Indulge me /tg/. What constitutes an "edgy" character when it comes to rpgs like DnD?
Member of evil race 'struggling to find the light'.
Carries many weapons.
Commits violent acts for no real reason.
'Edgy' characters can be redeemed by having other facets to their personality. Edginess is only an issue if it's the only side a character has.
>>47903350
Badly written or no backstory at all
Shock factor elements that are typically teenage, such as being against the establishment just because it's the establishment, or other chaotic to chaotic evil characters.
Being a horrible or straight sociopathic person without any thought put into what that means for your character and how the world interacts with him. Including playing a character that the party would not associate with and has no reason to adventure together with, yet here we are.
An orphan whose parents were murdered (preferably in front of him).
The subject of a terrible curse, hinting at some sort of grand destiny.
Is of a member of a rare race that is looked down upon by most people, or that otherwise appears monstrous and will not fit in to the mostly-human/elf/dwarf civilizations of most D&D worlds.
Is often struggling against their own nature, or what the player thinks is their race's nature.
Is usually unnecessarily morbid or mopey, especially due to their own destiny. They never lighten up.
If you congeal off the wall of an inn that must exist in a hypercube to have so many corners for everyone to sit in simultaneously to brood in...you might be getting there.
If family is dead. They wield a katana and seem to be singularly driven by vengeance without going any further into character detail then brooding and anger and a desire for arbitrary killing people for no reason. You might be edgy.
If you are a one off example of an impossibly rare and/or extinct species that is a mix of 1 or more other species traits while having no weaknesses. That's a symptom.
If you must drink blood, have different colored eyes, have wolf traits and control the darkness which either lies in shadow and/or in others hearts, you might be edgy.
And if you are a nihilist with no gods and no masters and laugh at religion...edge is possible.
Now. Having those traits can work if the characters is played well. But if the RP is done lazily then wow does it come off as edgy and groan worthy.
>>47903350
Anything that isn't a lawful good male human fighter
>>47903539
*Paladin.
>>47903350
You are trying to look dark and badass and fail miserably to the point of looking funny. That's it.
Edgy has no meaning anymore, this site killed it and you shit upon the grave.
>>47903350
Threatening innocents for no reason
Attacking innocents for no reason
Threatening or attacking an NPC who helped you
Performing violent executions of enemies the GM declared were only knocked out when reduced to 0 hp
Babbling about social justice for sapient evil creatures like fiends and illithids
Attacking PCs and NPCs if they attack an evil creature on sight
Plotting to betray/execute another party member because they have 'evil' on their sheet, even if that player is actually playing it well and cooperating
All of those were the same guy. His characters were all super edgelords because he did the opposite of what is expected of him in the context of a situation.
In my opinion, a vampire wearing a black trenchcoat who dual wields katanas and struggles against the darkness inside him isn't really edgy, just corny. What makes a tabletop character REALLY edgy is the behavior of the player in-game, whether their character is Donovan the faithful human male paladin or Dirge Blackheart the gun-toting half-demon half-angel ninja assassin.
Or maybe the way I define 'edgy' is wrong, I don't know. I've seen it called a buzzword before anyway.
>>47903484
Dexter.
Sort of Dexter.
Not Dexter.
Dexter.
Dexter.
>>47903727
you say that like it's a bad thing
"A Hummer being driven though the jungles of Borneo is a tool. A Hummer trying to squeeze into a parking space on Rodeo Drive is being driven by a tool." - Dennis Miller
Edgelords are tools. They see things that strike them as cool/interesting/powerful/tough and they try to copy it, but they copy the wrong bits. They don't "get" what's actually cool about the thing so they end up with a distorted, weird, out of place version of it and then they circle-jerk that version of it into the ground like a Hot Topic next door to a lube factory.
Rape and katanas
>>47903350
Five years ago, I lost 30,000 men in the blink of an eye... And the world just watched
>>47903350
Wants to use eugenics and mind control to breed a master race to usher in a new age of prosperity, and takes aggressive action at those short-sighted close-minded fools.
Also tends to keep jailbait in a dungeon for breeding purposes. But that last one is just my magical realm.
>>47905675
Who? It sounds familiar.
>>47906588
CoD:MW2, General Shepherd or whatthefuck his name was.
>>47903350
Comes into a light hearted campaign with a backstory that references dark themes and constantly references those themes even when the setting is fairly light-hearted.
Constantly at odds with the party due to a combination of being a lone wolf and a special snowflake.
