Gamehelpwrw

Concept

Wrestling has become a global phenomenon once again. In a cruel twist, despite the increase in popularity, all wrestling can only be televised on the same day at the same time, resulting in yet another Wrestling Ratings War. In this dynamic, synchronous, card-management game 2-4 players take the role of Head Booker, guiding their respective wrestling promotions to become the most watched show each week until only one remains.

In each round players book three segments, with each player deciding which of their own wrestlers win and lose each segment. Players compare the Segment Ratings they have created in each segment, to determine which segment was the most watched over all companies and ultimately which company won the ratings war for the week. Win enough weeks to put your rivals out of business.

Each wrestler has a unique gimmick which could help your segment, hinder your opponents or improve your roster. A wrestling company is never stagnant, winning wrestlers get stronger, while losing wrestlers get weaker. After each show players can train wrestlers, promote segments, recruit wrestlers and draw event cards to sow even more chaos for the coming weeks. Through championship glory, devastating injuries and untimely retirements, players must do their best to manage their fluctuating roster and ultimately decide who they will push to superstardom and who will fade away into obscurity.

Setup

To start, separate the Wrestler Cards (50x), Event Cards (42x), Positive Prestige Modifiers (54x), Negative Prestige Modifiers (44x) and Network Points (12x) into five piles. Give each player a Booking Sheet(4x), Backstage Sheet(4x) and a Round Reminder Card (4x).

Each player starts with a roster of 6 wrestlers. Separate the wrestler cards by prestige. The starting prestige can be found printed on the top left corner of the card. Shuffle each pile of wrestlers and deal every player a starting roster of the following starting prestiges: 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 7. Each player's roster is not a secret so deal these wrestlers faceup and players should keep their roster faceup.

Shuffle all the remaining wrestlers back together into one pile and place it face down. Draw three more wrestlers from the pile and place them face up next to the pile, this creates what is known as the free agency pile. These are the wrestlers you can potentially add to your roster in later rounds.

Shuffle the event cards and place them in a pile face down. Also place the positive Prestige Modifiers and Negative prestige modifiers in a pile face up next to them. Once everyone has their starting roster you can start the game.

Game round

A round is known as a week and consist of the following:

1. Start of Week Gimmicks and Events
2. Book Segments
3. Score Segments
4. Award Network Points
5. Update Prestiges
6. Post-Show Fallout Gimmicks and Events
7. End of Week Actions

Repeat this until a player has reached the necessary amount of Network Points to win the game

Choose Priority player

Decide which player will be the Priority Player this week. This is only important for the Start of Week Order, Reveal Segments Order and Post-Show Fallout Order. The Priority Player rotates clockwise each week.

Start of Week Gimmicks and Events

There are some events and gimmicks that happen at the start of the week. Check if each player has any of these, starting with the Priority Player and proceed clockwise round.

Booking your segments

Each week every player uses their Booking Sheet to secretly book all three of their segments. Everyone does this at the same time. Here you will decide which wrestler will win and lose in each of your segments. First choose which wrestlers you want to use this week and place them facedown on the Booking Sheet. Wrestlers you want to win should be placed in the top ‘Winner’ slot of the segment and the wrestler you want to lose in the ‘Loser’ slot. Any wrestler not booked in segments are considered to be in Catering for the week.

As a reminder, you decide who will win and lose each match so of course a lower prestige wrestler can beat a wrestler of higher prestige if that's what you want to happen. Any wrestler who wins their segment will gain prestige and any wrestler who you decide loses the segment will lose prestige (unless otherwise stated). For instance, if a wrestler who is prestige 5 wins their segment they will be prestige 6 next round. If they were to lose the segment they would be 4 prestige next round. Some wrestlers have gimmicks which rely on them being booked to win their segment so it's important to decide which gimmicks you want to use to help your segment win.

Note - it is possible to have less active wrestlers than slots to fill. In this scenario for any empty slots it will add 0 to the Segment Rating and the lone wrestler in that segment does not gain or lose prestige this week. You must fill any slots if you have enough active wrestlers available.

Once everyone has booked their segments it's time to score the segment and see who won the week.

Scoring the segment

Starting on the Opening (left most) segment, one player at a time will reveal their first matchup only. The Priority Player reveals first and then rotate clockwise to the next player until all matches are revealed. Once everyone has revealed their wrestlers in a segment, calculate each player’s Segment Rating by adding the total prestige of your wrestlers in the segment, taking into account any prestige modifiers, gimmicks and event cards.

Calculate which player has the lowest amount of prestige in the segment. This player has the first opportunity to resolve any optional ‘During Segment Scoring’ gimmicks or play any relevant Event Cards. If another player now has the lowest Segment Rating, they have an opportunity to follow, resolving any gimmicks or events.

Once everyone has finished using gimmicks and events, a final Segment Rating can be calculated for every player's segment. Whoever has the highest Segment Rating wins the segment (unless otherwise stated). In the event of a tie, everyone tied wins half a segment.

Follow the same process for the 2nd (Middle segment) and the 3rd (Main Event) segment.

