Button Men Fanatics

The Fanatics! set is a user-generated set of over 100 buttons intended to push the boundaries of Button Men's rules.  They are untested and unpredictable.

## Classic Fanatics

Many Fanatics had artwork when originally published. If you have a higher-resolution image of one of these fanatics, please upload it to the wiki. On the original Button Men Online site, users submitted a link to an image for their Fanatic, and they were not hosted locally on the website. Potentially half of all Fanatics lost their artwork in the transition to the Buttonweavers version of Button Men Online.

Many Fanatics with missing artwork were given a 'generic' text-and-dice-frames image by BMO user Fog. After Fog's death, another Button Men Online user used his templates to create images for the missing artwork.

## Classic Fanatics Origin Stories

The stories behind the Fanatics that could be found

#### Boot2daHead [d(1) Gz(Z) !p(V) !n(Y,Y) oF(C)]

> "I seem to remember that I was in the second round of fanatics, or at least it seemed like they hadn't accepted any new ones for a while.  There were a few 'older' ones (which in those days meant 6 like months to a year old) around, but I don't think there had been any new ones since I had joined.  I worked on my recipe for a while.  Mostly, I wanted something that was fun to play.  I wanted it to be strong (because winning is fun), but more importantly fun and flexible. I think it had 11 different skills and 5 different die sizes.  There was also a Jolt skill on the d1 die, but Dana removed all those at some point.  I also added some other stuff to make the die a bit more fair and balanced, such as putting Null on the Turbo Twin Y Swing die (I wanted a die called Twin Turbo just because it sounded cool) and making the Fire die Wildcard and Ornery.  Just a bit of randomness to keep things wacky and unpredictable.  There were definitely stronger buttons out there, but I always loved playing with mine because it was so fun and no two rounds were ever the same.  My one regret was that Stinger Dice were not invented yet.  I would have loved to have that skill on one of the dice."
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#### Darrin [(6) (6) z(12) Fq(R) Fq(R)]

> I was familiar with Cheapass Games because my friends in college worked in a game store, but Button Men started to take off after I moved out to Ohio.  I wanted at least one Speed, didn't want Speed 20, so I thought Speed 12 would be better, high enough to get 2-3 dice but not so high to get immediate attention.  To celebrate my Alma Mater (graduated CalPoly in '97), I made the next dice Fire dice.  I wanted to add something else to Fire , but I thought Speed would be too strong.  Chance Dice hardly ever work. Queer dice, though... seemed like a good combo for Fire dice.  Half the time they'd be shadow, half the time not, so... maybe the best of both worlds?  At the time, I was collecting dice (who doesn't?), but I got obsessed with tracking down odd dice with unusual faces. I discovered the 5-sider, 7-sider, and 16-sider were available from Gamescience.  For my fanatic, I had just gotten ahold of a bunch of 16-siders, and I was super-stoked about them. So I knew my BM formula had to have at least one 16-sider.  I was favoring BMs with paired swing dice, because I thought they were stronger than other BMs with a single swing.  I thought a pair of R-swings would be powerful, but not obviously so.  The pair of d6's I felt balanced out the formula... pair of d4s felt too strong. 2d6 had a "Classic" feel to it.  I wanted something relatively fast, and I felt "6 6 12 2 2" would be pretty competitive, but could be tuned up to "6 6 12 16 16" which I felt would still be decent against some of the bigger BMs.
> I still like the formula, I find it makes for some interesting games, but I think I put a little too much effort in trying to make it fair.  I wound up with something that's not entirely weak, but not particularly strong.
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#### DMM [(4) (6) z(C) (10,10) f(X)!]

> The button is explicitly a parody of the Darwin button. I had cosplayed as Darwin at Origins when Brawl came out and reused the costume for the button. My modifications were expressive rather than strategic - IIRC I added the twin die since I’m a twin, the card die out of a love for card games, and a focus die for my interest in Japanese culture since they were introduced in a Japan-themed set.
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#### ElihuRoot [(3) h(10) h(10) n(20) n(30)]

> The name is a historical figure, extremely famous in his day, (sort of like Henry Kissinger), but now mostly forgotten. He was prominent in the peace movement, which I thought was a good choice for a "beat people up" character. I just like null dice, and I wanted something with  relatively few dice to be captured but enough strength to capture other things and the potential of protecting my dice from capture.
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#### Grayhawk [H(6) f(8) s(12) B(Y) g(Z)!]

"The formula behind my Fanatic had something to do with my reputation in working convention security, but I have no idea what the full rationale was anymore. The artwork is my first tattoo."

#### Hansolav [p^(8) z(4,6) q(12) z(Y) (X)!

> My Fanatic was inspired by the different ‘flavor texts’ on my profile on the old website. I think my motto was something like ‘What’s the point of being violent when you can be annoying?’ pointing to references to violence in the game description. So I basically made a recipe with the most annoying – or unpredictable – dice I could think of.  With time and space dice you never know when it is your turn and making it poison means that you will have to swallow the poison to get rid of it. Speed dice are always annoying and with queer dice you do not know if it will be a normal or a shadow die next. Finishing with a turbo die made it quite hard to know what to expect the next turn.  Mostly it is intended to be annoying to play against. I chose to use standard dice in the formula so that it would be playable in real life as well.
> The "artwork" is just me trying to look menacing with an added city skyline. The weapon of choice (staff) is a hint to a label that the admins of the original game gave my profile – ‘With a stick’ I think it was. This was a reference to a comment borrowed from Monty Python about attacking you with a pointed stick. I think my comment said something like ‘Hansolav doesn’t like to beat people up, but he may poke you with a pointed stick.’
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#### Heath [(1/13)! z(3,13) H(13) md(13) (X)!]

> "Heath was made around 2002. Heath is my first name. The picture was from 1990 of me and my friends in camo from playing paintball. For the dice choice, I do no recall the reason for the selection. It was awhile ago. I think they looked interesting. For the flavor text of Heath, I do not recall."
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#### Heather [d(1) D(2) ^c(4) tz(14) rz(2) rz(4) rz(10) rz(20)]

> "Somewhere in the late 2000/early 2001 timeframe, Tirade from the Brawl set was the button that was impossible to beat. My very creatively named Fanatic, Heather, was designed to be a Tirade-killer.  (It worked.)
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> Its original design was different from what's shown on the wiki -- when it was first created, the Stealth one-sided (d1) was a Jolt Stealth one-sided (Jd1), guaranteeing the player an extra turn since the die could never be captured and always rolled odd.  I also want to say that the Doppleganger two-sided could be used in skill attacks back then, which meant the D2 was great for initiative and then quickly transformed into something more powerful.  But after 20 years, I can't remember for sure...!
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> I knew it was overpowered when I made it, because how else were we going to beat that darn broccoli?!  If I remember correctly, another player eventually designed their own Fanatic as a Heather-killer.  (And if I remember correctly, it worked.)  I don't recall who it was -- but maybe they'll see this and take credit?"
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#### Itachi [fnz(4) (8) (12) fnz(20) (X)]

> "I wanted a balanced button. Null dice are a neat idea, but they are too weak. Speed dice on the other hand are entirely too powerful, with no balancing disadvantage. So I started with Tess's recipe and made the null dice speed dice as well.  I knew I wanted to use that picture and Samurai have focus dice, so I added that too.  I play tested it a lot and I think it's very well-balanced with a lot of strategic options that make it fun to play."
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#### jeffboyardy [yo(10) (6/12) o(X)? (Y)? Bo(Z)?]

