The Woobie/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
 
* Lampshaded in an ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' sourcebook where they discourage relying too heavily on this trope: "If your character is taunted by classmates everyday, and every night is beaten and/or raped by his alcoholic father while his mother sits around dosed to her eyeballs on tranquilizers, you're laying it on kind of thick." In the ''[[New World of Darkness]]'', such a person would have a ''better'' life than most of the games's player characters, though there's nothing that says you can't have a happy ''back''story. [[Promethean: The Created|Prometheans]], on the other hand, would look at that mortal and [[Blessed with Suck|ask if they can trade lives]].
** Averted by all [[Geist: The Sin Eaters|Sin-Eaters]], who are recipients of [[Throw the Dog a Bone]] (namely, the fact that they ''[[Back Fromfrom the Dead|aren't]]'' bones)
** In stark contrast to ''Geist'' stands ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'', where your character at the very LEAST was kidnapped, replaced, beaten, violated, and tortured for no reason! Even if their back-story makes them more of a [[Break the Haughty]], you still want to give them a hug. As the page puts it, "[[Touched by Vorlons]]: Molested by Vorlons is more like it."
** In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'', the Bastet had a Gift called "Kitten's Cry" that basically made them ''look'' like an adorably cute Woobie on command.
* Lilith in ''[[Exalted]]''. Let's put it this way: 3000 years in the heart of [[Primordial Chaos|pure insane chaos]] did less psychological harm than her marriage to [[Complete Monster|Desus]] did.
* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'':
** Many of the [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] races are prone to gaining player sympathy, but [[Lizard Folk|Kobolds]] seem to be the most downright pitied, especially since they're the default [[Butt Monkey]] race.
** One of the D&D-based Choose Your Own Adventure books, ''Return to Brookmere'', has a scene where the elf hero finds a young gnoll crying its eyes out, having been abandoned by its tribe for admiring pretty things like jewelery and disliking other gnolls' brutality and mayhem. Perhaps the earliest published example of Woobieism in an [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] D&D race.
** The race of shadowShadow elves, from the ''[[Mystara]]''. setting,The aresubterranean aelves deliberatewho subversionappeared ofbefore D&D'sand own[[Flanderization|later Subterraneanwere Elfpartially =reused for]] Chaotic Evil Drow trope. The productsurface thatelves introducessee them much the same way, but the splatbook dedicated to them gives their culture a history steeped in Woobieism -- driven underground by nuclear disasters (yes, ''plural'' nuclear disasters), harried by horrific monsters at every turn, cold-heartedly exploited by {{spoiler|their own Immortal patron}} (later they switched to another, andwho brandedactually ascares evilabout freaksthem, bybut surfacein elvessuch --[[Tough theLove]] betterway tothat subvertthe outsiders gamersdon't expectationssee aboutany deepdifference)}}, and branded as evil freaks by surface elves.
* In a very disturbing twist, anyone who sees the [[Creepy Child|Apex]] [[Enfante Terrible|Twins]] from [[Warhammer 4000040,000|Warhammer 40k]] is tempted to treat them as Woobies, and they appear to be poor little kids hunted by the cruel and evil Inquisition for use in depraved and evil experiments, but in reality the Twins are [[Humanoid Abomination|psychotic murderous abominations hundreds of years old]] rather than cute eight year old girls.
{{quote| ''''' The Apex Twins: (surrounded by self mutilated and tortured corpses)''''' "We wanted them to play with us. It took '''ages''' to get them to listen."}}
:: Why yes, they're a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[The Shining]]'' turned [[Up to Eleven]]. If you're looking for someone to pity in ''Warhammer 40,000'', try, oh I don't know, [[Crapsack World|damn near everyone else with the slightest redeeming quality]]. Most of the [[Redshirt Army|Imperial Guard]] probably count. In [[Crapsack World|one of the darkest settings ever created]], [[Tear Jerker|the few heroes stand out all the more]].
 
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[[Category:Tabletop RPG]]
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