Heroes vs Adventurers

A major theme of the Light Warriors FF campaign is that the LWs are heroes so I thought I should share some of my thought process about what it means to be a hero, and how very cliche it can be.

Heroes vs. Adventurers:
Heroes don't lose. Heroes are the biggest, baddest, most awesome guys in the story. Heroes get the girl or boy, or boys and girls, or....whatever (Even if they don't want to). Heroes win the story and then then live out the rest of their lives having fat babies and reigning over a peaceful land. Their origins tend to be mysterious, uber humble, or glorious. Heroes have magic swords with special names that they pick up as boys and they use them their whole lives.

Examples of Heroes: The Light Warriors, Westley of the Princess Bride, Tristan of Stardust, Aragorn of LOTR, Cid, Din, Wott, and Wintry.

Adventurers, on the other hand, are just talented guys. They kill monsters, but they run away from some monsters [Maybe not as much as they should, they don't call them hero complexes for nothing]. They sometimes get the girl, but more often than not the princess doesn't marry them at the end of the adventure but elopes with a barbarian prince (To marry an adventurer you have to be pretty hardcore yourself or you're dead or worse. Imagine Shadey having a level 1 squeeze to protect...). When the threat is over, they go back to their favorite inn and tell outrageous lies about how they saved the world using a spoon and an old sock. Then get fat and lazy, and basically retire. Sometimes a threat comes back and they get into a training montage and lose the weight and go fight some other monster to get enough money to save some orphans. More often than not they end up petrified by a gorgonite, squashed by Trogdor, or killed by one of the ancient Archfiends of Nirar Buda.

Examples of Adventurers: Toc the Clock Sorcerer, Shadey Walker, Demor the Swordsman, most of the Fellowship of the Ring, Diablo II HC characters.

Heroes get the girl or boy, or boys and girls, or....whatever (Even if they don't want to).

Heh. Nose goes! Alfax has to marry the princess!