> Many moons ago. I went to visit Dana Huyler during my college spring break. I was hanging out with him and his engineer friends during midterms. We were joking around during their late night cram session having second dinner in their kitchen. They joked about how oblivious their EE professor was and how many people ditched class often. We hatched a plan for me to come take the open note midterm. I put on two layers of clothes and a hat and glasses that were not mine. Took a collection of the notes from the group. I was a History major... what do I know about Electrical Engineering? So I went in with them sat down and the prof handed out the exams. Counted twice with a puzzled look on his face.  He then shrugged and sat down.
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> About half way thru the exam, we launched the second part of the prank...
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> I jumped out of my seat and yelled at the top of my lungs... “Noooooo! I can’t take it anymore!” I marched up to the front and slammed the test down on his desk. As I marched out of the room I said “I’m switching back to Ethics!”
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> After leaving the room, I sprinted 3 flights of stairs too a bathroom, pulled off a layer of clothes and the glasses. Then left the building and blended into the crowd.
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> The professor sat stunned and another professor came over “what the hell was that?”
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> “I don’t know.”
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> “Goddamn engineers.” He replied and left.
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> This was on a Friday and the exams came back on Monday. It was the largest curve in history. Everyone got their grades bumped up. The professor handed out the exam and had one extra...
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> Dana asked “who’s exam is it?” Professor looked at my name... I did manage to get a couple right. “Um Jeff? Boyardy? Jeff Boyardy. Do we know him?
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> So when I came to Dana’s site... the logical name to choose.
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> The second dinner that night?  Can of Chef Bo R Dee spaghetti and meatballs.
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#### KaijuGamer [Hz(4) Hz(6) Hz(8) Hz(10) Hz(20)]

> Well, since I love kaiju (and I'm a gamer) they are supposed to be huge - hence the mighty dice; and I happen to like speed dice the most. So, combining the two, I get the best of both worlds. (hopefully)
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#### Kestrel [df(3) %q(7,7) zs(17) ^t(3/23) p(Y)! rG(S) rg(U) r(V)]

Kestrel does not remember much about the design of their button.

> "I had forgotten that I created this button many years ago. It's kind of crazy. What was I thinking?"
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#### Limax [(W) om(34) (T)]

> There's not much of a story behind it. I've just always liked wombats. When Skeeve said I could create a Fanatic, that's what came to mind. I was originally going to make the middle die a 34-sided ornery maximum, but that really made no sense. The button itself is very weak and just usually played as a joke.
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#### Mneme [dg(20) dgH(4,4) fn(30) tB(Y) tB(Y)]

> I submitted the mneme fanatic button recipe once I realized I could, and I think it worked out pretty well and got play from people who weren't me without being completely broken. Hah, playtesting. (as if!)
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> In terms of design, the thing to keep in mind was that at the time I submitted it, there were more or less three tiers of Fanatic buttons: There were overpowered buttons, which generally weren't much fun to play against and that played basically the same way (there were NOT many of these and honestly most of them may have eventually been toned down a bit). There were fanatics that basically felt like playing a Cheapass button. And then there was the "sweet spot" -- fanatics that were manifestly more powerful than the usual Cheapass button, but not to the point where it wasn't fun to play and where the buttons could play interestingly against one another well.
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> Naturally, I aimed for the third category -- a button that was -just- on this side of overpowered, with enough interesting decisions to make it fun to play while having a decent chance of beating -nearly- any other fanatic button.
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> The trip swing dice wee very much a strategic choice.  Against poison sets or other sets they could be pushed very low, or set mathematically to give you a decent chance of victory without giving out  huge pile of points on a bad roll.  And against low sets they could be set at whatever number had a decent chance of collecting a pile of the opponent's dice without a huge bag of risk (the choice of Berserk rather than Speed was entirely a matter of not setting the power level too high; Speed is of course overpowered, while Berserk has a nice set of drawbacks.  Putting trip on these dice was fairly minor (trip is a pretty weak ability) but gave them reset options if the die got initiative but the opponent had luckily high rolls.  And while berserk dice can't combo with the stinger dice, trip gives them a chance against higher rolls and a berserk attack can be used to lower their number and lose the Berserk disadvantage even if they couldn't collect multiple opposing dice.
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> The stealth stinger dice, naturally, were options set up to give the set options against large dice and a way to try to stall against poison sets.  As stealth stinger dice, they could nearly always make attacks if there were things in range while being immune to power, berserk, and speed attacks (this was also intended as a speed countermeasure).  Having one of them be a twin mighty gave the set an interesting win condition of creeping up on big dice, plus the qualities of a twin mighty die just seemed interesting.
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> Finally, there's the focus null die.  This is -mostly- a metagame thing; some fanatic dice had really high numbers (and really high numbered poison dice and having a big die to play with them sounded fun.  But also, null  removes some of the difficulties of playing focus dice--sure, one of my dice might be set very low at the beginning of a match (presuming I focus it) but losing a null die early in the match is -usally- not a big loss."
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#### Mr. White [m(4) @(8) @(14) GF(9,9) rc(4) rz(8) r(14) rh(18)]

> Mr White is a play off my last name. The picture was from South Park character creator web site based off myself in a white suit.
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#### Noopman [%t(1,3) D(4) ns(20) z(X) c(Z)!]

