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[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Barnabus "Barney" Stinson
Age: Early 30s and looks good for his age. He was born in 1976.
Gender: Male
Canon: How I Met Your Mother
Timeline: Immediately after Marshall slaps Barney in the Season 2 episode “Stuff”. He’s been performing an intentionally awful play in a tinfoil robot suit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk20WWY15uc”
Character History:
Born seven years after the first lunar landing, Barney Stinson was a sheltered young man raised tenderly by his single mother alongside his black half-brother. He was diagnosed with ADHD for his tendency to space out, and his childhood ambition was to be a violinist when he grew up. His school life was rough and humiliating, as revealed by several flashbacks, but the fallout was often mollified by letters from various individuals like the Postmaster General (actually written by Barney’s mother). When no one came to young Barney’s birthday party, it was because the invitations got lost in the mail, and definitely not because he threw up when they turned the lights off in the Planetarium. When his coach kicked him off the team for being a poor basketball player, his mother explained that it was actually because he was too good at basketball and was making everyone else look bad. When Barney asked who his father was, instead of telling the truth, his mother said “I don’t know… that guy,” pointing at the television at Bob Barker during Wheel of Fortune. Well into his adulthood, Barney believed that Bob Barker was in fact his father.
Young Barney, intelligent and with his ego safely cushioned and intact, did in fact attend college. He claims that he graduated from MIT, but he owns at least one shirt from Cornell. Perhaps he transferred, or outright lied. Either way, his college career was one that spit him out at the age of 23 in 1998 as a naïve, long-haired Peace Corps hopeful. He had decided to “wait until marriage” to have sex with his hippie girlfriend Shannon, played the keyboard and sang in a coffee shop, disapproved of men who treated women like objects, and entertained notions that he was going to change the world for the people who needed him and his girlfriend in third-world countries. She bailed unexpectedly on the Peace Corps plans shortly before they were supposed to ship out, claiming that her father didn’t want her to go. In actuality, she left Barney for an older, corporate suit-wearing womanizing cad. This broke Barney’s heart, and he went through a time where he made mortifying videos of himself crying, singing, and playing the keyboard in an attempt to win his girlfriend back. But she was ultimately seduced by success, wealth and ambition, leading Barney to purchase a suit, cut his hair, lose his virginity to a friend of his mother’s (Rhonda “the Man-Maker” French) and begin his career as a serial womanizer. This is the version of Barney that appears on the show, that exasperates and entertains his friends, and that would exist in Soul Campaign.
Barney’s present-day job is never fully specified, a running joke in “How I Met Your Mother.” When he is asked exactly what it is he does, he laughs lightly, says “Oh, please,” and quickly changes the subject. It’s eventually revealed that he is an affluent, high-ranking and highly paid member of a company called AltruCell, a corporation that wants the public to focus on the innocuous manufacturing of the soft yellow material coating tennis balls. It’s implied that they also participate in environmentally disastrous methods and that the material also is used to build missiles and small arms. Barney’s job serves as yet another catalyst for his morally devoid but highly intelligent and effective character; he appears to do everything at his workplace from tormenting other workers with elaborate practical jokes to averting world crises with his social skills and ability to speak fluent Chinese. The walls of his office are covered with framed motivational posters; some are conventional, like the one that says “Opportunity: You Will Always Miss 100% of the Shots You Don’t Take,” and others are a little more startling, like the ones that say “Perfection: It’s Not Good Enough to Win, Everyone Else Has to Lose” with the Blue Angels flying in formation, and the one with the several penguins that has the caption “Conformity: The One Who Is Different Gets Left Out In the Cold.” Barney especially likes the unconventional posters, and presumably finds them more motivational.
His typical night consists of going to the bar with his “best” friend Ted and their circle of friends including sweet couple Marshall and Lily, Canadian reporter Robin, and whoever Ted is dating at the time. His goal is always to pick up a woman, operating based on his “Play Book” and considering himself an expert wing man whose duty in life is to make Ted, who has potential, “awesome” like him. His romantic conquests, failed and successful, often serve as entertaining subplots in canon.
