I'm what many would call a connoisseur of wrestling. Okay, NO ONE has ever called me that, but that's kind of how I am. I like wrestling, from different view points: in ring action, backstage politics, and the beautiful mix of the two that make for an entertaining night.
I'm also a sucker for role playing games: dungeons and dragons, Fiasco, the newer Firefly one based on Cortex rules (not the shitty older one where you're basically playing as the show's characters with different names and faces) and recently I found out about World Wide Wrestling.
World Wide Wrestling (WWWRPG) is a role playing game where the players are wrestlers, and you're putting on a show for imaginary television/live audiences and Creative (the guy in control) weaves a tapestry of story for the players to compete in - if they want to.
Now, most RPGs would have you rolling to perform the moves, but in WWWRPG the players are rolling to see how the audience and creative see their hard work. Thee games says "Oh, you're wrestlers, you're working together (like actual wrestlers) to put on a show, you're going to hit the move, but lets see how the fans and the guys in the back react to it.
I like the freeform of how matches go, how Creative waits until they feel like telling the players who is going over (ie: winning) in the match, so there is plenty of chances to make the players nervous but at the same time characters have the ability to swerve completely off book (ie: say "eff you Creative") and turn the tides. Of course this causes problems with the wrestler and Creative but that adds to the tension.
There are some things in the rules I think are a little wonky, but no RPG rule book has EAAAVVEEERRR (© Chris Jericho) been followed to the "T" so I'm going to be fine with just glossing over some of the advancement rules and tweaking them to fit whatever game I end up running.
As a wrestling RPG, it aims to an audience who get the workings of a standard wrestling match: two guys play fight and a third party tells them who is going to win to forward a story that everyone is working together to tell. This is a good thing and a bad thing.
Good: I'm in that core demographic, and I found this at the height of my hatred of the current wrestling product. I've been watching older shows and wondering how certain things would have been handled in the back. There is a lot of bare bones to get someone with enough wrestling knowledge to really get a long term campaign rolling. I've already got a half dozen ideas for wrestlers, story lines, matches, and pay per view names. Hell, I've been thinking of how I would have multiple promotions running in the same universe without bogging down my outside game time by playing those other promotions.
Good: At first, the idea of choosing a gimmick then building a character around it felt backwards but the more I read through each one, it's just a starting point for greater character molding. Yes, you could be the punk anti-hero who talks out about Creative whenever you're given the chance just to come off edgy. Then again you could be the anti-hero who just wants fair due, for themselves and others who have been busting their ass week in and week out for years without a second glace from those in charge.
Good: Given the framing of the game, weekly games could be whole episodes, huge events or just moments in a given night - it all depends on what's needed. In the same token, if someone can't play a given session there are plenty of ways to continue an ongoing feud without a player even being there as long as their filled in with everything when they get back.
Good: The same goes for someone who just wants to play for a night. Creative and them can flesh out special characters in wrestling and non-wrestling roles and allow someone to play for the night as a celebrity host/commentator, a returning legend who was put out to pasture years ago, or a one time manager/valet. Of course if they want to come back, they should make an actual character - maybe a jobber if he shows up randomly.
Bad: This is not a game that allows you to be The Rock, Steve Austin or [Insert Your Favorite Wrestler Here]. Yes, you could base your wrestler around the archetype of the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, and I guaran-damn-te the moment your wrestler comes out to the theme from 2001 Space Odyssey, randomly "WOOO"s and calling everyone with a microphone "MEAN BY-GAWD GENE" the other players around the table, those with their thought out character backgrounds and notebooks of ideas for Creative, will probably hate you. This isn't the game for that.
Bad: Creative is going to be on their feet the entire night. There is little room for them to take a breather while trying to keep story lines from going nowhere. They are either taking notes of what move effects later roles, or which wrestler broke book (ie: went against Creative's finish) and try and find a in-story reason to do so, all the while keeping the non-playing wrestlers from stealing the show, and they also have a metric eff ton of pre and post game work to do. Yes, the best Dungeon Masters do a ton of work, I've done my time there myself, but for this game to really shine, it needs a very prepared Creative. Hell, after typing that out, I guess that's wrestling in a nut shell - deep.
WOOO!
As of now, I've been brainstorming characters to do a test run with the rules, to see where things get held up and fallt flat and where things really blow me away. I'll be posting that play through right here, on this blog, so keep an eye out.
For those of you wondering I have two jobbers already, one named Greasy Encheez a redneck sumo wrestler who comes down to the ring with a reversed rendition of Freebird because "dang sound Asian 'nough for me" and whose finishing move is called "Sesame Seed" where he sits down on your chest and while the weight alone would pin you, you suddenly tap out to the smell coming from his thighs.
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