World Wide Wrestling RPG

the professional wrestling rpg
of narrative action
Nathan D. Paoletta
ndpdesign
This game text is copyright 2015 by Nathan D. Paoletta/ndp design. All

rights reserved. Permission is granted to copy and distribute any portion of
this text to facilitate play of the game, but not to alter or resell this content in
so doing.
ISBN 9780986376207
Illustrations are copyright by their creators and used by permission.
Essays are copyright by their authors and used by permission. Content of the
essays are solely reflective of that author's views.
This publication is a work of fiction in that it contains fictional characters and
enables readers to create their own original fictional content. However, real
world people and entities are mentioned in passing. This publication has not
been prepared, approved, or licensed by any existing person or entity, and
there is no affiliation between any mentioned and Nathan D. Paoletta/ndp
design. Any resemblance of a fictional character presented here to a real
world person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
If you obtained this publication in digital form without paying for it and have
enjoyed it, please consider purchasing a copy as well so that I can continue
making these games in the future.
Please create and share your own material for playing this game! Join the
conversation and find more resources at: ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg
Credits
Game Design, Writing & Layout by Nathan D. Paoletta
Cover Art by Eric Quigley
Gimmick Art by Ramon Villalobos
Maneuver Art by Gregor Hutton
Editing by Ian Williams
Contributors
Original Design for "The Jobber" Gimmick by Bret Gillan
Original Design for "The Hardcore" Gimmick by Ian Williams
Original Design for "The Wasted" Gimmick by Alex Isabelle
Original Design for "King of the Hill" match by Willow Palacek
Essays by Nathan D. Paoletta, Ian Williams, Aubrey Sitterson,

Epidiah Ravachol & Black Cat
Season One Wrestlers and Promotions by backers of the Kickstarter
campaign. Individuals are listed with their contributions.
Powered By
Apocalypse World, by D. Vincent Baker
Simple World, by Avery McDaldno
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to many authors, designers and creators of both games
and wrestlingrelated media, for the final form of this game. Some specific acknowledgments:
Games: Apocalypse World and the culture of Powered by the Apocalypse
game hacking and conversation; Jared Sorensen's Darkpages; Matt

Gwinn's Kayfabe; Joe Prince's Pro Wrasslin' Battle Royale card game and
Contenders RPG.
Podcasts: The Old School Wrestling Podcast; Straight Shoot and Straight
Shoot Retro; Cheap Heat; The Art of Wrestling; Wrestling With Depression.
Columns: David Shoemaker's writing for Grantland.com; Brandon
Stroud's Best and Worst columns for Uproxx.com/prowrestling.
Special Thanks
There have been so many playtesters, readers and commentators on
this game through its development process that I cant list everyone
here. Thank you! Particular thanks go out to:
Liz, for taking me seriously.
My wrestling bros Ian, Bret, Eppy, Ed and John.

For some specific rules proposed during playtesting: John Stavropolous for Making the X and Ron Edwards for The Top Spot.
The original rough draft playtesters: John Stavropolous, Tim Rodriguez,
Anon Adderlane, and Terry Romero; Ian Williams and Bret Gillan; Alex
Isabelle/Revan Adler, Girolamo Castaldo, and others. Thank you all for
your patience dealing with the rough edges, and your insightful and
motivational feedback.
Folks who I played with and/or gave me great feedback on the Alpha
draft: Jake Baerkircher, Evan Dicken, Dylan Weltch, George Foster Jr,
Sakar and Graham; John Stavropolous and Dylan Clayton; Tim Rodriguez, Adam Swiatlowski, Todd Love, Darren Watts and Dev Purkayastha;
Paul Imboden, Eric Mersmann, and Aaron. Thank you for bearing with
all the extra bits that I later took out!
My "Wednesday Night Wars" Beta Playtesters: Ron Bruto Edwards,
Keith Keystone Senkowski, Eric Mammoth/Millionaire Marco Mersmann, Dylan Atlas the Geek Clayton and Ed The Angel Blair. Thank
you all for your enthusiasm, goodwill, and excellently observant comments. This game is so much better because of you.
Everyone involved in the greatest single Episode of play Ive had,
the Dreamation 2014 ExtermiNation Event: Epidiah Brawny James
Dio Ravachol, Bret Moose Johnson Gillan, Jared The Crimson
Bat Axelrod, Irven Lyle Lawbreaker Keppen, Ralph Bash Hammer
Mazza, Joe Joey Crak Zantek, Jim The Colonel Crocker, and Mark
aka Ballistic.
Stras Acimovic and company for showing that, yes, this game works for
those who aren't big wrestling fans (alongside other helpful feedback);
Willow Palacek and the Madison crew for putting the game through its
paces, pushing all the boundaries and really helping out in getting the
details right (how Heat and Audience get reset, in particular, owes its
final incarnation to your feedback!)
Thank you to all my supporters on Patreon, who ushered the Beta
playtest draft of this game into the world, and continue to support my
design work. You can join them at patreon.com/ndpaoletta
and a very special thanks to my 427 Kickstarter backers!

this game literally wouldnt exist without you
Table of Contents
About The Game
How To Play This Game
The First Episode
page 7
page 12
page 16
THE BASICS:
EVERYTHING TO GET
STARTED
Making The Roster

How To Play Your Wrestler
Moves
Wrestling
Continuing a Season
How To Be Creative
page 34
page 50
page 56
page 64
page 71
page 78
THE DETAILS:
EVERYTHING FOR
LONGTERM PLAY
Building Your Promotion

Essays
page 84
How Wrestling Works

How Roleplaying Works
How to Let Wrestling Make
You a Better Roleplayer
Being A Wrestling Fan
Professional Wrestling:
Burlesque for Boys
Professional Wrestling is
the American Dream
page 90
page 95
page 98
page 101
THE EXTRAS:
CUSTOMIZATION,
BACKGROUND,
ADVICE AND
CONTEXT,
AND EXAMPLE
WRESTLERS AND
PROMOTIONS
page 104
page 107
Season One
The Season One Roster
Un Pueblo Guerrero
Husman Extreme Wrestling
Pacific Wrestling
The Gimmicks
The Moves
The Glossary
page 111
page 119
page 121
page 122
page 125
page 148
page 156
REFERENCE:
EVERYTHING YOU
NEED DURING PLAY
chapter one
he World Wide Wrestling RPG is a game that creates professional

wrestling pageantry and action. Its about feuds, championships,
betrayal, and righteous victory. Its about the clash of good and evil on
the grandest stage. Its about whether youve got what it takes. And, in
the end, its about what the audience thinks of your efforts.
You dont need to know much about realworld wrestling in order
to play this game well! All you need is an idea for an entertaining character. Wrestling is the drama of personal conflict, exaggerated until
it becomes mythic. The game plunges your wrestler into these conflicts, guiding you through the drama as it escalates in more and more
crowdpleasing ways. This gets complicated by the two concurrent
stories always going on. One is the onscreen crafted story, told by
largerthanlife wrestlers, managers, valets, and authority figures in the
fictional wrestling universe you create at your table. The other is the
legit story that happens off camera, as the professional entertainers wearing the spandex politick backstage in order to advance their
careers, attract more eyeballs to
Using This Text
the product, and do whats best
for business.
This text is arranged concentrically. If
you read it straight through, it starts
This game is meant to be
with the basic concepts and overview of
accessible to both wrestling fans
how the game works in broad strokes;
curious about roleplaying games
next, how to make characters and play
and experienced gamers who
a single session; next, how to prep for a
want to see what this whole wrescontinuing series of play and play subsetling thing is about. Either way, if
quent sessions; next, how to customize
youre reading this you probathe game to your taste; and finally supplementary resources and essays on
bly already know how to enjoy
various aspects of wrestling. Some of
the double life of a wrestling
the material is repeated when it's relecharacter, either from the wresvant to more than one subject area. This
tling side or from the RPG side.
organization and the colorcoded tabs on
The characters in this game are
the righthand pages are meant to help
professionals at playing roles, so
find information on fly; throughout this
youll play the role of someone
text, choices were made to aid in finding
things quickly during play, which someplaying a role! It's not difficult.
times comes at the expense of repetition
Focus on the wrestling first. As
for straightthrough reading.
you get used to how the game
ABOUT THE
GAME
About The Game
About the Game

works, youll start blending the legit with the kayfabe and playing with
the boundaries between wrestling character, my character, a wrestler, and yourself as an audience member to the unfolding game.
The key perspective you need to remember is that youre playing
a character whos intentionally trying to entertain an audience. This
concept is shorthanded as the Imaginary Viewing Audience throughout this text. The Imaginary Viewing Audience embodies the idea that
your wrestling characters are always on screen. The folks who pay good
money to be entertained are the ones who ultimately determine the
success or failure of your individual wrestlers and of the promotion as
a whole. Some of the game mechanics keep track of how engaged the
Imaginary Viewing Audience is with the product you present.
However, theres also a nonimaginary audienceyou and your
friends! The goal of the wrestlers in your game is to gain popularity
and acclaim. The goal of you and your fellow players is to entertain
each other and enjoy each others creativity.
The Imaginary Viewing Audience always pays attention when events
take place onscreen. Most of the time, your descriptions of action
and the dialogue you put into your characters' mouth is seen by the
live audience and broadcast to the viewing audience at home. Sometimes, a scene will take place offcamera. This means youre free to
express the real lives of your fictional wrestling characters and explore
their interactions as coworkers and professionals with their own personal agendas. As you learn more about the wrestlers offcamera lives,
conflict with the booking decisions that are made in order to please the
Imaginary Viewing Audience will arise. The friction between the real
and the performance, the backstage and the ring, the person and the
maskthats where the game really shines.
I've made an effort to state as much as possible in plain English, but kayfabe (pronounced in two syllables, kayfaybe, used as both noun and adjective) is a core
concept of the professional wrestling world that you'll need to get used to. Kayfabe
is the scripted fictional reality the audience suspends their disbelief in order to enjoy.
A wrestler may have a kayfabe arm injury as part of their character and wear a cast
for years; two wrestlers may be kayfabe brothers in the ring, when in real life they
have no familiar relationship. Kayfabe used to be a stricter code of silence whereby
wrestlers would go to (sometimes extreme) lengths to preserve the idea that they were
really fighting or that the match results weren't fixed. In todays mediasaturated world,
however, trying to determine what's kayfabereal and what's reallyreal is part of fan
engagement in modern wrestling product.
Player Roles
Players take on three broad roles during this game:
Most of the players create and play wrestlers. There can be from
2 to 8 of these players involved in a given Episode of play. The
term player or players throughout this book refers to those
playing wrestlers.
The creative and writing staff of your games promotion, played
as one collective entity. A single player, called Creative, takes on
this role. This is the game master or master of ceremonies
role you may be familiar with from other games.
During individual wrestling matches, one of the players not
present in the match becomes the Announcer, providing color
commentary and generally helping to describe the impact of
whats going on in the ring. The Announcer role moves around
to different players during each Episode, depending on whos
involved in which scenes.
In most groups, the player who owns the game and has arranged the
session of play tends to also take on the Creative role, but this isn't
necessary. Whoever feels most comfortable being in a directorial role
should feel free to try being Creative. Everyone else plays a wrestler.
each player picks a gimmick for their wrestler:

The AntiHero
You don't play by the rules.
The Hardcore
You sacrifice your body for your fans.
The Jobber
You make everyone else look good.
The Monster
You scare people.
The Golden Boy

You're the future of wrestling.
The High Flyer

You take big risks for big rewards.
The Manager
You're the brains of the operation.
The Technician
You're the master of the canvas.
The Veteran
You show them how it's done.
The Wasted
You have a problem.
See Chapter Four (PAGE 34) for more details on Gimmicks.
ABOUT THE
GAME
Chapter One
10
About the Game

Gimmicks are broad archetypes that describe individual performers. In
any given game, all the players should play unique Gimmicks (though
they can change Gimmicks throughout their careers). The 10 basic gimmicks presented here represent the most common kinds of wrestler,
applicable to many different styles of promotion. Other Gimmicks will
be created over time, and made available at ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg.
In addition, you can come up with your own Gimmicks to represent a
wrestler youre interested in playing that isnt covered by an existing
Gimmick (see PAGE 88 for details).
During the game, players narrate the actions of their wrestlers as
they compete in matches and try to advance their careers within the
company. Remember, you are playing both the costumed performer
as well as the real person behind the mask.
While the players pick Gimmicks and make their characters, Creative plans out the upcoming Episode. Creative books the show by
orchestrating the environment around the wrestlers, planning off
camera scenes to put pressure on the careers of the wrestlers, deciding
on the results of matches, and playing supporting characters on an
asneeded basis.
Finally, different players occupy the Announcer role at different
times during an Episode. During each wrestling match, any player
whose wrestler is not involved in the inring action becomes the
Announcer (either chosen by Creative, or on a volunteer basis). The
Announcer helps describe the wrestling action, putting their own spin
on events, and holds the unique power to put over the wrestlers in
the ring in order to push them to higher levels of
success. A player will remain the Announcer
until the end of the match or the entrance
of their wrestler, whereupon they hand
the responsibility to someone else. A
player might be the Announcer multiple times, once, or never in a
given Episode, depending
on the flow of play.
the classic Elbow Drop
from the top rope is a
dependable crowdpleaser
This is the core dynamic of the game: Creative makes plans and
books storylines, but the actions and agendas of the wrestlers will alter
(swerve) Creative's plans. Creatives primary job is to take those
swerves and incorporate them into the game in such a way as to
make it look like it was planned that way all along. While the players
at the table are working together to make an entertaining wrestling
show, their various characters can and will come into conflict about the
best way to do that. The efforts to entertain, and the conflict about how
do it, are where the game's rules kick in, pushing the story to unforeseen places.
Talking The Talk

Wrestling lingo is rooted in the form's origins as equal parts carnival sideshow and
fauxlegitimate athletic contest. While I have made an effort not to go overboard, there
are some unavoidable terms that you should know:
Work: "To work with someone" is to wrestle them; "that's a work" is a reference to
the scripted nature of a moment in the show. This game uses Work as a Stat that
represents a characters technical wrestling ability.
Shoot: Opposite of a work, a shoot refers to something that "really" happens. I use
the term "legit" interchangeably with "shoot".
Heat: Heat can refer to any notable response from the crowd (the crowds response
to a bad guy in particular) or legit bad blood between people backstage. This
game uses Heat as a Stat that measures the crowd reaction to the relationship
between two wrestlers.
Pop: The vocal crowd reaction to a wrestlers appearance or a particularly exciting
moment of a match. Wrestlers often compete to "pop the crowd" the most.
Book: To plan the show and decide on the outcomes of the matches ahead of time.
The head of a wrestling promotion is usually the booker, or employs a booker. In
this game, Creative is the booker, but some Gimmicks give the other players the
ability to book a segment of their own.
Swerve: An unexpected change of plans, either to surprise the audience or a legit
change necessitated by something like an injury or a noshow. Generally, players
swerve Creative's booking with their characters' actions.
Botch: To flub a move, or to refer to a move that was executed poorly. In this game,
a Botch is any die result of a 6 or less, and triggers negative consequences for
the player who rolled the Botch; if a Botch occurs during a wrestling match, the
narrative should include the Botching of the wrestler's maneuver as well.
The Finish: The predetermined ending of a wrestling match. In this game, Creative tells the players the finish as the match nears its end, to preserve the feeling
of the wrestlers competing in good faith (and give the players opportunities to
swerve the booking).
Over: Popular with the fans; getting over is the act of gaining that popularity, and
putting over is the act of making your opponent look good.
11
ABOUT THE
GAME
Chapter One
chapter two
irst, the logistics of play. A game of the World Wide Wrestling RPG
requires:
46 wrestling fans. The game can support from 39 total players,

but 46 is a good sweet spot.
Copies of the Gimmick sheets and Moves reference sheets
(available for free download from ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg).
Pencils and at least 2 normal sixsided dice (d6). Having more

dice and a handful of small tokens, such as poker chips, is helpful.
Generally, the person bringing the game will be the one whos read it
and thus in the best position to take on the role of Creative. The other
players will each take a Gimmick sheet and play individual wrestling
characters (see PAGE 9 for more on the player roles). The game is
divided into Episodes of play, each one representing a single live televised broadcast or payperview event of your wrestling franchise. A
single Episode usually takes about 13 hours of real time to play. If you
play multiple consecutive Episodes, it's called a Season.
Having a private space where you and your friends can relax with
snacks or drinks is ideal. Youll be handling a lot of sheets of paper in
play, so a table you can spread out on is usually helpful. Sometimes
the person playing Creative also hosts the game, though this isn't
necessary.
This game can be played online as well, using video or audio group
chat (such as Google Hangouts, Skype or a virtual tabletop like Roll20
or Fantasy Grounds). In this case, each player should have their own
copy of their Gimmick sheet and Moves references, plus a dice roller
or trust in honest reporting of results. One advantage of online play
is the ability to quickly link out to visual references and audio clips of
entrance music or other supplementary media.
The Medium of Play

The medium of this game is conversation. You and your friends are
going to have a long, heated discussion about wrestling. So what are
all these rules for? Well, they specify what you can talk about, giving
you the incentive to say certain things and not others and complicate
what you do say so that your conversation goes to places you never
would have expected. You know how, in a board game, the rules tell
you where to place your pieces, what to do on your turn, and what
happens when you play a certain card at a certain time? Instead of a
board, you have descriptions of whats in your imagination, and the
rules guide you in detailing them and sharing them with your friends.
The basic rules of the game are summarized on the reference sheets
that youll have on the table during play. They're all listed together at
the end of this book as well (starting on PAGE 125). The rest of the text
here is primarily educational, in that its intended to explain the reasoning behind and implications of the design decisions, and instructional,
by specifying which rules apply in which situations. Because conversations can go all over the place, particularly when the subject is pro
wrestling, there are rules in place to help guide and support many different areas of interest. Its not expected that youll need to use every
single rule in this book when you play, but most of the things that will
probably come up in your conversation are covered. Instructions on
how to generate new rules for your specific group are also included.
How To Start
If youre a wrestling fan whos experienced with roleplaying games
already, this should all make sense to you; you can go right to The Big
Picture, on the next page.
If youre experienced with roleplaying games but not as knowledgeable about wrestling, there's an essay included here called How
Wrestling Works (PAGE 90), as well as guest essays on wrestling from
various fan perspectives. Read or skim those before coming back for
The Big Picture.
If youre a wrestling fan who hasnt played roleplaying games,
there's an essay included here called How Roleplaying Works (PAGE
95) for a clearer picture of how all this stuff actually comes together.
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HOW TO
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13
14
The Big Picture, below, gives a highlevel overview of how this game
goes in play, and Chapter Three: The First Episode (PAGE 16) is a
walkthrough guide for how to structure an Episode of play, which
should help teach the game as you go.
For video examples of the game in play, check out ndpdesign.com/
wwwrpg for archived live actual play episodes on Youtube, as well as
written play reports and more resources.
The Big Picture

You'll start your Season with a first Episode, presented here (starting on
PAGE 16) as a stepbystep walkthrough of a single session of play.
Once you've played through your first Episode, you'll have the context
to start making betweensession decisions about the direction of your
game. Sometimes, the first Episode is the only one you'll get to play,
so it's meant to be a fun standalone session as well as a fruitful way to
kick off a longerrunning game.
The first Episode introduces your wrestlers and gets the players
used to the rules of the game. Starting the first Episode requires the
players to create a set of interesting and iconic wrestlers, while Creative
comes up with the constellation of rivals, heroes, and love interests
who surround them in the promotion.
As the storylines from the first session unfold over subsequent
Episodes, the wrestlers will grow and change. Some may go through
multiple Gimmicks, while others will develop their original personae to
iconic heights. Over time, as you get to know the wrestlers better, their
real lives offscreen will become more relevant to how they perform in
the ring and viceversa.
During an individual Episode, Creative narrates the segments as
they happen (promos, matches, backstage interviews, etc) and portrays
nonplayer wrestlers (NPWs) involved in them. Players narrates their
wrestlers actions and dialogue. Some of the players will also serve
as Announcer for individual wrestling matches, calling the action and
(potentially) putting over the wrestlers in the ring.
Players and Creative have access to Moves, which are the rules that
drive momenttomoment play. Moves represent important and memorable actions, with the results creating consequences that drive the
progressions of each segment. Moves (generally) ask the players to
roll dice to determine the outcomes of their actions; each Gimmick has
particular Moves associated with it, in addition to the general Moves
to which all the player's wrestlers have access. Wrestling matches are
also handled by the use of Moves, featuring a specific method to pass

narrative control back and forth among the participants in order to
encapsulate the tension and excitement of bringing anything you can
imagine into a professional wrestling match.
An entire Season of World Wide Wrestling can take anywhere from
3 to 12 Episodes. You can plan it out in advance (for example, by simply
agreeing that your group will play a 6 Episode Season) or let the events
of play dictate the number of Episodes. As the characters grow, they
may require new game structures to support their players visions for
them; this is covered by the ability to make custom Moves that reflect
the specific iconic actions of a given wrestler. A Season typically ends
when a combination of the following comes together at the same time:
All of the current storylines are wrapped up to the group's
satisfaction.
Some wrestlers lose the attention of the audience and are fired.
Some players feel that they have taken their wrestlers as far as
they want to go.
Ready To Play?
If you're going to be Creative, read over The First Episode (starting on
the next page), take a look at the inplay reference sheets and Gimmicks, and schedule a time for your friends to get together. Pick some
wrestlers that seem cool to you from the Season One Roster (PAGE
111) to use as antagonists, or come up with some of your own. You
may want to read over the How Wrestling Works (PAGE 90) and How
Roleplaying Works (PAGE 95) essays if you dont consider yourself
knowledgeable about those things. Block out a 23 hour span of time
for the first session, cue up some of your favorite wrestling clips to get
inspired, and get to the action!
15
HOW TO
PLAY
Chapter Two
The First Episode
chapter three
he first Episode is a stage for the players to show off their wrestlers
and for Creative to kick off the storylines for the ensuing Episodes.
You are all meeting these characters for the first time, so its best to
keep things simple and make obvious choices. As you play, storylines
will change, characters will grow, and the promotion will become its
own unique version of World Wide Wrestling.
Generally, Creative guides the rest of the group through this
Episode, so the rest of this section is addressed to them.
Building The Roster

To start, hand out the Gimmick sheets. Each player chooses the one
that seems most appealing to them.
Gimmicks are unique to each individual character. There may be
many monsters, but only one of you plays The Monster, just as there
may be many veterans, but only The Veteran is going to shine in your
promotion. Each of the ten basic Gimmicks showcases a different
archetypal kind of wrestler. If you want to keep things simple for the
first Episode, you may wish to limit the choices to the most straightforward Gimmicks:
The Hardcore
The High Flyer
The Monster
The Technician
The Veteran
The other five Gimmicks have more complicated rules or are representative of less
actionfocused wrestling personae:
The AntiHero
The Golden Boy
The Jobber
The Manager
The Wasted
ressive
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17
Once the players have selected Gimmicks, they then:

Come up with a name and general look.
Choose or create answers to the Hailing From and Entrance
prompts.
Follow their Stat instruction(s).
Mark their starting Audience score by placing a checkmark in the

box next to the number indicated by the this Gimmick starts and
resets to sentence.
Take a token to represent their starting Momentum as per their
Audience score.
Example: Making Wrestlers

Nathan is Creative for this game and he's invited Ron, Keith, Eric, and Ed over to play
a first Episode in an ongoing Season. They order pizza and chat while Nathan passes
around the Gimmick sheets. Ron picks the Hardcore immediately. Eric wants to continue playing the Monster from an earlier demo. Ed decides on the High Flyer. Keith
shuffles through the rest and decides that the AntiHero would be a good fit.
Nathan goes over the character sheet, pointing out each area and what it means for
the characters in play. Since Eric is already familiar, he goes ahead and fills out the
Monster Gimmick.
He's playing Mammoth Marco, a huge Alaskan roughneck type, inspired by the Hailing
From: Dead Horse, Alaska choice. He also picks the Overblown and Odd entrance,
making some notes about how Marco's entrances are always production heavy, with
fog machines, ice sculptures, and the like.
He goes allin on Power and adds his +1 to that Stat, giving him starting Stats of Look
0, Power +2, Real -2, Work -1.
Mammoth Marco is obviously a Heel. He skips Heat for now (since that's done last) and
flips over the sheet.
He already knows he wants the 'Will You Look At That Size!' Move, which brings his
Power to +3, the maximum score. In his demo game he'd taken Shoot Kill but decides
that might not be the direction he wants for a longerterm character, so he takes the
Intimidating Move instead, allowing him to use his +Power in certain situations
outside of the ring. He doesn't have an Injury, so he skips that field, and checks the box
next to +1 on the Audience chart, in accordance with his Gimmicks starting Audience of
+1. He takes a poker chip to represent his starting 1 Momentum (due to the Audience
+1), fills his Stats into the record boxes at the bottom of the sheet, and waits for the
others to finish making their wrestlers.
THE FIRST
EPISODE
Pick any Moves they have available, in addition to the starting

Moves already checked on their sheet.
Playing The First Episode
18
Heating It Up
Once everyone has made their choices, set the wrestlers initial Heat
ratings. Heat represents how much the Imaginary Viewing Audience
responds to the interactions between two characters, ranging from 0
(no heat) to +4 (the crowd goes wild every time they face off). All of the
player's wrestlers start with Heat with each other. Individual wrestlers
can gain Heat with nonplayer wrestlers (NPWs) during play.
All the players write down the other character's names on their
sheet. Then, pick one player to start. The first player looks at the Heat
questions for their Gimmick, picks a number of them equal to the
number of other wrestlers in play, and then asks each question in turn.
One of the other players volunteers to answer each question after it's
asked and then the original player adds +1 to the Heat they have with
the answerer's wrestler. Spaces are provided to note which character
answered which question.
If one player wants to answer multiple questions, thats fine! As
questions are answered, take a moment to fill out more context about
the relationship; this helps to give some backstory to the wrestlers as
we meet them for the first time. If a question doesnt fit someones character concept, they can ignore it. However, encourage them to throw
it out there anyway and see if someone else sees some potential in
itwrestlers often have complicated backstories or segments of their
career that dont quite match up with their current character. If theres
more than five players, ask all four questions (and not everyone will
have extra Heat with each other).
During this process, Creative should keep their own notes on the
relationships created and implied by the Heat questions as they are
answered. This is a great resource for you to start thinking about future
storylines. Setting initial Heat will give you a sense of the basic alliances
among the characters, mentormentee relationships that you can seek
to enhance or strain, and who has legit beef with who.
Once the players have answered the questions, everyone decides
whether they're starting as a Babyface or a Heel. Often, players have
already decided before this point but this is the time to make a final
decision for anyone who hasn't yet. Every wrestler starting as a Heel
takes an additional +1 Heat with every Babyface and vice versa. Generally, you want a roughly even split of Heels and Babyfaces for the
first Episoderemind everyone that they can change role whenever it
makes sense for them to do so during play.
Chapter Three
19
Example: Setting Heat

Eric is ready to go with Mammoth Marco. Ron names his Hardcore Bruto, Ed is
playing the High Flyer The Angel, and Keith names his AntiHero Keystone.
Eric looks at his sheet and picks three of the Monsters four Heat questions. First, he
asks, OK, who can stand up to me in the ring?
Ron says Definitely me. Youre big, but Im (throws the horns) Hardcore!
Eric laughs and writes +1 next to the line where hes written Bruto on his sheet. Next,
he asks, So, who has an unusual backstory intertwined with mine?
Nathan throws in: Yeah! And you guys could have an angel/devil thing going on, the
Angel from the heavens and the Mammoth of the deeps, something like that?
Eric says Yeah, thats cool. Lets see how that goes.
He puts +1 next to The Angel on his sheet. He looks at the remaining two questions
and goes with Who's made me look weak?
He looks at Keith expectantly, but Ron speaks up again. What if that's me, too? Maybe
I'm the only one who's had serious matches with you and you just steamroll everyone
else.
Eric says, I'm down with thatKeith, is it cool if we don't start off with anything?
Keith replies, Yeah, that's fine. I like the Hardcore/Monster feud being in play. I can
always get myself into it... Eric adds another +1 to Bruto, bringing that to +2.
Erics the last one to ask his Heat questions, so they check for the Heel/Babyface interaction. Marco and Keystone are Heels, while both Bruto and The Angel are Babyfaces.
Eric adds another +1 to Bruto and The Angel. Mammoth Marco starts with +3 Heat with
Bruto (answering two questions, opposed Roles), +2 with The Angel (one question,
opposed Roles) and none with Keystone (no questions, same Role).
On Keith's turn, Eric had volunteered to answer the AntiHero's question: Who do I
think is a slave to management. Thus, while Marco has 0 Heat with Keystone, Keystone
has +1 Heat with Marco. This works into Eric's conception of Marco as being a beast
in the ring, but actually a very straightandnarrow just do the job kind of guy backstage, intent on not making waves.
THE FIRST
EPISODE
Ed volunteers. I think I could. I mean, big guys always make high flyers look good."
20
Last Time, on World Wide Wrestling

Once Heat is set, go around the table again. Each player comes up with
a highlight moment from the last installment of the ongoing wrestling
show that youre going to be joining shortly. This could be a big wrestling move, an encounter backstage, the beginning or end of a feud, or
anything else that you want to use to show off how cool your wrestler
is. The sole restriction: you can't give yourself a championship belt! If
you want to have your wrestler debut for the very first time once the
Episode begins, you can use this to describe hype videos or teasers.
If you're planning on a true surprise debut, maybe a backstage or off
camera interaction your wrestler has had is appropriate.
If the main event for the Episode is going to be a big fullroster
match (like the Regal Wrangle or King of the Hill matches described
as stipulations, PAGE 153), this is a good time to do prerecorded
promos. These don't have any mechanics associated with them. Each
player delivers a promo their wrestler would have recorded backstage
before the event, highlighting why they deserve to win or what they're
planning to do in the event. This is a good way to get everyone thinking
about their character's promo style and agenda for the Episode.
Booking The Event

The main goal for the first Episode is to introduce the wrestlers to the
Imaginary Viewing Audience and show off what makes them so compelling. The secondary goal is to get comfortable with the basic Moves
and rules of the game. Booking the Episode is the first step for both of
those goals.
Once the players have decided on their Gimmicks, built up Heat
with each other, and described their last time on scene, take a ten
minute break. Note down any
nonplayer wrestlers (NPWs)
demanded or implied by the
players choices and think up
a few that you want to make
sure have a prominent place
in the promotion. (To be clear,
NPWs can be nonwrestlers, like
the promoter, general manager,
backstage interviewer and the like.)
Your most effective tool for this Episode
ke s
s ma
lwaytement
a
k
c
i e sta
pe r k
a Su effectiv
an
Chapter Three
21
is a list of wrestlers. You can use the Season One Roster presented on
PAGE 111 or make up your own.
Booking this first Episode is pretty simple:
Decide which wrestlers will have matches with each other: player
vs. player, or player vs. NPW. All NPW vs. NPW matches are
handled by simple narration.
Whos going to win each match.
What segments will take place between matches (vignettes,
backstage or inring promos, candid segments and the like).
A good default is to plan to interview each wrestler before their
match, either backstage or in the ring.
Example: Booking The Show

Nathan says OK, let's take a 10 minute break, I'm going to book the show. The other
guys chat while he looks at what he has to work with. Since Ed and Eric already brought
up that their characters have intertwined backstories, that seems like a good place to
start he books The Angel and Mammoth Marco in the opening match. Also, since Eric's
played before and Ed is a big wrestling fan, Nathan thinks this will be a good way to
model how the game works for the other guys, who haven't played and don't keep up
with realworld wrestling.
Since this is the first Episode and Nathan wants to get everyone involved, he embraces
the obvious. The Angel vs. Mammoth Marco, then Bruto vs. Keystone, then the main
event will be a tag match with the heels (Marco and Keystone) vs. the babyfaces (Angel
and Bruto).
To get there, he decides to book the heels as winning both singles matches, then the
babyface team winning the tag match (he notes The Angel to get the win, but depending
on how the match goes he's happy to slot in Bruto instead, if it makes more sense). He
pencils in a vignette segment after the BrutoKeystone match where General Manager
C. Colton Craig takes pity on the two babyfaces and offers them a shot at redemption
by making the tag match. Other than that, he notes promo for each character before
each match, and will let the events of play inform the context for those promos.
He has a set of segments ready, a plan for who wins each match and a basic arc for the
Episode. He calls back the other players and they get started!
And Youre Live

Once youve booked the Episode, go to the action! The first Episode
should closely track to an actual televised wrestling show, interspersing
interviews, promotional segments, and wrestling matches in such a way
THE FIRST
EPISODE
What order the matches occur in.
22

as to create a compelling two hours of drama. Plan a promo or backstage segment for each wrestler before or after their matches, plus any
other segments you want to use to introduce NPWs. Don't worry about
having offcamera scenes unless they come up organically, or you have
the opportunity to make a Hard Move (PAGE 25) that demands one.
Integrating the "real life" of the characters with the onscreen action is
a feature of longerterm play.
Keep in mind that the players are able to ask for, and sometimes
demand, their own segments; you are responsible for adapting your
plans to what comes up in play. This is addressed in more detail in
Chapter Nine: How To Be Creative (PAGE 78), but you have three
primary duties as Creative:
celebrate and challenge the players.

