The Dark Knight
We’ve all been there. Fed on generations’ worth of action heroes, we reach for the dice when what we really want is to put on the Batman mask. That fundamental power fantasy lies at the heart of the action, fantasy, and sci-fi genres. It’s right there, promised on the box top of each and every starter set: You can be the hero of your own adventure!
For my part, I always think of Molly’s entrance at the end of Neuromancer. If you’ve never read your William Gibson, Molly Millions is the OG street samurai. Here she is walking in on a heist like she owns the goddamn place:
It was a performance. It was like the culmination of a lifetime’s observation of martial arts tapes, cheap ones, the kind Case had grown up on. For a few seconds, he knew, she was every bad-ass hero, Sony Mao in the old Shaw videos, Mickey Chiba, the whole lineage back to Lee and Eastwood. She was walking it the way she talked it.
That’s my version anyway. I’m sure you have your own. And so, armed with this vision of our own impending badassitude, we walk face-first into the glass door of our buddies’ incredulousness.
“Dude, are you going to do that voice the whole time?”
“Seriously? You’re an orphan who murdered the scumbags that killed your parents in your own backstory?”
“For real? You’re just going to brood in the back the whole time? Like the loneliest lone wolf to ever lone a wolf?”
When you try too hard to be the cool guy at the table, there’s a good chance it will descend into farce. That’s because trying too hard is the opposite of cool. You’ve got to earn that badass mystique through effort and RP. Because when you go for the shortcut, delivering a special snowflake rather than a normal character, it risks turning your caped crusader into a dude in towel.
So what do you say, Handbook-World? Have you ever made the same mistake as Vengeance in today’s comic, coming on too strong too soon? What’s the most egregious Edgelord you’ve ever encountered in a game, and have you ever been that guy yourself? Tell us all about your own too-cool-for-school characters down in the comments!
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For some reason I thought antipaladin became the new demon lord, I guess this panel challenges that haha
Naw. That was BBEG:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/the-old-switcheroo
Noooooo Patches isn’t getting healing or resurrection?
Nope, but their body is there for anyone *coughNecromancerOrPaladinCough* to raise as a zombie/ghost/demon/pirate pupper.
I’m hoping Druid will be persuaded to cast “Reincarnate” and Peaches comes back as playful dire wolf.
“Oh who’s the good boy. Yes you are. Now please drop the villager…”
Let sleeping dogs lie.
Hush up, Inquisitor. You went pretty crazy yourself when Magus was dead; show some consideration for Vengeance. He lost his very best friend… *sniff*
(Good final message on Patches’ tombstone, by the way.)
It’s hard for Quiz to understand. She’s obviously more of a cat person.
You can’t do this to me…
WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME!?!?
Would you… Would you like to say a few words? I’m sure Patches would have liked that.
I do love Molly, and I’ve played at least one character directly inspired by her… but I can’t really think of any examples of overdoing the bad-ass impression.
My characters tend to express such things in a more business-like manner… e.g. the last one time I played one with a vengeance arc, she tracked down the terrorists responsible for the deaths of her family, dispatched them with a sniper rifle from several miles away, then walked away… job done, no fuss, no celebrations. Understated badassery, if you will.
Did she at least get a cool one-liner?
Nope… that would have been totally out of character. She doesn’t like killing people, and she knows this because she *has* killed quite a few people in the line of duty.
Thinking on it, there’s something of Sam Vimes about her… there’s a scene in Fifth Elephant where he emphatically doesn’t offer up a one-liner, because he knows that if he had, he couldn’t convince himself that it wasn’t murder. Amy saw it similarly… killing someone to end their threat might be a necessary evil, but killing someone for revenge isn’t something she could live with.
(And being able to live with your conscience is a real concern when you’re a nigh-unkillable metahuman for whom “live with it” is your only option).
Why is the rain green? Have dimensions gone wonky, or is the acid rain in full effect?
I dunno. Why is the other rain purple?
Proposal to officially rename Antipaladin to VENGEANCE (full caps) starts here, reply if you agree.
Full caps? What, you just gotta shout it every time?
Handbook of Heroes is now narrated by Brian Blessed.
MAGUS IS ALIVE!
I feel like Brian Blessed needs to make more guest appearances in my campaigns.
Does it count if it was intentional? I had a character for a one-shot that turned out to be a many-shot. His name was Lord Edge and he was an Oath breaker paladin. High enough level for the buff undead aura. And we were fighting in a tomb. At least I got to pull off the “you shouldn’t get too close. When they do, people die” schtick!
Intentional Edgelord is best Edgelord: https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/special-snowflake
Ludonarrative dissonance can make the problem even worse. In a Lancer campaign I was in, one guy made his character around the concept of a hardened black ops veteran who had performed more interstellar atrocities than the rest of us had had hot dinners.
The problem is that he, like the rest of us, was level zero. (In Lancer, you get a standard-model starter giant robot and a wide but basic variety of equipment from the get-go and have to earn the more specialized stuff.) It was hard to buy that river of blood when he was in the kiddie pool with the rest of us.
