Over used themes and plot devices

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

I like that. Option A could also be like a classic trope too, the reason for the hero to leave his village for the heroic journey to find somewhere the way to get a cure.

Indeed option B would be overused trope.

And a setting where such healthcare exist, but is not easily affordable could be explored and be interesting.

In the end, would you consider such magic healthcare for all also has an overused trope? For me yes.

 

[trouble time]

I also see the common assumption that all protagonists are young soldiers enlisted in a war and so by the time they are in their early 20s they are already seasoned and wise because they've seeeeeeen things (which is so not true, combat experience is a very specific category of life experience. FFIV had an interesting way of working around this by giving the battle veteran protagonist a class change).

I agree to the part about combat being a very different expirence than regular life expirence, but in a military you're almost guarenteed to gain some form of discipline as well which would make a character at least seem a bit more mature than they are, they'd also probably pick up a few practical skills and maybe a little non-combat job expierince.

As for magic healthcare, that really depends on the setting whether or not it'd improve life expectancy by that much, especially given that MP is finite, if you have two people it'd take all your MP to heal one of them is going to die (like in a skirmish setting.) It'd also depend on the rarity of magic. My game has literal magical healthcare with magic hospital machinery, but ,since every person's magic is one specific ability, outside of the hospitals you only come across one person who can heal others, and no one who can ressurect the dead (well except as zombies I guess).

 

[spacezeta]

Just putting my two cents in - I don't mind young/teenaged protagonists if they're well written and mostly if their personality matches their age. I think someone has said so before me (or not, I might be wrong), but when you have a 16 year-old protagonist that's extremely comabat experienced and is all 'rawr rawr the world is tough, life is rough, look at me i'm so cool' who acts way too mature for his age, I just can't stand. Unless you give them a really good backstory or something (which is not always the case), it's best to make the age match the personality. And not just in RPGs, in any story in general!

Also I find the whole 'the player can only identify with characters that are like them' a bit close minded. I mean, come on, imagination people! Who wants an exact repeat of their life when you can have something else entirely? All you need to have is a compelling character that people can empathize with and let the magic of story telling do the rest of the work c:

 

[trouble time]

Just putting my two cents in - I don't mind young/teenaged protagonists if they're well written and mostly if their personality matches their age. I think someone has said so before me (or not, I might be wrong), but when you have a 16 year-old protagonist that's extremely comabat experienced and is all 'rawr rawr the world is tough, life is rough, look at me i'm so cool' who acts way too mature for his age, I just can't stand. Unless you give them a really good backstory or something (which is not always the case), it's best to make the age match the personality. And not just in RPGs, in any story in general!

I actually theing the "rawr the world is tough" stuff is pretty realistic, it's just that you should make it clear the character is TRYING to be edgy (and make characters that are actually mature take note of it and possibly mock it). A lot of teens and pre-teens really think that they "see the world for what it is" and they tend to be much more pessimistic than mature adults.

 

[noctiluca]

Melodrama is one of the defining features of teenagerdom, haha. I'd say that stuff peaks sometime before 20 and then tapers off based on the individual. Some people are totally done with that stuff at 20 and others don't stop caring until a few years later. Adults have their own ridiculous drama but it's a different sort.

I agree that it's annoying but it's only too annoying if no other characters point it out. If it's actually portrayed as cool and mature to act like shadow the edgehog... oh noooo...

 

[spacezeta]

Exactly - I say no trope or plot device is always bad, but only if it's written well. You can have your character be all edgy you like, but have a backstory to back it up, or at least acknowledge it through the narrative in some way that isn't simply passed off as 'gosh look at me i'm so cool and mature' at the same time the other characters are all like 'omg you're so cool be our leader!!!' or something

But hey, if the story is written well enough, anything goes, y'know? c: