Storyline Condusive Rules for E-Wrestling - Unlimited 2nd Edition (SCREW U2)
Version 2.0 Created by Shawn Pearce
Special thanks to Ray Duffy, Steve Pillmeier, Jeff Berry, Eric Roy
Francois-Dominic Larmaee, Aidan Palmer, Jerone Mitchell, Bryce and Bryant Berggren,
and anyone else who's system I've either played, pilfered from, or both.
Disclaimer: The wrestlers mentioned in this RPG are mentioned for illustrative purposes
only. No claim on the trademarks of these names are made by the author. These trademarks
are trademarks of TitansSports, Turner Broadcasting, Inc., and Extreme Championship
Wrestling. Trademarks will be removed upon request by the above-mentioned companies.
==================================
Before I tell you anything else about how we do things, you need to read the following.
10 Helpful Hints for Enjoyable E-wrestling
Copyright © 1998 by Steve Pillmeier.
1. THIS IS A GAME!
I'd put this in flashing lights if I could. Basically, every other rule in this
list goes back to this one. It's for fun. If it's not fun, then start collecting
stamps or something. Don't get overly aggravated. I'm not saying treat it as a
total goof ... have some pride in what you do. Just don't take it too seriously.
2. Be nice to one another.
This includes fedheads and other players. Fedhead is generally a pretty thankless
job. So, give your fedhead feedback, especially positive feedback. Lets face it,
the pay sucks. Also -- remember there's a real human being behind every character,
and that they're trying to have fun as well. Even if you don't like a
character. don't totally slag them.
3. Cards will be late -- get used to it.
As I said above, the pay sucks for fedheads ... real life does take precedence.
4. Run the type of character you enjoy.
Example: if you don't like power-based musclemen, then don't run one. If you
don't like babyfaces, don't run one. Chances are you'll do better with a
character [not to mention have more fun] if you're running something you like.
5. Know the type of character you're running.
If you've never seen a lucha-style match, then don't run a luchador. As an aside
on this -- don't assume the fedhead knows the style. If your character has some
different, unique moves, explain them in detail [to the best of your ability].
Help in this regard can be found at http://www.webspan.net/~fender1/bbbowm.html.
Also, the more detail you give a fedhead, the better he can write up your wrestler.
'Tis better to give too much information than too little.
6. Know the type of fed you're entering.
Again, an example: a lot of the feds I play in tend to frown on "being hardcore",
swearing, and breaking kayfabe. Therefore, it'd be sort of silly for me to enter
a character in them that did any of the above. Nothing wrong w/ being different
in a fed, but chances are a league is a certain way for a reason [i.e., the GM
and most of the players are against it]. Therefore, by "pushing the envelope",
so to speak, there's a good chance you'll just be ticking off the rest of the
league.
Other examples: a] If you wanna run a comedy type character, find a league
suited for that genre. b] If you wanna run a total knockoff of a RL wrestler,
find a league suited for it. Most feds tend to REALLY frown on this one, and
entering, say, Hulk Hogan to compete is just a waste of time.
7. Try to make sense.
Now, I'm not asking for All Japan level psychology here ... though it would be
nice :). This is more or less a pet peeve of mine I guess, but ... well, some
examples:
If you jump somebody in week 1, it's nice to address it in an interview before
week 4. In other words, follow through on angles.
If you don't work the leg at all during a match, don't go for a leg submission.
I'm not saying every move has to focus on the same bodypart, but it is nice if
there is some focus, etc.
400 lb men don't do moonsaults ... much.
Think about the spot/move you're doing. If you have never seen it in real life,
is it because there's no way it can be done without someone [either attacker or
defender] getting really hurt?
8. Details matter.
For me, whether it be in "real" wrestling or e-wrestling, a lot of times it's
the little things that get the character over. Put some thought into hometown,
name of finisher, theme music, mannerisms, etc.
9. Regarding Interviews ...
Try to follow the set format for the fed, i.e. don't make the fedhead have to
totally reformat or reconfigure your interview. It's just going to tick them
off, and rightly so.