Character Personality:
Barney’s friends describe him as a “high-functioning sociopath,” but his many and varied one-night stands seldom have such nice things to say about him. Though he was once an idealistic young man, Barney is goal-oriented, image-conscious, and he fancies himself a worldly, sophisticated playboy. He acts the part, dressing almost exclusively in sharp, tailored suits, developing pick-ups and plays with which to ensnare women, and he aims for those with exotic professions, large breasts, and youth on their side (ie, below the dire, unacceptable age of 30.) He is attractive and charming enough to get away with his lies, ruses and tricks for at least one night, which is generally all he needs and wants. After bedding his latest conquest, Barney is usually content to consider that mountain conquered and start searching for a new challenge. Quality is important to Barney; he prefers to sleep with women who are aesthetically impressive, but quantity is also a priority. He takes great pride in his “number”, which exceeds 200 lucky ladies, and he’ll often group his conquests by category. One such goal is sleeping with a woman from every country in the world (his friend Marshall noted that he’s done surprisingly well in the Baltic nations), another is his annual “party school bingo” game, of which he is the only player.
Barney refers to his penis by various names, including the Barnacle, Barnana, Barnito Supreme, and Barney Jr. He would say that his penis is comparable to many national treasures and monuments, and certainly bigger than his own ego.
Barney would be wrong. His ego is indeed the biggest part of him; despite the fact that his best friends consider him a morally dubious individual and largely tolerate his presence and unasked-for advice, he behaves as though they are blessed to be graced with his presence. His confidence seems healthy and attractive at first, but like most things when put under a microscope, it quickly becomes disgusting. His luxurious apartment is a showcase of his despicableness and selfishness; there are multiple enormous flatscreen televisions, and when he’s frustrated, he enjoys smashing them. If none are at hand, he will purchase more for that sole purpose (after wasting the store employees’ time asking about the quality and specs of a particular TV, of course.) He owns what is likely one of the Storm Trooper outfits used in the original Star Wars films, or at least a convincing and expensive collector’s replica. It stands front and center in his strident, unapologetic bachelor’s pad. The Storm Trooper is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making women feel welcome in the apartment. Barney’s king-sized bed only has one pillow and a blanket that only covers one side of the bed. The bathroom is outfitted with his own invention, a spring-loaded toilet seat that only stays down as long as someone is sitting on it or holding it there. Just in case these don’t scare a one-night stand away, he has a red-lit shelving unit built to showcase his extensive collection of pornography in the hall.
At the heart of Barney’s stubborn unwillingness to let a woman into his life for more time than it takes to have sex in various different positions is a genuine fear of intimacy, commitment and abandonment. This stems from his own father issues and his first girlfriend leaving him, and he surrounds himself with expensive objects and treats women like slightly higher-maintenance expensive objects. Barney’s a paradox, in that he considers himself worldly and sophisticated, but has skills in self-delusion and selective naivety that rival those of any other character in the show (except perhaps for Zoey’s cousin Honey, whose defining character attribute is being absurdly gullible.) Barney believes, well into his adulthood, that Bob Barker is his father, and he even goes so far as to learn the prices of thousands of items by heart so he can go on “The Price is Right” and win all the prizes. He shows Bob Barker pictures of his childhood while the clock is running, reacts emotionally when Bob tells him to “go ahead and spin the wheel, son”, and asks if the host is proud of him when he wins a major prize, but Barney eventually chickens out on actually telling Bob Barker that he thinks he’s his son. The reason he gives to his friends for his last-minute change of heart is that he was afraid to shatter aspects of Bob Barker’s life that he’d always believed and accepted, revealing that it was actually Barney’s great fear to discover the truth.
Wallace Stevens famously wrote that “The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know is a fiction, there being nothing else.” Barney unwittingly exemplifies this precise phenomenon; by choosing to believe that the postmaster general really was writing him letters explaining that his social and sports-related failures were not his fault, and that his father was someone important who wasn’t a part of his life because of circumstances outside of his ability to control, Barney embraces the fiction because it paints a picture of a Barney that he likes better. The tragedy is that Barney’s self-image is largely a forced sense of bravado he wears like one of his suits. That is to say that he wears it well, but it is not a part of him.
