 Goto [ Index ] |
According to the author, Wild World Wrestling “traces its lineage to an officially licensed pro wrestling role-playing game.” That game of course was Know Your Role! designed around the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion. Lee says that while that game “undeservedly met virtual neglect from the publisher” it nevertheless attained a cult following, and thus led to the development of the current game. One benefit to this being that while Wild World Wrestling (WWW) still uses a d20 for most task resolution, it is not an Open Game License product and thus has dispensed with “character classes, saving rolls, and baggage that were never quite a complementary fit for anything beyond the fantasy genre.” (Glad someone has figured that out by now.) The PDF is obviously a smaller-scale production than Know Your Role, using a crude-but-effective cover illustration with most of the pictures being photos of people who are either wrestlers for minor promotions or posing as such. This does a lot to convey the feel of the game, since these guys are tough-looking enough to be real brawlers without having the superheroes-on-steroids builds of WWE mainstays.
1: Opening Bell presents the reader with the opportunity to create new wrestling scenarios and tempts with the likely prospect that “you CAN do better than the creatives booking for megacorporate promotions”. WWW is presented as “semi-kayfabe”- since the matches are rolled between players, they are “real” as opposed to scripted out in advance; however there are certain mechanics that give players meta-gaming abilities to simulate the behind-the-scenes action that determines who gets pushed by the promotion. The game encourages a troupe style of play where players are encouraged to make not just the one character or even more than one wrestler, but valets, announcers and so forth. It also says that the matches can be run without a GM, or even solo, “since you never know how the die is going to bounce!”
2: Coming Down The Aisle gets straight into character creation. Even before going over the basic rules. Characters get five Attributes: Athleticism (ATH), Brawn (BRW), Flair (FLR), Instinct (INS) and Power (POW) of which ATH is used for dexterity-based actions and acrobatic/aerial maneuvers, BRW is one's stamina, used to resist stun or do brawling maneuvers, FLR affects your popularity as well as your ability to con referees or convince people “backstage” to do things your way, as well as “flair maneuvers” (i.e. 'dirty tricks'), INS is the closest thing to a mental stat in this game, and affects both technical maneuvers and ability to spot ambush, and POW is the raw strength stat used for direct maneuvers, pins, and kicking out of pins. Attributes work much like in True 20 where the stat directly applies as a modifier to a d20 roll. Random attribute rolls are done as a 1d6 minus 1d4 which yields results from -3 to +5, rolled five times and assigned in any order. Alternately one can simply take 5 points and assign them around, with the option to bring an attribute into negative to get an equal number of points to use elsewhere (-2 Instinct gives 2 points that can be added somewhere else), to a minimum of -5 or max of +5 to any attribute at this stage.
Characters do not get “hit points” but they do have to keep track of Fatigue (every 20 Fatigue suffered in a match is -1 to future rolls) and Injury (not defined at this point). Despite not having OGL “baggage” WWW still uses experience levels, which as in Know Your Role! are used as a marker of the wrestler's status, where a 1st-level wrestler is a “dark match” worker and a 5th-8th level character is a “mid-carder.” Each time you gain a level you also get Gimmick Enhancements (GE) which sort of translate to D20 Feats but also include training in skills, combat bonuses and other features that OGL games would have built-in to a given character class. At 1st level you get 4 points to divide between skills and 4 GEs. Each level thereafter a character gets 2 more skill points and 2 GEs.
The rulebook says that since WWW is intended for the troupe style of play (which also encourages a RAW-like mix of undercard and mid-card events with main event headliners), the “Promoter” (GM) must determine how to assign the level mix of characters, either one of each level range (Dark Match Worker, Mid-carder, Main-Eventer, etc.) or a set number of levels (say, 25) assigned among a roster of characters.
You are also required to give each character an Attitude: Face, Heel or Tweener, which are not given mechanical rules at this point. It is said that you can only change align- uh, Attitude once per level and are required to keep an Attitude at least until you reach a new level.
