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The [[La Résistance|Resistance]] is in peril. The forces of evil are knocking on their gate. They have no choice, they must use the [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]] to [[Summoning Ritual|summon]] a hero from another world to assist them.
And they get [[The Everyman|Bob Smith]], from Normal, Arizona! An [[Ordinary High School Student|average American kid]] who just happens to be what they need for the job. The summoners may be [[Genre Savvy|unimpressed]], or be [[Genre Blind|totally blind]] that this guy is going to [[The Chosen Zero|need]] a lot of [[Training
A typical set up for [[Trapped in Another World]] stories. This is a ''very'', ''[[Seen It a Million Times|very]]'' popular trope in regards to getting [[The Everyman]] from the modern world into the [[Magical Land]].
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Sometimes, rather than [[The Everyman|An Everyman]], the spell summons someone who is exactly what's needed for a given situation. If no summoning is involved, he's an [[Action Survivor]]. Other times, the everyman really is very average and probably too squishy to last long enough to make a difference, but they will get summoned INTO the body of someone or something more physically impressive as part of the summoning or just by accident.
Named for the ''[[
See also [[Recruit Teenagers with Attitude]]. For some reason, the Everyman will be [[Inconvenient Summons|summoned while doing something embarrassing]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* The Digidestined from ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' could count as an example of this, since the summoners were "totally blind that [these guys are] going to need a lot of training to be useful."
** ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'' also did this, but with a twist; they summoned a bunch of kids but only kept around the handful that actually got some results.
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* Miaka and Yui, along with the past priestesses of Genbu and Byakko from ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]''.
* ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]''. The Princess Emeraude, the Pillar of Cephiro, summons the Magic Knights at the moment they all meet (coincidentally) in Tokyo Tower. Everyone assumes their calling is to rescue the princess from the [[Spikes of Villainy|evil]] [[Troubled but Cute|Zagato]].
* While it wasn't on purpose, ''[[
** {{spoiler|It's later revealed that he isn't ''exactly'' an 'everyman'.}}
* The TV series ''[[MAR]]'' (Marchen Awakens Romance) starts this way, though the high school kid accidentally summoned to help [[La Résistance]] of another dimension doesn't stay "normal" for long. (It should be noted that the series is an intentional takeoff on this kind of stories, with plenty of fairy tale references.)
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* [[Dog Days]], because [[The Hero]] is very athletic. At least they don't summon a random person into their world.
==
* ''[[A Kid in King Arthur's Court]]''. [[Lampshaded]] in the sequel, ''A Kid In Aladdin's Palace''.
* In ''[[The Flight of Dragons]]'', modern-day scientist and fantasy enthusiast Peter Dickinson is summoned as a champion in a conflict between wizards (his mind gets put in a dragon body, which helps). Nobody is particularly impressed, although his summoner is prepared to trust that 'antiquity' had a purpose in choosing this guy.
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* ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'' did a non-magic version. A con man looking for recruitment bounties wants to recruit the most talented pilot he can find in order to get paid by the Star League. He does this by seeding planets with a testing booth disguised as an arcade game called Starfighter; the one person who beats the game turns out to be a human teenager living in a desert trailerpark.
* In the second ''[[Veggie Tales]]'' movie, a princess sends a magic ball to summon heroes to help her kingdom. Instead, they get [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything]].
== Gamebooks ==▼
* While Merlin doesn't summon the body of an everyman hero in ''[[Grail Quest Solo Fantasy]]'', he does summon their mind. Yours.▼
== Literature ==
* Jon-Tom from ''[[Spellsinger]]'' by [[Alan Dean Foster]]. A Sanitation Engineer (janitor) was summoned to the world where the story takes place by a wizard searching for a more technical type of engineer.
** That he turned out to be a magician after all, which is what Clothahump expected an "engineer" to be, suggests it's not just Jon-Tom whose magic brings what's needed rather than what's expected.
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* Done in ''[[Keys to the Kingdom|The Keys to the Kingdom]]''. To be fair about it, they were looking for someone about to die of natural causes.
** To be more specific, the villain, Mister Monday, wanted to avoid passing his [[MacGuffin|Key]] onto a mortal, although he was legally supposed to do so. Instead of outright ignoring his obligation, Monday decided to circumvent it by giving the Key to a critically ill mortal who would die shortly afterwards. He could then quite legally take back and keep the Key. Unfortunately for him, [[Batman Gambit|he was being manipulated by his enemy]], and the power of the Key saved the mortal's life. Whoops.
* [[Discworld]]. Rincewind, after being thrown out of the universe at the end of his previous appearance, is summoned by [[
* ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]'' is a book that sucks in its reader. [[Post Modernism|Very meta]].
* The ''Demon Tech'' series by David Sherman begins with an evil wizard and a good "philosopher" each performing magic to summon assistance for his respective country. The bad guys wanted knowledge, so they wind up with a batch of 20th-century military doctrinal manuals (which they eventually manage to translate and use). The good guys wanted leadership. They get a USMC Gunnery Sergeant (in full dress uniform). His first words to them: "Who's in charge of this circle jerk?" Well, from then on, '''he''' is.
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== Tabletop Games ==
▲* While Merlin doesn't summon the body of an everyman hero in ''[[Grail Quest Solo Fantasy]]'', he does summon their mind. Yours.
=== Tabletop RPGs ===
* The ''[[Castle Falkenstein]]'' backstory tells of Tom Olam, computer game designer, who is summoned into a world of Victorian Steampunk Fantasy by a mighty spell. Although he proves to be of some value, the real prize is the book he brought with him - he picked it up at a used book shop cheap, and it holds the secret to [[Saving The Day]].
* ''Traveler'' is based on this- the players are sucked into a fantasy/cyberpunk/whatever-genre-the-GM-is-running world with the items within a 10' radius.
== Video Games ==
* Played with in ''[[Brave Fencer Musashi]]''. The summon spell summons Miyamoto Musashi, one of history's greatest swordsmen, instead of some average high schooler with no idea what he's doing. He's summoned as a kid, yes, but still one that obviously has some combat training.
** The sequel, ''[[Musashi: Samurai Legend]]'' (which takes place in a different setting and different characters) also kind of fits, except that once again he's actually the hero they were trying to summon.
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== Web Comics ==
* Captain N's spiritual successor, Alex Williams of ''[[Captain SNES]]''.
* Parson from ''[[Erfworld]]''. The trope is even lampshaded when he [https://web.archive.org/web/20131127091241/http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0016.html outright states he wishes he could be transported into a tabletop game], just before vanishing (complete with a [[Unsound Effect|"plot!"]] sound effect when he disappears and rematerializes in said world). Of course, he's exactly the [[Turn-Based Strategy]] master they need, but he has to learn the local rules first...
** One of the people who saw him disappear remarks that it's the first plan he's ever followed through on.
{{quote|"[[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|Dibs on his dice]]."}}
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Captain N]]: The Game Master''.
* Done en masse in a cartoon series ''[[King Arthur and the Knights of Justice]]''. The Knights of Camelot are imprisoned by Morganna le Fay so Merlin summons an entire high school football team from modern day America to replace them. They get by entirely by being [[The Big Guy|ridiculously huge]].
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Normal People]]
[[Category:Plots]]
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