History MonsterClown / TabletopGames

** The Fifth Edition version of ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' adds a wandering (and constantly raiding) Chaotic Evil alien ClownSpecies named, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin obviously]], "Space Clowns". WordOfGod from the line producer is that they are an explicit ShoutOut to ''Film/KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace''.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' fantasy universe isolated villages are sometimes visited by the [[TabletopGame/{{Mordheim}} Carnival of Chaos]], what appears to be an innocuous troop of performers turn out to be the hideous daemonic servants of the god of despair, who hypnotise the simple village folk during the performance whilst they quite rapidly decompose. Models are brilliant though, complete with nurglings dressed up as circus animals.
* Let it not be said that ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' doesn't know the monster potential in clowns. Say hello to the [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=3167 Chaos Harlequin]].
** And then there's the Cult of Rakdos, from the Ravnica block. If the land [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=97082 Rakdos Carnarium]] doesn't make your blood freeze, you need to get your head examined. A cult of slash-happy killers who consider their parties a "flop" if someone survives to tell about it - and they have a ''{{circus|OfFear}}'' component to them, too? (And with a circus comes...) Thanks, Wizards, I may never sleep again.
* Naturally, there's at least one ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' scenario (set in 1920s Germany) featuring a carnival jester who's really an EldritchAbomination that's been traveling with the show incognito for years and causing various tragedies and disasters wherever they went.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk 2020}}'', one street gang you can run into on the streets of [[MeaningfulName Night City]] is the Bozos. They are described as the sort of people who get ''plastic surgery'' to look like clowns permanently, who stay up all night watching horror flicks. And committing gruesome crimes. Advice for dealing with them is "Run!"
* Subverted with the enigmatic Immortal Elf Harlequin in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. He's prone to dark humor and wears some pretty terrifying facepaint, but he's a KnightInSourArmor, and often an ally to anyone who seems vital to saving significant portions of the world...though he can be a real jerk when the world's not at stake (he can hold a grudge like nobody's business).
* ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness''[=/=]''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':
** ''[[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness Midnight Circus]]'' naturally features one of these in the form of Koba the Clown, head of Koba's Progressive Klown Show. Quite apart from the fact that he's clearly a UsefulNotes/JosephStalin {{Expy}} - right down to the alias and his seminary background - he's also been [[TheSymbiote partly]] [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by a [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Mind Feeder Bane]]. Having managed to retain free will despite his possession, Koba is an enthusiastic supporter of the circus - not to mention dedicated to wiping out all other clown shows in the carnival. Even when he isn't being employed as brute muscle by [[RepulsiveRingmaster Cavendish]], Koba can usually be found doing something incredibly violent: his clown show usually concludes with one of his troupe being unveiled as a traitor and eaten by a bear live on stage - and the "bear" is actually a captured werebear that Koba has enslaved to his will.
** {{Deconstruct|ion}}ed in ''[[TabletopGame/BeastThePrimordial Conquering Heroes]]'' with Peter Slaughbal, a MonsterClown who actually is an [[HumanoidAbomination Insatiable]] and [[FishOutOfTemporalWater only recently found himself in the modern world]] after having been [[SealedEvilInACan trapt for 50 years in a painting]]. Back before his imprisonment, he was part of a circus troupe and could easily lure his preys, since clowns were still seen as a source of fun and delight, but now that popular culture has cast them as horrifying and villainous, his once perfect disguise is a liability at best, and make people run away from him at worst. [[PragmaticVillainy This has actually led him to join clown associations trying to fight this reputation and make effort to avoid harming children, in the hope to fix this.]]
* The third-party ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' supplement ''Killer Clowns from Hell'' features several clown-themed [[OurDemonsAreDifferent evil outsiders]] (although the [[EldritchAbomination qlippoth]] is more like a whole traveling circus).

* The Eldar Harlequins of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' are [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot space elf ninja killer clowns]], taking the scary clown to [[SerialEscalation the kind of demented levels only 40k can]]. They wear holographic multicoloured harlequin costumes which can scatter their images into thousands of confusing fragments, and death masks which psychically amplify the fears of their victims, form {{nightmare face}}s and project the death-screams of previous victims into the current victim's mind. Their weapons are horrifyingly nasty even by 40k standards; as an example, their usual squad support weapon fires molecule-edged crystal discs covered in toxins that make the target's ''blood explode'' and they often use a weapon that shoots a monomolecular fiber through the target and spins it around, reducing the victim's innards into mush. They worship the "Laughing God", and are the Eldar equivalent of a roving carnival, visiting the various Craftworlds and acting out tales from Eldar mythology with holographic, psychically-enhanced interpretive dance. When they're not killing people in unspeakably horrible ways.