I came across this cryptic phrase in a description of an old D&D adventure Tale of the Comet . In context, it seems to describe the designer solving a problem of game balance by having the powerful technology items have limited charges / uses before expiring. But I cannot parse prophet-squeeze-monster and I certianly don’t recognise it as a classic trope. Any ideas?
I kinda wonder if it was supposed to be profit-squeeze-monster so give out powerful items to incentivize adventure, squeeze down the unbalance by limiting usage, introduce monster to deplete power.
It’s still sort of awkward phrasing that I don’t recall being common back in the day, but it makes a kind of sense read that way.
That does should plausible, some version of reward/threaten/drain. Thanks ! Even if it isn’t what was intended, I can believe it meant that and thus makes some sort of sense.
it is a generic style of storytelling where heros / adventurers / PCs are dragged into a quest by some all-knowing-seer / noble / fate.
an example application of this is when a king(prophet) summons the party, tells them “we are currently waging a war against xxx evil, hero bros” and said hero bros party are the hope of the kingdom. party then buffs up and does the training arc(squeeze) for the scripted big bad(monster) showdown.
an obligatory roll to persuade the king is now the meme to challenge classic trope and makes it more fun~
I’ve heard of prophet-squeeze-monster, but not as a trope. It’s a fairly well known fetish in BDSM circles.
That’s quite an image!
Might be more suited for !rpg@ttrpg.network.
The way I would understand it is the good old You are the chosen ones, and you need to absolutely get XXXX by killing monsters to prevent the doom of ZZZZ
So just a way to make PC use their ressources. It’s the kind of stuff which work in old-school RPG were ressource attrititon is a full part of the game. Modern RPG tend to drift away from the fight monsters in dungeon and removed or simplified the ressource management aspect (I love how Blade in the Dark let you declare your equipment on the fly rather than having long discussion about what you bring, save a lot of time for the players)
My guess based on your description would be something good, that after a few uses, goes catastrophically bad. Like a gun that disintegrates the person you shoot (prophet) and each subsequent use after the first (squeeze) gives it a increasing chance to disintegrate itself and the user. (monster)
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That sounds super interesting! I’d love to hear more about middle earth magic as law, if you can be bothered saying more (or if you know of any articles or videos) about it. I assume by legal standing you mean how gandalf’s authority (once returned as ‘the white’) is what grants him power over saruman, and such. Is that right? What do you mean by precedent?
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Super interesting! Thanks !
