2024
Day One
The system started out utilising OSR principles and a custom health mechanic to add an engaging kickout system. This was later streamlined to become the current Resilience mechanic.
Combat is
the Story
A pro-wrestling tabletop RPG built on a simple idea: in most games, combat is where the story stops and the math starts. In Heels&Faces, combat is where the story is made. A brand new system, identity, and world, built from the ground up and based on my years working in TTRPGs and over a decade within the wrestling industry.
the pitch
An easy to pick-up game where each move you make writes the next thing that happens.
Heels&Faces is a tabletop roleplaying game borne out of the logic of pro wrestling: heat, momentum, and the crowd that decides who the hero is tonight. This has been, without a shadow of a doubt, my most ambitious project to date: I'm designing and building all of it; the rules, the brand, and the system itself.
It started as a problem I couldn't stop poking at. After years at other tables, with a variety of different systems, I kept hitting the same wall: fights that were tactically clever and narratively dead. Initiative, hit points, repeat. The story left the room the moment the dice came out and everyone consulted their sheets.
So I set out to build the opposite: a combat engine that can't help but tell you a story.
To redefine combat as a storytelling tool.
It felt like a natural fit to build the system around my experience in pro wrestling; it was a niche under-represented in the space but with such a huge overlap that merging the two felt obvious. A match is a story told through moves. A reversal is a betrayal. A near-fall is a cliffhanger. A run-in changes the whole narrative. In wrestling, the drama is the mechanics; the same move does both jobs.
That became the rule I designed against: nothing in Heels&Faces resolves cleanly. Every roll leaves a thread for the table to pull, and the game keeps handing you reasons to care.
the angle
A story engine disguised as a fight.
I built the system from scratch after two years of playtesting everything else and keeping a list of what each one couldn't do.
We tested with experienced wrestlers, experienced roleplayers, both, neither, players with aphantasia, and people with no interest in wrestling or roleplay at all. If it could hold that table, it could hold any table.
It's deliberately light (you can teach it and have a fully created character in under 15 minutes) but every action runs through the same loop, and the loop always leaves you with a hook.
oneMake Your Move
strike. grapple. taunt. cheat. you have free rein to declare your intent in a narrative way first; every move is a beat in the match.
twoRead The Crowd
each roll resolves the action and reads the room all at once. succeed over the odds and hear the roar of the crowd; momentum builds, the heat of the match swings in your favour... fail and feel the pressure of all of those eyes on you willing you to come back.
threeThrow The Hook
every outcome - win, lose, or draw - generates a hook: a turn, a callback, a grudge, a debt. the next scene writes itself.
the gimmick
Two words. One whole fight.
The name carries the entire identity. Heel and face, villain and hero, are the two poles every story swings between. I built the whole brand on that split: the two halves of the same fight.
bad times don't last but bad guys do
The Heel
the villain you love to heat. breaks the rules. builds the heat. rules the ring from the wrong side of right.
a good man carries the people on his back
The Face
the underdog who fights their way to the top. they take the beating, earn that pop, and turn the crowd when it counts most.
Heel and Face are stances. You shift between them based on what you do, and the crowd reacts in kind. Play dirty and lean into your worst instincts, feel the heat build; fight from underneath and feel the swell as the room turns in your favour.
The will of the crowd is the only currency that matters. Whether they're eating out of the palm of your hand, willing you to face the consequences of your actions, or backing you to overcome an impossible obstacle, it's all earned through the narrative you control.
There's no initiative tracker and no hit-point grind. The game runs on pressure and payoff: pick your moment and keep fighting, or let go, lick your wounds, and come back stronger.
the identity
Photocopied, stapled, stuck to a wall.
This couldn't look like a corporate game. It had to feel like a fight poster that's been run through a copier a hundred times and stapled up overnight: hand-made, loud, a little dangerous. Brush script for the heat and the movement. Distressed type for the ring-card voice. A palette of ink, bone, and blood.
the tale of the tape
The card so far.
Development and playtesting are still ticking along in the background, week in, week out.
The goal is to eventually crowdfund the project but I want to know exactly what we need help with before I start asking people for handouts. This is very much a passion project and I want to make sure that when it hits the public it does so with its best foot forward as the main eventer I know it can be.
2yrsin development
6iterations
1custom system, built from scratch
2024
Playtest 1
I started the first limited playtests and developed the sheets further, including an in-depth system with each attribute having benefits and drawbacks. This, however, pulled the system away from one of its core principles: simplicity.
2025
Development
The system started to take shape at this point. It was a simple system that could be taught, built, and played in the same session, but it was still lacking the mechanics that would later let it take on a personality of its own.
2025
The Group
I widened the group of playtesters, starting a table who would run through a consistent narrative as we refined the dice resolution system, balancing pace, diversity, and fun. This meant a lot of reworking between sessions, breaking it down and building it back up again.
2025
Cut Off
We finally hit on a dice system that balanced all of the aspects I was looking for, but it would require building a completely custom system. This put an end to my hopes of working with an existing, known system and created a much bigger backlog of work.
2026
Comeback
I widened the tester group again, pulling people from many different backgrounds. I rebuilt the sheet from the ground up so it holds character stats and teaches the foundations of the system at the same time, speeding up comprehension and cutting the initial learning curve.
the tale of the tape
The future...
The eventual goal is to move to crowdfunding, but before we hit that point I need to finish the Quickstart Guide Beta to start testing publicly.
the tale of the tape
The finish is still to come.
The system is finally locked after two years of playtesting. The identity is built. Next, Heels&Faces goes to crowdfunding; but first it has to build a following.
The game is still being actively tested and the next step is to move the testing online to allow for testing of some of the online-focused mechanics.
When the Quickstart Guide Beta is ready, the following gets the call.
Two Years of Work
two years of playtesting to refine a system able to represent the world of professional wrestling before locking the new rule set.
One System
custom built, then tested until it stopped breaking. the new system pulls from over a decade of experience within the wrestling industry in various roles and translates all of that experience to the page via dice rolls and roleplay.
The Following Contest is Scheduled for...
the quickstart beta is coming soon. phase two of the playtesting is in development as the initial playtest continues with new faces, new characters, and new stories.
then it's time to take it to the fans themselves.
follow the story