I’ll be taking WWWRPG to Forge Midwest this weekend. I’m planning to kinda see what people want to do so I’m not planning any new match stips or anything, but I would like to have another “LE” Gimmick on hand to potentially playtest. Right now I have The Giant (which is what you’d imagine). A couple ideas I want to do:
– The Athlete. References: Kurt Angle, Jack Swagger, Antonio Cesaro. The Moves center around impressing with athleticism, but I’m not sure what the second dimension should be. Probably +Real based.
– The Gatekeeper. References: “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson, Legacy-era Batista, maybe. The guy you have to get through to get to The Guy. Similar to the Manager, where you have a pre-defined relationship with someone (NPC or other player’s wrestler), and your Moves revolve around making other people look awesome. +Work based.
– The Innovator. References: Michael PS Hayes, Goldust, Tommy Dreamer (arguably). Someone who comes up with something genuinely fresh, new or innovative in the world of wrestling, or who has an angle that only they can pull off. Has a signature Move that you get to define in addition to their Finisher, and probably something about inciting jealousy backstage, but other than that I’m not sure where to go with it.
Help me prioritize!
I’d vote the Athlete (because that’s the sort of play I’d do) followed by the Gatekeeper (because making other people look awesome is my jam).
I would also vote for the Athlete or the Gatekeeper. Innovator is tough because their whole point is that they are innovative – it’s hard to pre-define what they will be, and they can’t all be the same (unless their gimmick is that they innovate actual maneuvers/holds, a la Chris Kanyon during his Mortis days).
As for the second dimension of the athlete, the other big thing that all those guys have in common is stupid comedy gimmicks that always get tacked onto their character. Cesaro’s yodeling, Swagger’s Soaring Eagle, Angle.. well, take your pick, but at least he sold most of it well.
If you want to stick with +Real though, go with some kind of addiction or personal demons. These guys usually have some kind of personal issues that derail or at least affect their careers.
I still think you need an Indy Darling/Spot Monkey gimmick. 😉
The innovator sounds interesting and I really, really love the idea of playing a gimmick like Goldust, but it doesn’t sound like it is fleshed out enough, so I vote for Gatekeeper.
Gatekeeper. Arn Anderson is in my top five faves of all time so I want something which caters to me.
Recommend me some classic Arn Anderson matches to watch! I’ve only actually watched two or three of his tag matches.
Yah, I need to do more noodling on Innovator – is it something you take if you have an awesome idea, or is a Gimmick built around elevating something that you start doing in play?
That’s a good point about the “comedy” aspect to the Athlete, it is a trend, isn’t it…
I’m not sure which direction to take Indy Darling! I think he could have a “Spot Monkey” Move, but other than that I’m not sure how much unique stuff the Gimmick would have. (I kind of built the Technician to cover a Daniel Bryan-esque character already)
Order:
Gatekeeper
Innovator
Athlete
Even from a non-wrestling standpoint the first two seem more doable. The Innovator seems like it would fit more along the lines of a “compendium class” for lack of a better analog. Maybe just have an example custom move that fits the bill.
“Technician” isn’t Daniel’s Bryan gimmick so much as “Underdog that the office keeps down,” both in character and (in the eyes of Internet smarks) in real life.
I envision possible moves like:
*Any time you fail a roll, lose 1 Momentum (the office loses faith in you)
*At the end of every episode, your Audience is reduced by 1. (They don’t sell any merch for you)
*Creative is encouraged to book your poorly.
*Gain Heat (used to working with all kinds of people under different circumstances)
*Add +1 Work
*Add +1 Real
*Can use both Face and Heel moves.
*Some kind of flashy move Holy Shit move that gives a boost to Momentum and/or Audience (that will just be stripped away later anyway)
This could be tweaked for any guy that works his ass off but that the office doesn’t have faith in (Daniel Bryan, Chris Hero, Dolph Ziggler, Zack Ryder in 2012)
Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Didn’t mean to hijack the thread.
Hijacking is fine! A worthy discussion topic!
So one thing that came up with the current incarnation of the Jobber is that he might be too mechanically disadvantaged, and that the Jobber should be good at losing, not bad at it.
The Indy Darling could kind of be an inverse Jobber, where he’s actually good (good stats) but he has the deck stacked against him (like auto-losing Momentum or Audience).
Exactly. Jobbing is an art form (sadly missing these days in WWE). A lot of guys had long, relatively successful careers as enhancement talent.
For wider appeal/usage, you could also call it “Internet” Darling. Ziggler has no indy cred, but is generally shoe-horned into the same corner as guys like Bryan, Sandow, Ryder, etc. He’s good, a certain vocal segment of the fans love him, but the office doesn’t have faith in him (warranted or not).
Being a huge Nova fan, I’d love to see an Innovator book, but it does seem abstractly challenging. So I say work on the Gatekeeper.
I dot know many great Arn Anderson matches, but When Rhino started out in ECW I think he had a similar gimmick, always protecting Corino.
Look, this is not going to be particularly helpful, but given that the man has been mentioned above…
WHO BETTER THAN KANYON