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> "My handle "noopman" is older than ButtonMen. It came about late one night during my university years, I was probably drunk. Only geeks know what a noop or nop is - a non-instruction-instruction. Essentially "no action". This instruction has for example been used to keep FTP connections open instead of disconnecting. "I'm still here, but not doing anything now. Please don't close our connection." The -man suffix is of course a super hero reference. Putting the two together makes a super hero or super villain... He has never really done anything, so his alignment remains unclear. I found that funny, so I adopted it as my online handle. I am noopman everywhere. It's unique and short. Google/Bing-whatever search for the handle and you find only references to me! "
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#### PJack [q(2) z(3) (5) s(23) t(T,T)]

> "At the time of the button's creation, I had recently discovered the sublime nonsense of "The Law of Fives" and "The 23 Enigma", an exercise in how you can trick your brain into seeing patterns where there are none. So, I found it amusing to put as many 5s and 23s into my Fanatic as I could. I chose dice skills that were useful, but whimsical. For example, I like the fact that a queer 2-sided die can always capture a die showing 1 or 2, no matter what you roll. The trip twin T-swing dice exist primarily for the alliteration, but also have a lot of flexibility and power."
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#### Stoooooooo [c(8) H(10) n(4) o(2)]

> "The long story short is that the button is the chemical formula for caffeine."
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#### Squiddhartha [f(4) f(6) g(10) pz(X)! (Z) r(4,4) rz(6,6)]

> Basically, I was aiming for a recipe that would be strong without being ridiculous, coming in comparable to some of the stronger tournament-legal buttons.  I also wanted to feature the skills I like to play, such as speed, turbo, and stinger, that give me some control over what's going on and don't leave me at the mercy of the RNG quite so much.
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#### Stick [p(3) (6,6) d(8) tzn(16) (S)!]

> My username came from an old, old nickname that I had way back in junior high school, whose origins are probably lost in the mists of time now.  It might have had something to do with the Daredevil comic book.
> I did a little bit of testing with my Fanatic I think.  I believe I tweaked  the recipe somewhat after the initial try.  This was on the old site, as you know, back when Dana was agreeable to changing someone's recipe for them.  Or maybe because I was a play tester he was kind enough to do that.  One of my goals was to try to make null dice less rubbish than they are.  The best way I could think of doing that was to make it null/speed.  Trip was just a little added bonus, although it could be a detriment sometimes as it forces you to remove someone’s shadow/poison dice which they might otherwise be stuck with if it rolls high.
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#### TYFTFB

TYFTFB is short for the original Button Men user "Thank You For The Force Brutality," a reference that users who knew the person do not remember the origins of.

#### Vysion [o(9) p(9) s(9) z(9) (9,9) r^(9)]

> "I wanted Vysion which stands for "vision with one i" to be visually represented. if 8 is used in emojis to indicate a pair of eyes, then a 9 would be just one eye. That was the basis for the values. As far as skills, I wanted a simple mix but with one of each on the five dice. Ornery gives some uncontrolled randomness, poison gives me a negative score, shadow is a nice offset to normal powers, speed is one of my favorites, and twin gives a bit more heft. The time and space is another favorite power but one I considered too strong for the normal button. Therefore I threw it in as reserve to help if you were down in rounds."
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#### WTrollkin [p(4) pG%(7) s(15) sB(S) s%(S)! worm(Y)]

> "My favorite button by far was Cthulhu. I love poison and shadow and the idea that you can win the fight but lose the game with locked poison. That was a fun time. Adding that to my fanatics button was an inspiration for sure. As to the avatar [button artwork] its the Tremendous Troll from the Magic Realm boardgame."
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## Fanatics 2020

In 2019, it was proposed that people who had met the 500 game threshold would be allowed to design their own Fanatic. The following users (and one bot) qualified.

