History MemeticBadass / TabletopGames

* In-universe example from ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. Kai Allard-Liao is widely regarded to be one of the best pilots of his generation. In a simulated combat test on the home planet of Wolf's Dragoons, he managed to defeat five elite opponents, including his trainers, his own father, and his liege lord, in a trial where defeating three was a mark of exceptional skill. The test was an analogue to the Trial of Position of the Clans--three kills would have made him the equivalent of a company commander, four kills the equivalent of a major. Five kills effectively made him the equivalent of a front-line regimental colonel and was unheard-of in Inner Sphere or Clan space. When he was stranded behind enemy lines, the Jade Falcons who controlled the planet thought it only just and fair to send ''fifty'' PowerArmor wearing SuperSoldiers to apprehend him because of his reputation. That he manages to kill one in hand to hand combat is a feat in and of itself, given that his enemies were eight feet tall and five hundred pounds of muscle. After that, they actually start the bidding war to capture him ''in armor.'' Upon encountering the Falcons later in an EnemyMine situation, one of the Falcons murmurs something to the effect that Kai was said to have destroyed three stars of opponents (that is, ''fifteen Battlemechs'', an entire Clan company) in his test instead of just five Mechs. In all fairness, at that point in the narrative, Kai had over ''fifty'' kills to his credit just on the Jade Falcons alone, as the Falcons themselves point out.

*** The Orks pass along rumors of Yarrick being able to kill with a glance. Yarrick simply thought "Good idea" and installed 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''[[labelnote:*]]Not just any Power Klaw, but the one from Warboss Ghazkull himself.[[/labelnote]] usually reserved for Ork Warbosses about three times his size.
**** This is not a claim. This is actual, in-game ''canon''.

* Three words: [[BadassGrandpa Old]] [[CrazyAwesome Man]] [[BadassNormal Henderson]]. This... gentleman, has a legendary reputation among ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' players. Originally the brainchild of a player stuck in a brutally grimdark campaign with a bad GM, Old Man Henderson was a heavily {{Min Max|ing}}ed Schizophrenic Scotsman who claimed to have fought in [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] (he didn't; he would've been far too young to sign up at the time) who joined the party because he wrongly believed that some cultists of Hastur were responsible for stealing his garden gnomes. His finer moments include dropping a Yacht on a penthouse full of Cthulhu cultists, killing several cultists (along with every other PlayerCharacter in that session) with a tanker truck full of C4, taking out a Shoggoth single-handedly with his trusty shotgun, and '''[[KilledOffForReal permanently killing]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Hastur]]''' by luring him into an ice rink filled with explosives and detonating them. And that was how Old Man Henderson won at ''Call of Cthulhu''.

*** The Orks pass along rumors of Yarrick being able to kill with a glance. Yarrick simply thought "Good idea" and installed 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 [[CiaphasCain Commissar Ciaphas Cain]], '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''', whose [[FakeUltimateHero 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 AccidentalHero who is actually a DirtyCoward, the whole thing is played for laughs.

*** 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.

* Three words: [[BadassGrandpa Old]] [[CrazyAwesome Man]] [[BadassNormal Henderson]]. This... gentleman, has a legendary reputation among ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' players. Originally the brainchild of a player stuck in a brutally grimdark campaign with a bad GM, Old Man Henderson was a heavily {{Min Max|ing}}ed Schizophrenic Scotsman who claimed to have fought in [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] (he didn't; he would've been far too young to sign up at the time) who joined the party because he wrongly believed that some cultists of Hastur were responsible for stealing his garden gnomes. His finer moments include dropping a Yacht on a penthouse full of Cthulhu cultists, killing several cultists (along with every other PlayerCharacter in that session) with a tanker truck full of C4, taking out a Shoggoth single-handedly with his trusty shotgun, and '''[[KilledOffForReal permanently killing]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Hastur]]''' by luring him into an ice rink filled with explosives and detonating them. And that was how Old Man Henderson won at ''Call of Cthulhu''.

* Three words: [[BadassGrandpa Old]] [[CrazyAwesome Man]] [[BadassNormal Henderson]] has a legendary reputation among ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' players. Originally the brainchild of a player stuck in a brutally grimdark campaign with a bad GM, Old Man Henderson was a heavily {{Min Max|ing}}ed Schizophrenic Scotsman who claimed to have fought in [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] (he didn't; he would've been far too young to sign up at the time) who joined the party because he wrongly believed that some cultists of Hastur were responsible for stealing his garden gnomes. His finer moments include dropping a Yacht on a penthouse full of Cthulhu cultists, killing several cultists (along with every other PlayerCharacter in that session) with a tanker truck full of C4, taking out a Shoggoth single-handedly with his trusty shotgun, and '''[[KilledOffForReal permanently killing]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Hastur]]''' by luring him into an ice rink filled with explosives and detonating them. And that was how Old Man Henderson won at ''Call of Cthulhu''.