In addition to your base Attributes, you must also define your Weight Class, which has specific effects on Attributes and some other factors. Light Cruiserweight (150 lbs and under, where most female characters are assumed to be) gives you +2 ATH, -1 BRW, -1 POW. Most wrestlers fall into the Heavyweight category of 226-300 lbs, which gives no attribute adjustments. Ultra Heavyweights (over 400 pounds) get reversed modifiers: +1 to both Brawn and Power but -2 Athleticism. Weight also determines an important stat called Weight Mod (WM), which starts at 0 but goes up for every 25 lbs (round down) over 200. Thus a 400 pound wrestler gets a WM of +8. WM directly affects attempts to knock a character off his feet with clothesline maneuvers and such; if your key attribute for the maneuver is less than the target's WM, the difference between the attribute and the WM is applied as a penalty to perform the move- the flipside being that whenever you fall prone, the WM is applied as extra damage to the character; furthermore all that weight on a heavy character means you automatically take Fatigue equal to half the WM when performing any action that requires exertion, including climbing a steel cage or such. This applies even for actions that would normally take no Fatigue to perform.
This chapter also goes over the Heat stat, which works much as it did in Know Your Role! All characters start with 0 Heat and gain 1 point of Heat every time they do 10 points of damage in a match. There are methods for stealing or even transferring Heat when doing promos or vignettes (see below). “The Promoter may also strip any character of Heat for not role-playing or refusing to cooperate.”
Next the book deals with Skills. Again, you get 4 points of skill adds at 1st level and 2 points every level after that (although page 16 contradicts itself by saying you get 4 points per level even as the example given shows a 2nd level character gets only two more skill points). In addition to this automatic allotment, you can select the Expertise and Training Background Gimmick Enhancements to get even more skill bonuses. WWW says that the bonuses are not limited by level, so they can all be applied to one skill, for instance. Skills work much as they do in other D20 games, with a skill being paired with an attribute, except that the attribute in question is not always “set in stone”- the Deception skill, for instance, is Flair + Deception to con somebody but Athleticism + Deception to sneak up on him.
This leads to the rules for Gimmick Enhancements (GE) – you get 4 of these at 1st level and 2 more each level after that. As with Feats, they require certain prerequisites and cannot be used if you no longer meet the prerequisite (e.g. you can't use a Heel-specific GE if you turn Face). They allow for all kinds of things, like Resources (wealth and prestige) the Manager's ability to pull certain distractions, or the Face wrestler's “Monster Comeback.” As mentioned before GEs can also let you add points to skills, or to attributes or combat bonuses; again, since this game doesn't use “classes” with a set progression of Base Attack Bonuses, saving throw bonuses or such that improve with experience level, upon examination you need to assign GEs to improve your attack/maneuver bonuses beyond the base numbers you get at character creation.
Unlike most D20 games you also get Flaws, which are basically Enhancements in reverse. You can get 1 GE for each Flaw you take, once per level. The real drawback compared to other games with bought disadvantages (like GURPS or HERO System) is that since WWW is a fight game, your opponent gets to invoke your Flaws whenever they come into play. For instance “Crazy” means that once per card, your opponent player gets to dictate your action for one round, “and can do whatever bizarre oddity he/she pleases in the interim!” A PC can buy off a Flaw by trading in a GE, which makes their benefit rather zero-sum.
Finally this chapter gives us Star Power. It's described as an optional mechanic but is gone over in some detail. Basically it is used to simulate how in most promotions “wrestlers don't all get an equal push.” It is optional because it implies the choice to go “semi-kayfabe” and simulate the backstage drama of the wrestling scene as opposed to simply having wrestlers duke it out and let the dice fall where they may. Star Power (SP) is a pool of points that each player distributes between his stable of characters. It is possible to switch points and bring some characters into negative SP; this represents how the fickle fortunes of wrestling may make some characters heavily pushed and others has-beens, or vice versa, all within a short space of time. In a match, positive SP works much like Force Points in D20 Star Wars - each point spent adds 1d6 to a d20 roll, with no limit other than your number of SP. Negative SP points work like Flaws: The opponent spends them to undermine your roll.
