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Post by "Dr Death" Ric Anderson on Dec 21, 2018 3:38:32 GMT -5
I'm getting back into this great game after several years away. I've stopped and started several new feds in the last couple of days, but I can't figure out how to keep one going.
I'd love some tips from you veterans about how you started your fed, chose wrestlers and then kept your booking fresh and interesting for more than a few cards?
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Post by Sinclair Promotions on Dec 21, 2018 5:05:12 GMT -5
Here's what I've done over the course of playing this game thru many trials and errors.
1 - I book like it's a real sport. Wins and Losses truly mean everything for me.
2 - Let your story lines grow organically. Sometimes the dice will lead to a great story and other times they may kill a story you've been hoping would kill it on paper
3 - Don't be afraid to play tournaments outside of your regular fed. In my Sinclairiverse I hold several tournaments that don't effect Win/Loss records of the main roster. The winners of those tournaments do get rewarded for winning them. For example I just wrapped up my annual Mixed Tag Team Invitational Tournament and on the very next show one of the winners of the tournament is challenging for the biggest prize in my promotions.
4 - If you have the time, feel free to spread the roster out over a couple of promotions that can either run in cooperation with each other or as rivals. I am entering in the second year of a Tier System I set up. The top guys move up to the next level and the bottom guys move down. Most new talents get introduced in the bottom fed and then work their way to the top fed.
5 - Find what works best for you. I've seen promotions on here where they have a rapid revolving door when it comes to their rosters.
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Post by bookerbill on Dec 21, 2018 6:28:51 GMT -5
I have rebooted several legends feds over the years. I generally let the dice decide. Step one is to establish a roster size. I would recommend 30, 10 spots of which would be dedicated to tag teams. I would then separate the sets out then roll two dice for each set. The highest roll is number one, the lowest is last. From that point I just have a snake style draft until the roster is full. Keep in mind you should balance the heels and faces. Six of the spots should be for top tier competitors and four to six should be lower tier guys. Once the roster is complete, I roll out the dice again for the sets and this creates the order I will draw from when it comes to add a fresh wrestler to the roster. I completely agree with my friend Sinclair Promotions. What works best for me is usually to let the plot lines develop from the action. I generally find it frustrating when I attempt force the action in one particular direction over another. There is just too much randomness when using the dice. Having said that, fellow promoters such as aceldamas have done stellar jobs in booking and maintaining storylines. His ROH fed is something else and worth the time to check out. My booking style is sort of chose your own adventure book. If two competitors are heading into a blow off match, I work out in advance what will happen based on the two possible outcomes of the feud. The dice dictate what direction I will head. When it comes to keeping a federation going, I think it is important to establish a structure. In my current Maple Leaf Wrestling fed I run one card a week (federation time, not necessarily real time) so I will end up with 52 cards in a year. Each card has ten matches with one of my three titles defended on each card. There will be three special events each year (one every four months). My roster size stays the same so when I want to add in a new competitor, someone has to go. No Stan Hansen without giving up Buddy Rogers. Welcome back!
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vtturk
Infinity Challenge
Posts: 141
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Post by vtturk on Dec 21, 2018 7:50:07 GMT -5
I've run my IWA Fed from the beginning of the LOW era. I'm now at card #270 and currently running 2 shows a week on Tuesday and Saturday. My roster size has varied a bit over the years but my titles have recently expanded to three for singles and three for Tags. I run storylines rather than by won-loss. Most of the wrestlers are way too evenly matched for any real winning streak but people are capable of running up enough good performances for challenging the champion. I have used bootlegs and continue to use a couple of the (Rocky Johnson, Black Jack Lanza and Edge) as well as a couple of bootleg managers.
