This post is a lot to do with Creative's side of the table, but because there needs to be cooperation between the players and Creative, this post can be equally as important and informative to all players.
Wrestling, as you know, is about the story inside and outside the ring. Outside we have the typical Good vs Evil struggle, the Biog vs Small battle, the Outsider vs the Corporation. Inside we have the story that translates one move to another, building spot to spot, leading to a crescendo and finish.
A Typical Wrestling Feud: When you take two wrestlers and put them in the ring, something has to be on the line. A championship, pride, money, power, something has to give these two reason to beat the ever living crap out of one another. Yes, in a boring wrestling company, it could always be about pride and championships, but in your WWRPG universe, anything can go so why not make it BIG! Wrestling is formulaic, so let's look at some basic feud story lines, just to get us warmed up.
Dishonoring Honor - Fox Shadow (our heel) has no respect for anyone, and will win at any cost: Lie, Cheat, and/or Steal. During a match, Fox attempts to cheat but is caught and looses via disqualification. Fox takes out his frustration on the poor unsuspecting referee before Tiger Ali (our face) makes the save. Tiger is about honor and see none in Fox, but Fox doesn't see how winning a match over Tiger means anything so the two continue in opposite directions, but in the mean time Fox begins taunting Tiger. Using Tiger's finishing moves, music, even mocking the honor that Tiger has, but in non-direct ways. Soon the two have a chance in-ring meeting, a tournament maybe, and during the match Fox cheats and gets away with it. Fox's "Lie, Cheat, Steal" won over Tiger's honor code this time. This feud can be a low to mid card feud. Nothing huge is needed to build heat between these two, their different styles will clash, and in the end honor (or dishonor?!?!?!) wins. A feud like this could even have Fox putting Tiger out of commission because of an attack after a match or a purposeful in-match beat down, only to have Tiger return and give Fox what for.
Oh Baby, You... You Got What I Need - Obi-Wan Kenobi once said "love is a many splendored thing, love lifts you up were you belong, all you need is love!" but Pat Benatar said "Love is a battlefield" so which one is right? They both are. The downside to most wrestling related love stories is that wrestler 1 has a woman and wrestler 2 comes along and wants said woman, so he says "hey wrestler 1, fight me and when I win I get your woman" and wrestler 1 goes "ok" but woman never gets to say "hey, that's stupid, why would you agree to that!?" they just go along with it. What I'm suggesting is wrestler 1 and woman are in a relationship, wrestler 2 comes along and woman decides to jump ship and turns on wrestler 1. Wrestler 1's ego and feelings are hurt and wrestler 2 says "your woman came to me because you're nothing" which sets up a feud between the two wrestlers. I feel that if your wrestling company/universe/players want male on female violence, then as a wise snowman once said "cool." Have the woman attack wrestler 1, hell have the woman be a man and the wrestlers be women, it would change the dynamic of the typical wrestling stereotype right onto it's head!
I Wish You Died In The Womb - Siblings, what can I say. When it comes to wrestling families there will always be one in the shadow of the other, give your character siblings some background and let them fight it out in the ring like they use to in the living room. "Remember that time you got sick from eating too much ice cream? It's because I put ipecac as a topping!" or "Dad taught me how to sports because you always had your nose in a book about being a bitch" or "mom only loved you more because you fit her clothes better" and the list goes on and on. The fun thing is, you probably have a sibling that you could use to deepen the feel between wrestlers. Will they always be bitter enemies in the company or would they ever put their differences aside if one was hurt badly enough? The best example of this kind of feud was the long standing one between Bret Hart and his brother, Owen. Wrestling has never been good at long term booking, but their feud lasted years, back and forth - it was great! And the thing is, it felt real because in a way it was a little to them.
I could write about feuds forever, about how to build them, make them last but there's a lot of fun in how a feud naturally builds. Yes, Creative can go "You two wrestlers will feud, and this is how" but I think a lot of WWWRPG's fun is letting the characters see where a feud starts, builds, and goes.
Shakespeare with a Lariat: Many people say wrestling is a dance, that tells a story, from move to move, there's a fluidity of how moves are done, when they're done and why they're done. I see it as more of poetry. There's different styles of poetry, but when lines build on one another, so do moves. When the author hits a point, so do the wrestlers. When the poem climaxes, so do... okay, that's sick, shut up.
Watch a wrestling match and don't pay attention to how hard the moves look but how they are set up to those big spots that really set the match's pace. The other day I tried to break down how one move leads into another move and I became so fascinated with it, I stopped taking notes. The match was between Mankind and Triple H in a cage match at Summerslam. I don't remember what year but the cage was the old blue bars so I'm thinking it was late 90s.
Anyway, the big spot in the match was Mankind hitting a flying elbow drop from the top of the cage, which could have been hit at anytime, but the smaller spots were really intricate on how they were setup. One in particular had HHH try to escape and Mankind stopped him, half way up the cage, when Chyna jumped up on the side of the cage and leveled Mankind through it with an elbow blast. Chyna then started to climb up as HHH and Mankind dropped back down to continue fighting, on the outside Chyna starts climbing back down the cage but Mankind throws Trips into the cage, knocking her off of it. It sounds simple but to watch it flow from one move to another was really cool. I've noticed these moments in the past but never really paid any real attention to it.
Moves just aren't as random as you think. Sometimes the story is about one wrestler doing maximum damage to a specific other wrestler's body part, sometimes it's about a that table outside and who's going through it, and sometimes it's about getting out of that cage by Any. Means. Necessary. The thing about wrestling is it isn't about A to B but A to Z with 20 or so stops in between. Yes, wrestler 1 is going to win but what's the entertaining part about a wrestler who comes to the ring and wins in 30 seconds, unless that's his thing and the crowd loves or hates him for it.
Building moves can be planned out in advance or can naturally flow, players should play around with both styles to see how they like it, but WWWRPG really is about the natural flow of the dice, the wrestlers, and Creative.
WWWRPG is a great table top game for any wrestling fan, even the casual ones. It's a great way to spend some time in the ring, fighting the good fight, and maybe even one day be champ.
No comments:
Post a Comment