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openResting in a tavern in Baldur's Gate II
I wonder if this could go into The Artifact or something else:
- In Baldur's Gate, as one of the few nice flavor details for veterans of tabletob D&D sessions, you can rent an inn to rest, getting some health points restored proportionally to the luxury of the room of choice. It is not much, but when your characters are low level it can make the difference. This became partially obsolete with Baldur's Gate II which introduced the possibility to "cast healing spells while resting" (even if they are not available e.g. you consumed them), since going back to a tavern from several of the newly designed dungeons would have been too much immersion-breaking, and in some case impractical if not impossible until the quest was completed. Thus you can rest on the spot and heal much more health points than going back to a town, the only limit is that while inside a dungeon you risk to spawn some mooks that interrupt your sleep. However, inns are still available, and in fact while in the city of Athkatla they are preferable than resting in the streets. By the time of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal however you get a special ability to summon a safe space where you can rest freely whenever you want. Inns are definitely useless and a relic of the first game, but if you want you can still rent a room.
- The same option to cast healing spells while resting was introduced in the Enhanced Edition, making inns less useful in the first game.
- You can also order drinks while in an inn, with a small chance to get rumors (and a risk to become intoxicated by alcohol). They were mostly a cosmetic addition in the first game, giving small info about the story or potential quests that often you already got anyway. By the second game they are even less useful as you will have too many things to do and characters to talk with, to even pay attention to the very redundant rumors you can get. Comes Throne of Bhaal, many players even forgot they are available. But they are neverthless still present.
openIt Takes One to Catch One
A character uses a skill to bring justice to another character with the same or similar skill. This is a trope seen in mysteries and crime shows.
- A character was once a "black hat" hacker but is now a "white hat" and uses their hacking skills to catch the bad guys.
- A character was once a stage magician and uses their knowledge of illusions to expose a Phony Psychic and their "Scooby-Doo" Hoax.
- A character was once a con man and is now a private detective who catches fraudsters.
- A character was once a thief or a spy and is now a security consultant (seen in Sneakers)
- A character was once a terrorist and is now an anti-terrorism law enforcer.
Tropes I already looked at:
- Takes One to Kill One: What I'm looking for doesn't involve killing or violence, so is it the same thing?
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The villain must do something to bring about their own downfall, but I'm looking for a character who brings about the crook's downfall by the crook's own skill.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: "Winning the opponent's game by playing by the opponent's own rules." In my case, I'm looking for a hero who wins by playing within the law, but the villain is acting outside the law so the skills are the same but the rules are different.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: The description is about monsters and an Always Chaotic Evil race which is not what I'm looking for. Two characters can share the same skill and they can be deep, nuanced characters and maybe neither side is truly "evil".
openPlay-Along Imposter
Bob doesn't start out with the intent to deceive people into thinking he's someone else, but goes along with it before finding himself trapped in the role.
Sometimes the reasoning is selfish ("hey, if these people want to give me stuff thinking I'm someone else, why stop them?"), but sometimes it's more heroic ("that senile old lady looked so happy thinking I was her long-lost son, I just couldn't bring myself to tell her she was wrong").
- In Handsome Girl And Sheltered Guy, a Lady Looks Like a Dude goes along with the titular sheltered girl thinking she's a Bishonen guy and they go on several dates before they get feelings for each other.
- In One Punch Man, the hero King was thought to be responsible for monsters actually beaten by Saitama, and went along with it because the people looked so grateful for his help, and is now trapped in the role.
openthis guy, this guy, this other guy, and that dude
That trope where a bunch of people have alliterated or very similar names and then there's the one outlier.
Made-up Example: Alex, Alfred, Alice, and Bob
In-Media Example: Contractee, Consigliere, Caporegime, and Soldier from the Roblox game Forsaken
Don't question why that's my example. I wish I could think of others but my internet doesn't like me opening more than one fandom wiki page.
open.
Character A accidentally kills or seriously injures Character B after Character A hallucinated Character B as someone else who is their Trauma Button.
What is this trope?
resolved Absurdly Detailed Models Western Animation
Rewatching Star Trek: Lower Decks and apparently by the 2480s, technology has advanced to the point where a scale model of the ship it's set on, the USS Cerritos, has functional phasers, shields, and a functional warp core. Are there any other examples that people can think of of scale models like this being so detailed they can be used for their actual purpose, albeit by shrunken-down characters or if it's grown? I feel like this might have been a thing in one of the Ant Man MCU films, but I never watched them.
openSubtle hint to boss to take responsibility for boss's own mental health Live Action TV
Dr. Audrey Lim has been having PTSD issues related to hospital work. Claire, a doctor who works under Lim, has been trying to convince Lim to talk to a therapist, but Lim has been refusing. When a father agrees with his gymnast daughter not to approve a surgery which would result in a Career-Ending Injury, Claire talks to Lim about it. Lim tells her to try and convince the father to be responsible.
openGay couple in fantasy setting discriminated against for non-gay reason
A gay couple is portrayed in a fantasy or science fiction setting. They are discriminated against, not because they're gay, but because of some other issue (one of them is a necromancer, say). This allows both a setting free of homophobia (with the benefits of showing that to be possible) and the ability to do a Gay Aesop anyway.
