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World Wide Wrestling - Alpha Playtest -

World Wide Wrestling

The Pro Wrestling Role-Playing Game. Powered by the Apocalypse.

Nathan D. Paoletta/ndpdesign 2012-2013

Thanks: Vincent for Apocalypse World, Joe for Simple World, Ian+Bret+Eppy+John for being my wrestling bros.

Gimmick Thanks: Bret Gillan for The Jobber, Alex Isabelle for The Wasted, Ian Williams for The Hardcore Icon

Rules Thanks: John Stavropolous for the X-Card

Development History

1st rough draft - Playtested once with John Stavropolous, Tim Rodriguez, Anon Adderlane, and Terry Romero at Metatopia 2012.

1st rough draft - Playtested via G+ Hangout with Ian Williams and Bret Gillan.

2nd rough draft - Playtested by Alex Isabelle/Revan Adler, Girolamo Castaldo, and others. Helpful and amazing feedback and suggestions, thanks!

This is the first Alpha draft. Please direct comments, questions and feedback to (email) [email protected], (twitter) @ndpaoletta, Nathan D. Paoletta on Google+. Use the hashtag #WWWRPG.

Contents1. What Is This Game About?

2. The Big Picture

3. The First Episode

4. Making the Roster

5. The Talent

6. Moves

7. Throwing The X

8. Playing The Game

9. How To Be Creative

Powered by the ApocalypseWorld Wide Wrestling is a hack of Apocalypse

World, by D. Vincent Baker. If you’re already fa-

miliar with AW, these sidebars call out impor-

tant similarities and differences to help you get

oriented.

If you’re not, ignore them!


1. What Is This Game About?

The game is about creating a professional wrestling franchise with storylines that are both satisfying and surprising.

The game asks you to do a lot of double (triple?) think - you need to think about (a) the wrestling per-sona (b) the real person behind the persona and (c) the audience reaction to both.

One player is Creative. Creative books matches, plays NPCs, and orchestrates the environment around the Talent. Creative is in charge of creating ongoing Storylines, and adapting them as the results of play send them awry.

The other players are Talent. Each Talent picks a Gimmick and a Role. Gimmicks are unique - each Talent must pick a different Gimmick (though they can change Gimmicks throughout their careers, if they want). There are 12 Gimmicks currently available: The Veteran, The Clown, The Technician, The High Flyer, The Monster, The Legend, The Opportunist, The Manager/Valet/Companio, The Jobber, The Golden Boy, The Wasted and The Hardcore Icon. There are two Roles, Babyface (good guy) and Heel (bad guy). Most Talent will change Role more often than their Gimmick, transitioning between being good guys and bad guys on the roster. All Talent is generally looking out to get over with the audience and to advance their career.

Something Weird and Important

This game requires a certain kind of suspension of disbelief that wrestling fans are generally really good at, but which may require a little mental gymnastics when applied to a game where you’re supposed to advocate for the characters.

For everyone: This game is divided between on-screen and off-screen action. The majority of the game takes place on-screen, which means that your descriptions of action and the dialogue you put into your character(s) mouth(es) is literally on the imaginary Jumbotron and television screens, broad-cast to the live audience of your televised wrestling franchise. When a scene is off-screen, this means that the cameras are not rolling, and you are free to express the “real lives” of your fictional characters, for better or for worse.

For Talent: Your character encapsulates both the wrestling character who’s performing for an audi-ence and abiding by the booking decisions made behind the scenes by Creative AND the real per-son who’s trying to square their performance in the ring with their real-life problems, interests and ambitions. Your character is represented by four stats. Two of them are primarily about on-screen, in-ring performance (+Work and +Power), one represents how your inherent appeal translates to the

PlaybooksInstead of choosing one playbook, your WWW

character has two! Your Gimmick and Role

break apart the original Playbook model into

two parts that advance and change indepen-

dently of each other.


ring (+Look), and one represents your use of, or the intrusion of, real-life stuff into the constructed wrestling universe (+Real). Your character also has Moves representing categories of actions that your character most often takes. The results of Moves are what enable you to achieve your character’s goals both on-screen and off-screen, though often as a cost or with a complication. Re-member to always view your characters actions through the lens of the imagi-

nary audience. Simultaneously, you should always advocate for your characters success in-the-ring (you want to win the match!) and out.

For Creative: You have a unique challenge. Like in real-world wrestling, you are responsible for book-ing the results of every match based on what you think will bring in the most (fictional) audience, at-tention and money. So, generally, you kick off storylines between wrestlers, and book who wins what and when. However, the Talent players have agency and are advocating for their characters’ success. This means that they will often throw a swerve into your planned storyline, either by taking an ac-tion you hadn’t expected, overruling your booking of a match through the result of a Move, or both. Your primary job is to take those swerves and make it look like that’s what was planned all along to the imaginary viewing audience. In addition, you can use off-screen scenes to complicate the Talent character’s lives and put additional pressure on them to perform in certain ways on-screen. The fric-tion between the real and the performance, the backstage and the ring, the man and the mask - that’s where the game really shines.

2. The Big Picture

Generally, you start a game of World Wide Wrestling by creating a set of interesting and iconic wres-tlers (the Talent played by the players) and the constellation of rivals, heroes, sycophants and love in-terests that surround them in the promotion (played by Creative). The first session should serve mainly to introduce the Talent, show off what’s cool about them and their place on the card, and kick off the storylines that they’re currently booked to be part of.

