Have an idea for a new trope, but don't know for sure if it's a good idea? Did Trope Finder give you similar concepts, but not exactly what you wanted? Are you just looking for a focus to a broader idea?
You've come to the right place!
On this thread, you can share your ideas with the masses before making that TLP draft, so if there's any lingering uncertainty about the validity of your idea or you just want some help pinning down a good idea, ask away and help others out, too!
A related sandbox I need to pitch is the Trope Idea Salvage Yard. If you've an idea but can't personally work on it, you can add it to the yard and let someone else create the draft. Or you can browse it yourself if you need more draft ideas, whether or not you feel they should be mentioned here first.
Got ideas for non-trope pages you need help with? Never fear, the New Page Workshop Thread
is here!
With that out of the way: Let's discuss some ideas.
Edited by MacronNotes on Feb 27th 2022 at 1:49:11 PM
It wouldn't be a trope, but there's a YMMV idea I've been considering for a while — I'm calling it "Players Prefer Heroes" for the time being. The idea would be that in interactive fiction where players have access to characters or factions across a broad spectrum of morality, they generally lean towards playing as the good guys. I've asked on the trope finder and apparently there isn't anything covering that specifically, so I've been thinking of taking it to the launch pad. The main issue is that, as with audience reactions in general, finding reliable data is kind of tricky, so I don't have a lot of examples.
Well, I have two. Maybe three.
- Dungeons & Dragons: There's theoretically as much support for playing Evil characters as there is for Neutral or Good ones, but most players go for the other two options. This is the one I have the least actual data for.
- In Nomine is centered on the idea of playing as either angels or demons struggling for the fate of the world and the souls of humanity. By default it assumes that players are as likely to be playing as demons of Hell as they are to play as angels of Heaven, but the player base generally tends to play as angels. One of the primary signs of this that I've found is that there's one kind of demon without a direct angelic counterpart but which very very rarely redeem themselves and also happen to have useful powers. This leads to a widespread case of Special Snowflake Syndrome as players a) want to play as these demons, but b) also want to play as angels, so there tends to be an overabundance of these redeemed demons in campaigns. The game eventually responded to this by giving the redeemed demons more explicit gameplay support.
- Total War: Warhammer: Strategy game where you can play a variety of human and human-ish factions who are... mostly decent, plus undead, ravening demons and the barbarians who worship them, rampaging orcs and the like. The setting is supposed to be a very Black-and-Gray Morality crapsack sort of thing, but players tend to strongly lean towards the "Order" factions. This is fairly easy to judge; the game's mainly on Steam and displays the percentage of players that obtain its in-game achievements, which include one for completing a campaign as each faction. The human, high elf and dwarf factions have always had the highest rate of completed campaigns.
Thoughts? I would mostly like to see if I can find enough example to justify a draft, but conceptual criticism is also welcome.
>The human, high elf and dwarf factions have always had the highest rate of completed campaigns.
Just to check, are these campaigns easier to complete, or made available earlier? (Or like in StarCraft I, available from the start but players are encouraged to complete them first?) These factors would also increase the relative completion rates.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
Fair questions. Now, this isn't a game I play a whole entire lot so some of my information is secondhand, but:
Not generally. Relative faction strength has tended to fluctuate over time as patches were... patched and units or mechanics introduced, but the general intention is to keep things largely balanced.
(There have been situations where a given faction's campaign was either a frustrating struggle or excessively powerful, but both tend to be addressed sooner or later. Evil factions have been in both camps.)
No. There is no enforced priority for completing campaigns; you could theoretically start a demon campaign right after booting up the game and it would be no more difficult than doing the same after having played every other faction. Factions have been introduced gradually through DLC and sequel games, but again there's no heroes-before-villains priority there — the very first playable factions when the first game launched were humans, dwarves, orcs, and vampires.
Sounds related to (or a cause of) No Canon for the Wicked—people prefer to play as good guys so that’s the ending that is Official. And then of course there’s No Campaign for the Wicked where you don’t get the option at all (even if the bad guys are playable in multiplayer).
I wonder if Metal Robot Title is a valid trope, given how Metal Heart and Steel Soul Saga exist.
And looking through my recently discarded drafts... I wonder if these are tropable / yardable:
- "Fixed Values Progressively Worth Less"
, a.k.a "Items Tiered by Fixed Value Effects".
- Debuff and / or Timed Status Effect, a.k.a "Limited Duration Status Effect", opposite of Timed Power-Up, are tropable... We did merge Status Ailment into Status Effects, but nothing says splits aren't possible...
- "List of Synonyms"
, I think that's an important type of list. Clearly there's some artistic intent there, although, a bit Department of Redundancy Department, but not all of that is lists...
Well, at least I wrote all this down so I don't forget.
Edited by Malady on Apr 5th 2022 at 8:13:56 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
I was considering a Hurricane Of Synonyms trope idea recently, for a bit of dialogue in 20020:
Would Unrequited Love (currently a redirect to Unrequited Love Tropes) be tropeworthy on its own? I've seen All Love Is Unrequited being used for that on a number of occasions. Missing supertrope syndrome?
"A desert city governed by an esoteric code of laws which baffles outsiders, the most prominent of which is that everyone must wear a mask whenever they are in public" is such an incredibly specific location it's weird that it applies to both Facade and Visage. Is there a common ancestor or broader pattern there? (I've heard Visage was partly inspired by The Moon Moth, by Jack Vance, but as far as I know it only has the culture of masks in common.)
