1. Amnesiacs Anonymous - No matter the plot of the game either the hero, main villain, or princess will be an average peasant with no background because they "forgot" it and mysteriously appeared.
2. Law of Primes - All enemy's health, magical artifacts, support structures, or other objects that must be collected or found for the hero's benefit come in? twos, threes, fives, or sevens.
3. Law of Technology - Technology * year is always equal to the same number for a given storyline, and the old technology was the source of their downfall, and the current crisis.
4. Vacuum Packed - No matter how skilled the ancient heroes were they only just managed to seal the villain 1000 years ago, just so you can fight it and hopefully kill it this time around. Also the hero/hero's ally will be the reincarnation/descendant/survivor of the ancient group.
5. First Sight - It only takes one look for any female character to fall in love with the main character, provided they're a guy, and will be used as a plot device later on.
6. 1000000 for 1 - Saving the world/King/Ancient power is the only way bridges and buildings can be built and peoples lives can advance.
7. Knife in back - There will be at least one betrayal against the hero/king/party by the least suspicious member but will still be a total shocker.
8. Not quite yet - The last battle will never end after one speech or death. The big baddy must have at least two forms, or will sacrifice himself to summon/or be killed by the actual boss.
9. Lazy authors - All books will have two paragraphs of text or less.
10. Destructomax - A capital city/ship/hero's village will be destroyed before the game ends.
11. Sherlock Holmes - No one will take notice of you running through a city, carrying massive weapons, being inches from death, your animal companion but will almost always notice the boss of the hour almost instantly.
12. One - All emergency situations have one cause and solution, which is to kill the cause.
13. Traveler's woes - Travel from A to B is always ridiculously tedious and dangerous to a hero but not to the peasants who has to hurry ahead to the next town. This is because they can run as fast as sound and will tell everyone of your deeds before you arrive, unless the plot could be advanced by having them not have heard of you.