make it look like you had it planned that way all along.
entertain the imaginary viewing audience.
Make all your decisions during the first Episode with those three
agendas in mind.
The Basics: Making Moves

Here's the core of how this game works: the players and Creative have
a conversation at the table. They describe their wrestlers, the conversations those characters are having, the physical moves theyre using on
each other, how theyre playing to the audience, and how the audience
is responding. If they just talked about how awesome their characters
were, it would get boring and predictable; this is why World Wide
Wrestling has rules called Moves. Certain content you narrate into the
conversation trigger Moves. Each individual Move tells you what its
trigger is and how its resolved; generally, the player rolls 2d6, adds
a Stat and compares the result to
You have your own set of Moves as
the Moves outcome list.
Creative. These are more like narrative
For the first Episode, take a
approaches that you get to use at differlook at the General Moves everyent times in the game, with harsher ones
one has available to them (PAGE
in response to failed Moves made by the
148, and provided at ndpdesign.
players. These are explained more below,
com/wwwrpg) and the Gimmick
but generally the term make a Move is
referring to player's Moves, unless specifMoves each player has on their
ically noted otherwise.
sheet. Youll see that they cover
Chapter Three
23
Example: Making a Move

Nathan opens the game by narrating the televised intro, which shows off each of the
players wrestlers along with some nonplayer wrestlers (NPWs) that he's planning to
feature later. He frames the first segment as a backstage interview with The Angel.
Nathan: You're on a basic backstage interview set, just in front of a red velvet drape.
Interviewer and broadcast celebrity Tina Tahini is facing you. She says Hello, and
welcome to World Wide Wrestling. Our first match tonight features two competitors
who have faced off before, and with me now is the highflying celestial himself, The
Angel. Angel, you've never had an easy match against Mammoth Marcowhat's your
mindset going into tonight's match?
Ed: So, I'm wearing all white, including a traditional luchador mask with gold details
around the eyes and mouth. I grab the mic and say Well Tina, I'm not going to pretend
that this is going to be an easy match, but Marco...well, Marco draws his strength from
the cold, from the depths. My strength comes from the light, from the heatand
tonight, I'm going to light a fire out there for Mammoth Marco.
Nathan: Ha, nice! I like it. You clearly just Cut a Promo. Roll +Look.
Ed: OK, I have Look 0. He rolls 2d6 and gets a 4 and 5 for a total of 9. He looks at the
Cut a Promo Move on the Move Reference Sheet in front of him. A 9 means he gets
to pick one of these options: make Creative book him in a match; add a stipulation to
an upcoming match; gain 1 Momentum; or gain +1 Heat with Mammoth Marco, the
subject of his promo. I'm already booked in this match, right? I'm tempted to add a
stipulation, but I kind of want to see how a basic match goes...
Nathan: Momentum never hurts, but raising your Heat with someone you're about to
wrestle isn't a bad idea. Remember, if you have +4 Heat with Marco by the end of the
match, you gain Audience!
Ed: Oh, right. I'll do that, just gain the +1 Heat.
Nathan: "Great! OK, the camera cuts there then, and we go to the next segment.
THE FIRST
EPISODE
most of the basic building blocks of modern wrestlingworking the

audience, cutting promos, ring runins, taking risks in the ring, and the
like. When a player narrates the description that matches a Move, they
make the roll; when they want to make a roll, they need to narrate the
Moves trigger. When they trigger a Move, they roll the dice, read the
appropriate result, and make any choices demanded by the Move. You
then use the outcome to progress the conversation youre having with
the other players. It's often helpful to ask players if they're intending to
go for a certain Move, or just tell them to roll when they have obviously
triggered one (cutting a Promo, for example, is usually pretty obvious).
24
The Basics: Momentum

An important thing for everyone to pay attention to during play is
their Momentum. This is a number representing the characters overall
energy and "intangibles" which is built over the course of the Episode.
Promos feed into matches, which feed into conflicts between wrestlers,
which feed back into promos and so on. Momentum is a fluid resource,
so a good technique to track it is with poker chips or another kind of
physical token that can be physically moved around as Momentum is
gained, spent, and lost.
Players can spend any amount of Momentum to add a bonus equal
to what they spend to any die roll they just made. You always spend
Momentum after seeing what you rolled.
Some Moves, including the Babyface and Heel Moves, demand that
Momentum be spent in addition to their narrative triggers. This means
that the Move cannot be made if you don't have the Momentum for it.
Momentum is also important for matchesthe more Momentum
among the competitors, the longer the match could potentially go. In
Example: Using Momentum

Nathan cuts to the entrance ramp to the ring for the next segment. Eric, the announcer
goes 'Introducing, from Dead Horse Alaska....Mammoth! Marco!' What does your
entrance look like?
Eric narrates a roll of fog and a blowing snow effect amid strobing lights. Then he says
As I make my way to the ring I yell at the crowd and shake my massive fists, daring
them to cheer me.
Nathan: Sounds like you're Working the Audience to me. Roll +Audience.
As the Monster, Marco starts the game with an Audience of +1. Eric rolls 1 and 4, which
only gets him a 6 with his +1 Audience a Botch!
Eric: Oh no, that's not how I want to start this show! I spend my 1 Momentum to bring
that to a 7. He throws a poker chip in the middle of the table. The options for 79 are
gain +1 Momentum or gain control of the match...
Nathan: Since the match hasn't started yet, that won't help you. Though I'd say that if
you pick that, you'll go ahead and start it in control, if you want to make that happen.
Eric: That's OK, I'll just gain the Momentum back. He didn't gain any specific benefit
on the Move, other than avoiding a Botch. He knows that a Botch opens up Marco to
being a target for a Creative Hard Move, though, so that's worth it to him.
Nathan: Not Botching on your first roll is smart, and you end up even on Momentum.
The crowd boos, especially ringside where they can hear you yelling, but the Angel's
music hits and the crowd's attention shifts back to the top of the ramp for his entrance.
Chapter Three
25
addition, Finishing Moves are basic 2d6 rolls, so saving Momentum up to

use for your finisher is generally a good idea.
Any Momentum unspent at the end of an Episode disappears;
theres no reason to conserve it.
The goal of every wrestler is to get popular enough that the audience
wants to see them again and again. More popularity means more
bookings, possibly better treatment from management, and (hopefully) more control over their own destiny. Each wrestlers Audience
score represents how popular they are. The two main ways to increase
Audience are to win matches and to gain Heat with the other wrestlers.
Creative determines a NPW's Audience when necessary, like if a player's Move demands that their Audience goes up or down (PAGE 77).
For the first Episode, remind the players that the thing they have
most control over is gaining Heat with their opponents, as every time
they work a match with a character they have +4 Heat with, they gain
+1 Audience! Hitting +4 Audience in an Episode earns that wrestler an
Advance, which can be used to raise their Stats, gain new Moves and
evolve their Gimmick.
The Basics: The Engine

In order to improve and change, a character needs Advances. To get
Advances, they need Audience. To get Audience, they need Heat,
whether from feuds or winning matches. To get Heat, they need to
use the Moves at their disposal. Momentum greases the wheels. And
once the whole roster has improved enough to gain the promotion as
a whole a greater audience, the cycle resets itself (more about this in
Chapter Nine: How To Be Creative, PAGE 78).
Tell the players: Make Moves to get Heat and Momentum, work matches with characters
you have high Heat with, and position yourself to get booked to win to get Audience.
When you gain Audience you get Advances. You use Advances to customize your wrestler's growth and decide their destiny.
The Basics: Being Creative

In addition to pacing the show and playing NPWs, Creative uses their
Creative Moves, which are more like narrative approaches and triggers
for new content than specific "things" that happen in play.
THE FIRST
EPISODE
The Basics: Audience
26
Creatives Moves are divided into Soft and Hard Moves. Soft
Moves are the things you say whenever the players look at you expectantly, waiting for you to move the action along.
Soft Moves:
Put a microphone in their face (a scheduled interview, an interruption, a request for an opinion, an accusation of wrongdoing).
Take the next step for a storyline (as your dramatic sense dictates).
Book them in a match (challenged by an inferior, scheduled by
management, showcase a weakness or a strength).
Bring in something On Deck (prep this in between sessions).
Put something they value at risk (a championship, a partner, a
friend, a mask).
Announce kayfabe badness (a bad guy is underhanded, a good
guy makes a mistake, management punishes someone).
Give them a difficult decision to make (a choice between two
things they want to keep or save).
Swerve the storyline (as circumstances dictate).
Create backstage intrigue (a plot, a betrayal, an affair, a poor
decision, a rumor, a mistake).
Hard Moves are the things you say when players Botch (by rolling a 6 or
lower) or position themselves such that they're really just asking for it.
Hard Moves:
Turn the audience on them (they lose -1 Audience).
Turn a wrestler on them (they lose -1 Heat with the character).
Announce legit badness (someone is injured, someone is in
trouble, someone has disappeared, something important is
broken, something important is missing).
Give them a nowin situation (a choice between their career and
their integrity).
Hire or fire someone important (hire someone they hate, fire
someone they love).
Push an NPW ahead of them (because of their failure).
Steal their victory (preferably via their worst enemy).
Chapter Three
27
Example: Soft and Hard Moves

Later in the show, Nathan mentions that there's a NPW match going on while all the
player's wrestlers are backstage preparing for the next segmentsCool Hand Luke,
a smarmy 70slooking heel vs Schism, a brutal but beloved hoss of a babyface. Keith
breaks in and says Oh, I want to be out there for that! How about Keystone just comes
out, no entrance music or anything, and watches the action from the entrance.
Nathan: Oh, sure! What are you doing, just watching? What's your agenda here?
Nathan: So it's not really a runin, you're not interfering with the match. Uh... He
doesn't have a particular goal in mind with this match, he was just throwing it in as
background. This is clearly a moment where something interesting should happen,
though, so he takes a look at the Soft Move list, and sees Announce kayfabe badness.
This gives him an idea to put Keystone in a bad spot based on Keith's sudden interest
in the match. OK, so Luke notices you watching him, and it's starting to distract him.
He manages to put Schism in a sleeper hold, and just stands there looking at you while
Schism struggles.
Keith: I applaud and walk down towards the ring.
Nathan: Perfect. You walk down, Luke releases the hold to come to the ropes and say
something to you, but before he can open his mouth Schism pops up, scoops him up
and slams him in the Separator, his musclebuster finisher.
Keith: Oh no! I'm going to run in and break up the pin!
Nathan: OK, now you're interrupting a match in progress, so that's definitely the
RunIn Move. You're coming in after Schism, right? Roll +Heat with Schism.
Keith: I don't have any, so that's +0. He rolls a 1 and a 2 for 3, total. Oh, crap. Botch,
and I don't have enough Momentum to bring that up...
Nathan: Hah, great! He looks at the Hard Moves list. RunIn doesn't have a particular Botch effect, so he picks a Hard Move off the list that he thinks will make the
most drama. He wants to introduce more antagonistic NPWs, so he goes with Steal
Their Victory, pulling the trigger on an idea that he was going to wait to introduce until
later in the Episode. You go to slide under the ropes, and you hear the crowd pop
for something happening behind you...you feel hands on you, pulling you back, and
you fall to the floor to see the boots of the People's Hero himself, Travis Mealmaker.
In the ring, the ref counts the 123 and Schism gets the victory that you were trying
to prevent. Travis, a downhome veteran wrestler from Arkansas, is one of the most
popular babyfaces on the roster, and he just waves his finger in your face as you lay at
his feet. 'Not today, Keystone. Not today.' And he walks away to cheers as you lie there.
Keith: ...I already hate that guy.
THE FIRST
EPISODE
Keith: I'm keeping an eye on Cool Hand Luke and nodding approvingly, clapping when
he hits moves, stuff like that. Uh, I don't have any particular action in mind, I just want
everyone to know that I'm keeping an eye on him.
28

Alongside your plan of segments and matches, you should use the
list of Soft Moves to fill out scenes and bring in more antagonists, as
well as a resource for what to do next when you don't have anything
planned.
Whenever a player rolls a Botch, pick a Hard Move and narrate how
it comes about. Many of the individual Moves have an on a Botch
result, which is the primary result of their failure. If a Move does not
have a specific Botch result, then it's up to you what the fallout is.
Botches should never stop the action in its tracks; rather, Botches
reveal or enhance a wrestlers weaknesses in the eyes of management,
or are the physical points of failure that lead to injuries, recrimination,
and backstage disapproval. The show must go on through every error,
it's just that things are get more difficult for the wrestlers. A Botch is not
a failure, it's a springboard to making a storyline more personal and
impactful on the wrestler's legit life and career.
The Basics: Wrestling

Wrestling matches are their own kind of conversation, so they have
their own Moves. Any Move (like Working The Audience or performing
a Feat Of Strength) may be used in the ring, but InRing Moves may
only be used during a match. The basic InRing Moves specify who
has narrative control and how well the match is going. Whoever has
narrative control (for brevity's sake just control) of the match narrates
a sequence of transitional or resting maneuvers between the competitors, culminating in a big maneuver meant to impress the Imaginary
Viewing Audience. The result of the W restling M ove may transition
control to another participant, as well as give the player mechanical
options to represent how well the match is going. Creative decides
who starts with control, based on what's appropriate to the situation
at hand, and narrates the basic setup before handing narration over
to that player.
Once the match starts, the player with control narrates the beginning portion, builds up to the big spot, and then makes the Wrestling
Move (on the InRing Move sheet, and PAGE 151). Youll see that the
Wrestling Move asks the player to pick which Stat theyre rolling on
theres no right or wrong answer. If they narrate a maneuver thats obviously one thing or another, just roll the obvious one; if in doubt, they
should narrate to their strengths and roll on their highest Stat. If the
match is between a player's wrestler and an NPW, you never roll for the
NPW; you take up narration when the player passes it and you pass it
back when you want to (or when the player uses the Interrupt Move to
take it back from you).
Its generally your call when the match ends, based on its place on
the card and your sense of narrative pacing. However, if all competitors
are out of Momentum, that's a trigger to end the match. When you're
ready, announce who's booked to win the match. If a player's wrestler is
booked to win, they make their Finishing Move from their Gimmick sheet
and use the results to guide the narration of the end of the match.
Several Moves have the potential to override Creative's bookingif
a player ends up making one of these Moves, whatever outcome they
narrate becomes the finish instead of what you had planned. It's your
job to take these overrides and roll them into the ongoing storyline, as
though the new finish was the plan all along.
The Basics: The Announcer

When a match starts, you pick a player whose wrestler isn't involved
to be the Announcer for the match. The Announcer does color commentary, recapping and adding their own editorials to the action. The
Announcer can Put Over each player's wrestler in the match, in order to
make them look awesome. To do this, they describe what the wrestler is
doing in the most impressive light to the Imaginary Viewing Audience.
The Announcer can Put Over each player's wrestler once per match.
The effect of Putting Over is to increase the player's result on a roll
up one success level from what they roll: from a Botch to a partial hit
(total of 79), or from a partial hit to a strong hit (total of 10+). Thus, the
Announcer should wait to see the roll result before deciding whether
to Put Over the wrestler (though they're obviously free to describe their
stuff as awesome without applying the mechanical benefit). At the end
of the match, the Announcer hands off their mic to someone else, or
Creative takes it back to assign out for the next match.
If no players are free, Creative can serve as color commentary but
does not have the ability to put over wrestlers; they're on their own.
If more than one player is free, they can all participate in commentary, but only one of them has the Announcer power to Put Over the
wrestlers in the ring. Some groups create individual commentators
with names and personalities. Others play their wrestler characters as
temporary announcers, while some groups may wish to leave the commentary team as anonymous talking heads. If a player is having trouble
getting into the Announcer role you should mention the different ways
to approach it so they can find the one most comfortable for them.
29
THE FIRST
EPISODE
Chapter Three
30
Example: Wrestling & Announcing

After some backstage segments following on the appearance of Travis Mealmaker, it's
time for the scheduled KeystoneBruto match. Both Keith and Ron narrate their wrestler's entrances, and due to how their prematch promos went and Keystone's earlier
Botch, Nathan decides that Bruto will start in control of the match. He hands Eric the
microphone prop to assign him as the Announcer for this match.
Ron: OK, so, Bruto isn't much of a (air quotes) wrestler, he's more of a brawler. So we
start off just punching back and forth, giving stiff forearms, that kind of thing.
Keith: Yeah, Keystone is similar, he gives as good as he gets, if that's cool? Since Ron
has control of the match, it's his call how Keystone responds to the action.
Ron: Oh, for sure. We just exchange punches in the middle of the ring, and I think you
actually start to overpower me a bit, pushing me around.
Nathan: Does he push you back into a turnbuckle? Nathan knows Ron doesn't watch
a lot of wrestling so he's helping model general expectations for match behavior.
Ron: Yeah! He pushes me back, he's just raining blows on my head and beating me
down.
Nathan: The ref comes over and starts the fivecount, to get Keystone out of the
corner.
Keith: I keep throwing hands until the 4andhalf mark, then throw my hands up all
innocent and back off.
Ron: Yeah, and that's when I launch out of the corner and just tackle you to the ground!
This is my big spotI'm thinking my style is generally to get all beat up and then just
launch these massive sloppy hits.
Nathan: Sounds great. You're rolling for the Wrestling Move , so you get to pick
which Stat. It sounds like you're playing up your gimmick, so that's +Lookunless
you're trying to show off your strength and power.
Ron: No, this is just how Bruto wrestles. +Look makes sense to me. He rolls 2 and
5 for a 7+1 (for his Look), for a total of 8. "I can keep control and keep narrating, or
turn control over and take a Momentum...I'll do that, it's time for Keystone to show
off some! Ron takes a chip for the Momentum and Keith takes control of the match.
Eric grabs the prop mic that's on the table. Well folks, this match is not going to be a
pretty one. Both of these guys like a good brawl and...wow, did you see the impact on
that! Bruto is not giving Keystone any breathing room here!
Keith has control of the match. I roll around clutching my stomach, trying to get my
breath back. Maybe Bruto comes over to try and pin me, but I'm playing possum a bit.
When he bends over I kick him right in the head!
Ron: Yeah, for sure. Ouch! I roll around with my arms covering my head.
Eric: This isn't pretty, folks, but it sure is effective. Keystone is using those big boots
to good effect as he makes his way back to a vertical base.
Chapter Three
31
Keith: I see my style as a little more wrestley than Bruto's. Once I'm back to my
feet I drop an elbow on him to keep him down, then grab his leg and pull him into a
submission hold. He looks at the maneuver reference sheet. Ooh, Boston Crab! I put
him in that. I pull him out the middle of the ring and really lean into it.
Nathan: Cool. You're showing off your technical skill, it sounds like, so roll +Work.
Eric: "I'll put you over on this one, it's a cool move! 'OK folks, Keystone is taking advantage of Bruto's excessive force earlier in the match and leveraging the bigger mans
weight against him. See the pressure he puts on those knees! If Bruto doesn't do something to break this hold he could face serious injury here!' The Announcer's putover
bumps Keystone's 79 result to a 10+ result, so the move looks great.
Keith: Awesome, thanks! I can gain +2 Momentum, or +1 Heat with Bruto...I think I
want the Momentum, I'm still hurting for it, and I still have control of the match."
After two more exchanges, Ron is back in control of the match. He takes the action
outside the ring and narrates how he throws Keystone into the ring steps.
Nathan says OK, I think we're getting to the end of the match...and Keystone is booked
to win! Ron, how do we get there?
Ron: Oh, OK. Um, I think I roll him into the ring and then...oh, how about this. I go up
to the top rope, which I never do.
Eric: Keystone is dazed, and Bruto...the California Hardcore is going to the top rope,
what is this! He is not known for leaving his feet, what a big risk!
Ron: Yeah, so I'm on the top, I throw my hands up and yell Haaaaardcoooore! then
just jump straight into whatever Keystone has waiting for me. Keith?
Keith: Oh, nice. Yeah, while Bruto is climbing the ropes I get my breath back and get
my feet under me, but I'm still kind of crouching down. He jumps, and I jump up to
meet him, grab his head and flip him over in midair into my finishing submission, the
Brainwasher.
Nathan: Rad! OK, roll for your Finishing Move ...unless, Ron, you want to B reak
K ayfabe or something to interfere? Ron shakes his head, and Keith rolls. He gets a 7.
Finishing Moves are rolled on a straight 2d6, are you going to spend Momentum?
Keith: Oh yes. I spend all 3 to bring this to a 10, so I get to pick whether I gain +1
Audience or he does...I'm going to take that for myself.
Nathan: Nice, and the finisher looks great. The crowd pops when you lock it in. Ron,
how do you sell it?
Ron: Bruto swings his arms and tries to get to the ropes, but he just sags lower and
lower until Keystone is basically lying on his back, keeping him in the headlock. His face
turns all purple and he finally taps just before losing consciousness.
Keith: Yeah you do. Awesome.
THE FIRST
EPISODE
Keith: Sighs OK, that's a -1, of course. He rolls a 10 for a total of 9. Damn, so close!
32
Pacing The Show

As a general rule, be basic and obvious for your first Episode. Everyone
is getting used to their characters and the rules of the game during this
session; save the weird stuff for later. Give each wrestler an opportunity
to cut a promo before their matches. Help guide the match narration
as appropriate. Go backstage when necessary; if there's no immediate demand to do so, just cut right to the next vignette or promo you
had planned. To model how wrestling works for players who may not
watch a lot of wrestling, book a player versus NPW match early. Use it
to showcase how wrestling matches are structured and point out the
moments in a match you think are cool. If you have an even number
of players, a tagteam match between Babyfaces and Heels is a good,
highenergy way to end an Episode, and tends to spawn future feuds.
If the players have agendas and segments they want to see, you
should be responsive to what they want to do. Work requests into your
show and always respect their ability to advance their agendas via their
Moves. Many Moves allow them to book matches or segments of their
own, so either just replace what you had in mind or slot it into a place
that makes sense. That said, the first Episode is often the most Creativedriven Episode of a Season, simply because the players haven't
had time to get their heads around their characters yet. Have fun with
it, describe some dramatic action, make obvious choices, and enjoy the
conversation about wrestling!
Problematic Content & Making The X

The world of professional wrestling relies on archetypes, which are
across a very thin line from stereotypes. Many, if not most, heel characters do and say terrible, offensive, and inappropriate things in order
to showcase how bad of people they are and get the audience booing
them. Unfortunately, it's easy to combine villainous behavior with an
ethnic, racial, sexual, gendered, or other stereotype and produce a
truly offensive (or at least tasteless) result.
Because wrestling is meant to showcase the grotesque as well as
the dramatic in it's largerthanlife sweep, you shouldn't shy away from
using negative character traits to drive the action, but at the same time
you must be aware that other players at your table may not be on the
same page about the introduction of that content into the game. Every
player has their own sense of whats "too much" or what content they
don't want to have to deal with, and often a person won't know it until
they see it hit the table.
Chapter Three
33
When a player at the table makes the X in real life (it doesnt
need to be over your head, you can simply cross your wrists over
your chest or over the center of the table) its a sign to everyone
that you arent cool with something that just happened in the
game, and you should rewind the moment and start over.
A player can narrate their wrestler making the X, which generally
means they're breaking kayfabe. Make the Break Kayfabe Move.
Creative can narrate the ref or an NPW making the X as part of
the ongoing story, as events dictate (for example, some Moves
can result in a match participant getting legit injured).
Playerlevel use of the X could because the content triggers them
in some way, its just lame and inappropriate to the situation at hand,
or it's otherwise harming their fun. When a player makes the X, its a
sign for everyone else to elide the content that just happened and
restart the scene from the last logical point. Players are under no
obligation to explain why they made the X, though they may want to
say something so that everyone
knows whats up.
Making the X is adopted from "The X
Creative should explain
Card" by John Stavropoulos, a system
Making the X to the players at
agnostic tool for editing uncomfortable
the beginning of the Episode, so
content in improvisational games. More
info: http://tinyurl.com/xcardrpg
everyone knows it's a tool they
can use during the game.
Wrapping Up
Those are the basics of playing through the first Episode! The rest of
this text is devoted to more fully describing how the rules work and
interact with each other, the nuances of applying them, fleshing out
Creatives job and how to approach building multiEpisode storylines,
and providing inspirational resources to use for your games of World
Wide Wrestling!
THE FIRST
EPISODE
In this game, use "the X" to signal that something has crossed your
line without bringing the game to a halt. This dovetails with the traditional wrestling trope of the referee holding their arms up above their
head, crossed like an X, to indicate to the producers backstage that a
real injury has occurred and medical attention is needed. In this game,
anyone can make the X, as per these guidelines:
Making The Roster
chapter four
his chapter details all of the elements you will see as you create
your wrestling character. Your Gimmick sheet lists all the pertinent information you need in play, but if you want more details on the
various aspects of your wrestler, thats all in here.
The complete text of each Gimmick is summarized for reference
starting on PAGE 125. The full Gimmick sheets are available for free
download from ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg, where they can be updated
in the inevitable case that errors in them are discovered. If you notice
discrepancies between the downloadable sheets and this book, the
download should be considered the correct version.
Gimmicks
The first step to make your wrestler is to pick your Gimmick. This
describes a broad archetype of wrestler, which you can expand on
with your choice of look, move set, and ingame Moves. Your Gimmick
is unique to the Season you'll be playing with your groupwhile
there may be many monsters, whoever picks The Monster Gimmick
is the one we care about and the one most attractive to the Imaginary
Viewing Audience.
THE ANTIHERO: You are the badass everyone loves. Whether youre
sticking it to the man or telling it like it is, the audience identifies with
your rejection of conformity. A babyface AntiHero is the peoples
champion, representing the everymans rejection of the stultifying bullshit they have to put up with every day. A heel AntiHero
is a nasty, conniving jerk, a mercenary whos always
looking for the maximum profit for themselves.
Play the AntiHero if you want to struggle
with management, use underhanded
tactics to your own advantage, or have
others be unsure whether they can
trust you.
The AntiHero is best at blurring the
line between kayfabe and legit and
is generally not as strong or sophisticated as others in the ring.
ion
ston Crab submiss
The dramatic Bolling wrestler on their
keeps the controcing the crowd
feet fa
THE GOLDEN BOY: Youre the next big thing, whether the audience
and the rest of the roster want to admit it or not. Someone backstage
is putting all of their weight behind you, and you just have to hold up
your end in the ring. A babyface Golden Boy is the squeaky
clean good guy who obeys all the rules and is just
trying to do their best. A heel Golden Boy knows
exactly how far they can push before suffering
consequences for their poor sportsmanship and
bad form, always stopping just short of that line.
Play the Golden Boy if you want to have
management at your back and have
lots of screen time. You may need to
rely on others to get you through
your lack of inring experience.
The Golden Boy is best at talking
and looking great, while bad at breaking kayfabe in any way that helps them.
a Side Slam is a flexibl

that relies on aggressioe move
n for
maximum impact
The title "Golden Boy" is used because it's the most precise phrase to get the idea
across, but like all the Gimmicks it can be taken for any gender of character.
THE HARDCORE: Youre not the best grappler or the best looking, but
you know how to get a pop through naked aggression and rampant
bloodshed. Some in the business look down on you, but youre a
legend in the making for a subset of the audience. How long can that
fact be ignored? A babyface Hardcore invites the audience to live vicariously through their painful triumphs as well as bloody defeats. A heel
Hardcore engages in wanton violence far, far beyond what a situation
calls for, leaving bodies and even careers in their wake.
Play the Hardcore if you want to engage in violence, gain popularity by sacrificing your physical wellbeing, and have others be
nervous about whether or not youre going to hurt them.
The Hardcore is either compelling because of their selfcreated
mystique or because they just have so little regard for their own
physical safety. The Hardcore is generally not good at technical
wrestling.
MAKING
THE ROSTER
35
36
Making the Roster
THE HIGH FLYER: You are extremely athletic, able to go up to the top
rope and execute dazzling maneuvers. You put your body on the line
every night. A babyface High Flyer is the greatest crowd pleaser in the
company, hitting their big finishers at the perfect times to get everyone
on their feet. A heel High Flyer uses their moves to punish the mistakes
of their opponents, show off when its
uncalled for, and otherwise preen
and posture.
Play the High Flyer if you
want to be popular right
off the bat, balance your
career with your longterm
health, and have others be
jealous of what you can
do that they cant.
The High Flyer is generally great in the ring
but not very good at
breaking the fourth wall
or being intimidating.
The beauty of the Frog Splash lies in its simplicity
THE JOBBER: Youre a nobody. Youre there to lose and make the
other wrestlers look good. You may not have the fans, but you have
a job to do and you can do it well. But what if you want something
more? A babyface Jobber is sympathetic, just trying to do their best
and always getting the short end of the stick. A heel Jobber is bitter
and vengeful, angry about not being good enough and always having
that shoved in their face.
Play the Jobber if you want to be the support character, make
others look great, and have to really work hard to transcend your
role on the roster.
The Jobber is actually generally one of the better wrestlers in the
company, with great job security, but theyre not trusted to talk
or carry a storyline on their own.
The Jobber is always booked to lose matches theyre in (though that booking can be
swerved by the events of play). The appeal of playing the Jobber is in how you make
the other wrestlers look good and the drama of trying to build a definable character.
THE MANAGER: Youre the sizzle on the steak. You dont compete, but
you have the talk, the walk, and the ideas to keep your client/companion in the spotlightin and out of the ring. A babyface Manager always
stands behind their client, shields them from harm and gives the audience the entertainment they want. A heel Manager is an outspoken ass,
cheats every time they can get away with it and always stacks the odds
in their clients favor.
Play the Manager if you want to be in the spotlight but not in the
ring, work closely with other characters, and be on the hook for
failures that may not be under your control.
The Manager is hot garbage in the ring, but great on the mic and
can easily have creative power behind the scenes.
THE MONSTER: Youre physically enormous and intimidating. You may
have a supernatural edge or simply be meaneither way, you make

people nervous, in and out of the ring. A babyface Monster is pure
impressiveness, allowing the audience to live vicariously through their
strength and impact. A heel Monster is a malevolent beast who intimidates audience and opponent alike.
Play the Monster if you want everyone to know exactly who you
are, be the center of attention, and battle with the preconception
that you can only do one thing well.
The Monster is a onetrick pony, but that trick can carry you
through an entire Season.
THE TECHNICIAN: Whether you were an amateur sensation or an indy
workhorse, you have all the skills. Even though your wrestling ability
stands out, youre continually fighting the perception that thats all you
are. A babyface Technician is humble on the mic but stands up for
themselves in the ring, letting their talent speak for itself. A heel Technician uses their superior knowledge of wrestling to make up for their
lack of ability on the stick, making it clear that theyre taking advantage
of their opponents whenever they can.
Play the Technician if you want to show off your technical excellence, battle your way into the spotlight, and have others ignore
you until they need your help.
The Technician is great in the ring, but has almost no presence
on the mic; getting fans is an uphill battle.
37
MAKING
THE ROSTER
Chapter Four
38
Making the Roster
THE VETERAN: You are an established name. You work almost every
night, have a dedicated fan base, and are ready to create an enduring
legacy. A babyface Veteran is an old favorite, someone the audience
feels that they know well. A heel Veteran has abandoned the fans,
turned inward as they see their best days slipping away and vengefully lashes out to preserve something of their former glory.
Play the Veteran if you want to be instrumental to getting others careers off the
ground, show off your experience in the
business, and find a way to gracefully
exit that doesnt destroy your legacy.
The Veteran is generally good at everything, with a lot of discretionary ability
to help or hurt other wrestlers, but has
few advancement options.
THE WASTED: You are well known for your
a Powerslam
can be a simple
transitional
move or a huge
finisher
impressive style and intense fan base, but you

have serious reallife substance abuse or addiction problems that threaten your career. A babyface Wasted speaks to the primal part of the audience that loves fast
cars and explosions, the part willing to give up tomorrows security for
tonights wild ride. A heel Wasted is a broken person with nothing to
lose, throwing their body away in the pursuit of one more nihilistic high.
Play the Wasted if you want to be the hottest property in the
company, show up everyone with your style, and battle the
demons that keep you from moving on to the next level.
The Wasted gets the most heat and the biggest pops, but is
literally addicted to something that makes it possible that they
will lose control of themselves during any given show. Once
the Wasted resolves their issues, however, they have the most
options for moving on with their careers.
These are the 10 core Gimmicks available for every game of World Wide Wrestling.
Other Gimmicks are available, including five Season One Gimmicks that were presented to the Kickstarter backers of this game. To make your own Gimmick, check out
Creating New Gimmicks on PAGE 88. Visit ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg for additional
official Gimmicks as they become available, or to share the ones you create.
Fundamentals
Your wrestler, regardless of Gimmick, is described by:
Name & Look: this is entirely up to you, though you can pick a
character off of the Season One Roster (PAGE 111) if you want
to make a quick decision.
Hailing From: each Gimmick has some options that thematically
support that archetype, or you can pick your own.
Entrance: each Gimmick has some options that thematically
support that archetype, or you can describe your own.
Stats: the four key descriptive qualities of your wrestler, ranging
from -2 (the worst) to +3 (the best). The Stats are: Look, Power,
Real and Work.
Heat: a positive number representing the entertainment value to
the audience of your characters relationship with another wrestler. Ranges from 0 to +4.
Role: whether youre a good guy or a bad guy (Starting Roles
of Babyface and Heel) or have transcended that divide (to the
Advanced Roles of Celebrity, Legend or Icon).
Moves: specific archetypal actions for your wrestler with an array
of possible consequences. You have some Moves automatically
(already checked on your sheet), and then you pick some Moves
as the sheet directs.
Injury: When you get injured, certain options become available
(or closed off) to you to represent how youre handled by the
company while you recover.
Momentum: a positive number that represents a buildup of
intangibles and entertaining energy. You spend Momentum to
give you bonuses on die rolls. There is no limit on Momentum
but you lose any you haven't spent at the end of each Episode.
Audience: a positive number representing your wrestlers popularity and how much the audience wants to see them. Audience
goes both up and down and ranges from 0 to +4.
Advances: certain thresholds you hit in the game give you
Advances. You can spend Advances to raise your Stats or Audience, gain new Moves, gain a Manager, change Gimmick, and
other things that reflect your increasing value to the company.
39
MAKING
THE ROSTER
Chapter Four
Making the Roster
40
Your choice of Gimmick determines starting values for all of these

things, and describes additional choices you may have to make. Each
sheet details the specific choices you need to make for each section.
Hailing From and Entrance

