 Goto [ Index ] |
For a sub-niche genre book, Lucha Libre HERO is surprisingly thick, but it is not only the last Hero Games sourcebook before the release of HERO System's 6th Edition, it is also intended to be a complete game in itself, with abbreviated HERO rules to get right into the action. At the same time it seems intended for fans who already have Hero rulebooks, which might explain why the wrestling maneuvers, NPCs and sample adventure are printed in the first part of the book, before those actual rules. This is my only real complaint with the layout. The cover is appropriately crude and garish, like a pulp novel or a 60's horror movie poster, with the chapter heading drawings depicting more movie posters from the authors' fictional universe, cheeseball concepts like Mujeres Amazonicas contra Los Momias de Guanajuato (Amazonian Women vs. the Mummies of Guanajuato, 1970) or Craneo Llameante, El Craneo Que Flamea (Flaming Skull, The Skull That Flames, 1964). Even the font for chapter and paragraph headings is a thick, blocky text that resembles that used for B-Movie posters, making this a great companion book to All Flesh Must Be Eaten, the Mutants & Masterminds Nocturnals sourcebook, the actual Nocturnals comics by Dan Brereton, the Warren Comics like Vampirella, and pretty much any movie ever made by Rob Zombie, Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino.
In the introduction- or Bienvenidos- Jason Walters explains that the heroes of Lucha Libre cinema are a lot more approachable than American superheroes: “(El Santo) even trips when chasing villains, something Batman never does. Yet it's precisely those qualities that elevate, rather than diminish, El Santo and his numerous wrestling kin. He's a human superhero. Like the rest of us, he just gets by somehow.” Which leads to a point that both Walters and Darren Watts address- namely, what's the point? Walters continues: “The first response many people have had to Lucha Libre Hero (besides stunned silence) has been “My God, why?” or more occasionally “OK, but why use HERO System for it?” After some considerable playtesting, Darren and I have discovered that the HERO System was inadvertently created so that we could one day write this book. The innate psychotronicness of classic Mexican wrestling cinema demands a universal, cross-genre system like HERO to be played properly. The very best Lucha films are part horror, part superhero, part sci-fi, part spy flick, part romance, and part something utterly random, blurring the distinct lines of genre that we Americans have grown accustomed to in films over the last 100 years. What better way to simulate the bizarre melting pot that lies at the soul of Lucha Libre flicks than a game system that's infinitely malleable?”
(Be advised: This book drops the word 'psychotronic.' A LOT. In fact there's even a sidebar on page 9: 'Psychotronicness: That quality to which many big budget, Hollywood films have aspired to yet only low budget, independent horror films and Lucha Libre movies seem able to achieve. In other words: throwaway cinema filmed for no money by maniac directors without any viable concept of what a movie ought to be to guide them. Art that contains legitimate Psychotronicness should combine at least three or four genres in some previously undiscovered, highly psychedelic manner.')
Chapter 1: Lucha Libre describes how this genre developed, starting from the deep roots in carnival presentations of the 19th Century, where the French were actually the first to develop the attraction of costumed wrestlers, which eventually spread to the English-speaking world. In the US some of the promoters got the idea to stage “work” matches that were scripted in advance given that serious matches based on technical holds and submissions were often boring for the audience. By the 20s, Mexican promoters had seen some of these matches and decided to create their own leagues in Mexico for lucha libre ('free fighting'). Fairly quickly the Mexican wrestlers developed the gimmick of wearing masks, both to add mystery and to distract from the fact that audiences were seeing the same guys fighting in most of the matches.
During and immediately after World War II, the first Mexican films came out starring luchador wrestlers, a phenomenon that really took off with the rise of El Santo, an archetypical heroic luchador in a silver mask who eventually developed a reputation on par with John Wayne in the US. Lucha movies intersected with the equally popular horror movie genre such that Mexican directors frequently showed wrestlers fighting all sorts of bizarre movie monsters and science-fiction threats. However the slump in the Mexican economy drastically curtailed the number of lucha movies and while attempts were made to promote El Santo and other luchadores north of the border, they were originally unsuccessful. Recently, however, the massive Mexican immigration to the US has made the lucha media more acceptable than before, along with the concurrent influence of Japanese media which have always been popular in Mexico (just as the lucha style has always been big in Japan). Thus we now have all sorts of lucha-based things like the Mucha Lucha cartoon, the rise of Rey Mysterio Jr. in the WWE, and of course Strong Bad.
