With NJPW's awesome Tokyo Dome show in the books, and the Road to WrestleMania about to officially kick-off at the Royal Rumble, it's definitely the most exciting time of the year for wrestling fans. So I thought it would be cool to do a pro wrestling RP in the style of an efederation. This would be a bit different than your typical RP, and would follows a different structure. I want to test the waters a bit to see if there would be any interest in an RP like this.
Rather than being a GM, I would take on the role of "booker" or matchmaker. My job would be to outline the matches and segments for each show, collaborating with players as to the overall "direction" of the company (the feuds, the major storylines). This would allow the players to be the real stars, RPing their individual matches and segments. The system would look something like this...
1. Booker Announces the Card
As the booker, I'd post a list of matches and segments for our next show and pin it to the top of the RP thread. This would be pretty bare bones, who beats who, maybe a couple bullet points for each with some ideas. Our promotion will feature a "one hour" weekly television show, so there will be about 3 matches with 2-3 non-wrestling segments as well. Nothing too crazy. I'll tag each player in their segment to make things easy.
2. Players Post Their Match/Segment RPs
The players look over the card, and write up their RPs for the match and/or segment in which their wrestler is booked. These are simply posted in the RP thread when finished. They don't have to be posted in order, so for example if the player in segment #2 finishes their RP first, they can just go ahead and post it. Of course, our roster will not just include PCs, there will be a bunch of NPCs needed to pad it out as well. These NPCs will be based on classic, easy-to-recognize wrestling archetypes and I'll be sure to have character sheets for them. With a mix of PCs and NPCs on the show, there are a few different possibilities for matches:
A. PC vs. NPC: The player writes up the match, simple enough.
B. NPC vs. NPC: These will happen very rarely. But if they do, then I'll take care of the RP for the match unless a PC is involved by interfering or something like that. In that case, the Player will be responsible.
C. PC vs. PC: The loser of the match will write up the first half, the winner of the match writes the second half and finish. Requires a bit of give-and-take, just like actual wrestling. Since the PCs are the main stars, these will be the "bigger" matches
D. Non-Wrestling Segment or Promo: The player being interviewed or cutting the promo writes the RP for it. Again, pretty straightforward.
B. NPC vs. NPC: These will happen very rarely. But if they do, then I'll take care of the RP for the match unless a PC is involved by interfering or something like that. In that case, the Player will be responsible.
C. PC vs. PC: The loser of the match will write up the first half, the winner of the match writes the second half and finish. Requires a bit of give-and-take, just like actual wrestling. Since the PCs are the main stars, these will be the "bigger" matches
D. Non-Wrestling Segment or Promo: The player being interviewed or cutting the promo writes the RP for it. Again, pretty straightforward.
3. Booker Posts the Final Show
Once all of the RPs have been posted I will gather them and put them into one large post, in the proper order. I may also add some bits of "commentary" between segments to help with flow. This is the finished product. I will post the completed show, and pin it to the top of the RP thread as well so it's easy to find and follow.
Alright, there you have it. That's more or less my plan for how things would work. Like I said, my goal is to be more of a facilitator, with the players hopefully feeling like superstar pro wrestlers. Obviously this is going to required a good group of dedicated wrestling fans, who are committed to making something like this work over the long haul. If you're interested, give me a shout. Feel free to throw in your wild speculation about the Royal Rumble in a couple of weeks as well...
