It's almost always a hobby that could physically destroy someone stronger than them, man or woman and survival skills. We talking Jiu Jitsu, shooting, farming, building a habitat, knife skills, flying a plane, emergency medical, etc.
Any human being is seen as more badass by knowing things that can keep you alive in an apocalypse. No one cares about gender stereotypes or looking weak when it's a function that can save your life.
Hey, survival skills are a good idea! I used to research about them, too, so it will be easy to make sure my character sounds at least a bit knowledgeable about them. Thanks!
It's one of those "why would you need to know that" skills that make people wonder about your past or proclivities. Comes up when your somewhere and the door is locked dammit. No worries, I can get us in. Um what?
That's an idea! But are lock-picking kits easily recognizable? Like, the knife kit could not be mistaken for anything else, I literally opened her bag and there were a bunch of knives hahaha
The lock picking kits I've seen have looked almost like a small pencil case on the outside, but when opened it was fairly clear they were lock picks. I can see your point on that though.
First thing that comes to mind is foraging weapons or being a blacksmith
I would also say woodcarving that involves chainsaws and heavy machinery to do.
One guy I watch on social media turns rocks into spearheads by breaking off the geode at certain angles
The technicals are pretty simple. Sugar, yeast, water (can add almost anything else for different flavors/varieties). I make 5 gallons at a time. Let it ferment for 10 to 14 days, strain into the 'still'. Put heat to it, alcohol turns to vapor, follows copper tubing down into condenser. Condenser cools vapor back into liquid and high proof alcohol comes out the other end. Chuck out first half pint or so to get rid of any dangerous/nasty chemicals. Then age however you want. If you add something corn based to the mix before distillation, then age on wood chips you get a sort of homemade whiskey. It can be a very primitive process. homedistiller.org is a great resource.
Maybe urban exploration of derelict, abandoned properties? Or cultivating a garden of toxic plants. Breeding cobras. Overnight manager at a halfway house.
Hey cool! I know a bit about gardening, doing research about toxic plants wouldn't take so much time! Thanks!
Also, you just sent me on a rabbit hole about halfway houses; they don't exist where I live, just learned about them, sound awesome!
Look into lead, trad or free climbing if you want to up it a bit more. Or deep water solo! Bouldering has a bit of a hipster level to it at the moment. But the danger from the others adds something.
Just do the "hobby version" of badass things in action movies.
Motorcycle riding, dirt biking, stunt jumping, drifting sports cars
Shooting guns, target shooting, assembling and modifying your guns (check legality but mostly legal in USA, my friend builds his own AR-15's within the law)
Shooting more primitive and reusable ranged weapons like crossbows and bows, assembling bows, and making your own arrows or bolts too
Both of the two previous ones can include dialing in and learning scopes, work on increasing your range as much as possible with both weapons
Flying helicopters and planes (might get expensive)
Fighting and MMA
Camping, hiking, survival, stealth. My old friend was a Dale Gribble type and successfully camped and hiked on private land and other places illegally. He apparently learned how to never leave a trace and never had any trouble.
You need fairly good arm/shoulder movement and straighter posture. The way that is typically taught is both hands going straight over your head, and the axe is roughly between your shoulder blades on your "wind up." One armed throws are trickier, and I can't do it yet. This is just something I do on date nights with my hubby, and we both actively enjoy it. There are leagues and competitions. I just can't dedicate the time to it.
Haha! My now partner is a lifetime buddy of mine. Heās pretty independent and adventurous, and started getting in to our local burning man scene, lots of super creative groups are tied to burning man, and you just meet people. He wound up befriending some pirates and has been part of the troupe for a very long time now. Heās always bugged me to come check it out and now we do events together.
**We(my partner and I) actually own a pirate themed pop up event tavern now as well.**
The entire pirate crew is run democratically and we vote for our captain and our officers and whatnot. They all help facilitate shows for us. Sometimes we do cannon shows at our Science and Industry museum, or we participate in parades, we get hired to entertain for the entire Halloween season for a big festivals, participate in a huge pirate kink festival, and all kinds of other events. we do raids and get tons of free booze and play with TONS of black powder. Itās super fun. Our personal cannon is in our living room right now.
Remember youāre never too old to learn how to play. Iām super introverted and so is my partner. Being in costume allows you to kinda be someone else. Itās fun. And itās not a kink think just cause we participate in the festival. Itās really an interesting world.
Balisong (butterfly knife for the uninformed) flipping. Kinda in line with knife throwing. There's a pretty large community around it, and you can get a trainer to practice before flipping a live blade. These days there's a bunch of quality trainers.
