Boisterous Bruiser / Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons
  • The Greyhawk setting has Kord the Battlelord, the god of Boisterous Bruisers. Kord's main religious rituals include wrestling, killing evil monsters, and bragging about wrestling and killing evil monsters.
  • Fellow Greyhawk resident and epic-level fighter Robilar is also an example, a cheerful adventurer who stays steadfast to his fellows and goes on epic quests just to test his skill. Atypically for this trope, he's usually stated to be Lawful Evil - being restricted to good couldn't keep up with his lust for battle.
  • King Boranel of Breland, in the Eberron setting, was one of these in his younger days. His coronation involved pulling him out of a gambling hall, he led from the front during the Last War, he's been married three times and (according to the Eberron Wiki) has eleven children, he spent some time as a treasure hunter in Xen'drik, and he keeps two pet magebred ghost tigers.
  • There's a good chance that any half-orc that shows up in D&D who isn't a bloodthirsty savage falls into this character type.
  • The Goliath in 3rd, 4th, and 5th edition are a whole RACE of these.
  • This tends to be a popular way to roleplay barbarians.
• Iron Kingdoms. Borka Kegslayer is an eight-foot tall trollkin shaman of the fertility goddess, Dhunia, and is also the embodiment of this trope. He has sired so many children from so many different women that he's lost track of them all; he once freed a tribe of enslaved pygmy trolls, all of whom then immediately swore enternal loyalty to him and now act as his personal beer keg carriers (he always has them follow him into battle, in case he gets thirsty); and has killed so many enemies that he has become a house hold name for every kriel (clan) in the northern hemisphere.
• The Pathfinder core setting has the deity Cayden Cailean, whose epithet is "The Drunken Hero." He was a mortal mercenary who ascended to godhood as a consequence of a dare he accepted during an evening of partying (he doesn't remember the exact means by which he accomplished this), and currently reigns as the Chaotic Good deity of adventurers, freedom, and alcoholic beverages. According to the source book, his life as both mortal and god consisted of "fighting for just causes, enjoying various alcohols, and not doing anything he didn't want to do."
  • Valeros, Pathfinder's iconic fighter, is a devotee of Cayden Cailean. And it's rather easy to guess just by reading his write-up.
  • Also from Pathfinder is Kurgess, god of sports, competition, and bravery. Note that Cayden Cailean was partially responsible for Kurgess' ascension into godhood after the latter died in an effort to save some fellow athletes.
  • The pantheon of the Dragon Empires contains a couple more divine Boisterous Bruisers: Hei Feng, the Duke of Thunder - a Chaotic Neutral storm god who loves swordfighting, liquor, and Stuff Blowing Up - and Sun Wukong, the Monkey King himself, who enjoys wandering the Material Plane in order to "pick fights, woo beautiful women, and drown himself in potent alcohol."
• Warhammer 40,000 has a number of examples:
  • First, there's the Space Wolves—a Space Marine chapter made up of Norsemen from space. As such, they tend to have a roaring good time on the battlefield, then kick back in the feasting hall and enjoy some ale with their pet dire wolves. Their current leader Logan Grimnar is one of the few unquestionably heroic individuals in the setting, while their founder was the legendary Leman Russ, who challenged the Emperor of Mankind (widely viewed as a god incarnate) to a Drinking Contest. (He won easily, but the Emperor got fed up and KO'd Russ with a Power Fist. Russ would claim the headache that followed was simply a hangover.)
    • Note the 'Trickster' index link down there- the latest codex introduced Space Wolf special character Lukas the Trickster, their very own Loki.
  • Then there's the Orks, a 'scourge on the entire galaxy' consisting entirely of Boisterous Bruisers. Brutally effective in battle, equivalent to a fully armoured Space Marine in close combat and capable of building equipment for an army from scrap, they also consider dakka, hatchets and spiky bits to be the most important tools for war and won't hesitate to charge a tank with nothing but an axe and bits of leather strapped to them. Occasionally an especially large and powerful Warboss (though the two tend to be interchangeable, as Orks determine rank via size) will assemble enough 'boyz' to lead a WAAAGH!, an interstellar campaign resembling a mass migration, looting party, holy war and pub crawl (with the occasional bit of genocide)... though the nature of this trope will inevitably cause it to disintegrate into internecine fighting, which is just fine with them, as it means more people to fight. They are the only faction who doesn't regard endless, pointless warfare as grimdark Serious Business, which makes them appealing to many players of the game.
  • On the Chaos side, Chaos Space Marines really enjoy trying to demoralize the enemy by shouting. Worst / best of all are the Berserkers of Khorne, who may very well be Evil Is Hammy incarnate. Observe.
• Haka in Sentinels of the Multiverse is a massive, immortal Maori who can be wise, compassionate and all that, but also really loves hitting bad guys with sticks.
  Haka: Hundreds of those skittering stabby robots came at me! It was great!

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