Piledrivers & Powerbombs

Introduction

Piledrivers & Powerbombs is a very cool wrestling-themed roleplaying game from JJ Prince's imprint Prince of Darkness Games, which I like to classify as a beer and pretzels, or even a "party game". The house rules below refer to the UKG Publishing edition of the game.

Imagine getting to cut WWE-style promos on your friends, pretending to be pumped up, steroid-popping, muscle head wrestlers in a bitter feud — what could be more fun than that? P&P delivers this and much more, the narrative combat rules are great and trying to one-up each other in delivering cool fight descriptions is a riot. If you like wrestling even a little bit, you owe yourself to try this game.

House Rules

Distributed GM Duties — No GM!

Do away with the GM, the game should definitely be played without a GM for maximum fun! Let the player requesting the scene specify who plays his antagonist (ala JJ's other game Contenders), or simply have the player on your left play your current antagonist, if that player's character is already in the scene, then go to the next player on your left — I'm sure you can work something out.

8-player Variant

If you get at least 6 or 8 players together (more is fine, 8 or 16 work best though), don't create nemeses for the player characters, instead let that develop in play between the PCs. When all PCs are evenly aligned into two opposing Factions, and everyone has 4 Grudge Points, then the end-game is triggered. The Final Confrontation is basically a single elimination tournament for the vacant World Championship, which is why this variant works wonderfully with 8 players.

Pre-Game Set-up — Setting and Situation

Start the game with a brainstorming session to create their own wrestling federation; that is the setting and situation (the default situation in P&P is the vacated title you're all fighting for, but adding some addition color helps). At the very least consider the following topics:

Fed name
Fed status and history
Titles/Champions (we know that the World Championship is vacant, but what other sanctioned belts are there?)
Commentators (RJ and Bazzz can be used as defaults, but it's more fun to come up with your own)
Interviewers, ring announcers, managers, valets, etc.

Superstar (wrestler) Creation

The Attribute Points (AP) progression irks me for not being logical, so I suggest the following:

Jobber: 6 AP
Mid-carder: 9 AP (or 12)
Main-eventer: 12 AP (or 18)

Honestly the best thing to do is just agree to the number of AP as a group, and use however many you want.

Sample Connections

Here's a list of sample connections to get your creative juices flowing.

Brothers
Father and Son
Other Relatives (cousins, in-laws, etc.)
Romantically Involved
Best Friends since Childhood
Tag Team Partners
Country Men
Soldiers in the same army
Doctor and Patient
Coach and Athlete
Pimp and "Worker"
Agent and Actor
Millionaire and Bodyguard

Sample Conflicts

Love Triangle
One of you belittles the other, treating him as mentally or physically challenged
One of you think he's carrying the other (pretty much the standard conflict between tag team partners)
One of you think the other is just too much of a babyface/heel to be acceptable
One of you is jealous of the other's blatant attempts at kissing up to the promoter/booker/champion/hot f'ing valet, etc.
One of you hate the other's pet/friend/significant other

NPC Jobbers & Mid-Carders

I'd like an NPC Sheet with only the absolute necessary attributes, and room for about 4-8 NPCs per sheet. The players each create at least one NPC jobber and/or mid-carder, this all depends how long a game you want, and if your PCs start as Jobbers, Mid-carders, or Main-eventers. These NPCs can never Develop (train), only PCs and Nemeses can develop. The NPCs can still increase their Attributes through the outcome of matches.

Required stats:

Name
Attributes
Generic Finisher (i.e. doesn't need a flashy name, just write the name of the move)
A space for notes, if people want to list height/weight, home, and theme music, or whatever else

Create the Match Card - The Booking Committee Scene

The Booking Committee Scene is a new mandatory Scene held at the start of each event, featuring all players. You play your wrestler as he tries to influence the booker to give him the match he wants, follow these guidelines and have fun:

At a minimum each PC must have a match, but if you're all up for it allow NPCs to wrestle each other as well (this all depends on how long a game you want, or perhaps how sim'y they like it)
Play out the booking committee's meeting as a Conflict Scene involving all the PCs
Each player draws cards equal to his PCs Popularity plus Infamy
The winner (high card, but remember the rule on pairs, trips, and quads) decides the first match, 2nd highest the next match, etc.

Flair Points

Depending on how many Flair Points (FP) people want flying around, try either of these options. Given the somewhat competitive nature of P&P, I like a no limit, group consensus method of handing out FP. Anytime someone laughs out loud, or blurts out a comment such as "wow", "whoa", or "holy f*ck!", give the other players a quick glance for a thumbs up or thumbs down decision, and hand over that FP dammit!

Holy Shit

The "Holy Shit!" chant grants the recipient a Flair Point plain and simple.

The Final Confrontation (End-Game)

The Final Confrontation is by default a single elimination tournament for the World Championship, but could be anything. How about a Battle Royal, Royal Rumble, an elimination match, a round robin tournament, or whatever you want. The reason this game feels like a party game to me, is that it's over after the end-game, there's no everlasting campaign.

Questions

Bring It On!

Q: What does the Sellage caveat of "each losing opponent must take at least one point of Sellage" mean if you're only dealing out 1 point of Sellage in a match with multiple opponents?: A: Personally I only deal out 1 point of sellage, but have not heard JJ's views on this yet.