The following is a step by step example of how running a match should go. For this example we will use a simple Singles Match, the exact same steps are taken when running specialty matches. The difference being of course that specialty matches will have added rules and methods depending on the type of match. Okay let's begin, this match will be taking place between Joey Jobber and Frank Jabrone. As the GM I have prepared an entire card to which Joey Jobber VS Frank Jabrone is the opening match.
Time for the introductions, our ring announcer Teddy Smith will announce the competitors.
“This next match is scheduled for one fall, coming out first, from New York, New York, weighing in at 235 lbs...
JOEY JOBBER!!!”
At this point either you as the GM can read out the characters entrance or it could be easier to let the player read his character's entrance.
“And his opponent, from Denver Colorado, weighing in at 225 lbs...FRANK JABRONE!!”
Same thing goes here, player or GM reads the entrance of the character.
Ding, Ding
There goes the bell, okay...both wrestlers roll one ten-side die(1D10) and add any Initiative bonus the character might have.
Joey Jobber rolls an 8 and adds his initiative bonus of 1 to give him a total of 9.
Frank Jabrone rolls a 4 and adds his initiative bonus of 1 to give him a total of 5.
Joey Jobber has won the initiative, he decides to execute a move on Frank, Joey's player looks over his list of moves in the Standing Group because both wrestlers are standing in the ring. He decides on a good old fashioned Bodyslam. Joey must now roll a twenty-sided die (1D20) and add his Strike Bonus, but Joey Jobber doesn't have a strike bonus so his roll of a 19 on his D20 remains unmodified.
Since Joey's roll of 19 is way over the Bodyslam's Failure Chance of 5, the move is not botched. Had he rolled 5 or below Joey would have messed up the move and lost the initiative. Joey's player deducts the move's endurance cost from his Endurance Points, in this case that would be 2 points.
At this point the Game Master, would put two checks in Joey Jobber's Heat box on Tracking Sheet 1 because Joey receives the move's Heat Points, in this case it's 2 points. The Game Master will also write down the move's name on the first line of Tracking Sheet 1.
Tracking Sheet 1 is used to keep track of each wrestlers Heat generated during the match as well as their string of moves. See Move Diversity on page 36 for more information on what this is used for.
Tracking Sheet 2 is used to keep track of rounds and who has initiative. So at this point Tracking Sheet 2 would have “Joey Jobber” written down on the first slot of Round 1. Every round represents 1 minute of action.
Okay, so Joey has rolled successfully for his move, now Frank decides to attempt to evade the move, he rolls a twenty-sided die as well and gets an 8, adds in his evade bonus of 1 to get a total of 9. Since he did not beat Joey's roll his attempt to evade was unsuccessful and the move is executed. Frank deducts 3 Endurance Points for his attempt at evading the move, Joey's player rolls the move's damage which in this case is 1D4 (one four-sided die) and adds his damage bonus of +4. Joey gets a 3 on his roll and with his damage bonus that gives him a 7. Frank deducts these 7 points off his Health Points.
Since Joey successfully executed a move, he still has initiative and it's his turn again. Frank is laying on the canvas because the Ending Position of the Bodyslam is Down. Joey can now execute any move he has in the Down Group. He decides to go for a Legdrop...he rolls a twenty-sided die (1D20) again, he has no Strike bonus to add....he gets a 15, another successful roll. Joey's player deducts the Legdrop's Endurance cost from his Endurance Points and the Game Master adds the Heat value to Joey's Tracking Sheet as well as writes down Legdrop on the second line on move section of the sheet.
Tracking Sheet 2 would now have “Frank Jobber” written down in the second slot of Round 1.
Frank chooses to attempt to evade the move again. He rolls his twenty sider, a 19!!! More than enough to beat Joey's roll even before adding the +4 to evade. Frank deducts the 3 points for his evasion action from his Endurance Points and he gets to his feet and now has initiative.
Although Joey went for the legdrop but Frank rolled out of the way letting poor Joey hit nothing but canvas on his legdrop. Both wrestlers are considered to be in the Standing position at this point.
