D&D General What are the Common Tropes of Dnd?

[Stalker0]

Though we all play at different tables, it is actually quite remarkable how similar the "dnd experience" can be from one group to the next. We all have our different takes on various stories, but there are elements to those stories that I believe are so common, they are nigh "universal" to most veteran dnd players.

So what are these "common building blocks" of dnd adventures? Let me start with a few, and lets add to the list.

The Animated Statue: You enter a room, its got XYZ.....and an innocent looking statue in the middle. Any veteran dnd player knows what that means....that statue is going to animate and attack me the second I walk in the room!!!

The Party Watch Order: Your camping outside and its time for sleep. And.... time for the evening watch schedule! The players gather and divy out slots. "Alright fighter takes the first watch, um...the elf can trance so gets two watches, the cleric and rogue will take 3rd watch, etc etc"

The Mimic Treasure Chest. Every veteran rogue player has the story about the time they searched the treasure chest and almost got eaten by a mimic!

 

[iserith]

The Quirky, Cagey Merchant. No vendor in the D&D setting seems to want to sell you anything and, if they do, they're really weird while they do it.

The Surly Guard. Any guard, particularly gate guards, appear on camera a lot more than they need to and are surlier than necessary.

The Nightly Encounter. You're going to get attacked tonight while you rest, especially if the DM doesn't allow you to sleep in armor. Count on it.

 

[J.Quondam]

The Gelatinous Cube. That unattended treasure? That skeletal arm with the tempting ring? That shimmering coin? Sorry, they're just the undigested bits inside the thing now dissolving your face.

The Lone Adventurer. While wandering the deepest depths of the Dungeon of Death, the party meets a single soul looking for company. Maybe an escapee, or a lone survivor, or an unwise scholar. But more likely it's a vampiric doppelganger from the hells below.

The Empty Corridor. Yeah... nope, it's not empty. If it's not a pit, then it's blades. If not blades, then invisible assassins. If not assassins, then a gelatinous cube. If nothing else, it's full of palpable dread! Which probably requires a CON save.

The Puzzle Door. Because everyone loves joking around with a smart-aleck magic mouth attached to a glorified sudoku on an otherwise impassable stone portal deep in the heart of Nowhere, The Underdark.

 

[Stalker0]

The Ghost Through the Walls. Players are fighting a ghost, but not just any ghost, a smart one! It attacks and move through the floors and walls, preventing the players from hitting it. Often a new players intro to "readied action" type mechanics.

The Secret Door. What dnd dungeon would be complete without a secret door, leading to more treasure and even more danger.

The Scout Kerfuffle: You've been told a million times to never split the party, but in this one instance you decide its best for the stealthy rogue to scout ahead. And.... it all goes so horribly horribly wrong.

The Pit Trap: Dnd players deal with all sorts of nasty traps, but the pit is the quintessential "screw the party with terrain" trap. Whether just a giant hole, filled with sharp sticks, filled with a gelatanous cube, etc....always painful.

The Healing Potion Hussle: Your friend is on the ground, bleeding out, seconds away from death. The damn lazy cleric is too far away. And so you run, you leap, you somehow slide 3 oz of magic liquid into your dying friend's mouth in like two seconds, and save them from death!

The Interrogation. The party wins a combat, but one monster is left alive. Feeling just a tiny bit guilty about slaying it while unconscious, they instead proceed to tie it up in ways that would embarrass a dominatrix and ask it a million questions in their best imitation of the "batman voice".

 

[not-so-newguy]

Routine for kicking down the door and securing a room (or some variation) If/when a group of players play together long enough, eventually they'll come up with some sort of 'standard operating procedure'

 

[aco175]

The halfling is obviously a thief, especially if he is wearing leather armor.

The orc in a 10x10ft room guarding a treasure chest.

The dungeon tile of a bearskin rug hides a pit trap on the other side.

 

[Helpful NPC Thom]

Wizard with a spellbook. Heavily-armored fighter. Magical healing priests. Trap-disarming cutpurses. Hippie shapeshifting pagans. Tribal berserkers. List goes on and on.

Almost every D&D class is a D&D-specific trope.

 

[R_J_K75]

Because...Magic: Any effect the DM wants to happen when theres no rules/or viable explanation...Its Magic.

 

[Shiroiken]

The Secret Door. What dnd dungeon would be complete without a secret door, leading to more treasure and even more danger.

Corollary: if the DM describes a tapestry or other wall hanging, there's a hidden door behind it.

 

[R_J_K75]

Corollary: if the DM describes a tapestry or other wall hanging, there's a hidden door behind it.

The old concealed door trick, which I think has been extinct since 2E.