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NOBumping from the previous page:
I was thinking about a trope (Transparent Fourth Wall, maybe?) that covered situations where the characters are aware that they're on a show/that there's an audience and even address the audience, but are not aware that they are fictional characters. Is this too close to No Fourth Wall, or maybe a The Same, but More Specific for that or Medium Awareness?
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- Hurricane of Euphemisms also likely overlaps with Synonyms. Because it's unlikely to be euphemisms about multiple things?
Edit: Wait, that says "synonyms" in the description. Huh.
Euphemisms are different from plain synonyms, because they're euphemistic, but hmm....
Edited by Malady on Apr 6th 2022 at 4:59:36 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Unrequited Love should be a page of its own yes, even if we end up deciding it's better as an exampleless supertrope.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.New draft I'm working on: Lactating Male
Planning to move the Phineas and Ferb video example on Animal Gender-Bender to this page if it gets launched. Thoughts?
Check out my forum game: Rate the above YMMV.^Is this going to be an Artistic License trope? If so, it'd be a subtrope of Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying. Also, if it is an artistic license trope then it might be better to go broader and include all depictions of mammals lactating when they do not in real life, which would include female depcitions as well if they are depicted lactating pre-pregnancy.
I think sticking with gender-benders makes it more clear as a sister trope to Egg-Laying Male.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Reverse Scapegoat
A reverse scapegoat is where someone throws their accolades on somebody else so that they can stay out of the limelight. They just saved the day but made it look like someone else did. As the main character in 'The Daily Life of The immortal King' does.
It is a mix of The Greatest Story Never Told, Fake Ultimate Hero, and I Just Want to Be Normal. The MC is not beyond spreading fake news or even altering memories. They may even make the reverse scapegoat believe they are the hero. Reverse scapegoating is done for several reasons: wants to be a muggle, does not want to deal with 'why didn't you save/stop...' basically does not want the great responsibility, it is safer for those they care about if they are perceived as a weakling/muggle (of course excluding threats created by perceived weakness, which is probably an entire trope of its own), avoid rules and regulations for supers, pretending to be a pig to catch a tiger, and so on.
It should also be noted the MC has no intention of putting the reverse scapegoat in harm's way, the reverse scapegoat is not sacrificial. If the reverse scapegoat gains the ire of antagonists the MC will protect them from the shadows and let the reverse scapegoat take the accolades of defeating said antagonists.
Generally, the reverse scapegoat should be plausible. People should not have to suspend their disbelief.
Edited by kinnlm on Apr 7th 2022 at 2:15:54 PM
I kind of had an idea, tentative title being "mistaken for adoption" when through a serious of coincidence or error a character believes they are not the biological child of their parents.
This can be played for humor (see Kenan and Kel or the loud house having the main heroes, Kenan and Lincoln respectively thinking they are switched at birth or adopted.)
or drama (see Boruto having Sarada doubt that Sakura is her mother partly because Sakura doesn't wear glasses and Karin has a pair just like Sarada.)
or even a mix of both. (I saw an angry beavers fanfic where Norb thinks his middle name is a sign he was adopted and while it starts comical, his family does treat his fears seriously and gently sets him straight.)
Fanfics aren't the best source but I'm just listing a few examples I thought of regarding a potential trope. I'm sure if other forumers can think of instances of this occuring they can format it better.
And I really hope this is the right place to post this.
see my completed Tangled (Varian) fanfic collection! https://archiveofourown.org/works/24467056/chapters/59049532This is the right place to post this, yes.
The plot is common enough in fiction that I'd say it's worth a trip to TLP, especially since you have four examples in mind already (assuming you know the name of/can find that Angry Beavers fic again).
Edited by Crossover-Enthusiast on Apr 8th 2022 at 11:37:05 AM
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢Thank you. I don't think I'm the right person to launch it because I lack editing experience and have only a cell phone to type on/ look up info.
I did find that the Kenan episode is called "natural born Kenan", the loud house episode is "not a loud", the Boruto story covers episodes 19 - 24 of the anime and was also published as a gaiden and the angry beavers story after some digging was called "Norbert, by any other name." It appears to only be on fanfiction .net
If this helps another forumer who can recall even more instances and wishes to launch I'm glad.
Is the salvage yard a thread I need to go to? I'm okay with someone just copy/pasting this there.
Edited by GlitterCat on Apr 8th 2022 at 12:36:34 PM
see my completed Tangled (Varian) fanfic collection! https://archiveofourown.org/works/24467056/chapters/59049532I wonder if we may be missing an "Adaptational Appearance Change" supertrope for Adaptational Attractiveness, Adaptational Ugliness and Adaptation Dye-Job.
Nevermind, misunderstood something.
Edited by MacronNotes on Apr 8th 2022 at 12:20:06 PM
Macron's notesWe have Green Gators, but would a supertrope "All Reptiles Are Green" be worthwhile? There are lots of other reptiles in fiction that are portrayed as green even when it's not accurate, including a lot of "generic" snakes, lizards, and turtles.
Heartbreaking In Hindsight is a wee bit similar to Harsher in Hindsight, but here is one example where Heartbreaking is a bit different from Harsher: Shantae and Mighty No. 9 had fan art where Shantae wishes Beck good luck on his new game. When Mighty No. 9 released to mediocre reviews, the fan art was now of Shantae and Beck having a fierce hatred to the other.
"Happy Halloween, I suppose..."

I've published the draft on TLP.
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