Has anyone thought about using World Wide Wrestling for something like MMA or even Street Fighter? The basic format seems to fit as far as booking matches is like any sort of fighting tournament. But then there’s kayfabe and how the matches are booked to win ahead of time.
I was thinking of maybe putting together a simple hack, but also it could just be run straight I guess. Kayfabe could just be the narrative of the fight if you’re doing something like Street Fighter. And breaking kayfabe is like breaking character or breaking the 4th wall maybe.
What got me here is I was toying with my own basic moves for a SF like game and I started thinking they were basically like WWW. So, why not just use what is already there?
I think the core of WWWRPG is that fights are pre-booked. Otherwise break kayfabe, booking matches, the heel move, and overriding creative’s booking don’t make sense.
Also, what’s Real Vs Work for Chun Li? Is Zangief Power or Real?
Maybe the hack wouldn’t be so simple – all the sheets would have to be revised and the basic moves, etc. I am strongly leaning towards no doing a hack though. It seems great the way it is.
I think the answer to those questions depends on what Kayfabe ends up representing. I was thinking it could be played exactly straight. Imagine a Street Fighter TV show where actors are playing the characters. It is billed like a live MMA championship, but there are special effects and everyone knows it is all faked. Kayfabe.
Or, for something closer to the games, it could be “destiny” or “fate”. Breaking kayfabe means going against destiny. The fighters are destined to battle, to win, to lose, etc. Some struggle against it, or don’t believe in fate, etc. So, Chun Li is sort of a Jobber — she isn’t a nobody, but she loses almost every story match of any importance. That’s her destiny, you might say. She’d be more Work than Real, but she could occasionally break the rules of destiny.
Similarly, Ryu went from Face to Heel and cheated his booking to beat Sagat. Cheating destiny.
Or something like that. I don’t know if there are other issues that causes. There’s also the “Straight Match” stipulation. What would happen if you just use that every time?
Probably would have to change some stats around. Like, maybe lose Real and maybe look for something else (Speed?). Probably could rework or even remove the Face/Heel moves since that doesn’t reeally play a huge role in a fighting tournament or MMA fight. For the Shoot match stip, I’d probably have the Momentum cost increase by one every time you Interrupt to stop a pin, submission, or other victory condition.
After that, you could rework some gimmicks and moves and that’d really be it. It’d take some work, but WWWRPG isn’t a super complicated rules set like GURPS or D&D3.X, so it’s not all that difficult or time consuming.