*** Kai's Career spans 25 years of nearly constant war. I could add a half dozen other stories about him and it still wouldn't do him justice. IIRC, when he finally is killed, its because the city he's in is ''bombarded from space''.

* Many, many people in ''LegendOfTheFiveRings'', 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.

** To clarify two things:

* In-universe example from ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. Kai Allard-Liao is widely regarded to be one of the best pilots of his generation. In a simulated combat test on the home planet of Wolf's Dragoons, he managed to defeat five elite opponents, including his trainers, his own father, and his liege lord, in a trial where defeating three was a mark of exceptional skill. The test was an analogue to the Trial of Position of the Clans--three kills would have made him the equivalent of a company commander, four kills the equivalent of a major. Five kills effectively made him the equivalent of a front-line regimental colonel and was unheard-of in Inner Sphere or Clan space. When he was stranded behind enemy lines, the Jade Falcons who controlled the planet thought it only just and fair to send ''fifty'' PowerArmor wearing SuperSoldiers to apprehend him because of his reputation. That he manages to kill one in hand to hand combat is a feat in and of itself, given that his enemies were eight feet tall and five hundred pounds of muscle. After that, they actually start the bidding war to capture him ''in armor.'' Upon encountering the Falcons later in an EnemyMine situation, one of the Falcons murmurs something to the effect that Kai was said to have destroyed three stars of opponents (that is, ''fifteen Battlemechs'', an entire Clan company) in his test instead of just five Mechs. In all fairness, at that point in the narrative, Kai had over ''fifty'' kills to his credit just on the Jade Falcons alone, as the Falcons themselves point out.

* [[GotrekAndFelix Gotrek]] is generally considered MemeticBadass among {{Warhammer}} fans. [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame 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.

* ''{{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.

* In-universe example from ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. Kai Allard-Liao is widely regarded to be one of the best pilots of his generation. In a simulated combat test on the home planet of Wolf's Dragoons, he managed to defeat five elite opponents, including his trainers, his own father, and his liege lord, in a trial where defeating three was a mark of exceptional skill. The test was an analogue to the Trial of Position of the Clans--three kills would have made him the equivalent of a company commander, four kills the equivalent of a major. Five kills effectively made him the equivalent of a front-line regimental colonel and was unheard-of in Inner Sphere or Clan space. When he was stranded behind enemy lines, the Jade Falcons who controlled the planet thought it only just and fair to send ''fifty'' PowerArmor wearing SuperSoldiers to apprehend him because of his reputation. That he manages to kill one in hand to hand combat is a feat in and of itself, given that his enemies were eight feet tall and five hundred pounds of muscle. After that, they actually start the bidding war to capture him ''in armor.'' Upon encountering the Falcons later in an EnemyMine situation, one of the Falcons murmurs something to the effect that Kai was said to have destroyed three stars of opponents (that is, ''fifteen Battlemechs'', an entire Clan company) in his test instead of just five Mechs.

* In-universe example from ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. Kai Allard-Liao is widely regarded to be one of the best pilots of his generation. In a simulated combat test on the home planet of Wolf's Dragoons, he managed to defeat five elite opponents, including his trainers, his own father, and his liege lord, in a trial where defeating three was a mark of exceptional skill. The test was an analogue to the Trial of Position of the Clans--three kills would have made him the equivalent of a company commander, four kills the equivalent of a major. Five kills effectively made him the equivalent of a front-line regimental colonel and was unheard-of in Inner Sphere or Clan space. When he was stranded behind enemy lines, the Jade Falcons who controlled the planet thought it only just and fair to send ''fifty'' PowerArmor wearing SuperSoldiers to apprehend him because of his reputation. That he manages to kill one in hand to hand combat is a feat in and of itself, given that his enemies were eight feet tall and five hundred pounds of muscle. After that, they actually start the bidding war to capture him ''in armor.'' Upon encountering the Falcons later in an EnemyMine situation, one of the Falcons murmurs something to the effect that Kai was said to have destroyed three stars of opponents (that is, ''fifteen Battlemechs'', an entire Clan company) in his test instead of just five.

*** 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.

* Some ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' 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.
** [[http://imgur.com/HReow Not very well]]...
# The Tyranid extra-galactic HordeOfAlienLocusts 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".

*** 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.
* MagicTheGathering has plenty of this. A few mentions: Black Lotus, Llorgnoyf ("Ach! Hans, run!"), and Progenitus. But the ultimate example is Storm Crow. Just go to Gatherer and look up the comments.

*** 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.

* Many, many people in ''LegendOfTheFiveRings'', 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.