Commissioner's Review of Know Your Role

[thefamoustommyz]

Hey...

Did you guys hear about this?

Some kind of WWE pen and paper RPG. Its OGL, which may not mean much to most of you...but that means its based off the basic building blocks of the d20 system that powers the newest D&D and (unfortunately) 98.2% of all RPGs released since D&D3E dropped.

I have d20 bias. Just so you know.

First impressions...

I don't like the cover. Angle with the Ankle Lock on Bob Holly just doesn't seem like what I would put on the cover to sell the book. Especially since Holly's not actually IN the book.

I got the book today, and I see potential binding issues, which many other people have complained about already. The book is hardcover and full color, with glossy paper and retails for $40, though I got mine from Amazon.com for $24.87.

Lets break this badboy down...

You guys are familiar with Tony Lee and Cynthia Celeste Miller, the latter from all her CotG work and the former from his nice job pimping the book on these boards. They are not the only ones credited, but the only ones I had any recognition of before cracking open the book.

Chapter 1

This is the basics...what is role-playing, what is "Smash-Mouth Roleplaying", which is KYR's very own style of cooperative narrativist storytelling usually involving people playing multiple characters to fill out a fed.

A three-page example match of Angle vs Eddie Guerrero fills out this chapter, giving you a feel for the flow of the game.

Chapter 2, in which D&D becomes Pro Wrestling

Character creation is the only section of RPGs perhaps as important as combat. KYR tells you to create the gimmick first, then move to the stats. This is more suitable of you use the second of the two generation methods, which is point distribution for your attributes. Otherwise, you COULD have a concept spoiled by bad die rolls. Neither method (rolling four six sided dice six times, dropping the lowest die from each roll or distributing 20 points among your attributes) is given any particular favoritism. The die-rolling will provide more potential for greater variance, but will also create more characters who are "unbalanced".

The six attributes, for those of you who don't know D&D, are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. Each attribute is keyed to both a character class and a maneuver type in a sweet bit of game design.

From there, you also have Weight Class, which can be chosen or rolled for randomly, and provides additional ability modifiers (genetic giants will wind up stronger, cruisers wind up faster, etc). This is also the first discussion of lift checks, which are integral to most maneuvers, and tell how hard it is to knock a guy off his feet.

From there we move to classes and levels...a handy chart breaks down where each level of wrestler should be placed on the card, with main eventers not appearing until about level 10.

This section also describes the benefits of level, such as Reputation Bonus, Talents, Skills, Feats and Saving Throws (Fortitude, Reflex and Will, each of which are used to describe different ways of breaking submissions.)

Then they detail multiclassing, which the game also encourages. Pretty much the only incentive not to multiclass is that there are "Talent Trees", and you only get the higher end talents by a singleminded focus on that tree, which is balanced by the diversity of tricks from all aspects when multiclassing.

The six classes are Aerial, Power, Rough, Savvy, Technical and Manager. Most wrestlers won't wind up with many Manager levels, but each class has four talent trees which can be further used to differentiate wrestlers of the same class Although, the placement of the "Space Mountain" talent tree, which seems to be tailor-made for Ric Flair, has me curious as to how the KYR crew would stat him up.

Now, normally I would run screaming from the book at this point...("Wrestling?! With classes?!?! And levels!?!?")...but I must admit. Something about it seems to work. I'm sure someone signed a deal with Satan for this to be the case.

After nailing your class, you pick a Training Background, which provide their own bonuses and further differentiate the characters. There are Backgrounds in Athletics, Fitness, Entertainment, Martial Arts and more...the only thing I think was lacking was something that nailed the multitude of backyard wrestlers turned pro. I guess "Mat Wrestling", if you picked the right skills and bonus feat would work.

A breakdown of skills, what they are and how they work follows. The list is kinda big, but seems to pretty much only hit what's necessary for a wrestling RPG, including some new ones like Perform (Promo) and (Vignette).