Check your spelling and grammar.
In general, capslock bad. It's the equivalent of shouting. If you use capslock
an entire interview, for almost every interview, I personally will hunt you
down and make you swallow your keyboard.
If it's a houseshow -- remember, even most WWF/WCW houseshows don't do
interviews on houseshows on video walls. If it's a houseshow and you want
to do an interview -- in general it makes the most sense if you do it in
ring or at ringside.
10. Research don't hurt.
Ask for a handful of old cards, or a copy of the Who's Who of a fed. Talk to
other players. Go on irc, try to find a fed that suits your need [#ewrestling
generally has someone on it]. A couple websites to check out in this regard:
http://www.pconline.com/~sffl/john.htm. Yes, it's a tape list. Best damn one
I've ever seen. Even if you don't want tapes, read through the lists ... you
learn a TON of history that way. Hell, I've gotten a handful of angle ideas
from here :).
http://www.albany.net/~hit/puroresu/ -- If you wanna run a Japan based character,
this is the place to read.
http://www.twc-online.com/herb/TidBits/1998/ti980604.html -- an article on the
different styles found in Japan.
http://www.twc-online.com/herb/TidBits/1998/ti980423.html -- an article on
psychology. Must read!!!
http://www.planet.eon.net/~skeith/faq.html -- Home of the RSPW FAQ. Another must read.
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/ja3k/e-wrestling/ -- a history of
e-wrestling site.
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/7148/ -- A general e-wrestling
site; one of if not the best general site. Home of the RSPWF FAQ.
http://www.webspan.net/~fender1/bbbowm.html -- The page of 1,000 holds.
Bookmark it, read it, love it, worship it.
Other than that, most of all: HAVE FUN! Remember, it's a game.
@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@@%@%
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
---------------------
This will cover the concept side of character generation as opposed to the statistics side
(Statistics side will be in Part II).
As I enter my seventh year of managing an E-wrestling league, I find myself
with new players on an almost constant basis. And with every new player I
get asked pretty much the same questions.
"How do you challenge people?"
"Who can I feud with here?"
"What's a flash?"
"How do you write a gameplan?"
This document will attempt to answer several of these questions. It was
drafted with the assistance of several E-wrestling veterans, people whom have
established themselves as among the best players in the game. This document
will hopefully not only answer a lot of your questions, but also help you to
become "better at the game"
------
CHARACTER GENERATION :
SCREW Character Gen Part II will discuss the mechanics and number crunching of
creating a character. Here we discuss the character concept. What makes your
character different and/or more interesting than other characters?
We really can't offer suggestions on character concepts; then they would be
our ideas and not yours. However, we can offer some do's and dont's for new
players to think about, many of which were suggested by noted Summit player
"Reverend" Ray Duffy.
1.) Before entering a league, it's a good idea to check out their webpage
or to ask for a few cards to see what else is out there. It gives you a feel of what
type of people are out there and will prevent two people from running characters with
the exact same names or gimmicks. Do we really need 5 Rock clones running around?
2.) Before you pick a gimmick, here's a few things to consider :
- Can I effectively run this character? Is this the kind of person I would
be interested in writing for. For example, I once came up with a Russian
Olympian type character. I had moves and an outfit and everything...
then I had to write interviews and came to the realization... I couldn't
come up with a believable stuff for this guy to say because I didn't
know Russian and couldn't fake an accent.
- Is this character believable? I personally like characters that are
realistic. A guy who magically disappears or other such crap can really
ruin the game. A human element helps certain characters. People have a
tendency to go overboard when pushing a character (usually applies to heels)
and then you get McMahon syndrome. Like a guy who was supposedly a drug
dealer like character or a nuclear mutant suddenly becomes a face. Yeah,
he was eating children yesterday, but now he's a fine upstanding individual!
- Be careful with comedy gimmicks. They can be good and bad. Some guys can
write comedy, others can't. Also, what you might think is funny, others
might consider really lame. And in case you're wondering, I hated Doink
(as a heel and face.) As a wise man once said "Dying is easy, comedy is
hard."