When you pick your Gimmick, pick where your wrestler hails from and
what their entrance is like. The options presented on the sheet are
meant to be inspirational, not definitionalyou are free to pick or create
something else if youd like. Most players have no trouble naming their
wrestler, but if youre stuck or want additional inspiration, the Season
One Roster (PAGE 111) is available to you to pick a name from as well.
Stats
Your wrestler has four Stats: Look, Power, Real and Work. Each Stat has a
number between -2 and +3. Most characters start with scores between
-2 and +2. Your Stats describe the core abilities of your character as a
professional wrestler.
Look: your charisma, it factor and ability to inhabit your character and "live the Gimmick." Look is most important for you if you
want to cut exciting promos and create a memorable character
for the fans to follow.
Power: your raw strength, aggression, and impressiveness.
Power is most important for you if you want to enjoy physical
dominance over other wrestlers and stand out for your extraordinary physical presence and abilities.
Real: your ability to "break the fourth wall," bring in realworld
concerns, and deal with legit issues. Real is most important for
you if you want to blend the line between character and performer and captivate the audience with your actual personality.
Work: your ability to tell a story in the ring, execute moves correctly, and make others look good. Work is most important for
you if you want to use your ring work to create your legacy.
Your Gimmick will give you initial scores, and then instructions for
making an adjustment by adding or subtracting from those scores.
When a Move tells you to roll +Stat, that means to roll 2d6, add
or subtract the Stat number, and then look to the results of the Move
based on the total you just rolled. If your total is a 6 or less it's a Botch,
if it's a 79 it's a partial hit, and a 10+ is a full hit.
Role
Choose whether youre starting as a Babyface (good guy) or a Heel
(bad guy). Generally, every feud is between a babyface and a heel.
Each Role gives you access to the Role Move of the same name. You
can transition from one to the other (called making a Face Turn or a
Heel Turn) during the game whenever you narrate how your character
breaks with their current Role and embraces their new one.
Babyface and heel can be defined many different ways. Heres how
Ive chosen to do it in this game: Babyfaces stand up for things they
believe in, while Heels do underhanded things to get what they want.
This doesnt mean that a babyface has to believe in something honorable or wholesome per se, but they do believe in something and take
action to stand up for it. Similarly, a heel can have a perfectly understandable goal, but its the willingness to break the rules (letter or spirit)
that makes them a bad guy.
You also have access to three Advanced Roles, which you can only
take later in your characters career (see Advancement on PAGE 46).
Advanced Roles are for wrestlers who transcend the basic good guy/
bad guy division and represent something more within the company.
the advanced roles are:

Legend: Youre legendary, an inspiration to the fans. Legendary
wrestlers are always popular and sometimes share their glory
with others.
Icon: Youre the personification of what wrestlers want to be.
Iconic wrestlers have a signature move or action that theyve
made wholly their own, and everybody wants to see them do it.
Celebrity: You are what wrestling means to the wider world.
Celebrity wrestlers bring the fame of their nonwrestling careers
back to the promotion and as such have a lot of
pull with management.
Once you take an Advanced
Role, you stay in that role until
you use an Advance to take a
different one. You no longer
count as a Babyface or a Heel,
nor can you use those Moves.
the legendary Figure Four Leglock
tends not to be added to a wrestler's
arsenal until they've earned it
41
MAKING
THE ROSTER
Chapter Four
Making the Roster
42
HeatStarting Heat
Heat is a number ranging from 0 to +4, representing how much your
relationship with another wrestler gets an audience response. You
could have high Heat with both your tag team partner and your bitter
rival, as long as those relationships are entertaining.
When you make initial characters, you ask some or all of the questions on your sheet to generate initial backstory between your characters and establish starting Heat. Write down the other wrestlers' names
on your sheet and start their Heat at 0. On your turn, select a number
of questions equal to the other players and ask them. The other players
volunteer to answer and you take +1 Heat with those players wrestlers.
If youre playing with only two wrestlers, you each pick a single
question. Youre demanding that the other player answer the question,
as opposed to looking for a volunteer, so you should pick the question
that leads to most interesting relationship between the two of you.
If youre playing with more than five wrestlers, ask all four questions
and then move on. Some characters wont have much Heat with one
another, which is fine. Players can answer more than one of your questions, so you may build up more initial Heat with some characters than
others for the beginning of the game.
Once all the questions have been answered, all Babyfaces take +1
Heat with all Heels and vice versa. Heat is not symmetricdepending
on who answers who's questions, your wrestler may not have the same
amount of Heat with another wrestler that they have with you.
If you're joining a game in progress, you write down the other wrestlers' names on your sheet and ask your questions, but they won't ask
you questions (since they've already established their relationships and
backstory). They do write down your wrestler's name, and you all apply
the Role adjustment. Generally, you'll start the Episode with more Heat
with the established characters than they have with youthis is fine!
HeatDuring Play
Sometimes a Move will ask you to roll +Heat with another character,
in which case you add it to the 2d6 roll. Many Move results tell you to
add or subtract Heat with a character. You can never have more than
+4 or less than 0 Heat with someone, so if a Move result would push
you past one of those thresholds simply ignore it (and you should feel
free to pick another option, if one is available, so as not to "waste" your
choice). You can have Heat with NPWs as well. Write the NPWs name
down on your sheet when it comes up and start their Heat at +1.
Heat is an important part of your wrestlers popularity, as the Imaginary Viewing Audience pays the most attention to the wrestlers whose
relationships they've invested in. If you finish a match and have +4 Heat
with your opponent, you gain +1 Audience immediately, regardless of
who gets the win! If you have +4 Heat with more than one opponent in
a multiopponent match, you still gain only +1 Audience.
When you finish a feud with someone (as the storyline naturally dictateswhen in doubt, its Creatives call as to whether the feud is over),
you both reset your Heat with each other to +1.
HeatCooling Off
At the end of each session, check to see if you interacted with everyone on your Heat list. If you didnt interact with someone (no matches,
promo segments, vignettes, or anything else, on or offcamera), lower
your Heat with them by 1. Sometimes theres a bit of a judgment call
to make. If you're in doubt, ask the other players whether they think
you interacted or not, and go with the overall sense of the table. This
represents how if you're out of the audience's sight for too long, they
stop being as invested in your rivalries.
Audience
Audience tracks how popular you are with the Imaginary Viewing Audience. Are you a major draw, middle of the card, or on your way out?
Each Gimmick starts with a specific Audience score; this is the value
you start the game at. In the event that the promotion gains popularity
(something Creative tracks), you reset to this score as well.
Audience +4: Mark an Advance the first time you hit +4 Audience
in an Episode. When you hit +4, any other character with +4 bumps
down to +3, as theres only one top spot on the roster and you just
claimed it. If you have +4 Audience at the beginning of an Episode,
you make the Over Move (a Top of the Card Move, PAGE 150).
Audience +3: You're hot! Start the episode with +2 Momentum.
Audience +2: You matter. Start the episode with +1 Momentum.
Audience +1: You're present. Start the episode with +1 Momentum.

Audience 0: You're boring. Mark an Advance the first time you hit
0 Audience in an Episode. If you have 0 Audience at the end of an
Episode, you are fired! If you wish to continue playing you should
make a new wrestler, or talk to Creative about taking over an existing NPW as your new character.
43
MAKING
THE ROSTER
Chapter Four
Making the Roster
44
During an Episode, whenever you roll +Audience, add your current

score to the roll. Your score will go up and down during the Episode
depending on your booking, how you roll and the decisions you make.
Whenever you hit 0 or +4 for the first time in an Episode, you mark
an Advance. If you happen to hit that same value again in the same
Episode, you do not mark another Advance.
When you hit Audience +4 during an Episode, youve just claimed
the top spot on the card. Any other characters with Audience of +4
bump down to +3. If multiple characters hit +4 at the same time (most
often, when two characters at +3 who have +4 Heat with each other
wrestle a match), they share the top spot until someone else bumps
them both out of it.
When youre at +4 at the beginning of an Episode, you make the
Over Move (PAGE 150). This Move is only ever made by a player at +4
Audience. You make it before the Episode goes onair, and can save
the result for later in the show. Everyone in the top spot makes the Over
Move, if more than one wrestler made it at the same time.
When youre at 0 Audience at the end of an Episode, the audience
has completely lost interest in your character. Creative no longer has
anything for you and your wrestler is legit fired. If you intend to keep
playing, its time to make a new character or take over an NPW wrestler
as your own. If you hit 0 right at the end of the session and want to keep
playing this character, you must spend your Advance on the Gain +1
Audience Advancement option right away.
Moves
Moves are signature skills that your character demonstrates during
each Episode. You have some Moves automatically, based on your
Gimmick. You also have the option to pick another Move or two. Pick
whatever you think is cool for your character! Youll have opportunities
to get more as you gain Advances. All Gimmicks have a Finishing Move
(or equivalent), which is the Move you make when youre booked to
win a match. The finishing moves are similar across Gimmicks but they
emphasize different wrestling styles.
Most Moves will tell you to roll +Stat, which just means roll 2d6 and
add your relevant Stat, comparing your result to the Moves outcomes.
Some Moves are contingent on something happening, ask you to
spend Momentum, or have other triggers. For more detail on basic
Moves, see Chapter Six: Moves (PAGE 56).
Chapter Four
Momentum
Momentum measures your potential to get over in the current Episode.
You start the Episode with either 1 or 2 Momentum, depending on
your current Audience score, and many Moves give you the option to
increase your Momentum during play.
You spend Momentum to add a bonus to a roll equal to the amount
you spent. You choose to spend after you make the roll. Sometimes a
Move will call for you to give someone Momentum or take Momentum
from someone, which is what it sounds likeyou lose 1 and they gain
1, or vice versa. If youre called upon to spend or give Momentum and
you are at 0 already, you simply stay at 0. Theres no negative Momentum. If youre supposed to give someone Momentum and you have
none, they still gain 1. If youre called upon to give Momentum to a
NPW, you just lose 1, it doesnt go to anyone.
When you wrestle a match, Momentum helps because it's the only
bonus you'll potentially have to spend on your Finishing Move (in addition to generally helping you out if you roll poorly).
Whenever you have the chance to gain Momentum and you have
no more compelling choice, go for the Momentum. It can only help
you. However, you lose all unspent Momentum at the end of each
Episode. Spend it!
Injury
You can get injured as the result of some
Moves (yours or your opponents). Creative
can also inflict injury upon you when its the
obvious outcome of a sequence of events.
You have a certain number of Injury boxes on
your sheet; whenever youre injured, check
one off. Your Gimmick has a set of conditions that activate when youre injured; as
long as you have at least one Injury check,
you play with those conditions in effect.
When youve checked off all of your
Injury boxes, you can no longer compete.
Creative can no longer book you in matches
at all. If you want to get into a match, youre
going against the company to get in the
ring; this generally means you have to make
the Break Kayfabe Move.
a Northern
Lights Bomb
requires trust
and cooperation
between both
wrestlers
MAKING
THE ROSTER
45
Making the Roster
46
You can erase an Injury check whenever you make an Advance,

in addition to the effect you're spending the Advance to gain. This is
entirely your choiceif youre enjoying playing with your Injury condition in effect, you can choose not to erase a check. The only other way
to get rid of Injury checks is when you take an Episode off and return
with a new Gimmick or Advanced Role. Upon your return, you erase
all checks and reenter the ring uninjured (this is not by choice, your
wrestler always heals up when they change Gimmick).
Advancement
Over the course of your career, your wrestler will grow and change.
Advancement comes from having rivalries, getting the audience
behind you, and closing out storylines. Whenever your wrestler hits
certain thresholds, you takes an Advance. You can spend Advances
whenever you want to gain one of the effects listed on your sheet.
Some Gimmicks have modified advancement options. Treat the Advancement information printed in the Gimmick as superseding this list if they conflict.
gain an advance:
The first time your Audience hits +4 or 0 in an Episode.
When you gain a Championship Belt.
When you end a feud satisfactorily.
spend an advance to:

Add +1 to any Stat (max +3).
Add +1 Audience.
Pick another Move from your Gimmick, or another Gimmick.
Create a custom Move for your character based on a signature
habit (see PAGE 86 for creating custom Moves).
Gain a Manager, a Valet or an Enforcer (NPW).
Form a Dedicated Tag Team (see PAGE 69).
and once you've picked 3 of those:

(this means that once you've picked three from the above list, you're
able to pick from the list below in addition to the above options):
Create a new character to play. You can play both characters
simultaneously, or switch between them on an Episodeto
Episode basis. Talk to Creative if you need advice on playing
more than one character.
Retire this character and pick an NPW to play for the next
episode. Pick a Gimmick for them and play them as a new wrestling character. Then return this character, with a new Gimmick,
and/or in an Advanced Role (Legend, Icon or Celebrity). Each
Gimmick notes which Gimmicks it can or cannot return as. See
below for details.
Your character legit retires. Create a new character or take over
an NPW if you want to continue playing in this Season.
New Gimmicks
Starting with your fourth Advance, you have the option to take a new
Gimmick. Each Gimmick has its own selection of other Gimmicks you
can select, representing the progression of your wrestler through different stages of their career. When you take a new Gimmick, it represents
the character's whole image being reconsidered and repackaged
backstage. This is why the character takes an Episode offyou can
play an NPW already introduced, try out a new character entirely, spend
the session as an audience member, or take the session off yourself. If
you want to give the character multiple Episodes off, thats fine too.
When the character returns:
Keep your Stats.
Keep all Moves youve purchased with Advances (from the original Gimmick, or any other).
Keep any Custom Moves you've created.
Lose the old Gimmicks automatic Moves, including the Finishing
Move (or equivalent).
Take any Moves you automatically get for your new Gimmick,
including the Finishing Move.
47
MAKING
THE ROSTER
Chapter Four
Making the Roster
48
You can trade the Gimmick Moves you selected when you first
made the character for Moves on your new Gimmick's sheet on
a 1for1 basis.
Lower your Heat with everyone by -1.
Pick whether you come back as a Babyface, a Heel or in an
Advanced Role (Legend, Icon or Celebrity).
Make the Heat adjustment (Babyfaces takes +1 Heat with all
Heels, Heels take +1 Heat with all Babyfaces, Advanced Roles
take +1 Heat with any other Advanced Roles).
Take -1 to your Audience (If this would take you to 0, mark the
Advance, but remember you look for whether youre fired at the
end of the Episode, not the beginning).
If you want to come back in an Advanced Role but in the same
Gimmick, you return with all of your same Stats and Moves. Make the
same Heat and Audience adjustments as listed above.
er
bust
usclepower
M
e
ile th raw
...wh owcases
sh
the Hur
flashy, dryicanrana is a
namic mov
e...
Example: Changing Gimmick

After four Episodes of play, Eric has gained 4 Advances for Mammoth Marco. He spent
the first three on gaining another Look (bringing him to +1 Look), gaining an Audience
when he badly needed one, and creating a Custom Move, the Mammoth Mountain,
representing Marco's ability to stand fast in the ring and ignore his opponents blows
without it killing the momentum of the match.
With his fourth Advance, he's eligible to change Gimmick. He's been angling towards
a new role for Marco in the storyline, playing up his backstage "company man" nature
and allegiance to the powers that be. He announces that he wants to change Gimmick
at the end of the fourth Episode.
Since changing Gimmick means the character needs to disappear for an Episode, Eric
plays the NPW "Cool Hand" Luke, now a key member of Keystone's rising Revolution
faction the next time the group gets together.
When Marco returns at the top of Episode Six, it's as "Millionaire" Marco, in the Veteran
Gimmick. Eric narrates a video package that covers the backstory for the change
Marco's ancestral Alaskan homeland turns out to be rich in oil and other natural
resources, and he's tamed his wild side in order to use his newfound wealth to shore
up the authority figures in the promotion.
To make the Gimmick change, Eric:
Keeps the Stats of Look +1, Power +2, Real -2, Work -1.
Keeps the "Mammoth Mountain" Move, since that was a custom Move purchased
with an Advance.
Loses the Monster's Finishing Move, and gains the Veteran's Finishing Move
in it's place.
Gains the Veteran's automatic Veteran Instincts Move.
He has two Gimmick Moves he can trade, Will You Look At That S ize and
Intimidating. He trades Will You Look At That Size for the Veteran Gimmick
Move Put Over. This does mean that he loses the +1 to Power he'd enjoyed as a
MonsterEric explains that the Veteran Marco is slimmed down a little and more
agile in the ring than his old persona. He keeps Intimidating, however. Marco is
now scary outside of the ring for multiple reasons
He left as a Heel and decides to come back as a Babyface, since he's intending to
oppose Keystone's Revolution movement, and Keystone is a Heel. He could come
back in an Advanced Role, but doesn't think it's time for that for Marco just yet
He lowers his Heat with everyone by -1
He takes a -1 to his Audience. Marco had +3 when he left, so he now has a +2
on his return
The new Veteran "Millionaire" Marco is ready to debut.
49
MAKING
THE ROSTER
Chapter Four
chapter five
f you watch wrestling regularly, youve probably internalized a lot of

what makes wrestling work and how the performers make themselves
larger than life. If you're not as immersed in that world, or feel like
you're having trouble portraying a wrestler in this game, this chapter
breaks down how to approach playing your character.
Concept
All wrestlers have a core concept. While your Gimmick describes an
archetype, it's up to you to decide on what the deal is with your character. The goal of your characters ring attire, entrance music, and even
moveset is to communicate to the viewing audience what that "deal"
is as smoothly as possible, so they can get to understanding the story
you're telling quickly and without a lot of exposition. This is why wrestling outfits are so frequently literal and obvious. Cowboy hat, jeans
and boots? Well, that's a cowboy character. Come out in a robe and
glasses holding a book? Educated, or at least thinkshesmarterthan
you character. Explosions and fog machines heralding your entrance?
Someone supernatural or bizarre, with the entrance already signaling
to the audience suspend your disbelief a little more, this is
going to be a different kind of character.
Be obvious in your choices and pick a concept that
you would be excited to see in front of you if you
were a viewer. The game is built to allow
you to evolve your character over time,
so you're not locked into your initial
choice in any way. Doing the obvious
things (especially for the first Episode
or two) makes it easier for everyone
to interact with one another as they
gain familiarity with how the game
works. Even if you copy your favorite realworld wrestler, the events
of play will quickly push them
into new storylines and you'll have
the DDT is so crowdpl
your own ideas of how they should
ing because it can be hit eas
develop, making them unique to you.
of almost any pos out
ition
51
Get into your characters head. What do you want? This can be simple:
I want to win the World Wide Wrestling PanOceanic Championship
or complex: I want to build a stable of cronies, then trade them to
Uncle Money for his support in getting me named to the Management
Council; abstract: I want to show that I'm the greatest high flyer of
all time or specific:I want to make Mammoth Marco tap out with my
submission finish.
Having a goal for your character is important for two big reasons.
First, it's a way to give yourself a direction for any interaction you have.
Because of how booking works, you aren't always going to have storylines that focus directly on what you want. Often, Creative decides
your immediate direction and you'll be playing off of what opportunities you're given on camera. Sometimes, you'll end up in a match or a
feud that comes out of left field and you'll need something to fall back
on. You will often be able to use your goal as something to tap into
these situations and make them more interesting.
Second, a goal means you have something to agitate for as a player.
Many of the Move results give you the opportunity to book a specific match or demand a certain segment, and you should use those
to advance towards your goals. Don't worry about whether you're
ruining anything or messing with what Creative has plannedthat's
the whole point! Creative's job is to take the swerves you serve up and
work them in, not to steamroll you with their agenda.
When things slow down and you don't feel a sense of urgency
about addressing the situation in front of you, take action in service of
your agenda. Not only will this be more fun for you as a player, it's how
you develop the idea of your character as having an inner life as a
fully realized persona outside of the ring, as well as in it. Use your goals
and agenda to add dimensions to your character over time.
Cutting Promos
You'll have ample opportunities to cut promos in this game. Not only
will Creative cast you into plenty of talking segments, there is always a
mic available to your wrestler. Just say that you want to say something,
and you'll be given time to talk.
What makes a good promo? A good promo engages the audience,
communicates something new about you, your opponent, or your
feud, and creates an opportunity for response.
PLAYING A
WRESTLER
Your Wrestlers Agenda
52
in order to do that, concentrate on three key ingredients:

Who you are.
What you want.
Why you'll get it.
Who you are doesn't mean just repeating your name over and
over. Use promos to introduce new aspects of your character, or reveal
something that you've started understanding about yourself and you
want to make explicit. The audience only knows what you tell them.
What you want is often the easiest to talk about, because it's generally the reason you're cutting the promo, but if you are having a hard
time making your promo about something, remember your goals
and look for an opportunity to make this promo about something
larger than just the next match or opponent. Why you'll get it could
be a description of your wrestling prowess, or an aspect of your character that makes you unique or superior to your opponent.
You can deliver your promo incharacter or you can describe what
your wrestler says in the third person. One common way to do it is to
deliver the promo in character, and then recap the points you're trying
to get across outofcharacter ...so my point here is, I may not be stronger than Mammoth Marco, but I'm smarter and, in the ring, it's smarts
that matter. Rememberregardless of the smoothness, intensity, or
entertainment value of what comes out of your mouth as a player, it's
the roll of the dice that tells you how well your wrestler communicated
to the audience. The purpose of the die roll is to make it so that, sometimes, even the bestdelivered promo falls flat or the most stumbling
hits a chord. You don't need to be really good at talking in real life for
your character to deliver great promos!
Only As Good As Your Opponent

If you're going to speak directly to or about another wrestler, it's good practice to talk
them up at least a little bit (unless your character is an insulting jerk, which has its
place). Defeating an opponent you respect, even grudgingly, makes you look better
than defeating someone you think is worthless; beating someone strong is more
appealing than beating someone weak. The audience can only tell how you feel about
someone by what you say about them, so when you build them up in your promo you're
telegraphing that it will be an achievement to defeat them.
Chapter Five
53
When your character wrestles, it's as much a part of their character as

their costume, entrance, and the way they talk. Even if you don't have a
deep knowledge of wrestling moves, you should describe your grappling in ways that echo your concept and character. Does your wrestler punch and brawl? Do they go to the ropes and flip around their
opponent? Do they take everything their opponent dishes out before
getting started? Do they hang on for dear life, making it a big deal
whenever they get a hit in? Do they counter and reverse into technical
holds? Do they employ misdirection or set up traps for their opponent
to blunder into? Coming up with a ring
strategy and sticking to it for your first
couple matches is a great way to
establish your character and
how they feel in the ring.
Remember that when
you have control of a match
you are in charge of building up to the next big spot,
including narrating your
opponents moves as they
react to yours. Interstitial
or transition moves vary
the utilitarian Enziguri fits many movesets and
depending on wrestling style
can work anytime during a match
and performer, but some standard things include: exchanging punches, running the ropes, clotheslines, Irish whips, dropkicks, and rest holds (headlocks, hammerlocks,
bear hugs, or anything else that puts the two wrestlers heads together
so they can call the next sequence under the guise of trashtalking). If
you're uncomfortable narrating everything in the sequence, ask your
opponent how they react to what you're doing and invite them to add
details. Just remember you retain general authority over the sequence.
When you get to the big spot, you narrate it and then decide which
Stat to roll on (if you're doing the basic Wrestling Move). This is where
you focus on a specific single maneuver. Again, if you don't know the
names of wrestling moves off the top of your head, use the provided
maneuver illustrationsjust pick something that looks cool or has a
cool name! If you do have wrestling knowledge, remember to describe
how it looks and any unique twist your character puts on it.
PLAYING A
WRESTLER
Narrating Wrestling Matches
54

Your narration might make it obvious which Stat to roll on, but if it's
in doubt you can ask the table for their input. Generally, you should
narrate up to the maneuver's execution, then roll for the Move you're
using before describing the result. This is so you can narrate the final
effect based on your roll and avoid narrating a successful move only
for it to Botch, necessitating a revision of your narration. Your wrestler is assumed to always be able to functionally execute the Move; it's
the quality of the execution or the ability of your opponent to find a
counter for it that depends on the dice. You never whiff in the sense
of being unable to perform in the ring. Rolling a Botch can mean you
actually mess up the move, but it could also mean that the audience
just doesn't like it, or that your opponent interrupts and counters it.
It depends on the context, and you have control over what it actually
means, so you can shade it towards how it matches your character in
the moment.
You roll the dice for any important moment. This doesn't always
have to be a wrestling maneuver! Narrating how your Monster stands
impervious to a flurry of blows without moving an inch could be a big
spot, calling on you to roll +Power for the Wrestling Move. A loudmouth
character might grab a mic and start insulting his opponent from
outside the ring in order to throw them off their game, exemplifying
their character and allowing you to roll +Look for Wrestling. You can
also roll for a Gimmick or basic Move when you narrate the appropriate
trigger. One common strategy is to Work The Audience midway through
a match, in order to get them behind you and gain some Momentum.
Sometimes, you'll be the one in control when Creative reveals the
finish of the match. If your wrestler is booked to win, that's generally
straightforward, but what happens when you're in control and your
opponent is supposed to get the 123? You still narrate the sequence,
but it's in service to setting up your opponent's victory. This applies
generally: just because you have control doesn't mean you need to
narrate how your wrestler is doing well. You can narrate the other
wrestler as having control of the inring action, even as you have
narrative control. Especially when building up to a finish where your
wrestler loses, this is a great opportunity to show how your wrestler
behaves when theyre on the receiving end of a beating or to demonstrate your ability to make the other wrestler look good. When you do
get to the final move of a match, your opponent still describes their finishing move (they roll the dice for it, of course), unless you have a great
idea for a finish that doesn't involve them hitting a particular maneuver.
Note that they still roll for the Finishing Move on their Gimmick sheet,
even if they don't literally hit their wrestlers finisher in the narration.
What happens when the finish is revealed and you want a different ending to the match? This is where you should look at your Moves
which have effects that change or override Creative's booking. The Heel
Move, in particular, is built for doing this, but many Gimmicks have
Moves which allow you to override Creative's booking. Whenever you
override Creative's booking, their job is to make it look like the new
ending was the original planthere may be backstage fallout or other
consequences, but Creative abides by the results of your Moves along
with everyone else. If you have nothing that applies, or can't make any
of the narrative triggers work in the context of the moment, you can
narrate how your wrestler ignores the booking entirely to do what they
want. This triggers the Break Kayfabe Move.
Looking Good While Making Others Look Good

Wrestling and roleplaying have one key thing in common: they're both
about making your peers look good. In wrestling, performers have to
trust each other and give each other room to perform, so that everyone
involved can look their best. This, in turn, means more audience, more
money, and more fame for everyone. In roleplaying, players have to
trust each other and give each other hooks for their characters to take
advantage of, so that everyone involved can take the spotlight when
they have something to contribute.
these are your player agendas:

Be generous. Ask other players questions about their characters
and invite them to interact with your wrestler.
Be positive. Answer questions by building on them. Join in other
storylines when invited or opportunities present themselves.
Be obvious. What seems too obvious to be interesting in your
head is probably something nobody else at the table would
come up with. At worst, you will establish a baseline to grow
from; trying to come up with the most creative material can
lead to paralysis or things too abstract for others to work with.
Your contributions reflect back upon you. By making others look
good, you also look good. The characters compete, but all players
share the goal of making the most awesome wrestling storylines possible; being generous, positive, and obvious is the way to do it.
55
PLAYING A
WRESTLER
Chapter Five
Moves
chapter six
oves are the discrete, consequential actions taken by your wrestlers. Any player's wrestler can use the General Moves (the basic
things all wrestlers do) and InRing Moves (used to play out wrestling
matches). Each wrestler has their own Gimmick Moves, noted on their
Gimmick sheets. Only Creative uses the Creative Moves.
The General and InRing Moves are provided for reference starting on PAGE 148.
Download the most updated Moves reference sheets at ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg
General Moves are available to all of the players all of the time
things like cutting promos and working the audience. InRing Moves
are available to all players whenever they wrestle. Both the General
and InRing Moves are grouped together on their own reference
sheets, and you should have a couple of those sheets on the table
during play so everyone has access to them. For easy reference they're
subdivided by the part of the game they apply to (Top of the Card
Moves only apply to certain wrestlers, Stipulation Moves only apply to
matches with those stipulations, and so on). Gimmick Moves are the
Moves listed on each individual Gimmick sheet. Each player can only
use the Gimmick Moves theyve selected from their initial picks, as well
as any taken with Advances.
Creative has their own list of Moves, used in response to the player's
actions. Players usually announce their Moves when they make them,
while Creative picks a Move in reaction to the game's circumstances,
making decisions and announcements in accordance with the Move
they picked.
Most of this section focuses on the Moves that players make. Creative has their own guidance for their Moves in Chapter Nine: How To
Be Creative (PAGE 79).
To Make a Move
Take a look at some Moves (PAGE 148). They list a trigger condition, in
the name of the Move (like "Work The Audience") and/or in the description (like B abyface : When you stand up for something you believe
in). To make the Move, you can just narrate the action called for,
or specify which Move you want to make and then narrate how your
character fulfills the trigger condition. Usually, youll just be saying what
your character says and does, then resolve any Moves made during the
narration (whether you were aiming to make one, or you realize that
youre triggering one partway through). Sometimes Creative will ask if
youre making a specific Move based on what youre saying, as one of
Creative's jobs is to pay attention and tell players that theyre triggering
a Move if they don't notice.
Once a Move is triggered, simply take the listed action. Most Moves
ask you to Roll +Stat, which just means roll 2d6+Stat indicated;
compare the total to the results listed on the Move, making whatever
decisions you need to make. A result can be a strong hit (10 and above),
a partial hit (79) or a Botch (6 and below). Often it matters whether you
get a strong hit or a hit, but not always. It always matters whether you
hit or Botch.
Anatomy of a Move
Cut a Promo: When you take the mic and speak your mind, roll +Look.
On a 10+ you connect with the audience, gain +1 Momentum and pick 1 from
the 79 list
On a 79 you get them to pay attention, pick 1:
make Creative book you in a match
add a stipulation to a relevant match
gain +1 Momentum
gain +1 Heat with the subject of your Promo.
The trigger is "when you take the mic and speak your mind." This Move triggers almost
every time a wrestler says anything important on camera. You could say "I'm cutting a
promo," narrate it and then roll, or just naturally launch into one when a mic is put in
your wrestlers face. Either way, you trigger the Move and make the roll.
The action is "roll +Look," so you roll 2d6 and add your wrestler's Look score (positive
or negative) to the result.
Once you have your result, you see if it's 6 or less, 79 or 10 or above. For this Move a
10+ is just a little bit better for your wrestler, since it gives you a Momentum in addition
to the choices on the 79 result.
This Move does not have a specific Botch result, which means if you get a 6 or less,
it's time for Creative to pick one of their Hard Moves that applies to the situation. You
could get booked in a punitive match, lose the confidence of management backstage,
or perhaps be stripped of an opportunity because of your characters failure to connect
with the audience on their promo! It's up to Creative.
Remember, you spend Momentum to gain a bonus on your roll after you see the result,
so if you get a total of 6, you might want to spend a Momentum to bring it to a 7 in
order to avoid the Botch.
MAKING
MOVES
57
Making Moves
58
Botches are opportunities for Creative to add more difficulties into

your characters storyline and/or personal life, and sometimes have
specific effects depending on the Move in question.
Judgment Calls
Some Moves ask you to make a judgment call, either about the trigger
condition or about the result. For example, the Babyface Role Move:
Babyface
When you stand up for something you believe in, spend 2 Momentum and pick 1 of
the following:
gain +1 Heat with your opponent

leave your opponent speechless
add a stipulation to a match
Whether a specific action is your wrestler standing up for something

they believe in is a judgment call. Its always up to you, the player, to
decide whether its the case or not. Whether its significant to leave your
opponent speechless in that moment is also a judgment call, depending on the nature of the relationship. Sometimes a wrestler will do the
same thing multiple times (maybe even in a single Episode), but in one
case theyre standing up for something they believe in and in another
theyre not! Spending the Momentum to trigger this Move means that
youre making a statement about what your wrestler believes; deciding
to leave your opponent speechless is a statement about the relationship between the two of you and the power of your characters righteousness. A powerful subtlety exists in making these judgment calls.
Remember that its always up to the player, not Creative or anyone else.
When in doubt, trust your gut and your sense of dramatic action.
Creative Makes It Work