Award Network Points

If a player has won a majority of the segments in the week then they earn a Network Point. If players are tied on the amount of segments they won, then everyone who won the most segments gets a Network Point (remember drawing a segment gets you half so drawing two would be the same as winning one segment)

If someone has reached the points threshold to win the game then the game is over. How many Network Points this is depends on how long a game you want to play but as a guide:

2 players: 5 points

3 players: 4 points

4 players: 4 points

Note - In the game there are a certain Event Cards and Wrestler Gimmicks that could end the game early if a certain condition is met.

No further actions can be taken once someone has reached this threshold. If multiple people reach the threshold at the same time then whoever has the highest Segment Rating in the Main Event wins the game. If this is also a draw then it's a joint victory.

Updating Wrestler Prestiges

After calculating who won the week and realising no one has won the game yet, it's time to update your wrestler’s prestiges. Every player does this.

For every wrestler who won their segment add a +1 prestige modifier to the wrestler. For everyone who lost add a -1 prestige modifier.

Remember, the wrestler who won the segment was the wrestler each player decided to put in the ‘Winner’ slots when booking the segments. The loser was the other wrestler in the ‘Loser’ slot of your segment. It doesn't matter if you had the highest Segment Rating or not, you still have to update the prestiges based on who won and lost your segment for every wrestler you booked.

It's also worth noting with the prestige modifiers that if a wrestler has a +1 modifer on and they lose, then you can just take the +1 modifier off instead of having a +1 and -1 on the same wrestler.

Depending on gimmicks or events played some wrestlers may not have their prestige change or can gain extra prestige modifiers.

There is no upper limit to how much prestige a wrestler can have.

If a wrestler's prestige was to ever go into minus prestige (a wrestler of 0 loses their match) that wrestler retires and is out of the game.

If you run out of prestige modifier cards then find a suitable replacement such as another pack of cards from a different game or make them yourself out of paper.

Post-show Fallout Gimmicks and Events

There are some events and gimmicks that happen during Post-Show Fallout. Check if each player has any of these, starting with the Priority Player and proceed clockwise round.

End of Week actions

At the end of the week each player can now take two unique end of week actions. Players have a choice of 4 actions and cannot do the same action twice. Players do this one after the other. The player who won the Main Event segment gets to take their action first. Other players then take turns clockwise from there. If the Main Event was a draw then whoever is the Priority Player this week goes first.

Players can either:

• Train a wrestler - Increase the prestige of a wrestler on your roster by 1. Wrestlers who are injured cannot be trained
• Promote a segment - Place 3 +1 prestige modifiers on any segments for next week only. You can put these modifiers in any combination on any segment. For example, +1 on each segment or +3 on the Main Event, etc. Remember to remove these modifiers at the end of the next week.
• Draw an event card - Get an event card from the event pile.
• Recruit a wrestler - Add a wrestler from the face up free agency to your roster. When you do this make sure to replace the faceup free agency pile with a wrestler from the facedown wrestler pile. Note: Any wrestler of base Prestige 7 that is recruited joins your roster injured

Once everyone has taken their two actions it’s the end of the week. Repeat this process until someone wins the game.

Game Concepts Glossary

Injuries & Retirement

Some wrestler gimmicks and some event cards may lead to a wrestler being injured. An injured wrestler means they cannot be booked in a segment or trained until the end of the next week. After that they can return and be used as usual.

If an already injured wrestler is injured again then they retire and are out of the game.

Whenever you add a new base Prestige 7 wrestler to your roster, your own roster attacks them out of jealousy and they start off injured. Clarifications: Even if you have cards that prevent injuries (like Shell or Billy Boulder) the acquired wrestler still starts off injured. The rule applies for however you get a new wrestler (Shakti/Siren). If the wrestler does not start out as a 7 (like Resting Stanley) they do not start injured.

If a wrestler were to go into negative prestige when updating prestiges then the wrestler retires (a prestige 0 wrestler loses their match). If a wrestler retires, remove all prestige modifiers and event cards and put the wrestler in a ‘retired’ pile. Any event cards are discarded. E.g. If a retired wrestler has a championship event card then the championship goes into the event discard pile.

Championship event cards

You may draw a championship event card during the game. Initially the championship will be played on a segment.

The wrestler you have booked to win in that segment then becomes the champion and the event card is attached to the wrestler, just like the prestige modifiers and some other event cards. This rule applies for every match the champion wrestler is booked in. If another player wins the segment then the Championship changes hands. The wrestler booked to win in the winning segment immediately takes the Championship card. If no one wins the segment then the championship stays with the player who has the event card.

Special match event cards

You may draw a special match event card during the game. This should be played facedown on a segment at the start of a week when booking segments. The match card is then revealed alongside wrestlers in the segment

You can book multiple special match event cards in the same segment if you want, however a number of special match cards result in the loser getting injured. If a wrestler is injured more than once in a round then they retire.

Targeting Terminology:

• Your Segment: Refers only to the two wrestlers on your own Booking Sheet (your Winner and your Loser).
• Segment Slot: Refers to all wrestlers competing in that specific time slot (Opening, Middle, or Main Event) across all players' boards.