Memetic Badass/Tabletop Games
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Board Games
Warhammer 40,000
- Some Warhammer 40,000 fans make Commissar Yarrick out to be the series' answer to Chuck Norris. Two of their claims:
- The God-Emperor of Mankind is merely warming Yarrick's seat.
- The Tyranid extra-galactic Horde of Alien Locusts encroaching on human-controlled space was a set of splinter groups fleeing from Yarrick's own extra-galactic adventuring, which had previously destroyed the majority of their forces. Or, should they say, "fleeing".
- The Orks pass along rumors of Yarrick being able to kill with a glance. Yarrick simply thought "Good idea" and insalled a fucking laser into the bionic eye made to replace the original he lost fighting Orks. This is after he also had his hand replaced with a Power Klaw usually reserved for Ork Warbosses about three times his size.
- Within the W40K 'verse itself, we also have Commissar Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, whose reputation for heroism has grown to the point that one Imperial cult has actually proclaimed him "a physical manifestation of the God-Emperor's Will". Of course, because Cain is an Accidental Hero who is actually a Dirty Coward, the whole thing is played for laughs.
- The OotS forum is attempting to turn Eldrad Ulthran into the man who caused everything in the universe, along the lines of "God created Earth, Chuck Norris created God, Rick Wakeman composed Chuck Norris, and Eldrad Ulthran gave Rick piano lessons."
- Sounds more like a memetic dick to me.
- Because there isn't a memetic niceguy trope, Kharn is one heck of a guy.
- And he's the new Commissar, after all.
- And we can't forget the Tactical Genius of CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!
- The speed with which this meme has infiltrated the fandom is quite astonishing. It would have taken some sort of tactical genius t- CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!
- Then we get to his Cousin, Lord General Castor (of Dawn of War II Fame) who is slowly turning into this trope, it helps that his trophy wall is the largest and most complete archive of all Tyranid species that have been encountered by the Imperium so far.
- And lets not forget Governor-General Vance Stubbs, with his famous Rousing Speech. Even if he did lose one hundred baneblades...
- Pfff, everyone knows the baneblades were just hidden by Creed.
Other Board Games
- Hero Clix both Franklin Richards and Li Ann were given the God Amongst Pogs status because of their low cost, their seeming inability to do damage and the anecdotal stories of them knocking out super villains and heroes several orders of magnitude above their power level.
- Alfred was also known as the first God Amongst Pogs and would routinely win tournaments if run correctly. But to be fair it was a representation of Alfred.
- Gotrek is generally considered Memetic Badass among Warhammer Fantasy Battle fans. Dwarven (dwarves are most badass race in whole setting) troll slayer (troll slayers are most badass of all Warhammer dwarves), most (or, depending on perspective, least) successful of all dwarven troll slayers.
Tabletop RPG
Legend of the Five Rings
- Many, many people in Legend of the Five Rings, but the greatest of them is Toku. Following his elevation to memetic baddass-hood, he was elevated by the tournament wins (which determine storyline in L5R) to canon badass. Originally a peasant acting as a samurai, Toku ended up becoming a recognized samurai, hero of two wars, captain of the Imperial Guard, founder of his own clan, Empire-renowned legal and moral authority, and, posthumously, a god. All of this because people thought a free, unaligned character designed to be fed to demons was pretty funny.
- Yoritomo was declared by Word of God to be the greatest warrior in history. Bear in mind that this is a setting that thinks nothing of having a god and his son duke it out in Hell for centuries, killing anything that dares to try to interrupt. There's even card art showing Yoritomo being offered the throne by another god, and Yoritomo walking away while giving her the finger.
- Simultaneously subverted AND played straight with Bayushi Tangen, his heir Kwanchai, and their students in the Dark Sword of Bitter Lies, both in story and out. Created as a parody of Mary Sue powergamers, the Bitter Lies technique revolves around three things: luck, insanity, and loyalty to the Scorpion Clan. Without all three, the methods are worthless, lethal only to the chump trying to use them. With all three, the storyline presents the characters as literally unkillable: to date, no Bitter Lies swordsman is confirmed dead. The closest thing to an exception is Kwanchai, who went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the very dimension of Roaring Rampage of Revenge. It took Word of God to convince players that Kwanchai didn't destroy the dimension outright, and even then, nothing's stopping the writers from saying he's Not Quite Dead.
- As a bonus, simply meeting Kwanchai was enough to balance the kharma of Bayushi Shoju, generally considered the greatest traitor in the empire's history. Shoju has since reincarnated, and is set to lead the Scorpion to victory, and to redeem his name in the eyes of the empire.
Other Tabletop RPG
- Bliss Stage: Keenan Caine once got his Anchor pregnant just by kissing her.
- Exalted's Michael Goodwin, aka Nephilpal, is the true designer of the system, who died in the First Age but will return to save us all from crappy quality control.
- Also from Exalted: the Mirror Flag. The greatest liar in Creation. She canonically rewrote her own history because it wasn't epic enough for her. Less canonically, everyone in Creation is the Mirror Flag in disguise and doesn't know it.
- Demetheus, a.k.a. DEMETHEMANIA! Wandering badass righter of wrongs with the comportment of Tom Joad and the strength of ten bulls.
- Steve Kenson[who?] rolls twenties.
- Doctor Kromm, the line editor of GURPS, has a cult following.
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