After successfully finishing up a season of Primetime Adventures, I suggested a couple of different possibilities for what we should play next, including Dogs in the Vineyard, My Life with Master, and The Mountain Witch.  And Kayfabe, which turned out to be, overwhelmingly, the game that received the most enthusiastic response.  One sentence into my spiel on the game ("So, we make up an indie wrestling promotion, and, like, play out its story--both the backstage stuff and the stuff that the audience sees."), the other guys in my group (Nick, Andy, and Bryan) were like, "Yes: that is what we are playing.  You had us at 'make up an indie wrestling promotion.'"

My idea for the promotion location and background consisted of three things:

1. A relatively recently formed, struggling indie promotion...
2. ...set in the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT)...
3. ...with some kind of tie to organized crime (the idea being a Sopranos homage/spoof).

So, we got together last night for the first character creation session, and we had a blast.  The first of many moments of inspiration came when Nick figured out what to call the promotion: JAWS-the Jersey Association of Wrestling Superstars.

We ended up with a pretty solid core roster, which includes:

The Coven-a stable that includes Creeping Beauty, Bloody Mary, and Siouxsie: trashy Goth chicks with attitude.  They are Faces and their archenemies are...

Father Flanagan & the Altar Girls- Fr. Flanagan's gimmick is that he's, um, a washed up, sleazy priest, and the Altar Girls have a Catholic schoolgirl/S&M thing going on.

Glorious Tommy Thunder-a self-proclaimed "good friend of Bruce". He thinks he's a Face, but is loathed by the fans.

The Coroner-an Undertaker rip-off.  His day job is actually at the Fort Lee morgue.  His finisher is the "Tagged & Bagged", which features him zipping his opponent into a body bag.

His Magnificence, Duke King-an experienced wrestler with an actual fan base, who's been out of the business for years.  He just wants a paycheck.

A.C. Warbucks-has a Donald Trump/Apprentice Contestant-type gimmick.  The promotion is trying to push him as the breakout Heel.

El Guapo-a reluctant Luchador, pushed into the business by his famous father.

Oingo Boingo-a high flying tag team and their main opponents...

Putrid-a tag team (Rancid Ronnie and Vinnie Vile) with a circa 1977 Punk Rock look.

And many more, like "Redlight" Johnny Smooth, Apollo Maximus, Dave "The Dave" Mitchell, the Band of Bruthas, Freedom, Susuko, and Salacious Sal...

A couple of points about the whole process:

1. Creating characters for Kayfabe is lots of fun.  Which is a good thing, because we still haven't filled out our roster yet.  We still need to come up with a bunch of jobbers so that these wrestlers have people to beat on during the first few shows, before the big storylines start to build up.  This isn't quite a problem, but no one wants the wrestlers they've created thus far to lose during the early shows.

2. This is the crunchiest game we've played as a group and the crunchiest game Andy and Nick have ever played (previous games include PTA, InSpectres, and the Shab-al-Hiri Roach). I eplained that compared to PTA, character creation in Kayfabe would be a little bit more like building a character in a video game. We had no problems with any of the number stuff.

3. I am lucky to be playing with guys who know a lot about wrestling and actually enjoy it.  Nick and Andy have a real knack for coming up with wrestling gimmicks and trademark moves and the like.

Anyway, we're going to have one more character creation/prep session to round out the roster (we still need commentators, valets, and behind-the-scenes folks) and to plan the PPV event.  We're all really looking forward to getting to the actual game.

Awesome, just awesome!!

Your character's all sound cool and JAWS is just a kick ass name for a promotion.

I really like the organized crime aspect of it.  I think it would be cool if the mobsters tried using the wrestlers as muscle from time to time.  Beat up some shlub with a gambling debt in exchange for a title shot.

Has anyone made a character with the debt Flaw?  "Working" off your debt takes on a whole new meaning.

Keep us posted on how things go.

,Matt

Thanks for the ideas, Matt: I will definitely make use of them.

I gave the promotion the Flaw "Rival Owners" to represent the Promotion's original founder taking out a loan from the mob to get things afloat, with the mob moving in to become "partners" in the business.  The twist is that the mob guy who has the job of watching over the promotion is a huge wrestling fan, and imagines that he could be the next Vince McMahon.

None of the characters have the "Debt" flaw, yet, but I'm going to suggest it to the group: it would certainly make sense for many (if not most) of the character concepts.

Jon -

I read a post of yours from last month in a differnt thread, commenting on how disappinted you were that the game fell apart before it could launch.

Let's get your game off the ground!  I'd like to either play in YOUR fed, or have you join the one that I am starting!

Please e-mail me at def_mall_owner@hotmail.com

- Jeff