The Feats are all wrestling specific, although some ore thinly disguised D&D staples, such as Can of Whup@ss, which is pretty much the Barbarian's Rage class feature, renamed and placed in a wrestling context. This originally appeared in the demo as Hulk-Up. I stress again at how impressed I am here, with Feats like Low Profile, which is used as a gateway for Upset-Minded, which can help you pull wins out of nowhere.

A character creation example follows, creating "Too Hot For TV" Maxwell Heath, a level 1 aerial superstar.

[thefamoustommyz]

Chapter 3 is COMBAT. Which a wrestling game pretty much needs.

This breaks down holding wrestling matches, starting with an option Intimidation staredown to try to gain the upperhand before the first lock-up, for all you Undertaker fans out there. Combat is straightforward. The wrestler with the most Heat has initiative, which means his opponent has to declare his move first, so the wrestler with initiative gets to pick something with perhaps a better chance of success. Both men roll a 20 sided die, add in all modifiers, with winner is the one who gets to do his move, and - this is key - gets to describe the action sequence. A 20 is an automatic hit and threatens a critical hit, and perhaps a traumatic hit (causing injuries), and a 1 is an automatic failure, which can turn into a total botch.

Rules are included for fending off multiple opponents at once, targeting the referee and more. As well, one of the key elements of the game, Heat, comes into play here. Heat can be gained by hitting a high impact move, by great promos and even a Spectacula Entrance...but its uses really unfold in the matches. For instance, you have to spend 1 Heat in order to unleash your finisher on the opponent.

The rules seem like they could be picked up by the end of the first match, and seem to cover most areas that would pop up in a match. There's even a nice list of Tricks, divided into Face, Heel and Everyone, such as Steal Finisher (which does what is says), Never Surrender (which gives you a bonus to resisting submissions) and Ref Bump (which opens the door for all kinds of chaos).

Specialty matches such as cage matches, battle royals, falls count anywhere matches and ladder matches are included, as well as a list of optional rules such as permanent injury and "psychology" rules.

Chapter 4 is the Maneuvers System, which is what sets KYR apart. Basically, its a table of modifiers that is used to create any and all maneuvers in the game, including the use of foreign objects. A few typos seemed evident here, as neither the abdominal stretch nor the ankle lock had "submission" factored into their move modifier. This system is simple and beautiful, which it needs to be, since it powers the whole game.

[thefamoustommyz]

Chapter 5 is roleplaying in a federation setting.

This tells you how to handle "rating" Promos and Vignettes if your players want to act them out, giving them bonuses to their rolls instead of just relying totally on die rolls. It also breaks down how often wrestlers should be allowed to appear on each show, which is based off of Charisma. Sneak attacks are covered here, as well as rules for making the save when a sneak attack goes down. Guidelines for fines and suspensions are included, to keep the serious rulebreakers in check. Heck, since they're featured so prominently on WWE TV, the KYR writers saw fit to include on-air contract signings, as well as petitioning your local GM for a match, such as a grudge match against your hated rival or a title shot.

Just to be all-inclusive, rules are included for handling "contests" such as bikini contests, arm-wrestling matches, posedowns and the like...and even "moonlighting", for when your Martial Artist trained wrestler wants to break out into action movies!

"Narrative Mode" is a nice way to simulate situations like Sting clearing the ring of the nWo from most anytime in 1997...basically, Sting's player asks to take control of the situation, the GM and players consent, Sting's player describes rappelling into the ring and kicking the Hell out of everything that moves. Why would the nWo players agree to this? Why, because as a reward for their buttkicking, the GM awards them Heat and XP for their sacrifice in the name of good TV.

Finally, Chapter 5 ends with a discussion of retired wrestlers and the deterioration of their abilities.

Chapter 6: Desire!

This chapter lays out the gaining of experience points, the benefits of being a champion (which varies from belt to belt, with bonuses ranging from Reputation bonuses, to bonus Feats and more), as well as a system for Contender Points, for those who want a more "realistic" win-loss ranking system. The included system is great for one major reason...it completely encourages competitive matches over quick wins and squashes.