- Keep in mind, not all faces are friends and the same holds true for heels.
Some of the biggest (and hottest) feuds in e-wrestling have been between
guys of the same alignment.
=================================================================================
GAMEPLANS (a.k.a. STRATS):
When you create your character, you are also asked to create a Match Worksheet.
This is the basic gameplan that your character will have for about 75-90% of
his matches. Knowing that, when you create it, be meticulous, but not *TOO*
meticulous. The idea of the Match Worksheet is for you to have something
to veer off of when you do specific strategies for individual matches. This
keeps you from having to write a 3 page strat for every match, thus making
things easier on both of us.
The following tip apply to both the Match Worksheet and any individual variance
strats you create.
1) From Ray Duffy:
"Do NOT under any circumstances send a gameplan like this:
"My manager uses the Force to lift an opponent off of my character." Doing so
should be a reason for any (and all e-wrestling players) to beat you with a
stupidity stick. I kid you not, I got this gameplan once. That person got a
bonehead penalty to his scores."
Gameplans should be as innovative and effective as the situation warrants, but
it should be REALISTIC. Any gameplans that say your 215 pound jr. heavy
will press slam the 600 pound Gorilla or any that involves being raised
from the dead will be immediately tossed.
2) Be as direct with what you want done as possible. The clearer the
instruction, the better chance a fedhead will execute it to your satisfaction
3) Be detailed, but not too detailed. Saying that you want to use wear-down
moves for the first five minutes is a fairly detailed section of a plan. Giving
an exact listing of what move you want to occur in five-second intervals is too
much, and will more than likely be ignored by the fedhead (we love to do this
stuff, but we're busy too, and we like to keep our options open for a match)
4) Be tricky and creative if the situation warrants it...but don't go overboard
I do have the right to veto or ignore aspects of a gameplan if I feel it is unrealistic
or will hurt the natural flow of the game.
In short, make sure you get all the normal, workman aspects of your strat into the
Match Worksheet, and then use your individual strats to "colorize" what you already
have or to zero in on specific areas of your opponent's gameplan.
-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-*
PROMOS :
This is where we find out about your character. What motivates him?
Is it titles? Money? Fame? The cheers of the fans? The desire to hurt
someone? This is what is conveyed in a promo, and IMHO this is the
crux of what makes E-wrestling fun; the chance to act as a character and to
relate your views in an entertaining way. The interview is where you generate
the interest, or "heat", in a match, feud, or a storyline between characters,
known as an "angle". You also get some money for cutting good ones, too.
------
More thoughts from Ray and I:
- Try to keep them coherent. Spell check them if possible.
- Say what you want to say, but you don't have to write an epic. A lot of the
best interviews I've seen have been relatively short (one to two screens long).
Who wants to read through 80 pages of ranting?
- Try to stick to your alliance. Faces in general shouldn't be egomaniacs and
should generally try to be nice guys or at least likable. One of the many
reasons I hate Hogan.
- Try to avoid "cheap heat". Cheap heat can be something that's in bad taste.
Try to avoid things that are racist or in bad taste (that beating up women).
There are more effective ways to get characters over. I won Heel of the Year
for a character who wrestled cleanly, but he had an incredibly huge ego and
really was good at getting under other wrestlers' skins. That having been
said, sometimes it's good for a laugh or to tick people off. Just don't
make it the crux of your character.
- You can go ahead and write how you feel the fans would react to what you say if
you wish, but I completely and totally reserve the right to change them if I don't
feel it meshes with where the public is. If you wish, you can just notate in your
flashes where "crowd reactions" should go, and I can fill them in, but I do prefer
the former simply because it saves me time in the long run, allowing me to change nothing
if it works or to only change what doesn't work.
The reason for this is that in the past, people have assumed that their badass who
just piledrove their female valet into the concrete would get a face pop for it "cause
_______ said so", or that someone who does nothing but talk about his sex life would
get booed out of the building because people actually *liked* his work. That isn't
the case. For your reference, here are some examples of "over" vs. "not over"
Over Heel : HHH, Jeff Jarrett. The marks hate them because they're really good at
getting people to not like them. The people you "love to hate".
