[Authoritarian Trope] Casually being questioned/threatened by an imposing authority figure out of nowhere

[u/TheWalkingBag]

One way to really set the oppressive atmosphere of a setting is by having our characters get randomly questioned or interrogated by a soldier/cop out of nowhere, often for very minor reasons

1. "Pick up that can." (Half-Life 2)

When Gordon first arrives to City 17, a Combine Civil Protection officer he's passing by suddenly drops a soda can in front of him and orders him to pick it up. If you comply here and throw the can in the bin he'll amusedly let you pass, but if you don't then he'll proceed to whip out his stunstick and attack you on the spot

1. "I'm just a tourist." (Andor)

In the episode "Announcement" of Season 1, a random shoretrooper on Niamos questions and threatens Cassian (using the fake alias "Keef Girgo") for nervously looking around too much while they're conducting a crackdown. The trooper asks if he's "a part of it" to which Cassian repeatedly protests that he isn't and that he's just a perfectly normal tourist; he's then violently arrested by him anyway and sentenced to hard labor in Narkina 5 without a fair trial

1. "Now, you. Show me your identification papers, please." (Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus)

A Nazi commandant randomly sits down at Papa Joe's Diner, orders a strawberry milkshake for himself and then very casually asks Blazkowicz to show his ID papers to him. Here you can show him your fake IDs (where you use the alias "John Smith") which seems to fool the commandant for a bit before he looks at a wanted poster on the wall and immediately recognizes your true identity, frantically pulling out his pistol before being shot by the diner's owner

[u/Friend-Boat]

Skyrim intro.

Starts with you about to be executed by imperials. They realize you aren’t on the list and they have no orders to execute you. They send you to the block anyway

[u/Spyko → u/Friend-Boat]

my conspiracy theory is that they made the intro with the imperial as hateable as possible and the stormcloack as fellow victims because they knew that if players where presented with the civil wars faction from a neutral standpoint, no one would join the stormcloaks unless roleplaying as a racist prick.

[u/Imaginary-West-5653 → u/Spyko]

Rather, it’s because the average Skyrim player back in 2011 had likely also played Oblivion back in 2006—and in Oblivion, the Empire is presented, for the most part, in a positive light, with your protagonist literally helping the Emperor to save the world from an evil god who resembles the devil; you're average player was most likely going to have a big pro-Empire bias from the start, which would influence heavily their decision making to be pro-Empire, which isn't good if you want a grey dilemma.

Therefore, showing the most merciless side of the Empire, like their brutal crackdowns during the Stormcloak rebellion, was a good way to basically tell the players "look my pal, Oblivion was in Cyrodiil, the core, where the Empire is nicer; here they are a bureaucratic force ruthlessly destroying an independence movement in Skyrim, so have this into account when choosing a side in the civil war."

[u/ClubMeSoftly → u/Imaginary-West-5653]

Same as Fallouts 3 and 4: The East Coast Brotherhood were the wasteland superheroes, they were the good guys of the game. They might've been a little prickly if you blundered into the Citadel before the plot let you in, but once you're in, it's all good.

So even if you'd become rather familiar with the Brotherhood in the intervening years, and you came to know that the West Coast chapters were tech-hoarding feudal lords who would gun you down for a battery pack, when the Prydwen floats on down to Boston, you're hustling on down to meet your old pals.

Except the people who were so bent on helping the citizens of the wasteland are suspiciously all dead, and the new Elder is wearing a high-collar stormcoat.

[u/Khorgor666 → u/Imaginary-West-5653]

Also said Empire is on the brink of collapse because of the conflict with the Aldmeri Dominion, the Empire as the player knows it is more or less, well, history.