Chapter 7: Rules of the Ring

Pretty much what it says...it breaks down the rules of a wrestling match, as well as how tag matches differ from singles bouts. Then it splits into two segments: Tips for playing in a Smash-Mouth RPG environment, and rules for GMing in one. The Player section encourages cooperation and not "camera hogging" or "gang mentality" if you're using multiple characters. The GM section talks about the responsibility of being the Promoter, Booker, Boss and all that. It also talks about running multiple matches at once, as KYR was designed for the ability to be ran sans GM if need be. This is also the section that discusses how many characters you want your players to make, as well as discussing the notion of "rotating GMs", which is certainly not without precedent.

One section that's sure to draw some smirks from smarks is the commentary on the importance of continuity in the WWE. Don't laugh. Just remember that this IS a licensed WWE product.

Finally, this chapter ends with a rough breakdown of actually running a show.

Chapter 8: The Roster.

This point has been awfully controversial. The roster.

Raw: The Rock, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Edge, Rhyno, Tajiri, Trish Stratus, The Hurricane, Jonathan Coachman, Earl Hebner and Eric Bischoff.

Smackdown: The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, The Big Show, Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Paul Heyman and Theodore Long.

Now...some folks might wonder where, say, Batista or John Cena are at. To say nothing of Rey Misterio, JBL or Randy Orton. Well...oops. See, the KYR crew kept hitting these great roadblocks with the roster, so finally had to settle for one, and decided to try to get a good spread of talent, so readers could have a nice selection to work off of when modeling their own. Personally, I think that was the way to go, although I would have so ditched, like, Eddie and The Rock or Jericho for Batista and Cena, but that's me.

Now, my only REAL complaints with this section are (other than editing errors, like Big Show only having 117 Endurance, the same as Eddie Guerrero): That is one AWFUL Triple H picture...and Torrie Wilson acting as the mouthpiece for 6 characters?! They must all be completely mute...even then, I think that would be an improvement over Torrie on the mic.

Final Thoughts

There is a LOT to like about this book. There's stuff not to like about it, too. It looks like I, too, will fall prey to the binding issue. I disagree with the comment in the book that a Finisher, once chosen, cannot be changed. Rocky Maivia had the Shoulderbreaker before he evolved into the Rock. The Downward Spiral and Edge-O-Matic were finishers before Edge settled on the Spear, which was once just a signature move. Lex Luger used the Torture Rack, then the Piledriver, then the Running Forearm before reverting back to the Torture Rack. That said, quibbling about the finishers is a MINOR thing at best.

There are some editing issues...but those exist in virtually every game. Finding out a $40 book wasn't properly edited IS annoying...but so was paying $50 for Knights of the Old Republic II and finding out IT WASN'T FINISHED. Guess what bugs me more...typos, or finding out a killer game is incomplete?

I like. I'll try to actually run this for someone sometime. I'll probably lug this around until it falls apart in...oh...about a week, from the looks of the binding. *sigh* But for $25, I'm pretty happy with it. Great job, guys.

Now...time to make my DOMINANT HEEL.

[Allensh]

Batista and Cena were available on the website relatively soon after the book came out.

The website thing is going rather slowly, but there will be more wrestlers available there. and you gotta save something for the supplement

All in all a pretty decent review.

Allen

[Adam Smasher at work]

And on one of the other threads Cindi posted a link to a Yahoo group for the game which seems to be pretty active. They did a ECW web book, so they got my vote already. LOL.
Big Time.

[Tone Cold]

thefamoustommyz said:

Now, normally I would run screaming from the book at this point...("Wrestling?! With classes?!?! And levels!?!?")...but I must admit. Something about it seems to work. I'm sure someone signed a deal with Satan for this to be the case.

D'oh, he knows the truth! The contract might be null and void now; I'll have to check the clauses...


Tony