Not Over Heel : Sean Stasiak, Mideon, Big Bossman. This character sucks.
Open chants of "YOU SUCK" occur when character is around. They get booed
because people don't want them to be around.
Over Face : The guy is over. Popular as can be. Steve Austin. Goldberg. The Rock.
Not Over Face : Mark Henry. Essa Rios (w/o Lita) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut up. You've
got the charisma of a rock.
From there, the GM can gauge how over the character is. That way you don't
have character who's interviews really suck or doesn't act like a face
getting huge crowd pops.
One thing to note is not all wrestlers are the best at generating heat through
communication...
Kane (until recently) rarely said a word; he let his actions talk. Chris Benoit.
is a mediocre interview but is one of the best wrestlers on the planet. If you
don't feel you have the chops to promo, that doesn't mean you can't play the character.
The key is to make him believable.
INTERVIEW FORMATS
There are several classifications of an interview:
1) The Flash/"Promo"
This is usually a one-sided affair. This places the wrestlers in a setting of
their choosing, generally center ring, but also at the EWC Soundstage, the gym, the
back alleys of wherever, the secret hideaway of a criminal organization, you name it.
You basically comment on whatever match/feud/"angle" you're involved in at
the time, threaten your opponent, etc...the more imaginative, the better.
2) The Interview
A third party is usually involved in the interview process, usually a random
announcer from the home federation. This is placed in a question and answer
format, where the interviewer asks the characters specific questions
to be answered. This is usually the easiest kind of interview to script,
and generally happens "backstage" at the matches.
3) The Biased Interview (or Piper's Pit wannabes)
>From time to time a character will run a Piper's Pit style of interview segment,
where they can praise other characters of their alignment and make fun of
characters of the opposite alignment. These are VERY good to generate heat
with, and are often the site of pre-match jumps from other wrestlers. Usually
the person handling the weekly interview segment will dictate who is to be
interviewed here, if the fed has one.
Most interviews should come in a format similar to any of the examples provided,
and should be put together as follows:
==================================================================
(You set the mood of what we're watching here....always remember
to put parentheses around things which are describing what
we see and hear rather than what is being said)
[Speaker #1]
Here he's talking about how he hates T.R. Parker
[Speaker #2]
Here he's agreeing. He also goes on to insult TR's wife. Notice
that the sentences aren't long, in fact less than 70 characters
per line. He also hits the carriage return at the end of each
line so that lines don't run on and screw up the formatting when
sent.
[Speaker #1]
He says he's gonna kick your ass
(Some final descriptive things before fading to black)
==================================================================
INTERVIEWERS:
For people wishing to use an interviewer, you need to use one of the
EWC's announcers for the interview promo: They are -
Isaac Cross: Blow-by-blow announcer - GZ (clear with Shawn)
Dr. Tony Strange: Blow-by-blow announcer - Impact (clear with Shawn)
Deric James: Face-ish color commentator - GZ (clear with Jerone)
David Kang: Heel-ish color commentator - GZ (clear with Jerone)
Sylvester T. Foxx: Color Commentator - Impact (clear with BJ)
Ryan from EWC.COM: "Smart" locker room junior reporter (A good choice for an interview
if you wanna break kayfabe a bit or if you want a geek to kick around)
Jerone McShea: Face/neutral interviewer (He's more like a Michael Cole type
character, except a little bit smarter)
Alison Matthews: Generic interviewer (think Lillian Garcia only better on the mic)
Tara Jansen: EWC Commisioner (for official announcements)
Adrienne Solo : EWC owner (Shee's only available for official type
flashes. Clear with Shawn)
============================================================
ADVANCEMENT IN EWC -
We will be using money earned to "buy" the experience points necessary to
advance your character, with all rules included therein.
