I’m looking at possibly tweaking the game a bit for my own table, and was curious if anyone had tried anything similar, so figured I’d post here for feedback if anyone else had thought of anything similar and tried it.
First Change: As the Fed’s audience expands, the threshold for being “over” does so as well. Whenever the audience resets, an extra audience level is added to the cap. (IE, first reset pushes it to 5, second to 6, etc) This makes it a bit longer to earn advances just by capping out audience each show, and kind of helps represent the increasing demands of being in a larger promotion, in my opinion? The audience bonus for moves that use the audience modifier still caps at +4, the extra layers only affect what is required to be over, and earning an advance. This also resolves some issues with moves that let you add +1 to your audience reset, as well as making it longer to advance certain gimmicks.
Second Change: NPW Stats. I always wind up feeling incredibly, well, awkward, whenever a NPW is in the ring with a player, dictating the flow of the match verbally and eventually handing it off. I feel like the outcomes of the die rolls helps add to the fiction/drama, so I am highly debating giving NPW’s basic Look/Power/Real/Work stats and letting them use the basic moves, but not giving them full “Gimmick” treatment. Essentially, putting low card NPWs at 4 points, Midcard NPWs at 8 points, and Main Event Talent at 12 points. Then spend out over the 4 stats accordingly. This would leave low cards at -1 across the board, midcards at 0, and main eventers at +1, if you spent equally, which you obviously could choose not to. This does mean keeping track of extra data on the Creative side, so it might not be for everyone. I already also state certain NPWs have certain gimmicks anyway, so players have a baseline to use if they ever want to take over one.
Third Change: The use of +heat on the wrestling move. It’s sort of implied already, but I’m debating that using +heat requires the consent of both characters in the exchange. This can build on backstage friction/drama a bit, and limits the use of the +heat ability as it has the highest potential to roll well.
The reason for these changes are to basically help extend gameplay a bit. As is, it really felt like things were beginning to peak after 6 or so sessions, so after the first PPV, I felt like I hit a wall, so to speak, and wanted to think of some further ways to prolong the game into a more lengthy campaign, beyond using the Hunt Protocol Rule, which did help.
1) how long do your intend your game to run? Endeavoring to hit +7 audience seems like a real grind. Imagine it being for your first advance. That is realistically a thing that could happen.
I like the idea, but I’d consider slowing it down by saying every other reset or only applying it to the player(s) that is Over when the reset occurs.
2) just roll straight while your narrating wrestling. No need to stat everyone.
3) seems fine
The new expansion goes into longer campaigns, so that’s good. But I think wanting to roll for matches is missing a bit of your duty.
Every match with an NPW should tell two stories. One is the story in the ring (and for early in the campaign, that’s fine). But as your players get more comfortable, reveal the Fragility of the World, by making their opponent:
-Far better than they are
-Far worse
-Extremely Bored
-Trying to get themselves over
-Playing to someone besides the fans (a loved one in the crowd who doesn’t want to see them hurt, a potential sponsor, the high flying Rudos who went on before you).
These will give you more story potential then rolling and either succeeding (which means you have to keep the mic!) or failing (and giving the players unearned injuries).