It turns out the gigantic rats you have to kill in so many RPG quests are totally real, and now I need to apologise to RPG designers

Before you get to start slaying dragons or thwarting the plans of evil deities, RPGs tend to test your mettle with more mundane fare. Typically this involves a filthy tavern with a rodent problem. It's such an ancient trope that RPG designers have been poking fun at it for decades, like 2004's The Bard's Tale, which sees you slay a single, solitary rat, celebrate your heroism, and cowardly run away after a much larger rat appears and sets you on fire.

So making fun of the trope has become a trope itself...