I’m starting to have quite some experience on TTRPGs, as a dungeon master and as a player, a few of my friends made fun of me because I’m apparently playing a very particular type of characters. To shut down these accusations, I’ve decided to list here all the characters I’ve played, with a short description, and an estimate of the numbers of games I’ve played with each.
The accusation
Let’s start by defining the lies my friends are saying about me. They say I only play female badass characters. By badass, they mean characters that are combat oriented, very strong and that tends to have a somewhat flashy style.
I have to confess, combat is important in a lot of the TTRPGs I play, and although it’s possible to play characters that are not fighting, I feel like this is less fun because you can end up not playing or playing less in some of the phases of the game. I also like to have opinionated builds, I want my characters to be very strong in some aspects, and very weak in others, which means that most of my characters would enter the “badass” category they are describing. It’s an unfair description if you ask me.
Exhibit A: The characters I’ve played a lot
Selkay, D&D5e
Time played: 20+ 4h sessions.
The first character I’ve ever played, it’s a classic dark elf assassin, young adopted son from the leader of a somewhat honorable guild. He’s working to help his guild gain influence and prestige and try to put a wrench in the gears of the main rival assassin guild, their deadly rivals: “The thousand blades”.
This character started as super cliché, the edgy rogue, always in the shadows, but with a clear goal and good reasons to stay with a group. He evolved in a more interesting direction in my opinion, by being more of a master of disguise. Every few sessions, when we enter a new place, I’m creating a new “character”. This is how I took the identity of Salim, a lawless pirate, to enter a criminal guild without raising suspicions, or Tyrion, a rich noble with his escort, to help my character’s party pass as simple bodyguards, and finally Aldadan, a ranger just looking for a job in a northern village.
With this new angle, it’s been easier to contribute to the party social efforts by providing fake backstory and help us gain information without revealing our true intents.
By being an assassin with a good build, magic items and tools to reliably end up in advantageous situations in the start of the fights, this character does count as badass.
Diane de la Rochefoucaut, Pavillon noir (Black flag)
Time played: 15/20 4h sessions.
In this pirate game, Diane is a woman, often the only onboard. From noble descent, she fled France to avoid being married off in one of her father political plot. She bears a scar on her cheek caused by a bullet shot by her own father. Very good fencer, trained by her uncle in one of the finest fencing school of France, she’s one of the deadliest person with a blade that the party ever encountered. An unfortunate event in one of the first sessions of play cost her her left arm, which has since been replaced with a rudimentary prothesis taking the form of a hook, another blade, or a grappling hook. She’s a good leader, harsh but fair, and was chosen as the quartermaster by the crew to represent them with the Captain and the other commanding officers.
Outside of combat, she’s a very good tactician and therefore coach the crew in tense situations, ensuring a mistake won’t cost the lives of everybody onboard.
By blowing off a spanish fort alone and defeating countless opponents with her blade, she earned the badass badge.
Lucia Elvira, Cops
Time played: 5 weekends with 20+ hours of playtime (yes, it’s amazing).
2032, Los Angeles. California has seceded from the United States. Lucia Elvira is a member of the Cops, the elite police force of LA. From street thugs putting their hands on heavy weaponry to high stakes conspiracies between cartels and mafias to control contraband import routes or money laundering schemes, she encounters all kind of criminals. Lucia is tailored for field work, excellent in both hand-to-hand combat to subdue unarmed criminals and with a handgun when things start to heat up. She’s also a highly competent driver for car chases and has a pretty good police instinct.
Unfortunately, you can’t be good at everything and Lucia pays for that by being pretty poor at everything related to questioning, bureaucracy, office politics or specialized investigations topics such as electronics or informatics.
She sustained a machete injury and one bullet wound, she’s always volunteering for the most dangerous jobs, that’s another badass.
The defense starts profusely sweating.
Tallion, Corrompus
Time played: 2 5h sessions but more coming.
This character is for a custom TTRPG created by a friend of mine, it’s a duelist swords master mixed with some destructive or enhancing magic to make him deadlier. In a world where darkness often means death, he fights with only one hand to allow him to inflame his other hands, creating light for his companions. He’s also well versed in alchemy to create and use grenades effectively.
