How technologically advanced/mystically superior a civilization was, is directly proportional to how long ago said civilization became conquered/endangered/extinct.
P 9| /
O 8| /
W 7| /
E 6| /
R 5| /
4| /
L 3| /
V 2| /
L 1| /
+______________
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Millenia since disappearance
I remember a joke about this in the Bard’s Tale remake they did for the PS2.
The very first time you kill a wolf it has a bunch of gold coins on it. The narrator then goes into a lengthy complaint about how ridiculous it is that wolves would have gold coins on them, and from that point on all loot is in the forms of pelts and whatnot.
Someone who has taken wounds to their torso and all limbs will be just as functional as a fully healthy person, but will die from a paper cut.
Even if the world is full of replicator machines that will allow you to come back to life, you are the only one with access to them. The bad guys put the machines in their lairs for your benefit. Evil bosses and friendly NPCs that die honorable deaths stay dead.
Does that mean some civilizations have a power level over NINE THOUSAAAAANDDDD!!?
Ah, yes, the Hipparion Empire was a force to be reckoned with. Scholars say that they were ruled by sorceresses of such vast power that they could actually control planetary movement, and may even have established a small penal colony on the moon.
Proportional to? That’s ridiculous.
The actual function is e[sup]t![/sup] where t is the number of seconds since the fall of that civilization.
Related to Lynn’s point below, Cohen probably doesn’t look like much at first glance. At least until he smiles.
If you’re playing the prologue of a RPG expect giant rats…
At first I thought you were talking about this Cohen…
Rolling away from a large sweeping weapon swing is the incorrect tactic. The true tactic of choice is to roll yourself straight into the weapon, because while rolling your are inexplicably invincible.
However, this reminds me of “Everything important in life, I learned from WoW:”
“See that warlock, just standing there by the flag? Doesn’t have any friends nearby, doesn’t even have a demon out? Do not fuck with him. First of all, he’s not alone. Second, he will fuck you up.”
Another one, more applicable to the thread: “You cannot take a cab while shapechanged.”
Might veer into Murphy’s Law(s) of Combat but… if it looks easy, safe or deserted, it’s an ambush.
Says the guy who regularly plays sniper/assassin classes and enjoys nothing more than tag teams with healer or caster bait (and in Dark Age of Camelot dressed up as a mage when he really was a Friar, a.k.a. a tough as nails staff kung-fu guy).
Hah; that reminds me how in Morrowind you have the standard kill-the-giant-rats early mission; and in Oblivion, a relative of the character from Morrowind gives you a mission to save her giant rats. “My babies!”
Ooh, just thought of two visual ones:
You can tell whether a door can be opened, or whether an item can be picked up, by how well it blends in with its surroundings. Things you can interact with have a completely different, more vibrant colour palette.
It doesn’t matter if this is 5,000 years in the future and mankind has mastered interstellar travel: flashlights light up a pathetically small cone in front of you and can only be turned on for 30 seconds or so at a time.
They also may mean you cannot hold a weapon in one or both hands because strapping a light on to yourself is obviously crazy talk.
Of course that after you had already wiped several nests worth of giant rats in the sewers already.
See that group of five or so people surrounding you? One of them is a traitor, the one you think is a traitor probably isn’t the traitor, the one that’s either the oldest or the youngest will die tragically and heroically, but you and your best buddy will make it through fine.
Speaking of that which, see that group of five or so people surrounding you? They are the only people in the world who can do absolutely anything at all. Doesn’t matter that your side has thousands of soldiers and billions in weaponry, the entire conflict hinges of you five idiots going into some hellhole and saving the day.
All soldiers (post 2007 of course) wear suits made of a special substance that magically makes them cling to any flat surface taller than their knees.
You can either carry two rifles or an essentially limitless number of insanely huge weapons, no in-betweens.
No matter how thoroughly the evil corporation has been defeated and discredited they’ll always return with a bigger and badder arsenal.
The chosen one of destiny is almost always either an androgynous emo teenager with horrible fashion sense or an impossibly huge hulking warrior.
Despite names and appearances axes, maces, and spears bear little resemblance in use and effect to their real world counterparts, so just use a damn sword.
Actually, I gotta give props to *Morrowind *on that one - pretty much the first sight you get when you exit the starter city is a giant bug with its abdomen carved out for travel. Then you meet the first enemies of the game, mudcrabs, which back then looked nothing at all like crabs (more like some evil cross between a tick and a barnacle. Only giant). Then a wizard fell on your head screaming, and you probably nicked his spiffy hat. Then you reached Balmora, a city where the guards wear armour made out of bug shells. Then and only then may you encounter the traditional giant-rats-in-the-basement quest ! 
I miss the sense of wonder and alienation you got from playing Morrowind for the first time… Skyrim’s just not the same on that front, you pretty much knew exactly where you stood from an aesthetics/lore/setting point of view just from the starting cutscene/extended tutorial.
And then in Skyrim, there’s a cabin out there where somebody’s pet rats have killed and eaten him. North of Rorikstead, I think… maybe he’s a relation?
Gamers will know that ammunition comes in two varities:
Universally interchangeable. All firearms/energy weapons (either generally or within the same category) use exactly the same ammunition, regardless of where or when they were manufactured or what type of weapon they are. If you shoot an enemy soldier and take his gun, the ammunition for it will fit yours regardless of what weapons the two of you are actually carrying.
Extremely weapon-specific. Ammunition is for specific weapons only and isn’t interchangeable with other guns of the same calibre. For example, you might have an L1A1 SLR rifle and an M-21 sniper rifle. Despite both being chambered for exactly the same ammunition (7.62x51mm NATO), for some reason you can’t use your plentiful SLR ammo in the sniper rifle - for which you can never seem to find more than a dozen rounds.
Speaking of ammunition, sometimes you pick stuff up simply running over it. Other times, you have to specifically grab it as you go by. Other types, you have to stop and pick it up very… carefully… before you run away. And some times, it’s not ammunition… sometimes it’s daisies.