Gets pissy if he fails an action, no matter how insignificant, or if he isn't the center of attention.
Harms innocents/allies for no good reason.
Helps out opponents for no good reason.
Among other things.
Let me go over the Edgelord I have to deal with on Tuesdays.
>21 year old guy, Identifies as female. Herewegoagain.jpg.
>Furry. Self Taught Psychology. "Studies" Martial Arts religiously. Gigantic Scene Weeabo.
We're doing a Superhero game, 1980's. Teenagers just discovering their powers. Supposed to be Good Guys. All American Heroes on the road to becoming Legends.
So what does Edgelord make. Sri Lankan Refugee with Communist viewpoints. Lifelong study of Aikido and Gymanstics, apparently was in the Olympics and won Bronze. Somehow during these time intensive competitive hobbies has found the free time to juggle amateur Modeling, in addition to being a Straight A student.
In our first physical altercation with other people, some bullies from highschool. The immediate response from the 5'2" female is to permanently maim one of them out of the gate. No attempts at diplomacy (her allegedly Highest skill and preferred method to handle disputes). Fight breaks out, she maims another one for life before a guy drops a knife out of the back of his pocket. Now she feels justified in permanently maiming a third of the FIVE guys there. When all is said and done the bullies are beaten down and picked up by ambulance since none of them are capable of leaving under their own power. One of them is the chief of police's son.
Every game since then she's been bitching that we haven't gotten to fight anything. ANd then immediately insisting that she's not wanting to fight every game (something she complains aboutu not happening...). Is constantly trying to one up every single Character and Player at the table. Cannot stand to have the lime light shifted away and constantly CONSTANTLY tries to metagame the fuck out of everything. Oh and cheats like a Russian Gangster on his wife.
>>47903436
So Drizzt?
I had the idea of introducing a friend of mine to ttrpg. It was bad.
Girl, 19, lesbian, playing Dark Heresy (1st edition). While the GM got ready for a one-shot, she was being helped making her own character and this is what she came up with:
>Feral world guardsman, mercenary background, shotgun-toting badass
>princess of her tribe of tree-dwelling NOT!elves, though she always disliked her position and always "wondered what was beyond the stars"
>horribly betrayed by a man, became lesbian by choice and now "trusts her shotgun more than any man"
>Suddenly left her homeworld, no explanation given as to why or how.
She then proceeded to play her PC as a scarecrow that only came alive during combat turns.
>>47903436
>Member of evil race 'struggling to find the light'.
>Commits violent acts for no real reason.
These seem totally contradictory and opposite. how can they both be the same thing?
>>47907499
>Wah, I set an orphanage on fire because I'm a half-demon, woe is me, why must I be compelled to do evil?
So in a nutshell, they say they're trying but really it's just an excuse to be a shitter while also being melodramatic when you do evil bullshit.
Add to some of above:Two dimensional character concepts/back story that is trendy and juvenile. Example: sex fiend vampires (trendy), special snowflake otherkin ANYTHING (trendy AND juvenile), genderfluid characters (trendy and stupid).
Basically, if the character concept demonstrates a poor understanding of human nature or emotion, it's probably somebody trying for "edgy". Make sure they crit fail the demo roll.
Anyone who ever had the "original" and "brilliant" idea to use necromancy for unskilled labor.
>>47905675
Fuck you,now I have to post it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIQJpBDvxIs
>>47907922
What's wrong with genderfluid doppleganger (raised by humans, has no hermaphrodite rolemodel)?
>>47903485
I've had player do the dark brooding thing before but a HYPER BROOD?
>>47907237
>Aikido
Kek
Inb4 /asp/
>>47903438
This is my favorite explanation so far because it's the simplest.
>>47907237
>21 year old guy, identifies as female
You needed more info than that to know he's a nutter?
>>47907237
Go on...
>>47903436
But what if you like carrying lots of weapons for variety reasons?
How many weapons can you carry before you become edgy?
>>47903571
Anything that isn't a lawful good human martial class
>>47903350
nowadays it means something I don't like.
Yams are edgy.
Tragic backstory
Intelligent loner
Trenchcoat or dark cape.
Blademaster
Forbidden Magic/Powers
>>47903436
>>47911667
>Carries many weapons
So my old English hunter, with a wagon full of weapons of Bane and a manservant named "Kip Kip" is edgy now?
I must slice my veins open with the jagged fragments of my shattered dreams.