As the storylines unfold over subsequent episodes, the Talent will grow and change, gaining and los-ing title belts, overcoming or being crushed by their rivals, and enjoying or enduring the fruits of their liaisons. Over time, as we get to know the Talent better, their real lives off-screen will become more important to how they perform in the ring, and perhaps vice-versa.

A game typically ends when a combination of the following all come together at the same time: all of the current storylines are wrapped up to the groups satisfaction; wrestlers lose the attention of the audience and are fired as a result; a player feels that they have taken their character as far as they want to go.

StatsThere are only 4 stats in WWW: +Look, +Power,

+Work and +Real.


3. The First Episode

To start a game of World Wide Wrestling, you need at least two people, two six-sided dice (or more to make sharing easier), some pencils, these rules, copies of the Gimmicks (one each) and Roles (at least one copy of each Role per player), and some pencils. One of the players is Creative, and the rest are all Talent. Once this is settled, any reference to “players” or “the other players” is referencing just the Talent players. Creative is always referred to as Creative.

In the first session of the game, each player picks a Gimmick and Role to start off with. Each Gimmick asks the player to pick stats, some initial Moves, and options for their Finisher from the options pre-sented.

Each Gimmick also has a list of questions to ask the other players in order to set initial Heat (representing how interesting the relationship between those wrestlers is to the viewing audience). To do this, simply ask the question and wait for one of the other players to volunteer to answer it, then make the ap-propriate Heat adjustment. Once you’re done asking questions, the next play-er asks the questions on their sheet, and so on until everyone is done asking questions. You ask as many questions as there are other players (so if there’s 3 players, each player will ask 2 questions), and can pick whichever questions you like from your sheet.

Once each player has settled into the Gimmick, Creative should take note of any NPC wrestlers demanded or implied by the players choices, as well as think up a few that they want to make sure have a prominent place in the promotion. Creative should also create the list of initial Storylines to kick off and set out the initial booking for each one (more details about this is in the Creative section).

Once Creative has booked the initial storylines, we go to the action. In this first Episode, Talent gets introduced and should show off what makes them so awesome for the imaginary viewing audience to watch. It may be appropriate to glimpse some off-screen interactions, but generally the first Episode should closely track to an actual televised wrestling show, interspersing interviews, promotional segments and wrestling matches in such a way as to create a dra-matic and compelling 1-2 hours of (imaginary) action.

EpisodesGenerally, an Episode of WWW seems to take

about 1-2 hours to play. Plan accordingly!

HeatInstead of Hx, WWW uses Heat, which tracks

how much audience response the relationship

between two wrestlers receives. Positive Heat

means a positive audience response, NOT that

it’s necessarily a positive relationship! Gener-

ally, rivals have more Heat than allies, actually.


4. Making the Roster

Characters in World Wide Wrestling are described by Stats (a positive or negative number associated with a descriptive quality), Heat (a positive or negative number representing the entertainment value of a relationship), Moves (a specific kind of character action with an array of possible consequences), a Finisher (the wrestlers signature wrestling move) and Momentum (a positive number that represents the characters overall build-up of entertaining energy). Each character is also ranked on the Audience Ladder, which describes how popular the character is and what kind of response they generally get from the imaginary viewing audience.

To create your wrestler, pick two things: a Gimmick and a Role. The Gimmick describes the broad category of performer your wrestler falls into, and the Role describes what dramatic role your wrestler is currently fulfilling on the roster. Your Gimmick provides: your Stats, your Heat, a number of Moves, your Finisher, and your initial spot on the Audience Ladder. Your Role provides: modifiers to Heat, a number of Moves, and a place to track your movement on the Audience Ladder. It is totally appropri-ate to change Role during any given Episode, sometimes multiple times; changing your Gimmick is possible as well, but is generally the result of a longer-term storyline.

Character Stats

Look - your charisma, strength of personality and “it” factor

Work - your ability to tell a story in the ring, execute moves correctly and make others look good

Power - your raw strength, aggression and impressiveness

Real - your ability to break the fourth wall, bring in real-world concerns and deal with real-world issues

Stats each have a number ranging from -2 to +3 associated with them, though most characters start between -2 and +1. Each Gimmick provides your initial Stat choices. 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.

Heat

Heat is a number ranging from -4 to +4, and it represents how much your relationship with a given wrestler gets an audience response (so you could have high Heat with both your tag team partner and your bitter rival, as long as those relationships are entertaining). You also have Heat with the Audience,

Stat ValuesStarting WWW characters have lower stats than

starting AW characters, mainly because there

are many more single-roll bonuses that come

up during play.


which represents generally how strong an audience response you get personally. Your Audience Heat goes up and down more often than your Heat with other Talent, and it determines when you move up and down the card (by hitting +4 or -4) (more on moving up and down the card is in a later section)

When you make initial characters, you ask each other questions to generate some backstory between your characters and modify your starting Heat. Write down each other Talent’s name on your sheet, and fill in your starting Heat number (as provided by your Gimmick). Then, in turn, each player picks a number of questions equal to the number of other players and asks them, looking to the other players to answer. When someone answers, make the appropriate Heat adjustment noted by the question.

During the game, sometimes a Move will ask you to roll +Heat with another character, or +Audience Heat.

