It’s time to Write your story.
This is Heels&Faces; a tabletop roleplaying game built on the logic of pro wrestling.
No initiative. No hitpoints. Just heat, momentum, and the crowd.
No initiative tracking
•
no hit-point grind
•
under 15-minute character build
•
custom engine, built for the ring
•
No initiative tracking • no hit-point grind • under 15-minute character build • custom engine, built for the ring •
INTRODUCING
Narrative Combat
Pro wrestling is built on the principle of telling a story through combat.
Heels&Faces was built as a module to improve TTRPG combat. It quickly grew into its own beast, teaching players and GMs how to run effective combat scenes, and expanding to cover the entirety of the deep and wonderful world of wrestling.
Every roll leaves a thread for the table to pull and the system keeps giving you new ways to push the story forward. Built from the ground up after two years of playtesting, the game is designed with narrative combat at the forefront. We tested it with wrestlers, with roleplayers, with both, with neither. We made sure that the mechanics informed the gamplay rather than obstructed it, and that anyone, no matter their background, would find it accessible and easy to engage with.
No initiative tracking
•
no hit-point grind
•
under 15-minute character build
•
custom engine, built for the ring
•
No initiative tracking • no hit-point grind • under 15-minute character build • custom engine, built for the ring •
Work the match, not the maths.
Strike. Grapple. Taunt. Cheat. Let the character dictate the flow of play; the dice will determine the fallout. Every move is a beat in the story and success and failure both get the match closer to the finish.
01. Make your move.
A single roll resolves the action and reads the room. Beat the odds and feel the swell of the crowd; fail the roll and hear the voices from the front row to the cheap seats pushing you on.
02. Read the crowd.
Win, lose, or draw, the beauty of wrestling is that every outcome is just the staging point for the next part of your story. A turn. A callback. A grudge. A debt. The next scene writes itself.
03. Throw the hook.
BAD TIMES DON’T LAST, BUT BAD GUYS DO.
THE HEEL
The villain you love to hate. Break the rules, build the heat, work the crowd.
HARD WORK PAYS OFF, DREAMS COME TRUE
The Face
The underdog fighting their way to the top. Take the beating, earn the pop.
Heel and Face are two ends of a spectrum. Within that spectrum your alignment can shift… and when it does, the crowd shifts too. Play dirty and lean into your worst self, or fight from underneath and feel the room get behind you. The will of the crowd is the only currency that matters in this game, and with it you can overcome even the greatest of odds.
Call it
in the ring
A sheet built to teach you the game as you play.
The character sheet is designed to be picked up and played in minutes. The rules you need are printed on the sheet itself so nobody has to stop the action to look through a book. Learn the ropes, build a character, and be in the ring inside of fifteen minutes.
The character sheet grows with your character. Don’t have a finisher? No problem. Start playing and pick one when you hit something huge that pops the table. Stuck for a gimmick? Jump right in and let the arena be your judge. The system is flexible enough to allow you to play out your wrestler’s journey in full, whatever way you want to achieve that.
open TRYOUTS
Heels&Faces is still under active development. We are running a host of games already; testing out mechanics, layouts, and constantly updating and improving the alpha version of the game.
If you’d like to get involved, drop into our Discord or subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear about new games and feedback sessions, or simply to join the community!