Adventurers!: Difference between revisions

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The storyline is now finished and the comic no longer updates. http://adventurers.keenspot.com/ is the place to get your [[Archive Binge]].

The [[RPG]] ''Console'', also an [[Affectionate Parody]] of C[[RPG|RPGs]] and their tropes, uses ''Adventurers!'' strips for some of its illustrations.

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* [[Aborted Arc]]: Nate Wars, among a several recurring comics during the first 100 strips.

* [[Academy of Evil]]

* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: Parodied, by showing how silly they really are when taken literally.

* [[Action Girl]]: Karashi, Tesla, Lumi

* [[Affably Evil]]: Khrima, usually

* [[Affectionate Parody]]

** it works if it's a torus.

* [[All Myths Are True]]: Actively cited as a law of the universe.

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Argent.

* [[Apathetic Citizens]]: The Bystandrians.

* [[Art Evolution]]: The art does improve over time, although it is still very amateurish.

* [[Artificial Stupidity]] / [[AI Roulette]]: Eternion falls victim to this, despite the Eternals being exempt from many laws that most of the other characters must obey.

* [[Author Guest Spot]]

* [[Behind the Black]]

* [[BFS]]: Karn's.

* [[Big Bad]]: Two of them: Khrima and Eternion, both of whom correspond to different kinds of RPG villains. (Khrima is an [[Evil Overlord]], and Eternion is an evil [[Physical God]].)

* [[Bigger Bad]]: Eternion starts off as one, but soon starts taking a more active role in the plot.

* [[Blind Idiot Translation]]: Parodied.

* [[Boss Battle]]

* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Console RPG characters never run out of ammo, ever.

* [[Bowdlerise]]: An early joke is that Drecker, hard-bitten thief that he is, finds himself able to swear only in [[Final Fantasy IV|cutlery]] once he joins the party. This extends to everyone else (except Eternion) and becomes a [[Running Gag]]; when Khrima's about to go through a lot of pain in the Final Battle, he says "Oh '''utensil'''."

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: Not a heavily used trope, but there is one notable example. Final Boss Khrima uses an attack spell with an animation so over-the-top, it doesn't just include an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]], it actually cracks the ''Adventurers!'' game disc, requiring Karn to tell the "player" how to replace the disc with a backup copy.

** In an earlier strip, one of the main characters plays Boggle with the bad guy and spots "gorilla". Several strips later, the bad guy spots the same word as he plays Boggle with one of his minions.

*** And again when he fights Eternion.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: [[Series Mascot|Chookie]] and [[Spoony Bard|Gilward]]

* [[Cap|Caps]]: After strip number 999, every subsequent strip was also numbered 999.

* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Khrima.

* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: Though, notably, even after the plot picked up there would be periods where they went back to complete "gag a day" strips, justified as taking time off from the plot to level grind.

* [[Chained by Fashion]]: Eternion's second form.

** A couple times earlier, Karn tries to actively demonstrate [[Character Development]] by being angsty or apathetic, but both times is called out on it - particularly since his personality doesn't really mesh. He also dreams of getting amnesia.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In an early comic, a monster inexplicably drops a piano upon defeat. Later, during the final battle, Karashi ends up throwing this piano at the final boss. And it's apparently his greatest weakness.

** This actually happens with several characters early on, mostly because the series hadn't switched from it's gag-a-day nature. Later on, many characters were merged into the story line, but many of the less defined ones didn't make the cut.

* [[Collapsing Lair]]: Averted because the designers 'were on a budget'.

* [[Commonplace Rare]]: Apples.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: Most of the summons seen in the comic return when Ardam summons Pantheon is just ''one'' example.

** Another silly one comes up late in the comic. Early on, Ardam fights one-on-one with an evil wizard named Whizrom, who begins melting/evaporating after he's defeated. Both of them notice that Whizrom is taking an awfully long time to finish disappearing (which Ardam lampshades), and hundreds of episodes later we see him again, still evaporating and going about his business normally. And later still, he appears in the final dungeon, after being frozen into the shape of a sphere.