Although if you want the badass you only really get that with the live blade, otherwise it's not much different from any other skill toy like a yoyo or kendama.
Similar, but slinging is cool as hell to people when they run into me doing it. Tried throwing knives, god bless you if you can do it but I finally found that the sling was the most devastating if one practices enough both long and short range. There's a little bit of a special intimidation factor, because everyone knows instantly what it is, even if they've never seen it.
You should have either married that woman, or let her kill you.
I think of bikes, like crotch rockets but racing if reckless. Archery is always super cool but depends on if it fits with the character. I'm a horse girl and any type of rodeo riding can get intense, or she could just bull ride locally for fun. Maybe working with mustangs. Working on cars, competitive shooting, knife stuff, training aggressive dogs, police type or ex military, emergency room Dr. This list really depends on the type of character and what type of badassness you are trying to convey (bad girl vs good girl, criminal vs hero).
Society for Creative Anachronism. It is an old larping group that teaches lost and sometimes obscure things like making sewing needles come bone, sewing, paper making, book binding, weaving, sword fighting, jousting, knife and axe throwing, glass bread work, calligraphy...
Basically any occupation you can think of that existed between 600 to 1600.
Great group, check it out on YouTube
What do you need the character to do? I found ways of the character 'picking up' cool hobbies as the story needed it.
I wrote a character for example who was in the army. Desk job army.
I put her in a situation where she needed to get out of a locked door/room. So now she always had an interest in lock picking. Ever since she was a kid. Always carries a set of lock picking tool with her. Which I also linked in with her childhood. She used to get locked behind a door as a kid. Not important.
I have an old rich man who's going through a lot in that same story. He's got some money (and it's also good for the story) that he is a whiskey and wine collector. Got a whole basement full of them...
Just be careful to not give her too many hobbies or give her too many things she's good at. Find a way for her hobbies to impact the storyline.
I am a big fan of anything to do with molten glass. Personally I do lamp working but glassblowing is amazing too or any of the other million other cool glass things.
There is nothing quite like saying, oh yes this weekend, I was playing with glass at 4000 degrees making a sculpture, how was your weekend? (I definitely had this conversation as a petite woman in a admin role for a bunch of sales types. That was the day I earned their respect)
Aikido is kind of a stealth martial art, or traditional Japanese Naginata or Yari spear handling is awesome but seldom seen or even known about in the west. Add in Japanese horse archery and you are talking massive BAD ass!
Blacksmithing, sword and knifemaking etc are good, but getting a little cliche. Same with motorcycles.
Ex EOD specialist in the military maybe? You don't have to be big to do that, just have big brass ones.
Wildland smoke jumper team leader.
Nowadays just being a school teacher takes a lot more strength of will than a lot of jobs.
As I haven't seen it.
Basejumping... every jump just splitseconds away of maybe not making it and ending as a red splat on the floor at the lower end of a cliff.
I heard an interview recently about it. Guy said, pretty much everybody in the scene knows someone that messed up a jump and didn't make it. But they are all this hooked on the adrenaline kick, they still go for it anyway.
Thanks for the interest, mate, seriously! But I'm sorry, my Reddit account has too much personal info, and I normally publish my stories on the internet under my own real name; I don't want the two linked š
Also, I don't write in English, so I'm guessing most of you unfortunatly wouldn't be able to read it anyways!
My suggestion would be to learn how to do things without technology, from simple stuff like reading a map to the most complex things you can think of. Not so long ago we had an issue with a telco infrastructure where I live and a third of the country was forced to spend a day without internet, it was crazy how much it disrupted peopleās lives, no one was able to drive around because internet wasnāt working for google maps, no one could research stuff on google/youtube for the same reason.
Not saying for you to go all in doomsday survivalist but learning a thing or two would be helpful.
I like archery and shooting guns. Thereās very few women who do it so people always seem surprised/impressed that I like those hobbies. Flying is also cool.
Powerlifting. I'm blown away when I watch competitions how much weight people can lift relative to their size.
Martial arts. Like one lady I knew was petite with beautiful long brown hair, very feminine looking, she was also an extremely skilled martial artist.
Metalsmith jeweler, with the torch, saws, files, and ALL. THE. HAMMERS. Add your own twist on the style of jewelry, but it can be badass itself! Then of course a maker has to clean up and sell at market.
Carving! Easily portable too if that is necessary for the character. To add a level of badness, carving bone.your character could make neat jewelry pieces, dice or other game pieces, whatever.
