History Main / RatStomp

Giant rats? It's like the start of every bad adventure tale my grandfather used to tell

* Any time you start out on lower levels in ''DungeonsAndDragons'', you will be killing rats. Just like [[YouMeetInAnInn starting in a tavern]]. More recently, goblins are becoming the staple of low-level adventurers, but they're not a big step up.

* Any time you start out on lower levels in ''DungeonsAndDragons'', you will be killing rats. Just like starting in a tavern. More recently, goblins are becoming the staple of low-level adventurers, but they're not a big step up.

* Your first task in the original ''{{Fallout}}'' game is to head over to Vault 15 and see if they've got a spare water chip. As it happens, Vault 15 is now a bomb shelter full of mutant rats.

* At the beginning of ''BaldursGate'', you're asked to kill all the rats in a room beneath the Candlekeep inn as part of the tutorial. [[DeadpanSnarker CHARNAME's journal contains a several-lines long sarcastic rant on his/her thoughts on the 'quest'.]]

* At the beginning of ''BaldursGate'', you're asked to kill all the rats in a room beneath the Candlekeep inn as part of the tutorial.

* In ''Hex Coda'', a ''NeverwinterNights'' module by [[{{Tropers/Twoflower}} Stefan Gagne]], you're asked to get rid of the rats in the basement of a bar. Except that these are mutant, anthropomorphic rats, and the best course of action is not violence, but diplomacy -- you can simply ask them to leave nicely. The Journal entry for this quest is called "Ratstomp", making this the TropeNamer.

** ''Fallout 2'''s Trapper Town has a serious rat problem.
*** And then, in ''Fallout 3,'' one of the first quests you can obtain involves testing out a rat repellent. It involves hitting rats with a stick.

** ''{{Fallout}} 2'''s Trapper Town has a serious rat problem.

* The first quest for the Fighter's Guild in ''{{Morrowind}}'' has you killing a room full of rats

* In ''Hex Coda'', a ''NeverwinterNights'' module by [[{{Tropers/Twoflower}} Stefan Gagne]], you're asked to get rid of the rats in the basement of a bar. Except that these are mutant, anthropomorphic rats, and the best course of action is not violence, but diplomacy- you can simply ask them to leave nicely. The Journal entry for this quest is called "Ratstomp", making this the TropeNamer.

* Most of the starter quests in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' are simple, mundane, and seemingly insignificant
* Mardek RPG: The rats have strange pipes instead of tails

* TalesOfSymphonia had a subversion; you don't fight rats until around halfway through the game.
* DragonAgeOrigins has the human noble fight off an invasion of rats in their family's pantry in their origin story. Like all classic RPG tropes in the game, it's [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded.]]

* The first thing you are required to do in ''FinalFantasyXII'' is to clear out the rats in a sewer.

* The NoobCave in ''RuneQuest'' includes combat 101, where you'll be killing — you guessed it — rats.

* The old Tutorial Island in ''{{RuneScape}}'' included a segment in which you had to enter a jail and kill some rats. It was done specifically to train you in combat though, as those were giant rats and you were tasked by a Slayer master. Afterwards you had to get out and practice Archery on them from the outside.

* The first thing you are required to do in ''FinalFantasyXII'' is yo clear ot the rats in a sewer.

* ''PlanescapeTorment'' has a quest that gives you a bounty on rat tails. The difference is that the bounty is on ''Cranium'' rats, who become increasingly deadly sorcerers when in the presence of more of their kind.

You're a brand new adventurer, setting out for fame, fortune, and probably about to get caught up in an epic plot to unmake reality as we known it, which only you can foil.

A common early quest in many [[RolePlayingGame RPGs]], particularly of the Western, tabletop-derived variety. Rats may be substituted with some similarly non-threatening and easy to kill critter, and indeed the basement may well be a different room entirely. This may even be part of the combat tutorial. Whatever the specifics, there's an area filled with small squishy things that need squishing. Get to it.

* Any time you start out on lower levels in D&D, you will be killing rats. Just like starting in a tavern. More recently, goblins are becoming the staple of low-level adventurers, but they're not a big step up.

* The NoobCave in RuneQuest includes combat 101, where you'll be killing - you guessed it - rats.
* One of the weakest enemies and most common first encounters in DungeonCrawl is the common brown rat.

* PlanescapeTorment has a quest that gives you a bounty on rat tails. The difference being they are on ''Cranium'' rats, who become increasingly deadly sorcerers when in the presence of more of their kind.

* The old Tutorial Island in ''{{RuneScape}}'' included a segment in which you had to enter a jail and kill some rats. It was done specifically to train you in combat though, as those were giant rats and you were tasked by a Slayer master. Afterwards you had to get out and practice Archery on them from the outside.

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!!!Examples

* One of the weakest enemies and most common first encounters in DungeonCrawl is the common brown rat.