When a nice, normal character suddenly goes into a rage, you've hit his Berserk Button.
- Of the various Clans in BattleTech, the Ghost Bears are frequently considered to be the most laid back and least aggressive. Unless you attack their capital, Alshain. Or go out of your way to attack their non-combatant civilians, whom they generally view as beloved children. Or use nuclear weapons. Or they have any reason whatsoever to even suspect that you might be associated with Clan Wolverine. Doing any of the above makes them angry. That's very, very bad.
- While the Diamond Sharks would rather sell you weapons than shoot you with them, if you attack their mercantile interests or civilians you are in for a beating. When the Draconis Combine was trying to acquire advanced technology after most of their production centers were destroyed in the Jihad, they went to the Sharks. The local warlord gave them a continent to set up shop but a few of his senior officers took offense to this "Clan occupation" and killed a few hundred civilians. By the time the warlord managed to call his subordinates off, the Combine had lost two regiments.
- For most Clans they consider having non-warrior castes taking up arms as abhorrent; when it's discovered that Clan Blood Spirit, one of the smallest clans, was using armed militia to bolster their forces, the remaining clans call for the Blood Spirits' annihilation.
- Remember that bit about Clan Wolverine above? The safe play when around a Clanner is to just forget the word "Wolverine" even exists. There are documented instances where Clanners and Inner Sphere Mechwarriors somehow met on neutral ground. A Inner Sphere warrior, not aware of the whole "Clan Wolverine" thing, innocently described a Clanner as having fought like a wolverine, intending it as a compliment. The Clanners, en masse, proceeded to pummel the snot out of him. Note that there exists a 'Mech known as the Wolverine. When the Clans began their IIC program of updating venerable designs with new tech, they made it abundantly clear that there is no Wolverine IIC. There is instead the Conjurer. On pain of serious bodily harm.
- For a non-Clan example, the Kentares Massacre was this to the Eridani Light Horse. As soon as they heard about the massacre, they abruptly cancelled their contract with the Draconis Combine, and prepared to leave. The Combine was not happy about this and their local warlord killed the ELH's dependents in retaliation. This was the second press of the button — the Light Horse responded by going to the planet Sendai (which was the unit's HQ during the contract), killing the warlord and every military and government representative of the Combine they could reach before finally leaving.
- Similarly, betrayal is this for Natasha Kerensky. We have two documented examples:
- First, Anton Marik, fighting a Hopeless War against his brother, tried to order Wolf's Dragoons to disband and join his disintegrating line units. To induce Jaime Wolf, the unit's leader to comply, he pulled a I Have Your Wife by taking his wife, his children and his brother among other dependents as hostages. Somehow (there are a couple of stories on what happened), Joshua Wolf was killed, precipitating a massacre of the other dependents. Joshua was Natasha Kerensky's lover. While the entirety of the Dragoons were assaulting Anton's palace, Natasha and her independent company (soon to to become The Black Widow Company) made a daring assault through a forest fire to literally bring the palace down right on Anton's head.
- Second, in the runup to the Fourth Succession War, the Dragoons were betrayed by one of their own to House Kurita. When the traitor was found, and just before Wolf was going to slap him and having him stand trial, Natasha shot him in cold blood, citing Clan law to justify her actions.
- Disney Lorcana has the card What Did You Call Me?
, which references Professor Ratigan's and depicts him flying into a rage as the flavor text quotes Basil repeating his statement.Basil: No one can have a higher opinion of you than I have, and I think you’re a slimy, contemptible sewer rat! - Dungeons & Dragons:
- The demon prince Graz'zt is probably the least likely demon lord to rip you apart just for existing, even opening his layers of the abyss for trade. Mention that he actually fell in love with Iggwilv, that Malcanthet turned him down, or call his domain "The Little Hells," and he will feed you to the predatory plants in his gardens.
- Behirs, a type of many-legged serpentine monsters, hate dragons, and will fly into a rage at the mere mention of one.
- Ecology of the Griffon describes how, while griffons are otherwise immune to the effects of a harpy's song, hearing it will drive them into a homicidal rage towards its source, something that generally ends very poorly for the harpies.