### AnnoDomini

[(W) (4) (R) s(4) (W)]

AnnoDomini's button is based on the city in which they live, Warsaw. The picture is taken from a hill in a park few blocks away from their home.

### BlackShadowShade

[mkht(T)! Bt(T)& `fg(4) bHt^(0/10) F%(1,10) rbHt^(0/10) rnDt^(1,8)]

> The whole recipe is made up of bugs (more than one per die!) that can be found in the Github issues. From memory, there are over twenty issues on Github that are relevant. They've all been fixed. Which issues are being referenced are probably best left as a treasure hunt for those looking for Easter eggs.
> I asked my youngest daughter to draw me a button image that showed how the vanquished carcasses of bugs form my armour and weapons. I think she did a great job.
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### Blargh

[Hop(4) hop(10) Mh(8) Mf(8) MF(13)]

It was suggested that the button's stats were a reference to a peg leg and grumbling, but Blargh revealed otherwise.

> "You give me too much credit.  Actually, the only pirate themed item is the picture.  The art is something I had done for a game I was making.  I went with the pirate captain since I like pirates and the dice had some similarities a captain would have.  Focus, fire up his crew, as well as spit some poison when his crew needed to be whipped into shape.
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> I chose the dice  before I chose a theme. The button formula, which was actually my second attempt, came first.  I didn't see many, or any, buttons with MF, Mh, or Mf, and I thought they provided some interesting decisions.  The Hop and hop balance themselves out for the button's perspective but for the opponent brings up a decision as to how early or late to swallow the poison.
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> If you are using the button, there are times when reducing your Mh dice can reduce the sides enough so the opponent can't beat you. So lowering that dice is not always a bad thing.  With the MF, if you previously turned it down, keep an eye out to use it on skill attack to get it back to Max.  The Mf dice if used for initiative, it can later be reused and it will roll back to its Max.
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> I have always like pirates.  Sid Meier's Pirates is one of my favourite computer games.  So while I doubt I'd enjoy a real 17th century pirating life, I do enjoy the video game versions."
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### Devious

[dv(S) (16) (16) pqr(S,S) Jm`(0) Jm`(0) Jm`(0)]

The artwork for Devious's button is based on Nethack, and the button is based on elements from his own life.

As per Devious,

> "pqr(S,S): because the letters are consecutive. I wanted to find some neat combination of letters. I tried many, but this seemed nifty - it's not a sure thing whether you want to bring it in high or low since it might roll odd. I needed something against dudes with lots of big buttons (like Giant).
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> (16) (16)   In fourth grade there were so many Davids that all students, instead, had to pick a number that became their identity. I had that teacher for three years, so I was #16 for a long time. I chose the number because it was the sum of 7 and 9 -- for some reason I found both numbers to be lucky as a kid.
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> dv(S)  for obvious reasons
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> Jm`(0)   I'd been trying to find novel ways to use 0-sided dice. I didn't like having them gain initiative, but I liked the idea of having them sneak up on you. (In a devious way.)
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> Eventually I want to create a garden set, one which uses the concept of 0-sided dice growing up into other dice, such as with morphing, mighty, or Max. We'll see how that goes!"
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### JimMosk

[(4) %(8) g(12) JIMmo(S) k(2)]

Jim explains his button (and some of its swing strategy) thusly:

> "I was pretty much forced by my name to include a JIMmo(S). The rest was arrived at by some random playtesting of potential cohorts. I wanted a button that was reasonably powerful, but not the overkill level of some Fanatics.
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> That's me on the button. Some friends and I experimented with long-duration night-time photographs, using sparklers.
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> If you set S=20 and don't get initiative, it's pretty hard to recover. With S=6 I at least have a chance, albeit slim."
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### jl8e

[jl8e: f(7) f(7) p(16) (16) ^#(R,R)]

This is the only 2020 character with no official artwork, only the garish placeholder made sarcastically for the set in the expectation of all submitted buttons having artwork. Jl8e spoke thusly of his button:

