8,347
edits
Red Shirt: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
Line 232:
* A minor setting in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' is Kill Team, where a squad of highly trained specialists go up against countless enemies, and they can purchase upgrades. The most useful: Red Shirt, a minor character who, according to the other Kill Team members, is probably going to get killed in a variety of gory ways. Can be averted in that if the Red Shirt survives, [[Mauve Shirt|he becomes a member of the Team]], and upgraded accordingly.
** Acolytes in the 3rd edition Inquisition codexes were essentially extra Wounds for your Inquisitor.
** ''[[Only War]]'' has "Comrades" - type of NPC using simplified, even less survivable rules. Their purpose is to be padding for units, provide volume of fire and perform less exciting duties - vox operators, loaders for gunners, spotters for snipers, choir for the priests, assistants for medics, spare weapon carriers, and so on. They are requisitioned from reserves (if any) much the same way as equipment, and ''are'' equipment (servitors) in the case of Tech-priest. However, Comrades with roles requiring more coordination than "carry extra stuff and shoot at my targets" cost XP (both sides need some training to work together efficiently), and there are variants including "veteran comrade" advancement (having an [[Old Soldier]] as one of the Comrades costs extra XP, but they fight somewhat better and can participate in Veteran Orders).
* ''[[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]]'':
** In ''Star Munchkin'', there is a hireling called a red shirt. Their only use is to die when you lose a battle, thus preventing the "Bad Stuff" from happening to you. However, they have, on a success, a one in six chance of getting overexcited and sacrificing themselves anyway.
Line 241 ⟶ 242:
* ''Spirit of the Century'' has minions. In a bit of a switch these are mostly for the villains, but they go down right quick, and, if they are attached to a character, must quite literally die before the character can even be hurt.
* Given that there was [[Trading Card Lame|inevitably]] a [[Collectible Card Game]] based on ''[[Star Trek]]'', and given [[CCG Importance Dissonance]], there were inevitably actual Red Shirt characters you could deploy. Having said that, once players hit on the idea of sending in a single character to [[Schmuck Bait|set off all the opponent's traps]], that tactic was inevitably called "Redshirting" as well.
* ''Planet Mercenary'', according to [http://schlocktroops.com/2015/04/16/taking-one-for-the-team-or-the-ablative-meat-shield-rule/ game mechanics preview], has “The Ablative Meat Shield” rule, providing a stream of Red shirts; they also can be promoted to Mauve shirts and used as spare Player Characters.
== Theater ==
Line 253 ⟶ 254:
* In ''[[Gears of War]]'':
** Carmine (whose name is a shade of red) is a rookie squadmember who is the only character to wear a helmet and mask. He's also the first squad member to die in the game (and actually one of the only two characters who die), shot in the head by a sniper after the first couple of levels.
** Repeated in part two, when Carmine's brother (who joins your team) dies even more horribly. The first Carmine's Red Shirt status was [[Lampshaded]] before that by a dialogue between the brother and Dom
*** Parodied in the ''[[VG Cats]]'' webcomic [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=218].
** Oddly, Benjamin Carmine (one of the original's three brothers, and the one in ''Gears 2'') manages to last a lot longer, nearly to the end of the game. He also is a pretty damn good sniper.
** Also in ''Gears of War'', the member of Alpha Squad who runs off and is instantly killed by the berserker is listed in the credits as Redshirt Gyules.
Line 314 ⟶ 316:
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'':
** The appropriately red-shirted Lieutenant (later Lieutenant-Commander) Der Trihs (Red Shirt [[Sdrawkcab Name|spelled backwards]]) is a subversion, as he's repeatedly injured in various grievous ways, including being reduced to a head-in-a-jar a couple of times, but never actually dies. Instead, he actually "wins the game" by retiring from the mercenary business to live with a pretty girl on a paradisaical vacation-planet. {{spoiler|It is revealed at one point that his skull is quite nearly impervious to harm.}}
** Another strip also references this: "[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/
* ''[http://intragalacticcomic.com/ Intragalactic]'' has its Enstant Ensigns, who are apparently mass-produced disposable [[Cloning Blues|clones]] in stylish {{color|red|red}} outfits. They work hard and die with great efficiency, some even climbing into their disposal Ensacks before the ship crashes, to save time. Then, when the ship docks, they are taken off to the Ensignerator.
* Officers Getskilled and Oneshot in ''[[Girly]]''. Amusingly, neither of them die, and Getskilled goes on to become a minor part of the ensemble until at last he [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|meets his eventual fate]]. It's pretty cool.
Line 328 ⟶ 330:
* Played with in [http://metroid.bobandgeorge.com/index.php?comic=480&num=1 Strip 480] of ''Metroid: Third Derivative'' in which Joey asks for {{color|red|red}} paint so he can paint a Red Shirt on all the other degenerates.
* Heavily subverted and parodied in the ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'', where two nameless redshirts manage to survive ([[Mauve Shirt|and even become secondary characters]]) by the rule of [[Nominal Importance]]. Belkar even referred to them as "the two redshirts" at the beginning.
* Referenced in [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1800/fc01775.
* And in [http://www.unshelved.com/archive.aspx?strip=20030821 this] ''[[Unshelved]]'' strip.
* In ''[[The KAMics]]'' we see the [http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/5360519/ Redshirt Bearer Brigade] & in the author's notes [[User:KAM]] brags none will survive.
| |||