* [[Crossover]]: With ''[[RPG World]]''. And with ''[[Antihero for Hire]]''...sort of.

* [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check]]: Khrima.

* [[Cutscene Power to the Max]] and [[Cutscene Incompetence]]: Parodied in one comic.

* [[Dancing Pants]]: Just one of the many possible [[Random Encounters]].

* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Mizuna.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Ardam and Eternion.

* [[Death Trap]]

* [[Dimension Lord]]: The Eternals are a race of these, with Maxima Termis being their initial leader, followed by Eternion.

* [[Dramatic Thunder]]: Karn makes Ardam use a lightning spell only for the sake of this trope.

* [[Dramatic Unmask]]: Eternion when Khrima hits him with the Mallet of Extreme Pain. The fact that the mask ''is'' his face should tell you where it [[Anticlimax|heads]].

* [[Duel Boss]]: The author has a rather low opinion of these.

* [[Easter Egg]]: Karn goes to great lengths to find one.

* [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: Including such elements as "Tastes Like Orange Tang", "Doesn't Taste Like Orange Tang", and "Peanuts".

* [[Evil Chancellor]]: Parodied - the chancellor wasn't evil and the monster impersonating him had a cold.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Most of the good guys have one - Ardam vs. Wizrom, Drecker vs. Rio, Karashi vs. Mizuna, Gildward vs. Dirlend, even Chookie vs. Blanc...

* [[Evil Minions]]: Most of them have [[Minion with an F In Evil|Fs in Evil]], but still.

* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: Eternion to Khrima.

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: the character Evil Killer Death Spybot 5000.

* [[Fake King]]: Parodied.

* [[Fetal Position Rebirth]]: one of Khrima's transformations.

* [[Fetch Quest]]

* [[Fight Woosh]]

* [[Floating Platforms]]: Subverted.

{{quote|'''Drecker''': And the platforms weren't really floating? Cheap.}}

* [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot]]

* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: Khrima demands that his engineers put lasers on everything, even ballistic missiles. He later fires one of them for inventing a weapon better than lasers.

* [[Game Breaker]]: In-Universe. All of Karn's ultimate abilities. {{spoiler|Although Khrima's final form actually blocks one of them.}}

* [[Game Breaking Bug]]: In-Universe, one boss attack [[Up to Eleven|breaks the game disc!]]

* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: Lampshaded - the characters can do ridiculous things in battle, but can't do any of it outside.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Karn.

* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]: Parodied and played straight at different points.

* [[Goldfish Poop Gang]]: Kemmit and Meck.

* [[Gotta Catch Them All]]: The Elemental Relics: Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium...

* [[Grand Finale]]: Goes on for just under 300 strips.

* [[Guest Star Party Member]]: The Guy Who Took the Gold Armor, the Level 99 Guy.

* [[Guide Dang It]]: "GNWG" is supposed to be a clue.

* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: Despite looking completely human, Karn is quarter-[[Winged Humanoid|Skyrian]], as revealed via painfully straight [[As You Know]]; his father is half-Skyrian. The green hair probably should have been a giveaway, [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|but...]]. Also, Karashi and her sister are half-dwarf. They get their looks from their father.

* [[Harmless Villain]]: Nearly all of them.

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|Argent}}

* [[Heroes Prefer Swords]]: Karn.

* [[Hit Points]]

* [[Holy Hand Grenade]]: The Smite spell. Pity Lumi only has enough MP to cast it once.

* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]: Rio.

* [[Infinity+1 Sword]]: Inverted when a "powerful" sword turns out to be useless.

* [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence]]: Parodied twice - once when a villain places a chair in the party's path and Karn doesn't comprehend the notion of stepping over it, and again when he performs a jumping attack on an enemy in battle, but then declares a small obstacle too high to pass.

* [[Joke Character]]: Chookie.

* [[Kill Sat]]: Khrima sure does love his lasers.

* [[Knight of Cerebus]]: Eternion.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: And how!

* [[Let's Split Up, Gang!]]