Between the General, InRing, and Gimmick Moves, there are a lot of
potential Moves and outcomes. Moves can sometimes interact in odd
or inconsistent ways. One of Creatives jobs is to look at the situation
at hand in the larger context of what they have booked and whats
going on in the Episode so far, making their own decisions about how
to apply the interactions in a seamless manner. In play, the context surrounding the use of the Moves tends to make it clear how they should
be combined, but it is ultimately up to Creative.
Chapter Six
59
Some of the Moves are differentiated more by their intended effect

than by their fictional triggers. For example, your babyface delivers
an inspirational promo at the top of the ramp, thanking the fans and
saying they couldn't have made it without them. The character could
W ork T he A udience , C ut A P romo or even make the B abyface Move! It
depends on your intent. If you intend to whip the audience up and get
them on your side, you should roll for Work The Audience. If you intend
to make a proclamation of your characters state of mind going into the
match, roll for Cut A Promo. If you intend for it to be an example of the
character standing up for the strong bond with their fans which they
really believe in, then it's the Babyface Move.
Some players look at the Move list and pick the specific thing
they're going for and narrate such that they trigger it. Others approach
the game from a more incharacter perspective, not thinking about
the dice until they happen to trigger a certain Move. In the latter case,
you might have more conversations about what Move in particular you
think would best fit the situation. Creative is generally on the lookout
for when Moves are triggered, and may ask you about it at key points
of your narration.
While one action or description could potentially trigger multiple
Moves, you pick only one to roll for and see where it takes you. You
never use the same fictional trigger to roll
for multiple Moves; once you've made
a Move, you need to move on in
your narration before making
another one. Often, the results
of a Move will directly
inform the path
before you; many of
the Moves are complimentary to each
other, but you still need to
narrate separate triggers
to roll for them.
the Missile Dropkick is both showy
enough to pull in a dead crowd and
impactful enough to turn a match's
momentum around
MAKING
MOVES
Which Move?
Making Moves
60
Using Moves
Like the Gimmicks, the general Moves are listed in their entirely at the
end of this book for easy reference (PAGE 148). Reference sheet downloads are available at ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg and will be updated
as needed. The downloadable sheets should be considered to be
the correct ones if you notice any discrepancy between them and the
material in this book. Presented here are some expanded thoughts on
the best way to implement the Moves, and some corner cases that can
come up in play. Since Creative is generally the one with authority over
how the Moves interact, the following notes are addressed to them.
Basic Moves
CHEAP HEAT: Even when the insult or compliment is buried inside
a Promo or an attempt to Work The Audience, it still triggers (this is an
exception to the "one Move at a time" rule).
WORK THE AUDIENCE: The most obvious place to Work The Audience
is when the wrestler is physically in front of a live audience. Work The

Audience is also a great Move to make in the middle of a match, whether
because it naturally fits into the action or because the wrestler wants to
build up more Momentum.
It can be unclear whether something a wrestler says is Working The
Audience or Cutting A Promo. The key difference is that Work The Audience doesnt demand a response or push a feud forward, while Cut A
Promo does. A Botch already turns the audience against the wrestler
(by taking away their ability to use this Move for the Episode), so any
additional Hard Moves should revolve around that.
CUT A PROMO: The trigger uses the phrase take the mic but a promo
doesnt require a literal mic if the context doesnt include it. Cutting a
Promo is one of the most common Moves. It triggers after anything a
wrestler says which demands a response or pushes a feud forward (as
noted above in Work the Audience). If a player is having trouble coming
up with the content of their promo, they can describe the basic points
that the wrestler is trying to get across and the dice result will tell you
whether the audience gets it or not. A Botch on this is generally a good
time to push a NPW over the character, announce legit badness (like
someone backstage turning sour on them), turn the audience on them,
or change your booking on the fly to give them a loss.
FEAT OF STRENGTH: Demonstrating extraordinary strength can involve

props (like bending iron bars or crushing rocks), what the wrestler does
Chapter Six
61
to someone else (like throwing someone across the ring), or action

taken that demands incredible physicality (like a posedown or eating
100 hot dogs). The 79 result of "risk of injury" creates an opportunity for you to follow up with a Hard Move that injures that character
when appropriate. In the ring, if the wrestler is pushing their opponent around just to show off, rather than to move the match along, you
should use this Move instead of rolling +Power for the Wrestling Move.
A Botch injures the wrestler, sometimes presenting a ripe moment for
another Hard Move.
kayfabe? Because part of the fun for a lot the Gimmicks is treading
the line between kayfabe and legit reality, it can be a difficult call to
interpret in the moment; pause and ask, are you Breaking Kayfabe here?
when its unclear. The player should telegraph this as much as possible.
In addition, there are a couple of Moves that demand that a player's
wrestler act in a certain wayif the subject of one of those Moves wants
to refuse that demand, they need to Break Kayfabe to do so.
Finally, Breaking Kayfabe can only work on camera. If the scene takes
place offcamera, theres no kayfabe to break and characters can switch
between wrestling reality and legit concerns freely and without consequences. A Botch on Break Kayfabe should bring down as hard a Move
as you can come up with for that moment.
RUNIN: This is the Im bored Move. It's a legitimate Move to make
for a player who feels like they havent had enough screen time, and
is the best way for a player to get their character into a storyline with
someone they haven't been booked with yet. The storyline reasons for
running in can range from a Heel taking advantage of a Babyfaces
weakened state to get the jump on them to an intentional drawing of
a DQ in order to advance the agenda of the wrestler running in. The
logic behind the set of 79 options is rooted in a wrestling trope that
nonfans may not be familiar with, so here it is:
When Abracadabra and Blockhead are wrestling a standard match with no special
rules and Crusher runs in to attack Abracadabra, Crusher is technically interfering on
Blockheads behalf; Blockhead may be disqualified and Abracadabra wins the match.
If Blockhead is DQed, he may be (understandably) irate that Crusher lost him a match
that he had well in hand. If Crusher runs in on a match that has a noDQ stipulation (like
a Hardcore Match), the match still ends in a no contest, with no winner declared, and
Blockhead is still unfairly denied a victory by Crusher. Thus, a runin often ends with
the wrestler who was not the target of the interference starting a feud with the wrestler
who ran in to disrupt their match.
MAKING
MOVES
BREAK KAYFABE: The key question for this is, are you breaking
Making Moves
62
On a Botch, you may interpret this as something happening to keep the

runin from occurring, or apply a Hard Move after the runin happens.
Role Moves
Both of these Moves are completely within the players control. Often,
when the character is obviously doing something meaningful but none
of the other Moves seem to cover it, it'll fall under this Move. Creative
should prompt players when they seem to be triggering these Moves.
BABYFACE: As mentioned above, the something you believe in

doesnt have to be a particularly positive or honorable thing. But it
should be clear that the wrestler has something they care about more
than breaking the rules. This may include giving up a victory or opportunity to win!
HEEL: Doing something underhanded should be contextual to the
rules and restrictions in play at the time and should generally be clearly
telegraphed by the player. Note that this Move lets you just win a match
by cheating, as long as you have the 2 Momentum to spendyou can
do this before the end of the match is announced, or after (in order
to swerve the booking). If multiple players used the Heel Move to win
a match, apply them in sequence. Sometimes a match result will be
subject to multiple attempts to change it from various characters.
Whether it's appropriate to continue using the Move to cheat out a win
multiple times in one match is up to Creative.
Advanced Role Moves

All three of these Moves (Legend, Icon and Celebrity) enable the character
to dominate the top of the card by giving them more ways to gain Audience than the other characters. They also open up the player to losing
Audience by Botching the Move. Creative should almost always make
a Hard Move in addition to losing the Audience (including doubling up
and losing them -2 Audience, if they deserve it). The consequences for
letting down the audience for a character on that level should be dire!
Top of the Card Moves

OVER: Players make this Move before the Episode starts. Unlike most
of the other Moves, this is a "meta" Move that represents general popularity and doesnt trigger on any particular action. It's just a check of
whether the wrester has +4 Audience or not. The results from this Move
should probably happen first on the show, but the player can save
Chapter Six
63
them and introduce them later. The Botch is an opportunity for you to
try to kill their popularity by putting them against a nobody, but it could
be used to introduce a new, legitimate challenger as well.
CHAMPIONS ADVANTAGE: This applies to anyone defending a cham-
pionship (whether its a literal title or not). If the match in question is a

noDQ match or has some other stipulation that affects the counted
out part, this Move still ends the match in some kind of nocontest.
You work out how exactly the title is kept in these cases.
Details of how to apply the Moves for inring action are contained in
the next chapter, Wrestling (PAGE 64).
As a general note, remember that wrestlers can use nonwrestling
Moves while they're in the ring, but they generally cannot use an in
ring Move when they're not actually wrestling.
What About Backstage?

You'll notice that there are no general Moves that trigger from off
camera interactions. Some Gimmicks have individual Gimmick Moves
that do apply backstage, but in general all segments that aren't in front
of the Imaginary Viewing Audience are conducted through improvisational roleplaying conversation.
What happens when conflict happens backstage? The players
(including Creative) use what they know of their characters to inform
how they interact and decide what the most appropriate resolution
should be. Creative still uses their Moves to guide offcamera segments
in certain ways and enforce consequences for legit actions. Players can
take their grievances or agendas back in front of the audience in order
to get what they want, if they're having trouble talking their way into it.
In the constructed world of professional wrestling, it's what happens
on camera that informs the reality.
MAKING
MOVES
InRing Moves & Stipulations
Wrestling
chapter seven
atches show off your wrestlers inring abilities, advance storylines, and are the basic draw for your audience. The promise of
a good wrestling match is why the audience pays hardearned money
to see your show! This chapter goes over the mechanics of applying
the InRing Moves to a wrestling match. For more about narrating a
match in a productive and entertaining matter, see the Narrating Wrestling Matches section in How To Play A Wrestler (PAGE 53) .
Matches are generally announced and booked ahead of time by
Creative. Some Moves enable players to make matches during an
Episode. Matches can also be created through roleplaying interaction
(though Creative has to sign off on them). Matches can be booked
between players, or between a player and a NPW. Any match between
multiple NPWs is simply narrated in broad strokes by Creative. Play
time should always focus on the player's wrestlers.
The key concept for playing out a match is narrative control, or just
control. During a match, one player at a time has control, so they
narrate the majority of the action between the ropes. Their opponent
helps out, narrating their characters contributions.
The mechanical core of the match is the Wrestling Move, which determines how well the character in control executes their big maneuvers
and key spots. Once a player narrates their exchange, they pick the Stat
(Look, Power, Real or Work) that best fits their wrestlers actions, make
the roll, and chooses the appropriate result from the Wrestling Move (a
full breakdown of the Wrestling Move is on PAGE 66).
Control transitions between players as a result of the dice, players
using the Interrupt Move to jump in and take control for themselves,
or the player with control choosing to hand it off. This backandforth
narration continues until the end of the match is called or triggered,
whereupon Creative reveals their prearranged finish.
Starting The Match

Creative chooses who starts in control based on their sense of narrative appropriateness; often, one player will have done better on a pre
match Cut A Promo or Work The Audience roll, indicating that they should
start it off. If in doubt, whoever has more Momentum starts in control.
If the match is booked with an NPW, the player always starts in control.
65
As the match starts, Creative designates one of the players not in the
match (if any) as the Announcer for the match. Use a prop (like a physical
microphone) or a notecard with Announcer written on it to keep track
of the Announcer. The Announcers job is to call the match as if they
were color commentary at ringside, recapping the action and putting
their own spin on things as the match progresses. The Announcer also
has a very specific ability: they can Put Over the wrestlers whenever
they feel like the action needs a boost.
The Announcer can Put Over each wrestler once per match. To put
a wrestler over, the Announcer recaps something they just did in the
most glowing light; this bumps the wrestlers die roll up to the next
result level, from a Botch (6-) to a partial hit (79), or from a partial hit
to a full hit (10+). The Announcer should generally wait to see what
the player rolls before deciding whether to put them over or not, and
theres often some negotiation on a failed roll between whether the
player wants to spend Momentum or the Announcer should put them
overthis is fine! Just remember that the Announcer can only put over
each wrestler once per match.
Once the Announcer has put over a wrestler, they are free to hand
the mic off to someone else whose character isnt yet present. If there
are no eligible players, the mic just goes back to Creative for now.
Creative can act as the color commentator, but they do not have the
power to put over wrestlers. Other players who aren't participating
in the match can also take on color commentary roles, but until the
Announcer mic is passed to them they can't Put Over anyone either. If
the Announcer's character appears in the scene, the Announcer must
hand off the mic even if they haven't Put Over anyone yet.
Working The Match

Whoever has control narrates their wrestlers moves and prompts their
opponent for their responses. This is a conversation; you should be
talking with your opponent, not simply dictating to them. Just as your
wrestlers work together to entertain the Imaginary Viewing Audience,
you and your fellow players need to work together to entertain everyone at the table.
You should cover a whole range of action with your narration, as
opposed to a single maneuver at a time. These sequences lead up
to a big moment in the match. Generally, you'll make the Wrestling
M ove for these moments, but you can make any other Moves that
WRESTLING
The Announcer
66
Wrestling
are appropriate to your actions (like Work The Audience or a Gimmick
Move that applies to inring action). When you get to your big signature move, thats when you make the Wrestling Move and find out the
consequences.
The Wrestling Move

When you have control of the match, you narrate the transitional sequences, working
with your opponent to fill in the details. When a sequence leads up to a big spot or key
move in the ring, narrate the maneuver and roll:
If you execute a difficult, demanding or dangerous maneuver that showcases your
technical wrestling ability roll +Work
If you put your opponent or yourself at legit risk by using your physical strength,
roll +Power
If you execute a signature move, demonstrate your character through action or
otherwise showcase your Gimmick, roll +Look
If you work with your opponent to execute an amazing and memorable sequence,
roll +Heat
On a 10+ you hit it great, retain control and pick one:
gain +2 Momentum
On a 79 you hit it pretty well, pick one:
retain control and transition into the next sequence
give your opponent control and gain +1 Momentum
On a Botch you get countered. Give 1 Momentum to your opponent, and they
immediately take control of the match (if you have no Momentum, they still gain 1).
You choose which Stat to roll on based on what aspect of your
character you want to showcase with the Move. You may narrate your
wrestlers spot and then pick the Stat, or aim your narration towards a
particular choice from the beginning. Often, a given maneuver could
work for more than one Stat, and different characters will roll different
Stats for the same spot. It's up to you to decide which one you want to
use. When in doubt, play to your strengths! The player with control continues narrating and making Moves until one of the following happens:
The result of a Move demands that you hand off control
Your opponent uses the Interrupt Move to take control
You voluntarily cede control to your opponent
Creative calls for the end of the match
Chapter Seven
67
Sometimes a match will have a stipulation that effects narration or

adds a Move you can make; Creative will let you know when special
stipulations apply and whether they have mechanical effects.
Remember that you can spend Momentum to give yourself bonuses
on your rolls during a match. You also want to build up Momentum
during the match because, if youre booked to win, you might need it
for your Finishing Move.
Ending The Match

a match ends in one of three ways:
Creative declares that the match is coming to a close, based on
their desired pacing for the show.
One of the players declares that their wrestler calls an audible
and wants to end the match early.
When one of these things happens, Creative reveals the booking,
and the player of the character whos booked to win makes their Finishing Move. In the case where a player is booked to lose to an NPW, they
do not make their Finishing Move, they simply get pinned, or whatever
the booking demands. Calling an audible just means that the player
wants to end the match with the prearranged booking. If they want to
change the booking of the match (either before or after it's revealed),
they have to use a Move that allows them to do so.
Working With NPWs

Creative generally plays NPWs in matches. If they prefer, they can
cast another player into the role for the duration of the match instead.
NPWs never make rolls; they simply take up narration when the player
cedes control (by choice or as a result of a roll), looking for opportunities to give it back when appropriate. When an NPW is
booked to win, no Finishing Moves are made.
Those only trigger when a player's character is booked to win a match. If the
player wants to override the booking
and force a win over an NPW, that
generally triggers the B reak K ayfabe
Move (unless the player has another
more appropriate Move).
r
ens up the arm fo
the Armbar softission attempts
later subm
WRESTLING
The players involved run out of Momentum.
Wrestling
68
Working With Each Other

Matches between players have a more backandforth flow, as each
player rolls dice for their Moves, potentially triggering counters. Its still
up to Creative to call the end of the match, either due to a mechanical trigger or their sense of dramatic pacing (as listed on the previous
page). When the finish is revealed, the player with control narrates the
ending sequence for the match, with the booked winner making their
Finishing Move. Control can still be taken and passed around during the
ending sequence, but the player whos booked to win makes their Finishing Move regardless of who has control when the finish occurs. Generally, it makes sense to narrate up to the moment the wrestler goes
for their finisher, then find out the results of the Finishing Move before
narrating the final moment; the results tend to tell you how well it goes
over and whether the opponent has a key role to play in the finish.
The Rewards
Once the end of the match is settled, each player checks to see whether
their wrestler has +4 Heat with any of their opponents. Everyone who
does gains +1 Audience, as the intensity of their issues with their opponent draws the crowd further into the feud. This applies both to wrestlers who started a match at +4, and those who gain Heat during
the match to bring them to +4. Everyone in the match
checks, regardless of who won or what happened to
end the match in the event of a nocontest.
If a wrestler hits +4 Heat with multiple opponents (like in a tag team match), they still only gain
+1 Audience. In the unlikely event that a wrestler
hits +4, loses Heat and then hits +4 again, they
still only gain +1 Audience.
"Opponent" is defined broadly, and applies to
anyone involved in the match on the opposing side from your wrestler. For example, if
your wrestler hits +4 with their opponents
manager (who was present at ringside) you
still gain the +1 Audience even though the
manager didn't get in the ring.
If a wrestler would gain Heat and they're
already at +4, nothing happens, they simply
remain at +4 Heat.
the Powerbomb is easy to customize for a
single wrestler, or as a tandem tag maneuver
Chapter Seven
69
In a tag team match, players have access to the Tag Team Moves.
These Moves give options for building Momentum and passing control
between teammates. Tag matches can be a little more complicated to
keep straight because theres more wrestlers involved. However, its
still one continuous backandforth conversation, just with more participants. The booking for a tag match may be for specific wrestler to win,
or just for one of the teams. In the latter case, the legal wrestler when
the end of the match is called is the one who makes their Finishing Move.
To use the Tag Team Moves (Hot Tag and Tag Turn) appropriately,
you do need to keep track of the legal wrestler for each team. In a standard tag team match, the wrestler in the ring is the legal wrestler. They
need to make a tag to their partner in their corner to switch out with
them, whereupon their partner becomes the legal wrestler (or their
partner can tag themselves in if they have a chance). Only the legal
wrestler can get the pinfall or submission victory in a tag team match.
Any match with more than two participants (Triple Threat, Fatal Four
Way, etc) follows the same basic logiceach wrestler has narration until
they lose it, have to pass it on, or get interrupted. Creative still calls the
end of the match and will let you know whos booked to win. In the
case of multiple NPWs being involved, Creative should narrate their
business together, keeping the main spotlight on the player's wrestlers.
Making a Dedicated Tag Team

Making and breaking tag teams is Creative and storyline dependent.
When two players are in an ad hoc tag team, they can still have singles
matches and they retain their individual Gimmick identities. If two
players want to take their tag relationship to the next level, they can
commit their characters to being a Dedicated Tag Team.
To Make a Dedicated Tag Team:

Each player must spend an Advance (on the Form a Dedicated Tag
Team advancement option). This should be accompanied by a vignette
or oncamera moment where the characters make the moment happen
in front of the Imaginary Viewing Audience.
when two wrestlers are in a dedicated tag team:

Come up with a tandem tag finisher. Whenever the team is
booked to win a match, the legal man can use either characters
Finishing Move when they perform the tandem finisher.
WRESTLING
Tags and MultiWrestler Matches
Wrestling
70
During a match, each partner can spend their Momentum to

give bonuses to the other's rolls, in addition to their own.
Both partners must be the same Role (Babyface, Heel or any
combination of Advanced Roles).
a dedicated tag team is dissolved when:

One of the partners makes a Role turn (Face Turn, Heel Turn or
leaves and comes back in an Advanced Role).
If either partner hits 0 Heat with the other.
Dedicated tag teams still abide by Creative's booking decisions and
use the Tag Team Moves as usual.
Other Stipulations
Many stipulations are simply dramacreating devices to add additional
obstacles for wrestlers to overcome. For example, a cage match is
more interesting because of the lack of a way to escape the ring, while
a 2outof3falls match creates drama through the pursuit of the multiple falls (for more about how limits enhance matches, see PAGE 81).
If a match stipulation doesn't fundamentally change the core back
andforth nature of a match, it probably doesn't need a special Stipulation Move. However, if the stipulation presents a greater risk of physical
harm or relies heavily on chaotic interactions (or both), you should consider using or creating one.
Some Stipulation Moves are already included on the Moves Sheet,
including Hardcore/Violence, the Regal Wrangle (a timedaddition over
thetoprope battle royal), and the King of the Hill elimination match.
See Chapter Ten: Building Your Promotion (PAGE 86) for guidelines
on making new Custom Moves for your special stipulation matches.
A Word of Advice
Before making a new Stipulation Move, think about whether the style of the match is
already covered by existing Stipulations. One reason that there arent many Stipulations presented here is that the Hardcore Stipulation already covers, in effect, most of
the outcomes of any match involving objects or violence. A Ladder Match, a Street Fight,
and a No Holds Barred match all present the same potential outcomes of extra Audience if you do well, injuries and drastic drops in Audience if you do poorly. That said, if
the circumstances of your game demand a different take on the core Stipulations, have
fun coming up with new twists on the formula!
Continuing a Season
chapter eight
ou're Creative. Youve constructed a roster of entertaining wrestlers, played out a couple of matches, had some backstage segments, and kicked off the first stage of some storylines. Now what?
General Structure
Each Episode of play follows the same basic format: establish some
matches, bracket them with other segments, take the results of each
segment, and use them to inform everyone what happens next (always
with an eye towards entertaining the Imaginary Viewing Audience).
a nonexhaustive list of segments:

Interviews (pretaped or live interview with a wrestler).
Promos (pretaped or live opportunity for a wrestler to cut a
promo, inring or backstage).
Backstage Fallout (what happens immediately after a match).
Behind The Curtain (reallife fallout from kayfabe events).
Commercial Break (generally just a passing mention to establish a break between one sequence of Segments and the next,
though you could also run an offcamera, reallife interaction
that happens during the break).
Preshow/Postshow (establish and wrapup offcamera, reallife
interactions).
As with the first Episode, you book each Episode ahead of time and
choose the segments to use to fill out the show.
If a player wants a specific segment and it makes narrative sense,
you should take their request into account and slot it into what you
already have planned. If a player wants to force a segment by interrupting someone elses promo, runningin to a match in progress, or
tracking down the General Manager backstage to discuss a contract,
they simply narrate what their character is doing. This will often trigger
an appropriate Move. Generally, you will always have some playerinitiated segments and matches to work into an Episode once they have
developed their agendas and rivalries.
CONTINUING
A SEASON
Matches (wrestling!).
Continuing A Season
72
One of the most important things for you to do before each session
is to come up with your own agenda for play, listing the characters and
setpieces you need in order to pursue them. Your main tool for this is
putting things On Deck.
On Deck
In between Episodes, you should take some time to think about the
events of play and come up with some exciting, dynamic swerves which
could drive the game onwards. These elements are On Deck, waiting
to be sent out when the action slows or you have a good opportunity
to complicate what the wrestlers
are doing.
Bangs
Below are some guidelines
Putting things On Deck is an implemenfor making wrestlingappropritation of a technique called Bangs, as
ate elements for this game. One
described by Ron Edwards in his 2001
convenient thing to keep in mind
RPG Sorcerer. There, he says, Bangs
is that the things On Deck dont
are those moments when the characters
necessarily need to make sense;
realize they have a problem right now
rather, they are a great place for
and have to get moving to deal with it.
In the 2012 Annotations he says, The
you to place the NPWs and feuds
essence of a Bang is that it may not be
that youve come up with but
ignoredwhen the Bang hits, you have
havent had a chance to surface
no idea where things will go now.
in the course of playerdriven
For this game, this means you should
play yet. After all, the creative
come up with beginnings, not endings;
staff of the promotion always has
complications, not resolutions.
a new character to debut or a
new angle to try out.
For each player, come up with one element On Deck, and spread
them out across the following categories:
A NEW CHALLENGER: The player's wrestlers can be involved in multiple
feuds. Find or create a pretext, and introduce a new challenger for a

wrestler who you feel is getting off easy or doesnt have enough to do.
Debut the challenger in way which demands a responseinterrupting
a match, kidnapping a partner, a parkinglot beatdown, etc.
BETRAYAL: Anytime theres a team or a partnership, think about how
it could get split up. Offer one member something they really want or
insert the influence of a third party. Make the benefits of enacting a
betrayal clear (if youre splitting up two player's wrestlers) or have the
betrayal be sudden and brutal (if you have an NPW to use).
Chapter Eight
73
GIVEN NEW RESPONSIBILITY: This could be oncamera, like a wrestler

being made a special guest referee for a match between two wrestlers they hate, or backstage, like giving the character some booking
responsibility.
GIVEN A NEW VALET OR MENTEE: While wrestlers can gain valets or

other companions of their choice with Advances, you can also arbitrarily assign them one. This works best when the two characters have
a contentious relationship, whether oncamera or backstage, or when
its an obvious setup for some kind of underhanded deal.
ADDED TO A STABLE: Similarly, you can add wrestlers to tag teams or
stables at your whim. Again, creating a stable with characters who have
conflicting agendas or interests creates the most dynamic tension.
OFFCAMERA RELATIONSHIP SURFACES: This can be an oncamera
revelation of an offcamera relationship, or you can introduce a thus

far unacknowledged or unseen offcamera relationship. The wrestlers
in question could be lovers, best friends, unknown children, bitter
enemies, or any other destabilizing relationships you can think of.
reallife issues is in the locker room. This could be entirely offcamera
or put onscreen. When you feel like the players are treating the NPWs
unfairly, this is where you can lay that issue out for all to see.
RUMORS (FOUNDED OR UNFOUNDED): Use an NPW to spread, ask
about, or implicate a wrestler in a rumor. The great thing about rumors

is that theyre wide open to embellishment and can turn out, in the end,
to be as true or as false as play demands. Use rumors to put pressure
on the elements of a wrestlers that their player is most invested in and
see what happens.
OR ANYTHING ELSE: You arent bound by these categories if you have

ideas that dont fit into them cleanly. Theyre an aid, not a straitjacket.
The core idea of an element On Deck is that it's an exciting thing

that demands response from the players, but doesn't telegraph specific endpoints.
Players will take things you thought would make them balk and
embrace them; they'll also take something you thought wasn't that big
of a deal and react like it changes their careers. Come up with cool stuff
you want to see in play; introduce it at opportune moments with as
much description as you can. Just be ready to change your mind about
what you thought would happen.
CONTINUING
A SEASON
LOCKER ROOM CONFRONTATION: One of the basic places to settle
Continuing A Season
74
Ordering The Card

Once you finish the first Episode, you'll have many potential feuds and
storylines that need your cultivation to grow into the operatic clashes
that the best wrestling can be. The ideas you have On Deck are helpful
for keeping things interesting and varied, and should generally be
used to add drama to the playerdriven storylines which arise in play.
Between Episodes, make some notes on the feuds that are still
ongoing from the previous Episode and decide which segments and
matches will further them. Rank the storylines in order of each wrestlers current Audience. If multiple wrestlers are involved, add their
ratings together to get their overall score. This determines the order of
the cardthe hottest stuff should go on last and the lowestrated first.
Book the winners of the matches according to your sense of drama and
what you think will make the most satisfying longterm story. If in doubt,
Babyfaces tend to gain more sympathy when theyre chasing victory,
while Heels will use an early win against them as fuel for longerterm
grudges. Because the players can (and will) override your booking,
you shouldnt plan too far ahead, Just think about what the result of the
next match is going to mean and book with that in mind.
When to end a storyline? Well, gaining a championship is a good
natural ending point. Its also natural to use it as the launching pad for
a different storyline involving the same wrestlers. Use your judgment,
while also letting the actions of the players guide you.
For the purposes of this game, any feud that sees the same match
more than three times in a row is probably in need of changing up,
either by adding another dimension to the storyline or by capping it
off with a major blowoff match. Whenever your booking is overruled or
made irrelevant, use it as an opportunity to revise the storyline. Finally,
if the player loses interest in the feud and starts agitating (or forcing)
other ideas, you should run with those. Play is a conversation between
all of you at the table, and your job is to mix it all together for maximum
entertainment value.
Booking Matches
Each wrestling match has a different story to tell. Some are quick affairs
to showcase a new character or demonstrate a monster's dominance.
Some are key to a single storyline, but otherwise not relevant to the
overall Episode. Some are filler between the highlights of the show. And
some are the big deal, ultimate clash, stuffoflegends confrontations.
Chapter Eight
75
to book a match, you decide:

The participants (a player's wrestler vs NPW, player vs player, or
multiple wrestlers. NPW vs NPW matches are always simply narrated by Creative, if you need to cover them at all in play).
The kind of match (standard singles match, multiple falls, time
limit, etc).
The stakes of the match (a belt, a mask, hair, a contract, etc).
Any stipulation for the match (cage match, falls count anywhere,
lumberjack, etc). If you have an idea for a Stipulation Move, this
is where to start thinking about it.
The winner (who do you want to see win in order to create the
most compelling storyline).
A clean finish is a pin or submission in the middle of the ring,

no funny business. Clean finishes generally demonstrate that the
winner is the superior wrestler and are the best way to declare a
feud settled once and for all.
Victory can comes about through the intervention of another
wrestler. This can be the result of the RunIn Move, or you can
book some kind of interference into the match finish in order to
add another wrestler into a feud.
The winner can cheat to win in a manner apparent to the audience, but not the referee (foot on the rope, hand on the tights,
concealed foreign object, whatever). Heels should cheat more
than babyfaces, but sometimes a babyface victory via the same
underhanded tactics used against them in the past is satisfying.
Heels can use their Heel Move to gain a cheating victory regardless of your booking.
A disqualification means that the loser cheats, but is caught
by the referee, resulting in a disqualification. This could be for
breaking a rule (no weapons, no strikes to the head, etc) or
because of outside interference that the ref sees.
CONTINUING
A SEASON
While the feuds in your game can sprawl across many segments,
Episodes, or a whole Season, they should ultimately be settled in the
ring. Here are some basic finishes for matches that you can book,
depending on how you want to encourage a storyline to develop or
complicate what's going on between the wrestlers.
76
Continuing A Season
A countout means that the loser stays outside of the ring, or is
unable to rise, for a certain count of time (usually 10, sometimes
20). Titleholders can use the Champion's Advantage Move to get
intentionally counted out but retain their championship (as titles
generally do not change hands on a countout).
No contest means that the neither wrestler is able to continue
the match. This could be a double countout, the two knocking
each other out, or another wrestler taking them both out. This
generally leads to a rematch.
A dusty finish is when one wrestler is declared the winner, followed by the referee reversing the decision due to a technicality
(another ref or wrestler shows them that a foot was on the rope,
the original ref was knocked out, a second ref makes the 3 count,
and then the original ref revives and reverses the decision, etc).
This finish is traditionally used to allow a babyface to win a championship, but then immediately hand it back due to the second
ruling, and almost always leads to a rematch.
A shmoz occurs when a bunch of wrestlers rush the ring and the
whole thing devolves into a brawl, with no winner declared.
There are plenty of other finishes, with their own unique details and
variations. Book the finish you think provides the most drama for any
given match, and be ready to change it on the fly if need be.
The winner of a match rolls for their Finishing Move, even if their
victory is due to outside interference or the like. For matches that end
in no contests or a shmoz with no clear winner, nobody should roll for
their Finishing Move.
Gaining New Audience

