What Role-Players Can Learn From Professional Wrestling

I'll bet you thought I was kidding when I listed this as an upcoming post.

As a fan of Professional Wrestling, I've seen a number of basic elements on the various shows and principles can easily be applied to table-top roleplaying. Most of this advice is oriented towards Game-Masters (GM's), but some of it will help players as well.

While I've watched a number of other promotions, I'm most familiar with the WWE, and most of my examples will be drawn from WWE Monday Night Raw. I may also pull an example or two out of the ECW. Not all of my examples will be 100% accurate, either, so don't use my examples as a means of catching up on your favorite character's storyline.

Every Character Has A Story
In Professional Wrestling, every single character has some sort of hook and a bit of background. It doesn't have to be very deep or even interesting. It just has to exist.

Randy Orton wants to outshine his father, and so he's trying to beat all the wrestlers who beat his father.

The Highlanders are a tag team from Scotland. Even the smarter one isn't very bright.

Know Your Role
This is separate from the background - you need to know what you are capable of. As a GM, you need to be aware of what your players are capable of.

The Big Show is seven feet tall, and weighs over 500 pounds. While he's perfectly willing to take on two opponents at a time in a Handicap Match, you won't see him doing many ladder matches.

Supercrazy is unlikely to go one-on-one with the Big Show.

At the same time, players will want to achieve the nearly impossible.

Sabu wants the ECW title, and he thinks he can take on the Big Show to get it.

More than that, as a player you should also know if you're a Face, a Heel or a Tweener - Most PC's are Good Guys, which makes them Faces, but not every fan favorite is a Face. Heels should be NPC villains for the most part. Just because a character is humorous doesn't mean they're a face - There are comic heels and serious heels, just like there are comic faces and serious faces.

There Needs To Be A Story
It's that simple. If you just throw a bunch of wrestlers in a ring, it's not very entertaining. Give them a reason for being in that ring. Similarly, just dropping PC's into the world you've created won't get you any benefit or fun.

John Cena wrestling Edge isn't very interesting. John Cena wrestling Edge because Edge has been mocking John Cena relentlessly is much more interesting. John Cena wrestling Edge for the WWE Title that Edge stole from him is even more entertaining.

Characters Can't Always Succeed Alone
Working together, characters can succeed where they would have individually failed.

HHH and Sean Michaels are good friends who just want to have fun. They share a dislike for Vince McMahon, and are currently making his life a little miserable. Individually, they wouldn't be able to work nearly as much mahem.

The fact that some goals are impossible alone can also be used to encourage PC's to get to know NPC's or each other.

Characters Will Develop Their Own Relationships
Don't just force characters together. Give them a reason to work together.

Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit had been rivals for a long time, but, with a common foe, formed a tag team (and won the Tag Title).

Along the same lines, allow character relationships to develop and change. Player Characters very rarely wind up hating each other - they may be rivals, but there's nothing wrong with a friendly rivalry.

Characters Will Change
Over time, characters gain more skills. Depending on the system, they may also pick up personality quirks (good and bad). It's not a bad thing - and it shouldn't be limited to PC's.

Shane McMahon spent a great deal of time as a Face, feuding with his father. Now, he is his father's right-hand man. This makes him a more effective villain, because he has positive history with some of the Faces in the league.

Don't Give That Man A Mike
Professional Wrestlers all do what they call "Promos," in which they grab the microphone and rant for a time. Some wrestlers are better at it than others. In the same, way, some players will spell out exactly what they are saying in character, and others will paraphrase. Don't force paraphrase players to stretch out what they're saying if they don't want to. Also remember: Some players just want the action. They're not interested in character interaction.

Johnny Nitro is a decent wrestler, but when you give him a microphone, it's like watching paint dry. It's better to just cut to the action so he doesn't have to open his mouth.

Along the same lines, don't allow an NPC to make a long speech - and don't allow them to argue with one another at length, either. Even if there's a factional split among the Villains, keep the arguments short. Players have short attention spans, and long NPC discussions put them to sleep.

Evil Cheats
It's that simple. As a GM, always be looking for a way to make the game more difficult for your players. Don't make it too difficult - and if they can counter the cheating somehow, let them. Even faces PC's cheat from time to time.

Edge held the WWE Championship for a long time. Nearly all of his title defense victories were because his side-kick Lita handed him chairs or distracted the referee or just beat on his opponent while Edge distracted the referee.

Don't make it too easy, either. Players need to feel like they have earned that win. If they counter your cheating, find a new way to cheat.

Accidents Happen
Sometimes, your players will throw that critical success and badly wound your best villain during the introductory scene. Roll with it - have his assistant step up or stage a coup.

If Vince McMahon suffers a breakdown, Shane McMahon will step in to do the job. If they're both incapacitated, Jonathan Coachman steps up.

Even though Paul Heyman may set foot in the ring, he's got two bodyguards who will do his fighting for him.