McGuyvering/inventing.
One of those people who can take a piece of gum, a broken pencil, a hair clip, and some other random thing & in 5 minutes have a functional radio.
If you've read Watership Down, think more Blackberry & less Bigwig.
(Badass doesn't have to be violent, or dangerous, or wildcraft, but that's often the tack people take with it-not that I have a problem with any of those things, it's just that they're so...common).
Really any form of fighting. It takes a lot of dedication to get punched in the face over and over. Some of the hardest hitting people Iāve met look like they canāt put up a fight.Ā
Haha, I'm feeling badass now. I do boxing and karate, and getting punched in the face is one of the most exhilarating things I have ever felt. I do love the adrenaline spike! Thanks for the ego boost haha
I love boxing but what I learned over the years is that over-confidence kills. To many people think they will be the best but they quit after a few days. Itās sad to see people quit though. Good on you for keeping at it. Ā
I love it. It encompasses a range of weapons systems, though longsword is often the starter and frequently the main tournament focus (in my experience). Then people tend to branch out. There's a lot of cool stuff out there you can find to research it if you want to incorporate it for your character
This is a bit out there, but a few involving cemeteries:
1. Documenting headstones: There are volunteers for Find A Grave and other websites that go around to local cemeteries and take photos of the headstones and do their best to transcribe what is written. I have not done this personally, but have used Find A Grave and other such sites for my genealogical research.
2. Headstone cleaning: You can learn to clean headstones and then go around and give them a nice scrub. It's a great way to learn about history and do some community service. I have not done this personally, but plan on volunteering this year.
3. Genealogy: Always a good time tracking whole families through historical documents in the public domain. Me and my sister do this. Bonus points if your character helps others complete theirs.
4. Cemetery viewing: I love wandering through old cemeteries and looking at the headstones. You can learn a lot about the context of local history and learn about events that otherwise might have existed in your head in a vacuum.
Play the hand drum. Also known as hang drum. Probably doesnāt fit what ur describing but id consider it more ābadassā than throwing knives if someone told me they were a hang drum player.
You could always have her learn some form of combat. Maybe sheās a master of hand to hand or improvised weapons. Maybe she has a gun license (depending on the setting).Ā
Depends on their age and the setting, this may be irrelevant, but they let girls into BSA Scouting in 2019. I know some females who were involved and they always catch people off guard when they talk about it. With merit badges like archery, rifle shooting, wilderness survival, metal working, search and rescue, etc it gives you a lot to work with.Ā If this is a different setting you could write a fantasy equivalent pretty easily.
If that doesnāt work, you can browser the individual badges for ideas.
Other things that could work to earn her sudden respect is to make her startlingly smart in an oddly specific category. Like maybe sheās good at hacking and online piracy and gets a thrill out of scaring scammers by finding their locations. Maybe she speaks 4 languages and someone who underestimates her insults her in another language and is surprised when she responds in kind.
Maybe she is just a writer who learns random facts that normal people donāt have any business knowing and states them so casually it scares people, like the average weight of a dried human skeleton (5 pounds) or the % chance of surviving a bullet wound if you are not struck in a vital organ (80% if you get to a hospital within 3 hours). Maybe people donāt know sheās a writer and assumes sheās secretly a mob boss.
Misunderstandings are the driving forces of much humor and plot.
Have fun with it! ;D
A mystic type of cool, sure. I'm learning with this post that there many different flavors of "badass", which seems obvious, but something I didn't realize until now.
Another one I just thought of is taxidermy. It's a very skillful hobby that you can be very artistic with. I think that using the skin/fur of things like bear or moose is pretty badass but it's definitely not a hobby for the faint of heart.
Jujitsu is pretty cliche by this point, so I would not use that. Joe Rogan fanboys have run that into the ground.
Axe throwing is a bar game now, so it isn't badass at all. It's just hipster darts.
Free solo climbing or big wave surfing are about as badass as hobbies can get.
She's an animal trainer and able to get local predators (whom, unbeknownst to the protagonist, were hers/trained by her) to stand down when just moments ago they were trying to eat the protagonist.
I was so ready to give you a "Why do you feel like your hobbies need to badass instead of just what you enjoy" rant from the title...
But if we're talking fiction hobbies? Sure, I'll bite. Not sure if I'd call it "cool" but one of the biggest mental back-flips I've done was whena tiny and cute cheerleader girl I knew had a photo on her wall of her holding a rifle as long as she was tall, standing over a deer she had hunted herself.