Ted said in an early episode that the reason he likes hanging out with Barney is not because the evening goes where it’s supposed to, it’s because the evening always ends with a good story to tell, and that’s certainly always the case with Barney (and it’s fortunate, since the entire series is a rambling account told by Future Ted to his children.) Ted also once asked him not to say anything embarrassing around his new girlfriend, revising it to not saying anything. It is assumed that evenings with Barney will be thematically raunchy, in other words .
Barney often serves as the “devil on the shoulder” of his friends. This happened nearly literally in the first season, when Barney wore a devil costume to a Halloween party and tried to convince Ted to take a piss off the top of the roof, and more figuratively with the way he encourages behavior that’s ill-advised and sure to result in trouble later. But he’s not all bad; though Barney disrespects women and can be a jerk, he’s also been known to be kind to his friends Lily, Marshall, Ted, and Robin. Robin especially; at one point, they have a relationship that nearly kills both of them (Robin lets herself go and her skin goes to hell, and Barney gains a lot of weight), but they are nevertheless committed to one another while it lasts.
Barney has a gambling problem, and he’ll go to absurd lengths to win bets. A boy named Matthew Panning told him in the seventh grade that he had slept with 100 girls; Barney vowed to one day sleep with 200 girls and thus defeat Matthew, a goal he completes and crows about, much to the pity, concern, and disgust of others. When he grudgingly attends a terrible play in which his friend Lily acts in, he tells her that he hated it. When she says that she would never say anything mean about a play that Barney was in, he rises to the challenge, writing a one-man play called “Suck It Lily” in which he repeats the word “moist” for 40 minutes, squirts Lily in the face with a squirt gun for 20, and then dresses up in a robot outfit and blows piercingly on a recorder until Lily admits how terrible it is. Even when his victory is unquestioned, Barney likes his efforts to be recognized and fully appreciated, and his friends sit through another hour and a half of his terrible play. It ends with Marshall slapping him across the face, in accordance with a “slap bet” that awarded the winner (Marshall) the opportunity to slap the loser (Barney) in the face at any future point. Barney lives in constant fear of these slaps, and Marshall’s methods of tormenting Barney with the anticipation are running gags in “How I Met Your Mother.” Once, Barney even lost his life savings as a result of gambling too recklessly and excessively.
Often, the concepts that Barney opposes are only met with disagreement because he feels they weren’t carried far enough. For instance, when it’s suggested that he keep a “little black book” of the women he’s slept with, he says that he’d never do such a thing... and then reveals that he keeps a scrapbook. Barney is both competitive and childish; he’s an avid and enthusiastic laser tag player, and he takes his games (usually with little kids) extremely, hilariously seriously. After pinning a child while shooting him, he was banned from his favorite laser tag establishment, and he responded appropriately: by toilet-papering the establishment after hours. Though Barney often takes things to ridiculous excess, occasionally he has kind intentions; he once tricked Marshall into buying an exorbitantly expensive suit so he could convince him to get a generously paid position at his company, and when he thought his mother was fatally ill, he hired a woman and a child actor to portray his wife and child to make her happy. When she recovered, he carried the lie on for years to spare her feelings.
Character Abilities you would like to expand on further:
Barney is an illusionist. He likes using simple magic tricks to impress women, and he has a special fondness for tricks involving fire. He blogs frequently, in which he mostly reiterates the day’s events from the perspective of someone “awesome.” He is a cigar connoisseur. He speaks fluent French, Korean, Chinese, and Ukranian. Barney’s unrealistically photogenic; despite attempts to make him look bad, his pictures almost always end up looking perfect. Barney can tell, simply by looking at a woman, how long it’s been since she’s had sex to the day. He can play the piano and has an excellent singing voice.
Character Weaknesses you would like to expand on further:
Barney grew up in the city and does not know how to drive. Due to growing up without a father figure, he is hilariously incompetent with tools. He similarly is unable to use chopsticks. Barney is a narcissist, and he allegedly sees a psychiatrist to help him deal with it. He was also diagnosed with ADHD as a child. His fear of intimacy makes it difficult for him to truly show his vulnerable side, even to his friends.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What abilities will your character retain in Soul Campaign? Since Barney has no superhuman abilities, he would retain everything in the sections above, including the ability to tell how long it’s been for a woman since she’s had sex (with player permission, of course.)