>>47911667
Be Hawkeye from the Avengers, not Reaper from Overwatch.
I played a character in a friend's PF game that carried an oversized quiver of polearms and put a sheathe and buttcap on his favorite spear so he could use it as his walking stick. Short of AMBUSH! situations he'd actually pick out which one he wanted from the bag and decide whether to take his shield or not with him like picking out a golf club. I played him like a big, friendly cowboy (thanks, Irvine) who loved being a mercenary because getting paid to even the odds combined his two favorite things, loved playing cards but wouldn't gamble because it only starts fights, and felt a responsibility to plow money back into the local economy that hired him whenever possible (he had very, very sharp weapons because blacksmiths need to eat, too)
Edgelord factor? Zero. A professional who curated and cared for his tool kit.
Reaper draws two identical shotguns from his trench coat, "dumps the clip," and drops them to draw two more identical shotguns from his trench coat. Don't be Reaper.*
*Please excuse the use of an OW character on /TG/. I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't use the Lord of All Edgelords who Lord over the Edge as my counter-example.
>>47914299
Nah. Having tools is different than *being* a tool.
>>47903807
And Dexter was edgy garbage that ran out of steam almost immediately.
>>47912499
>The 90's
>>47908043
It's edgy, because the way you've described them, it's a contrived backstory to justify playing a character whose core feature is a trendy SJW cause-of-the-week. If that isn't edgy, I don't know what is. Edgy + cringe. Besides, dopplegangers take on other forms knowing them as disguises, not identities. Their concepts of self identification remain stable. Genderfluidity is a question of identity, so it's a fairly shitty backstory anyway. The doppleganger would see his gender as "irrelevant", not "fluid".
>>47905780
>Wants to use eugenics and mind control to breed a master race to usher in a new age of prosperity, and takes aggressive action at those short-sighted close-minded fools.
That seems rather specific, anon.
Who hurt you?
>>47914826
Being a trendy SJW cause surfer isn't what I consider edgy; that seems like a very diluted definition of a word that is already used to mean a lot of things.
To me, "edgy" is related to that phase comic books and cartoons went through around the 90's where everything became darker, grittier, and had more emphasis on "mature" themes without really exploring them. That basically just meant throwing blood/death, sex, and guns on things in an attempt to seem grown up. That's what edgy is to me: attempting to look to look mature by haphazardly adding dark and "hardcore" themes and failing at it.
Pic related is something I'd consider edgy, because it's taking an idealistic, fairly cartoony and lighthearted setting, and turning the darkness knob up until it breaks.
SJW trend characters certainly have the "trying to seem mature" part down, but it's the darkness and unnecessary blood or death just because they think it's cool bit that truly defines an edgy character in my eyes.
>>47903350
Violent or brooding without cause.
>>47903807
Most of that also describes Batman.
>>47915292
That's not to say SJW stuff can't be edgy. I'd consider a cutesy unicorn, covered in blood, with 'KILL ALL MEN' in bubbly lettering underneath to be edgy. A genderfluid doppelganger would just be shoehorning in politics to a character that can go without. (Saying a doppleganger is genderfluid is like limiting infinity to everything between 1 and 2)
>>47914311
Reaper-kun is sugoi though if you play him straight because he becomes completely impossible to take seriously.
>>47903350
Modrons have a lot of Edges.
>>47907237
>she
???
>>47907922
Where do you even draw the line with vampires though seriously. Seems they just default to being viewed as edgelords.
Is teleportation in combat edgy?
>>47903436
>Carries many weapons.
I wouldn't say that's edgy until the number of weapons becomes ludicrous.
>>47917134
Even then it can loop around to just being funny. There's a sweet spot between "too many weapons" and "way too many weapons" that is hard to hit unless everything else about the character is already edgy.
*teleports behind you*
>>47917118
In combat? No
Out of combat? No
Out of combat with the sole purpose of making someone look worse than you, whilst talking like a teenager? Yes
>>47903839
Misuse and dilution of terminology is always a bad thing.
>>47917279
Please tell me that image is a parody of minions trend and not real.
>>47916959
The witcher 3 blood and wine vampires are pretty good, heck written down they seem like the edgiest of characters but in game some of the best rpg NPCs ever.
They try to be the protagonists and derail everything, especially when it would have negative consequences on the party, for no reason at all
They describe morbid things in excessive detail for no reason at all
They try to do morbid things for no reason at all
They are brooding, sad and depressed for no reason at all
>>47917279