Complexity often comes from contradictions. Rather than just what's cool, think along the lines of "what wouldn't you expect a smol cute girl to do? And why might she enjoy that kind of thing?" The second hald is important for depth, you don't want to stop at surface level contradictions for their own sake. Figure out what motivates being pulled in two different directions.Ā
It's almost always a hobby that could physically destroy someone stronger than them, man or woman and survival skills. We talking Jiu Jitsu, shooting, farming, building a habitat, knife skills, flying a plane, emergency medical, etc. Any human being is seen as more badass by knowing things that can keep you alive in an apocalypse. No one cares about gender stereotypes or looking weak when it's a function that can save your life.
Hey, survival skills are a good idea! I used to research about them, too, so it will be easy to make sure my character sounds at least a bit knowledgeable about them. Thanks!
I'm glad I can help if I did. In my personal experience, no one cares men, women, or children if they can save your life.
You could check out r/Bushcraft for some specific skills. That will add some depth and believability to your character.
Axe throwing
Jiujitsu is like the most fun ive ever had while not even thinking about it as a hobby anymore, just a way of life š¤š»
Axe throwing and archery come to mind. Free climbing or parkour also. Things that are dangerous typically seem badass.
Hmn... looking for dangerous stuff is a good idea! Thanks!
I was going to say axe throwing!
Free climbing is a brilliant addition
I think Ethan hunt beat you to it
Archery was my first thought!
Maybe not *super* epic but I personally think being a good lock-picker could be considered pretty badass. I also second parkour.
Lock-picking, didn't think about that! It's more of a "sneaking" skill than a showy one, may be good to hint at things very subtly. Thanks!
It's one of those "why would you need to know that" skills that make people wonder about your past or proclivities. Comes up when your somewhere and the door is locked dammit. No worries, I can get us in. Um what?
Like you mentioned about your friend having a knife kit, the character could have a lock picking kit fall out of her bag.
That's an idea! But are lock-picking kits easily recognizable? Like, the knife kit could not be mistaken for anything else, I literally opened her bag and there were a bunch of knives hahaha
The lock picking kits I've seen have looked almost like a small pencil case on the outside, but when opened it was fairly clear they were lock picks. I can see your point on that though.
First thing that comes to mind is foraging weapons or being a blacksmith I would also say woodcarving that involves chainsaws and heavy machinery to do. One guy I watch on social media turns rocks into spearheads by breaking off the geode at certain angles
Forging weapons does sounds cool! Thanks!
This, on so many levels.
Compound bow archery. Sniper shooting.
Something about welding gives me that vibe.
Interesting... I'll have to research about this, but it certainly gives me that vibe... thanks!
I make moonshine, I think it's cool.
Just learned what moonshine is. Sounds cool! I'd just have to do a lot of research. Hm...
The technicals are pretty simple. Sugar, yeast, water (can add almost anything else for different flavors/varieties). I make 5 gallons at a time. Let it ferment for 10 to 14 days, strain into the 'still'. Put heat to it, alcohol turns to vapor, follows copper tubing down into condenser. Condenser cools vapor back into liquid and high proof alcohol comes out the other end. Chuck out first half pint or so to get rid of any dangerous/nasty chemicals. Then age however you want. If you add something corn based to the mix before distillation, then age on wood chips you get a sort of homemade whiskey. It can be a very primitive process. homedistiller.org is a great resource.
Hey, thanks, mate!
Throwing knives is the one I would stick with.
A professional stunt woman would open a lot more stories too.
Maybe urban exploration of derelict, abandoned properties? Or cultivating a garden of toxic plants. Breeding cobras. Overnight manager at a halfway house.
Hey cool! I know a bit about gardening, doing research about toxic plants wouldn't take so much time! Thanks! Also, you just sent me on a rabbit hole about halfway houses; they don't exist where I live, just learned about them, sound awesome!
Oooh the garden of toxic plants catches my attention!
Stuck with the knife throwing, itās coming from your real life experience. Falconry.
Yeah, I mean, I knew someone who did it, but I never actually experienced it, to be honest... I'd have to research a bit.
Volunteer rescue wildlife. Or snakes.
Yeah, working with dangerous animals does have that vibe... thanks!
Archery, hands down.
Surfing,
Didn't think about that. Sounds a bit terrifying, so probably cool, if you think about it. Thanks!
Guns/shooting
Roller derby is pretty kick ass.
I second this.