Audience Ladder

The Audience Ladder tracks how over you are with the Audience on a longer-term scale. You can have a hot or a cold night (represented by +Audience Heat), which can potentially impact how much of a draw you are for the com-pany (represented by the Audience Ladder). Each Gimmick starts at a specific place on the Ladder. Each character has a separate Ladder, as part of the Role playsheet. It looks like this:

» [ ] - Over - At the beginning of the episode, make the Over Move.

» [ ] -Hot - Start the episode with +2 Momentum

» [ ] - Warm - Start the episode with +1 Momentum

» [ ] - Cool - At the beginning of the episode, take -1 Audience Heat

» [ ] - Cold - At the beginning of the episode, take -2 Audience Heat

» [ ] - Chill - At the beginning of the episode, take -3 Audience Heat

» [ ] - Dead - At the end of the episode, you’re fired.

When something tells you to “Move up on the ladder” erase your current mark and check off the next higher rung. When something tells you to “move down one”, erase your current mark and check off the next lower rung. You generally move up the ladder as a result of doing well in your matches, and you generally move down the ladder as a result of doing poorly, through there’s other ways as well.

When you’re Dead at the end of a session, that’s too bad. The audience has completely lost interest in

HarmThere is no Harm in WWW - the Audience Lad-

der tracks how close your character is to the

only kind of death that matters. You can get in-

jured, which is a narrative condition and doesn’t

necessarily mean your character is out of play.


your character, and you are for-real fired. If you intend to keep playing, it’s time to make a new charac-ter, or take over an NPC wrestler if you’d like.

When you’re Over at the beginning of an Episode, you make the Over Move. This is one of the General Moves (listed in the Moves section) and it’s only ever made by players who are Over at the beginning of an episode.

If you change Role playsheet (make a Face turn or Heel turn), just copy your current ladder position over to the new sheet.

Moves

You have some Moves automatically, based on your Role and your Gimmick, and then you usually have the option to pick another Move or two. Pick whatever you think is cool for your character – you’ll have opportunities to get more later! Moves are iconic moments that your character mindfully aims to demonstrate during each Episode.

Finisher

Your finisher is your signature wrestling move. Feel free to make up anything you want, and pick two options from the list. Each option has a small mechanical modifier associated with it. If you want to describe or create a new finisher during play, that’s fine, but you keep the options you’ve picked until you have a chance to change or add to them thanks to Advancements. You can’t take options that are obviously contradictory (for example, you can’t have a finisher that is both unique and a standard move that you have a particular flair for.)

Momentum

You have a Momentum score, which is a measure of how well you are able to sync up your promos with your in-ring action, and vice-versa. This starts each Episode at 0, and the effects of Moves will add to it. You can spend Momen-tum at any time before you make a roll to add a bonus equal to the amount of Momentum you spend. Momentum never goes below 0.

Many Moves, including the basic Moves, give you the option to take Momentum as a result. You lose all unspent Momentum at the end of each Episode. Practically speaking, the most Momentum it’s worth spending at a time is whatever will get you a 10+ result, so 5 to 8 depending on your Stat for the roll. Momentum is intended to be something you build up over an Episode in order ensure success on later rolls, but you should look for any opportunities to spend it that you feel are appropriate.

ForwardInstead of taking static bonuses (+1 Forward,

etc), each character has a rolling bonus total

that reflects the building “rhythm” they gain

over the course of an evening. That’s what Mo-

mentum is all about.


Advancement

Over the course of their career, each character will grow and change. Advancement comes from hav-ing rivalries, getting the audience behind you, and closing out storylines. Whenever a characters hits certain milestones, their player takes an Advancement. You can spend Advancements whenever you want to gain certain effects, listed below.

Take an Advancement when you:

» Work a match with a wrestler who you have +4 or -4 Heat with. Take your Advancement after the match is finished, and reset your Heat with that wrestler to 0.

» Move up the card when you reach +4 Audience Heat, or down the card when you reach -4 Audience Heat. Take your Advancement once you hit +/-4, and reset your Audience Heat to 0.

» Gain a Championship Belt

» End a feud satisfactorily (as the fiction dictates). When you and Creative are both satisfied with the conclusion of a feud (whether it goes well or poorly for you), take an Advancement.

If multiple conditions trigger at the same, you get an Advancement for each (so if you work a Match with a wrestler who you have +4 Heat with, and it satisfactorily ends your Feud, take two Advance-ments).

Spend one Advancement to do one of the following:

» Add +1 to any stat (max +3)

» Pick another Move from your Gimmick

» Change Role (make a Face turn or a Heel turn)

» Create a custom Move for your character based on a signature habit

» Add a new Finishing Move, and pick two options for it

» Gain a Manager, a Valet or an Enforcer (NPC)

» Unlock the 10+ option on one of your Match Moves

» Go up one on the Audience Ladder

After you’ve picked 3 of those (including picking one option multiple times), you can also pick:

» Create a custom Move that anyone can use, based on a signature habit


» Create a new character to play (your current character becomes an NPC, if you want, or play both)

» Briefly retire this character and pick an NPC to play for the next episode. Then return this character, with a new Gimmick (see below).

» This character for-real retires. Create a new character, or pick an NPC to play.

