Took a Level in Badass/Tabletop Games

Examples of in  include:

Board Games

 * The Imperial Guard took a whole bunch of levels in bad ass this year after they got a new codex that's actually good. Also an example of Throw the Dog a Bone since IG and IG players were Games Workshop's favorite Butt Monkey.
 * Space Marines also took a few levels in badass with their Fifth Edition Codex, the most notable being the Captain's Weapon Skill boost and the Chapter Master's Call Orbital Bombardment ability.
 * The Eldar got a significant boost with the rules changes in the Fifth Edition rulebook that combine with existing powers to make their Falcons tougher than Land Raiders.
 * The recent wave of updates to extremely old codexes (most notably the Dark Eldar, who have not received a new book in over a decade) resulted in many taking several levels in badass. Most notably the Grey Knights, going from an extremely small and elite group of special forces space marine taking massive death tolls to banish even the smallest of greater daemons to badass demonhunters whose very existence can make demons cower (not to mention their leader carved his name into the chest of a daemon primarch). Some of these were considered well deserved and long overdue (notably the Dark Eldar, which was praised as being both flavorful and balanced) others were not.
 * Chess has two examples:
 * The humble pawn, which upon reaching the last rank on the chessboard gets promoted, almost always into a Queen, the most powerful piece in the game
 * The Queen herself. Initially the piece was known as the vizier and moved very similarly to a pawn (i.e. it was much weaker than a king, which can at least cover all eight squares around it). Then, during the 15th or 16th century, it was given its current movement abilities and, well, there's a reason the pawns tend to get promoted to queens.
 * This upgrade (orthogonal and diagonal travel without limit where unobstructed) became tellingly known as "madness chess" ("That much power wielded by a woman? Madness!") and the Italians called the piece rabioso.
 * If it comes to that, the ancient bishop was even weaker, moving diagonally two squares exactly, which restricted it so that 56 of the 64 squares were permanently off-limits.

Tabletop RPG

 * While no Dungeons & Dragons Prestige Class is explicitly named "Badass", there are many, many candidates, such as:
 * Heir of Siberys -- Eberron dragonmark, turned Up to Eleven.
 * Extreme Explorer -- Kind of like being Indiana Jones, really.
 * Archmage -- is able to sacrifice high-level spell slots to get things like six fireball spells per day 2 Time Stops (9th level spell) a day at the cost of a 9th level slot (and it can be done 5 times).
 * It also makes blasting a bit more viable. Imagine what it does with the actually worthwhile spells...
 * Pyrokineticist -- Kill It with Fire, well, psionic fire anyway.
 * Risen Martyr -- "Hey look, I died, and now I can do all this awesome shit!"
 * Wait, SERIOUSLY? D includes a prestige class that makes you JESUS? HOLY SHIT!
 * That one was in the book that included the 'saint' template, after all...
 * Increasing in level in any class arguably makes one more of a badass (that 1st level wizard having troubles fighting kobolds? He's having troubles fighting Pit Fiends now). It's just that the badassness is split out over twenty levels, which generally makes the shift somewhat gradual.
 * Why there is no mention of Incantatrix, Planar Shepherd, Dweomerkeeper, Ruby Knight Vindicator, Jade Phoenix Mage...? While on that, why not add Survivor to the mix?
 * Planar Shepherd deserves special mention for being the only prestige class that's strictly better than just taking more Druid levels.
 * If none of the official classes are badass enough for you, try these fan-made rules.
 * 4th edition D&D goes so far as to build this into the classes twice over. First, at level 11, you get a Paragon Path that lets you take a level in badass... then, at level 21, you get an Epic Destiny, which is a second level in even more badass. Epic Destinies include the likes of Master of Moments (you gain control over time), Undying Warrior (there is nothing in the multiverse that can kill you), Parable (you realise that all of reality is but a story... and you ascend to become its author), World Tree Guardian (you are responsible for protecting the spirit of the world itself from harm), Chosen (your god makes you it's avatar within the world), and Demigod (you become a lesser god).
 * Any RPG character will level up through the course of the game.
 * If you're playing Deadlands, death can be step one to taking that level. Just ask  who came back from the dead to run the Union's monster-hunting agency.
 * The Solars of Exalted took a collective level in Badass when the Jade Prison broke. For better than fifteen centuries, spanning the Shogunate, through the Scarlet Empress's reign, there were roughly twenty Solar Exaltations active in the world at any given time. Two years after the Scarlet Empress disappeared, that number shot up to one hundred and fifty. All of a sudden, the idea of a Solar Resurgence isn't that crazy, even in the face of the Wyld Hunt.
 * Likewise considering that any kind of Exaltation is pretty much the epitome of taking a level in Badass. This troper is surprised the trope hasn't been renamed, or at least that Exalted didn't already have an entry.
 * The Lunars combines Took a Level in Badass with Took a Level In Kindness. By definition, a Lunar is a Steward, he or she lives to protect something as opposed to Solar Lawgivers who live to master something. Of course, in Creation, Good Is Not Nice...
 * The Abyssals combines Took a Level in Badass with Took a Level in Jerkass. Well, their job description basically can be summed to "go murder Creation".
 * The Green Sun Princes is just like Abyssal, except it's "go make Creation a living hell". It's an even more (green-)shining example of taking levels in badass compared to the Solars. While Solars exalted by proving their badassitude, the Infernals are exalted by failing to prove their badassitude. They sucked so much they had to make a Deal with the Devil to take levels in badass.
 * Infernals get to take another level with the Faustian Rebellion Heresy charms. Want to prove your awesome in a way no other Exalt can? Take the power the Yozis have given you, then use it to break, rewrite or cheat every control measure they've loaded on, then build a charmset that embodies You As A Primordial in the same way that the Malfeas charmset embodies Malfeas, then start spawning your own Third Circle Demons.