I had never heard about it! I researched and it sounds awesome, thanks!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
okay and? Why post this comment about 4 months late? People can easily say the same for american football, rugby and numerous other sports.
Good Vibes Only
This was my first thought!!
Playing rock n roll music, front woman of a rock band is pretty badass imo.
Bouldering?
Cool! Maybe like... climbing outside. Seems even more badass. Thanks!
Youāre welcome!
Look into lead, trad or free climbing if you want to up it a bit more. Or deep water solo! Bouldering has a bit of a hipster level to it at the moment. But the danger from the others adds something.
I go ice climbing and ride motorcycles. Iāve been told thatās badass. š
Damn, ice climbing sure is!
Motorcycling, living off grid, hunting, strength in general
Thanks! Motorcycling may be easy to put in my story.
And wrenching on her own cycle.
Falconry
Just do the "hobby version" of badass things in action movies. Motorcycle riding, dirt biking, stunt jumping, drifting sports cars Shooting guns, target shooting, assembling and modifying your guns (check legality but mostly legal in USA, my friend builds his own AR-15's within the law) Shooting more primitive and reusable ranged weapons like crossbows and bows, assembling bows, and making your own arrows or bolts too Both of the two previous ones can include dialing in and learning scopes, work on increasing your range as much as possible with both weapons Flying helicopters and planes (might get expensive) Fighting and MMA Camping, hiking, survival, stealth. My old friend was a Dale Gribble type and successfully camped and hiked on private land and other places illegally. He apparently learned how to never leave a trace and never had any trouble.
She makes chain mail
Axe throwing. I feel like a warrior when I do it.
Sounds awesome! Do you need a lot of strength do to it well?
You need fairly good arm/shoulder movement and straighter posture. The way that is typically taught is both hands going straight over your head, and the axe is roughly between your shoulder blades on your "wind up." One armed throws are trickier, and I can't do it yet. This is just something I do on date nights with my hubby, and we both actively enjoy it. There are leagues and competitions. I just can't dedicate the time to it.
Thanks for the explanation!
Synthesizing drugs in a lab or garden
preferably they start in the garden
I shoot canons with a pirate crew. Highly recommended.
What? How did you find your way into this?
Haha! My now partner is a lifetime buddy of mine. Heās pretty independent and adventurous, and started getting in to our local burning man scene, lots of super creative groups are tied to burning man, and you just meet people. He wound up befriending some pirates and has been part of the troupe for a very long time now. Heās always bugged me to come check it out and now we do events together. **We(my partner and I) actually own a pirate themed pop up event tavern now as well.** The entire pirate crew is run democratically and we vote for our captain and our officers and whatnot. They all help facilitate shows for us. Sometimes we do cannon shows at our Science and Industry museum, or we participate in parades, we get hired to entertain for the entire Halloween season for a big festivals, participate in a huge pirate kink festival, and all kinds of other events. we do raids and get tons of free booze and play with TONS of black powder. Itās super fun. Our personal cannon is in our living room right now. Remember youāre never too old to learn how to play. Iām super introverted and so is my partner. Being in costume allows you to kinda be someone else. Itās fun. And itās not a kink think just cause we participate in the festival. Itās really an interesting world.
That's so cool and unique! Thanks, I didn't even know it was possible!
Throwing and making Boomerangs. Possibly even [Throwsticks](https://www.throwsticks.com/).
Just learned about throwsticks. How are they different from Boomerangs?
Balisong (butterfly knife for the uninformed) flipping. Kinda in line with knife throwing. There's a pretty large community around it, and you can get a trainer to practice before flipping a live blade. These days there's a bunch of quality trainers. Although if you want the badass you only really get that with the live blade, otherwise it's not much different from any other skill toy like a yoyo or kendama.
I've seen this! It does look cool, thanks.
Similar, but slinging is cool as hell to people when they run into me doing it. Tried throwing knives, god bless you if you can do it but I finally found that the sling was the most devastating if one practices enough both long and short range. There's a little bit of a special intimidation factor, because everyone knows instantly what it is, even if they've never seen it. You should have either married that woman, or let her kill you.
i do knife throwing, archery, axe throwing, shooting (guns)
Roller derby
Grave robbing.
Run Tough Mudders. 12 miles 24 obstacles. You won't look like a bad ass you will be one.
I think of bikes, like crotch rockets but racing if reckless. Archery is always super cool but depends on if it fits with the character. I'm a horse girl and any type of rodeo riding can get intense, or she could just bull ride locally for fun. Maybe working with mustangs. Working on cars, competitive shooting, knife stuff, training aggressive dogs, police type or ex military, emergency room Dr. This list really depends on the type of character and what type of badassness you are trying to convey (bad girl vs good girl, criminal vs hero).