Taking a New Gimmick

When you take a new Gimmick, this represents your characters whole image being reconsidered and repackaged backstage, whether because their cur-rent personae is getting stale, or perhaps because there’s a need for a new kind of character that only you can provide. This is why the character takes an Episode “off” - you can play an NPC, try out a new character, spend the ses-sion as an audience member, or take the session off yourself, whatever works for you. If you want to give the character multiple Episodes off, thats fine too.

When the character returns:

» keep their Stats the same

» keep all Moves and 10+ options from Match Moves that you selected as a result of Advance-ment.

» Take the When You Work A Match Move and select Moves from your new Gimmick to replace the initial Moves from your old Gimmick.

» Pick whether you want to keep your finisher, or create a new one (with new options).

» Reset your Heat with all other Talent to the Gimmick starting Heat, then add +1 to anyone you had positive Heat with and -1 to anyone you had negative Heat with before you took time off (don’t change it if you had 0 Heat)

» Take -1 to your existing Audience Heat

» Start at the same rung on the Audience Ladder

» Pick whether you come back as a Babyface or a Heel and take the appropriate Role sheet

New PlaybooksIf you want, you can change Gimmick many

times over the course of your characters career.

Starting with your fourth advancement, you can

take a new Gimmick whenever you like. The

only advancement you can’t take multiple times

is Retiring.


5. The Talent

For now, please reference the individual Gimmick and Role PDFs distributed with these rules for all the info you need to play. Currently available:

Roles

Babyface - You’re a good guy.

Heel - You’re a bad guy.

Gimmicks

The Clown - You are the quintessential entertainer. You bring comedy to the ring and backstage - and while you may not have many champi-onship belts, you bring plenty of merch money.

The Golden Boy - You’re the next big thing, whether the audience, and the other Talent, admit it or not. Someone backstage is putting all of their weight behind you - which means you have to hold up your end in the ring.

The Hardcore Icon (by Ian Williams) - You’re not the best wrestler or the best looking, but you know how to get a pop through naked ag-gression and rampant bloodshed. Some in the business look down on you, but you’re a legend in the making for a small subset of the audi-ence. How long can that fact be ignored?

The High Flyer - You are extremely athletic, able to go up to the top rope and execute dazzling maneuvers. But is that enough to succeed in this business?

The Jobber (by Bret Gillan) - You’re a nobody. You’re 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

The Legend - You’re the flagship wrestler of this company. You have a long and intricate career behind you, and still draw the crowds. But you’re getting older, and transitioning to fewer, higher-stakes matches.

The Manager/Valet/Enforcer - You’re the sizzle on the steak. You don’t compete, but you have the charisma, the talk, the walk and the ideas to keep your client/companion in the spotlight - in and out of the ring.

The Monster - You’re physically enormous and intimidating. You may have a supernatural edge, or simply be mean - either way, you make people nervous, in and out of the ring.

The Opportunist - The only reliable thing about you is that you’re un-reliable. This makes you valuable on the roster, but also difficult to create lasting impressions - or relationships.

The Technician - You have a decorated amateur wrestling background. Your wrestling ability stands out, but you’re continually fighting the perception that that’s “all you are”.

The Veteran - You are an established name. You work almost every night, you have a dedicated fan base, and you’re ready to create an enduring legacy.

The Wasted (by Alex Isabelle!) - You are well known for your impres-sive style and have a dedicated fan base, but you have some serious real-life substance abuse and addiction problems that could threaten your career.


6. Moves

There are three kinds of Moves: General Moves, Match Moves and Character Moves, plus one special case, the when you work a match Move. General Moves are a list of Moves available to all of the char-acters all of the time - things like cutting promos and working the audience. Match Moves are the list of Moves that are only applicable inside the ring, when your character is in a wrestling match. Character Moves are the Moves that you get from your choice of Gimmick and Role, and then from character advancement if you choose to gain more Moves.

To make a Move, either narrate your character doing the act that triggers the move, or say which Move you want to make and then narrate how your char-acter enacts the trigger. Oftentimes, you’ll just be saying what your character says and does, and you’ll realize that you’re triggering a Move, or Creative will ask you if you’re making a certain Move based on what you’re saying. The title of the Move generally describes what the trigger is.

Creative, one of your jobs is to pay attention (especially during the First Epi-sode) and ask/remind the players that they’re triggering a Move.

To Make A Move

When you make the Move, describe everything we need to know in order to make sense of what your character is doing; roll 2d6+Stat indicated; compare the result to the results listing on the Move and make whatever decisions you need to make. A result can be a strong hit (10 and above), a hit (7-9) or a miss (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 miss.

Misses are opportunities for Creative to add more difficulties and obstacles into your characters storyline and/or personal life, and sometimes have spe-cific effects depending on the Move in question.

Each character has a separate when you work a match Move based on their Gimmick, representing their overall performance in the match, and the out-comes of this performance. This Move is only ever made as the last Move dur-ing a match, after the back-and-forth of the match has been narrated (and Match Moves made), but before Creative reveals the booked finish of the match. Each Talent involved in the match makes their own individual when you work a match Move.

To Do It, Do ItBasically, this. However, the nature of pro wres-

tling is that it’s a (semi) scripted medium, and

saying something like “I grab the mic and cut a

promo” is a legit in-fiction thing to say. So, don’t

worry about it too much, speaking the Moves

names is fine.