- In 4th Edition, suggesting that a half-orc was a Child by Rape in earshot of one is a quick way to get your teeth punched out.
- Eberron: The local Proud Warrior Race are the elves of Valenar. Calling a Valenar a vadis nia (which means "disgracer of the blood" in their tongue) or otherwise accusing them of disgracing their ancestors is an extremely effective way of getting yourself into a fight with a furious elf who thinks he's a Klingon.
- Ravenloft, to make lycanthropy less predictable, encourages Game Masters to link werebeasts' involuntary transformations (and subsequent rampages) to phenomena other than the full moon, such as the tides, exposure to a particular odor, food or substance, or stressful situations such as feeling hemmed in by a crowd.
- Earthdawn. Each ork has certain specific things (situations, topics of conversations, actions, etc.) that can trigger a terrible rage in them, which usually leads to violence. Some examples of this type of trigger (called a "gahad") are slavery, infidelity, family loyalty, competence at a profession, pastimes or favorite hobbies, possessions, who's really in authority, Horrors, politics and the Theran Empire.
- Exalted: Even if an Exalt fills their Limit meter, it's not necessarily enough for them to go into a Limit Break. Rather, each Break comes with a trigger condition, such as "Annoyed at the childish nature of the world" or "Witness an act of suffering that you could easily stop." A good example of this trope in its pure form is the Red Rage of Compassion break, which typically involves a normally kind-hearted and compassionate Solar going into an Unstoppable Rage after seeing one too many innocents cut down.
- Feng Shui: The "Consumer on the Brink" archetype from "Seed of the New Flesh" is not very powerful in terms of skills. But attack him or put him in close proximity to his irritant, which is a Berserk Button or something else that pisses him off to no end, and he gets 4 bonus points that he can distribute however he wishes between his Body and Reflexes stat, which can affect his combat AVs.
- GURPS has multiple ways of simulating this in a character, the most common of which is simply called Berserk.
- Old World of Darkness:
- Vampire: The Masquerade: If you ever cross paths with a member of the Sabbat on the Path of Honourable Accord, don't ever, ever, ever, EVER accuse them of breaking their word. They will pursue you with the full fury of a raging vampire until you either apologize, die, or kill them.
- Clan Brujah has this as their hat. Almost every Brujah vampire has something that throws them off in some way... or in some cases, almost everything pisses them off. Some are more easily pushed than others, but even the calmest elder of the clan has something that pisses them off — and you don't want to be anywhere in the general vicinity if that button gets pressed.
- The existence of Clan Toreador is pretty much a Berserk Button for Clan Nosferatu.
- The Progenitors are, as Technocrats go, rather laid-back, friendly, and focused on making the world a better place rather than controlling it... but they view the promotion of homeopathy, New Age remedies, and other forms of alternative medicine pseudo-science as literal war crimes (because even if mages can make them work, most people can't), and it's the reason they're by far the most gung-ho of the Conventions about wiping out Reality Deviants.
- In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Nuwisha can magically learn just the right statement to set off someone's Berserk Button.
- Vampire: The Masquerade: If you ever cross paths with a member of the Sabbat on the Path of Honourable Accord, don't ever, ever, ever, EVER accuse them of breaking their word. They will pursue you with the full fury of a raging vampire until you either apologize, die, or kill them.
- New World of Darkness:
- Hunter: The Vigil: Because they accidentally had a hand in the rise of the Third Reich, and are now trying to atone for it, the Loyalists of Thule loathe Nazis and anyone willing to follow their philosophy. Members who show neo-Nazi tendencies have a strong chance of finding themselves suddenly abandoned in a monster's lair while on a mission.
- Beast: The Primordial: While this doesn't mean they will let themselves be taken down easily, Beasts, because of their strong sense of family, can to an extend understand and even sympathize with hunters who fight to defend their relatives and peers. Humans who hunt monsters down for fun and profit, on the other hand, they despise, and obliterate with no mercy. They are especially disgusted by the Ashwood Abbey and the Cheiron Group.