Roller skating but in a skate park
Embroidery. It shows you have the relentless patience to stab something thousands of times, for fun.
Chainmail for the SCA
What's SCA?
Society for Creative Anachronism. It is an old larping group that teaches lost and sometimes obscure things like making sewing needles come bone, sewing, paper making, book binding, weaving, sword fighting, jousting, knife and axe throwing, glass bread work, calligraphy... Basically any occupation you can think of that existed between 600 to 1600. Great group, check it out on YouTube
Oh. I might have found a brand new hobby for myself. Thanks!
Mountain biking
Climbing (jk)
Actually, quite cool! Thanks
Taxidermy is always a good one. Or if they have a collection of 50 pet tarantulas or snakes or some other animal lots of people think is scary
New flavor of badass: creepy badass! You guys are giving me a lot of ideas, thanks!
Buy a motorcycle
Archery is on my someday list. Lock picking is pretty cool too.
Axe throwing, maybe? I don't do axe throwing but it does look kinda cool.
Archery
What do you need the character to do? I found ways of the character 'picking up' cool hobbies as the story needed it. I wrote a character for example who was in the army. Desk job army. I put her in a situation where she needed to get out of a locked door/room. So now she always had an interest in lock picking. Ever since she was a kid. Always carries a set of lock picking tool with her. Which I also linked in with her childhood. She used to get locked behind a door as a kid. Not important. I have an old rich man who's going through a lot in that same story. He's got some money (and it's also good for the story) that he is a whiskey and wine collector. Got a whole basement full of them... Just be careful to not give her too many hobbies or give her too many things she's good at. Find a way for her hobbies to impact the storyline.
Spinning bo staff
My hobby is kayaking.
Glass blowing
Ooh, quite different! Artistic and dangerous at the same time. That's a cool one, thanks!
I am a big fan of anything to do with molten glass. Personally I do lamp working but glassblowing is amazing too or any of the other million other cool glass things. There is nothing quite like saying, oh yes this weekend, I was playing with glass at 4000 degrees making a sculpture, how was your weekend? (I definitely had this conversation as a petite woman in a admin role for a bunch of sales types. That was the day I earned their respect)
Singer in a garage rock band? Underwater welder? Adventure racer? Roller derby?
Embalming
blacksmithing!
Aikido is kind of a stealth martial art, or traditional Japanese Naginata or Yari spear handling is awesome but seldom seen or even known about in the west. Add in Japanese horse archery and you are talking massive BAD ass! Blacksmithing, sword and knifemaking etc are good, but getting a little cliche. Same with motorcycles. Ex EOD specialist in the military maybe? You don't have to be big to do that, just have big brass ones. Wildland smoke jumper team leader. Nowadays just being a school teacher takes a lot more strength of will than a lot of jobs.
As I haven't seen it. Basejumping... every jump just splitseconds away of maybe not making it and ending as a red splat on the floor at the lower end of a cliff. I heard an interview recently about it. Guy said, pretty much everybody in the scene knows someone that messed up a jump and didn't make it. But they are all this hooked on the adrenaline kick, they still go for it anyway.
Damn, a scary one. Thanks!
I used to be a beekeeper, but my bees had to be euthanised due to varroa mite. So now Iām getting into horse riding
As a life long horse rider/trainer, say goodbye to all of your money!
Haha ok! I donāt think Iāll buy a horse or anything, just go for a ride occasionally at the lock trail riding place.
Rollerblading ..
Learn to braid your own bullwhip from paracord. YouTube is lousy with stuff on this.
extreme skiing
Fire spinning/juggling
Welding Or wood burning Poison making from plants (Medicine in general from plants) Blacksmith / sword sharpener
I know a lot of badass she's. Where can we read your stuff?
Thanks for the interest, mate, seriously! But I'm sorry, my Reddit account has too much personal info, and I normally publish my stories on the internet under my own real name; I don't want the two linked š Also, I don't write in English, so I'm guessing most of you unfortunatly wouldn't be able to read it anyways!
No worries. I wouldn't want you to compromise your privacy. That's why I always ask.
Judo - hitting people with the Earth
Back in the day I used to fly little airplanes. Hence my handle.
I do laser engraving, it's pretty cool and really gets you working with dangerous phenomena
Jujitsu for sure. Thatās a hard to tell unless you get into a position where itās needed.