Just as individual wrestlers gain Advances, thereby increasing their
abilities and evolving their characters, your promotion as a whole relies
on the popularity generated by it's stars. At the top of each Episode,
check to see whether your company has gained new viewers.
Simply add together the Audience scores of the player's wrestlers, and compare that number to (number of players x 3). If the total
Audience is equal to or greater than that number, you've gained new
viewing audience! All wrestlers reset their Audience score to the start
and reset to rating indicated by their Gimmick. This represents the fact
that, with these new viewers, they now have to win over new people
Chapter Eight
and prove themselves again to
fresh eyes.
If you have fluctuating player
attendance, perform this check
in relation to just the wrestlers playing in that Episode;
if attendance does grow, any
wrestler whos not present for
that Episode still resets their
Audience value at their next
appearance.
77
Gaining Audience
# of Players
Total Audience To Grow
6+
9+
12+
15+
18+
21+
24+
NPW Audience
Ending The Season

There's no hard rule for how long your Season should take. You can
start a Season with a specific number of Episodes in mind, booking
towards that plan, or you can just play until the group feels like they've
told all the wrestling stories they want to tell. Generally, an organic
ending point for an openended Season will come about when the
wrestlers gain Advanced Roles or are fired, finish up their main storylines, or gain the major Championships in your promotion.
Multiple Seasons
You've completed a Season of play and you want to start another one.
That's great! Players can continue playing their wrestlers from an earlier
Season or use the opportunity to start fresh with new characters. At
the beginning of your first Episode, erase all Heat from the previous
Season and do the first Episode Heat setting process with all the characters together (some answers may refer to the events of the previous
Season). Any continuing characters start the new Season at their "start
and reset to" Audience value.
CONTINUING
A SEASON
NPWs can have an Audience score, though they never make Moves.
However, players can "target" NPW rivals with Move results that raise
or lower Audience. When this happens to a NPW with no current score,
give them +1 (a minor or background character), +2 (a regular on the
show) or +3 (a current titleholder or otherwise a big deal). NPW Audience does not factor into the gaining new audience calculation, but
they should be factored in when ordering the card, if present.
How To Be Creative
chapter nine
he preceding chapter went over the tools at your disposal. This

chapter addresses how, why, and when to use them. Everything you
do in play as Creative boils down to making a Move, guided by your
Principles, and in service to your Agendas.
First, Your Agendas

These are all of the things you are trying to achieve through your
choices of storylines, your booking, your arrangement of segments,
and your portrayal of NPWs both in and out of the ring.
CHALLENGE, AND CELEBRATE, THE WRESTLERS: No champion reigns
unchallenged. No insult is left unanswered. No friendship is left

untested. Nobody gets a free ride in World Wide Wrestling.
MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU HAD IT PLANNED THAT WAY ALL ALONG: This
is the key to engaging wrestling storylines. The players have agency

and the ability to change what you had planned. Your job is to take
their swerves and pull the storylines back together in order to create
overarching coherent narratives.
ENTERTAIN THE IMAGINARY VIEWING AUDIENCE: This is whos judging
your storylines. These are the people who will turn off the TV if they
dont see narrative resolution. If it wouldnt make sense to them, use
the tools at your disposal to make it make sense. And of course, at the
end of the day, you and your friends playing the game are your own
imaginary audience.
Each decision you make, from booking to the order of segments to
which NPW to introduce should be accordance with at least one of
your Agendas, preferably all three.
Next, Your Principles

These are your guideposts. You use them to direct you in making decisions and to inform what you should be saying and describing during
any given segment. If you dont know how to say something or need to
make a decision about why something happened, take a look at your
principles and pick one (or a combination).
Be a fan of the wrestlers. The wrestlers are who you're all here to
see. Challenge them, in the service of seeing them get better.
Chapter Nine
79
Explain the audience reaction. The audience gives feedback to

the wrestlers. Explain why they cheer, what they're reacting to,
and why what falls flat doesn't connect with them.
Describe every gimmick evocatively. The production budget of
your imagination is unlimited. Use it.
Describe everything as larger than life. You are working together
to make modern day myths.
Make the world seem constructed, but frail. The seams and cracks
between the kayfabe and the legit could break down at any time,
if the wrestlers don't work to continually maintain the facade.
Make your Move, but never speak it's name. Your Moves are
actions, not pronouncements. Describe why and how, but keep
the curtain closed on what, exactly.
Speak through your NPWs. The other characters are your mouthpieces. Use them as megaphones or as chorus, as needed.
Use a realworld cause for a kayfabe effect. Backstage politics
and relationships should push booking decisions, often unfairly.
Use a kayfabe cause for a realworld effect. What happens in the
ring spills into the wrestlers real lives, for both good and ill.
Book for maximum drama. Go big or go home.
Finally, Your Moves

Your Moves, unlike player's Moves, aren't resolved by dice. Rather,
they are specific things you say at any given time, informed by your
Principles and in service to your Agendas. Some of your Moves are
Soft Moves; you make them whenever the players look at you expectantly for what's coming next. The other Moves are Hard Moves; you
make them whenever a player Botches (rolls 6 or less) or when the
progression of the game demands that one be made. The difference
between Soft Moves and Hard Moves is that Soft Moves are directed
at the wrestling personae in question, while Hard Moves impact the
realworld person behind the Gimmick.
The Imaginary Viewing Audience almost always sees Soft Moves,
but almost never sees Hard Moves.
BEING
CREATIVE
Think offscreen, always. Prep your elements On Deck, set up

ways to bring them in and think about what's happening backstage that explains what you're describing on camera.
How To Be Creative
80
Soft Moves
Put a microphone in their face (a scheduled interview, an interruption, a request for an opinion, an accusation of wrongdoing).
Take the next step for a storyline (as your dramatic sense dictates).
Book them in a match (challenged by an inferior, scheduled by
management, showcase a weakness or a strength).
Bring in something On Deck (prep this in between sessions).
Put something they value at risk (a championship, a partner, a
friend, a mask).
Announce kayfabe badness (a bad guy is underhanded, a good
guy makes a mistake, management punishes someone).
Give them a difficult decision to make (a choice between two
things they want to keep or save).
Swerve the storyline (as circumstances dictate).
Create backstage intrigue (a plot, a betrayal, an affair, a poor
decision, a rumor, a mistake).
Hard Moves
Turn the audience on them (they lose -1 Audience).
Turn a wrestler on them (they lose -1 Heat with the character).
Announce legit badness (someone is injured, someone is in
trouble, someone has disappeared, something important is
broken, something important is missing).
Give them a nowin situation (a choice between their career and
their integrity).
Hire or fire someone important (hire someone they hate, fire
someone they love).
Push an NPW ahead of them (because of their failure).
Steal their victory (preferably via their worst enemy).
During a wrestling match, players are already giving up narration and/or losing
mechanical resources when they Botch a roll. You should be selective about adding on
an additional Hard Move, and wait for particularly appropriate circumstances.
Chapter Nine
81
Your Agendas, Principles and Moves are the framework to help you
keep focused. Everything you say during the game should be productive from the perspective of giving the wrestlers an entertaining world,
within which they get to show off and perform.
The rest of this chapter concerns structural advice for how to make
an engaging wrestling universe for you and your friends.
Creating Drama in Wrestling

The dramatic content of a wrestling storyline grows out of two things:
the stakes of the feud and the limits within which the wrestlers work.
Every match has a default setting along both axes: the stakes are to
win the match, while the limits are those imposed by the rules of the
promotion, as well as the physical limits of each wrestler. If every match
has the same stakes and limits, however, the overall experience of the
show becomes a blur. This is why the concepts of feuds and match
stipulations are so important to World Wide Wrestling; feuds raise and
change the stakes of a given match, while stipulations change the limits
of the wrestlers performance.
Stakes can be raised by the wrestlers communicating their storyline
investment to the audience, by rewards provided by Creative, or both.
Some examples of the first: say a wrestler cuts a promo about how,
no matter what, he refuses to tap out to the opponent whos already
tapped him out in two previous matches. In the ring, every time his
opponent goes for a submission hold he has a real reason to avoid
it or reverse it, perhaps by going to new lengths and debuting some
aspects of his character that the audience hasnt seen before! Or say
a tag team implodes and the betrayer cuts a promo on her former
partner, saying that its her weakness that was holding the team back
the whole time. Now the two of them each have something at stake:
the betrayer wants to prove her superiority, while the betrayed wants to
show that it was the callowness of the villain that was the real problem.
Simple and oftrepeated storylines, perhaps, but in this game you
should start with the simple and obvious. The players will provide their
own unique spin on it. As Creative, you can encourage their investment
by staging interview segments that specifically ask the player to explain
themselves. You should also create vignettes where you cast an NPW
as the voice of the inquisitive audience, prodding the wrestler to give
some exposition about their feelings or agenda in an ongoing feud.
BEING
CREATIVE
Stakes
How To Be Creative
82
The other thing you should do as Creative is provide rewards. The

most basic example of this is the Number One Contendership Match
not only does the winner prove that they're the better competitor,
theyre next in line for a shot at the title! Not all rewards need to be
in pursuit of a title, however. An oldschool style promotion might
make the purse frontandcenter in every match, announcing how
much actual money is at stake for the winner. You could structure a
roundrobin tournament with rolling points scores, so any given match
becomes rife with questions like if you win, you advance but if I win or
we draw we both advance, opening the door to strategic dealcutting
or matchthrowing. Rewards should be thematically appropriate for
your promotion, and they can be a great way to add meaning to a
oneoff match or spice up a feud.
Limits
Limits are the rules of the match, especially in a game where youre
free from budgets and production concerns. The rules governing the
match are important, not because of what they specifically allow or
forbid but because of the audience expectations they set. In a standard
wrestling match, the limits include: the match ends with a pinfall (the
losers shoulders are held to the mat for a count of three) or submission
(the loser taps out to their opponent); all action must occur inside the
ring; certain dangerous holds and moves are disallowed; and use of
foreign objects or outside interference will get
you disqualified.
Because of the rules in a normal
match, the audience is prepared for
the heel to skirt the letter of the rules
(applying an illegal hold as long as
possible without getting disqualified, for example). If the action spills
to the outside, we know that the competitors are more interested in hurting
each other than winning the match.
The limits set the expectations for the
match, allowing for more vibrant
storytelling.
As the limits change, so do the
expectations. In a No Disqualifierally illegal outChair Shots are gen
other nodisand
re
dco
cation Match, we expect to see
har
of
e
sid
es
qualification match
Chapter Nine
83
chair shots, chokeholds, and (depending on the style of promotion)

blood and violence. In a cage match, we expect to see the wrestlers
add climbing the cage to their strategy, but only after pummeling
each other first. Its by buying into and sometimes subverting these
expectations that matches draw the audience in. Use stipulations and
other changes to the rules to emphasize important matches, introduce
new characters, or just change up how matches are narrated in order
to keep your Season fresh.
Of course, all of the stakes and limits in the world wont keep the audiences attention if theyre not in the context of an engaging story. I
heard a great summation of what makes for good wrestling stories on
the Straight Shoot podcast (aubreysitterson.com): a wrestling story is
either about money, family or dignity. And heres the most fundamental
storyline guideline, as oft said by legendary announcer Jim Ross: wrestling is personal conflict, settled in the ring.
Often, your first Episode wont feel that personal. Thats fine! Just like
a new audience, you and your friends are all meeting these wrestling
characters for the first time, and it usually takes a little time for things
to click. Use the basic motivations (to win a match, to get revenge for
a slight, to show youre better or stronger) and then, as the players
get into their wrestlers and have more interactions, pay attention to
those three things. When is money an issue? When does someone
get aggressive towards another's family? When is someones dignity
threatened? You can manufacture those moments yourself through
adversarial NPWs, but your players will also create them. When they
do, grab it and run with it. The more personal to the character, the more
investment the player has in contributing to the feud, and the more
creativity they pour into their own agenda.
Create personal conflict, and then bring it to the ring to be settled.
That's professional wrestling.
BEING
CREATIVE
Personal Stories
chapter ten
hether you start your game with an entire roster and style planned
out or you let the events of play determine the wrestlers world,
in this game you build the kind of professional wrestling promotion
you've always wanted to see.
Promotions
The default promotion style for World Wide Wrestling is that of a
modern, televised weekly show, but the rules are relatively agnostic as
to the details of your promotion. As long as there's an audience, you
can play a game as a glorified backyard fed, an oldschool territory, a
stationary indy promotion, or any particular combination of these you
want. Does your show travel from city to city or does it have a single
home arena? Does it have payperview supercards every month, a
couple times a year, or not at all? Are there different weight classes,
gender splits, or other roster divisions? What signature match styles
or kinds of wrestling does it privilege over others? You can make all of
those decisions in play, have one player map them out ahead of time,
or have a discussion at the beginning of the first Episode about them.
No matter the choices, you should use this game to reflect the kind of
wrestling you enjoy the most!
One structural element should be kept consistent in order for the
progression of the wrestling characters to make sense; the player's
wrestlers should generally start out in middle of the pack, so that they
can move up or down the card as they develop.
Championship Belts
The kayfabe goal of every wrestler is to be the champion. Your game
should start with NPWs holding title belts. Wrestlers generally have to
earn #1 Contender status, then win the belt in a match set up through
the events of play. Come up with compelling names and meanings for
your titlesis it a classic World Championship Title or is it the Heavyweight Master of Wrestling Championship? Is it the Americas Belt
or the Cup of Champions? Womens Championship or Lady Lucha
Campeona? The belts and championships flavor your World Wide
Wrestling promotion.
The Card
Most wrestling promotions have multiple belts, at least two for singles
competition and one for tag teams (and one for each gender, if theres
a gender split for competition in your promotion). The two singles belts
correspond to the lower and upper cards. "The card" refers to old
school schedule cards, where the main event was listed at the top of
the bill, and the matches were ranked under it in essentially descending order of how famous, experienced, or important the wrestlers were.
Today, the notion of lower and upper is much more amorphous.
A division certainly exists between newer, less experienced, and
less popular wrestlers, and older, more established, fan favorite, and
betteratwrestling performers. It's a division enforced more by overall
booking, rather than specific matches on a single show.
Starting characters are on the lower midcard. This is so the wrestlers
have somewhere to grow as they gain more Audience, Advances, and
accolades. When a wrestler hits +4 Audience, they get an Advancethis
represents the idea that the Audience regards them as more important
and deserving of a higher spot on the card. If a wrestler keeps hovering in the +1 to +2 Audience area, theyre still considered midcard. If
their Audience hits 0, of course, the Imaginary Viewing Audience just
isnt interested in seeing them at all. The Advance earned for hitting 0
represents the wrestler's last chance to improve.
World Wide Wrestling: The Promotion

Here's what I tend to have in my games of World Wide Wrestling:
The promotion is called World Wide Wrestling, and travels around the country to
small collegesports arenas and event spaces.
It's a mixed roster with no gender division. Every wrestler is eligible to compete
for every belt.
The PanOceanic World Wide Wrestling Championship (POW Title) is the top of
the card championship. The Regional Athletic Division (RAD Title) is the midcard
championship, often carried by more technical wrestlers. There's also the WWW
Tag Team Championship and the Journeyman's Cup, a trophy awarded in an
annual tournament to a promising young wrestler.
There's a General Manager, but past that most of the onscreen characters are
wrestlers, interviewers or commentators.
Those are the basics. I improvise details in play depending on what the group I'm
playing with is interested in.
For a link to a series of Actual Play videos featuring World Wide Wrestling as a promotion, visit ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg.
YOUR
PROMOTION
85
86
The card, in these terms, is infinitely divisible. While players mechanically mark an Advance when you hit +4 or 0 Audience, fictionally, it
means the audience has promoted or demoted the characters overall
standing in their collective eyes.
Being at a certain place on the card has no mechanical weight, but
the idea that theres always somewhere to go in the characters career
is an important one. Keeping the card metaphor in mind should help
support that progress.
Creating Custom Moves

You should make custom Moves to cover aspects of wrestling that you
don't see represented in these rules. The most common custom Moves
represent specific match stipulations and playerrequested ones from
the Create a Custom Move Advancement option. But you can make
custom Moves for anything you want, if you want to give more structure
to something you're missing in the basic game.
Moves have two basic components, a fictional trigger and an array
of possible results. To create a custom Move, the most important thing
is to specify the trigger. What's the fictional circumstance with a non
predictable result, or that demands a specific array of outcomes? Some
Moves don't need a specific trigger (for example, the Over Move just
looks at the Audience score, an abstract metric), but you probably have
a mental image already if you're thinking about a custom Move.
Once you've put that into words, think about what the outcomes
from that trigger should be. This game has a relatively rigid rules structure for Move outcomes, and they're mostly a combination of these
basic ingredients:
on a 10+
Gain +2 Momentum
Gain +1 Heat with someone
Gain +1 Audience
Book a specific segment, including a match
Get something you want with no cost or drawback
Create an advantageous fictional position for yourself
Injure someone
Pick 2 options from a list shared by 79 results
on a 79
Gain +1 Momentum
Gain +1 Heat with someone
Add or remove a stipulation to a match
Get something you want at a cost or drawback
Create a beneficial fictional position for yourself that's vulnerable to disruption
Put someone at the risk of injury
Pick 1 option from a list shared by 10+ results
on a Botch
Lose -1 Audience
Lose -1 Heat with someone
Face negative, legit repercussions for your actions
Take an injury
Custom Moves should be focused narrowly on the specific wrestling moment you want to emulate, and the outcomes should be the
typical kinds of fallout you would expect to see in a wrestling show
from that moment happening. Focus on the fictional outcomes first.
Then add one or two mechanical outcomes alongside them in order
to bring the Move into line with the General or Gimmick Moves that it
seems to be most closely aligned with.
Example: Creating a Custom Move

Eric spends an Advance on making a custom Move for Mammoth Marco that represents
the Monster's signature habit of noselling his opponents offence in the ring. So far,
he's just rolled +Power for the Wrestling Move, but he wants it to be a bigger deal
for Marco. After discussing it with Nathan they come up with:
Mammoth Mountain: When you take everything your opponent can dish out in the
ring, roll +Power. On a 10+ you stand impervious, take or retain control of the match
and gain +1 Heat with your opponent. On a 79 you stand strong, gain +1 Momentum
and choose: take control of the match, or they take control of the match and you both
gain +1 Momentum. On a Botch, you can't take it this time. You lose -1 Heat with them,
give them 1 Momentum and they take control of the match.
This is modeled on the Wrestling Move but with the twist of potentially gaining
Marco lots of Momentum just for standing still, but could lose him credibility with the
audience (represented by losing Heat) if his opponent can take him off his feet.
87
YOUR
PROMOTION
Chapter Ten
88

Not every custom Move needs to be an entirely original composition. Here are some ways to think about making custom Moves without
having to build the entire thing from scratch:
Substitution Moves, allowing the character to roll one Stat
instead of another when they perform a specific action (the Jobber's Sympathetic lets them roll +Work instead of +Audience when
they Work the Audience).
Enhancement Moves, which trigger off of a certain roll or fictional achievement in order to demonstrate how much better
the character is at a specific thing than other wrestlers (the High
Flyer's Human Highlight Reel gives them a +1 Audience when they
hit a top rope maneuver with a 10+).
Conditional Moves, which always result in a certain effect when
they're triggered (the Veteran's Veteran Instincts grants them an
automatic +1 Momentum whenever they start a match).
Custom Moves should always be up for revision in play. Check in
with the player after they've used it a couple times to see if it's giving
them the feeling they were going for; be ready to make modifications
if the Move needs some adjustment after it hits the table.
You can also make custom Moves covering how audiences interact
with the wrestlers, how your promotion is structured, certain styles of
wrestling, and any other features you want to give mechanical weight
to in your game. For examples of some Promotions with custom Moves,
see the Season One Promotions starting on PAGE 119.
Creating New Gimmicks

The basic 10 Gimmicks cover a broad range of wrestlers and styles,
but wrestling contains multitudes. If the existing Gimmicks don't cover
the exact wrestler archetype you'd like to play, you should make your
own! Making new Gimmicks is a great way to translate what excites you
about wrestling into playable form.
Use an existing Gimmick that's close to what you have in mind as a
template. There are a couple of constants across all Gimmicks, so that
they interact on the same mechanical level and are compatible to play
across all games of World Wide Wrestling:
Basic Stat distribution: When you add all their Stats together,
they should total -1 across the four Stats (usually -2, -1, 0, +1 and
add 1 to one Stat).
For Gimmicks that represent a narrow specialization (The

Manager, The Clown*) or elite levels of experience (The
Veteran, The Giant*): Total of 0 across the four Stats.
To make a more playercustomizable set of Stats, add 1 to the
basic distributions, and then the player adds +1 to one Stat and
subtracts -1 from one Stat.
Four Heat questions, two that imply a positive or helpful relationship, and two that imply a contentious or difficult relationship.
Start and reset to at either +1 (regular) or +2 (fanfavorite)
Audience.
57 total Move options. Every Gimmick needs a the Finishing Move
(or equivalent, like The Manager and The Wasted) by default. If
they only have the Finishing Move then they get to pick two of the
other Moves to start; if they start with 2 default Moves, then they
pick one other Move to start play.
One of the discretionary Moves should be based on +Real.
No more than two of their Moves should be based on their
default highest Stat.
Three Injury boxes, and Injury should have both a minor advantage and a thematic drawback that's in effect while injured.
The real art of the Gimmick comes in writing their Moves. Use the
existing Moves and the guidelines above to guide your creation, but
always keep in mind what specific situations you see that character in,
and what you want to see happen in the game as a result of those
situations.
Please share your custom Gimmicks! Visit ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg
for links to the World Wide Wrestling discussion community to share
what you're working on and get feedback.
* Limited edition Season One Gimmicks: The Athlete, The Clown, The Gatekeeper, The
Giant and The Provocateur. Check the ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg for availability.
89
YOUR
PROMOTION
Chapter Ten
How Wrestling Works
essay one
rofessional wrestling is equal parts performance art, athletic competition, and scripted drama. Its origins lie in traveling carnivals
and circus performance (the performance art part), GrecoRoman
amateur wrestling (athletic competition), and parting fools from their
money (the scripted part). Theres a deep and fascinating history to the
development of professional wrestling, but Im going to focus on the
story that starts in the late 1970s, where the trends that leads directly
to todays product starts. Im also going to primarily focus on wrestling in the United States. Professional wrestling, along with the blues
and comic books, can arguably
be called one of Americas truly
There are equally fascinating histories to
the development of lucha libre in Mexico,
original art forms.
puroresu and puroresu joshi in Japan,
In the 1970s, the USA was
and the parallel growth of professional
still divided into the territories.
wrestling in the United Kingdom and
Regional wrestling promoters
continental Europe. Despite the unique
had control over geographic
cultural resonances and stylistic differareas, which meant that they
ences, however, most of modern wresarranged the shows, booked the
tling had developed from the historical
trends considered here.
talent, promoted events to get
audience in the door, and generally ran their area how they saw fit. The organization that a promoter
created is what the term promotion refers to, with multiple promotions sometimes banding together into a federation. Some promotions had a home arena where they hosted shows on a regular basis,
while others traveled from city to city in their area, acting as a special
attraction.
In both cases, the promoters needed two things to get people in
the door: a big name that people would pay to come to see and the
promise that they would see something special. However, there were
This history is drawn from multiple sources and general genre osmosis, but the single
clearest summary of early wrestling history I've read is in David Shoemakers The
Squared Circle: Life and Death in Professional Wrestling. For more about the mythological appeal of "the spectacle of excess," look up Roland Barthes' classic essay The
World Of Wrestling.
only so many wrestlers in a territory and not all of them could be on

every show. Some wrestlers would travel to different territories, so promoters could book special attractions or onenight only appearances.
Others would be local workhorses, providing a basic level of familiarity for the audience. But even more than competitors, the promoters needed something that oneoff events and athletic competitions
didnt: something to happen during the show which would make the
audience want to come back. They needed storylines.
How could the promoters guarantee an exciting show every time?
By fixing the matches. Professional wrestling did had a phase, right at
its inception in the early 20th century, of showcasing legitimate grappling competition. But by the 1920s wrestlers were regularly fixing their
matches to make them more exciting to watch. There may have been
a period of time where this was a true secret, but the public has always
known on some level that they were getting "worked." By the 1960s
newspaper stories would print the results of wrestling shows in terms
that made it clear the reporters knew they werent watching legitimate
competition.
So, professional wrestling is fixed. It has predetermined outcomes,
but many factors could and did confound the plans of the promoters. A
wrestler could noshow, necessitating a change to the match schedule
on the fly. They could take a better offer and jump to another territory,
throwing off a whole years build. They could get injured. Or the promoter could decide they just didnt like a wrestler and drop them from
a program. In addition, wrestlers could and did have personal beef
or heat with each other, doing things like refusing to drop a title to
someone they didnt think deserved it or putting their opponent in a
legitimately damaging hold (shooting or stretching them, also often
used to haze young wrestlers in their first matches).
The promoters would employ bookers (often older wrestlers) to
book their shows in order to pull in audience, but the intrinsic draw of
the show depended on the talent and the feuds. These shows had to
appeal both to new fans who were watching for the first time and to
locals who went to every show. The wrestlers would employ outsized,
easily readable personae, called characters or gimmicks. The evolution of the gimmick started to accelerate in the 1950s, when wrestling
started airing on national television and wrestlers began to package
themselves as TV stars, instead of (or in addition to) athletes. By the
1970s and '80s, legendary wrestlers like Black Jack Mulligan, The
American Dream Dusty Rhodes, Nature Boy Ric Flair, Jesse The
ESSAY:
WRESTLING
91
How Wrestling Works
92
Body Ventura, and Baron Von Raschke all exemplified different kinds
of characters that audiences would recognize regardless of geography.
To make it even easier to follow the action, matches would almost
always be booked between a good guy, the babyface (or just "face"),
and the bad guy, the heel. Audiences read narrative into legitimate
athletic competitions all the time; the insight of professional wrestling
as a performance art was to make the narrative explicit, thus controlling
the audiences reaction to the contest. In almost every match, the babyface is the one the audience identifies with, cheers for, and wants to
see succeed. Conversely, the heel is the one who insults and mocks
the audience, terrorizes the babyface, and makes the audience want to
see get whats coming to them. Of course, only in the broadest strokes
does this apply to every match. Even in the 1980s, audiences would
go crazy for the cowardly, conniving Ric Flair as he cheated his way to
another victory over the good guy challenging him.
The babyface/heel division also went hand in hand with the idea
of outside talent coming in as special attractions. A wrestler might be
a babyface in their own territory, but booked as the heel threatening
the home champion in another promotion. This basic structure made
it easy to debut new wrestlers, develop them through opponents that
the audience already knew, and (in the best cases) become draws for
their personality, not just their role on the card.
Kayfabe
Kayfabe originally referred to the notion that wrestlers would not reveal
the truth about how their sport worked. If two friends were booked
in a feud, they would make sure not to travel together, and go to great
lengths to preserve the idea that they legitimately hated each other.
Kayfabe gradually eroded as the form developed into the 1990s, and
was functionally obliterated with the advent of the Internet. However,
the concept remains valuable in its modern sense of the scripted reality
of the stories being told. Two wrestlers might be kayfabe brothers, presented to the audience as siblings, but theyre in actuality not related.
Kayfabe marriages are storytelling devices, not actual unions of the
performers. Kayfabe injuries are played up with bandages and pained
expressions, but the wrestler can still compete in the ring.
A kayfabe element is also referred to as a work, as in the audience is being worked to believe something that isnt actually true.
The opposite of a work is a shoot (referring back to the act of shooting someone in the ring: actually hurting them). In contemporary pro
Essay
93
InRing Work
Thats a lot about the promoters and the audience, but what about the
wrestlers? The actual wrestling is what powers the whole enterprise.
The main thing to remember is that wrestlers are professionalstheyre
not there to win, to demonstrate that they know more holds, or to gain
accreditation. Those things are all important, but the performers are
primarily pulling a paycheck. Professional wrestlers are very good at
making what they do entertaining without actually hurting each other.
Entertaining matches makes them more popular, which makes them
more attractive to bookers, because more people will pay to see them
wrestle; keeping each other safe means they can keep making those
dates and keep their income streams going. When a wrestler steps in
the ring, their safety is literally in their opponents hands, and vice versa;
stories abound of wrestlers with legitimate hatred for each other who
managed to stay professional and work together between the ropes
without hurting each other.
While the outcome of the match is (generally) decided in advance
by the booker, promoter or owner, how the wrestlers get there tends
to be up to them. The contents of the match can be scripted as well (a
more common process now for mainstream wrestling), but the wrestlers generally improvise their match as they go along, sometimes
with the help of the referee. This is referred to as calling a match,
and generally the more experienced wrestler or the heel is in charge
of callingthats right, the bad guy paces the match. Calling a match
means that they literally call for moves as they go, taking into account
the audience reaction, the story theyre telling in the ring, and other
elements that might come into play.
Each match ideally has its own story which fits into the overall narrative arc of the show or of a feud. The most basic inring story goes
like this: the babyface comes out to challenge the dastardly heel, only
to find that the heel is ready for them. The heel starts inflicting violence
upon the babyface out of proportion to anything done to deserve it.
As the babyface gets more and more beat down, the audience wants
to see them come back more and more; eventually, a breaking point is
ESSAY:
WRESTLING
wrestling, almost everything is a combination of works and shoots, or

at least combines elements of each since its so easy for fans to find
out the real story. Finally, the worked shoot is an instance where a
wrestler breaks the fourth wall and reveals legit information, but this
revelation has been planned out and approved of ahead of time.
94
How Wrestling Works

hit, and the babyface (thanks to the audiences cheers) gains a second
wind, mounts a furious comeback, and gives the heel a welldeserved
comeuppance, resulting in a victory for the hero! Or the villain trips
up their naive opponent, gaining an undeserved win through underhanded tactic, and setting up another match later to really settle things.
This basic story is ripe for subversion, interpretation, and evolution;
the art of wrestling is finding new and novel stories to tell in the ring.
What This Means For You

The basic framework of professional wrestling was set decades ago.
The changes and permutations are either extensions of it or mindful
subversions of it. But this basic framework is the one that Ive used to
build this game. So, in your game of World Wide Wrestling, assume:
The players are on the inside, and theyre performing for the
benefit of the Imaginary Viewing Audience.
Wrestlers are working professionals, and the key to continued
success in their profession is performing well in the ring.
Creative comes up with the storylines that the audience wants to
see and books the shows to create those narratives.
Wrestlers are babyfaces or heels, and most feuds are between
one of each.
The outcomes of matches are predetermined, but what happens
between the start of the match and the agreedupon ending is
up to the wrestlers.
Things happen that change (swerve) Creatives booking all the
time. Creative needs to be ready to improvise with what they get
so the audience doesnt realize the plan changed.
The tension between kayfabe and legit is a productive one that
you can use to enhance stories.
The kayfabe relationships between the wrestlers are the long
term engine of the promotions success; developing and enhancing those is one of the main goals of play.
Like real wrestling, this endeavor is equal parts performance, skill
and script. Youre performing for each other, developing your skills at
using the games rules to achieve what you want for your characters.
Script what you want to see, but be ready to change it; use the tropes,
but plan to subvert them. And above all, enjoy the spectacle!
oleplaying is an unique and infinitely malleable activity. Consider

a spectrum of communal activities that require rules. At one end,
you're playing Monopoly but giving your pieces personalities and
funny voices, or Settlers of Catan and coming up with a narrative about
why your settlements interfere with each others development as you
play. At the other end, you're playing improv theatre gamessay, the
game where someone rings a bell after each of your lines until you
come up with something more entertaining. At each end, youre combining improvisational fictional content with structural rules guiding
how that content develops. At the board game end, the rules are very
strict and your content, while it may be engaging for you, has little
effect on how the game plays out (at most, maybe a player makes a different decision because of it than they otherwise would); at the improv
end, you're coming up with characters with agendas and motivations
on the spot, the interactions of which are the whole point of the activity. The rules simply demand more effort and spur additional creativity
from the performers.
The World Wide Wrestling Roleplaying Game is in the broad
middleground of the spectrum, perhaps a little more towards the
improv end. You create distinct, exciting characters; these characters
have sets of rules that describe and complicate their interactions. Discrete moments arise during the game that demand the rules be consulted and implemented, in order to make the game more exciting and
channel your narrative into the world of professional wrestling.
Like many RPGs, this game has a game master role, called Creative. Creative is a little like the bellringing facilitator in the improv
game. Creatives role is to provide a framework within which the other
players can inhabit their characters and interact in surprising, revealing, and entertaining ways. Creative has specific responsibilities in this
game, like coming up with other wrestlers in the promotion, deciding
on the longterm story lines, booking the shows and matches, describing the audience and the arena, and using the rules to pace the session.
Everyone at the table is there to entertain each other. Its everyones
job to be good listeners, build on the opportunities handed them by
the other players, and offer ways in which their character can enhance
the ongoing story.
ESSAY:
ROLEPLAYING
essay two
96