MissesIn WWW, Creative has separate lists of Hard and

Soft moves, and always makes a Hard Move on

a player’s miss. Many of the Moves don’t give a

mechanically negative result on a miss, and this

is why - all misses open the door to bad things

happening to your wrestler.


General Moves

Every Talent makes these Moves whenever the player narrates the appropriate action, and/or when the player specifically says they want to trigger the Move, describing how they do so. Also, if a player naturally seques into a Move, (like they launch into a Promo, or narrate how they start yelling at the audience before a match), Creative should prompt them to make the appropriate Move roll.

» When you work the audience roll +Audience Heat. On a 10+ gain +2 Momentum, on a 7-9 gain +1 Momentum, on a miss, you look lame, take -1 Audience Heat.

» When you cut a promo roll +Look. On a 10+ hold 2, on a 7-9 hold 1. Spend holds 1-for-1 to: make Creative put you in a match, to add a stipulation to a match you’re in, to add +1 Momen-tum. Lose unspent holds at the end of the Episode.

» When you break Kayfabe roll +Real. On a 10+ it’s exactly what the audience was waiting for, go up one on the Audience Ladder. On a 7-9, pick one: you do not for-real piss off someone you care about, you do not for-real put your job in jeopardy, you do not get booked into a handicap match as punishment.

» When you run-in to interrupt a match in-progress say on who’s behalf you’re running in, and roll + Heat with them. The match ends in a DQ for them. On a 10+ gain +1 Heat with them. On a 7-9 pick one: you don’t start a feud with them because of it; you don’t get booked in a match with the other party; you don’t get beaten down in the ring.

» Champions Advantage Before Creative reveals the finish of a title match, you can roll out of the ring and get counted out. You lose the match, but retain the title (as the title does not change hands on a countout). Roll +Audience Heat. On a 7+, +1 Audience Heat or Heat with your Op-ponent, your choice. On a miss, -1 Audience Heat.

» When you’re Over on your Audience Ladder at the beginning of an Episode roll +Look. On a 10+ pick 2, on a 7-9 pick one: Demand, and be granted, a match with your highest Heat opponent; interrupt any segment to cut a promo; run-in on any match without having to make the run-in Move; gain +1 Momentum. On a miss, pick one: Creative books you with your lowest-Heat opponent, or introduces and books you with a new NPC. You start with -2 Heat with them.

Lexicon for the non-Mark

Cut a Promo: Performing an in-character monologue, usually to a reporter or to the audience at large,

Break Kayfabe: Acknowledge the scripted nature of what you’re doing, “break the fourth wall”

Over: Popular! When you’re over, the Audience loves you. You can get Over because of, or in spite of, your storylines and in-ring ability.

Work the Audience: Pump up, compliment, insult, or otherwise do your best to get a rise out of the viewing audience.


Match Moves

How Wrestling Matches Work

During a match, each player involved has a chance to narrate their character’s moves and the oppo-nents response for an exchange of in-ring action. Once narrated, the player chooses one of the Match Moves based on what they’re going for with their actions and makes the roll. The result represents how well their characters executes their signature or important moves, and how the audience responds. The Match Moves all lead up to the climax of the match, when each player makes their when you work a match Move. The number of Match Moves you make is decided ahead of time by Creative, based on the relative importance of the match. All players involved make the same number of Match Moves; NPCs do not make Match Moves.

The results of the Match Moves can give you Match Momentum (MM), which is Momentum that can only be applied to later Moves you make in the match (whether a Match Move or any other Move). Generally, you’re aiming to build up enough MM to give a bonus to your When You Work A Match Move. MM expires at the end of the match.

You can make General and Gimmick Moves during a match (like working the audience, or any move from your Gimmick or Role), in the place of a Match Move, if you want. You never make Match Moves outside of a Match.

Unlike other Moves, Match Moves are binary (miss on a 6 or less, hit on a 7+), unless you use an Ad-vancement to take an Advanced Match Move. Advanced Match Moves have an additional 10+ strong hit result, which generally is a simple addition to the basic hit result.

Whenever you miss a Match Move, your opponent counters. This means that your opponent, whether another player or an NPC played by Creative, gets to narrate how they turn the wrestling move you attempted into an attack of their own; in addition, it has an effect on your MM, generally losing you 1, depending on the Match Move. Executing moves builds your Match Momentum, while having the moves countered sucks it away.

When you narrate an exchange, and the roll a hit on your Match Move, you don’t get countered but it is your opponents turn to narrate an exchange. The exact details of how the narration passes between the contestants is contextual to each match and adjudicated by Creative when need be.

Sometimes a match will have a stipulation that effects the Match Moves, or you will have an additional Stipulation Move you can make; Creative will let you know when special stipulations apply and wheth-er they have mechanical effects.


The Match Moves

» When you execute a move that showcases your Gimmick roll +Look. On a miss, your op-ponent counters, and you lose 1 MM. On a 7-12, +1 MM. Advanced: On a 10+, gain +1MM and +1 Heat with your opponent.

» When you execute a difficult move roll +Work. On a miss, your opponent counters, and you lose 1 MM. On a 7-12, +2 MM. Advanced: On a 10+, gain +2 MM and +1 Audience Heat.

» When you execute a dangerous move roll +Power. On a miss, your opponent counters, and you lose 1 MM. On a 7-12, +1 MM or +1 Audience Heat, your choice. Advanced: +2 MM or +2 Audience Heat, your choice.