3. War of the Ring is the main rules and combat chapter. It starts by explaining the D20 system for this game- target numbers are called Difficulty (or Df) on a scale where climbing a steel cage is Athletics skill at Df 5 and “bully the entire promotion” is Df 25. A natural 20 “threatens” a critical, which is confirmed if you roll again and beat the original Df. In non-combat situations a critical will be “the best possible result for the action.” A natural 1 is an automatic failure that threatens a botch if you roll again and fail to beat the original Df. However no confirm roll is required if all results are natural 1 and nobody wins. It isn't clear if that means they're all botches or if they all simply miss. If all combatants roll natural 20, they have to roll to confirm critical, because a critical beats a mere automatic success (natural 20). This gets into the realm of tie-breakers, which are a long list starting from: Whoever has initiative in the round; number of Heat points currently possessed; Resources (how rich you are); Athleticism or Instinct (player's choice); character level, and finally a random d20 roll for each side with no modifiers.
Actions are measured in rounds, but the book says a round is not a specific duration; “it lasts for however long the Promoter says it does... just long enough for all participants to get done with whatever action they take for the round.” Characters roll for Initiative at the start of the match, using Presence skill + whatever attribute is being used with it (e.g. Flair for a taunting entrance or Instinct for 'steely concentration'). The winner gets initiative as well as a +2 to his maneuver roll for the round. Actions are then declared in reverse order so that the guy with better (best) initiative gets to react to what his opponents are doing. However while initiative is normally rolled only once per match, initiative can shift from round to round. This happens mainly if the opponent manages to land his maneuver on the initiative winner, in which case HE gets initiative in the next round.
As in Know Your Role! maneuvers are organized on the basis of the attributes they're associated with, so that Technical Maneuvers are done with Instinct, for instance. In addition to that attribute modifier to the d20 attack/skill roll, you apply any modifiers for Gimmick Enhancement training (see above), complementary skill modifier (for every +5 adds you have in Knowledge Skill for a particular maneuver type, you get +1 to your maneuver roll), non-proficiency penalty (usually -4 if you haven't bought Maneuver Familiarity GE for that maneuver category), Fatigue penalty (-1 for every 20 Fatigue you've taken) and “repetition penalty” (the crowd doesn't want to see the same moves over and over, so you suffer a -1 cumulative penalty each time you do a maneuver type more than once in a row). In addition to all these modifiers and any “miscellaneous” modifiers not specified here, the maneuver itself has a modifier, usually negative, based on its complexity (see chapter 4 below). Once all the modifiers are tallied up for each side, the combatants roll their actions at the same time and compare results. The total for each roll is called an Action Count; in a two-way match the higher result is the one that succeeds, and thus the winner gets initiative next round. As in Know Your Role! the winner also gets to narrate the result, sort of as if you were the announcer calling the action at a match.
In combat, critical hits (that are confirmed) simply do one extra die of the damage type (so a maneuver that does 2d4 does 3d4 with a crit). Again, if both sides roll natural 20, the tie-breaker rules apply. If somehow both sides roll (and confirm) critical misses, this simulates the “bump heads off the rope and collide with each other” bit where both wrestlers end up dazed. If a critical hit is itself confirmed with a natural 20, this causes the damage to apply to both Fatigue and Injury (see below). This section also goes over certain damage conditions, such as being Stunned by certain maneuvers (basically no actions other than reactions like kicking out of a pin), and the actual pin rules: pinning counts as either a Technical or Flair Maneuver, which of course has a three-count of opposed rolls between the pinner's Power roll and the target's roll on either Power, Flair or Athleticism. Pinning a Stunned target or “hooking the leg” automatically wins one of the three counts, but in WWW a pinned character always gets at least one roll to break the pin. There are also “Submission” moves; every character has a “Submission threshold” of 10 + Brawn score, so when the damage of a maneuver with the Submission element exceeds the target's threshold, the target rolls choice of Brawn or Instinct against a Df of damage dealt; failure means he submits and loses the match. It is also possible to jump in the ring and break someone's pin/submission hold- this leads to the rules for multi-player “slobberknocker” fights. Basically you can either just have wrestlers pair off or say that a character's action goes off IF his Action Count roll is higher than his target's and he himself is not targeted by a successful action. For instance in a four-way match if two wrestlers are going at it normally and the third wrestler tries to attack one of the first two, he fails if the other two wrestlers have higher Action Counts. However if the fourth wrestler is not involved he can do something else like distract the referee.
