Basic Trope: Cards are used in a video game's battle interface, but don't appear anywhere else.
- Straight: In the RPG Call to Adventure, Mighty Max the mage can use spells in battle. These are portrayed as cards that you use in the game interface, but outside of this, it's not mentioned that Max has cards.
- Exaggerated: Not only that, but you have an entire "deck" and binder of cards, and you have to buy packs of cards to get new spells. These exist solely as an interface element and are never commented on by the characters.
- Downplayed: Max's gimmick is that he's just pretending to be a hero, and he's a tabletop game nerd. Even though the cards aren't explicitly mentioned, it thematically fits his character.
- Justified:
- Max is a fan of tabletop games, but he's bad at organizing. Visualizing his magic spell catalog as a deck of cards helps him use it.
- The cards only appear when Max is engaged in combat, and disappear when he no longer needs them. Thus, you can't see them on the overworld.
- Inverted: The entire game is about collecting cards, but when you battle, the characters use their own weapons without the cards appearing.
- Subverted: When you start, you use cards to attack. After the first boss, Max pulls out his "deck" of cards, showing that they do exist in-universe.
- Double Subverted: But these cards are part of an unrelated sidequest. The in-battle cards aren't relevant anywhere else.
- Parodied: The characters literally fight each other by using the cards themselves as weapons.
- Zig-Zagged: The battle elements appear as cards in regular battles. In boss battles, you do pick up and use these cards. But not against the one where it would make sense. Additionally, some characters are legitimate Death Dealers.
- Averted:
- The interface doesn't use cards.
- Cards appear both in battle and on the overworld.
- Enforced: "How are players going to understand this magic system? What if we made it look like a card game?"
- Lampshaded: "What's up with those cards that appear every time I go into battle?"
- Invoked: Max casts a magic spell that lets him view his array of spells as a card deck.
- Exploited: Max grabs some of the cards and smuggles them into the real world.
- Defied: Max hates tabletop games and wants nothing to do with them, so he refuses to do anything with cards.
- Discussed: "What do you mean, my 'deck'? Magic isn't like a card game!"
- Conversed: "Why do I select Max's attacks using cards? He doesn't have any!"
Now pull out your cards and Fight Like a Card Player!
