What's the difference between Sole Survivor and Everybody's Dead, Dave?

I'm having trouble trying to pin it down, since the descriptions are so similar. As the "Playing With" tabs state:

• Sole Survivor: The one who survived while everyone else died.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: The whole group is dead except the single survivor.

First one is a character trope, second one is a plot trope. I don't see the need to make such a distinction though since Sole Survivor does little to describe a character. Survivor Guilt on the other hand...

I agree, they can easily be just one trope.

Agreed, let's see if we can take it to TRS and propose a merge.

I don't think they are the same. Sole Survivor implies just one of a group survived a specific incident, while Everybody's Dead, Dave might have more than one individual remaining and be the gradual outcome of a Dwindling Party scenario.

PlayingWith.Everybodys Dead Dave is not consistent with the main page's description, which says that "the main character and his friends have to look around and see that everybody except themselves is dead." (Emphasis mine.) One paragraph down, it refers to "the last group of survivors."

Edited by Prfnoff on Nov 19th 2023 at 12:04:16 PM

Sole Survivor is both a character trope and often relegated to their backstory. Everybody's Dead, Dave is a story trope when there is a large chunk of characters killed off. Survivor's Guilt is expressly the character managing the emotional aftereffect of surviving a deadly incident, it's not the act of surviving itself.

Edited by EmeraldSource on Nov 19th 2023 at 3:43:26 AM

Thanks, everyone. I'll use Sole Survivor for character pages and Everybody's Dead, Dave for work pages.