As people have said, sometimes the dice just flatten a story line and sometimes they take it in unexpected directions. I try to go with the flow. If thins get stale or flat I can always create some nefarious deed out of the feud chant or gang intervention. I've had some memorable moments over the years and some I can't recall for the life of me. I keep the roster as fresh as needed with new wrestlers, turning faces into heels or vice versa (Rikidozan is a good example of a current heel). I also tend to let defeated long term champions go so that I can bring fresh faces to the challenger ranks. Sometimes I just take a break for a while if thins get too routine. I record each of my matches with a brief blurb about the process and use interview segments ( with Mean Gene or Bill Apter) at the shows to create story lines and tensions. I also use two commentators ( Buff Bagwell and Jesse Ventura) and often include quotes from them to enhance or shape a match experience. The other thing that I use are wrestler driven segments- for example: "The Low-Down" with D'Lo Brown, "Dirty Dick's Dive" with Dick Murdoch in a bar setting etc. I find that there'e a lot of freshness to be accomplished in those setting so that I don't totally rely on match results to drive stories.
I've tended recently to have longer term champions and stick to a structure that no-one gets a title shot unless they had a non-title win over the champ. ( Currently Roddy Piper is in one of those situations with Rick Rude and I'm having Piper resist the challenge after being defeated by Rude at the last show- Piper's a fun addition).
All in all it's been a lot of fun. The only other Low Fed that I've tried to get under way failed quickly due to lack of interest and I also recently tried a Chikara Fed with some success but that's currently on hold.
Use as much creativity to create a world in your Fed as you'd like and don't be afraid to break your own rules.
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Post by Swarm on Dec 21, 2018 7:57:40 GMT -5
My main piece of advice would be play one fed at a time - FG used to be just GWF. Then it was just GWF and Legends. Now it's GWF early stuff, Kronos, current years, FTR. LOW is a beast. Tons of cards. We have expanded into almost every well known Indy fed in the world. It's truly a wrestling miracle how FG has grown.
It can become overwhelming. In a good way. I find myself fighting a burning desire to run a full time Monday Night Wars fed featuring LOW and boots. But my first love is the GWF.
Sometimes just collecting the cards is fun. Holding them in your hands...studying the stats. It's definitely an obsession!
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Post by luke929 on Dec 21, 2018 11:52:01 GMT -5
I'm getting back into this great game after several years away. I've stopped and started several new feds in the last couple of days, but I can't figure out how to keep one going. I'd love some tips from you veterans about how you started your fed, chose wrestlers and then kept your booking fresh and interesting for more than a few cards?
I pretty much just go with the flow... I treat it like a real sport with rankings (kept via online) dictating, to some extent, the top contenders... But, I will leave some wiggle room when something just feels right. Also, I let the dice decide any feuds/storylines. Sometimes things fall flat, but there is also gold to be found! One of my favorite "stories" in my old B&W fed was when I brought in Giant Baba to (hopefully) be built up as a contender for the world title. In his debut match, he was pinned cleanly and quickly by Chris Candido. After that, I had Candido portraying himself in promos as the "Giant Killer" and had different huge wrestlers lining up to teach him a lesson. He ended up defeating Don Leo Jonathan, Giant Bernard, and Kurrgan (and maybe one other... I forget) before finally getting crushed by Andre. It was a blast, imagining it all playing out. Just have fun!
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Post by markyhitch on Dec 21, 2018 12:07:35 GMT -5
My current federation (which I have neglected for so long) is basically wrestlers I remember from a particular time period combined with the fantastic NWA bootlegs which were released last Christmas by Swarm & co.
I've something like 25 heels and 25 faces, and they will never switch sides. Also around 10 tag teams. Some of the tag team wrestlers get to compete in singles matches as long as they do not have a tag move on their card.
I do not do storylines as my enjoyment rests purely on scheduling matches and rolling the dice. I have a supercard every tenth card where titles will be defended. Also, titles can be challenged on the next card if a champion is defeated cleanly.
I have a spreadsheet to keep track of wins/losses and use a formula similar to the Elo Rating System to rank the competitors. It works well and more points are earned for victories over higher quality opposition.
Have fun!
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