Starter Equipment/Playing With
Basic Trope: The player is given some basic equipment at the start of the game which they'll quickly replace with something better.
- Straight: Bob starts out wearing nothing but the unique and useless " [Bob's Clothes]" as armour, and armed with a [Stick].
- Exaggerated: Alice, a trained soldier, starts off with nothing but a [Warm Jacket], a [Paintball Gun] and a [Cracked Helmet].
- Bob begins with full body armor and a giant sniper rifle -- but because it's Starter Equipment it's worthless anyway, Statistically Speaking.
- Downplayed: Bob has the cheapest equipment available from the starting area's shop.
- Justified: [Bob's Clothes] were made on the cheap by his mother. Hence there are no clothes like them, but they are neither valuable nor designed for combat. While there are obviously other [Stick] lying around he sees no reason to pick them up when he finds an actual weapon.
- Bob is decked out in full, modern combat gear -- but since he's fighting aliens, it's dramatically inferior to their equipment anyway.
- Bob's a random peasant, so it wouldn't make sense to have him start with the Infinity+1 Sword.
- Inverted: Bob begins with the most powerful equipment in the game, which can be bought anywhere. However it breaks rather quickly when it's used.
- Subverted: Alice immediately goes into the armoury and trades in her equipment for some actual weapons and armour and gets some for Bob while she's at it.
- Double Subverted: Due to budget cuts, they can still only requisition equipment far inferior to what they'll find later.
- Armor and weapons are next to worthless, since Bob still needs to level grind his magic/kung fu/etc.
- Parodied: Bob is stuck in a Hopeless Boss Fight since his [Stick] can't even harm a mildly agitated sheep.
- Deconstructed: The game is Nintendo Hard because of the poor equipment at the start of the game.
- Because the characters start with worthless weapons, they are forced to use stealth and the environment much more in the early stages.
- Reconstructed: Once you get past that part it becomes more forgiving.
- Zig Zagged: Some party members begin with better equipment than others.
- Averted: The game has no improved equipment. Alice and Bob's weapons are all they'll need for the rest of the game.
- Enforced: The devs tried starting you off at full power, but testers complained about the lack of advancement.
- Lampshaded: "Don't I have anything better than this [Stick]? I mean there's probably at least a kitchen knife somewhere in my house...."
- Invoked: Bob makes sure to be underequipped compared to everyone else so that he can be The Hero.
- Defied: Bob keeps a cache of weapons and armour just in case. It's roughly to the standards of mid game items.
- Discussed: "I don't have anything but the clothes on my back and a [Stick]!" "Stop complaining, we'll find somewhere that sells something better soon."
- Conversed: "I hear that Bob's off to save the world with nothing but a [Stick]!"
- Exploited: Bob accepts the weaker weapons so that he can sell them, knowing they'll get better ones immediatly anyway.
OK, this Playing with Wiki page is a good start, but the best stuff's over on [[[Starter Equipment]]]!