This leads to discussion of the common elements of lucha media, such as the fact that they are “superheroes but not quite.” It is not uncommon in the real world for luchadores to go about their daily business in business suits with their masks, and no one thinks this unusual. The luchador is simultaneously apart from society because of his techniques and masked identity, yet he is also of the people in a way that the American superhero rarely is. Also, while hero deaths are rare, villain deaths are common. But as in American comic books, that doesn't stop the villains from coming back.
Then this chapter ends with an “Obligatory Example of Play” which includes the lines “I want to use this zombie to batter down the door”, “You don't have a gun. You're a luchador, remember? Your body is your weapon” and “Editor's Note: I do so have a gun.”
“Evil... I can smell it!”
Chapter 2: Putting on the Mask begins: “There are three fundamental things you must keep in mind when creating a heroic masked Mexican wrestling character: He wears a mask, he's from Mexico, and he knows how to wrestle.” As in American wrestling, with its “faces” and “heels” there are obvious camps of good and evil in Lucha Libre. The good guys are called Tecnicos (or technical wrestlers) and the bad guys are Rudos (rude ones). There is a certain moral implication in being a true Luchador, since the discipline required to maintain one's body and learn new techniques is assumed to suggest a highly moral character. By contrast, Rudos are Rudos because they lack that fundamental discipline or spirit, and are prone to do things the easy or unethical way. Thus the book assumes PCs are always going to be Tecnicos and Rudos will always be NPCs. Even then the book confirms that there are a few “tweener” luchadores who are technically Rudos but are popular because of their amusing antics.
Even more than with an American pro wrestler, the “gimmick” is central to the luchador's career. Obviously the mask is the first example of this, being the first demonstration of the wrestler's identity: if the Flaming Skull has an Aztec skull on his mask with a crown of flames on top, you know what his gimmick is. This need for a persona is that much more important in a roleplaying game given that the characters will not have superpowers to distinguish each other.
Luchadores do however have certain specialties, which is where HERO System Package Deals come in. You first buy a Basic Luchador Package Deal on page 24 and then branch out depending on what your specialty/gimmick is. This could refer to either a real wrestling specialty (like High Flyer or Mat Technician) or to the sort of characters you see in the Lucha movies (for instance a luchador who runs into monsters a lot of the time could take the Occultist Luchador Package Deal). There are also Package Deals for stock NPCs ranging from Plucky Girlfriend to Mad Scientist to Professor (the difference between the last two is that the professor is always a good guy and a 'Doctor' is always an Evil Mad Scientist. And usually not a Mexican. 'Any GM who knowingly violates this rule tempts the wrath of the wrestling gods.')
Then there is a large section for Action Stunts (what other Hero books might call 'super-skills' or 'non-powered Powers'), basically Powers that a normal human luchador could justify buying as manifestations of his combat skill or experiences, such as 360 Degree Vision, or “eyes in the back of his head”, except here it's called “Ojos in the Back of his Cabeza.” The classic Kung Fu maneuver of using pressure points to lock an opponent into paralysis, which in HERO is bought as a sort of Entangle, is here titled “Incan Death Grip.” Not to be confused with “Kung Fu Grip,” where the wrestler uses his hold to twist his opponent's arm in such a way as to weaken the muscles (Dexterity Drain, One Limb Only). And so on.
Finally this chapter presents Lucha Libre gadgets often used by the Luchador heroes or their Professor allies, such as smoke grenades, tracking devices, two-way wrist radios and a Translocation Machine, which allows the operator to Mind Scan to locate a target and then use Telepathy to communicate with him. “When contacted, the luchador looks directly at the 'camera' and answers the broadcaster's questions without any surprise whatsoever.”
“When El Espectro looks into the Abyss, the Abyss is the first one to look away.”
Chapter 3: Bodyslams & Brawls goes over a truly dizzying array of known Lucha Libre techniques, including not only their HERO System martial arts stats as maneuvers, but the description of what each looks like, usually under the technique's Spanish name. For example, El Cangrejo ('The Crab') flips the target on to his belly by grabbing onto his legs and then the wrestler applies pressure by leaning onto the victim's lower back and stretching the legs. “This Maneuver is also known as the Boston Crab.”
