Wrestle the World

I feel like the perfect Pro Wrestling RPG has yet to be created, that they all fall short in some way. Unlike a lot of Wrestling RPGs I find, I want the wrestling to basically be "real". These wrestlers want to win and really fight to do so. The game is not about working together to narrate entertaining matches, per se. Also, the world of wrestling in this game really branches out like in martial arts movies. Wrestlers will inexplicably end up in real world adventures, a little bit like those Lucha Libre movies, but more '80s action. As for tone, I'm going with really flamboyant '80s. California Games, working out in gyms in the summer, muscle beach, I-ROC Zs, animal prints, hot pink, totally gonzo.

Just to chat about the difficulties: A wrestling match ends with a pin and not someone being knocked out, generally. Usually, but not always, a wrestler is pretty beat up at the end of a match, but you never see a Pro Wrestling match that is like, a guy gets beat up by someone fighting like a boxer or martial artist, is knocked down and someone lays on them for the pin. This dynamic is part of why most normal RPG combat systems are bad at emulating a wrestling match. The lulls and contours of a match are not well simulated by other games. Also, games that do work for wrestling are often narrative style games where the players narrate the action, and if not fully in a story-game mode, even if a wrestler picks a specific style of technique to perform it is often said that they are picking the highlight maneuver that features among other in-ring action that occurs during their turn that they might be permitted to freely narrate. I'd like something that is not so much about narrating in this way.

So, rules approach! What am I even thinking about here? Overall, it seems there has to be some kind of stamina that generally goes down over the course of a match, but that there needs to be a way to turn it around as well. Like, generally over the course of a match, the stamina should go down and the wrestlers should be in more danger, or more able to execute difficult moves that could finish a match, but it is possible to catch a second wind. Maybe something like a poker game should be considered, at least the contours of a poker game. The latest base game I've been lookinig at is Lair of the Leopard Empresses, which has a Tunnels & Trolls lineage. I also think about Street Fighter, MSH, MURPG, and even elements of James Bond.

The Basics

Bullet-pointed Brain Storming

Let's do it.

• The way I'm working Stamina in Rising Forces could be really cruicial here.
• I need a list of Techniques that is a bit different from Rising Foces, to emphasize the wrestling angle more maybe?
• The ideas I have for Basic vs. Special Maneuvers in Rising Forces could be tweaked here, lemme just toss out some totally unexamined brainstorming.
• Moves that cost stamina vs. ones that don't. Wrestlers maybe get access to more moves in basic-like fashion? Maybe gated by Technique level?
• Maybe moves that can be performed at Disadvantage/Advantage. Like, you can perform a wide variety of moves at disadvantage (rather than costing Stamina as in Rising Forces), and maybe Advantage for signature techniques?
• In Pro Wrestling some moves are flashy, and you don't think about it too much of course, but maybe flashier moves can build up something kinda like heat. Moves that don't look like there is any reason they would hurt the opponent more than a simpler move could still be done because their difficulty pumps the crowd. It's almost like skateboarding or something. Is there anything I can do with this idea?
• Whole new angle! Inspired by Lair of the Leopard Empresses: There are tests and combat rolls. Tests are generally Attribute + 2d6, but if you are skilled at a thing you roll 3d, and if you have a specialty within that skilled thing you roll 4d. Doubles roll again and add. Combat rolls are xd6 (depending on weapon or whatever) + a Character's "Combat Adds" (+1 for each of certain attributes above 12). In combat, all of the combat rolls (+ Combat Adds) for a given side are totalled and compared to the opposition. The side that rolls highest subtracts the result of the lower side and deals the remainer in damage. Cool... So, in combat, in addition to the Combat Roll, each character can also roll a Stunt test. The idea I have here that is a lil different is that there are formalized stunts taking the place of something like Street Fighter's Special Maneuvers. As is, if you fail a stunt it can have drawbacks. The change here is that you can have skilled stunts and specialized stunts that let you roll the 3 or 4 dice. Things I like: High risk wrestling maneuvers are stunts you can fail! Also, maybe some rule about a stage where you declare which side your combat pool will be commited to can allow for team-ups and double crosses.
• Thinking about so-called "Heat", an idle thought I'm having is something like a risk-reward thing like in James Bond where you can up the level of difficulty of an exchange, as in the chase rules of 007. Maybe this is exchange for a stamina reward or something, even though I have no firm ideas there yet.