» When you for-real go after your opponent, or break Kayfabe in the ring roll + Real. On a miss, you get for-real injured as a result and your opponent counters, you lose all MM. On a 7-12, pick one: for-real injure your opponent; end the match in a no-contest; reset your opponents Audience Heat to 0. Advanced: pick two.

» When you execute an amazing and memorable move roll +Heat with your opponent. On a miss, reset your Audience Heat to 0 and your opponent counters, you do not lose any MM. On a 7-12, both of your add +1 to your Audience Heat. Advanced: On a 10+, you both add +1 Audience Heat and +1 Heat with each other.

Match Stipulations: Tag Team Match

» When you go to make a tag to your Tag Team partner roll +Heat with them. On a miss, you can’t make the tag and lose 1 MM. On a 7-12, you make the tag and they come in with +1 MM. Advanced: On a 10+, you make the tag and you both get +1 MM.

» When you intentionally deny your Tag Team partner’s tag roll +Heat with them. On a miss, you get taken out outside the ring by the opponents teammate, lose all MM. On a 7-12, gain +1 Heat with your teammate. Advanced: On a 10+, gain +1 Audience Heat as well.

Match Stipulations: Hardcore Match

» When you draw blood, use a weapon or revel in violence roll +Real. On a miss, you play it too safe, lose all MM. On a 7-12, the crowd loves it, choose one: +1 Audience Heat, or +2 MM. Advanced: On a 10+, both.


7. Making The X

(Inspired by JOhn Stravopolous's x-card system)

Pro wrestling is an intense physical activity, and it often leads to legitimate injuries. Sometimes the performers can cover for a relatively minor injury and finish the match, but there are certainly occasions that a bad fall or a misapplied hold can seriously injure a performer midmatch.

Traditionally, the referee holds 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. Sometimes this can be worked into the narrative of the match, and sometimes not - and it’s not unheard of for the X to be part of a storyline, further blurring the line between the work and the real.

In WWW, anyone can make the X, as per these guidelines:

» Creative can narrate the ref or an NPC making it, as events dictate (for example, some Moves can result in a match participant getting for-real injured).

» When you narrate your character making the X, it’s breaking Kayfabe, and you make the when you break kayfabe Move.

» When a player at the table makes the X in real life (it doesn’t need to be over your head, you can simply cross your wrists over your chest or over the center of the table) it’s a sign to everyone that you aren’t cool with something that just happened in the game.. It could because you’re offended, it trig-gers you in some way, or it’s just lame and inappropriate to the situation at hand. When a player makes the X, it’s a sign for everyone else to retcon 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 maybe you want to say something so that your friends know what’s up.


8. Playing The Game

The section is mainly for Creative, who’s responsible for creating storylines, deciding which segments occur in which order, booking matches, and showcasing the foils, enemies and fellows-in-arms that surround the Talent.

General Structure

Each session of play is an “Episode,” representing a televised show or live event being put on by the promotion. An Episode is made up of Segments (essentially individual scenes). Segments are mostly “on-camera,” though you can also have real-life Segments. Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of Segments:

» Interviews (pre-taped or live interview with a character)

» Promos (pre-taped or live opportunity for a character to cut a promo, in-ring or backstage)

» Matches (wrestling!)

» Backstage Fallout (what happens immediately after a match, or an improvised promo)

» Behind The Curtain (real-life fallout from kayfabe events)

» Commercial Break (generally just a passing mention to establish a break between one se-quence of Segments and the next, though you could also run an off-camera, real-life interaction that happens during the break)

» Pre-show/Post-show (establishing and wrapup off-camera, real-life interactions)

To begin an Episode, Creative chooses which Segment to lead off with, and who’s in it. Players speak as their characters, narrate their characters actions and make Moves as appropriate. Sometimes the results of a Segment will naturally dictate the next one, but Creative always gets to decide which Seg-ment comes next. You should also use the commercial breaks to pace the Episode and indicate transi-tions from one part of the show to another.

If a player wants a specific segment, they should say so! Creative should take their request into ac-count and slot it into what they already have in mind for the Episode. If a player wants to force a seg-ment, they narrate what their character is doing. This will often require them to make one of the +Real moves (default to when you break kayfabe if need be).


The Card

Most wrestling promotions have multiple belts, at least 2 for singles competition and 1 for tag teams (and 1 for each gender, if there’s a gender split for competition in your promotion). The two singles belts correspond to the “lower” and “upper” card. This is referring to old-school schedule cards, where the main event is listed at the top of the bill, and the matches are ranked under it in essentially de-scending order of how famous, experienced or important the wrestlers were.

Today, the notion of “lower” and “upper” is much more amorphous. But there is a division between the newer, less experienced and less popular Talent, and the older, more established, fan favorite and bet-ter-at-wrestling Talent - this division is just projected more by the fans, and less specifically by booking.

In this game, starting characters are assumed to be on the lower card, except maybe the Veteran and the Legend, depending on how the player views them. In any case, transition between the cards is a function of Audience Heat. When Talents Audience Heat hits +4, they get an Advance and reset to 0 - this represents the idea that they’ve transitioned, in the fans minds, to the “upper card”, and now they’re going to be judged on a new playing field. Similarly, if Audience Heat hits -4, the audience has “demoted” them to the “lower card’, where they have a newly clean slate (the Talent still gets an Ad-vance, and resets Audience Heat to 0).