Logistically, play of this kind of game is often broken into sessions.
The same group of people gets together multiple times over the course
of some weeks or months and plays out a continuing, unbroken narrative. World Wide Wrestling in particular is suitable for singlesession
play (like a board game night) or for a group where you have fluctuating attendance over the course of the sessions. After all, in the real
world, its perfectly normal for wrestlers to only make some appearances and not others. This game calls sessions Episodes; when you
play out a series of linked Episodes, you're playing a whole Season.
During an Episode, play looks like this: pieces of paper are scattered
all over a tableeach players Gimmick sheet (which records all the
information you need to know about that character), reference sheets
(the majority of the rules are summarized on 23 sheets of paper),
some dice (regular 6sided dice), poker chips or some other kind of
token (these are used to track a resource you have called Momentum,
which you gain and spend frequently during play), a microphone (to
hand to the Announcer at any given time), maybe a quick sketch of the
ring to show where wrestlers are during a big match, drinks and snacks,
and maybe a laptop or mobile device with entrance music cued up.
Everyones sitting around the table, where they can see and hear each
other. Creative, or a player who owns the game, should have a copy of
the game rules at hand (in case you need to reference an edge case or
look up a new rule that hasnt come up yet).
The medium of play is conversation. You say what your character
says and does; the other players respond with their own descriptions
and narrations. The rules of the game mediate the conversation. Some
things you say (like I get the audience cheering along with me or I go
for my finishing move or He gets in my face? I stand up and say, very
quietly, Well what are you gonna do about it?) trigger rules called
Moves. This is when you go to the dice, roll them, compare the result to
the Moves description, and then (usually) make a choice between some
possible outcomes. That process changes your characters options and
guides the events of play to places you might not have gone. Thats
the point of rules: pushing your game to places you and your friends
wouldnt think to go on your own.
Different people hold this conversation in different ways. Some
people inhabit their characters like an actor, changing their voice,
acting out what theyre doing (please be careful!), and speaking in
the first person. Some people act more like a writer, narrating their
characters actions from a thirdperson perspective and filling in more
evocative descriptions in their own voice. Its very common to blend

the two, describing your characters action but engaging in dialogue
fully incharacter. Theres no wrong way to participate and each
player should find the way that works best for them.
The words narrative and story comes up a lot in this game text.
While the medium of play is conversation, the output of play is a narrative or story. Not in the sense of a composed, outlined, first this
happens, then that happens, then this storyno, the narrative of a roleplaying game is a messy, zigzaggy trail, composed of inthemoment
decisions and unexpected outcomes that only come into focus after its
finished. In the moment, you say whatever strikes you as most important, entertaining, or helpful to the situation at hand; the rules of the
game will channel your creativity into appropriate developments that
make fun wrestling stories. When youre done, youll say, well, I never
thought that was going to happen.
Its fun! I hope you enjoy it!
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ESSAY:
ROLEPLAYING
Essay
How to Let Wrestling Make

You a Better Roleplayer
epidiah ravachol
Watch a Career Grow From the Beginning

A deluge of backstory awaits any new wrestling fan. A wink and an
allusion will elicit strong responses from a knowing crowd but leave the
neophyte in the dark. Ask a simple question about a wrestlers motivation and you can be subjected to hours of recounted matches and
feuds. The very names of the more storied wrestlers and their signature
moves are vestigial remnants of histories no longer evident. The whole
tangled knot of it can seem impossibly complex to a newcomer.
But their origins are unambiguous. They start with one simple,
obvious hook to clue the audience in to exactly where their motivation
lies. So we know precisely why the wrestler would subject themselves
to the brutality of the ring. And we understand just what is at stake
should they lose whatever match they build towards. They have a belt
they want, vengeance they crave, respect they feel they deserve. Even
those who wear masks and shroud themselves in mystery are uncomplicated. They have their mystery to protect.
The key is to let the audience in immediately, to make them understand precisely what drives you as soon as possible. And then when
whatever you desire or fear most is dangling in front of you, it is also
dangling in front of them.
play obvious.
Watch a Heel Toy With the Audience

There is an exquisite art to making an audience twist. Heels can berate
and belittle audiences across their circuit with the exact same material at every stop. But the golden moments are when they dig into the
crowd and make it personal. They insult a local hero. They denigrate
points of civic pride. They play on colloquialisms.
This holds true at the table. When you play, youre not just playing
to satisfy yourself. Look to your fellow players and seek out what resonates with them. Play them as much as you play your character.
know your audience.
99
This is where the magic is. Effortlessly taking down jobber after jobber
will earn you no heat. But let yourself get tossed around the ring like
a rag doll, make the crowd feel every bonecrunching impact, show
them your agony as your opponent locks you up in another impossible submission hold, and when you have finally had enough, let the
audience see just how deep down you have to reach to find that last
scrap of defiance left in youwell then youre on the edge of something
magnificent.
Resist the temptation to be one of the cool, disinterested combatants who brushes their foes aside with ease. There is no glory awaiting
you there. You will not be measured by your might, but by the might of
those you overcome.
invest in your foe.
Watch Them Set Up Their Finishers

It is a simple trick, but an effective one. Your opponent writhes around
on the ground, woozy from the punishing assault they have just suffered. You stand above them, almost triumphant, but not quite yet. One
last move to settle it. One last move to definitively end the match. While
your opponent struggles to their knees, you look out to the crowd and
give them the sign. The finisher is coming.
We dont know for sure what will come next, and we dont have to.
This is one of the oldest tricks in fiction. Entire genres are built upon
this tool. Tell your audience what is about to happen and then either
bring it to fruition or fail to. It doesnt matter which. Either way the audience is enrapt. Once the wolf starts huffing and puffing, they must see
if hes going to blow that house down.
telegraph your punches.
Watch Local Shows

When you hit up your local VFW for some wrestling action, youre in for
a different experience. The venue is small and sparsely populated. The
ceiling is a bit too low to let anyone fly from the top rope. The wrestlers
have day jobs that keep them from gym most days of the week. The
shows are monthly at best and have no payperview to build to. There
is no Titantron or fireworks or even the legal rights to the wrestlers
entrance music. But for all that they lack, these shows will mark you out.
ESSAY:
SHARED SKILLS
Watch Them Sell Their Bumps
How to Let Wrestling Make You a Better Roleplayer
100
They will have you on your feet booing, chanting and cheering. And
they will have you returning again and again.
The trick is every single person in that room, from the announcer
to the refs to the wrestlers to the kid in the front row who is terrified
that the monster is going to tear the babyface apart to that one guy
who is above it all but let his friends drag him here anywayeveryone
in that room is roleplaying. Through the will and guile of their collective imaginations a spectacle is born. The wrestlers grow larger than
life, capable of transcending the mundane and physical boundaries
of the venue. Through this enthrallment the audience will imbue wrestlers with powers beyond their ken. Some will rise, seemingly, from the
dead. Some will soar beyond the confines of the ceiling. Some will be
granted monstrous might or even supernatural capabilities.
Without the cooperation of everyone in that room the magic does
not happen. You must step up and do your part, even if you are sitting
in a folding chair backed up against the farthest wall in the room. You
do not let everyone else carry all the weight. Do your damn part.
mark out.
Epidiah is an author, game designer, and publisher who resides in the rocky hills of
Western Massachusetts. He has created such roleplaying games as Dread, Vast & Starlit,
and Swords Without Master, and he is the overeditor of the sword and sorcery ezine
Worlds Without Master. WorldsWithoutMaster.com
ovember 26th, 1988. This was the day professional wrestling

hooked me for good. I was ten years old and had been watching
for a few years. I laid on the floor that Saturday afternoon staring at the
19inch Hitachi TV set. On the screen was a 300pound bolt of lightning standing in a small television studio in Atlanta, GA. He spoke like
a preacher with fire in his belly and had the conviction of one speaking
about the end of the world.
This was the typical scene. You'd often find this beloved man speaking his mind with such fury and passion. Tonight was different, though.
Atrocities had been committed against a friend by two other men he
used to call friends. These former friends were behemoths that wore
shoulder pads with six inch metal spikes attached to the top and wore
paint on their faces like ancient warriors preparing for battle. They
spoke about deviating your septum and obliterating your face.
I want to be clear that I knew the realities of pro wrestling. I might
not have understood how things work like I do now but I knew things
werent onthelevel. And I had seen plenty of pro wrestling up until
this point in my life, but for the first time I was about to see raw, unadulterated violence perpetrated to a man that fought for you and me and
stood for what was right in this world.
The hero spoke with a righteous fury into a microphone held not
just by a television announcer, but a loyal friend. Out of nowhere the
two behemoths charged into the studio, grabbed him, and threw my
hero into the wrestling ring. One of the beasts continued assaulting the
man while the other one detached a spike from his shoulder pads. The
setting for this show was a simple, small TV studio with a few bleachers of people but the sound generated by this small crowd while they
witnessed their beloved hero viciously attacked could easily rival the
sound of any capacity crowd at the biggest of arenas.
The painted warrior stood there with a spike in his hand looking at
his victim. He lunged with the spike and proceeded to slowly carve out
the eye of our hero. Moments seemed like an eternity. Blood poured
out of his head onto his white button up shirt as he screamed "Oh god,
my eye! My eye! Help!" Finally, friends of our hero came from behind
the television curtain to save him as they ran off the two violent savages.
ESSAY:
BEING A FAN
black cat
102

My hero laid tragically in the middle of the wrestling ring like a
rotting carcass that had been picked over by vultures. Drama had
unfolded before my eyes that I had never experienced beforecharacters that were very real to me were brutally attacked. Two men betrayed
the trust of their fans. Now they had viciously attacked my hero and
I was left trying to reconcile how anyone could perform such a vile,
disgusting act of violence.
April 6th, 2014. I traveled across the country with some friends
to attend the biggest professional wrestling event of the year. Many
other stories were told on this night but arguably the biggest involved
a menacing performer that grew to legendary status because of his
imposing stature, his use of intimidating theatrics and physical resiliency, but most importantly because he had never been defeated on
the biggest night of the wrestling year.
This accomplishment was simply known as "the streak." For over
two decades he was perfect on this night. As the years went by the
story became bigger and bigger. Every year the storytellers were also
able to tell individual stories within the larger story of the streak about
someone who might be able to defeat the unbeatable. Sometimes it
was a young upandcomer starving for their first moment to shine,
or maybe another legend had something to prove before vanishing
into wrestling history. Year after year the unconquerable phenomenon
would be given an opponent and every year it would be the same
resultthe streak would live to see another day.
Many assumed the conclusion to this story would be the legend
saddling up his horse with his reputation intact and riding off into the
sunset like the end of a great cowboy movie, but this year the storytellers had something else in mind. On this night the holder of the streak
was to face the most intimidating force he had ever faced in his career.
His opponent was known for breaking limbs, dropping people on their
heads and finding joy in pain.
The lights dimmed in the stadium that night as the legend slowly
walked to the ring looking like the years were finally starting to catch
up with him. Initially the legend charged at his opponent with a fury of
offense, but as the match proceeded he was slowly broken down as his
body was beaten, contorted, and dismantled by his stronger, younger,
more agile, vicious adversary. Our legend would have brief moments
of hope as he fought valiantly to protect his legacy but finally he could
not take anymore.
The sound of silence echoed throughout the stadium as the official

in the ring counted to three and raised the hand of the beast that had
defeated "the streak." A twentythree year story had finally come to an
end. I have seen just about every different way you can tell a story with
two competitors inside three ropes on a square stage. I can usually tell
you exactly what is going to happen next, who is going to win a match,
how theyre going to win, and what the performers will say after the
match, but there are still moments in professional wrestling like these
where you are left speechless.
As we walked the streets that night after "the streak" had come to
an end we immediately felt a vibe from the thousands of wrestling fans
there with us in the city. We would stumble upon groups of people
where you would just hear snippets of conversations and you knew
immediately they were talking about the end of "the streak." I remember even the next morning we still heard people talking about how
the biggest story in professional wrestling was now over. The storytellers of professional wrestling had once again left their audience truly
captivated.
Professional wrestling is a world of interconnected relationships with
conflict, drama, and emotion all performed on a live stage where the
viewer feels very much a part of what is happening. Professional wrestling is a fictional world presented as reality. Maybe it is because the
shows are performed in front of a live crowd; or the fact that, bizarrely,
these performers often portray themselves as their characters in real
life; or the people telling the stories know just the right moment to pull
the trigger on the intricacies of a story. If you allow yourself you cannot
help but become emotionally involved in what you are watching.
Now, professional wrestling isnt for everyone. To most it isnt
even worth a second thoughtit can be trite, kitschy, juvenile, racist,
misogynistic, and, of course, gratuitously violent. But that's not what
pro wrestling has to beif you can allow yourself to look past these
preconceived notions you will find tremendous moments of drama like
these because it is a such a unique form of entertainment with amazing
opportunities for creative storytelling told both by the highly skilled
athletic performers and the storytellers behinds the scenes.
Black Cat is the cohost of the Old School Wrestling Podcast and coauthor of the OSWP
500 book. He's been told he only sounds happy when he's talking about professional
wrestling. oldschoolwrestlingpodcast.com
1 03
ESSAY:
BEING A FAN
Black Cat
Professional Wrestling:
Burlesque for Boys
aubrey sitterson
hen you think about burlesque, what goes through your brain?
Tasteful nudity? Schticky comedy? Women stripping for women?
Contemporary burlesque isn't just a performance of stripping or
comedy or comedic strippingit's a performance of femininity. That's
why today, when you can get absolutely any type of porn you can
imagine (and some you probably can't) sent directly to your phone,
burlesque is enjoying a resurgence. In the same way that burlesque
provides a romanticized, hyperbolic version of what it is to be a woman,
professional wrestling is a performance of the idea of masculinity.
Violence is a huge part of it to be sure. But wrestling doesn't have
anything near a monopoly on men hurting one another. If what you
want is violence you can watch mixed martial arts, boxing or football,
but all of these are missing something crucial: narrative. Little boys,
unless they're complete and utter psychopaths, don't just dream of
violencethey dream of righteous violence, justice of both a poetic and
karmic nature, where the bad guys lose and the good guys celebrate
together. They want a fairy tale, but one with violence as the triumphant
exclamation point.
Every problem in wrestling is solved by violence. Every. Single.
One. Someone wants your championship? Pin the jabroni. Your boss is
coming down on you unfairly? Make him so mad he agrees to wrestle
you. Someone is trying to steal your old lady? The guy's just begging
for a steel cage match. This is the crux of wrestling's appeal. Just like
contemporary burlesque showcases sensuality without sex, wrestling
offers justified violence abstracted away from the much more complex
role it plays in the real world.
This is why so much of the handwringing that goes on around wrestling isn't just unnecessary, but actually chips away at what works best
about the medium. Due to a nationwide bullying panic and WWE's
eagerness to jump on the bandwagon with their own campaign, it's
become in vogue to criticize any kind of violence outside of a match
as an example of bullying, like say, when a heroic wrestler gets a few
shots in on a villainous manager or authority figure. But this misses the
point of what a bully truly is.
A bully isn't just someone who perpetuates violent or aggressive

actsthey're someone who perpetuates violent or aggressive acts
without good cause and while not expecting to receive similar treatment in return. While people criticize wrestling for promoting bullying,
wrestling's moral code is, at its core, diametrically opposed to bullies,
with the problem of bullying managers, wrestlers and authority figures
always solved using wrestling's signature tool: violence.
A villainous character displaying their villainous tendencies is just
one aspect of their performed personality, their gimmick. When a new
wrestler is introduced to the audience, there's a very small window of
time in which the audience can be told how to feel about the character. Gimmicks exist as a kind of shorthand that lets the audience know
immediately whether they should cheer or boo this person standing
before them.
Because they're designed to elicit an immediate reaction, gimmicks
have a tendency to be crass, onthenose stereotypes: the heroic
soldier, the arrogant intellectual, the hardworking underdog, the cruel
millionaire, and of course, a slew of racial and ethnicbased gimmicks.
It's a difficult, problematic situation to be sure, especially when traditionally under or misrepresented minorities are involved, but it's a
tightrope that the medium has become especially adept at walking.
Where even the crassest gimmicks redeem themselves, however, is
in what comes next. More often than not, successful wrestling characters add new depth and nuance to their gimmicks as time moves on,
sometimes abandoning them completely as they settle into a gimmick
less persona based more on a real person. What becomes abundantly
clear is that the original hyperbolic gimmick doesn't matter in the long
runthe only thing that really matters is whether the wrestler is a hero
or a villain.
Mostly, a wrestler's alignment is determined by whether they follow
the rules or not. Generally speaking, a hero doesn't break the rules,
or at least isn't the first to break them. If an unscrupulous opponent
cheats, they deserve the same in return, right? But there are a slew of
other things that can render a wrestler villainous in the audience's eyes,
with some of the most serious offenses including a refusal to stand and
fight, trying to get out of a fight or having anyone else fight your battles
for you. In this cartoonish, exaggerated performance of masculinity, the
ultimate, unforgivable sin is cowardice.
A wrestler's initial gimmick exists only for the audience to know how
to feel about them until actual feelings form based on the wrestler's
ESSAY:
BURLESQUE
1 05
106
Professional Wrestling: Burlesque For Boys

actions and behavior. Operating in a very similar fashion is the crass,
sophomoric tone for which wrestling is too often derided. Wrestling
isn't a prestige cable drama, and to judge it by the same metric is like
criticizing a donut for not being as healthy as an apple. Unlike other
television shows, people don't watch wrestling for rewarding, nuanced
dialogue and character studies. In wrestling, dialogue and character
development are all just fuel for the fire, leading to an explosive, violent
and cathartic end.
Storylines, promos, backstage vignettesthey're all just quick, easy
and often dirty ways to set up a scenario that can only be solved by,
you guessed it, violence. Because at the end of the day, violence isn't
just why people watch wrestling, but it's also the meat of the medium.
While the characters involved in a wrestling match and the circumstances leading up to it might be base and simplistic, the match itself is
home to endless, recursive, selfreferential and frankly, fascinating variation. A good wrestling match can, in terms of complexity and nuance,
stand proudly next to anyone's favorite highbrow drama.
Professional wrestling inhabits a world where all of the characters
and conflicts are easily summed up in a sentence before being violently resolved inside a ring. It's a crass and reductive way of seeing
the human condition, but that's all any story is really. Even the smartest
piece of fiction you can think of works by distilling the complicated
realities of life down into more easily (and enjoyably) digestible chunks.
Is wrestling an extreme variation of this approach? Absolutely, as the
medium relishes in its ability to tap into a base, visceral, almost primal
understanding of right and wrongone that you've known and felt ever
since you were a kid on the schoolyard.
Wrestling speaks to big issues through the high proof symbolism
of two people beating the everloving bejeezus out of each other, and
if you think that's base, crass, too violent or reductive, well...that's kind
of the point.
Aubrey Sitterson is a comic book writer and the host of STRAIGHT SHOOT, The World's
Smartest Rasslin Talk Show. Find everything he does online at aubreysitterson.com.
Professional Wrestling is
the American Dream
he mother of one of my childhood friends would cry whenever

Dusty Rhodes would cut a promo. She wouldnt sob or carry on.
Dusty would speak and Id glance over to find that her eyes were wet as
she halfpaid attention to the grainy screen of a mid80s television set.
I grew up in Lexington, North Carolina, one of those mill towns John
Edwards made so central to his biography during the 2004 and 2008
presidential races. It was small, somewhere between a town and a city,
but booming. Everyone worked in a factory, either furniture or textiles,
less often the local fiberglass plant, and it was good money in a place
where the cost of living was low. I had friends who had pools in their
backyards due to a line workers salary. Nice, fast cars. Big barbecues
every weekend, with cock rock blaring and pigs cooking.
Lexington happens to be about 45 minutes north of Charlotte,
which was home, in those days, to Jim Crockett Promotions, base of
operations for the crown jewels in the slowly eroding NWA. Ric Flair,
Magnum TA, the Andersons, the Rock 'n' Roll Express, and a host of
other barrel chested pro wrestlers of the Southern branch of the art
form. This was during the Rock 'n' Wrestling Era up north, where the
heroes were steroid abusing freaks aiming to tap the deep well of
wanting American superheroes to restore some semblance of pride
after the still fresh wounds of the Carter years. Hogan et al were aiming
to do the job for us working folks. We could never be Hulk Hogan, only
admire him from afar.
And then there was Dusty.
Dusty wasnt what all us Southern working class kids and adults
wanted to be. He was what we already were. Dusty was fat and slovenly,
his dress alternating between work clothes and garish, sloppy attempts
at what you might think a rich man dressed like had you never actually
seen one. His forehead bore the marks of his career, a mass of deeply
grooved scar tissue after years of chair shots and blading. He wasnt
great in the ring, but was a master of psychology and storytelling.
The stories he told were working class stories. He took his lisping
Texas drawl and married it to an AfricanAmerican preachers cadence.
Not for nothing was one of his earliest nicknames the White Soul King.
ESSAY:
THE DREAM
ian williams
108
Professional Wrestling is the American Dream

Rather than outright cooption, it seemed to be a sincere effort on
Rhodes part to speak to a panracial working class, setting him up as
a hero for blacks, whites, and Latinos to cheer on against whatever
villainous rich guy he was put up against.
Fighting those rich guys is what he did best. In the 1970s, it was
his famous series with Superstar Billy Graham. Graham was the forerunner to Hogan, a muscled, tanned, blonde braggart. Hogan grievously ripped Graham off, turning the latters arrogant muscle worship
into a face gimmick (though, if you pay attention, Hogan didnt spend
much time working face). Rhodes went north and the two wrestled the
hell out of each other in Madison Square Garden before the WWWF
became the WWF. The subtext was clear: plain old Dusty Rhodes, the
White Soul King and working class schlub, against the steroid abusing,
vain freak, Billy Graham. Rhodes won on technicalities, never grabbing
the title from Graham, but it didnt matter: old footage reveals the
crowd going nuts for Rhodes like they did for few others.
And why not? The reason why Rhodes mattered is essentially the
reason why wrestling matters. Wrestling tells working class stories to
working class people, even today in the slick, overproduced WWE.
Dusty Rhodes is the greatest storyteller in that vein who has ever wrestled. Hes not my favorite of all time; his nemesis, Ric Flair, is and has
always been my favorite wrestler. But if we stop measuring greatness
by titles, instead going by pure quality of the storytelling, physical or
verbal, Rhodes is arguably the greatest of all time.
Look up whats popularly become known as the "Hard Times"
promo. Rhodes (and the NWA, by extension, where he was the top
face at the time) rattles off a list of the reasons why the common person
has it tough as a way of dumping on Flairs heelish reasons why his life
is rough. Rhodes talks about declining wages, the first stages of what
would become a new American tradition of outsourcing, and fears of
being replaced by automation.
It was hot fire, left as hell, and delivered in a way that made Southern mill workers cheer. He was the American Dream, with all of the
hope and melancholy that entails. When he asked the fans to touch
the screen, touching their hands to his hand, it was a two way street.
Because you felt at the time that you really could touch Dusty if he
happened to be next to you. He was the approachable hero, the image
of us. He was your dad or your brother or your coworker.
Not that all was well with his career. He carried his weight poorly as
he aged, carried his responsibilities poorer still. He was booker off and
on, leading to the famed Dusty Finish, a situation in which the babyface
triumphs only to be screwed by a technicality or rules shenanigans.
He leaned on it heavily as a way both to keep him in the public eye
and easily get out of tough booking decisions. For every innovation
he made as booker, like War Games, there were six or seven disasters.
He eventually booked his way right out of Jim Crockett Promotions.
Vincent K McMahon was only too happy to pick him up. But there was
none of his fathers fascination with Rhodes as a working class hero.
The younger McMahon was set on mocking him as a buffoon, sticking
him in polka dots and giving him skits centered on unclogging toilets.
Even up north, in the changing working class landscape of the early
1990s, Rhodes made it work as best he could. His feud with Macho
Man, whose own star was just beginning to fade, was better in retrospect than it seemed at the time. The cheers were still there, the promos
goofier but still tight. The age and the weight caught up with him and,
shortly after introducing his son, Dustin, to audiences, he retired from
inring competition.
His retirement came just as the working class of America shifted
drastically. The 1990s brought about mass deindustrialization. That it
coincided with Dustys retirement and the disappearance of the American Dream character (he still uses the name, but no fire accompanies
it) is one of pro wrestlings little ironies. Dusty Rhodes could only exist
in the South of the 1970s and '80s, where a boom time was the product
of working class pride and awareness. Neither Dusty nor the South of
those years could survive the 1990s. Hard times became desperate
times and theres no going back.
The story of Dusty Rhodes is what we want from pro wrestling and
its what the form has always delivered. No matter how corporate the
modern product may be, no matter how beholden to television deals
or the stock market the feds may get, it is the tale of the American
working class. Its fans are working class, its heroes are working class,
and it is the only form of working class entertainment which is still
visible in American life.
In Dusty Rhodes, you can see the foreshadowing for those working
class heroes who came after. Steve Austin, with his swearing, boss
hating, beerswilling badassery a few years later. CM Punk, the dumpy
kid who came up through the industry the hard way, in backyards and
hardcore feds, through sheer work ethic. Even John Cena, seemingly
more Hogan than Rhodes, is reliant on the crossracial appeals which
Dusty pioneered.
1 09
ESSAY:
THE DREAM
Ian Williams
110
Professional Wrestling is the American Dream

And this is why pro wrestling, particularly in the United States,
matters. Its history in microcosm. The arc of a wrestlers career maps
closely to his or her times. In Dusty Rhodes career, the history of the
American working class aspirations and fears during the 1970s and
'80s is written as surely as in any book.
Ian Williams is a freelance writer and journalist. His work has appeared in Jacobin,
The Guardian, Paste, and many others. He's also an absolute mark for Ric Flair and
Jimmy Garvin.
resources for your game
eason One is a collection of wrestlers, finishing moves and ideas

for different kinds of wrestling promotions submitted by backers
of the Kickstarter campaign for the World Wide Wrestling RPG's initial
publication. Many thanks to the backers of the campaign!
You should feel free to use the wrestling characters presented here
as part of your game of World Wide Wrestling, or adapt specific parts
(a name, an illustration, a description) to what you need for your game.
The Season One Roster

Adam "Submission" Connor
Antonio "El Corredor" Valdez
Aubrey, Prince of the Depths
Bash Hammer
Ben Key
Brainburg
Doctor Moreau
El Toro
Frankie Cocheese
"Golden Boy" BArthur
Gryla
Jimmy "JC" Catetere
Joey Crak
Johnny Raike
Kendrik Soulbane
Lee Omicron
"Luxurious" Larry Gibson
MEGAmerican
Mysterious Mercury
Officer Annie
Oni no Tsu
Robert "High Class" Jordan
Saerin Aurora
Sir Justin Tyme
The Architect
"The Hardcore Artist" Frankie Valiant
"The Legacy" Virgil Davis
The Reaper
Valerius Claudius Greppa
Adam Connor
Tony De Francisco
Aubrey Sitterson
Ralph Mazza
Arnold Cassell
Joseph Le May
Tim Rodriguez
Jason Cordova
James Privitera
Arthur Loewenkamp
Tim Jensen
Angelo Cislaghi
Joe Zantek
Joey Daly
Ryan Smith
Jonathan Moore
Tom Deterling
Andy Fix
Shervyn von Hoerl
Trey Stone
David Reichgeld
Roberto Gonzales
Andrew Rosenheim
Justin Hunt
Paul Casey
Franklin Rollins Jr.
Virgil Pederson Jr.
Stras Acimovic
Kevin Ullrich
SEASON
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Season One
Season One
112
Adam "Submission" Connor

Time To Tap (Standing Guillotine Choke)
Alternate: Connor Contortion (Camel Clutch + Leg Lock)
Initially a tag team specialist, Connor's first partner retired with an

injury and Connor was given the identity of the Confessor, a pseudo
religious gimmick that really never got over with the fans. The Confessor was "killed" in a Buried Alive match, the best of Connor's
career to that point, and Connor returned to his roots as Submission, an honorable and technically proficient submission specialist.
Antonio "El Corredor" Valdez

Disconnection (Northern Lights Suplex)
Antonio is a luchatrained grappler who dresses in a sharp

suit. Before each match, he neatly folds his jacket and shirt,
and places them on the turnbuckle; his tie changes week
toweek to suit his mood. He wrestles a mixed style that
see him trading between quick aerial moves, submissions
and the occasional shirtbased illegal maneuver to gain an
advantage. Antonio is especially vulnerable against power
moves, and is still relatively unexperiencedsavvy opponents can easily lure
him into a disadvantageous position.
Aubrey, Prince of the Depths

The Heart Punch
After years spent traversing "the orient", the once Pretty Prince
returned with a darkened countenance and the arcane, eldritch
knowledge of a technique banned and thought lost...The Heart
Punch! Between this devastating maneuver and his corpse
painted appearance, none know what the Dark One will
summon up next.
Bash Hammer
Earth Mover (Frog Splash)
Bash Hammer's look is Tinker from Roadhouse meets

Larry the Cable Guy. He's shaped like a barrel in work boots,
sports cargo pants, white undershirt and denim sleeveless jacket,
and always wears his signature trucker hat that reads "Diesel Power."
His approach to his matches is as straightforward as his name,
and as brutal.
Ben Key
OneHanded Choke (Chokeslam into a Chokehold)
Ben Key is a onearmed master of the ring. Never

wanting the promotion to use his nature as a gimmick,
he demonstrates an unshakable resolve along with enormous
strength every time he gets in the ring. One of his first managers named him after mythological Japanese warrior
monk Benkei due to his size (matching Ben Key's billed
height of 6'7") and the mangled transliteration has stuck
throughout his devastating career.
Brainburg
Pollos Hermanos (Double ChickenWing Submission)
Never afraid to cash in on a trend, Brainburg plays up his

physical resemblance to Breaking Bad central character
Walter White. He wrestles in brown boots and slacks with
a wifebeater undershirt and glasses. His shaved head
and goatee have become his signature look as he struggles to elevate himself against more entrenched wrestlers
on the card.
Doctor Moreau
The Mutation (Snapmare)
Doctor Moreau has a mysterious connection to the animal kingdom.

