Magic Ampersand/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A fictional tabletop RPG with a "These & Those" name structure.

  • Straight: Sandy and his friends get together to play Servers & Spambots, a version of D&D set in cyberspace.
  • Exaggerated: The game is titled "Caves & Serpents".
  • Justified: The game is a deliberate Shout-Out to Dungeons & Dragons.
  • Inverted: The game is called "Neither Dungeons nor Dragons".
  • Subverted: "What's the game called, Servers & Spambots?" "No, don't be silly..."
  • Double Subverted: "...we played that last week. This week's Caverns & Crabs week!"
  • Parodied: The tabletop game is called Basements & Lizards, and the first game we see the characters play actually features those things.
  • Deconstructed: New player Mark is repulsed by the downturn in creativity tabletop games have taken, and leaves the group the same day he joins.
  • Reconstructed: ...But he rejoins immediately when he realizes that it doesn't matter how creative a game is, as long as it's fun. And it is.
  • Zig Zagged: The tabletop game is called Servers and Spambots, but the system is very different from D&D. However, Bob tries to play like a Lawful Stupid D&D character anyway. But he gets killed by a Killer Game Master.
  • Averted: The tabletop game has an original title.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: "Servers & Spambots? Does everyone follow that stupid naming structure nowadays?"
  • Invoked: ???
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???

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