A rules queston: In WWWRPG there exists the run-in move, but in Wrestling there are two things that I’ve seen often enough to consider how to enact them in WWWRPG.
1. The misdirect: A match is in progress, suddenly the entrance music of a rival of one of the wrestlers in the ring hits, he is distracted and pinned. No interference (no one is disqualified at least) has taken place but you have still affected the match. You could certainly “just narrate it”, but I was wondering if there are any ideas for a Move that reflects this?
2. The interference from ringside: A heels buddy/manager/tag team partner distracts the opponent or referee. It can certainly be played as the Heel role move, but I have players who want to gamble sometimes and roll to see if they get away with it and then play the results. Any suggestions?
For the interference from ringside, consider that the person in control of a tag team match does not have to be the legal wrestler. Spend a momentum to interrupt and then do what you need to do. Exactly what you roll is going to depend on what action you take.
Apologies if I was unclear, the interference from ringside was meant to be from a non-participant, I realize that the tag-team partner may have caused a lot of confusion on that issue.
For the misdirect, I tend to think that it depends on who’s causing it. For a character who’s not in the ring, I’d say it’s definitely the run-in move. Otherwise, this is a pretty much part of the Heel move. Note: this is not a thing that a babyface can reasonably pull off.
For the interference, this is basically the Manager’s “Meal Ticket” move. If they’re not playing a Manager, they’ll need to take the move as an advance, but that’s totally doable.
I think y’all got it!
For the misdirect/entrance interruption, if a player wants to jump in with “My music hits, I’m at the top of the ramp!” it’s a nice example of a place for a Creative judgement call:
– It could be handled with the Run-In Move, if the player is really “coming after” someone and wants to maybe change the booking of the match
– It could be the Heel Move, if they have and want to spend the Momentum for it
– It could be Breaking Kayfabe, if thats what the player is going for (or other context demands it)
– It could be a simple “ok, cool” and wrapped into the booking of the match without using a specific Move, if it kind of makes sense for what Creative has booked anyway
I’ve allowed non-participants to spend momentum and take narrative control. If you have players that want to do these things, encourage them to take moves from other playbooks:
1. Cut a Promo. Or the Clown’s Comic Relief or the Provocateur’s Mind Games.
2. Heel Move. Or the Anti-Hero’s Rules? What Rules? or the Manager’s Loyal move.
Situation number 1 is one of the most over-used and dumb tropes in wrestling today, especially in WWE. I officially request that Nathan ban this move from all iterations of WWW moving forward.