Coming to the ring in a variety of animal costumes, his ring work
morphs to match his totem creature for that match (often selected
to take advantage of his opponents weaknesses). When he hits
the Mutation, his opponent ends up wearing the mask of the
Doctor's chosen prey animaland some never recover.
El Toro
Rocky Mountain Oysters (Low Blow Uppercut)
The mysterious El Toro doesn't say much, but he (or

possibly she) displays no respect for honorable
competition. A master of misdirection, El Toro is
full of creative strategies to distract the referee in order
to land the illegal finisher...and escape before the victim
can extract revenge.
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Wrestlers, Moves & Inspiration
Season One
114
Frankie Cocheese
Toe Tagger (CrookedArm Lariat)
Alternate: The Takeover (Tiger Bomb)
Born and raised in one of the roughest quadrants of Washington

D.C., Frankie saw things most people have the fortune of not witnessing. Wrestling saved him from ending up dead or in jail, to such
a degree that he started wrestling on the indy circuit as "Bandanna".
After finding his groove with a more hardcore, smashmouth style
he changed to a spin on his real name and started playing up his
Italian heritage. His ring gear still features a signature bandanna,
a matching color fitted hat on backwards, denim shorts or cargo
pants, and Vans style skate shoes.
"Golden Boy" BArthur

Golden Gate Bridge (German Suplex)
The Golden Boy debuted as a furcoat sporting, goldlam wearing arrogant son of privilege, his disdain for his opponents as strong a weapon as
his devastating suplex. After an explosive
debut and middling title run, "Mr. B"
found a new calling as the "financial
manager" for upandcoming talent,
only taking to the ring when it's time to
"show the boys how it's done."
Gryla
Shot Put (Toss Over the Top Rope)
This 7'+ bearded monster from Iceland carries a giant boulder to the ring
to intimidate (and sometimes crush) his opponents. When not able to use that,
he likes to finish a match by flinging them out of the ring as far up the aisle as
he can. He's only hit the stands once or twice.
Jimmy "JC" Catetere

JC Cutter (Backbreaker Rack into Facebuster)
JC's long dark hair, goatee, tattered jeans and black tshirt give
a relatable air to this localboygonepro competitor. His everyman
facade conceals a savage approach to his matches and a surprising
amount of strength as he works to cut his way through the competition.
Joey Crak
The Crakshooter (Sharpshooter)
Alternate: The Overdose (Rolling Cutter)
Joey Crak is one of the most arrogant and underhanded wrestlers

around. He will use every advantage possible on the mic or in the
ring to cheat his way to victory. He talks the talk, and has the
technical skills to back up some of his claims. One of the ways
he gets under his opponents skin is to use their finisher,
always claiming to have perfected it. After all,
as he says ad nauseum: "No one can handle.
One Hundred Percent. Pure. Crak."
Johnny Raike
Pleasure Seeker (Inverted Victory Roll Bomb)
At 6 feet with well defined, though wiry, musculature,

Johnny has good reason to love himself wholly and truly.
His bad tattoos are just as much a part of his ring gear
as his shiny vinyl boots and bike shorts with "Want Me"
across the back in acid green. Everything from his sandy
brown emo reverse mullet to his multiple facial piercings
oozes his trademark narcissistic hedonism.
Kendrik Soulbane
Savage Endings (Famouser into Armbar submission)
Soulbane's original fantasy MMO look failed to get over with the
fans, so he added the "Kendrik" and modified his approach to
a more high flying, crowdpleasing moveset and rocknroll
persona. Able to fill any role he's asked to do, his high energy
offense thrills crowds regardless of opponent.
Lee Omicron
Salt Lick Smash (Facebuster, with reverse STO
variation)
A worker's worker, Lee Omicron has wrestled

in almost every independent company of
significance, including a recurring presence
in Japan, where he's held multiple championships. With a swaggering, cornfed good ol' boy look,
he always manages to find a way to make his presence felt.
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Season One
116
"Luxurious" Larry Gibson

The High Life (Lariat)
Larry Gibson made his name in the territory days, trading on his
brawling style and lack of scruples to draw in the fans. Now on
the downside of his career, he's doubled down on his sleazy
underhanded tactics in the ring, ending more than one
match with the roll of quarters stashed in his tights.
MEGAmerican
The American Bulldog (Running Bulldog)
MEGAmerican's starspangled ring attire

and hardhitting aerial style make him
a standout whenever he steps into the
squared circle. Battling for America's
most deeply held values, the Deacon of
Democracy will permit only civil behavior
in his presence.
Mysterious Mercury
The Unseen Elbow!
Mysterious Mercury refuses to fit into easy

little boxes. More a Joker than a Batman, they
combine bizarre plans with incredible tenacity in
the ring. They're lithe, fast, smart, never give up and
will do anything to win. The only thing to expect from
Mysterious Mercury is...the unexpected.
Officer Annie
Busted (Double Closedfist Chop)
Fresh from protecting the public of Venice Beach,

the Lady Cop Officer Annie is here to lay down the
law. All business both backstage and in the ring, she
sports simple black attire, a POLICE baseball cap and
a police whistle. The only time a smile crosses her lips
is as she winds up to deliver the final blow to her
stunned opponents.
Oni no Tsu
Tsunami Bomb (DoubleHanded Sitout Chokeslam)
Combining traditional sumo with crowdpleasing

ringbusting power moves, Oni no Tsu has made quite
an impression. Channeling the folklore of the Japanese
demonic Oni, this superheavyweight wears a variety of
intimidating masks to the ring in order to inspire terror in those
unlucky enough to face him.
Robert "High Class" Jordan

Bow Tie Bomb (Senton Bomb)
Raised in the rich suburbs of Philadelphia, Robert

developed a fascination with street fighting at an
early age. Kicked out of private school for beating
up his classmates, he took his smarts and family
money to hire the best trainers in the country.
Now, he's an A+ technical wrestler who goes out
of his way to embarrass his lessskilled opponents. He wears expensive three piece suits to the
ring with his trademark bowtie, often competing with the bowtie on, just to keep it sexy (his trademark line).
Saerin Aurora
Air Sickness (Splitlegged Cork screw
Moonsault)
Not one for deep psychology, Saerin Aurora

prefers to use wild outfits, exciting entrances and
uncannily acrobatic moves to stick out in the
crowd's memory. Sometimes criticized as lazy
by more technical opponents, this canny veteran
knows exactly how to pop the crowd and sees no
reason to change what works.
Sir Justin Tyme

London Bridge (Fisherman's Suplex)
Sir Justin Tyme is a proper English gentleman often accompanied by manager Lord Alfred Mayes and lackey Isaac
Quinn. He wrestles in the traditional stiff brawling
and stretching style of catchas
catchcan. His technical prowess
is matched only for his love of
Queen and Country.
117
SEASON
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Season One
118
The Architect
The Flying Buttress (Butt Drop)
A notorious showboat, The Architect is full of both

wrestling and architectural knowledge. His
punbased argumentative style is legendary,
including the crowd favorite "You're
Frank Lloyd...Wrong!"
"The Hardcore Artist" Frankie Valiant

The Hardcore Dream (Sleeper Hold/Million Dollar Dream)
From the mean streets of Chicago, Frankie Valiant combines skill at

grappling with a hardcore approach to his matches. Surprising his
opponents with aggressive holds and submissions in the middle
of a knockdown dragout fight, Valiant turns hardcore wrestling into an artform every night.
"The Legacy" Virgil Davis

Master of Taunts
Virgil Davis calls himself "The Legacy" because he embodies

the core principles of professional wrestling: mocking the fans
and making his opponents look foolish. He manages to
find a way to turn any move or sequence into a taunt
and feeds off the jeers of the crowd.
The Reaper
The Whirlwind (Clothesline into Crucifix Powerbomb)
One of the more iconic members of the roster, The Reapers dreadlocks and skulllike face paint translate into a terrifying presence
in the ring. Sometimes surrounded by his servitor "Bones," The
Reaper's mysterious agenda is always of concern to
those around him.
Valerius Claudius Greppa

The Roman Phalanx (Double Elbow to the Chest)
A throwback to the birth of catch wrestling, Greppa's

impressive 6'4" frame is shown off to its best advantage in
his typical ring gear of simple loincloth and brown boots
with red and gold accents. Fully capable of gaining physical advantage of his opponents, it's the look in his ice blue
eyes that gives him the edge in many of his bouts.
Promotion: Un Pueblo Guerrero

BY TONY DE FRANCISCO
orn in Texas in the early 1990s, Un Pueblo Guerrero was formed

in the wake of the gradual shutdown of the major southwestern
territories of the 1970s and '80s. Capitalizing on new televisiondriven
exposure to Mexican lucha libre wrestling, a mixture of Mexican and
American wrestlers were signed to the roster. Soon UPG was running
shows in every state that touches either side of the border.
During the wrestling boom of the late 1990s, UPG would stage
shows on the same weekend as national companies whenever they
came to the areaa financial blunder than almost bankrupted the
promotion. Nowadays, this old ploy forms one of the cornerstones of
UPGs rebellious and fiercely territorial reputation, as clips from the
bygone era are shown repeatedly on UPGs marketing material.
In the present day, UPG (sometimes just called Pueblo in the US)
enjoys a sizable share of the indy market, enjoying the unique position
of having both Spanish and Englishspeaking audiences. There are
four big Sunday shows per year, and UPG offers a weekly show on a
subscription basis through their website.
While UPG obviously has a very strong lucha libre history, the
company has learned from past mistakes, and currently employs wrestlers of many styles, not only from Mexico and the US, but individuals
from Japan, Europe, and further afield as well.
Production Style
While the inring action and atmosphere is typical of a midlevel indy
promotion, the backstage segments of UPG tend to avoid backstage.
Rather, they happen mostly outside the arena, from parking lots to
back alleys to a wrestlers home. These vignettes tend to center on alliance making and influence brokering. Loose networks are continually
being formed and disbanded in UPG, and many wrestlers are as often
defined as much by these activities as by their inring actions.
UPGs four main shows take place at the end of March, June, September, and December. Traditionally, the March and September shows
take place in Mexico, and the June and December shows take place in
the US.
Each individual stop is strongly flavored by the resident Alcalde (see
next page), which sometimes extends to the ring decoration and the
setting used for prerecorded segments.
119
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Season One
120
Titles
The UPG maintains a companywide UPG World Championship and
Campeonato en Trios UPG (UPG Tag Team Championship). While the
Tag Titles were originally awarded to traditional threeman teams, the
tag division has evolved to where a team of any number of members
can hold the belts.
In addition, and completely separate from the title belts, the Alcalde
(mayoral) system provides a method by which a marquee matchup can
be inserted onto any card. Every town that UPG visits has an Alcalde,
and the position is defended every time the promotion comes through.
Some towns see frequent changes to the Alcalde, while some Alcaldes
have their position on lockdown. Regardless, the signature Lucha de
la Alcaldia demands that the challenger put something of theirs on
the line against the Alcalde, from a period of servitude to their hair or
mask, to their very existence in the company.
Notable Characters
Corrine Vega, storyline manager of UPG. An older woman in
a worn suit, she is responsible for administering the will of the
unseen Fundadores (the storyline founders of UPG).
Manuel Vega, Corrines storyline, and now reallife, husband. A
manager with a sprawling stable, an old UPG comedy spot is to
have Corrine make her entrance while Manuel is insulting a wrestler, causing him to suddenly start praising the wrestler instead.
Antonio "El Corredor" Valdez, sharpdressed UPG newcomer.
He is still relatively inexperienced, but tours extensively with UPG
and makes an appearance almost every week.
Custom Moves
ALCALDE: When a characters hits +4 Audience or +4 Heat with the
current Alcalde, they may challenge for the position of Alcalde of their
town. When you are Alcalde, you make the Over Move regardless of
your Audience at the top of the show.
LUCHA DE LA ALCALDIA: When the Alcalde is challenged for their posi-
tion, the challenger must put something they value on the line, and
roll +Heat with the Alcalde. On a 10+, the Alcalde accepts. On a 79,
the Alcalde adds something to the challengers stakes. On a Botch, the
Alcalde both adds to the stakes, and adds a stipulation to the match
that tilts it in their favor.
Promotion: Husman Extreme Wrestling

BY JUSTIN HUNT
ased out of Cincinnati, HEW is basically no more than a traveling

regional promotion. What makes it unique is the deep pockets of
Harry J. Husman IV, heir to the Husman Potato Chip fortune. The wrestling venture started off as a oneoff promotional event to debut Husman's new "Extreme BBQ" chip product line. The single event did well
enough that Husman, a wrestling fan himself, decided to turn it into a
longterm marketing vehicle (and huge tax writeoff). Husman spares
no expense to recruit and retain premier talent in order to showcase
the artful blend of luchastyle acrobatics and southernstyle brawling
that he likes to call HighFlyin Wrasslin'.
Production Style
HEW travels through the Midwestern US on a seasonal schedule, with
the majority of its events booked during the summer (when chip sales
are higher). Shows are not televised, though fan recording is actually
encouraged. It is very common for a show to feature the taping of one
or more live action segments that get turned into Husman Potato Chip
commercials aired yearround.
HEW features a lot of tournaments, both one night and multi week
affairs that go along with new product launches. The bookers are
always trying out new and unconventional tournament structures to
keep interest in them fresh.
Titles
There are many "Flavor" champions in HEW, especially whenever a
new product line is due to debut. While the secondary titles come and
go with little fanfare, the primary titles are the premier and namesake
singles championship Extreme BBQ Championship, the American
Classic Champion (awarded at an annual tournament with fanvote
pairings) and the Double Dip Tag Team Champions, the newest title
coinciding with Husman's new "Double Dip" chip product.
Notable Characters
Delicious Tommy Vicious, the current Extreme BBQ champion, a
handsome, smarmy brawler.
Lemon Drop Kid and Triple D, the badboy fanfavorite pairing,
currently holding the Double Dip Tag titles.
121
SEASON
ONE
Season One
122
Lord Alfred Mayes, a hated manager who carries his prep school
rivalry with Husman into all of his storylines.
Sir Justin Tyme, the hot new prospect who was brought in by
Mayes to win this years American Classic tournament.
Isaac Quinn, Tyme's lackey and bodyguard, notorious for snatching the phones out of fans hands as they attempt to take pictures.
Custom Moves
PRODUCT SYNERGY: When you go to management with an idea that
ties into the parent companies product lines, roll +Real. On a 10+ they
totally buy it! Gain +1 Momentum and set up a segment to enact or get
the ball rolling for your idea. On a 79, it's a hard sell. Choose whether
Creative sets up a segment to allow you to prove the viability of the
idea, or someone else steals your idea (and gain +1 Heat with them).
On a Botch, you're out of the loop. Either your idea is already in the
works, or it just doesn't make sense to those holding the pursestrings.
Lose all Momentum.
LOYAL FANS: Every wrestler picks one of their Gimmick Moves they
roll dice for to be their "fan favorite Move" (this can include their Finishing Move). Whenever you hit your fan favorite Move on a 10+ before
spending Momentum, the crowd goes wild. Gain +2 Momentum or +1
Audience, in addition to the effects of the Move. If you Botch your fan
favorite Move, the crowd is over it. You no longer have a fan favorite
Move. You can spend an Advance to change your fan favorite Move, or
to gain one if you don't currently have one.
Promotion: Pacific Wrestling

BY ANDREW ROSENHEIM
acific Wrestling is a West Coast promotion founded by professional wrestlers who wanted to showcase their favorite aspects of
the business in an entertaining, engaging show for modern audiences.
Leaning heavily on social media and word of mouth to market each
individual shows, Pacific Wrestling tends to attract lifelong fans with a
combination of fun wrestling, highflying action and hardhitting styles.
The wrestlers on each show have a lot of autonomy to show themselves off, whether they bring in comedy, lucha libre, puroresu (Japanese "Strong Style"), traditional wrasslin', or technical grappling. Each
show tends to be booked to transition between different aspects of the
business, taking itself as seriously as the situation dictates.
The company has distinguished itself from other independent promotions by consistently delivering a fun night out that even nonwrestling fans can enjoy, leading to a devoted and evangelical audience
that welcomes new and casual fans.
Production Style
Pacific Wrestling likes to take over a venue for a whole weekend a
month, putting on two or sometimes even three shows over that
weekend. The travel circuit hits major cities along the west coast, with
occasional forays west to Las Vegas and north to Vancouver. The live
shows are the bread and butter of the promotion, alongside online
video streams and downloads. Fans constantly wonder why no cable
network has picked them up, but there's been no indication that they
want to go into TV...yet.
Vignettes tend to be prerecorded, or staged in the ring in front of
the live audience. Going outside the ring or backstage is reserved for
the more serious feuds, and tend to be memorable moments.
Titles
The Pacific Wrestling Championship is the main title. It avoids the
words "world" and "heavyweight" to showcase how any performer can
earn it, regardless of size or style. The Pacific Tag Team Championships are awarded to the star performers of the tag division, which
tends to feature adhoc alliances of singles competitors rather than
dedicated tag partners or factions.
Tag matches are run under lucha libre tag rules to increase match
energy: wrestlers can enter the ring as soon as their partner leaves
it (whether they dive out, are thrown out or any other reason), and
many matches are 2outof3 falls. One of Pacific Wrestlings signature
matches is the Four Corners of Chaos, with a tag team in each of the
four corners of the ring. Teams are eliminated as members are pinned
or submitted, until one team remains standing. These matches are
sometimes booked with three or four wrestlers per team for chaotic,
explosive major events.
The King of the Road is an honorific defended at each year's live
event of the same name. Wrestlers earn points throughout the year
based on how many matches they compete in and how often they win
(so wrestlers who travel and appear on multiple shows are generally
the ones in contention). Points determine the matchups for King of the
Road tournament, a singleelimination series of rounds culminating in
123
SEASON
ONE
Season One
12 4
a new King of the Road. The King of the Road can also be challenged
for the title midseason by anyone with equal or more points than them
at that time, which tends to become a major storyline when it happens.
Notable Characters
"The Epitome" Brady Miller, the prototypical pro wrestler in look
and ego, able to get the crowd booing with a single sneer.
Dmitri the Red, a Russian high flier known for his unique style
and overthetop (kayfabe) accent.
Tahunga, a surprisingly agile Maori big man, one of the new hot
prospects everyone's eye is on.
Connor Finnegan III, a young third generation wrestler, lean and
lanky. Still trying to make a name for himself.
Arianna Villafano, a manager looking to buy her way to fame and
her client's way to championships.
Custom Moves
FOUR CORNERS OF CHAOS: You can make a Hot Tag to anyone in the
match, not just your partner. When you do, the wrestler you tag gains
the benefit of the Move, if any (that is, the effects of the Hot Tag are not
limited to your partner).
KING OF THE ROAD: Every match you wrestle on a Pacific Wrestling
show, gain 1 point. Every time you win a match on a Pacific Wrestling
show, gain 2 points. Whenever you're on a show with the current King
of the Road, and you have as many or more points than they do, you
can challenge them for their title. Roll +Work. On a 10+, the producers think you've earned it and Creative books you to win (this can still
be swerved by later Moves). On a 79, it's the main event, but you're
booked to lose; you do gain +1 Momentum when the match starts.
On a Botch, something happens to keep your match from happening.
If this is the first Episode of a new Pacific Wrestling Season, Creative
decides on a NPW to be the current King of the Road. They start the
game with points equal to the number of players (and gain points as
they wrestle as well). If this is a game continuing from the last Season
and a player was King of the Road at the end of it, they start the new
Season as King of the Road with points equal to their starting Audience.
our Gimmick is your choice of general wrestler archetype for your

World Wide Wrestling character. For fullpage printable Gimmick
sheets, visit ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg. For all the details on making
your wrestler, see Chapter Four: Making the Roster (PAGE 34).
All Gimmicks share the following:
The Basics
STATS: Look, Power, Real and Work.
HAILING FROM: Pick a thematic origin place, or decide on your own.
ENTRANCE: Pick a thematic style of entrance, or decide on your own.
NAME & LOOK: Come up with a performance name, and decide on
your wrestlers general look.
Heat
Write down each other wrestlers name.
On your turn, ask one of the four questions per other player. When
answered, gain +1 Heat with their wrestler.
Whenever you work a match with a character you have +4 Heat with,
gain +1 Audience.
When you finish a feud, reset Heat with that wrestler to +1.
Role
Pick your starting Role. You can use the Move of the same name. Gain
+1 Heat with everyone whos the opposite Role.
BabyfaceYoure a good guy.
HeelYoure a bad guy.
When you deliberately break out of your role, you switch to its opposite ("make a turn"). Gain +1 Heat with everyone now opposed to you.
You can gain an Advanced Role instead via Advances. When you take
an Advanced Role, you can use the Move of the same name.
CelebrityYouve gained fame outside the ring.
IconYou embody your style of wrestling.
LegendThe audience will never forget you.
GIMMICKS
The Gimmicks
126
The Moves
You have all Moves checked on your sheet automatically. All Gimmicks
have an automatic Finishing Move (or equivalent). Some Gimmicks have
another automatic Move.
Pick one or two of the remaining Moves, per your sheet.
The Rest
Injury
When your wrestler takes an injury, check an injury box. As long as you
have at least one injury box checked, your Gimmick's Injury rules apply.
Whenever you spend an Advance, you can choose to erase an Injury
check in addition to gaining the effect of your purchase.
Momentum
Start each Episode with Momentum per your starting Audience, or the
effect of the Over Move if you have +4 Audience.
Whenever you make a roll, you can spend any amount of Momentum
to add that amount as a bonus to your roll.
You lose all unspent Momentum at the end of each Episode.
Audience
Your wrestler starts the first Episode at a certain Audience rating. Whenever the overall promotion gains viewers (per Creative's guidelines),
you reset your Audience to that rating as well.
Audience +4: Mark an Advance the first time you hit +4 Audience
in an Episode. When you hit +4, any other character with +4 bumps
down to +3. Theres only one top spot on the roster and you just
claimed it. If you have +4 Audience at the beginning of an Episode,
you make the Over Move (a Top of the Card Move, PAGE 150).
Audience +3: You're hot! Start the episode with +2 Momentum.
Audience +2: You matter. Start the episode with +1 Momentum.
Audience +1: You're present. Start the episode with +1 Momentum.

Audience 0: You're boring. Mark an Advance the first time you hit
0 Audience in an Episode. If you have 0 Audience at the end of an
Episode, you are fired! If you wish to continue playing you should
make a new wrestling character, or talk to Creative about taking
over an existing NPW as your new character.
127
Advancement
gain an advance:
The first time your Audience hits +4 or 0 in an Episode.
When you end a feud satisfactorily.
spend an advance to:

Add +1 to any Stat (max +3).
Add +1 Audience.
Pick another Move from your Gimmick, or another Gimmick.
Create a custom Move for your character based on a signature
habit (see PAGE 86 for creating custom Moves).
Gain a Manager, a Valet or an Enforcer (NPW).
Form a Dedicated Tag Team (see PAGE 69).
and once you've picked 3 of those

(this means that once you've picked three from the above list, you're
able to pick from the list below in addition to the above options):
Create a new character to play. You can play both characters
simultaneously, or switch between them on an Episodeto
Episode basis. Talk to Creative if you need advice on playing
more than one character.
Retire this character and pick an NPW to play for the next
episode. Pick a Gimmick for them and play them as a new wrestling character. Then return this character, with a new Gimmick,
and/or in an Advanced Role (Legend, Icon or Celebrity). All Injury
checks are erased as well. Each Gimmick notes which Gimmicks
it cannot return as (see PAGE 47).
Your character legit retires. Create a new character or take over
an NPW if you want to continue playing in this Season.
GIMMICKS
When you gain a Championship Belt.
The AntiHero
ou are the badass that everyone loves. Whether youre sticking it

to the man or telling it like it is, the audience identifies with your
rejection of conformity.
The Basics
Stats
Look 0, Power -2, Real +1, Work -1; then add 1 to one Stat
Hailing From
Detroit, Michigan
Brooklyn, New York
Alligator, Mississippi
Elsewhere
Entrance
Loud &
Flashy
Downhome &
Gritty
Silent & Serious
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who did I have to kick
the shit out of to show
how badass I am?
With whom do I have
a reluctant alliance?
Who do I think is a
slave to management?
Who wishes they were
as cool as me?
1 29
AntiHero Moves
a 10+, you hit your Finisher clean. Choose whether you gain +1 Audience, or whether your opponent does. On a 79, they make you work
for it. Chose: you win clean, and you both gain +1 Momentum, or win
via countout, disqualification or interference, and gain +1 Heat with
your opponent. On a Botch, choose: you lose -1 Audience (but get the
win) or youre screwed out of victory by an authority figure.
(and pick 2)
RULES? WHAT RULES?: When you break the rules in a match, roll
+Look. On a 10+, you get away with it, book the finish of the match on
the fly. On a 79, pick 1: you get away with it and gain +1 Momentum,
or you dont and gain +1 Heat with your opponent. On a Botch you get
DQed and lose the match (these results override Creatives booking).
ANYTHING YOU NEED TO DO TO WIN: You can use both the Babyface
and Heel Role Moves.
MOUTH OF THE PEOPLE: When you speak truth to power, roll +Audi-
ence. On a 10+, gain +1 Momentum and pick 2; on a 79, pick 1: They

shut the hell up right now; you get booked in a match with them; you
gain +1 Heat with them. On a Botch, you get beat down by their cronies.
TWITCH THE CURTAIN: When you air your legit grievances, on camera,
you can roll +Real for any Moves you make outside of the ring for the
rest of the Episode. At the end of the Episode, if you havent gained
any Audience, you lose 1 Audience.
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, check an Injury box, and note who did it. While
injured, you can interfere in any of their matches without Creatives
approval or consent, and they gain +1 Momentum when you do so.
If you have 3 checks, you can no longer compete.
Audience
The AntiHero starts and resets to Audience +1.
Advancement
The AntiHero cannot change Gimmick to Golden Boy, Jobber or
Manager.
GIMMICKS
FINISHING MOVE: When youre booked to win a match, roll 2d6. On
The Golden Boy
oure the next big thing, whether the audience, and the other
wrestlers, admit it or not. Someone backstage is putting all of their
weight behind you. You just have to hold up your end in the ring.
The Basics
Stats
Look +1, Power 0, Real
-2, Work -1; then add 1
to one Stat
Hailing From
Los Angeles,
California
Muncie, Indiana
Dallas, Texas
Elsewhere
Entrance
Classic & Impressive
Showy & Ostentatious
Mild & Unremarkable
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who did I debut with (and leave
behind)?
Whos taken me under their wing?
Whos jealous of my rapid rise?
Who has taken it upon themselves to
teach me a lesson in the ring?
131
Golden Boy Moves

a 10+, you hit your Finisher clean, gain +1 Audience. On a 79, they
make you work for it. Choose: they obviously allow you to get the win,
gain +1 Heat with them; they push you, you both gain +1 Momentum.
On a Botch, choose: an authority figure interferes and calls the match
in your favor on a technicality, losing you -1 Audience; or there was a
lastminute change to the booking from backstage and your opponent
wins the match.
(and pick 2)
DYNASTY SCION: Take +1 Look (Max +3)

I AM THE FUTURE: When you keep a promise or follow through on a
threat you made on camera, roll +Look. On a 10+ pick 2, on a 79 pick 1:

book yourself a match with any opponent; add a stipulation to a match;
gain +2 Momentum. On a Botch, you get booked in a punitive match.
SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE: When you go to an authority figure to save you
from the consequences of your actions, roll +Real. On a 10+, they cover
for you and you pick one; on a 79 they cover for you and they pick
one: they demand something new from you; they make you pay for
it; they take something away from you; you make a new enemy. On a
Botch, whoops, you thought wrong.
ALWAYS LEARNING: When you work a match with someone you know
is better than you, roll +Work. On a 10+ pick 2, on a 79 pick 1: gain +1

Momentum; gain +1 Heat with them; gain their respect. On a Botch,
you make a rookie mistake and lose -1 Audience.
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, check an Injury box. While injured, you can refuse
to compete when booked in a match; if you do so, gain +1 Heat with the
character you would have faced.
Audience
The Golden Boy starts and resets to Audience +1.
Advancement
The Golden Boy cannot change Gimmick to Veteran, or take an
Advanced Role.
GIMMICKS
FINISHING MOVE: When youre booked to win a match, roll 2d6: On
The Hardcore
Original Concept by Ian Williams
oure not the best wrestler or the best looking, but you know how
to get a pop through naked aggression and rampant bloodshed.
Some in the business look down on you, but youre a legend in the
making for a small subset of the audience. How long can that fact be
ignored?
The Basics
Stats
Look 0, Power -1, Real 0, Work -1; then add 1 to either Look or Real
Hailing From
Peoria, Illinois
Manchester, England
Union City,
New Jersey
Elsewhere

Entrance
Raucous & Aggressive
Ironic & Jokey
Sudden & Loud
Something Else
Heat Questions
Whos jealous of my devoted fan
base?
Who beat me bloody...most
recently?
Whos returned from an injury I
gave them?
Who can take everything I can
dish out?
133
Hardcore Moves
a 10+, you hit your Finisher clean (or bloody). Choose whether you or
your opponent gains +1 Audience. On a 79, they make you work for it.
Choose: you win clean, and you both gain +1 Momentum, or sacrifice
your body to make it happenyou gain +1 Heat with them and take
an injury. On a Botch, you still get the win, but pick one: you lose -1
Audience, or you injure your opponent.
TABLES AND LADDERS AND CHAIRS, OH MY: Whenever youre booked
in a match, you can add the Hardcore stipulation: no disqualification,

no count out, and weapons allowed. The match uses the Hardcore/Violence Stipulation Move.
(and pick 1)
HIGH PAIN TOLERANCE: +1 Real (Max +3)

WHAT A WEIRDO: +1 Look (Max +3)
MASTER OF HARDCORE: Whenever youre booked in a hardcore
match, take +2 Momentum.
THAT IS INSANE: When you demonstrate reckless disregard for your

own health and safety, substitute +Real for any other Stat.
RED MEANS GREEN: When youre covered in blood, substitute +Look
for any other Stat.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED: When you suffer injury, endure humili-
ation or go down in the face of overwhelming odds, roll +Real. On a

10+ pick 2, on a 79 pick one: Gain +1 Audience, make Creative book
you in a revenge match, gain +2 Momentum. On a Botch, they are not
entertained, lose -1 Audience.
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, check an Injury box, and gain +1 Heat with the
character you were working with.
Audience
The Hardcore starts and resets to Audience +1.
Advancement
The Hardcore cannot change Gimmick to Golden Boy, Jobber or
Technician.
GIMMICKS
FINISHING MOVE: When youre booked to win a match, roll 2d6. On
The High Flyer
ou are extremely athletic, able to go up to the top rope and

execute dazzling maneuvers. You put your body on the line every
night. How long can you keep this up?
The Basics
Stats
Look 0, Power -2, Real -1, Work +1; then
add 1 to one Stat
Hailing From
Guadalajara, Mexico
Black Hawk, Colorado
Daytona Beach, Florida
Elsewhere
Entrance
Fresh & Young
Loud & Fast
Rhythmic & Mellow
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who always has my back?
Who mentored me when I first joined
this roster?
Whos ripping off my highflying style?
Who wishes they could do
what I do?
1 35
High Flyer Moves

10+, you hit your Finisher clean. You gain +1 Audience. On a 79, they
make you work for it. Choose: they counter and you have to resort to a
rollup, gain +1 Heat with them; or you execute another high spot, and
gain +2 Momentum. On a Botch, you still get the win, but pick one: it
looks terrible and you lose -1 Audience; injure your opponent; injure
yourself.
(and pick 2)
LOOK AT THAT AMAZING ATHLETICISM!: +1 Work (Max +3)

HUMAN HIGHLIGHT REEL: Whenever you attempt a highflying maneu-
ver, and you roll a 10+ before spending Momentum, gain +1 Audience.
ENMSCARADO: When your mask is at stake in a match, use this Move
instead of your Finishing Move. Roll +Heat with your opponent. On a

10+, you keep your mask, and your legend grows. Gain +1 Audience.
On a 79, you keep your mask, and pick how you lose the match: you
are saved by someone else; you save yourself by fleeing the ring; you
save yourself by using a weapon. On a Botch, lose the match, and your
mask. (This Move overrides Creatives booking)
FAN FAVORITE: You know they want to see you. When you make a big
deal of being passed over roll +Real. On a 10+, pick 2, on a 79 pick
1: Demand, and be granted, a match; gain +1 Heat with the one sidelining you; gain +1 Momentum. On a Botch, you were wrong, lose -1
Audience.
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, check two Injury boxes. While injured, any time
an opponent uses your injury against you to gain an advantage, they
gain +1 Momentum and you gain +1 Heat with them.
If you have four checks, you can no longer compete.
Audience
The High Flyer starts and resets to Audience +2.
Advancement
The High Flyer cannot change Gimmick to Golden Boy, Jobber or
Monster.
GIMMICKS
FINISHING MOVE: When youre booked to win a match, roll 2d6: On a
The Jobber
Original Concept by Bret Gillan
oure a nobody. Youre there to lose and make the other guy look
good. You may not have the fans, but you have a job to do and you
can do it well. How long will that keep you, and your family, fed?
The Basics
Stats
Look -2, Power 0, Real 0, Work +1; then add 1 to one
Stat and subtract 1 from one Stat
Hailing From
Hillsboro, Iowa
Rumford, Maine
Right Here!
Elsewhere
Entrance
None
Silly & Overblown
Strangely Sympathetic
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who was my tag team partner before they
made it big?
Who cant remember who I am?
Who refuses to work with me?
Who is always trying to get management on
my side?
1 37
Jobber Moves
opponent pins you for the win, roll 2d6: On a 10+, you make them look
great. They gain +1 Audience. On a 79, you do OK. Gain +1 Momentum or +1 Heat with them, your choice. On a Botch, you dont sell it
right. You both lose -1 Audience. If your opponent is another players
wrestler, roll for this when they make their Finishing Move.
CAREER WRESTLER: If you end a session with Audience +3 or higher,

you can change to any other Gimmick, per the changing Gimmick
rules. If you end a session with Audience 0, you arent firedinstead,
your Audience is reset to +1.
(and pick 1)
HAMNEGGER: Take +1 Real (max +3)

SYMPATHETIC: Roll +Work instead of +Audience when you make the
Work the Audience Move.
JOBBER TO THE STARS: When competing against an NPW jobber, you

dont count as a Jobber and youre booked to win! You can pick the
Finishing Move from any other players Gimmick to replace your Do
The Job Move.
MULTITALENTED: When you demonstrate leadership or ability outside
of the ring, roll +Real. On a 10+ pick 2, on a 79 pick 1: someone

important notices you; someone gives you the opportunity to prove
yourself; take +1 Momentum. On a Botch, you make a fool of yourself.
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, check an Injury box. If you play up your injury
during a match, your opponent gains +1 Momentum.
You can compete with any number of checks, but when you have four
checks youre fired. Youre just too much of a liability to keep in the ring.
Audience
The Jobber starts and resets to Audience 0. Do not take an Advance when
you start, or when your Audience resets (you still take an Advance when
your Audience hits 0 during play).
Advancement
You cannot change Gimmick with Advances or take an Advanced Role
(use the Career Wrestler Move instead).
GIMMICKS
DO THE JOB: You are always booked to lose your matches. When your
The Manager
oure the sizzle on the steak. You dont compete, but you have the
charisma, the talk, the walk and the ideas to keep your client or
companion in the spotlightin and out of the ring.
The Basics
Stats
Look +2, Power -1, Real 0, Work -1; then
add 1 to one Stat
Hailing From
Memphis, Tennessee
New York City
Las Vegas, Nevada
Elsewhere
Entrance
None
Generic & Celebratory
Uses Clients Entrance
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who do I manage/accompany to the
ring? (If you manage a NPW instead,
start with Heat +3)
Who is trying to undermine me
backstage?
Who turned on me when I was their
Manager?
Who knows I have their best interests at heart?
Whenever your Client works a match
with a character you have +4 Heat with, gain +1 Audience.
139
MEAL TICKET: When you interfere on your clients behalf to win them a
match, roll 2d6. On a 10+, you pull it off and they get the win. Choose
whether you gain +1 Audience, or your client does. On a 79 the ref
notices your attempt, choose: your client uses your distraction to get
the win, they gain +2 Momentum; or you interfere but their opponent
still wins, you gain +1 Heat with your client. On a Botch, choose: your
effort is hilariously obvious, losing you -1 Audience (though your client
still wins the match); or the ref tosses you out of the match and DQs
your client. The results of this Move overrides Creatives booking.
MOUTHPIECE: When you speak for your Client, they can roll on your
Stat instead of theirs for any Move they would normally make. (If your
client is an NPW: Gain +1 Momentum when you speak for your client.)
(and pick 1)
ALWAYS HAS A PLAN: +1 Look (Max +3)
BRAIN FOR THE BUSINESS: +1 Real (Max +3)
LOYAL: When you take action in your clients best interests, roll +Look.
On a 10+ pick 2, on a 79 pick one: gain +1 Momentum; overturn a
decision made against your client; gain +1 Heat with your client; add
a stipulation to your clients upcoming match. On a Botch, youre obviously faking it, lose -1 Heat with your client.
BACKSTAGE POLITICS: When you cut a deal backstage (on or off
camera), roll +Real. On a 10+, take +2 Momentum and set up any

segment you want later in the show. On a 79, you set up a segment
later in the show, but pick one: its a match your client does not want
to have; it places you or your client in an embarrassing situation; it
demonstrates how much better someone else is than you. On a Botch,
Creative picks two.
The Rest
Injury
When you use your injury as an excuse to help your client, they gain
+1 Momentum. If all boxes are checked, youre too injured to appear
on camera.
Audience
The Manager starts and resets to Audience +1.
Advancement
"Gain Another Client" replaces "Gain a Manager, Valet or Enforcer".
The Manager cannot form a Dedicated Tag Team.
The Manager cannot change Gimmick to Golden Boy, Jobber or Veteran.
GIMMICKS
Manager Moves
The Monster
oure physically enormous and intimidating. You may have a supernatural edge, or simply be meaneither way, you make people
nervous, in and out of the ring.
The Basics
Stats
Look 0, Power +1, Real -2, Work -1; then add
1 to one Stat
Hailing From
Parts Unknown
Dead Horse, Alaska
Kill Devil Hills,
North Carolina
Elsewhere
Entrance
Thunderous & Impressive
Overblown & Odd
Weird & Mysterious
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who is terrified of me backstage?
Who helps me come up with new
directions for my character?
Whos made me look weak?
Who can stand up to me in the ring?
1 41
Monster Moves
10+, you hit your Finisher clean, gain +1 Audience. On a 79, they make
you work for it. Choose: they showcase your strength, and you both
gain +1 Momentum, or theyre unwilling to take your finisher and flee
the ring, gain +1 Heat with them. On a Botch, you still get the win, but
choose whether you lose -1 Audience or injure your opponent.
(and pick 2)
WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT SIZE!: +1 Power (Max +3)

INTIMIDATING: When you are not in the ring, roll +Power instead of
+Look.
SHOOT KILL: When you really go after someone, in or out of the ring,
roll +Real. On a 10+, gain +1 Audience (whether they see it or hear
about it later, they approve), and you pick one from the 79 list. On a
79, gain +1 Heat with your victim and they pick one: someone gets
injured, you lose all your Momentum, disciplinary action is taken backstage. On a Botch, the match is stopped, if youre in one (and you lose
by DQ), and you lose -1 Audience for going too far.
NOT OF THIS WORLD: Pick or create a signature match stipulation.

