Mugging the Monster/Tabletop Games

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Examples of Mugging the Monster in Tabletop Games include:

Card Games

• Tormented Pariah from Magic the Gathering's Innistrad set. The flavour text says it all, really:

"Hey lads, the moon's rising. All the better to watch him beg for mercy. Just look at him, groveling on all fours! What a pathetic--uh-oh."

Gamebooks

• In the Lone Wolf series, when in "civilized" parts of the world rather than evil fortresses or the wilderness, various rogues trying to mug the hero is a common type of fight encounter. It rarely ends well for them. In later books, some of those fights aren't even played out—there is just an off-hand mention of Lone Wolf leaving a few dead brigands behind.
• In Appointment with F.E.A.R., the main character (who is a superhero) is approached by criminals who want to mug him/her. If you fight them, you out yourself and have to give up your career as a superhero, which leads to a bad ending (albeit one that's quite a bit less dark than the other bad endings); only by letting them mug you can you continue playing.

Tabletop RPGs

• A little forgivable if some conditions are present in Exalted. There are a few charms that allow the characters to keep their weapons and armor Elsewhere, and as a result bandits might not discover that the short, blonde, small-framed teenaged girl they are trying to mug/capture to sell as a slave/etc., is actually a Demi-God wielding a six feet giant golden sword capable of completely eradicating them (and the floor they are standing on) until it's too late.
  • That said, any Exalt ought to be able to warn off most moderately sensible muggers simply by flaring their Caste Mark. Jury is still out as to whether or not it's more satisfying than simply beating the stuffing out of them.
    • According to the game rules, a mortal knowingly attacking a Celestial Exalt without some kind of supernatural firepower of their own or an army at their back is a difficulty 5 Valor roll. A difficulty 5 Valor roll is at outright "suicide bomber" levels of foolhardiness - any lone mortal that sees the Caste Mark and still comes at you is either too stupid to live or too crazy to die.
• Also can happen in Old World of Darkness. It's very satisfying to, after your Ventrue businessman has been stopped in transit by robbers with shotguns, take their blast in the chest, get up without any visible effect and rip them into shreds. This is noted to be one of the main reasons why Ventrue take Fortitude.
• Considering how ultra-antagonistic gangs are in-universe, Shadowrun's random encounters for new players is pretty much all about this. The Halloweeners are this trope invoked for even the squishiest of mage or decker.
• Dungeons & Dragons
  • Metallic dragons intentionally invoke this trope. One of their favorite tricks in combating evil is to use their Shapeshifting ability (many metallics have this upon birth) to turn into something that seems weak. When some evil idiot takes the bait, they don't have very long to live. It's actually a part of their mythology. One story involves an apparently harmless old man who would entertain travelers with his seven trained canaries. Then a band of ogres, led by an ogre mage, started down the road to kill or rob all the folks on it... and found that the old man was the metallic dragon god Bahamut, and those canaries were all great wyrm gold dragons in disguise.
  • Al-Qadim has a tale about "why dragons so rarely appear over the place". A big red from North flew in only to immediately get himself into troubles with the local populace. Until he was reduced to telling his woes to the next creature he met. The "child" heard the story, gently told the dragon those people did in fact go easy on him because he doesn't know better and there's folk whom they obey without question - and helped the poor battered, hungry and tired lizard, returning him to the sweet home. On an intercontinental guided whirlwind. The moral, of course, is "try not to annoy genies, or just to be on the safe side, anyone".
  • Forgotten Realms on top of "usual" dangers (such as archmages going about their private business in magical disguise or creatures that would send townpeople into screaming run if they didn't resort to mimicry) has people well aware of their world's trends and not caring at all to advertise how much power they got at their disposal (very few know even of Larloch's existence, and he caused continent-spanning troubles without really trying - merely by trading some spare magic items with that talented upstart Szass Tam or extending a leash on a few of liches serving him just to see what they'll do).

If you accost a barefoot laborer digging in the mud of a turnip field and stained glass golems suddenly lurch out of nearby sheds or the columns of a barn come to life, and gemstones float out of the man's pockets to circle his head and spit lightning at you - well, you've found one of those fabled jewelers of Irl...

• There was an incident in Ed Greenwood's home campaign, when the Company of Crazed Venturers ran into Shaan the Serpent-Queen. They tried to show they mean business and were reminded one of basic rules of the setting via almost-quote from Crocodile Dundee:

She was busy working magic on a small island off Mintarn. They attacked, broke her concentration, and she looked up with an irritated frown. They bid her stop, or they'd destroy what she was working on; to demonstrate, one of the Company mages touched (and disintegrated) a stone he was standing beside. She shook her head in derision, and touched the island beneath them, disintegrating IT, and dumping the Company into the chilly sea waves for a long swim... whilst she turned back to her spellcasting, floating on nothing and ignoring them once more.

• Another home campaign incident: "mysterious disappearance" of Elendar Torchwinter, an idle noble who couldn't be arsed to learn about countries on the same sea as his, nor keep out of other people's hair.
• There's also a possibility of Urban Encounters with Muggers all being 4 to 6 levels below the party.

• The 4th edition of GURPS Magic introduces the chapter on fire magic with a story about a wizard in a modern setting having a knife put on her throat in a mugging. Unfortunately for the mugger, she can breathe fire.
• In Traveller Vargr hardly ever raid Zhodani. The reason why is that when they do they know that the Zhodani will take years tracking down the perps. Then when they do this their retribution, will be sure, whether it takes the form of Death From Above or the more frightening form of kidnapping Vargr and brainwashing them.
• In any of the Star Wars RPGs, a Jedi can look like anything. Keep that in mind when the off-world stranger you're harassing in a bar says "You REALLY don't want to do this."

Wargames

• Warhammer 40,000
  • The fluff sometimes makes notes of many former Imperial Guardsmen settling down on planets they conquered. Because it's easier than shipping them back, and because if a planet's own legitimate power structure is broken, awarding it "by the right of conquest" is the most reliable way to see that it remains loyal and adequately defended. This led to some robbers finding out the hard way that a bar called The 127th is named after a certain platoon, that the grumpy old men are veterans of battles against unimaginable horrors and that the lasgun above the bar is not a replica.
  • Night Lords decided to raid a Penal World with adamantium mines. Then they found out the hard way that Carcharodons planned to recruit there. Of course, most of them found it out when they were cornered by a shipload of close combat specialists considered particularly brutal even in 40k universe. It turned out that in mine tunnels Carcharodons are scarier, and there aren't many places to hide or run.
  • In Dark Heresy, PCs often end up on either end of this as a part of their job. And it has the expected results until you figure out that flipping off a Daemon is a Bad Plan and maybe you should try shooting the guy that just summoned it in the head. From over there. Waaay over there.

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