Monster Clown
Basic Information
Clowns are supposed to be funny. However, there is often something somewhat disturbing about them - and the Monster Clown trope distorts this into the grotesque by making the clown into a villain or even monster.
See Also
Sources
- Probably the most famous monster clown out there: Pennywise, favourite avatar of the eldritch abomination that sometimes calls itself "Mr Grey", from Stephen King's IT.
- The Momus aka. The Jack of Tears - a clownlike (or at least harlequinesque) power of the land from sword and sorcery press's Scarred Lands setting.
- Speaking of which, the various interpretations of Harleigh Quinn and The Joker from the various Batman narratives are both clownish and monstrous, despite being merely deviant humans.
- The creepy MC from Cabaret is not exactly a clown, or that much of a monster, but could easily be redeveloped onto the edges of this trope.
Bibliography
Game and Story Use
- This trope is so well-established that making a Monster Clown villain should be easy to accomplish.
- While it's usually done with modern clown make-up and circus trappings, you can certainly translate this notion into other settings.
- The Court Jester or Harlequin of Commedia dell'arte, for Medieval, Renaissance, Fantasy or Dark Age gaming. In such an era, the clown going about armed is less of a tip-off that he's dangerous.
- A crazy Virtual Reality Avatar (computing) in Cyberpunk.
- An evil animated Ventriloquist's Dummy or Marionette for Horror (or Punch in Puppetland).
- A Shriner or other member of a Brotherhood of Funny Hats for a Milkman Conspiracy setting.
- Can struggle in "certain RPGs" where the default response is "meh, evil, kill it" and creepy horror is hard to achieve. Will need to arrange a situation where the PCs can't simply burn down the midway, collapse the big top and stamp out all the carnies. Hiding one clown in a circus might do it, but again easy access to magic must be accounted for, as must the potential for dice driven disaster.
- Such parties are best delivered straight to Pennywise. They'll float…
Building This Character
(assuming that it is, after all, a character and not a monster)
- A Monster Clown might be built along the creepy mastermind lines or the decidely unsubtle slasher pattern, so either Mental Attributes or Physical Attributes could be focused on.
- Charisma, or whatever other stat represents humanity and genuine human emotions and normal social interactions, is probably their weakspot. Even a sly or cunning Monster Clown is a bit detached from normal human psychology.
- Wits or any other trait that represents quick thinking, may be useful both for terrorizing victims Witty Banter and a sick Sense of Humor.
- Games with rules systems that lets you customize or define Performance broadly makes this really easy - half your skill requirements can be met with one skill labeled as Clowning or Jester.
- Otherwise, various individual Art Skills, Acting, Humor, Costuming, Acrobatics, Athletics, Balloon Animals, Juggling, etc may need to be used to assemble the total skill package.
- If associated with a Freak Show or Side Show, the Monster Clown may have other more exotic skills. Fire Breathing, Sword Swallower, Bug Eating, Contortionist, Tight Rope Walking, etc.
- Driving may need a high rating. It's hard to do while wearing oversized shoes in a tiny car packed in with 18 other clowns.
- Intimidate is a very important skill.
- In a game with more granularity amongst social mechanics, you may find Taunt-, Jest-, or Repartee-type skills useful as well to capture the character concept.
- Stealth or Disguise to surprise your targets, hide from authorities, make it all look like it was good clean wholesome fun, etc.
- And of course you'll need some Melee skill for chopping up the foe.
- The power to induce Fear, or a bonus modifier to your Intimidation rolls for the creepiness.
- Logically, the Monster Clown should be immune to the creepiness of other Monster Clowns.
- General Slasher-related powers are helpful as well. You want to be able to appear out of nowhere, get back up after having been given a lethal wound, etc. Look at Ax Crazy, Psycho Killer, Serial Killer, etc, for ideas. In the "clown car" theme the ability to vanish into impossibly small spaces might also be a thing.
- In a game where Cantrips and similar minor Magic and Powers are cheap and readily available, they can help the Monster Clown entertain crowds, and then the same powers can become creepy little affectations when you're hunting a victim.
- An really good glamour would be useful, so that they are hard to tell from all the other clowns (or whatever they are using as cover) until it is too late. Traditionally children and animals see through these things, but are ignored by adults. Use a few false alarms - one dog, for example, just doesn't like clowns at all, a clown smells bad because he has been feeding knacker's meat to the lions, there is an entirely mundane criminal or two amongst the clowns which makes them act suspiciously and resist investigators (it is not unknown for any given carnival to have more than its fair share of pickpockets, conmen and what have you)… all of these mask the fact that there is an anthropophagous monster either amongst them or using them as cover.
- Solo Monster or The DPSer, depending on whether he operates alone or in a group.
- Though I suppose if the Fear and Horror rules are potent enough, you might serve as The Mezzer.
Variants
- A common variant is just a monster that's shaped like a clown, not an actual clown who's turned evil. In this case, ignore all the Performance Skills, but crank up the Magic and Powers a bit - a teleporting clown, and/or one whose Evil Laugh is a Sonic Attack, would be memorable and formidable.
page revision: 8, last edited: 16 May 2023 12:10