Actually attacking more than one opponent in a slobberknocker is at -5 to Action Count for each attack beyond the first (so if you attack three times, that's -5 to Action Count on the second attack, and -10 on the third, meaning there's a practical limit of how many attacks you can make before another wrestler beats your modified Action Count). To actually team up multiple characters on one target requires one of the team to spend a point of Heat; they then total the modifiers for their separate maneuvers and roll one Action Count and if this roll beats the target's Action Count, the tag team effort goes off. Failure means that the target gets to perform his maneuver on his chosen target while stopping all of his opponents at the same time.
This in turn leads to the mechanics for Heat. Again, the basic method is that every 10 points of damage you do with a single maneuver will earn you 1 Heat in a match. Heat usually lasts only for the duration of that match. A character can bank a maximum of 4 Heat unless he took the GE “Heat Machine.” In game, you need to spend 1 Heat to perform certain actions like the aforementioned tag team, or a Finisher maneuver. Having at least one Heat allows a wrestler to increase his threat range by 1 per 1 Heat possessed (to a maximum of 16-20 with all other modifiers) or reduce the multi-attack penalty against 1 opponent per 1 Heat possessed. However this benefit applies only to Heat still possessed; if you spend Heat while performing a maneuver, that brings the threat range back down. You can “tag” a partner to transfer your Heat, but this is all-or-nothing, and any Heat the partner gains in excess of maximum is lost.
This chapter also goes into the important tactic of distractions- a distraction attempt is Deception + Flair roll, which (if your Action Count is higher than your target's) becomes the Df for the target to beat with Perception. Failure on that roll means the target is distracted. This is important for bits like sneak attacks, DQ moves, tag teams ganging up on a single target and other things that would normally get a warning or disqualification from a referee. This leads to the subject of “Fooling a Blind Mice [sic]: Distracting a Ref”. For purposes of this mechanic, all refs are considered to have a set Action Count of 10, so all you need to do is beat a Difficulty of 10 to distract them. Of course a distracted ref is not able to count out your pinned opponent, so this can backfire. “Special guest referees” (like managers or other wrestlers acting as refs) aren't subject to these 'mook' rules.
Next, Chapter 3 gives us “Taking Bumps,” aka the rules for applying damage. Each maneuver has a particular damage code, according to how it was designed in the maneuver section below. To these damage dice, you add your stat bonus depending on the maneuver type (if the attack is a Flair maneuver, you add your Flair modifier as a bonus to the damage rolled). As already mentioned, damage is taken from a “Fatigue” stat that starts at 0 and goes up (rather than a hit point base that starts at a certain number and goes down). With this system every 20 full points of Fatigue you accumulate causes your character to take -1 to all d20 rolls (i.e. pretty much any roll that isn't damage). When your total Fatigue penalty (the negative modifier) matches your Brawn rating (minimum 1) for the first time, you need to make a Df 10 Brawn roll to avoid being Stunned for one round, and for the first time the PC reaches each successive increment. There are certain GEs that allow you to increase your intervals so as to take more damage before Fatigue penalties and save rolls kick in. Oh, right, this game doesn't have “save rolls.” So much for that idea. Again, a critical that is confirmed with another critical not only increases the damage code by 1 die, it causes the target to take an equal amount of Injury. Injury counts as Fatigue that doesn't “wear off”- it has to heal. A character's healing is ¾ of an Injury point per day at 0 Brawn or Brawn rating per day for a positive score. Negative brawn rating heals Injury at a rating of inverse score +1 per point (which I believe means that -1 BRW heals Injury at a rate of 1 point per 2 days). Normally characters cannot recover Fatigue during a match, but this can be done as a Brawn roll Action Count. This removes 1 Fatigue per every 5 points of result on the roll. Otherwise if a character is ambushed between matches he may not have gotten time out to recover Fatigue, depending on how long the Promoter says the time interval is (the book says it takes a minimum of 30 minutes to recuperate, with medical help).