What weaknesses will your character lose or gain in Soul Campaign?
Barney will obviously be minus his friends, but he’s a social guy. He’ll make new ones. All of his other weaknesses in the above sections would remain.
The wish Death the Kid made to the BREW in 2009 was to “rescue Death City and stop the waves of Madness from overtaking the world.” By whatever means necessary. Pretend you are the BREW. Why would you choose to bring this character to Death City?
Barney Stinson has been brought to Death City because of his social skills, intelligence, and charm. BREW has noticed that there are quite a few antisocial geniuses floating about, and it would prefer to balance the ratio with some smooth, suave fellows who have a knack for drawing shy folks out of their shell. BREW believes that this will further cohesion within the city.
If your character has difficulty verbally communicating or can’t verbally communicate at all (mute or non-humanoid), elaborate on how this will be treated in the game. Not Applicable.
[ MEISTER ONLY SECTION ]
Why is your character a Meister and not a Weapon?
In short, Barney is a manipulator. He likes to pull strings and predict the reactions of others, and does often, since his “plays” and moves often result in additions to his continuously growing string of one night stands. He manipulates his friends through similar elaborate plays, tricking Ted into growing a mustache over a long period of time and faking a serious illness decades into the future in order to watch an exploding meatball sub splatter Marshall’s face. Most of all, though, Barney works well with others, even if he has a tendency to be kind of a user. He gives back, despite taking much, ensuring that his relationship with his Weapon would be a fulfilling (if not necessary exclusive) one.
What is your character’s Meister Ability? Why?
Soul Dazzle - He is able to create a distraction using his glorious soul wavelength!!, attracting the enemy's attention to him.
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Describe your character’s soul with six adjectives.
Strident, cocksure, clever, confident, stubborn, suave
What does your character’s soul look like? Be creative.
Barney’s soul is a little yellow ball with a chronic smirk and a pinstriped lower pattern that looks a bit like a grey suit. It tends to cuddle up on things, but if whatever it’s cuddling against gets too comfortable, Barney’s soul ceases to show interest and wanders off to find a new object of affection.
Name: Barnabus "Barney" Stinson
Age: Early 30s and looks good for his age. He was born in 1976.
Gender: Male
Canon: How I Met Your Mother
Timeline: Immediately after Marshall slaps Barney in the Season 2 episode “Stuff”. He’s been performing an intentionally awful play in a tinfoil robot suit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk20WWY15uc”
Character History:
Born seven years after the first lunar landing, Barney Stinson was a sheltered young man raised tenderly by his single mother alongside his black half-brother. He was diagnosed with ADHD for his tendency to space out, and his childhood ambition was to be a violinist when he grew up. His school life was rough and humiliating, as revealed by several flashbacks, but the fallout was often mollified by letters from various individuals like the Postmaster General (actually written by Barney’s mother). When no one came to young Barney’s birthday party, it was because the invitations got lost in the mail, and definitely not because he threw up when they turned the lights off in the Planetarium. When his coach kicked him off the team for being a poor basketball player, his mother explained that it was actually because he was too good at basketball and was making everyone else look bad. When Barney asked who his father was, instead of telling the truth, his mother said “I don’t know… that guy,” pointing at the television at Bob Barker during Wheel of Fortune. Well into his adulthood, Barney believed that Bob Barker was in fact his father.
Young Barney, intelligent and with his ego safely cushioned and intact, did in fact attend college. He claims that he graduated from MIT, but he owns at least one shirt from Cornell. Perhaps he transferred, or outright lied. Either way, his college career was one that spit him out at the age of 23 in 1998 as a naïve, long-haired Peace Corps hopeful. He had decided to “wait until marriage” to have sex with his hippie girlfriend Shannon, played the keyboard and sang in a coffee shop, disapproved of men who treated women like objects, and entertained notions that he was going to change the world for the people who needed him and his girlfriend in third-world countries. She bailed unexpectedly on the Peace Corps plans shortly before they were supposed to ship out, claiming that her father didn’t want her to go. In actuality, she left Barney for an older, corporate suit-wearing womanizing cad. This broke Barney’s heart, and he went through a time where he made mortifying videos of himself crying, singing, and playing the keyboard in an attempt to win his girlfriend back. But she was ultimately seduced by success, wealth and ambition, leading Barney to purchase a suit, cut his hair, lose his virginity to a friend of his mother’s (Rhonda “the Man-Maker” French) and begin his career as a serial womanizer. This is the version of Barney that appears on the show, that exasperates and entertains his friends, and that would exist in Soul Campaign.