Has Antipaladin/Vengeance/Paladin^2/Angy Boi eaten since his fight? His face is looking a bit skinny there. Or maybe it’s just the pure white eyes bringing out his cheekbones.
Homeboy went for Batman but ended up the Machinist… Did he at least unlock the pundit feat BALEful gaze?
Not three days ago I ran the first adventure for a new campaign with my regular game night crew. (First time getting the band back together since COVID!)
I kid you not: three of the five had created half-human orphans with unique special abilities and tragic backstories involving orphanages and cruel nuns. https://media0.giphy.com/media/JjdKi7cH71Hby/200w.gif
That’s when you decided that these three had all come from the same orphanage and knew each others from there. Right?
I’ve never really played an edge lord. Growing up everyone wanted to play one and I loved playing against the grain. So I chose to play anti-edge lords. Like support characters for example.
Now days, after having DMed too many games where I’ve had to corral a bunch of edge lords into cooperating as a group, I just don’t have any desire to play edges.
May I recommend playing a spherical peasant instead?
kek. Next “bloatmage” character concept.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/a-b/bloatmage/
Idk, the guy visibly was qualified enough to join the other group before and i’d say he went through enough to earn the right to at least be a little edgy.
“‘Vengeance and Mercy’, coming this season to a channel near you!”
Holy crap I’d watch that show.
I remember reading a story that featured Molly Millions.
There were also folks who’d deliberately swapped out their own teeth for dobermann chompers, and an assassin with a mono-filament wire hidden in his thumb.
Heh. Gibson had a flair for aesthetics, didn’t he?
I’m just going to leave this here: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?540671-Darkangst-Edgemourn-the-PC
Only partly because I’m proud of my addition to it (though, like any old work, aspects of it make me cringe), but also for all of your entertainment.
Also, I don’t know if this was an intentional reference, but RIP and Z”L Kevin Conroy, the voice of Vengeance who has inspired generations to edgelord responsibly and heroically.
I’ve definitely fallen into the “overly dramatic character trap”… many times. Tellingly, my favorite of these was a character I’ve mentioned in these threads before, Locus.
See Locus had a classic Punisher backstory: family member murdered, quest for vengeance, must kill everyone involved, all very standard, with one key twist.
He’s already finished. He trekked all over the continent, hunting down every last person responsible for his brother’s death, killed them all horribly, and then was surprised to find himself still alive at the end of it all. So now, rather than being angst-ridden and driven by purpose, Locus is cheerful and easygoing, happy to help with whatever’s going on, because his personal entertainment is the only goal he has left.
Weird, I didn’t get the patreon alert for this one
That’s cool and all, but what we really want to know is whether the one-shot Special Snowflake and Snowflake the horse are the same character. There are rumours about hidden identities around here after all.
The beauty of playing the ultra edgelord, is you probably did it in your youth and don’t remember it very well. If you do remember it well, you are probably still in your youth, congratulations! If you are not in your youth and still playing the ultra edgelord… time for some self reflection.
I played in a game with a new player that was trying to literally play a paladin Batman. Used the term “paladin Batman” and everything. It was cute.
I know my own personal experience playing the edgelord was when I was in early double digits and those edgelords were ALWAYS rogues (except technically they were still called Thieves when I was playing them).
Just like my love of boy bands and pop became a love of metal and classical, so to did my love of the ultra edgelord become a love of roleplay and interesting character concepts instead.
There is always a place for the edgelord. It’s the ultra edgelord that we have to smile, nod, and understand, that is probably a new player, if at least in spirit.
Vengeance and Conquest are such interesting contrasting Oaths. If you actually read what Vengeance’s tenets you’ll see that it basically boils down to “Cross *every* line that would see your foes dead”, whereas Conquest boils down to “Be the best you can be, don’t take any shit, make sure you sufficiently intimidate any foes you spare. Basically Vengeance is The Punisher and Conquest is Batman, but because Vengeance is written in a self-righteous tone while Conquest is written in an over the top edgelord tone people interpret them as the opposite.
“You’ve got to earn that badass mystique through effort and RP.”
I think this is the disconnect that can easily lead to grimdork edgelordiness. See, I personally think Vengeance here has earned his badass mystique, but that’s because we’ve seen his entire plot arc. Inquisitor, who was only there for the last bit, doesn’t fully appreciate it.
And by the same token, it’s easy to take your edgelord PC more seriously, because you have “seen” his backstory, and it’s real to you in a way that it can’t be to anyone else at the table. So what seems sensible and dramatic to you comes across as trying too hard to everyone else.
There’s a counterargument in there somewhere. “Can’t you have the courtesy to assume that my fantasy character has earned their personality?” But in the same way that it’s tough for Ian Macellan to act to a tennis ball…
https://www.themarysue.com/ian-mckellen-hobbit-cry/
…It’s a big ask for other players to treat you like Aragorn when all they see is Monty Python at the table.
Ooh, that scroll-over text! You have excellent taste 😀