Example: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Rejoined": Jadzia and Lenara rekindle their relationship from their past lives. Their relationship is forbidden, not because they're both women (nobody even comments on that) but because Trills are not allowed to resume the romantic relationships of past hosts. So DS 9 portrayed a same-sex relationship and did a story about homophobia, but without there being actual homophobia in the setting.
openThe Ol' Hug-and-Stab
A character hugs another character to get them to let their guard down, then stabs them with a sword/a knife/etc. (ex. in the genocide route of Undertale, Sans will offer to spare you during the boss fight, if you click "mercy," he will hold out his arms, say "c'mere, pal." and then impale you with a bunch of bone attacks)
Edited by SnowskyopenLocation marker
In most films (but most notably spy films), when the scene switches to a totally different location, there is a caption at the bottom of the screen telling the viewer what location (and sometimes even time) they're in. E.G. "LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - 03:00 HOURS"
openMen With Controlled Libidos
Is there a Spear Counterpart to All Women Are Prudes where men are shown to have enough control over their libidos that they can avoid an obvious Honey Trap or not fall for Sex Sells?
Putting "All Men Are Perverts: Subverted" all the time or marking them down as a Chaste Hero isn't right since they often are shown to be sexually active, just not thinking with their groins (and often there's a Casanova Wannabe foil who does, to better highlight the difference).
openEye design trope: blinking with the eye whites still showing
Is there already a trope on the site about the way some cartoony characters blink their eyes, where they will blink but only their pupils will be affected and their whites show throughout the blink? Here's an example with a Goomba from Super Mario 64.
openOut of Sync with the Group
A character joining some sort of exercise or dance group is woefully out of sync, doing the moves at the wrong time or flat out not doing the right moves at all. Often for comedy to show how unathletic or out of place they are.
Examples includes Sing 2 and Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!
openTeacher By Day, Gamer By Night
Basically, when a teacher (or someone who works in education) plays video games as their main hobby, and is really into them.
I've seen three different examples, all of which from Japanese media:
- I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl: Ayaka's homeroom teacher, Ms. Michiko Egawa, is an avid fan of first-person shooters, which is why she hides in bushes and the like. She mains sniper and goes by the screen name Mitchy.
- Lucky Star: Konata's homeroom teacher, Ms. Nanako Kuroi, plays the same MMORPG as Konata, and both are even in the same raid group. Konata mentions that she plays as a tank while Kuroi is a magic DPS.
- Persona 3: In the Hermit Arcana Social Link, the male protagonist play an online MMORPG with someone who goes by the screen name "Maya". She mentions that she's a teacher, and she often complains about the people she works with. It's heavily implied, and later confirmed, that "Maya" is the protagonist's homeroom teacher, Ms. Isako Toriumi.
I searched things like "gamer teacher" to no avail, but I get the feeling that this is related to an existing trope, which is why I didn't immediately go to the Trope Launch Pad.
Edited by matra-magicopenFantasy Counterpart Holiday
Like how You Mean "Xmas" refers to fictional worlds having an equivalent to Christmas, is there a supertrope for fictional worlds having an equivalent to holidays in general?
openCheery Snarker
I vaguely recall reading a trope by that name, but I can't find it for some reason...
Basically, someone so cheery is shown to be capable of snarking or being sarcastic, even without dropping the cheery tone
openspewing out in-universe technical jargon during an experiment
Ex. Bob and his team of scientist-operators-researchers are working on this new mech suit experiment. As soon as the pilot gets into the suit, the scientist are sat in their places in front of computers and screens, then we hear various voices going off in the background, one after another, saying things like "Begin activation." "Activation Sequence starting..." "Rates are normal." "All is operational" etc., corroborating each other to the status of the experiment, while Bob is standing overhead or something ominous. what is the trope for this or maybe scenes specifically like this ?
openAPP Secret second world?
When a work of fiction has a second world, dimension or similar, that is often fantastical compared to the mundane real world.
An example would be in the Harry Potter books, when there are the muggles’ world and the wizarding world.
openThe Sociopath played for personal drama?
A ruthless character runs into social problems because of their sociopathy.
Example: Alice is a professional hitman who kills with zero remorse. When she tries to make friends with Bob, that same lack of empathy makes it hard for her to connect.
Media Examples:
- Leonel & Marco Salamanca (Breaking Bad): Their uncle Hector has a stroke and ends up in a coma. The doctor tells them that talking to Hector will help him recovery The two of them are so antisocial that they can't come up with anything to say, to the point they have to order their underlings to talk for them.
- Jodio Joestar (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The JOJOLands): He has clinically diagnosed ASPD. Apart from his ruthlessness in combat, he struggles to make friends and find meaning in his life.

female villain