So You Want To / Write A Badass (help creating this)

Okay, I've been going through some of my old stuff, and found an article (from several years ago on one of the rec.games.frp newsgroups, IIRC) that, while it's not suitable for a trope page as is, could provide a jumping off point for a Write a Badass page. Anyone willing to help me develop it more? Here it is:

How to play a Badass
By Reverend K

This idea has been brewing for a long time in the back of my mind. I’ve seen a LOT of characters in tabletop games and in LAR Ps that strove to be some kind of badass, and usually failed miserably. Maybe because there are a lot of confusing images in TV and film that players and G Ms glom onto. In the interests of making better play, I’ve come up with a few guidelines for those who want to get into the feel of playing a real badass.

A real badass never needs to advertise

The serious heavyweights never go looking for trouble. Trouble knows exactly where to find them at all times. A real badass often wants to avoid a fight because he knows intimately all the consequences of winning that fight (police involvement, assault charges, trips to the hospital or the cemetery, having to keep a low profile, possible injury, etc). The problem is that in any given place there are people who fancy themselves alpha males and who respond to the mere presence of a real badass as if it were some sort of personal affront. Real badasses never talk about how tough they are or show off if they can help it because they know from hard experience that it just causes too much trouble.

Talk is cheap.

One of the better indicators of whether somebody is a badass or not is how much they talk. Real badasses don’t have to say much at all. They have better things to do than jibber-jabber about how tough they are… like stay alert for trouble. Besides, most real badasses have learned that there are very few questions that can’t be answered with a cold, steely glare. If a badass does speak, his words are carefully chosen for effect and thus he tends to come off as being cool.

Examples: Bruce Willis in Last Man Standing, Clint Eastwood in just about anything, Wesley Snipes in Blade, Jean Reno in The Professional, Chow Yun Fat in The Replacement Killers, Kevin Klein and Scott Glenn in Silverado.

A real badass never has a matched pair of anything

I’ve seen so many people, especially in online RP, who describe their characters as having a matched pair of silver katanas or nickel plated Mac 10s or pearl handled .45s or some other foolishness. A real badass looks at weapons like a craftsperson looks at tools. They may have some that they favour, but they are going to use the right tool for the right job, and if the tools have to get left behind in the wake of trouble then so be it. It doesn’t pay to get killed trying to get your left-hand sword back. Also, a heavily ornate weapon draws attention to itself AND marks you as an amateur to other pros. Style is all well and good, but most badasses prefer utilitarian weapons. The only real exception to this rule is Batman.

From a role-playing standpoint, you should be aware that if it takes more adjectives to describe your weaponry than it takes to describe your character, then your character is less interesting than his weapons. Special weapons are nice, but they don’t make you more macho or capable.

Even badasses get the crap kicked out of them

The main difference between them and the other guys is that they always get back up. Bruce Willis has made a cottage industry of being beat to shit by the end of the movie. But if you want a classic example of the badass getting back up, watch Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. Just because you’ve created a badass character does not mean you have a license to invulnerability. In fact, if you take it in the pants, it sort of behoves you to do it stoically.

A real badass doesn’t have to be in charge

A lot of people look at being a badass as a license to push people around. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pushing people around creates more trouble than it solves. Experienced badasses know this. As a result, they try to avoid ordering people around as much as possible. Most are perfectly content to allow others to give the orders. Samurai and ninja were badasses, but they usually served greater powers in exchange for priveliges and payment. Look around you at the next LARP you attend. The guy issuing the orders is probably not a real badass. The guy who he issues them to, who just nods his head and goes away, IS a badass. Especially if it results in half a dozen casualties.

Coolness under fire is more desirable than speed or strength

In Unforgiven, Gene Hackman has this long speech about the importance of coolness under fire as opposed to speed on the draw. This idea is absolutely true. Those who rely on speed or strength or funky powers in battle tend to get into a state of mental passivity. Unfortunately, mental passivity WILL GET YOU KILLED! Staying calm in battle is not about looking cool (although it does make you look cool), it’s not even about staying cool so your troops will follow your example and stay cool too (although that, too, is a happy side benefit), it’s more about keeping your mind active and alert for threats and opportunities. In battle, those threats and opportunities can present themselves and pass in moments.

Even badasses have their limits

In The Killer, there are several scenes where Chow Yun-Fat’s character has to have some impromptu surgery (read: taking the bullets out) done on him after the shootouts at the nightclub and the beach house. Those scenes can be rather painful to watch because he doesn’t exactly take the pain of the procedure well. Doesn’t make him any less of a badass, and in fact, he gains a lot more believability because of it.

Also, The Killer is a good example of how you don’t need to be one of those unemotional, cold-fish Clint Eastwood types in order to be a badass. Every badass should have something in his or her life that makes him or her lose his or her cool.

edited 26th Aug '13 11:30:07 PM by Laevatein

Hmm...I'd say that that is good enough for a start, even though I do not really use that sort of page.

That said, I believe people will want you to take this proposal to YKTTW, which is the normal venue for new page creation.

^^ I think I love you.

Seriously, this description fits much more closely with the way I use "badass" than what seems to be the general usage now: a flashy bragging attention-hog bully who everybody notices and who does everything perfectly.

My thumbnail definition of a badass is "He doesn't start trouble unless he has to, but he'll by-god finish it or die trying."

edited 27th Aug '13 5:27:40 AM by Madrugada

Huh, you pretty much just described my current protagonist.

Nice.

The only thing I reacted to was that a badass can certainly talk a lot. Just not about how good she is. Friendly chatting or diplomacy does not a badass unmake. On the other hand, it can easily come off as obscuring their true nature, as you wouldn't as readily expect someone friendly to be just as good at making people crack a smile as cracking heads.

Good point, Duck. A badass doesn't have to be The Stoic or The Quiet One, but they don't talk about how good they are. Like with "Cool", if they're constantly telling people how Badass they are; they aren't, really.

Bumping this. SoYouWantTo.Write A Badass seems to be well progressed so far; anyone mind if I ask for closure and any other discussion is hold here if necessary?