Then the book goes into more miscellaneous but still important elements. With formal tag teams, you can not only use the ganging-up rules and transfer Heat, but you can also 'tag out' (which is an athletic or technical maneuver) and even design your team's joint moves or finisher. Using foreign objects as weapons or other damage increasers (power bombing onto a table, for instance) generally increases the base damage die to d8. There's a chance for an instant knockout (Brawn Df equal to damage received) if you do a critical hit with an object (apparently even Jeff Jarrett's flimsy acoustic guitars). There are also procedures for chasing through or outside the arena; these are done as opposed Athleticism checks because “Wild World Wrestling does not go by precise measurements.” This chapter also has a list of “Tricks” that can be pulled off by wrestlers, such as stealing an opponent's finisher. Some Tricks can only be done by Faces or Heels respectively (I notice the book only has 2 Face Tricks but 4 Heel Tricks). Finally, the chapter shows how to do a quick-resolution match, how to not make a main-event match too quick, and gives some necessary advice on how to call the action on your characters' moves by using appropriate flavor text. “Computer games and board games don't offer the same freedom for creative interaction and storytelling like role-playing games. Take advantage of it.”
4: What A Move! gives the master system for listing wrestling maneuvers and also creating your own. This can actually be done “on the fly” if you know the system. As the previous chapters imply, the better a maneuver is- that is, the more damage or cool stuff you want it to do- the more of a penalty you apply to your action roll. Conversely, you can apply drawbacks to the maneuver to reduce the penalty. This is on a scale where basic 'resthold and wear-down maneuvers' are +0 modifier and do base 1d4 damage, an off-the-ladder or through-a-table maneuver is base 1d10 and is at -3 to the roll, and each extra die of damage is -2 to the maneuver roll. On the other hand, a maneuver that renders you prone or requires lifting is +1 to the roll (making it easier). A maneuver is also easier if it's illegal or an “automatic DQ” because of the risk involved. Sample maneuvers of this type retain this bonus in a no-holds-barred/no DQ match, because that allows you to modify it to do extra damage or other effects “to encourage the appropriate kind of violence!” The modifiers are of course cumulative. This system allows for combos and multiple moves- like if you want to change a German suplex into “Rolling Germans”, you can just take the base damage for a German suplex (1d6, +0 to the roll) and apply the modifier for extra damage twice (-2 times two, or -4) and get a -4 maneuver that pulls off three rolling suplexes for 3d6 damage on that roll.
Of course for style's sake, and the sake of description, this is more than just a matter of juggling modifier numbers. This chapter also tells you what kind of maneuvers qualify as what maneuver type. For instance, the “high flying acrobatic” maneuvers are based on Athleticism, and Flair is anything involving “FLAMBOYANT SHOWMANSHIP.” For instance, they even say that performing a mandible claw with a sock puppet changes the maneuver from Technical to Flair. On the subsequent Maneuvers List, they say that if a maneuver can qualify as more than one type, it gives you the option of choosing the type if you have a higher stat or Maneuver Training GEs in one category than the other.
5: The Road to Stardom shows how you advance characters in WWW. Wrestlers get “Advancement Points” (AP) mainly by their matches but also by other methods like doing promos. Your next level goal is the number of AP you need to get there. For instance a 1st level wrestler only needs 2 AP to get to 2nd level while a 5th level character needs 6 AP to get to 6th. Any excess AP are banked (so that a 5th level wrestler who gets 8 AP goes up to 6th level and banks 2 AP towards becoming a 7th level character). This is on a scale where losing without a clean finish (e.g. due to being disqualified) is 0, a draw or clean loss is 1, and winning with a clean fight is 2 AP. Being “Uncooperative or Intentionally Gaming the System” is a penalty of -1 or more.
Advancements in-setting also include titles, of course. In game terms, these are like magic items in that they provide their own unique benefits as well as free GE's as long as the title is held. For instance the Tag Team Title for the promotion gives each partner the Benefit to re-roll one tag finisher per card, and gives the free GEs Desperate Save, Resources 3, Feat of (one maneuver category), Popular Appeal and Stick a Fork In It (with tag-team finisher only).