Barney’s present-day job is never fully specified, a running joke in “How I Met Your Mother.” When he is asked exactly what it is he does, he laughs lightly, says “Oh, please,” and quickly changes the subject. It’s eventually revealed that he is an affluent, high-ranking and highly paid member of a company called AltruCell, a corporation that wants the public to focus on the innocuous manufacturing of the soft yellow material coating tennis balls. It’s implied that they also participate in environmentally disastrous methods and that the material also is used to build missiles and small arms. Barney’s job serves as yet another catalyst for his morally devoid but highly intelligent and effective character; he appears to do everything at his workplace from tormenting other workers with elaborate practical jokes to averting world crises with his social skills and ability to speak fluent Chinese. The walls of his office are covered with framed motivational posters; some are conventional, like the one that says “Opportunity: You Will Always Miss 100% of the Shots You Don’t Take,” and others are a little more startling, like the ones that say “Perfection: It’s Not Good Enough to Win, Everyone Else Has to Lose” with the Blue Angels flying in formation, and the one with the several penguins that has the caption “Conformity: The One Who Is Different Gets Left Out In the Cold.” Barney especially likes the unconventional posters, and presumably finds them more motivational.
His typical night consists of going to the bar with his “best” friend Ted and their circle of friends including sweet couple Marshall and Lily, Canadian reporter Robin, and whoever Ted is dating at the time. His goal is always to pick up a woman, operating based on his “Play Book” and considering himself an expert wing man whose duty in life is to make Ted, who has potential, “awesome” like him. His romantic conquests, failed and successful, often serve as entertaining subplots in canon.
Character Personality:
Barney’s friends describe him as a “high-functioning sociopath,” but his many and varied one-night stands seldom have such nice things to say about him. Though he was once an idealistic young man, Barney is goal-oriented, image-conscious, and he fancies himself a worldly, sophisticated playboy. He acts the part, dressing almost exclusively in sharp, tailored suits, developing pick-ups and plays with which to ensnare women, and he aims for those with exotic professions, large breasts, and youth on their side (ie, below the dire, unacceptable age of 30.) He is attractive and charming enough to get away with his lies, ruses and tricks for at least one night, which is generally all he needs and wants. After bedding his latest conquest, Barney is usually content to consider that mountain conquered and start searching for a new challenge. Quality is important to Barney; he prefers to sleep with women who are aesthetically impressive, but quantity is also a priority. He takes great pride in his “number”, which exceeds 200 lucky ladies, and he’ll often group his conquests by category. One such goal is sleeping with a woman from every country in the world (his friend Marshall noted that he’s done surprisingly well in the Baltic nations), another is his annual “party school bingo” game, of which he is the only player.
Barney refers to his penis by various names, including the Barnacle, Barnana, Barnito Supreme, and Barney Jr. He would say that his penis is comparable to many national treasures and monuments, and certainly bigger than his own ego.
Barney would be wrong. His ego is indeed the biggest part of him; despite the fact that his best friends consider him a morally dubious individual and largely tolerate his presence and unasked-for advice, he behaves as though they are blessed to be graced with his presence. His confidence seems healthy and attractive at first, but like most things when put under a microscope, it quickly becomes disgusting. His luxurious apartment is a showcase of his despicableness and selfishness; there are multiple enormous flatscreen televisions, and when he’s frustrated, he enjoys smashing them. If none are at hand, he will purchase more for that sole purpose (after wasting the store employees’ time asking about the quality and specs of a particular TV, of course.) He owns what is likely one of the Storm Trooper outfits used in the original Star Wars films, or at least a convincing and expensive collector’s replica. It stands front and center in his strident, unapologetic bachelor’s pad. The Storm Trooper is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making women feel welcome in the apartment. Barney’s king-sized bed only has one pillow and a blanket that only covers one side of the bed. The bathroom is outfitted with his own invention, a spring-loaded toilet seat that only stays down as long as someone is sitting on it or holding it there. Just in case these don’t scare a one-night stand away, he has a red-lit shelving unit built to showcase his extensive collection of pornography in the hall.