Frank decides he's going to go for a combo of 3 punches, he rolls his 1D20 and gets a 10 and adds his Strike bonus of +1 to give him an 11. That's higher than the Punch's Failure Chance
of 5, so far so good. Joey however still gets a chance to either evade or reverse, he chooses to evade and rolls his 1D20 and gets a 5, adds his evade bonus of +3 to give him an 8. But sadly that's not enough to beat Frank's roll so the first punch hits it's target. Joey deducts the 3 points of Endurance for attempting to evade while Frank deducts the 1 point of Endurance for the punch.
Frank then rolls for damage which is 1D4 and gets a 2, because this is a Combo Frank does not get to add his damage bonus. He does however get to do two more punches, all three punches constitute just one action. Each attack that successfully strikes the opponent generates it's Heat Value. Joey gets to attempt to evade or reverse each punch if he so chooses. He may also choose to simply let the punches strike in order to save the Endurance points for when he really needs them. Also on his second punch Frank gets to add an additional +2 to his Strike roll because a punch has a momentum value of 2. On the third punch he gets to add +4. Frank goes for his second punch now and rolls a 9 + Strike Bonus (1) + Momentum bonus (2) to give him a total of 12. Joey attempts to evade the second punch as well and gets a 20 on his evasion roll! Joey ducks the second punch and regains the initiative, Frank doesn't get his third punch because Joey evaded and stole the initiative. Frank's Combo only counts as one attack on the Tracking Sheet 1 move section.
Tracking Sheet 2 would have “Joey Jobber” written down in slot 3 of Round 1.
Okay so now both wrestlers are in the standing position...Joey Jobber decides to execute an Irish Whip sending Frank into the turnbuckle. He rolls his 1D20 and gets 15, which is a successful roll, he deducts the moves Endurance cost and the Game Master adds the move's Heat points to Joey's Heat Value. Frank now opts to let the move happen to preserve his Endurance points. Joey rolls the damage, an Irish Whip into the turnbuck- le does 1D4....he gets a 1 and adds his damage bonus of 4 to give him a total of 5.
Frank is now in the corner and Joey can choose to execute any move he has that is contained in the Corner Group.
This back and forth battle goes on for several rounds, so let's skip ahead to round 7. Both competitors are below half of their Health Points and their Endurance points are nearing zero.
Joey Jobber has the initiative but his Endurance points are down to 0, meaning he is too tired to execute any moves. He chooses to take a rest action, Joey will regain 15 Endurance and Health Points while Frank recovers 5pts to his Endurance and Health.
Had Joey decided to use a Rest Hold he would have continued to deliver damage to his opponent but he would have had to win dice battles against Frank to keep the hold on. See Rest Holds on page 35.
Because Joey took a Rest as his action, a new initiative roll is done. Joey has successfully executed his last two moves against Frank so he gets a +2 on his initiative roll.
Joey rolls an 7 + Initiative Bonus (1) + Initiative Momentum (2) that gives him a 10.
Frank rolls an 8 + Initiative Bonus (1) to give him a 9. Joey wins and chooses to go for his finisher the Jobber Plex. He rolls his Strike roll and gets a 14, Frank attempts to evade but with a roll of 5 is unsuccessful. Joey hits his finisher, he rolls damage 2D10 and gets 13, adds in his damage bonus to give him a total of 17 points.
After his finisher he goes for the pinfall, Frank adds up the total amount of Health Point damage he has taken during the match, his starting Health Points was 45 and he is now down to 5 points, so he has taken 40 points of damage. Then we add the damage taken to the amount of Endurance spent; Frank has spent 28 points of Endurance. The total of the two is 68, we now consult the table on page 39 to see that at 68 Frank gets 2 chances to break out of the pin.
We now consult the Pin Break Modifier table on page 39, the last move executed was Joey's finisher that did 17 points of damage, according to the table that gives us a 20% modifier. The Base pin break percentage is 50%, we deduct 20% from that and get 30%. Frank will need to roll below this to break out of the pinfall.
Frank rolls a hundred-sided die (1D100) and a ten-sided die (1D10) to get a percentage. His first roll came up as 40 on the 1D100 and 5 on the 1D10 giving him 45% and that is not enough to break out.
His second roll is worse at 62%, that's Frank's two chances at breaking out, he didn't so he was pinned for the three count. The match is over and your winner is Joey Jobber.
I hope this has given you an idea of how to go about running your own matches, don't worry if you mess up a time or two with the rules. The primary purpose should always be to have fun with it, in time as you do more and more matches you will find that it comes easier and the speed of running each match will increase. Good luck and have fun!