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But first, can you clear out the rats in my basement?
 
A common early quest in many [[Role -Playing Game|RPGs]], particularly of the Western, tabletop-derived variety. Rats may be [[Rodents of Unusual Size|of unusual size]], or substituted with some similarly non-threatening and easily killed critter, and indeed the basement may well be a different room entirely. This may even be part of the game's combat tutorial. Whatever the specifics, there's an area filled with small squishy things that need squishing. Get to it.
 
Often considered a classic hallmark of the genre, and is likely to be included simply as a nod to tradition. Or, as is becoming more and more common, parodied with an unusual variety of rats.
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* The first thing you are required to do in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' is to clear out the rats in a sewer. One of the local old guys even calls Vaan "Vaan Ratsbane" jokingly.
* One of the weakest enemies and most common first encounters in ''[[Dungeon Crawl]]'' is the common brown rat.
* The old [[Noob Cave|Tutorial Island]] in ''[[RunescapeRuneScape]]'' included a Battle 101 section, where you killed - you guessed it - giant brown rats. The rats in the "real world" are much smaller.
* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' has a quest that gives you a bounty on rat tails. In keeping with Sigil's utter bizzarness, it is on ''Cranium'' rats, who become increasingly deadly sorcerers when in the presence of more of their kind.
* ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' had a subversion; you don't fight rats until around halfway through the game.
* ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' has the human noble fight off an invasion of rats in their family's pantry in their origin story. Like all classic RPG tropes in the game, it's [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded.]]
** Oddly enough, it's the only time in the entire franchise thus far that giant rats are an enemy.
* In the original ''[[Alone in Thethe Dark]]'' you must dodge rats in a wine cellar while looking for ammunition in that room. The rats can't be killed, but if they touch you, they wear down your life force and you are liable to die.
* In ''[[Arcanum]]'', a Tarantian businessman asks you to clear the rats out of his warehouse, although this actually occurs in the second town you visit. There are a couple of opportunities earlier in the game to kill rats in dark rooms, though.
* Your first task in the original ''[[Fallout]]'' game is to head over to Vault 15 and see if they've got a spare water chip. As it happens, Vault 15 is now a bomb shelter full of mutant rats, and of course you start in Vault 13, also full of rats.
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== Tabletop RPG ==
* Any time you start out on lower levels in ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'', you will be killing rats. Just like [[You All Meet in An Inn|starting in a tavern]]. More recently, goblins are becoming the staple of low-level adventurers, but they're not a big step up.
* [[Savage Worlds|Evernight]] true to its [[Cliché Storm|stereotypical]] [[Affectionate Parody|fantasy RPG]] roots has one of the very first quests: kill the rats under the tavern.
 
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