Fun game with a higher proportion of non-wrestling nerds than usual!

Fun game with a higher proportion of non-wrestling nerds than usual!

Originally shared by Nathan Paoletta

Last Night, on World Wide Wrestling

coming to you LIVE from MADISON, WI

(World Wide Wrestling is my pro wrestling RPG of narrative action. It’s currently in public beta, you can check out the current playtest materials at http://ndpdesign.com/playtest, and support the game at http://www.patreon.com/ndpaoletta)

We assembled a roster of 7 braves souls for an action-packed Episode of play at Forge Midwest. Our wrestlers:

Larry Lade played Hyperion, the Monster

Clyde Rhoer played Chuckles, the Hardcore (a very unhappy clown from New Jersey)

Lance Martin played El Matador, the High Flyer

Willow Palecek played Grrlzilla, the Ant-Hero

Kelley Vanda played Bisha, the Wasted (an opium addict)

Tim Koppang played Adonis, the Golden Boy (so, basically himself with more baby oil)

Kelsey! – played Killer Tiller, the Technician

Bisha, Adonis and Killer Tiller were babyfaces, and the other four were heels.

The Heat questions set up some initial feuds and relationships really naturally (Adonis and Hyperion hated each other, Chuckles thought Bisha was a curse for the fed, Adonis and Killer Tiller had debuted together but broke up when Adonis got the push, El Matador had taken Killer Tiller under his wing to teach him the ropes, etc.

First match of the night was the re-united tag team of Adonis and Killer Tiller vs. El Matador and Grrlzilla. Adonis cut a promo about how “as long as he wasn’t held back” they would be victorious, and then we went to the ring, where Grrlzilla and El Matador actually cut promos on each other! The match was tension filled with lots of back-and-forth (as we introduced the mechanics and explored the characters options in play), and Clyde did a great job as the announcer on the outside. Finally, Killer Tiller and Grrlzilla ended up in the ring together, and Killer Tiller hit his finisher (which I can’t remember the name of right now, it was good!) to get the win!

I scrapped the second match on the card due to time constraints, and we went straight to the MAIN EVENT OF THE EVENING: A Regal Wrangle for the Young Tiger International Championship Cup.

Grrlzilla grabbed the mic and cut a promo beforehand, saying that she was only defeated because her opponents “ganged up on her” and that she would win once nobody could escape her destructive rage! Her roll entitled her to add a stip to the match, so she added the RAGE CAGE.

This turned the match into a “Regal Wrangle Rage Cage” Match, which I decided meant that the cage went out the barrier, leaving the floor around the ring clear, but meaning that eliminated competitors became lumberjacks for the remainder of the match!

Our Regal Wrangle went crazy, as it tends to do. Some highlights:

– Chuckles taking the opportunity to take out Adonis with a chair on the outside, breaking Kayfabe to make a point about what’s REAL in wrestling

– Hyperion being the first entrant and lasting through almost the ENTIRE match until the end

– Bisha coming in strong, taking a dropkick from Grrlzilla and countering it into an Airplane Swing in the biggest spot of the night!

– El Matador hitting a moonsault from the top rope to the OUTSIDE of the ring

– The final three were Hyperion, Killer Tiller and Grrlzilla. Grrlzilla starting ripping apart the ring and using the ringpost (with ropes attached) as a weapon! Her and Killer Tiller worked together to take the big man down, and then it was just the two of them. Thats when the ref called for the end of the match, and Grrlzilla took Killer Tiller out with the ringpost, willing the Young Tiger International Cup!

—

This was a solid game. We had a low density of wrestling knowledge (me, Clyde and Lance each were fans of different eras of wrestling, and everyone else was passingly familiar-to-not at all). Also, Killer Tiller’s player had only played one RPG before. Thankfully, everyone did a good job of both supporting each other and stopping me to ask questions and clarify jargon as we played, and as far as I could tell everyone enjoyed the game.

Gregor Hutton ‘s wrestling move illustrations were particularly useful in helping us describe the action, and serving as a nice “I do THAT” resource. Really, really pulled the game together!

Thanks everyone for the fun game! It was really valuable to run it for a less-wrestling-nerd audience, and I learned a lot about how to pace and phrase the explanation of the game and started thinking about to present the materials in a more accessible way as well.

http://ndpdesign.com/playtest