The Fix Is In
Good will eventually triumph. It won't be easy, and it can take some time, but PC's will eventually succeed at their quests.

John Cena just re-took his title from Edge. It took several months, and it involved beating Edge in Toronto (Edge's home town). It also involved a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match - a match type at which John Cena had no experience, and at which Edge excels.

Evil Doesn't Go Away
Just because they've won one battle or completed one adventure doesn't mean that the game is over.

John Cena just won the title back from Edge, but Edge has made it clear that he feels as though it's still his title, and he's threatened to invoke the rematch clause of his contract.

Upcoming Posts

I know I said I'd post about The Good Competitor, but it's proven to need a lot more editing that I'd expected. I'm working on it.

In fact, I have several posts that are in the Edit Queue:

- The Good Competitor
- What Gamers Can Learn from Professional Wrestling
- More on Demo Teams (Including a list of demo teams and contact information)
- An Overview of Dungeon Twister Tournaments (Including formats and styles of play)
- A Couple of Reviews
- More Industry News and Previews

They all need some polish (and, in some cases, more writing), but I'm working on 'em.

New Game Coming

I know I'd promised to talk about Good Competitors, but something came up.

It's not here, yet, but Asmodée has a new game on the way.

Well, a new edition of an older game.

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to check out some of the pre-production art and read through the previous edition of the rules. It looks beautiful. A huge upgrade over the previous edition, where the board looked like this:



I should point out that the old map is printed on cloth - I'm don't know if the new edition will be cloth-printed or not.

Playing Dungeon Twister

I'm really good at losing games of Dungeon Twister. Really good. Here is my tournament profile. Which doesn't include demo games played at Origins and GenCon '05 and '06.

In the '05 Convention Season, I won a total (in nearly eighty hours of play) of two games. Now, people say that a good Demo Team knows how to lose without making it seem like they are trying to lose. Let me state - for the record - I was not trying to lose. By the end of the season, I desperately wanted to win.

This year has been better to me. I've reached the point where I think I should probably handicap myself against beginners in casual play. Even though I still managed to lose a fair amount this year.

That said, however, one of the great joys of GenCon '06 was meeting up with Michael again.

Michael is a friend of mine who is one of Smirk and Dagger's Instigators. He runs an excellent Hex Hex demo. Michael also happens to be last year's GenCon Dungeon Twister Tournament Champion. And a good opponent.

I'm sure, then, you'll understand why I took such joy in playing him at GenCon this year. And winning. Twice. They weren't total massacres, but I did win.

My ego was further boosted when Michael then gave Chris a run for his money.

Next year at GenCon, I hope to play Michael again. And I do hope he beats me, so that we can pass the rivalry along for another year. Which means that he'll need to practice.

... which leads me to the subject of my next post, which should be out next week sometime. If I can get it together. See, I've already talked about what I feel it takes to be a good demo team member. I'd like to discuss next the good competitor.

And I'll probably use Michael as one of my examples. Partly because he's a good competitor and partly because I know he reads this.

P.S. Michael, please let Karen know that Stephanie says "Hi."

A Bit More GenCon Wrapup

Something I do when looking back on GenCon is use Google to look us up. I look up the company and various games.

From what I've seen, Jungle Speed was a hit.

Dungeon Twister continued to go over well.

Iliad looks to do reasonably well.

And Mission: Red Planet's absence was the source of much disappointment.

I only gave one interview - that with All Games Considered, but I did talk to a number of other journalists and bloggers - Steve Edline would direct them to me when they visited the booth.

I discussed several of Asmodee's games with GamerDad - he had asked about Mission: Red Planet, and then I suggested a couple of other games to him as well. The results of the discussion are posted here.

Demo Teams

I've been poking around online, doing GenCon follow-ups and keeping track of what people had to say about Asmodée at GenCon. Nearly everyone that I've been able to find has said that our Demo Team was one of the best.

I (personally) take pride in this, as I was the person who added a couple of members to the team. Asmodée contacted me a few weeks before the convention and asked me if I could find a few friends who were able to go along. Initially, I was told to find three friends, so I knew exactly who to ask - Katie, Jon and Stephanie.

It didn't even take me three minutes to list this as my "Dream Team" for demoing games. All three are hard-core gamers who are serious about the hobby. All three are pleasant people with whom I enjoy associating (in the interests of full disclosure, I should probably state that Stephanie is my wife). I put a cattle-call out in several places, but I specifically contacted these three and saved spots for them.

Circumstances beyond my control transpired, and the three spaces shrank to one and then - last-second - expanded back to two. Katie and Stephanie were the two who attended with me.

It got me thinking, however:

What makes a good Demo Team?

I was chatting with my friend Thomas (who works for Steve Jackson Games) about GenCon, and he also commented that our team was one of the best he'd seen. He also didn't use the word "Demo" - he used the term "Booth" (Actually "Freelance Booth Weasels" is the full phrase he used). When I asked him about it, I realized that we had slightly different ideas of what our job at GenCon was.

