Your Character and TVTropes: Badass Boast

[North_Ranger]

Knowing there's quite a few roleplayers around here in Halforums, as well as knowing how many of us have a love-hate-relationship with TVTropes, I thought to mix these two together. I intend to give you folks chances to tell us about your characters in different ways.

Starting today, we have the Badass Boast: what your character does or says when he or she wishes to impress or intimidate, usually with titles and deeds attached to their name.

Here's some of mine:

Jonah Boon [Changeling: The Lost, a face-shifting Mirrorskin and Satrap of Pearls; a purveyor and facilitator of pleasures]:
"Oh please, calm down and have some coffee. God knows I paid good money for the blend. Here, let me pour you a cup. Savour it while you contemplate the following. I can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. With my right hand I can bless you and shower you with success; with my left I can curse your every effort and make sure you suffer every sling and arrow of outrageous fortune. You want love? It can be yours. Fortune and glory? Let's hear it. You wish someone gone or someone returned? That can be arranged. But there's a price for every pleasure, an equal exchange for every wish. Name your desire and I'll name my price.
"Oh, and that cup of joe? Yeah, you might feel some... discomfort right now. Poison, you see. Don't try to run, you'll never get to the door in time. But you have enough time to have the antidote. Now, what are you willing to pay for it?"

Dioscur Tyndareos (Ravenblack; an ancient warrior vampire):
"You think to frighten me, pup? You think a little fire and your feeble faith in a piece of silverware will keep you safe? I've seen empires rise to glory and crumble to dust; I've walked in places no man was meant to pass; I was a hunter and a warrior long before your Son of God was a glint in His father's eye. I've trained with the best, from the warriors of Rome and cavaliers of England to the Streltsi of Russia and the Shaolin of old. And those who have lived to tell the tale, whisper my names in fear: Tural the Nightrider, Tindar the Shadow Thief, Sassenach Dúbh, The Son of Loviatar, Ti Fang Shi, and a thousand other names that chill the blood and choke the courage. Come on, then, let's see what you have got. If you can make me bleed, I might let you keep one limb."

 

[Null]

The catechism repeated by the Order of the Holy Blade: "I am the light standing against the darkness. I am the rock that breaks the evil tide before me. I am the shield that protects the innocent, and the hammer that smites the wicked. I am of the Order of the Holy Blade, and have no fear of the legions of the Abyss. Let evil cower before the Sword of the Righteous."

 

[Element 117]

"s?"

 

[Gusto]

I wonder if any of my character would prefer to articulate their badassness, rather than simply exist and let it be known.



Other characters of mine are far too humble.

 

[Hailey Knight]

North's characters seem to talk an awful lot. I can think of one occasion where one of my characters used so many words to intimidate.

I remember one professor in a writing class telling us how when Steve McQueen had a script, he would go through it crossing out lines and lines of his character's dialogue. I'm not sure how true that is, but the point certainly made an impression.

 

[Allen who is Quiet]

I like actions over words. If I had to use words, I'd probably make a shining knight character with the creed:

We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever.

 

[North_Ranger]

North's characters seem to talk an awful lot. I can think of one occasion where one of my characters used so many words to intimidate.

I remember one professor in a writing class telling us how when Steve McQueen had a script, he would go through it crossing out lines and lines of his character's dialogue. I'm not sure how true that is, but the point certainly made an impression.

Admittedly, I tend to ramble. Plus, this kind of old-fashioned list of deeds and titles suits both characters: The changelings of the World of Darkness form a quasi-Medieval society with courts and courtiers, eldritch societies and noble orders - one of them being the Satrapy of Pearls, an organization of people specializing purchase and sale of pleasures. As for the vampire character... well, he grew up in a different time, when such challenges made by champions were commonplace.

 

[General Specific]

I played a Half-Orc Barbarian, so he rarely used words to intimidate. My two axes usually made the point abundantly clear.

I also had a Warforged, but didn't get a chance to really play him out too much, I had a few things planned for him. For one, he hated humans and we had a human Warlock in our group, so there was likely to be some tension (this was an evil campaign, btw). In that case, I would have explained the hate thusly:
"I hate humans because when they see me, they do not see a living being. They see a tool to be used and then thrown away or worse, sold like an old piece of furniture. Mages and their ilk are worse. They only see a puzzle. Something for them to disassemble so they can understand how 'it' works. Spare me your words, I know your true heart."

I also was hoping to get a chances to use something akin to this before a fight (it helps to know that Warforged do not die, but are simply deactivated and can be reactivated later):
"You have two options. You can flee this place or we can fight. But know this: I may fall in this battle, but I shall rise again some day. On that day, I shall begin my hunt for you anew. And if your pathetically short life is over by then, I will hunt your children... or theirs. I do not age, I do not hunger, I do not thirst, I do not sleep, and most importantly, I do not forget. It is time for you to choose."

 

[Iaculus]

A Badass Boast does not have to be especially wordy. Consider this example from Babylon 5:

Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.

... or this one from Doctor Who:

I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up.

 

[North_Ranger]

A Badass Boast does not have to be especially wordy. Consider this example from Babylon 5:

Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.

... or this one from Doctor Who:

I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up.

True, and those are the most badass kind. However, they work best if there's a reasonable amount of commonly-known backstory about the characters. In the case of most RPG characters (player-made, that is), that is not the case.

 

[Iaculus]

I disagree - short boasts can work quite well even with no background knowledge of the character. Consider, as an illustrative example, this bit from Deep Space Nine, a show I have never watched:

Odo: How did you get in here?Koloth: I am Koloth.
Odo: That doesn't answer my question.
Koloth: Yes. It does.

Short boasts portray the character's badassery as self-evident, requiring no further explanation. Ideally, of course, they should be tailored to the nature of the character, but they do not require an intimate knowledge of their background to work.

I'll try a rough-and-ready example using one of the characters I have planned for a story in the tubes:

"My name is Vittoria, little one. You know who I am. You know what I can do. And you know that you do not have enough men to stop me."

 

[Hailey Knight]

"My maul tells me what to do, so I can do anything I want to you, and only my maul will get in trouble."

This doesn't seem intimidating in text, true, but it would if I did the Grendmir voice!

 

[Gusto]

"You must not know who I am. I am Errik Loreno, of the Lorenos. It is a pleasure for you to meet me."

 

[Hailey Knight]

I always preferred Errik's righteous indignation when someone didn't know the Lorenos. "What do you mean never heard of us?"

 

[Gusto]

I always preferred Errik's righteous indignation when someone didn't know the Lorenos. "What do you mean never heard of us?"

Followed by a quick and painless saving of their village, followed by my name spelled in magical fireworks across the night sky.

Lest they forget.

Errik is easily my favourite character to roleplay, but I really loved Helga's no-nonsense approach to interrogation last week. If I might postphrase:

Helga steps on the chest of the beaten wererat, bring her face close to his, and lowers her craghammer to the side of his head.
"You will tell me all you know about the smugglings, kidnappings, and murders that have occurred in Dougan's Hole, as well as the whereabouts of this 'Master' of yours. I warn you, rat-man, I am not a patient woman."
The wererat coughs and sputters up a little blood before twisting is face into a weary grin.
"I will never tell y-"
"Very well then."
*thwack*