> "I mostly playtested mine to see if it was too good. (It started with 20s instead of 16s.) Other than that, it didn't change.
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> Making a very strong button is easy; you just have to throw enough good stuff in. Making the best button out there is  going to require a fair amount of playtesting and thinking really hard about what your button might be weak to. I was playing with ideas that could beat mgatten and snuff without being unbeatable themselves, but wasn't that into the designs for myself. The one that worked had a d0 to go first, and some large insult stingers. A small Jolt die to eat their time &space and go again might've made it, but I didn't think of it, and it would've strengthened it against the field a lot, which wasn't what I wanted"
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### Nala

[Nala: Mkw(1) Mk(1) Mk(3) Mk(9) Mk(27)]

Nala is an AI programmed to play Button Men. Nala's dice are based on the Balanced Ternary.  According to Wikipedia,

> "A currency system with coins worth 1, 3, 9, 27, and 81. If the buyer and the seller each have only one of each kind of coin, any transaction up to 121 is possible. For example, if the price is 7, the buyer pays 1 + 9 and receives 3 in change."
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### Nonce Equitaur

[(S) (3)q (U)It (U) (R)!]

The Nonce Equitaur button artwork shows the creator's OC Chyron (pun on Chiron), AKA Nonce Equitaur (pun on non sequitur), and features artwork from the artist Tepo. Chyron is breaking into a giant icosahedral home that is a puzzle. The 9 rotates to a 6 to open. Nonce considered having the first "S" to be a null ornery die but felt the design was more elegant without it, making the character less powerful against opponents with the Poison skill.

### Tavella

[(5)t^ (23)v# (19)I (6)I^ (7)!]

To quote Tavella,

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> I was on the old site, and eligible for a Fanatic, but I kept getting frozen up trying to decide because it was all the rage to make a super-powerful button and there were so many choices. So I decided to stop thinking about that this time around and do a name-button instead. When I leet'd it out (since a lot of my letters aren't used), my name had fun types I like (trip, insult) plus of course two T&S dice which meant it definitely wouldn't suck. The numbers are my birthday, following my plan to not have to make decisions! Well, I did make one or two, i.e. how I decided to split the year. I could have done 6I 7^, but I liked the consistency of having each vowel paired with the previous consonant. I also briefly considered 60I^ 7!, i.e. like you say it, but again a 60I^ just didn't feel fun, I like the way the numbers are close to the usual balance in buttons. I did decide to add an exclamation mark at the end. As for the art, it's my name as if it was a Quenya word, in Tengwar. I've used it a lot of places over the years, I like how it looks like an English word so it's kind of dual.
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## Fanatics 2021

### Bosco312

[z^(20) z^(10) d(1) d(1)]

*Bosco312, a master of time and space, an evil prince, and a part time theatrical critic, needs to be stealthy in order to beat people up without coming apart at high speed.*

### Cycozar

[(T) (4)g (Y) o(U)rIt! ^%(3) c(Y) coz(4)r #(1)]

*Cycozar's 3 rules to live by:*

*1. Fun first - winning is a bonus.*

*2. When life gives you obstacles, run them over like a speed bump - thump thump.*

*3. Love & hate are both contagious - choose your disease.*

### GamerXYZ

[Ho(4) dk(6) sz(X) qt(Y) `M(Z)]

*GamerXYZ likes graham crackers, electric blankets, and beating people up in games.*

### Scipio

[bt(1) s(8) (3/19)! (5/23)! #(X)]

*Scipio is a broadly interested heretic from a mysterious country. He likes cheese, chocolate, watches, and the rule of three. Also beating people up.*

* The bt(1) die was an idea I had to make both Boom and Trip more fun. Now I can always decide whether or not I want to capture a die. Besides, there's nothing more satisfying than those rare situations when you get to capture a (30) with your 1-sided Trip die.
* The s(8) was chosen in reference to my adoptee, Lady K, whose recipe is [(4) s(6) (8) s(8) (X)].
* The two Turbo Option dice both represent numbers that are important to me, two of which could probably be guessed. They're not dates, however, if that was your first idea. Also, both are small/large Option dice which I feel make for interesting strategic choices.
* Finally, a real button needs a Swing die. And what better way to remember the reason I got into playing Button Men than with the new skill introduced in the set that also introduced Button Men to me.

1. ↑ https://github.com/buttonmen-dev/buttonmen/issues/623