============================================================
THE SHOWS
---------
1> Weekly -- EWC Ground Zero *and* EWC Impact
Ground Zero is the EWC Weekly showcase, the RawTro style card. Impact is
more of a secondary card, somewhere between SN Heat and WCW Thunder. This is
where the majority of the week to week action, building up to the PPV's, are.
2> House Show cards
These are almost always name-name matches, written from a fan's
point of view. Usually the fan is at least a smark, sometimes an
actual smart, so there's less of a story involved and more of a
commentary on how the EWC is doing in putting on a show.
Sometimes guest writers will be doing these. These are becoming
rarer and rarer as people just don't have time to do this.
3> PPV's
Here's where you can run wild. PPV's are where you can have the wild
stipulation feud enders and most of the other championship matches not defended
at house shows and weeklies. These cards will be held every 4 sets of TV shows.
When you send in your matches for a show, send in the strategies which you intend to use
for those matches. If I don't have *ANY* strategy, you will lose unless arrangements
have been made. (And since everyone should have a default strategy on file, this should
never happen)
All determinations that would be the player's choice will be made by the GM,
given the strategies that you send in, and the course of the match. Of course,
if you tell me to use this move, that's what I'll do.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES OF CHAMPIONS
----------------------------------------
The World Heavyweight Champion must defend his title at least once
every four cards and against at least one opponent not of the
federation a year.
The World Light Heavyweight has the same duties as the World
Heavyweight Champion, except competitors must be 235 lbs. or lighter.
The Light Heavyweight Champion must defend his belt every four weeks.
The World Heavyweight Tag Team Champions have the same duties as the
World Champion as applied to the tag team division.
The North American Champion and North American Tag Champions
must follow the same defense rules as the World Champion, except they are not required
to defend the belt outside of the federation.
The World Television Champion must defend his title every two weeks, whether it be
on GZ, Impact, or a house show. They do *not* defend on PPV's unless the titleholder,
the challenger and the GM agree to it.
IMPORTANT: Your wrestlers may participate in singles and tag wrestling at
the same time. However, when you win a title, single or tag, your wrestler(s)
will be taken out of the appropriate division so that title defenses would be
the primary function of this wrestler. This gives you more titles to shoot for
while keeping one or more wrestlers from holding every title.
CHALLENGES, RANKINGS, AND WHO CHALLENGES FOR TITLES
---------------------------------------------------
You are allowed 1 challenge per card, per slot. You may not
be on both LotR and Impact in a match capacity within a given
game week without permission from the Promoter.
There is an ongoing "match docket" where I keep listed matches signed
between players, and that I draw from from week to week. In addition,
there are two categories of "open contracts" - "ongoing" and "one time
only". If a wrestler goes on "open contract", that means any other wrestler
can sign with the Promoter to fight them. A "one time" means what it says,
while an "ongoing" can be challenged by any number of wrestlers.
At any time, should a champion be defeated in a non-title match, that
usually means the Committee will look favorably on them getting a
title shot at some point in the future.
-- Champions who have successfully defended the title at least twice
are automatically granted a rematch for the title when they lose it
if they so choose. Rematches are also given if the title was lost
under suspicious circumstances, or by special promoter dispensation.
-- All titleholders, at any time, may decide to forefeit their existing title for *one*
shot at the "next level" champion. If this happens, two top contenders will be chosen
by the "championship committee" to fill the vacancy held for the title, except
if it is determined that a tournament is necessary. They will not be permitted to
challenge for the title they forefeited for a 4 "week" *meaning series of shows*
period
The TV titleholder may forefeit for a shot at either the North American title
(heavyweight) or the Light Heavyweight title (light heavyweight)
The North American tag titleholders may forefeit for a shot at the World
Tag Team Title
The North American or the LH titleholder may forefeit for a shot at the
World Heavyweight Title
INACTIVITY RULE:
This exists to eliminate "dead weight" every so often.
If a two cycle period passes where a wrestler does not compete and/or promo,
he will be removed from the rankings unless special arrangements have been made.
This can be avoided if a handler goes "on hiatus", i.e. is gone for the summer but
writes us saying to keep his players on hold.