At the heart of Barney’s stubborn unwillingness to let a woman into his life for more time than it takes to have sex in various different positions is a genuine fear of intimacy, commitment and abandonment. This stems from his own father issues and his first girlfriend leaving him, and he surrounds himself with expensive objects and treats women like slightly higher-maintenance expensive objects. Barney’s a paradox, in that he considers himself worldly and sophisticated, but has skills in self-delusion and selective naivety that rival those of any other character in the show (except perhaps for Zoey’s cousin Honey, whose defining character attribute is being absurdly gullible.) Barney believes, well into his adulthood, that Bob Barker is his father, and he even goes so far as to learn the prices of thousands of items by heart so he can go on “The Price is Right” and win all the prizes. He shows Bob Barker pictures of his childhood while the clock is running, reacts emotionally when Bob tells him to “go ahead and spin the wheel, son”, and asks if the host is proud of him when he wins a major prize, but Barney eventually chickens out on actually telling Bob Barker that he thinks he’s his son. The reason he gives to his friends for his last-minute change of heart is that he was afraid to shatter aspects of Bob Barker’s life that he’d always believed and accepted, revealing that it was actually Barney’s great fear to discover the truth.
Wallace Stevens famously wrote that “The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know is a fiction, there being nothing else.” Barney unwittingly exemplifies this precise phenomenon; by choosing to believe that the postmaster general really was writing him letters explaining that his social and sports-related failures were not his fault, and that his father was someone important who wasn’t a part of his life because of circumstances outside of his ability to control, Barney embraces the fiction because it paints a picture of a Barney that he likes better. The tragedy is that Barney’s self-image is largely a forced sense of bravado he wears like one of his suits. That is to say that he wears it well, but it is not a part of him.
Ted said in an early episode that the reason he likes hanging out with Barney is not because the evening goes where it’s supposed to, it’s because the evening always ends with a good story to tell, and that’s certainly always the case with Barney (and it’s fortunate, since the entire series is a rambling account told by Future Ted to his children.) Ted also once asked him not to say anything embarrassing around his new girlfriend, revising it to not saying anything. It is assumed that evenings with Barney will be thematically raunchy, in other words .
Barney often serves as the “devil on the shoulder” of his friends. This happened nearly literally in the first season, when Barney wore a devil costume to a Halloween party and tried to convince Ted to take a piss off the top of the roof, and more figuratively with the way he encourages behavior that’s ill-advised and sure to result in trouble later. But he’s not all bad; though Barney disrespects women and can be a jerk, he’s also been known to be kind to his friends Lily, Marshall, Ted, and Robin. Robin especially; at one point, they have a relationship that nearly kills both of them (Robin lets herself go and her skin goes to hell, and Barney gains a lot of weight), but they are nevertheless committed to one another while it lasts.
Barney has a gambling problem, and he’ll go to absurd lengths to win bets. A boy named Matthew Panning told him in the seventh grade that he had slept with 100 girls; Barney vowed to one day sleep with 200 girls and thus defeat Matthew, a goal he completes and crows about, much to the pity, concern, and disgust of others. When he grudgingly attends a terrible play in which his friend Lily acts in, he tells her that he hated it. When she says that she would never say anything mean about a play that Barney was in, he rises to the challenge, writing a one-man play called “Suck It Lily” in which he repeats the word “moist” for 40 minutes, squirts Lily in the face with a squirt gun for 20, and then dresses up in a robot outfit and blows piercingly on a recorder until Lily admits how terrible it is. Even when his victory is unquestioned, Barney likes his efforts to be recognized and fully appreciated, and his friends sit through another hour and a half of his terrible play. It ends with Marshall slapping him across the face, in accordance with a “slap bet” that awarded the winner (Marshall) the opportunity to slap the loser (Barney) in the face at any future point. Barney lives in constant fear of these slaps, and Marshall’s methods of tormenting Barney with the anticipation are running gags in “How I Met Your Mother.” Once, Barney even lost his life savings as a result of gambling too recklessly and excessively.
