Reality Ensues: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''Bad Guy''': You're on the losing side of this one, Lieutenant. I could fire a thousand rounds before you get a shot o--
'''Caine''': (shoots him, shoots his accomplices. Walks over to the [[Big Bad]]'s body and [[Glasses Pull|removes his glasses]]) [[Quip to Black|Apparently, it only takes the one]]. }}
* ''[[Blake's
* The series ''[[16 And Pregnant]]'' deals heavily with this, as the young mothers-to-be face the reality of their decisions. Turns out that [[Babies Make Everything Better|babies do]] '''NOT''', in fact, make everything better.
* In the [[Star Trek]]: [[Deep Space Nine]] episode Blaze of Glory, Sisko and a wounded [[Anti-Hero|Michael Eddington]] have rescued several surviving members of the maquis from a planet controlled by the Dominion. Due to his wound Eddington asks to be left behind to [[Heroic Sacrifice|hold off the Dominion soldiers]] in order to [[Death Equals Redemption|give the others time to escape]]. However, as he gets up for the last stand ([[Theme Music Power-Up|even joking if anyone knows a rousing song to play]]) he is promptly shot at least half a dozen times in the chest and thrown against a wall.
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* Any tabletop RPG player knows this can happen to the heroes or the villains. It doesn't matter how dramatic the story has made it, one lucky roll from either side can make a climactic showdown [[Chunky Salsa Rule|very, very brief]]. The extent to which this happens can tell a lot about the nature of a game and GM. [[wikipedia:GNS theory|GNS theory]] covers this as well; Simulationists want this trope in force, while Narrativists want "plot first."
** Games that heavily avert this trope (such as ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' and ''[[Star Wars]] D20'') tend to create a very heroic, action-movie like feel.
** Grittier, meaner, more brutal games (''[[The World of Darkness]]'', ''[[Dark Heresy]]'', ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'', and so on) intentionally invoke this trope to help create the feel of danger, failure, and high stakes. Some games, such as the old [[West End Games]] ''D6 [[Star Wars]]'' adaptation, have rules written to invoke this trope and then blatantly tell the GM to lie and keep the PC's relatively safe, allowing them to feel like reality may ensue when it probably won't. Some games even shoot to overplay this trope in the name of schadenfreude; for instance, in ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', your character is incompetent, your boss is insane, and your teammates will throw you under the bus at the drop of a hat-- so sure enough, you're pretty much guaranteed to suck, fail, and die repeatedly [[Black Comedy|for laughs]].
** ''[[GURPS]]'' defaults to a gritty, dangerous rule system where this trope is in full force, and combat is lethal. But the GM can change that, for example by using the various Cinematic Combat rules, or ignoring the bleeding rules. And then there are the ''Silly'' Combat rules, which throw reality right out the window in favor of rules like Bulletproof Nudity, [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]] (the [[Trope Namer]]), [[Bottomless Magazines|Infinite Ammunition]], and [[Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting|Martial Arts Anonymous]].
** ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' generally averts this trope. However, when it comes to 2.5 Edition, if one were to use the [[Critical Hit]] system from ''Player's Options'', players can find themselves in need of [[Death Is Cheap|a resurrection spell]] fast. And, [[It Got Worse|to make matters worse]], depending on the type of damage inflicted (e.g., [[Hollywood Acid|acid]], [[Man On Fire|fire]], [[Gale Force Sound|vibration]]) a player may require a [[reincarnation]] spell, [[Make a Wish|a wish]] [[Be Careful What You Wish For|spell]] or worse yet, [[Killed Off for Real|a new character]] [[Final Death|to continue playing]]. <ref>After all, what do you expect to happen when a 3rd level illusionist receives [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|TRIPLE damage]] from stone-digging claws of a rampaging [[Smash Mook|umber hulk]]? Not to mention the damage [[Impromptu Tracheotomy|an arrow through the throat can do]], the horrific effects of the various kinds of [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragon's]] [[Breath Weapon|breath]], the many [[Universal Poison|venomous/poisonous beasts]], the [[Brown Note|long term effects]] [[Telepathy|of getting]] [[Mind Rape|hit with a]] [[Psychic Powers|psionic attack]], and let's not even get started with [[The Undead]] and the many ways they can kill a PC [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|in one turn or less]]. While we're on the subject of creatures of the night, getting mauled by a [[Our Werebeasts Are Different|werebeast]] will more likely end in a [[Gorn|bloody death]]; becoming a therianthrope is a rather remote possibility.</ref> [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|When]] [[Killer Game Master|played straight]], D&D can be [[Everything Trying to Kill You|far more]] [[Death World|dangerous]] than [[Real Life]], since [[Wizard Needs Food Badly|you can starve]], [[Hostile Weather|die from exposure]], [[Super Drowning Skills|drown]] [[Captain Obvious|(take off your armor before you attempt to swim)]], and having a [[Light'Em Up|light spell]] [[Eye Scream|cast on]] [[Blinded by the Light|your eyes will]] [[Sense Loss Sadness|blind you]], possibly permanently. And occasionally [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]].
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** In a similar case is in ''Dawn of War II: Retribution'' in the Tyranids campaign Sgt Merrick is faced with the Hive Tyrant, and the Nid just hacks him in less than three seconds.
* Played around with the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' series a few times, although it's much more into [[Metal Gear/Awesome|CMOAs]].
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' there's a point where you see one of [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|The Cobra Unit]] out in the open and defenseless. If you're quick you can [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him|shoot him in the head, averting a boss battle with him later]]. Or since he's old, you can just wait a week (according to the [[PlayStation 2]] internal clock) and he'll die of natural causes. On the other hand, the area is then manned by ''twenty'' guards instead of one boss character.
*** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'''s difficulty settings qualify for the trope: Even though one of the game's "features" was an expanded arsenal of firearms and associated controls, only on Liquid Easy (lowest difficulty) can he take enough damage to get away with anything approaching a stand-up or run-and-gun fight, as he's still one operator against however many enemies, whether human or GEKKO.
* In ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' {{spoiler|almost everyone gets an over the top [[Heroic Sacrifice]] death with Jorge blowing up a Covenant super-carrier, Carter crashing a dropship into a [[Spider Tank|Scarab]], Emile falling over a ledge with the Elite who just impaled him with an energy sword, and Noble 6 getting a [[Last Stand]] and [[Taking You with Me|taking as many Covenant with him]] as he can. Only Kat gets shot in the back of the head by a sniper [[Killed Mid-Sentence|in mid sentence]] as the team passes a hole in the roof.}}
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