- The Free Council in Mage: The Awakening are usually a bit more lenient with Left-Handed magic than the Pentacle, as long as it's directed against people like the Seers of the Throne. However, the Council is also very protective of Muggles. As a result, while a mage who regularly messes with the Lower Depths but turns those forces on the bad guys is likely to be tolerated (if not necessarily liked) among the Libertines, those whose Legacies rely upon harming the Sleepers are likely to find their lives significantly shortened when the local Assembly finds out.
- In the fan-made Genius: The Transgression, there's the entirety of the Etherites, which represent the worst parts of the Victorian sort of science, especially the part about refusing to acknowledge their precious, beloved pet theory is flat-out wrong. They're pissed at reality itself for being different from it, and will try to vaporize you if you bring this factual wrongness up.
- In Werewolf: The Forsaken, each wolf has a set of three triggers that can induce Kuruth: a passive trigger that is very difficult to avoid and may not even require that the wolf be aware of its occurence (such as her auspice moon being in the sky), a common trigger that is difficult but possible to avoid (such as seeing her auspice moon in the sky), and a specific trigger that is fairly rare (such as hearing a wolf howl while her auspice moon is in the sky). If the werewolf's Harmony is heavily tilted towards one side or the other, even the passive trigger can set her off, while as her Harmony moves towards the middle it needs first the common trigger, then the specific trigger, then at Harmony 5 none of the triggers can set her off. There are also a few general triggers (like taking damage from silver) that affect all werewolves and apply regardless of Harmony.
- The Sensitivity Weakness from the OVA anime RPG is meant to handle characters who have a certain sore spot about themselves that they do not like having brought up, like hair, wealth, muscle tone, chest size, or lack of any of the above. The severity of the Weakness determines how badly the character takes having it brought up, ranging from mild irritation to a lifelong grudge against the one to bring it up. A good example of this is the sample character Raine, a Bishōnen swordsman who does not like being mistaken for a girl.
- Paranoia:
- Don't be a Communist. Friend Computer will allow mutants to register their powers, and may even be lenient on traitors. But if you are a Commie (or made to look like one), you WILL be terminated.
- While Friend Computer is generally merciful to those who were mutated by foul Commie sabotage of their cloning tanks, registering your Machine Empathy mutation is not recommended, as it will not only get you terminated but lead to the erasure of the genetic template from which you were made.
- Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution: Two examples are in the game's fluff.
- Don't accuse Tim of using his psychokinesis unethically or he'll throw a fit, almost to the point of overloading.
- God help you if you tell Mama Bear that you've hurt her friends and may your insurance provider be merciful if you do.
- Rifts: Crazies receive their powers from Mind Over Matter implants, or M.O.M. Some people call them "Momma's Boys" as a result. These people usually end up in the hospital if they say it too close to a Crazy.
- In Shadowrun, the Great Dragon Lofwyr (CEO of Saeder-Krupp, one of the Big Ten AAA-ranked MegaCorps) has two known Berserk Buttons. First, being Locked Out of the Loop where his own company is concerned. Lofwyr personally monitors and manages every aspect of Saeder-Krupp from the bottom up, and woe be to anyone who attempts to undercut him. Second, don't tell him that he is a corrupt, self-serving corporate headmaster; otherwise he'll come after you personally and devour you whole.
- In the action TRPG Trigger Happy, every player character has a set of "Ins", those things that set them off and get them motivated in the world, and are usually either things that piss them off severely (racists, drug dealers, people who don't care about traffic laws, etc.), or things that will piss them off if they are threatened or done harm (animals, kids, family).
- In Unknown Armies, the Rage Passion that all characters have is that thing that really sends a character into pissed-off rage mode. As Passions are perhaps the deepest part of an Unknown Armies character and the character goes all spooky-intense when put into situations that trigger one of the Passions, the Rage Passion is very much a dramatic Berserk Button.
- Warhammer: Dwarves take their beards VERY seriously. The War of Vengeance kicked off when a Dwarven emissary was shaved by the overly arrogant elven king for his own amusement, which was the final straw leading to the breakdown of already-strained relations between the Elves and Dwarves in general. By the way, it is also not recommended to refer to that particular war by its elven term, "the War of the Beard", within dwarven earshot.