The card, in these terms, in infinitely divisible. Mechanically, you always mark an Advance and reset to 0 when Audience Heat hits +4 or -4, and fictionally, it means the audience has promoted or demoted your overall standing in their collective eyes, nothing more and nothing less.

Championship Belts

The game starts with NPCs holding title belts. Characters have to earn #1 Contender status, and then win the belt in a match, through the events of play. Any Talent with a belt gains the Champions Advan-tage Move from the general Move list. Creative should come up with compelling names and mean-ings for the belts - is 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? Women’s Championship, or Lady Lucha Campeona? Use the belts and championships to flavor your World Wide Wrestling promotion and make it your own.

Booking Matches

Matches aren’t all the same. Some are quick affairs, meant to showcase a new character or demon-strate how dominant a monster is. Some are key to a single storyline, but otherwise not particularly important to the overall Episode. Some are filler, something to bridge between the highlights of the show. And some are the big deal, ultimate clash, stuff-of-legends kind of match.


In this game, Creative books all matches. To book a match, you decide:

» The participants (Talent vs NPC, Talent vs Talent, or multiples – NPC vs NPC matches are al-ways simply narrated by Creative, if we need to know about them)

» The kind of match (standard singles match, multiple falls, time limit, ec)

» The stakes of the match (a belt, a mask, hair, a contact, etc)

» Any gimmick 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 importance, as rated in segments on the Rhythm clock (1-6, see below)

» The winner (who is the referee being instructed to call as the winner, in order to create the most compelling storyline)

The importance of the match is represented by how many segments on the Rhythm clock need to be filled in before the end of the match. Each segment represents a Move that will need to be made by the Talent involved in the match. Pick a number between 1 and 6, along these guidelines:

» 1-2 for simple, symbolic but largely unimportant matches

» 3-4 for solid, intermediate, filler or detailed matches

» 5-6 for big, dramatic, championship matches

The Rhythm clock has 6 segments. Every time a PC makes a Move during the match (including non-Match Moves) check off a segment. When the last segment for the importance of the match has been filled in, the Talent makes their when you work a match roll, and then Creative reveals the winner as booked.

Each Talent in the match gets a clock. So, a Talent-NPC match has one clock, while for a Talent-Talent match you count down each clock individually. If one PC fills in their clock first, wait until the other one(s) have filled in theirs, then have them make their when you work a match roll simultaneously.

After the Talent makes when you work a match roll, but before they pick consequences, Creative re-veals the booking (who wins, loses, or otherwise how the match is supposed to end). Then the player(s) makes any choices they have to make, and the end of the match is narrated from there.

Match Moves should be made after narrating particular sequences or outstanding moves. “Standard” or filler moves are just freely narrated back-and-forth. When an NPC opponent counters due to the result of a missed Match Move, Creative narrates the NPCs sequence until the player interrupts. When


the Talent opponent counters, that player simply gets to narrate their sequence and make their next Move, as appropriate.

Tag Team Matches & other Stipulations

Tag team matches are treated the same as singles matches, including each Talent having their own Rhythm clock. They’re treated as Stipulation matches, and have some specific Match Moves as such (see the Match Move list)

There are many different stipulations that could be added to a match. Generally, stipulations are things that effect the players descriptions of what they’re going for, and can provide new opportunities for dramatic moments. The nature of a stipulation should also guide you as to which Moves to make as Creative, and some of the are good opportunities for you to come up with a custom Match Move. Some common stipulations:

» No disqualification, no countout (use this one to force a cheater to stand and fight)

» Cage match (the match occurs inside of a steel cage, victory is possible by pinfall, submission or escaping the cage)

» Over the top rope match (usually for multiple wrestlers, you lose by being thrown out of the ring over the top rope)

» Last man standing (you win by being the last wrestler able to stand before the count of 10)

» Falls count anywhere (no countouts, you can win by pinfall or submission anywhere in the building)

» Lumberjack match (the ring is surrounded by wrestlers who beat on you and toss you back into the ring if you leave the ring)

Feel free to come up with new and interested match stipulations that fit your roster and sense of drama. Also, be aware that the results of some Moves allow players to insist on or add stipulations to matches themselves.


9. How To Be Creative

World Wide Wrestling has it’s roots in D. Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World, and the most inspirational part of that game is his charge to the Master of Ceremonies. If you’re familiar with Apocalypse World you’ll see some if it’s Agenda’s and Principle’s here, but they have been heavily adjusted to fit the role of Creative in the wrestling universe.

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 NPCs both in and out of the ring.

» Make the players’ characters’ lives not boring. No champion reigns unchallenged; no in-sult 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 might be the most important agenda, and supports and is supported by the next one. The players have agency and the ability to change what you had planned, and your job is to take their swerves and pull the storyline’s back together in order to create overarching coherent narratives.

» Entertain the imaginary audience. This is who’s judging your Storylines. These are the peo-ple who will turn off the TV if they don’t see the narrative resolve. If it wouldn’t make sense to them, use the tools at your disposal (booking, segments, storylines) 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 should be accordance with your Agendas.

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.

Explain the audience reaction. Describe everything as larger than life.

Make the world seem constructed, but frail. Make your move, but never speak its name.