Often, the concepts that Barney opposes are only met with disagreement because he feels they weren’t carried far enough. For instance, when it’s suggested that he keep a “little black book” of the women he’s slept with, he says that he’d never do such a thing... and then reveals that he keeps a scrapbook. Barney is both competitive and childish; he’s an avid and enthusiastic laser tag player, and he takes his games (usually with little kids) extremely, hilariously seriously. After pinning a child while shooting him, he was banned from his favorite laser tag establishment, and he responded appropriately: by toilet-papering the establishment after hours. Though Barney often takes things to ridiculous excess, occasionally he has kind intentions; he once tricked Marshall into buying an exorbitantly expensive suit so he could convince him to get a generously paid position at his company, and when he thought his mother was fatally ill, he hired a woman and a child actor to portray his wife and child to make her happy. When she recovered, he carried the lie on for years to spare her feelings.
Character Abilities you would like to expand on further:
Barney is an illusionist. He likes using simple magic tricks to impress women, and he has a special fondness for tricks involving fire. He blogs frequently, in which he mostly reiterates the day’s events from the perspective of someone “awesome.” He is a cigar connoisseur. He speaks fluent French, Korean, Chinese, and Ukranian. Barney’s unrealistically photogenic; despite attempts to make him look bad, his pictures almost always end up looking perfect. Barney can tell, simply by looking at a woman, how long it’s been since she’s had sex to the day. He can play the piano and has an excellent singing voice.
Character Weaknesses you would like to expand on further:
Barney grew up in the city and does not know how to drive. Due to growing up without a father figure, he is hilariously incompetent with tools. He similarly is unable to use chopsticks. Barney is a narcissist, and he allegedly sees a psychiatrist to help him deal with it. He was also diagnosed with ADHD as a child. His fear of intimacy makes it difficult for him to truly show his vulnerable side, even to his friends.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What abilities will your character retain in Soul Campaign? Since Barney has no superhuman abilities, he would retain everything in the sections above, including the ability to tell how long it’s been for a woman since she’s had sex (with player permission, of course.)
What weaknesses will your character lose or gain in Soul Campaign?
Barney will obviously be minus his friends, but he’s a social guy. He’ll make new ones. All of his other weaknesses in the above sections would remain.
The wish Death the Kid made to the BREW in 2009 was to “rescue Death City and stop the waves of Madness from overtaking the world.” By whatever means necessary. Pretend you are the BREW. Why would you choose to bring this character to Death City?
Barney Stinson has been brought to Death City because of his social skills, intelligence, and charm. BREW has noticed that there are quite a few antisocial geniuses floating about, and it would prefer to balance the ratio with some smooth, suave fellows who have a knack for drawing shy folks out of their shell. BREW believes that this will further cohesion within the city.
If your character has difficulty verbally communicating or can’t verbally communicate at all (mute or non-humanoid), elaborate on how this will be treated in the game. Not Applicable.
[ MEISTER ONLY SECTION ]
Why is your character a Meister and not a Weapon?
In short, Barney is a manipulator. He likes to pull strings and predict the reactions of others, and does often, since his “plays” and moves often result in additions to his continuously growing string of one night stands. He manipulates his friends through similar elaborate plays, tricking Ted into growing a mustache over a long period of time and faking a serious illness decades into the future in order to watch an exploding meatball sub splatter Marshall’s face. Most of all, though, Barney works well with others, even if he has a tendency to be kind of a user. He gives back, despite taking much, ensuring that his relationship with his Weapon would be a fulfilling (if not necessary exclusive) one.
What is your character’s Meister Ability? Why?
Soul Dazzle - He is able to create a distraction using his glorious soul wavelength!!, attracting the enemy's attention to him.
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Describe your character’s soul with six adjectives.
Strident, cocksure, clever, confident, stubborn, suave
What does your character’s soul look like? Be creative.
Barney’s soul is a little yellow ball with a chronic smirk and a pinstriped lower pattern that looks a bit like a grey suit. It tends to cuddle up on things, but if whatever it’s cuddling against gets too comfortable, Barney’s soul ceases to show interest and wanders off to find a new object of affection.