- But the greatest Dwarf Berserk Button by a country mile is even mentioning the Chaos Dwarfs in their presence. It's one thing to lose your empire through the machinations of interlopers. It's one thing to be gradually worn down by Forever War against evil goblins and Rat Men. It's even one thing to have an emissary lose their beard in a shameless diplomatic insult. It's a whole other affront for your own people to cast aside the Ancestor Gods and all the values and mores that good and honest Dwarfs hold dear to embrace a Religion of Evil and... [shudders] using magic. In one of the Gotrek & Felix books, Felix listens to a Dwarf council berating the High Elves as no better than their Druchii kin and unwisely he chimes in about the Dawi Zharr, and every Dwarf in the room just stares him down until he realizes that unless he shuts up, they will turn him into mincemeat then and there.
- For the Beastmen, it's civilization. The more advanced it is, the more infuriating they find it. Though many of them would be fine with cutting down a tree to make a battering ram and a particularly charismatic warherd leader might be able to convince them to fashion crude siege ladders, that is the absolute limit of their capacity to purposefully build anything as a necessary evil to destroy the works of men, as the very act of building things drives them to maddening disgust.
- The Lizardmen have as many of these as they do lizards, including (and not limited to): taking their gold tablets with messages from the old ones, looking at the Slaan mages funny (with or without murderous intent), disagreeing with said Slaan mages, and getting in their way.
- Mechanically speaking, if Vlad von Carstein sees his wife Isabella killed on the battlefield, the result involves an ancient and powerful vampire lord flipping his lid on an epic scale and attempting to individually kill everyone in the other army.
- Teclis is the greatest High Elf mage in existence, and maintains a light-hearted if somewhat caustic sense of humour about his crippled condition. His brother, Tyrion, is the greatest High Elf warrior in existence and... well, he doesn't, let's just put it that way. Probably not a good idea to poke fun at Teclis with Tyrion in earshot.
- Do not even imply that you're offering Settra the Imperishable, ruler of the Tomb Kings, any position where he'd be serving anyone at all. In his words, "Settra does not serve! SETTRA RULES!", and so trying to offer him a subordinate position to anyone will make him your permanent enemy; he's told the Chaos Gods themselves he'd be coming to kill them for even thinking they could command him.
- The Arco-Flagellants in Warhammer 40,000 are designed specifically to turn into berserk killing machines with the proper command. Don't examine them too closely, either. Bring up the Squats at any GW event, and you'll find that the Berserk Button works in real life, too.
- Use the word "traitor" or "heretic" around the Sisters of Battle in reference to someone. Purging ensues.
- Mentioning the horrible fanfic Squad Broken is a general berserk button for the fan base.
- So anyway, what happened to the Squats? *duck and cover*
- Eldar: In peace, they're gentle, logical, at-one-with nature, etc, with peaceful, quiet occupations. In war, they turn into furious killing machines, losing their identity to the overwhelming desire to annihilate the enemy. Oh, and if you steal or destroy Eldar soulstones, they'll hunt you down and destroy you and everyone and everything you've ever known and loved.
- Suggesting harming civilians in front of the Salamanders is a bad idea, even if you're a chapter master.
- Killing an Ethereal acts as a Berserk Button for the Tau, provided they pass a morale test. If they fail the morale test, they run away. If they pass, they go fucking nuts.
- Also concerning the Tau, Gue'vasa auxiliaries are a Berserk Button for the Imperium. So much so, that Imperial units get a close combat bonus against them.
- Black Templars: Shoot one their battle brothers, the entire squad comes charging at you. This has led to comparisons with Berserkers of Khorne (to who, technically, everything is a Berserk Button (but Slaaneshi followers even more so)).
- Cowardice is Khorne's Berserk Button. Slaughter defenseless civilians and children too much? Fine as long as it is solely to spill blood and take skulls for Khorne, but if you even think to offer unworthy blood and skulls and expect a gift in return he'll think you're a spineless pussy and set his hounds on you. Psykers also piss him off, because he thinks killing things with your brain at a distance is cowardice, even compared to things like artillery, and definitely when compared to rushing in with a chainaxe and mangling shit yourself. As a result, he gives his followers ways to resist their powers and demands they leave none alive.