6: Bringing the Awesome goes into how to simulate pro wrestling competition with the game. WWW uses “show” and “card” synonymously. In TV terms a show would be a single episode of RAW. Each such show is broken up into game segments, encompassing not only the separate matches but the little transitional bits like interviews, promos and such. There is no limit to how many segments can be on a show, but there is a limit to how many segments a PC can appear in at every card. The standard number is 1 + Flair (minimum of 1). This can be adjusted with certain GE's. When you've used up your allowed number of segments, you can't appear except to be the target of another character's schemes during that show. This also means that if you get ambushed after you've used your allotment of segments, you can't retaliate until the next show. If you accept an impromptu challenge from another wrestler after you've used up your number of segments, that challenge becomes your scheduled match in the next show.
Certain non-combat bits are often more elaborate than addressing the crowd in the arena or being interviewed after a match. These bits are called vignettes. They can be anything from staged comedy about an opponent to (attempting) singing in a music video. You make a Flair + Performance + Resources roll and gain 1 Heat by beating Df 20. In non-combat situations, it is possible to gain (or steal) Heat from opposed rolls if you beat your opponent's skill roll by 10 or more. Heat gained by such means can actually be kept between cards until the next PPV, or the next circuit of shows if the campaign's promotion is too small-scale to get on TV.
It can be possible, even in pro wrestling, for a talent to get “out of line” and get punished. In game, fines are assigned a real-world dollar value, which then allows a character to pay off the fine by rolling Flair + Resources with Df 10 + 1 for every $10,000 of the fine, with -5 for each subsequent match (this assumes you're on a payment plan) to a minimum Df 10. Suspensions are harder than fines, since you not only cannot fight during the suspension, you technically cannot appear on the show (limiting the character's activity to off-screen vignettes). In this case you can lobby to end the suspension using Instinct + Resources vs. a Df of 10 + 10 per month of suspension remaining, max Df of 30. In both cases a punished wrestler can still stage “run ins” and ambushes, though these may extend the punishment...
This chapter also reviews the non-wrestler characters of the setting, namely managers, referees, announcers/interviewers, and female “eye candy.” These can all be made as PCs. They usually do not fight (though some female valets did transition into 'divas' in recent years), which allows them to concentrate on GEs that assist the wrestlers they team up with. In troupe play this also gives players something to do if they aren't playing the wrestlers in the match. The game also mentions promoters, backstage crew and fans as “window dressing” characters who might get pulled into the proceedings but are not worth writing up with stats.
This chapter also has rules for an un-retired wrestler's “Ring Rust” as well as the type of gimmick matches staged by a promotion, everything from first blood (first guy to score an Injury hit wins) to No Holds Barred to the Cage match.
7: Curtain-Jerking Jabronies, Mid-Carders and Main-Eventers is self-explanatory: A sample presentation of characters written up for the system at various experience levels. As one might expect sample names/gimmicks are a good mix of puns (Mort Tishen) and outright steals (PM Spunk and The Wiz). After page 114 you get a two-page character sheet. There is no index.
SUMMARY
Wild World Wrestling successfully transitions the project of Know Your Role! away from the Open Game License, although mainly in getting rid of the base class concept. You still have to use experience levels, although these do not directly affect your PC's durability. They still affect the character's general level of experience in that higher-level characters are just going to be more versatile and have more advantages than beginners. The drawback is the same drawback you get if you transition from any other traditional D20 game to a point-based game system like GURPS, HERO System or even Mutants & Masterminds: Rather than picking from a set list of concepts that tell you what your character can do, you have to define that concept yourself and pick from a wide list of options that pin down that concept in game terms. It provides more freedom than D&D-style gaming but requires more work. As does the idea that you have to know enough about both real wrestling and the maneuver design system to design or pick the maneuver you're going to use each time and then describe how it works. But if you're a wrestling fan, this probably won't be hard.
Style: 3
Wild World Wrestling makes the most of a cheap PDF presentation with decent photos and prose that expresses knowledge of the world of wrestling.
Substance: 4
WWW combines the advantages of the D20 mechanic with a point-buy character generation system and versatile wrestling maneuver design system to allow a high level of flexibility, conveying the craziness and fast action of pro wrestling.
Please help support RPGnet by purchasing the following (probably) related items through DriveThruRPG.
