Exchange of Realities

“Hasn’t this been done?”

It’s a complaint that has brought writer and GM alike to a screeching halt. There’s nothing quite like going to all the work it takes to build a world and populating it, working for ages to make it original, and then discovering that the audience considers this culture or that plot twist or the other personality type utterly cliché.

Granted, there is no such thing as a completely original story. There are, however, concepts that have been done so many times in the fantasy world that the experienced reader will take one look at them and sigh, “Seen that.” So what do we do? We learn them so we can avoid them. Have some archetypes. Try not to throw too much rotten fruit.

1. The Tolkien ripoff. While this is most often a problem in D&D games, even stand-alone writers are not immune (I’m looking at you, Paolini!). Haughty long-lived elves, in tune with nature and ancient mysteries, and so full of it that it’s a wonder their forests ever lack for fertilizer. Dwarves with Scottish accents whose orders of interest are in some order booze, gold and metallurgy. Comic-relief short-races with enormous appetites. If you’re not running a game, and you’re not engaging in media-related fiction, get rid of them entirely; it’s for your own good. If it’s a D&D game, you’ve got a little more room because that’s what the rules call for, but there’s still a number of very easy stereotypes to fall into; try to vary them up a bit.

2. Elemental spellcasters. Credit where credit is due, systems based on either the Greek or Chinese elements are common because they’re straightforward. But there are a few things that never seem to change. The fire magic users are always hot-tempered and usually redheads, either wood or water (depending on the system) ends up being shoved into the “Compassionate healer-type” role, the earth is almost always the stable-tempered one who hits hard when riled. I could go on, but I’m sure you’ve seen enough examples of the type that this isn’t necessary. Why not emphasize the nurturing aspect of fire, or the rebirth? What about giving the massive temper to the earth-casters? (Further resources: Here.)

3. Good and evil. Again, the massive struggle between these forces is a plot arc old enough that it transcends cliché. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to follow all the conventions, though. Color-coded opponents, feathered white/gold wings vs. scaled black/red ones, that old saw about eye color—we get it already. That’s been done.

4. Immortals, or at least people who have impossibly long lifespans. Again, decent when treated originally. But it seems like half of them are gifted/cursed with it in order to fulfill some sort of inscrutable purpose involving destiny and/or manipulation, most of the rest have it as some sort of backfiring gift, and all of them tend to treat bog-standard humans as rather interesting puppets. (And don’t get me started on the sexual proclivities of the second group. Just once I want to see one who tried to relieve their boredom in a way that doesn’t involve the bedroom.)

5. Supernaturals, particularly vampires and werewolves. (World of Darkness people, you can take a partial pass on this one, but I’ve still got my eye on you.) They always seem to be at war, or at least glaring at each other across the metaphysical divide; often, one or both sides will respell their name just to keep the conflict fresh. Both sides… well, Limyaael says it better than I do.

6. Service to death in general, and necromancy in particular. Skull imagery, everyone’s corpselike somehow (either pale-beautiful, or grotesque and prone to ripping off bits and pieces of their flesh), and it’s rare for there to be a middle ground between the killer sociopaths and the angsty “Sold my soul to dark powers, fated to bring about the death of the world, woe woe woe” types looking for a way out of the deal they made. It’s a bit more difficult to subvert than the usual tropes, but it’s doable.

Our job, then, is to avoid these, or at least to twist them a bit. Try to change up the patterns; add a new feature to an old archetype. Have fun!