As promised, here’s the second Promotion Move for Tru Punk Wrestling.
Do It Yourself Attitude: Tru Punk is unique in that the majority of merchandise is either designed or commissioned to be designed by the wrestlers themselves. As Mr. Necrosis has said before, “We have to make the music we want to hear.” Once per season, at the start of a show after any Top of the Card moves are made, any wrestler can approach management with an idea for a piece of merchandise and roll either +Look or +Real. With a 10+, the idea makes sense for the character and on this show or the next the wrestler will be booked in a “hype segment” debuting the new merch. When this segment airs or takes place, they gain 1 Audience. On a 7-9 choose one: Either the idea doesn’t fully click, but management appreciates the initiative and you gain 2 momentum; OR the idea starts to click but gets shot down by someone backstage, and you each gain 1 Heat with each other. On a Botch, the idea is bad and you should feel bad, and Creative chooses one: you lose the faith of management backstage and they do not begin production, or the merch debuts but fails to sell whatsoever and you lose 1 Audience.
I feel like this is a very powerful move, hence the limit to once per season at the start of a show. Any suggestions to make this flow better are appreciated.
I like the concept a lot and have been thinking about how to make it “naturally” more rare without just restricting it to a proper number. Also, detaching the fun idea (pitching merch is awesome!) from the mechanical consequences a little.
What if it’s something you spend an Advance for? First thought:
DIY Attitude: When you pitch your new merch idea to management, describe your concept and spend an Advance. Creative decides which of your stats your idea is capitalizing on the most.
When you debut your new merch on camera, roll + chosen stat. On a 10+ twitter explodes. It’s a hit! Gain +1 Audience. On a 7-9, gain +1 Momentum and pick one: it’s pretty damn cool, gain another +1 Momentum; someone backstage is jealous (and you know who) gain +1 Heat with each other; you ripped off someone’s idea without knowing it, they run in and interfere with your match or segment, and gain +1 Heat with you. On a miss, it’s a dud. Lose all your Momentum and Creative pulls the plug.
(If it costs an advance I don’t think it should automatically dock you an Audience on a botch, but it’s a golden opportunity for all kinds of hard moves, I think).
I think that’s a good starting point for where I want it to be. The only problem is, if the best result is +1 Audience, and you can spend an advance to get that anyway, what’s the incentive for risking the advance on something else?
Good question! I don’t think loading more mechanical rewards onto it helps, but I think there’s some fictional positioning. Maybe on a 10+ you get to say who’s sales drop off because of yours? Depends on how adversarial you want that to be.
Yeah, something that sets you up to be a big player backstage is good. I think I’ll just keep it intentionally vague so I can tailor it to the situation.