It’s always easier to fight a monster that just got his arm blown off.
La couronne de Pharon and Le manoir maudit are two stories in French recalling the adventures of Tallion in this cursed world.
Krayorn, D&D 5e
Time played: ~10 3-4h remote sessions.
I played this character in a remote D&D game with guys from the US, the UK, Germany and Australia. It was hell to schedule, but it was a blast. This character was a Warlock, the first and only full caster (or even caster oriented) of this list! This might be one of the first character that was not matching the “badass” definition. Young human, mostly lost, and not understanding how his spells worked.
Exhibit B: characters played for one-shots
Lewis Snyder, Wildtrail
Time played: 2-3 4h sessions.
Wiltrail is a far west inspired game, Lewis is a simple cowboy, with the simple variation of preferring long distances rifles instead of the classic revolver of the far west. A gun for hire escorting the moving city of Hell on Wheels as the railroad company were laying down the tracks.
A marksman on horseback, very good rider, very good tracker, very good survivalist. I’m not sure, but I think he still counts as badass ?
Constance Auclair, Call of Cthulhu
Time played: 2-3 4h sessions.
Constance Auclair was a spy, she did not know how to fight, she did not know how to shoot. She knew how to seduce, and how to gain information without being seen. This femme fatale archetype almost died in every session played, but I think that it’s a requirement in every game of Call of Cthulhu.
Sasha Steel, D&D 5e
Time played: 2 4h sessions.
Back to D&D, with this female battle master fighter. Nothing particular to see here, she wields a halberd called Lily, and was built in order to protect the party to the horror of my DM with the sentinel and polearm master feats. Everything that came to close was getting whacked with a big hit of halberd, then tripped by a battle master maneuver, then whacked again if they tried to leave. It was a really fun build, really deadly and useful for the group!
Voggin, D&D 5e
Time played: 1 8h one-shot.
I was invited to a one shot with only one order: “You’re fighting kobolds, it’s a very hard one shot, bring a busted character lvl10”. I obliged.
Voggin was a Bugbear Gloom stalker ranger, wielding a hand crossbow with the crossbow expert and sharpshooter feats. This abomination was invisible in the dark from creatures that relied on dark vision, had a magical item to allow him to walk on the walls of the cave, and was shooting 4 bolts on the first turn of combat, then 3 times per turn with deadly precision. The kobolds were not ready and dropped like flies. The Dragon that awaited us in the boss room barely laster longer than his followers.
Despite this absurd violence, I think being hidden in the shadow and never seen means he doesn’t qualify for the badass counter.
Lei Kuanghu, Qin
Time played: 1 4h session.
This one is the latest character I played! The game takes place in antique China, and where all the other party members went with weapons (spears, flails, daggers…), I settled for a hand-to-hand character with a very good affinity at using improvised weapon (My first attack of the game was punching a bao to send it in an opponent face). The game is very theatrical, rewarding flamboyant actions. So this character definitely goes in badass territory.
Gardien, D&D 5e
Time played: 2-3 4h sessions.
I played Gardien in only a few sessions, but this warforged artificer was very fun. With a goal of being an absolute tank, infusing armors and shields to help protect my fellow adventurers, Gardien was one of my more reserved characters. Definitely not badass.
Lloyd Miller, Savage Worlds
Time played: 1 3h one-shot.
This character was created for a one shot, I’ve written about him in English in this story. He’s strong, he’s somewhat agile, and he kicked ass with a firefighter axe. Yup, Badass, and if you got any doubt, I invite you to read his short story which I hope would make you reconsider your position.
The defense rest.
You’ve seen all the evidence.
So am I guilty of playing mostly female badasses ? I don’t think so your honor.
It’s not my fault that two of the three campaigns that took off and that I’ve played a lot in ended up being with 2 female characters, it could have been a lot of other ones.
What I could be charged with however, is of playing dexterity-based, magic avoiding, ultra-lethal, often min-maxed fighting characters. But this was not what I was on trial for here tonight!
The court might reopen the case once I create my next character. In the meantime, if you have any further questions, you’ll have to take them up with my lawyer.