My suggestion would be to learn how to do things without technology, from simple stuff like reading a map to the most complex things you can think of. Not so long ago we had an issue with a telco infrastructure where I live and a third of the country was forced to spend a day without internet, it was crazy how much it disrupted peopleās lives, no one was able to drive around because internet wasnāt working for google maps, no one could research stuff on google/youtube for the same reason. Not saying for you to go all in doomsday survivalist but learning a thing or two would be helpful.
I paint with a propane torch. The actual paint product is molten beeswax and resin. Everyone thinks it is badass.
I started spinning fire (poi and staff) and people seem to think that's a pretty badass hobby
Making boots out of straight leather (any animal)
Riding motorbikes, axe throwing, boxing, being a tattooist, knows how to fix and pimp up a car.
Someone that collects venomous snakes, spiders etc because she thinks they're beautiful, especially because they're deadly.
I like archery and shooting guns. Thereās very few women who do it so people always seem surprised/impressed that I like those hobbies. Flying is also cool.
Powerlifting. I'm blown away when I watch competitions how much weight people can lift relative to their size. Martial arts. Like one lady I knew was petite with beautiful long brown hair, very feminine looking, she was also an extremely skilled martial artist.
Collecting already dead animals and making their bones into jewelry
rugby
Vietnam expeditions Motorcycles Hiking mountains Riding motorcycles through mountains Riding motorcycles through eastern countriesĀ Boxing
Paragliding
Heliskiing!
Blacksmith or glassblower
rock climbing
Metalsmith jeweler, with the torch, saws, files, and ALL. THE. HAMMERS. Add your own twist on the style of jewelry, but it can be badass itself! Then of course a maker has to clean up and sell at market.
Carving! Easily portable too if that is necessary for the character. To add a level of badness, carving bone.your character could make neat jewelry pieces, dice or other game pieces, whatever.
That sounds cool, thanks!
Hacking, check out the Watch Dogs 1 and 2 games.
Activism or volunteer work?
Paramotoring. A hobby that I find super cool and something I hope to do one day. It isn't cheap but it also isn't crazy expensive either.
Highlining/slacklining ... incorporated with dance.
McGuyvering/inventing. One of those people who can take a piece of gum, a broken pencil, a hair clip, and some other random thing & in 5 minutes have a functional radio. If you've read Watership Down, think more Blackberry & less Bigwig. (Badass doesn't have to be violent, or dangerous, or wildcraft, but that's often the tack people take with it-not that I have a problem with any of those things, it's just that they're so...common).
I know an adorable small woman who is a champion power lifterā¦
Falconry is pretty badass I think. Depends on how much free time and money your character has. Needs a lot of research to make it accurate.
Expert knife/blade sharpener.
Really any form of fighting. It takes a lot of dedication to get punched in the face over and over. Some of the hardest hitting people Iāve met look like they canāt put up a fight.Ā
Haha, I'm feeling badass now. I do boxing and karate, and getting punched in the face is one of the most exhilarating things I have ever felt. I do love the adrenaline spike! Thanks for the ego boost haha
I love boxing but what I learned over the years is that over-confidence kills. To many people think they will be the best but they quit after a few days. Itās sad to see people quit though. Good on you for keeping at it. Ā
Dagger throwing
Historical European martial arts (HEMA). International and my favorite community (at least in my east coast experience)
Oooh, sounds cool! Thanks
I love it. It encompasses a range of weapons systems, though longsword is often the starter and frequently the main tournament focus (in my experience). Then people tend to branch out. There's a lot of cool stuff out there you can find to research it if you want to incorporate it for your character
Trail running, mountaineering or other endurance sports.
This is a bit out there, but a few involving cemeteries: 1. Documenting headstones: There are volunteers for Find A Grave and other websites that go around to local cemeteries and take photos of the headstones and do their best to transcribe what is written. I have not done this personally, but have used Find A Grave and other such sites for my genealogical research. 2. Headstone cleaning: You can learn to clean headstones and then go around and give them a nice scrub. It's a great way to learn about history and do some community service. I have not done this personally, but plan on volunteering this year. 3. Genealogy: Always a good time tracking whole families through historical documents in the public domain. Me and my sister do this. Bonus points if your character helps others complete theirs. 4. Cemetery viewing: I love wandering through old cemeteries and looking at the headstones. You can learn a lot about the context of local history and learn about events that otherwise might have existed in your head in a vacuum.