In fact there is such a humongous array of Martial Maneuvers in this book- far more than for Kung Fu, which in HERO System is just a heading for the majority of Chinese martial arts- that the end of the chapter presents three variations for buying your luchador's martial arts skills: One, since most of these maneuvers are variants of five different categories (Grabs, Pressure Squeezes, Strikes/Takedowns, Escapes/Dodges/Reversals and Gimmicks) and many of them are the same maneuver in HERO System, a character who has one such HERO maneuver can also use any other such maneuver that has an identical game effect (for example if a Bionic Elbow is a Fast Strike in HERO terms, a luchador who has that maneuver can also use the Armbreaker, High Knee and Headsmash maneuvers for no cost, since these are also Fast Strikes). Two, the character can select from a “bare bones” list of maneuvers, which are still a total of 40 points. Three, the character can go “beyond the bone” and simply buy the Action Stunts that give him increased Strength with hand-to-hand strikes, Grabs and Escapes, which bought separately are still 50 points. But they still allow a 20 STR character to do 10d6 Strikes with 40 STR to break Grabs and 60 STR to apply them. “He's not terribly interesting martial arts-wise, but he's definitely competent.”
See, the point of all this is to simulate the range of action that occurs in a Lucha Libre match; as such Chapter 3 goes into great detail on how Lucha Libre as a sport actually works, much like the WWE was handled in Know Your Role (which the authors say is the definitive contribution to the field of wrestling RPGs, 'until the publication of this book'). For instance in “The Rules of Lucha (Such As They Are)” it is stated that most contests are two out of three falls (caidas) and the majority are tag-team matches (relevos) with at least four men on each side. There can also be apuestas (stipulations) as in the WWE, like a steel-cage match or a “handicap” match where a single luchador faces a tag team. The most dramatic contest is usually a mask vs. match match (or mask vs. hair if the other contestant is normally unmasked), since losing means either submitting to being unmasked or having one's head shaved, which is the ultimate humiliation for a luchador- such that wrestlers who agree to lose such a contest in-script are heavily compensated.
There are even rules for “Flair” and “Heat” (like Know Your Role) where Flair is a momentary bonus of +1 OCV or Damage Class for a particularly well-executed or flashy maneuver and Heat comes when that maneuver gets a great reaction or “pop” from the crowd. If the GM awards Heat, the PC can accumulate it for use with a later maneuver for use in the same fight, for no more than six points of Heat banked at any given time.
Lucha Libre HERO distinguishes between In The Ring and Out Of The Ring combat. In refereeing an In The Ring match, the GM is encouraged to keep a given contest under 3 Turns of HERO combat. There are some specifics on In The Ring combat that keep things short and simple: A character is not Prone (for combat purposes) if he's only on his knees. If a wrestler takes BODY damage in a match, he must make an EGO Roll at -4; if he fails he “taps out.” If he gets Stunned while in a Submission Hold he must also make an EGO Roll at standard difficulty to avoid tapping out- although in Mexico a wrestler actually waves to the Referee to concede rather than tapping the mat. To keep a victim pinned for a three-count when he has made his EGO Roll, the grappler must keep that victim held and prone for three seconds (Segments, not Phases) and success means a successful pin and the victim loses the caida.
Out Of The Ring combat can be even more simple, given that the GM is encouraged to not let NPC “mooks” get Recoveries once they're down to 0 BODY or STUN- 0 BODY means death, pure and simple. “The GM should award Flair based on how outrageously violent the luchador gets.” In fact luchadores may look forward to fights out of the ring given that there are no rules and no one will object if they use potentially lethal maneuvers against criminal scum or supernatural monsters. However, just as Kung Fu is simply the Chinese for “skill” and therefore practically everybody in a Martial Arts movie knows Kung Fu, all true males (and some competent females) in the Lucha Libre movie genre know some level of Lucha, even if it's only a couple of Hand-to-Hand damage dice to simulate combat maneuvers. Also, most monsters have their own form of Monster Lucha, a brief but effective set of five maneuvers listed as Choke! Crush! Grab! Throw! and Reversal!
“It has been scientifically proven that every dramatic situation is vastly improved by the introduction of masked Mexican wrestlers.”
