Me and a few friends are in the process of starting up a campaign, a process which has been somewhat extended due to the holidays.
One of the players brought up an issue that we struggled with last time, which was the Hardcore’s built in Move. The issue was that there was really no pay off to not using the move, so it was always used.
My suggestion this time was to remove the part where the Hardcore can just make any match “hardcore”, instead he has to add that stipulation somehow (e.g. Cut a Promo).
In my head I compared it to the Veteran who gets 1 Momentum each match, while the Hardcore get 2 Momentum each hardcore match. I figured it should be used about half the time then and with the added “roll for it” risk it feels ok.
Thoughts, other suggestions?
It’s designed that way on purpose. What others have to do is make stipulations that they can’t make it a hardcore match. Or have creative talk to him backstage beforehand saying “Hey dude, we’ve got you booked for a regular/submission/whatever type of match.
Anyone can make the stipulation to make it hardcore, so changing it to that devalues the move entirely.
It’s also a weird case of “sure, I can always do this thing, but should i?”
Basically, present them with challenges In the fiction, like wrestlers saying they can’t handle a real match, and if they cant, and resort to making it a hardcore match despite creative’s wishes, have creative start booking them to lose, and give them consequences for always changing the booking.