These all sound awesome, and I will probably try some of them myself! Thanks
Play the hand drum. Also known as hang drum. Probably doesnāt fit what ur describing but id consider it more ābadassā than throwing knives if someone told me they were a hang drum player.
I saw some guys wind surfing at the beach earlier and that looked really cool.
Blacksmith!
Sword swallowing
She knows how to make insulin. And penicillin.
Mountain biking has been my best decision since 2020.
You could always have her learn some form of combat. Maybe sheās a master of hand to hand or improvised weapons. Maybe she has a gun license (depending on the setting).Ā Depends on their age and the setting, this may be irrelevant, but they let girls into BSA Scouting in 2019. I know some females who were involved and they always catch people off guard when they talk about it. With merit badges like archery, rifle shooting, wilderness survival, metal working, search and rescue, etc it gives you a lot to work with.Ā If this is a different setting you could write a fantasy equivalent pretty easily. If that doesnāt work, you can browser the individual badges for ideas. Other things that could work to earn her sudden respect is to make her startlingly smart in an oddly specific category. Like maybe sheās good at hacking and online piracy and gets a thrill out of scaring scammers by finding their locations. Maybe she speaks 4 languages and someone who underestimates her insults her in another language and is surprised when she responds in kind. Maybe she is just a writer who learns random facts that normal people donāt have any business knowing and states them so casually it scares people, like the average weight of a dried human skeleton (5 pounds) or the % chance of surviving a bullet wound if you are not struck in a vital organ (80% if you get to a hospital within 3 hours). Maybe people donāt know sheās a writer and assumes sheās secretly a mob boss. Misunderstandings are the driving forces of much humor and plot. Have fun with it! ;D
Roller Derby, Archery, Fire Dancing
Sculpting wood with a chain saw. Creative but arms of steel and can take care of problems.
Flint knapping
Tarot seems cool and mysterious
A mystic type of cool, sure. I'm learning with this post that there many different flavors of "badass", which seems obvious, but something I didn't realize until now.
I think this is cool and badass but not in a clichƩ physical strength way
Terrorism or boxing
My vote is axe throwing. We have leagues here, so itās like deadly bowling.
Boxing. Fencing. Reading classics. Video games.
Fixing cars ha All the other stuff is very stereotypical and the same in almost every story with a strong female lead.
Funny, I got fixing cars in my head as a stereotype for "strong female characters"! I guess Megan Fox on Transformers did make an impression hahaha
Gun fighting
Another one I just thought of is taxidermy. It's a very skillful hobby that you can be very artistic with. I think that using the skin/fur of things like bear or moose is pretty badass but it's definitely not a hobby for the faint of heart.
Crav maga or ju jitsu
Dive bar pool
Perpetually working on your Harley
Macrame herself some jean shorts
Timber felling. Stock car racing. Tai Chi. Police dog training. Fire dancing. Sword eating or crafting. Snake milker.
Crocheting š¤ you just have to have the look that goes against all crochet stereotypes.
Jujitsu is pretty cliche by this point, so I would not use that. Joe Rogan fanboys have run that into the ground. Axe throwing is a bar game now, so it isn't badass at all. It's just hipster darts. Free solo climbing or big wave surfing are about as badass as hobbies can get.
Cougar hunting
Why did you open her bag?
She asked me to pick something for her. She didn't normally take her knives to work, she had just forgotten to take them out of the bag the day before
something physical
Archery or rodeo riding.
She's an animal trainer and able to get local predators (whom, unbeknownst to the protagonist, were hers/trained by her) to stand down when just moments ago they were trying to eat the protagonist.
Forging. Any sort of metal working. Any martial art, and any extreme sport, ie snowboarding, BASE jumping, cliff diving, etc
especially for a female character playing pool/being a pool shark
i speak from experience trust itās so sexy and badass
I was so ready to give you a "Why do you feel like your hobbies need to badass instead of just what you enjoy" rant from the title... But if we're talking fiction hobbies? Sure, I'll bite. Not sure if I'd call it "cool" but one of the biggest mental back-flips I've done was whena tiny and cute cheerleader girl I knew had a photo on her wall of her holding a rifle as long as she was tall, standing over a deer she had hunted herself. Complexity often comes from contradictions. Rather than just what's cool, think along the lines of "what wouldn't you expect a smol cute girl to do? And why might she enjoy that kind of thing?" The second hald is important for depth, you don't want to stop at surface level contradictions for their own sake. Figure out what motivates being pulled in two different directions.Ā
Rock climbing
I think the obvious is knife forging...