Chapter 4: Gamemastering Lucha Libre is a short chapter going over ideas for setting up a Lucha Libre HERO campaign. These include the obvious basis of a Tecnico “stable” that works for a Mexican promotion (and the variant of a ring-based soap opera where 'kayfabe' is completely suspended and everything is assumed to be real), a monster-hunter team, or Hero Games subgenre lucha games. For instance the Dark Champions subgenre could include both “Lucha Noir” and “Sexo y Violencia” campaigns, a Champions game would be basically a Mexican superhero game with Lucha Libre training as a frequent “origin” and Horror Hero could have luchadores sponsored by the Vatican to hunt supernaturals or even the Champions group DEMON. In fact given the frequent crossover with movie monsters in the Lucha movies, the book says the Monster Hunters theme is the default for most campaigns, where the wrestlers spend their free time fighting monsters and then go out to nightclubs afterward.
This chapter also goes over some common themes and bits for use in Lucha campaigns, such as the need for simplicity and action in plot, the fact that both technology and fashion seem to be stuck in the 1960's, and the use of the “three Ms” (Monsters, Mobsters and Mad Scientists). It also encourages props, such as the use of cut-out luchador masks that each player attaches to a popsicle stick to hold up to his face while he speaks in-character. Then you have various typical plot seeds, and of course, a Random Plot Generator.
“I shall power my army of monsters and zombie midgets with the distilled essences of the greatest wrestlers of Mexico! With your unconquerable machismo and technical abilities to power my minions, we shall sweep across the face of the earth, scattering man's armies before us!”
Chapter 5: A Lucha Libre Sourcebook gives sample heroes of varying power levels, along with typical villains and a “bestiary” of recurring monsters. Reviewing these, many of them have a Vulnerability of double effect from Lucha Libre attacks, and/or special powers like Mind Control or Disintegrator Rays with the Limitation “Does Not Work on Luchadores”, both indicating the innate superiority of the heroes, and also requiring the monsters to mix it up with them physically even though the Vulnerability usually means they are doomed. Thus fights with supernatural monsters are usually not so much a danger to the lucha heroes as an opportunity to show off their moves.
After the NPC list you get a description of Mexico City, which by Lucha Libre standards is the pinnacle of all that is good in civilization. This of course is why Blond Martians and other advanced threats seek to conquer it first. In the real world Mexico City, much like Washington DC, is a Federal District technically run by the national government rather than its own state or province, although it has been gaining more autonomy from the federal government recently. It is also both highly cosmopolitan and highly corrupt, although in a Lucha Libre game the authorities are not corrupt so much as incompetent or at best over their heads when faced with the sort of threats that only the power of Lucha Libre can stop. (One of the implicit themes of the genre being a certain respect for authority figures even when they obviously need help.)
In the real world, Mexico City has various neighborhoods (colonias) including at least one known center for luchadores and their families, and a poor neighborhood distinguished mainly for being the headquarters of the Lucha Libre Mundial arena where the main Lucha Libre promotion holds most of its matches, making that colonia the center of the sport. Around Mexico City proper however is a 'ring' (El Anillo) of bad neighborhoods that have developed a sinister reputation in the Lucha Libre HERO world, primarily due to the influx of Mad Scientists from the US and elsewhere during the two World Wars. Since the Fifties and the retirement of the last generation of “Hombres del Misterio”, supernatural and Mad Science threats have become an ever greater plague, prompting many of the city's good Professors to voluntarily move to the region and form alliances with the new generation of Luchadores to keep the city safe. As for the territory beyond Mexico City, the map lists the north part as “Vast Deserts” and the south as “Trackless Jungles.”
“Curse you! I would have liked to have had my tea before we destroyed you all.”
Chapter 6: Contra Todo Mal (Against All Evil) is a sample adventure, intended to pit 4 to 6 standard (250-point) luchadores against an all-star list of monsters from Chapter 5. Given the monsters' aforementioned Vulnerability to Lucha Libre, the story's denouement is fairly typical of the genre, although the book emphasizes that the point is to play everything totally straight, given that the situation of a typical Lucha Libre scenario is already inherently ridiculous.
“Where can I get some help?”