Speak through your NPCs. Use a real-world cause for a kayfabe effect.

Describe every gimmick evocatively. Use a kayfabe cause for a real-world effect.

Think offscreen, always. Be a fan of the players’ characters.

Book for maximum drama. Ask meaningful questions, build on the answers.


Finally, you have Moves, but they’re different from the Talent’s Moves. Your Moves are the 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, and you make them whenever the players look at you expectantly. The other Moves are Hard Moves, you and you make them whenever a player misses on a roll (rolls 6 or less), or when the progress of the game demands that one be made.

Soft Moves (whenever the players look at you for what comes next:)

» Take the next step for a Storyline.

» Book a match between them.

» Introduce a new challenger.

» Put someone in a high-stakes situation.

» Announce kayfabe badness.

» Make, or break, a promise.

» Give them a difficult decision to make.

» Swerve the storyline, as circumstances dictate.

Hard Moves (whenever someone misses a roll, or when the storyline demands it:)

» Announce real-world badness.

» Give them a no-win situation, and ask.

» Hire or fire someone.

» Push an NPC over someone.

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 real-world person behind the Gimmick. The imagi-nary audience almost always sees Soft Moves, and almost never sees Hard Moves.

Storylines and Booking Matches

Storylines are your plan for an entertaining sequence of events involving the wrestlers in your promo-tion. To start, you should have a separate storyline for each Talent (though they can combine later). Each Storyline is on a ladder representing the matches you plan to book between the wrestlers in-volved, called the Feud Ladder. The length of the Feud Ladder will determine the longevity of the Sto-


ryline, so you should adjust them to the length of time you’re planning to play the game. For example, a single session (which could cover multiple Episodes) should see 2-4 rung Feuds, while a long-term game could have multiple 6-8 rung Feuds ready to go.

For each Storyline, write down the Talent, one or more NPCs, and an Outcome. “Brawny James Dio. Anaconda Rex. Ladder match for a Heavyweight Title Shot.” or “Kimmy Krash. Mr. Hosaka. Smash An-derson. Love triangle leading to betrayal.” You know how wrestling stories are. Make the main antago-nist the opposite Role of the Talent (Babyface vs Heel, or Heel vs. Babyface).

Next, pick a Feud Ladder based on the number of matches you want the Storyline to cover. The Feud Ladder’s are presented with an A and a B character – pick which one is which (generally by deciding who you want to win the final match) and fill in the characters names at each rung. If none of the Feuds seem suitable to what you have in mind, feel free to make your own! Generally, decide on what you want the final match to be, and work backwards from there.

If you want a title shot to be involved, make that the last match on the ladder, or add a title match to the end of the ladder.

Remember that the players have agency, and they will have multiple opportunities to change your plans – some moves allow them to win or lose matches regardless of booking, and breaking Kayfabe should have consequences reflected in the characters booking. Whenever your booking is overruled or made irrelevant, take a minute to look at the rest of the Feud Ladder and make any necessary adjust-ments to create a new, coherant story out of the swerve.

Feud Ladders

Each Feud is presented at a 3-match and a 5-match version, for now (there’s a lot of room to expand here, and this area is one that will need playtesting for future development). A word on finishes:

» A clean finish is a pin or submission in the middle of the ring, no funny business. Clean fin-ishes generally demonstrate that the winner is indeed a superior wrestler.

» With help or cheats means that victory comes about through the intervention of another wrestler, or that the winner cheats to win in a manner apparent to the audience, but not the ref-eree (foot on the rope, hand on the tights, concealed foreign object, whatever).

» Disqualification means that the loser cheats, is caught by the referee, and disqualified as a result.

» Countout means that the loser stays outside of the ring, or is unable to rise, for a count of 10.

» No contest means that the neither wrestler is able to continue the match – this could be a


double countout, or the two knock each other out, or another wrestler takes them both out. This generally leads to a rematch.

» Dusty finish is when one wrestler is declared the winner, and then the referee reverses the decision due to a technicality (like another ref or wrestler shows them that a foot was on the rope, or the original ref was knocked out, a second ref makes the 3 count, and then the original ref revives and reverses the decision).

» A schmoz is when a bunch of wrestlers rush the ring and the whole thing devolves into a brawl, with no winner declared.

There’s plenty of other finishes, with details that may or may not be important to your game in particu-lar – you are encouraged to use any particular finish you think will be most impactful and dramatic for any given match.

The Grudge – Two superstars are almost equally matched, and neither is willing to allow the other to have the last word.

3 Match Ladder

Match 1 [A ] wins over [B ] clean

Match 2 [A ] wins over [B ] with help or cheats

Match 3 [B ] wins over [A ] clean

5 Match Ladder




Match 4 No contest or double DQ



Revenge – One wrestler gains what the other thinks is an undeserved victory, and chases in order to get revenge.

3 Match Ladder


Match 2 [A ] wins over [B ] countout


5 Match Ladder




Match 4 [A ] wins over [B ] dusty finish


Rival Factions – The two wrestlers are representatives of rival stables, and their clashes demonstrate the relative power of the two groups.

3 Match Ladder

Match 1 [A ] wins over [B ] by DQ

Match 2 [B ] wins over [A ] with help or cheats

Match 3 Schmoz

5 Match Ladder



Match 3 Schmoz

Match 4 No contest or double DQ


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