* [[Level Grinding]]

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: Builds up quite a roster by the end.

* [[Lock and Key Puzzle]]

* [[Lost Forever]]: Both parodied and played straight.

* [[Mask Power]]: The Eternals.

* [[The Maze]]

* [[Memento MacGuffin]]: Lumi's amulet.

* [[Mind Screw]]: "This is going to cause message board debates for years."

* [[Minion with an F In Evil]]: Khrima, despite being the [[Evil Overlord]].

* [[Motivation on a Stick]]: A variation with a treadmill and a sign reading "plot" is used to keep Karn occupied in one strip.

* [[Mysterious Informant]]: Imposis.

* [[Never Found the Body]]: Lampshaded by Karn:

{{quote|"We never found the body, so obviously he's still alive!"

* [[No Endor Holocaust]]: Which causes Ardam to give up trying to accept the nonsense.

* [[Non-Action Guy]]: Gildward.

* [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]]: Khrima turns out more competent than he originally seems, but he's still not very threatening.

* [[Number of the Beast]]: Eternion's HP and MP.

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]: [[Invoked Trope|invoked]].

{{quote|'''Khrima''': Ahem. ''[http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/20040817.html Cue the choir]''}}

* [[Only Idiots May Pass]]

* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: The reason Khrima saves the party when Eternion first appears.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Ardam, who can't stand the absurd RPG tropes he has to deal with.

* [[Only Smart People May Pass]]

* [[Operation Blank]]

* [[Optional Party Member]]: {{spoiler|Drecker}} is ''not'' pleased to learn he's one.

* [[Pamphlet Shelf]]

* [[Peek-a-Bangs]]: Ardam, as well as everyone from his hometown.

* [[Perky Female Minion]]: Mizuna.

* [[Product Placement]]: Parodied.

* [[Punch Clock Villain]]

* [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]]

* [[Random Encounters]]

* [[Randomly Drops]]

* [[Recurring Boss]]: Numerous. Khrima, Eternion, Blanc, Mizuna just to name some.

* [[Rewarding Vandalism]]

* [[RPG Mechanics Verse]]

* [[Shark Pool]]

* [[Shout-Out]]: The [[Final Fantasy VIII|"Magic Eight Squall"]], the name [[Final Fantasy IV|Gildward]], and several others.

* [[Sidequest]]

* [[Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke]]: An [[Earthshattering Kaboom]] does not as much damage as you'd think.

* [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]]: Partially subverted.

* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Gildward is a squishy ''bard''.

** I don't know. Seems like good advice to me.

* [[Spoony Bard]]: Gildward.

* [[Standard Status Effects]]

* [[Start of Darkness]]: Khrima describes in detail of how he came to be a lord of darkness.

* [[Strategy Guide]]: Karn is seen [[No Fourth Wall|reading one]].

* [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]]

* [[Summon Magic]]: Ardam uses this, and so do a few other characters.

* [[Super Mode]]: Karn has probably one of the most [[Game Breaker|broken]] cases ever seen. Lampshaded as with everything else.

* [[Taking You with Me]]

* [[Talk to Everyone]]

* [[Temple of Doom]]: And they contain [[Block Puzzle|Block Puzzles]]!

* [[This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself]]

* [[Time Travel]]: Used for a couple of cheap jokes and then never mentioned again.

* [[Trap Door]]

* [[Trap Is the Only Option]]: "If it's a trap then it's a plot point and we '''have''' to follow the plot."

* [[Trippy Finale Syndrome]]

* [[Troperiffic]]

* [[Underground Monkey]]

* [[Unexpected Genre Change]]

* [[Unsound Effect]]

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: "Spoony" and its variants.

* [[Verbal Tic]]: Chookie.

* [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]

* [[Villain Ball]]

* [[Villains Out Shopping]]

* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: Ardam expects the [[RPG Mechanics Verse]] to behave like the real world.

* [[You All Look Familiar]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Webcomics Long Runners]]

[[Category:Gaming Webcomics]]

[[Category:Troper Works]]

[[Category:Fantasy Webcomics]]