Dungeon Bypass/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Heroes take a shortcut around the villian's traps.

  • Straight: Hiro, Marcy, Barbara and Kowalski are going after Baron Aspley. He retreats to his manor, which is protected by an elaborate security system. Rather than go through the traps to get to him, the party finds a way around them, surprising Aspley in his private chambers.
  • Exaggerated: Aspley flees across the country and locks himself away in his secret fortress, hidden deep within the labyrinthian Woebegone Forest, which is filled with horrible monsters and impassable terrain. Satisfied, he gloats about they'll never find him... before turning around to see them standing right there, Marcy having tagged him with a tracking spell before teleporting to his location.
  • Justified: The heroes used to work for the Big Bad, thus they know of all the secret passageways in his Evil Tower of Ominousness
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted: The Hero attempts to blow a hole through the maze between him and where he needs to be, but the walls are unfazed. He ends up taking the maze anyway.
  • Double Subverted: The entire maze collapses around him the second he steps through the entrance, leaving him with a quick jog over the rubble to his goal.
  • Parodied: Marcy and Kowalski start arguing about the best way to bypass Aspley's traps: Kowalski wants to cleverly disable each one while Marcy prefers a few well-aimed blasts. Before they can come to an agreement, Barbara points out a side door which is clearly labeled as "Baron Aspley's Personal Shortcut -- For Baron Aspley's Use Only! No Trespassing!"
  • Deconstructed: The heroes Took a Shortcut through the dungeon... but they didn't fight any of the monsters within or gather any of the loot, leaving them unprepared for the boss, who proceeds to wipe the floor with them.
  • Reconstructed: The reason the managed to get that far was because of Bob's portable hole-maker. As the boss is charging towards them, Bob fires it at the boss's feet and he falls through the floor.
  • Zig Zagged: Biggs McStrongarm manages to "find" (read: make) a way out of the dungeon... which leads to another dungeon. Rinse and repeat.
  • Averted: The heroes trek through the dungeon the ol' fashioned way.
  • Enforced: "Hey Alice, it's gonna take us way too long to find the door. Want me to make one?"
  • Lampshaded: "Fuck this dungeon, I want out NOW." *Wall-punching ensues*
  • Invoked: When they arrive at Aspley's manor, Kowalski immediately starts looking for shortcuts, reasoning that Aspley's employees must have some way of circumventing the defenses so they can work.
  • Exploited: One of the rooms in the dungeon contains a bull-like monster. The heroes paint a wall red, with predictable results.
  • Defied: "Oh no, if we tear down that wall, the whole dungeon's gonna collapse on top of us!"
  • Discussed:
    • "Hey Bob, don't you think it would be easier if, instead of just traipsing around the Earth Cave looking for the stairs down, we just grab a shovel and start digging?"
    • "Obviously, you've never played Minecraft, Alice."
  • Conversed: Hey Jim, I've noticed you have a knack for escaping from dungeons earlier than you're supposed to. How do you do that?"
  • Played For Laughs: As Aspley boasts about his completely infallible security system, the audience watches the heroes easily bypass each obstacle.
  • Played For Drama: ???
  • Plotted A Good Waste: Kowalski turns out to be a spy; the reason he was able to help them avoid all of Aspley's defenses is because he was informed of them in advance, guiding the team past them in order to earn their trust.

Back to Dungeon Bypass.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Dungeon_Bypass/Playing_With?oldid=101146"