New Years Fray 2016

A roleplaying game of pro wrestling for the holidays. 

Seasons turn. Calendar pages tear away. Humanity observes holiday traditions in their own ways worldwide. Ever has it been thus. But, every so often, the elemental forces of the season feel the shifting, the change in attitude, the global diminishing of goodwill. 

The Holiday Spirit has vanished from the world.

Now the reasons for the season must incarnate into their most admirable forms and engage in the Sport of Kings. These titanic bouts not only restore good cheer and inspiration to all, but also determine which particular forces will dominate the holidays until the next time they are called to battle. Will Selfishness or Sociability rule in our hearts this year?

These six Champions of Cheer clash through a series of wrestling matches, winning points and seeking to raise the overall spirits of the world through their struggle. Whoever wins will transcend this incarnation to become the new Holiday Spirit, spreading their brand of Cheer across the land; the losers seek to influence the new Spirit throughout the contests, having a say in the nature of the holidays even in ignominious defeat.

This is the New Years Fray.

This game is a tabletop roleplaying game that provides six pre-generated characters and an established situation in which to play them. You and your friends take on the roles of the Champions of Cheer, light-hearted holiday-themed supernatural beings (like Jack Frost, Sol Invictus and Old Saint Nick himself), incarnated as professional wrestlers as they compete to become this years Holiday Spirit. You don’t need to know much about wrestling to play (but having at least one fan at the table can really help). The rules of the game cover cutting promos, making speeches and conducting interviews that showcase your Champion, as well as using your holiday-themed powers and engaging in the wrestling bouts that determine who will emerge victorious!

Unlike actual pro wrestling, this game is played “straight”—that is, there is no behind-the-scenes plan or booking for who will win. The results of the wrestling matches are up to your strategy and the dice. However, each Champion has a spread of unique Moves that can tip the balance in their favor. 

In addition to winning matches and giving your brand of Cheer (Selfish or Sociable) the edge across all the Champions, giving and receiving Gifts is a big part of this game (‘tis the season, after all).

The Champion that can win matches, swing the balance of Cheer their way, and end up with the most Gifts will transcend their physical form and become this years Holiday Spirit!

Not a wrestling fan? You could easily treat it as a gladiatorial combat game or a side-scrolling digital fighting game, if you wanted to take it out of the squared circle.