To my mind, our job was simple: Teach Games. I feel that Asmodée's games are strong enough that they'll sell themselves, once players have been exposed to them.

But there are more elements that I hadn't considered that Thomas reminded me of - and he was absolutely correct. A lot of these are specific to being a Demo Team at a convention, but some of them will still apply to in-store (and other) demos.

Being a good Demo Team member means not only teaching people to play games, but doing so in a way that makes the game entertaining enough that said people will want to own it. So Demo Team members should be enthusiastic.

Product knowledge is important. A good Team member will have extensive product knowledge about the games, rules, release dates, and distributors - not only for the specific game you are demostrating, but also for the other games carried or produced by the company you are representing, and some information about the company itself. Even though my GenCon focus was supposed to be Hell Dorado, I spent a great deal of time introducing other Asmodée games to people as well.

Demo Team members should be approachable by the general public. After all, if people are too scared to learn the play the game from you then you've already failed at one of your basic tasks. This means being well-groomed and friendly with a good attitude.

Demo Team members should be able to communicate. I realize that this is common sense, but you'd be surprised. If you lack the ability to re-phrase unclear rules to answer customer questions, then you shouldn't be teaching people to play. A good portion of our team at GenCon had French accents, but they were still able to (for the most part) communicate effectively with native English speakers in a loud room.

Demo Team members need to be confident enough to approach the public, especially if the public isn't approaching the demo team. Asmodée gave us a great excuse for this - catalogs and other promotional literature. "Good morning," I'd say as people strolled by, "would you like a free catalog?" (If you use the word "Free," it becomes very difficult for people to turn you down.) Also: Handing them the promo material and then walking away/ignoring them is a bad idea - wait until they walk away. They may, after all, have questions about the materials you just handed to them.

Demo Team members need to be alert and perceptive to opportunity. One woman was standing in our booth waiting for her husband to finish a Dungeon Twister demo - it took two seconds to get her involved in a Jungle Speed demo with two other people that we were introducing to the game. It kept her from getting bored and wandering off or trying to drag her husband off before he'd had a chance to decide if he liked DT or not. It also sold an additional copy of Jungle Speed.

Demo Team members should be able to work as a team. At GenCon, I was the only Asmodée Booth Weasel (now he's got ME saying it!) who was able to demo Hell Dorado, so if I was in the middle of a Dungeon Twister demo and someone else wanted a Hell Dorado demo, then I would either need to ask the new person to wait or else get another team member to tag in for me at DT. Obviously, the tag team action is preferable. Since my DT demonstrations always proceed in the same order, I could tell my teammate, "I've covered character special abilities and was about to go over items," and they'd be able to tag right in with no problems. At one point, when I started to dehydrate, I turned around and was handed something to drink - without even needing to ask for it. That's how well we worked as a team.

Speaking of "in the same order" - be consistent. If you have a pattern to your demo, follow the pattern. It helps the rest of your team.

Demo Team Members should be honest. When Mission: Red Planet didn't arrive, we didn't tell people outrageous lies about it. "It's on a boat," we'd say, "in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We are as disappointed as you that it isn't here." Gamers should, by now, be well-acquainted with printer-related delays. Most gamers are understanding.

Demo Team Members should be aware that not all gamers will be understanding. My wife was yelled at on Thursday because Mission: Red Planet wasn't available at GenCon. "What terrible Customer Service you guys have!" And he kept coming by to complain. For the entire weekend. About something that we were frustrated and annoyed with, as well.

Demo Team members should be reliable. If you're only working for four or five days, show up. Our team this year was incredible. They worked through blisters, migraines, dehydration and heat stroke. And they smiled and loved every minute of it.

Some teams have other responsibilities and/or hardships - Asmodée's team, for example, didn't have chairs this year. We spent four days on our feet. We were also expected to hang out and play games in the public gaming area after the exhibit hall closed. Were we exhausted by the end? You betcha!

Many companies have organized teams who run in-store demos and demos at local conventions. Steve Jackson Games has their MiB's. Deep 7 has their Pathfinders. Many of these companies also have reward systems set up for running the demos - Privateer Press, for example, gives credits for running demos that can be cashed in for figures and books. Other companies will pay admission to local conventions. If you're interested in joining a demo team for your favorite company, look into it and contact them! Many times, the application information is clearly posted right on their website. If you're serious about gaming, go for it! What's the worst thing they can do?

Interviewed!

Mark Kinney of All Games Considered interviewed Steve, Christophe and myself at GenCon this year. The interview itself is here, and may re-appear later as part of the AGC podcast later.

I'm always afraid of coming across as being basically a corporate shill in situations like that - and I know I come across as a bit of one. Of course, that is part of why Asmodee paid me to be there.

I've got a some things to say about being part of a Demo Team at a convention, but that can wait for another post.

Thanks for the time, Mark.