless the heroes want to wash up further away, the best option is to wait for the bridge to return, and there's no point in just lounging if something is going on.
- The bridge was intentionally "broken" by the big bad. Bob's party has to go into a trap that the big bad is sure they will die in, "repairing" the bridge and leaving over it now that his enemy has fallen into a trap.
- The bridge is repaired and able to be crossed following the next task because the next task is repairing the bridge.
- Inverted:
- The heroes destroy a bridge to keep enemies out of an area.
- There is complete Gameplay and Story Segregation with area accessibility. Despite being 'stranded' on an island you can head to any area at any time - although quests demand a standard 'logical' progression.
- Subverted:
- There is an intact bridge which seems like it'll be a Broken Bridge.
- Alternately, the party finds a shallow spot in the river and bypasses the bridge entirely.
- Double Subverted:
- Said bridge isn't rated for vehicles heavier than a bicycle, meaning the party can't cross it in their (needed for the quest) tank.
- There is an NPC Roadblock there, and the heroes have to beat up the villains to give the two people something else to talk about.
- Parodied:
- Before Bob begins bountying for basics, or starting the quest, he sees a man with a sledgehammer mumbling something about "all these adventures got to have a blocked path." Bob sees the broken bridge and immediately gets it.
- All of the characters are able to fly, and repeatedly display that ability, but the bridge still prevents you from progressing.
- Bob refuses to let his party wade through a kiddie pool because there isn't a bridge over it. "It's tradition!"
- The bridge is perfectly stable, but some of the paint on it is chipped, and Bob refuses to cross until he can find a can of identically colored paint and repaint the bridge.
- Zig Zagged: The bridge is broken, but the water's shallow. There's somebody standing in front of the other end, but he's only in one spot out of many. He actively tries to block you, but talking to him causes him to worry you'll drown in your heavy clothes and let you go through.
- Averted: You can go anywhere at any time.
- Enforced: The open world was hard to put together without spoiling that Adviser Winston is the big bad, so they decide to lock the final island until the player finishes the second to last story quest.
- Lampshaded: "Told you, bridge is out, you owe me five gold, Bob." "Yeah, we get it. You guessed it."
- Invoked: The villain destroys the bridge to stop the heroes getting to him.
- Exploited: Bob realizes that since he, the prince, can't get out, the adviser most likely can't either. They agree to trap the big bad on the island and see if they can deal with him.
- Defied: The bridge is out, but when you talk to the NPCs in front of it they say it'd be really annoying for you to have to wait for it to be fixed to get on with your quest, but the head worker notes that, since traffic is so low this time of year, they have a few boats in the water to carry people across or that the water can be swam across in any case, and the bridge was just for large materials.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: The broken bridge and lack hint of where to go causes many players to give up on the game, unable to go across.
- Reconstructed: Alice notes, shortly after you leave the area, that the head builder seemed to have something on his mind that wasn't the bridge, and notes talking to him again might let you know why. He tells you where an otherwise obscure town is that you need to go to.
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