Whenever Creative books you in a match, you can choose to add that
stipulation, even if the match already has one, and you start the match
with +2 Momentum.
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, check an Injury box. While injured, when an
opponent uses your injury against you, they gain +1 Momentum and
you gain +1 Heat with them. When you erase your last Injury check, you
can demand, and be granted, a revenge match with anyone who won
a match against you while you were injured.
Audience
The Monster starts and resets to Audience +1.
Advancement
The Monster cannot change Gimmick to Golden Boy, Jobber, High
Flyer or Manager.
GIMMICKS
The Technician
hether you were an amateur sensation or an indy workhorse, you

have all the skills. Your wrestling ability stands out, but youre
continually fighting the assumption you only have one dimension to
you as a performer.
The Basics
Stats
Look -2, Power 0, Real -1, Work +1; then add 1 to
one Stat
Hailing From
St. Paul, Minnesota
Calgary, Alberta Canada
Manchester, England
Elsewhere
Entrance
Generic & Easy
Loud & Overblown
Raw & Intense
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who was holding me back as my tag
team partner?
Whos trying to learn by watching me
in the ring?
Whos jealous of my skills?
Who is trying to teach me to be more
of an entertainer?
143
Technician Moves
10+, you hit your Finisher clean. You gain +1 Audience. On a 79, they
make you work for it. Choose: they counter and you have to slap a real
submission hold on them, gain +2 Momentum; they nosell your finish
and you have to hit them with it again, gain +1 Heat with them. On a
Botch, pick one: its sloppy, lose -1 Audience and win the match; or you
go overboard and really crank in a hold, you injure your opponent, and
end the match in a no contest.
(and pick 2)
FORMER AMATEUR CHAMPION: +1 Real (Max +3)

TECHNICAL EXPERT: +1 Work (Max +3)
EXCELLENCE OF EXECUTION: You roll +Work for your Finishing Move.
VERSATILE: You use the opposite Role move of anyone youre squaring
off with (in or out of the ring). If youre facing a Babyface, you use the
Heel Move, and if youre facing a Heel, you use the Babyface Move. If
youre facing an Advanced Role, you use your normal Role Move.
SPORTSMANSHIP: When you shake hands with another wrestler,

roll +Real. On a 10+, pick two, on a 79, pick one: you both gain +1
Momentum; you gain +1 Heat with each other; you get to pick who
attacks who (or if nobody does). On a Botch, they attack you before
your hands touch (and they gain +2 Momentum).
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, check an Injury box. Whenever you lose a match
due to your injury, lose all Momentum. Whenever you push through
your injury to win a match, gain +2 Momentum.
Audience
The Technician starts and resets to Audience +1.
Advancement
The Technician cannot change Gimmick to Golden Boy, Jobber or
Monster.
GIMMICKS
The Veteran
ou are an established name. You work almost every night, you have
a dedicated fan base, and youre ready to create an enduring legacy.
The Basics
Stats
Look 0, Power -1, Real -1, Work +1; then add
1 to one Stat
Hailing From
Hollywood, California
Toronto, Ontario Canada
Charlotte, North Carolina
Elsewhere
Entrance
Classic Orchestral
Solemn & Dignified
Iconic Symbolism
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who am I keeping out of the spotlight?
Who is my protg?
Who is undercutting me?
Who has no respect for all
the work Ive put into this
company?
Veteran Moves
FINISHING MOVE: When youre booked to win a match,
roll 2d6: On a 10+, you hit your Finisher clean. Choose whether
you or your opponent gains +1 Audience. On a 79, they make you
145
work for it. Choose: you use your veteran skills to force a win, and gain
+1 Heat with them; or you let them look strong in defeat, and they
gain +1 Audience. On a Botch, you win by countout, disqualification or
interference (Creatives choice), and you lose -1 Audience.
(and pick 1)
TOP OF THE CARD: When you demand a match, it must be granted by
Creative.
BURY EM: When you go to management to stop another wrestlers

push, roll +Real. On a 10+ you book their next segment. On a 79 pick
whether you book yourself to win next time you wrestle them; or add
a stipulation to their next match. On a Botch, you accelerate their push
instead.
PUT OVER: When you show vulnerability to an opponent in the ring in
order to make them look good, roll +Work. On a 10+, you both gain +1
Audience. On a 79, one of you gains +1 Audience and the other loses
-1 Audience, your opponents choice. On a Botch, you lose -1 Audience
and your opponent resents you for your pandering.
RESPECT THE BUSINESS: When you act to preserve wrestling tradition,

roll +Real. On a 10+ they back down and you gain +1 Heat with each
other. On a 79, you gain +1 Heat with them and they choose one: they
do it behind your back; they jump you; they start spreading lies about
you in the locker room. On a Botch, traditions change. Lose -1 Heat with
them and all of your Momentum.
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, check an Injury box. When injured, you can pull
out of any match youre booked in without repercussions, but you gain
+1 Momentum if you dont.
Audience
The Veteran starts and resets to Audience +2.
Advancement
The Veteran can only change Gimmick to AntiHero, Manager or
Wasted.
GIMMICKS
VETERAN INSTINCTS: Gain +1 Momentum when you start a match.
The Wasted
Original Concept by Alex Isabelle
ou are well known for your impressive style and have a dedicated
fan base, but you have some serious reallife substance abuse and
addiction problems that could threaten your career.
The Basics
Stats
Look +1, Power -1, Real -2, Work 0; then add 1
to one Stat
Hailing From
Orange, New Jersey
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Holly Springs, North Carolina
Elsewhere
Entrance
Screams & Tears
Rock & Roll
XTreme & Wild
Something Else
Heat Questions
Who kicked my ass backstage most
recently?
Who thinks Im a curse for the
company?
Who did I last injure while I was high?
Who is jealous of my fan base?
147
Wasted Moves
youre booked to win or not, roll 2d6: On a 10+, you hit it clean. You
gain +2 Audience. On a 79, you gain +1 Audience, though something
goes wrong. Lose all Momentum and choose: your opponent nosells
it, lose -1 Heat with them; you injure yourself; you injure them. On a
Botch, you forgot the booking. You lose -1 Audience, and your opponent gets to calls an audible and finish the match however they want
(somebody had to do something)
ADDICT: Whenever you take something, gain +2 Momentum and lose
-2 Real (minimum -2). Whenever youre on something, roll +Real for ALL
your nonGimmick Moves (Basic, InRing, Top of the Card and Role).
(and pick 1)
THEY KNOW IT: The audience knows of your addiction and its part
of why theyre into you. Gain +1 Momentum when you enter the ring
obviously high.
STILEY: That sick style? You got it. +1 Look (Max +3)
YOURE A PROBLEM YOURSELF: When you piss someone off with
your bullshit, roll +Real. On a 10+ they give you the rope to hang yourself with, set up any segment you want and gain 1 Momentum. On a
79, gain +1 Heat with them and pick one: youre booked in a punitive match, you get beaten down, you get humiliated because of your
addiction. On a Botch, all three.
COMPLETELY INSANE: You can replace any Stat with +Look when you
do something thats just plain crazy. (This overrides Addict) If you Botch,
you injure yourself.
The Rest
Injury
When you get injured, gain +1 Audience and check an Injury box. For
every Injury box you have when you compete, your opponent gains +1
Momentum at the beginning of the match.
Audience
The Wasted starts and resets to Audience +2.
Advancement
The Wasted can change Gimmick to anything except Golden Boy.
GIMMICKS
MONEYMAKER: When you go for your Finisher, regardless of whether
The Moves
his is the list of the shared Moves used by the players of wrestling
characters. To download a set of standard printable reference
sheets, visit ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg.
Basic Moves
BREAK KAYFABE: When you expose the legit truth on camera, roll +Real.
On a 10+ its exactly what the audience was waiting for, gain +1
Audience
On a 79 you blur the line, gain +2 Momentum and pick 1:
Creative books you in a punitive match
the revelation loses you -1 Heat with someone
you lose someones support backstage.
CHEAP HEAT: When you insult or praise the audience or their hometown, gain +1 Momentum. You can only get cheap heat once per
Episode.
CUT A PROMO: When you take the mic and speak your mind, roll +Look.
On a 10+ you connect with the audience, gain +1 Momentum
and pick 1 from the 79 list
On a 79 you get them to pay attention, pick 1:
add a stipulation to a relevant match
gain +1 Momentum
gain +1 Heat with the subject of your Promo
FEAT OF STRENGTH: When you demonstrate your extraordinary

strength, roll +Power.
On a 10+ pick 1:
you do it easily and gain +2 Momentum
you impress your opponent and gain +1 Heat with them
On a 79 its an obvious effort. Gain +1 Momentum and they
(your opponent or Creative) picks 1:
you do it with obvious difficulty (and the Audience notices)
you put yourself at risk of injury
you put them at risk of injury
On a Botch you injure yourself.
149
RUNIN: When you interrupt a match inprogress, roll +Heat with the
character youre coming after (establish Heat at +1 if necessary).
On a 79 it has potential, you gain 1 Momentum and your target

picks one:
you attack them in the ring, resulting in their opponent
getting DQed; they win the match (this overrides Creative's
booking)
your interference doesn't change the result of the match, but
Creative books the two of you in a match later in this Episode
your interference doesn't change the result of the match,
but their opponent comes after you for interfering in their
business
WORK THE AUDIENCE: When you pump up, yell at or otherwise work to
get the audience into your corner, roll +Audience.
On a 10+ you get them on your side, gain +2 Momentum.

On a 79 they pop, pick 1:
gain +1 Momentum
take control of the match, if youre in one.
On a Botch theyre not feeling it; you cant Work the Audience
again this Episode.
Role Moves
You can use your Role Move as long as you have the Momentum
to spend on it. You can only use the Move that corresponds to your
current Role, unless you have another Move that allows otherwise.
BABYFACE: When you stand up for something you believe in, spend 2
Momentum and pick 1 of the following:
leave your opponent speechless
add a stipulation to a match
HEEL: When you do something underhanded to get what you want,

spend 2 Momentum and pick 1 of the following:
win a match (this overrides Creatives booking)
leave someone helplessly lying on the floor
get out of a match youve been booked in
MOVES
On a 10+ it's a hot angle, you both gain +1 Heat with each other
and you pick one from the 79 list
1 50
Advanced Role Moves

CELEBRITY: When you leverage your nonwrestling fame, roll +Real.
On a 10+ you get to call the shots, pick 2 from the 79 list
On a 79 everyone listens to you, pick 1:
Creative must book you to win your next match
book any match you want to see (including outcome)
gain +1 Audience
gain +2 Momentum
On a Botch the fans feel abandoned, lose -1 Audience
ICON: Pick any of your Moves, including your Finishing Move, that you
roll dice for. When you make the Move, in addition to the normal result:
When you roll a 10+ on that Move, choose:
you gain +1 Audience
your opponent or the target of the Move gains +1 Audience
When you roll a 79 on that Move you gain +1 Momentum
When you Botch your iconic spot you lose -1 Audience
LEGEND: When you make your first appearance in an Episode, roll

+Audience.
On a 10+ they adore you, pick 2 from the 79 list

On a 79 the crowd pops, pick 1:
gain +1 Audience
gain +1 Heat with someone else present
someone else present gains +1 Audience
On a Botch youre stale! Lose -1 Audience
Top of the Card Moves

CHAMPIONS ADVANTAGE: If your championship is at stake in a match,
before Creative reveals the finish you can roll out of the ring and get
counted out. You lose the match, but retain the title, as titles do not
change hands on a countout. Roll +Audience.
On a 10+ you get to add a stipulation to the rematch, and gain
+1 Momentum
On a 79 pick 1:
gain +2 Momentum
On a Botch the audience really wanted to see that match, lose
-1 Audience
151
OVER: If you have +4 Audience at the top of the show, gain +2 Momentum and roll +Look.
On a 10+ pick 2 from the 79 list

On a 79 pick 1:
demand, and be granted, any match you want
call out anyone on the roster to explain themselves, and gain
+1 Heat with them
gain +1 Momentum
InRing Moves & Stipulations

You can perform other Moves (Basic, Role and Gimmick Moves) during
a match as well. Narrate how you use them and resolve them whenever
you have control of the match, or to follow up an Interrupt move.
WRESTLING: When you have control of the match, you narrate the tran-
sitional sequences, working with your opponent to fill in the details.

When a sequence leads up to a big spot or key move in the ring,
narrate the maneuver and roll:
If you execute a difficult, demanding or dangerous maneuver that
showcases your technical wrestling ability roll +Work
If you put your opponent or yourself at legit risk by using your physical strength, roll +Power
If you execute a signature move, demonstrate your character
through action or otherwise showcase your Gimmick, roll +Look
If you work with your opponent to execute an amazing and memorable sequence, roll +Heat
On a 10+ you hit it great, retain control and pick one:
gain +2 Momentum
On a 79 you hit it pretty well, pick one:
retain control and transition into the next sequence
give your opponent control and gain +1 Momentum
On a Botch you get countered, give 1 Momentum to your opponent, and they immediately take control of the match (if you have
no Momentum, they still gain 1)
MOVES
On a Botch Creative books you with your lowestHeat opponent,

or debuts and books you with a new NPW (establish Heat at 0)
152
INTERRUPT: When you cut in to take control of a match for yourself,

spend 1 Momentum and narrate your interruption. You gain control of
the match and continue on with the next sequence.
WORK REAL STIFF: When you go to legit injure somebody in the ring,
roll +Real
On a 10+ you really lay 'em out, pick 2 from the 79 list
On a 79 that sure is stiff, pick 1:
you injure your opponent
the match ends in a nocontest (this overrides Creatives
booking)
your opponent loses -1 Audience
On a Botch you screw it up, and get injured as a result
Tag Team Moves

Tag matches focus on the current performer (called the legal wrestler) for each team in the ring. You still follow the rules for the players
having and losing control of the match (including using the Interrupt
Move), which means that the player with control of the match may not
necessarily be the legal wrestler.
HOT TAG: When you have control of the match and you go to tag your
partner at a critical moment (either to get in or out of the ring) roll

+Heat with them.
On a 10+ the tag is made and you get a doubleteam opportunity on the legal wrestler from the other team. Everyone on your
team gains +1 Momentum. The new legal wrestler from your
team takes (or retains) control of the match.
On a 79 the tag is made. The new legal wrestler on your team
gains 1 Momentum from their teammate, and takes (or retains)
control of the match.
On a Botch the other team interferes, blocks the tag and isolates your legal wrestler in their corner. The legal wrestler from
their team gains control of the match, and you give them 1
Momentum.
TAG TURN: When you refuse to tag in to a match, roll +Heat with your
partner (if theyre going for a Hot Tag, resolve this Move instead).
On a 10+ you remain outside the ring, and leave your partner to
get pinned by the opposing legal wrestler (this overrides Creatives booking). Gain +1 Heat with your partner.
1 53
On a 79 you cause them to get hit from behind. They give you 1
Momentum, then you tag yourself in as the legal wrestler.
On a Botch you get beaten down outside the ring by the other
team before your partner can reach you. Give 1 Momentum to
the legal wrestler from the other team, and they gain control of
the match.
Match Stipulation Moves

On a 10+ the crowd goes nuts, gain +1 Audience, retain control
of the match and pick 1 from the 79 list
On a 79 the crowd pops, your opponent gains control of the
match, and you pick 1:
someone in the match gets injured
you gain +2 Momentum
you gain +1 Heat with your opponent
On a Botch you play it too safe or fuck it up. Give 1 Momentum
to your opponent, they takes control of the match, and pick 1:
you lose -1 Audience
you take an Injury
The Regal Wrangle

Two competitors start in the ring, then another enters at staggered
intervals. Wrestlers can only be eliminated by being thrown over the
top rope. The last one standing is the winner! Creative decides on who
starts in the ring. Whenever a player makes the Wrestling Move, replace
the normal result list with this one:
On a 10+ retain control of the match, and pick 1:
throw an opponent over the top rope, gain +1 Heat with them
pick the next entrant to the Wrangle, gain +1 Heat with them.
On a 79 pick 1:
you need to work with someone else to throw an opponent
over the top rope, and they take control of the match
retain control of the match and pick the next entrant
On a Botch you get taken to the top rope! You can spend 1
Momentum to stay in the ring, or you get dumped out, and gain
+1 Heat with whoever dumped you
MOVES
HARDCORE/VIOLENCE: When you draw blood, use a weapon or revel

in violence in the ring roll +Real.
1 54
Wrestlers can use the Interrupt Move to avoid elimination.

In addition to those introduced through the Move, Creative introduce
new competitors whenever they feel its appropriate.
If the wrestler whos booked to win is about to get eliminated, Creative
should reveal the finish early (but continue playing out the match). If
someone goes to dump out the winner once they know whos booked
to win, thats Breaking Kayfabe! If you want to play it straight, then just
play as normal, using this Move, until one wrestler is left standing tall.
Creative should plan on introducing at least as many NPWs as there are
players in order to create a suitably chaotic atmosphere for this match.
King of the Hill
Original Concept by Willow Palacek

A King of the Hill match features multiple wrestlers in a single ring,
with a raised platform in the middle. Any wrestler thrown over the top
rope is eliminated. At the end of a timer (usually 10 minutes), whoever
stands on the platform is King of the Hill!
Creative sets the timer to 10 (writing it in big numbers is a good way to
do it). The timer ticks down based on the wrestlers Move results. When
the timer hits 0, whoever is currently King of the Hill wins; they gain +1
Audience. If Creative has booked a winner and they are about to be
eliminated, you should reveal the finish early, as in the Regal Wrangle.
Creative can tick down the timer as needed as well.
Creative decides who starts as King of the Hill, and they start with
control of the match. All of the other contestants start in the ring.
Whenever a player makes the Wrestling Move, replace the normal result
list with this one, depending on their position in the ring:
If you are King of the Hill:
On a 10+ you dominate, retain control and pick 1:
you gain +1 Heat with the wrestler who most threatens you
you knock a challenger over the top rope, eliminating them!
On a 79 you maintain. Creative ticks down the timer by 1, and
you pick 1:
you keep control of the hill, but you give a challenger control
of the match
you are dumped off the hill! Choose who dethrones you and
give them control of the match, and gain +1 Heat with them.
1 55
On a Botch you get dumped off the Hill. Whoever dethroned

you gains control of the match and becomes King of the Hill.
Creative ticks down the timer by 1, and you pick 1:
give one Momentum to the new King of the Hill and stay in
the match
youre thrown out of the ring and eliminated, gain +1 Heat
with whoever took you out
On a 10+ you rule. Retain control of the match, and pick 1:
you become King of the Hill
you gain +1 Heat with the King of the Hill
On a 79 you mix it up good. Creative ticks down the timer by 1,
and you pick 1:
someone else sabotages your valiant climb up the Hill, gain
+1 Heat with them and give them control of the match
you need to work with someonechoose another wrestler to
become King of the Hill, but retain control of the match
On a Botch you get dumped off the Hill. The current King of the
Hill gains control of the match. Creative ticks down the timer by
1, and you pick 1:
give one Momentum to the King of the Hill and stay in the match
youre thrown out of the ring and eliminated! Gain +1 Heat
with the King of the Hill
A Custom Move
REVOLUTION: When you take over the show lose -1 Audience, then
gain +2 Momentum.
During the show, you can spend Momentum 1for1 any time to:
book a match (Creative still books the finish)
interrupt a match or segment without having to make the
RunIn Move, ask permission or otherwise explain yourself
set up any backstage segment you want
gain +1 Heat with someone who's bucking your selfdeclared
authority
If you end the Episode without having gained any Audience, pick one:
you lose an additional Audience
you face severe backstage consequences.
If you gained any Advances this Episode, add this to the Advance list:
Extract a major backstage concession from management.
MOVES
If you are challenging for the Hill:
The Glossary
Game Concepts
Agendas: What each player is trying to achieve in order to make the game
as fun as possible for everyone at the table. PAGE 55 (Player Agendas)
PAGE 78 (Creative Agendas)
Imaginary Viewing Audience: The fictional audience watching your wrestling show. PAGE 8
Making The X: A method to indicate to the other players that something
has crossed a personal line. PAGE 32
Moves: Discrete moments of play that demand resolution or push the
game forward. See Moves entry (PAGE 159) for specific references.
Principles: The guideposts that Creative uses to decide which Moves to
make in service of their Agendas. PAGE 78
Game Terms
Advances: Gained by players wrestlers from certain Audience scores,
finishing feuds and gaining championships, and spent to improve and
evolve the character. PAGE 46
Audience: The rating of how popular a wrestling character is. Both player's
wrestlers and NPWs have an Audience score, rated from 0 to +4. PAGE
43 (Player's Wrestlers) PAGE 77 (NPWs)
Botch: When a player rolls a 6 or less when they make a Move. Botches
represent the inability of the character to get what they want out of the
Move, and allow Creative to make Hard Moves. PAGE 56
Gimmick: Each individual wrestling character's unique archetype. PAGE
34 (Making Your Wrestler) PAGE 125 (The 10 Basic Gimmicks)
Heat: A score representing how engaging a wrestler's relationship with
another character is to the audience. Ranges from 0 to +4. PAGE 42
(Setting Heat) PAGE 42 (Heat In Play) PAGE 43 (Cooling Off Heat)
Injury: Checkboxes indicating how injured a character is, and the conditions in force whenever a box is checked for an individual character,
indicating their level of injury. PAGE 45
Momentum: A resource representing a character's intangibles and inten-
sity in a given Episode. Spent to add a bonus to rolls after they are made,
and to trigger some Moves. PAGE 45
157
Stats: The four basic attributes all Gimmicks share, rated from -2 to +3:
Look, Power, Real and Work. PAGE 40
Game Structure
Booking: Creative decides on the results of wrestling matches and the
order of segments before each Episode starts. Booking can be changed

(swerved) by the events of play. PAGE 20 (Booking the First Episode)
PAGE 74 (Booking Later Episodes)
Episode: The basic time unit of play, covering a single show performed by
your roster. Episodes generally take 23 hours of real time to play. PAGE
14 (Overview) PAGE 16 (The First Episode)
Gaining Audience: As the player's wrestlers gain Audience, the entire promotion gains new viewers. PAGE 77
Promotion: The fictional wrestling company that employs your wrestling

characters. PAGE 84 (Building Your Promotion) PAGE 119 (Season
One Promotions)
Roster: The list of wrestlers in your promotion, including the players wrestlers and NPWs. PAGE 16 (First Episode Roster) PAGE 34 (Making
Wrestling Characters) PAGE 111(Season One Roster)
Season: A linked series of Episodes following the set of continuous storylines involving your wrestling roster. PAGE 14 (Overview) PAGE 71
(Continuing A Season)
Segment: An single scene that occurs inside an Episode, generally

booked by Creative. Can be inring, backstage or offcamera. PAGE 32
(Pacing Segments) PAGE 71 (List Of Segments)
The Card: The relative importance and popularity of the wrestlers. Usually
determines what order wrestling matches are booked in and who's in contention for title belts. PAGE 74
Wrestling Terms
Kayfabe: The concept that the audience accepts the scripted reality as
"real" in order to enjoy a wrestling show, acknowledging that there's a
legit reality behind it all. PAGE 8 (Summary) PAGE 92 (History)
Other Jargon: A reference list of commonly used wrestling terms (and
how they're used in this game) is on PAGE 11
GLOSSARY
On Deck: Creative makes a list of ideas, characters and feuds they want to
see in play in between Episodes. PAGE 72
158
Player Roles
Announcer: During a wrestling match, any player who's character isn't
booked to be in the match can serve as the Announcer, calling the match
for the Imaginary Viewing Audience and sometimes Putting Over wrestlers
in the match. PAGE 65
Creative: A single player who books matches and Episodes, creates antag-
onists for the player's wrestlers, and generally organizes and narrates the
ongoing show. PAGE 78
NonPlayer Wrestler (NPW): All of the characters in the game that aren't
played by single players. Often played by Creative, or assigned to a player

whos wrestler isn't present in a segment on an ad hoc basis. Players can
also take over NPWs to play when their wrestler is off screen during a
Gimmick change, or as a new or additional character due to spending
Advances. PAGE 47 (Taking Over NPWs) PAGE 67 (Wrestling NPWs)
PAGE 72 (Creative & NPWs)
Wrestler: Each player (other than Creative) creates an individual wrestling
character. Play focuses on these characters and their storylines. PAGE
34 (Making Your Wrestler) PAGE 50 (Playing Your Wrestler)
Character Roles
Overview of Character Roles PAGE 41
Babyface: A good guy. Babyfaces generally have moral principles, care
about their fans and stand up for what they believe in. PAGE 149 (The
Babyface Move)
Heel: A bad guy. Heels generally are selfish, look out for their own interests first and cheat to win. PAGE 149 (The Heel Move)
(Advanced) Celebrity: A wrestler who's transcended good and bad
through fame gained outside of the wrestling world. PAGE 150 (The
Celebrity Move)
(Advanced) Icon: A wrestler who's transcended good and bad through

their devotion to their craft. PAGE 150 (The Icon Move)
(Advanced) Legend: A wrestler who's transcended good and bad through
the fan's love of their character. PAGE 150 (The Legend Move)
Wrestling Matches
Overview of Wrestling Matches PAGE 64
Dedicated Tag Teams: Two players can use Advances to put their wrestlers
into a Dedicated Tag Team, giving them advantages in tag team matches
over nonDedicated teams. PAGE 69
1 59
Putting Over: The ability the Announcer for a match has to describe a
wrestlers sequence in the most positive light, bumping up their die result
one level (from Botch to partial hit, or partial to full hit). PAGE 65
Stakes & Limits: The tools used by Creative to add drama to wrestling
matches, by heightening rewards or adding formal or informal stipulations. PAGE 81
Customization
Custom Moves: Moves you create to showcase unique aspects of your
games wrestling universe. PAGE 86
New Gimmicks: Gimmicks you create to represent specific archetypes of
wrestler not covered by the basic 10 presented here. PAGE 88
Moves
Overview of Making Moves PAGE 56
Basic Moves: The Moves all wrestlers can use. PAGE 60 (Using Basic
Moves) PAGE 148 (Move List)
Creative Moves: Moves made by Creative to advance storylines and chal-
lenge the players wrestlers. Soft Moves are made when it's time for something to happen onscreen. Hard Moves are made when players Botch, or
when the situation demands fallout in the legit lives of the wrestlers. PAGE
79 (Making Creative Moves) PAGE 80 (Creative Move List)
Gimmick Moves: The Moves for each individual Gimmick, chosen as each
Gimmick instructs. Gimmicks start on PAGE 125
InRing Moves: Moves used by all wrestlers during wrestling matches.
PAGE 65 (Using InRing Moves) PAGE 151 (Move List)
Other Moves: Moves can be created to cover other aspects of the game,
like a promotionwide concept or the interactions between wrestlers and

fans. PAGE 86 (Creating Custom Moves) PAGE 155 (A Custom Move)
Stipulation Moves: Moves that apply when a match is given a matching
stipulation. PAGE 70 (Making Stipulations) PAGE 153 (Move List)
Top Of The Card Moves: Moves used by wrestlers who are at the top of the
card (either due to popularity or holding a championship title).PAGE 62
(Using Top Of The Card Moves) PAGE 150 (Move List)
GLOSSARY
The Promotion: The details of how your wrestling world works are up to
you, and can be decided beforehand or through the course of play. PAGE
85 (Default Assumptions) PAGE 119 (Season One Promotions)
the Camel Clutch ends all arguments
Colophon
This publication was created with Adobe CC on a MacBook Pro. The Avenir
Next typeface was chosen for body text for its readability and humanistic proportions. Titles are set in Cassanet, a contemporary display typeface inspired
by French Art Nouveau poster type. It was chosen for its resonance with special
event title graphics from the 1970s and '80s. Incidentals are from Zaft Dingbats
and Phosphate.
This physical publication was printed in Michigan, USA on 100% postconsumerwaste, FSC certified paper.
Crafted with love in Chicago, IL.
First printing. 2015.

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What is the purpose of this publication?

What is the purpose of this publication?

What content does this publication cover?

What content does this publication cover?

the professional wrestling rpg

This game text is copyright 2015 by Nathan D. Paoletta/ndp design. All

game hacking and conversation; Jared Sorensen's Darkpages; Matt

Stroud's Best and Worst columns for Uproxx.com/prowrestling.

My wrestling bros Ian, Bret, Eppy, Ed and John.

and a very special thanks to my 427 Kickstarter backers!

Making The Roster

Building Your Promotion

How Wrestling Works

he World Wide Wrestling RPG is a game that creates professional

About The Game

About the Game

each player picks a gimmick for their wrestler:

The Golden Boy

The High Flyer

See Chapter Four (PAGE 34) for more details on Gimmicks.

About the Game

Talking The Talk

How To Play This Game

46 wrestling fans. The game can support from 39 total players,

Pencils and at least 2 normal sixsided dice (d6). Having more

The Medium of Play

How To Play This Game

The Big Picture

also handled by the use of Moves, featuring a specific method to pass

The First Episode

Building The Roster

Once the players have selected Gimmicks, they then:

Mark their starting Audience score by placing a checkmark in the

Example: Making Wrestlers

Pick any Moves they have available, in addition to the starting

Playing The First Episode

Example: Setting Heat

Playing The First Episode

Last Time, on World Wide Wrestling

Booking The Event

Example: Booking The Show

And Youre Live

What order the matches occur in.

Playing The First Episode

celebrate and challenge the players.

The Basics: Making Moves

Example: Making a Move

most of the basic building blocks of modern wrestlingworking the

Playing The First Episode

The Basics: Momentum

Example: Using Momentum

addition, Finishing Moves are basic 2d6 rolls, so saving Momentum up to

The Basics: The Engine

The Basics: Being Creative

The Basics: Audience

Playing The First Episode

Example: Soft and Hard Moves

Playing The First Episode

The Basics: Wrestling

The Basics: The Announcer