Chapter 7: The Hero System Rules is the second part of the book from page 147 onward. Again, it seems a bit counter-intuitive that the authors presented various bits of game information in the first half of the book before the actual rules unless they knew they were dealing with HERO System fans who already had the main book and therefore didn't need a reprint of the basic rules. (The PS238 book had a similar layout, but was also a good deal less dense and thus was easier to flip from the NPC info to the basic rules for character generation.)
Reviews of the actual HERO System have been posted elsewhere. Thus this review will focus on how the rules in this book diverge from HERO standard, which is mainly because of their focus on lucha themes. For one thing, lucha heroes need fewer Disadvantages. The Realistic luchador (equivalent to what other Hero books would call a Heroic-level character) is 100 points plus up to 50 in Disads while the Heroic-level PC is 75+75. Standard characters are 200 plus 50 and the rare Superheroic-level luchadores are 275 base plus up to 75 in Disads where a Champions hero is 200 plus 150. This is because, being physically normal, luchadores have less range of Disadvantages to choose from, and the book also implies that having too much detail on the character sort of defeats the point. It's mentioned more than once that a selling point of lucha heroism compared to the modern American superhero is that the luchador is complete in himself and lacking in “angst” compared to the comicbook super. Well, you'd be angsty too if you had all those Dependent NPCs and mutation-based Vulnerabilties.
It's also mentioned that PCs will usually spend points on Characteristics and other things that could realistically be considered part of a wrestler character, so while the aforementioned Action Stunts are good, the more flashy Powers like Multiform are not (and are included here mainly to simulate the powers of the heroes' opponents). At the same time, Bond-type spy gadgets are good, and can simulate some of the powers (like Flight) that lucha PCs would otherwise be ineligible for.
Likewise the core parts of character generation are kept pretty basic. Luchadores, as athletes, will focus on physical traits. The Comeliness stat is usually not of concern to someone who wears a mask everywhere, but the book says some handsomer Mexican wrestlers have taken to going unmasked and using their good looks as the focus of a vanity “gimmick.” The Skills list is very basic, without all the various categories and subdivisions of things like Animal Handler and Weaponsmith that you get in 5th Edition Revised. In fact the book not only says the PC can write down miscellaneous background skills for no points (as long as they have no actual bearing on the adventure) but some GMs may allow an “Everyman” roll on 8 or less for any skill, to simulate how the wrestlers in Lucha movies somehow know Ancient Greek or whatever other thing is needed for the plot. And again, lucha characters usually have few innate Powers (except those that can be justified as gadgets or Action Stunts) and by the same token they do not have exotic Disadvantages like Susceptibility or even Physical Limitation, given that they are supposed to be paragons of athletic perfection. Distinctive Features and Secret Identity are also inappropriate given that the character is in masked identity all the time- there is however a 5 point variant Social Limitation called Luchador Identity that accounts for the luchador's status. Basically the character can go about in public in his masked identity, since unlike superheroes the luchador never questions whether his masked self is the “real” identity. But at the same time since the mask IS his identity, a luchador is at pains to avoid being unmasked in public; unmasking doesn't destroy his powers, but it means that persona has been compromised and he cannot use it again. (Earlier, the book mentions the example of Mexican-American wrestler Rey Mysterio Jr., who lost a hair vs. mask match against Kevin Nash in the WCW and competed for some time unmasked but then wore another mask when he joined the WWE, something that seriously undermined his credibility with true lucha fans.)
The remaining sections are brief but essentially complete reviews of HERO System Perception rules, Combat, (including environmental damage and how much it takes to break things or hit things with other things), Vehicles and Weapons. Then the Appendix lists essential source material, including a chronology of important Lucha Libre films, the authors' favorites, a short Bibliography/Gameography, a decent Glossary of American and Mexican pro wrestling terms, and an Index.
SUMMARY
The HERO System. Severe alcohol abuse. Two great tastes that taste great together. I think.
Style: 5
You know how people say, “HERO System's OK, I guess, but it's too dry and technical”? And then some other people say, “You know it would be really great if they summoned Hunter S. Thompson from the dead and got him to write a Hero Games sourcebook”?
Lucha Libre HERO is for those people.
Substance: 4
This book is based in serious knowledge of the subject and has a lot of use for any campaign that is based on American or Mexican wrestling themes.
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
