Post your least cliche plot element!
So, lets get this writers' forum warmed up! Seriously, the only topic is a thread about why we need the writers' forum! I made this up right now so anyone on the site, whether you've never even considered creating a plot element or you do it all the time for fun (like me!), can try it out.
First, what is a plot element.... dictionary please! Ala, the Free Dictionary:
Noun 1. plot element - a component or element of the plot of the story
This basically boils down to -> anything goes, be it a character background, a possible empire, a timeline, or even an inciting incident disaster. Just post it here to give it a place to be!
As to what is cliche, it's something that is overused. So don't go thinking that this is a place to copy down that guy from your favorite JRPG and say it has got to be the most original character ever. In fact, if your looking for non-cliche ideas, take a popular JRPG, any one, and write the exact opposite of what you see. The results can be pretty funny! Also, give this link a read:
http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html
Alright, now for my entry, I actually made a file for this instead of posting anonymously as usual in case I need to edit something...
Character Backstory:
A 32 year old female mathematician who works for a small upstart company named DeTax that helps sort out tax problems. Her job is to create the software that prevents and detects fraud. Her entire family is intact - this include marriages and parents and grandparents - with no deaths in recent memory. Her father is a sesquipedalian and stays at home. Her mother is the bread winner, working as a butcher. Both are okay with this. She met her husband in juinior high school but only was romantically associated with him after graduation. They currently have no children but might one day.
Okay.... your turn!
You are a raving raging demon lunatic trying to get the "something or other" and annihilates everything that stands in your way(just like a normal hero), while the whole world tries to stop you(unsuccessfully as you'r the player not a dumb AI boss)
You are the demon lord trying to conquer the world one peasant village at a the time! where you kidnap princess, get powerful artifacts,cause political mischief,set fire to hero hometown and laugh at his pathetic attempts to stop you!
Yeap games definitely needs more evil "heroes"
This would be a good place to talk about turning all sorts of game tropes on their heads.
To expand on that last idea, I think a humorous RPG could have the main quest giver behind a desk and have a lever with a trapdoor. When you (typical peasant hero wanna-be) refuse the quest, he pulls the lever and the hero dies (horrific off-screen screams and sounds). Then he tells the next (identical-looking) potential peasant hero to come in. Repeats until you finally accept.
pfunked: Kind of Monkey Island-like humor on that last one? ;D
Sci-fi setting: the solar system will end soon (sun will "turn off", just make up some strange phenomena). There are only a handful of escape ships on Earth capable of interstellar travel. Do what you can to get on board. Also, there's no widespread colonization of space, humanity faces a bleak existance as interstellar nomads, but it's better than death?
You are a soldier of an invading army (swordsman, archer, engineer, emissary, anything). The expedition is defeated and you're stranded far away in an enemy land. Will you get back home in one piece, oh Odysseus?
You are an ex soldier. The battles are long over and dogs of war such as yourself are no longer needed. You're without money and got lost in the deep woods. The Hoofed One appears and offers to help you, but in return you must help him collect the souls of sinners. See if you can keep the pace with the wild hunt and learn just how rotten the world is.
Btw, as I was told at my English studies, plot is a causal sequence of events (what caused what) while story is a chronological sequence of events.
I've had this plot element idea for a while but can't yet figure out how to spin it into a successful story.
I want a story set in the distant past (future?) near the "fall of humankind". Humans are immortal but something/someone/some-god is removing their immortality. The hero might be the last human that is still immortal, which explains why he can continue his mission after "dying" in combat.
Maybe the immortal, evil orcs/dragons/etc have found a way to rob humans of immortality and treat them like mere animals or slaves. Maybe the hero can turn that magic/power against the enemy and ruin immortality altogether, or somehow use it to save mankind.
Maybe the evil orcs/dragons/etc have the formula wrong. When the newly mortal humans die their bodies animate into zombies or other forms of undead.
Maybe human mortality has happened before, and there are clues of ancient civilizations in forgotten temples that show their paths of falling/redeeming.
You are an evil overlord and fall madly in love with a beautiful princess --- but a peasant/plumber is stopping you, and you have to defeat him to claim your love. In the end, the princess prefers the peasant, even though he's dead. The princess is the final boss.
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You play a game which appears to be a game about karma, but every time you do a good thing, rocks fall and everybody dies.
---
This is getting less and less related to either plot or story, but anyway:
The story is one of an ordinary RPG, but it quickly turns out to be an actual Role Playing game, as in you don't get points for slaying monsters, but for role playing, playing an interesting character, behaving realistically towards NPCs, etc.
Lot's of cool stuff here and maybe my use of the word plot was a tiny bit liberal but hey! It's the writing forum, I can do that!
These karma posts give me an idea,
You are an alien in human form, but everytime you touch another human you destroy them and assume their body.... the game has two endings, one where you try your hardest to live the lives of the people you assume so no one is hurt from the loss, or the one where you use your abilities to cause world wide havoc.
maybe it could be possible to bring the people back after you assume them, but it would be exceedingly difficult and you would most likely assume other people trying to unassume one, resulting in a near impossible but cool ending....
I concocted this as an entry in the Zelda series, but of course that series's tropes are sufficiently universal that it could be used anywhere:
Link witnesses Ganon's rise to power and learns that he is the Hero of Time, destined to defeat evil and save the world until the cycle repeats itself. But Link is a second-year philosophy student with strong opinions about free will (these opinions may also conveniently support his preference of pot to anything resembling a quest). The game consists of struggling against his competing desires to thwart the concept of predestination and not let the world be consumed in hellish flames (he may be a slacker, but he still has morals).