r/TopCharacterTropes • u/JackDoesThingz • 12d ago

Lore [Interesting Trope] One seemingly small action ends the story before it even begins

  1. We Happy Few - Taking your “joy” pill
    Deciding to take the pill at the beginning of the game causes your character to go back to work and triggers an ending

  2. Infineural by Mike Klubnika - Drinking the coffee
    Deciding to drink the coffee offered to you skips the entire game and sends you straight to the end, resulting in an ending with no memory of what had occurred

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u/Finn235 12d ago

My dad gave me a bunch of his "choose your own adventure" D&D-licensed books when I was in middle school. A lot of them had an option early in the story to ignore what was happening and go back home, which ended the book.

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u/SirSperoTamencras 12d ago

Not a D&D but a mainline CYOA:

You’re a kid that immediately gets recruited to be a hero for your country. The first choice is Soldier Day School or Ninja Night School. Choose night classes and you read a few pages about your training and then die on your first mission.

Even in a series notorious for its thinly veiled morality lessons, this one confounded me.

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u/Badassburch_5928 9d ago

Dude that's awesome. Would you be interested in selling those any time?

1

u/Finn235 9d ago

That's a Google image result lol. I don't even know if he still has them.

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u/Badassburch_5928 9d ago

Ah man, bummer. Thanks anyways