Question: how is it best to handle coming up with plots and gimmicks for promos and matches?
1) Whole group brainstorms and workshops it out of character.
2) Whole group brainstorms and negotiates it in character.
3) GM comes in with the league’s plan, which is treated as law until the characters subvert it with relevant successful rolls.
4) Don’t plan, just start on-camera scenes and see where improv takes you.
5) Whichever works for your group; there’s no “right” answer.
Thanks!
P.S. If this is clearly answered in the book, I apologize; all I can say is that, if so, the answer didn’t stick in my GM’s head, as we’ve done a little of all of the above.
I’d say (with the obvious background answer of 5), that 3 and 4. Come in with some fun ideas that you’re ready to toss over the moment they’re not clicking, and then just follow what happens, and encourage backstage scenes with Creative and other characters to lobby for the direction they want.
It is specifically not answered in the book. I scoured for the same answer when I had a bit of GM block a few weeks ago.
I have done all of the above and have also individually polled players before the game if they have any segments they’re interested in having.
This is of course, not as true if you want to play the tyrannical Creative angle.
James is right; it depends on the fed.
If you’re starting players off as the D-tier of huge league, give them matches that emphasize how low on the ladder they are. Have other people open the show. Describe how they’re prompted for quicker, snappier interviews.
After session, mention what you ORIGINALLY planned. (If your players don’t change anything, that’s weird and has never happened). Players will naturally suggest what they want; give to them, at a price.
That makes the Cut a Promo, Babyface and Over moves more special if they have to book the match THEY want, without handicaps, impediments, or lousy tag team partners.
“Backstage scenes with Creative and other characters to lobby for the direction they want” is more or less where I’m leaning at the moment, but I wasn’t sure if that’d short-change some of the system incentives and/or risk excessive pre-play.
Our last scene with Creative basically turned into my (2) above. I think it was really productive, but I’m not sure if it’s good to make a habit of that or not.
I think that works great, and in the spirit of challenging the players, not quite giving them what they want and making them earn in it through rolls is fun too.
Adam, I’m not the GM. I may share your take with the GM, but thus far, that is pretty far from his style. Our PCs are the main attractions of a tiny league that just jumped up to a regular Spike TV spot the last time our guys’ Audience averaged 3.
Fighting for the matches we want has not been part of our game; instead, Creative is our buddy, and the Promo/Face/Over moves have indeed lacked stakes. I’m not sure whether that means we’ve been playing the game wrong and the GM isn’t doing his assigned job, or whether it’s a perfectly design-allowed variant which nicely distributes the GM’s creative burden.
Drama exists in conflict. It can be extreme (“This is the last night we can afford to run unless something amazing happens, and Dark Enforcer wants to kick your ass, for real — you two have ten minutes”). It can be mild (“Can we put on a great show?”)
But generally, momentum and putting over means feds generally DO succeed and grow.
It could be one or more of the players should be a-holes (just like real wrestlers!), AND Creative needs to replace the owner with a corporate buyout, “Network Suggestions” and other bro-ha-ha.
Ooh, yeah, “We need X to happen for the good of the league,” is something we haven’t used yet; sounds very appealing!
I’m not sure what would happen if we were playing matches with the goal of maximizing Audience — is there anything stopping us besides bad dice luck?
I think I will have a chat with the GM about some possible sources of adversity for both the league and the PCs. We’ve done pretty well without much of that, but I do think more would improve our game.
We’re coming up on episode 10 Lucha de Mayo and it ‘feels’ like a good time to end the season. This post is calling to me to start work on a review of season play and/or an HEW Season 1 Recap.
The GM should have stuff that they want to see in the game regardless of the players agendas and in addition to the naturally emergent storylines (covered by the On Deck prep rules), and I would encourage those to be adversarial on some level for exactly the reasons you describe (things not feeling like there’s real stakes).
Other than that, yeah, it’s a GM/playgroup/playstyle dial to set per group and GM.
I’ll toss in here that since I run a livestream game, I ask the actual viewing audience to act as the imaginary viewing audience and suggest matches and victories they’d like to see. Combining that with my own On Deck prep, it has made for a pretty interesting storyline.
Arthur Perkins I’ve been following along and that’s interesting. I like that the actual viewing audience is against the Golden Boy, a la Roman Reigns