BAKEHOUSE BRAWL SETTING Professional wrestling wasn’t pulling in the crowds; the grandmas who used to shout out anatomically unlikely encouragement had found a new passion: “Pie High” and “Fondue of You,” the two highest rated food channel shows. Intense sessions behind RecipeNet and Mr. McMacaroonof the World Wrestling Wranglers came up with a solution: The Bakehouse. The Bakehouse wrestlers are the best in the business snack-stand hot dogs now only come in spelt sourdough buns, and the mention of a “heel” is just as likely to be referring to the end of a loaf of bread as it is an antagonist. /SIDEBAR/ The Brawl does not need a dedicated gamemaster, as most of the action is player versus player. For the Between Show Events [BSE], if there is no GM, simply have the player to the left act as GM for the first scene and the player on the right can do GM duties for the second scene. Players not involved in fights are encouraged to act as commentators, adding additional characters, drama, and characterization to the descriptions given by the combatants. // CORE RULES Each player (and the GM) should have a six-sided die (d6) or digital equivalent. The competitors of The Bakehouse are expert athletes and cooks who have a sense of showmanship and drama for both these passions. Characters start with 30 skill points that they must distribute between the following core skills: * Strength * Smarts * Finesse * Stamina * Showmanship * Passion Characters start with one (free) point in each skill at generation. No single skill can be higher than 10, or lower than –10. SKILL CHECKS Skill checks are made by combining the result of a die roll with the most relevant skill to that skill check in question as decided before the roll is made, for example: Punching a guy = d6 + Strength Puns = d6 + Smarts Shaping choux pastry swans = d6 + Finesse Resisting getting knocked unconscious = d6 + Stamina Whipping the crowd into a frenzy = d6 + Showmanship Trying really really hard = d6 + Passion Any skill can be used for any action, provided it can be justified. HIT POINTS All characters have 30 hit points. QUIRKS Players must choose one quirk from the following list: Face – The crowd love you and as such you gain +2 to Showmanship. Alas, besides your looks there’s little to provide interest. You take a permanent -2 to Smarts. Heel – Boo! You may automatically succeed at one skill check per session but for the rest of the session you will suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls. Gluten Intolerance – Due to your inability to ingest gluten, you suffer a permanent -2 to your Stamina skill. However, to compensate you channel your coeliac rage into an additional +2 Strength. Nervous Cooking - You have to sit and watch the oven. You get a +2 bonus to skills checks during cooking, but only if you can see the oven. If you can’t see the oven, you suffer a -2 penalty to skill checks. [Quirk] – [Description] Quirks can raise your skills above 10. SIGNATURE MOVE Each character has a signature move – the perfect marriage between pro-wrestling and pro-baking. There are four main rules when creating your signature move: · It must have a defining skill – this is used in any signature move rolls and doubles the skill in question for the purpose of the roll. · It must be awesome – if its usage is sufficiently and elaborately described, a GM should feel free to allow extraordinary feats. · It must use some sort of delicious baked good. · It costs one BAKING POINT to use a signature move. RELATIONSHIPS: Each character should have something they want from the others, and there should be a reason why the other person doesn’t want them to have it. These are some suggested questions for building these relationships: · Who do you work for? (If you belong to a stable, what is its name?) · Who will you never work with, and why? · What did the PC of the person on your right do to you in the championship? · What happened in the ring with [competitor] to make you build your signature move? BAKING POINTS All characters have 5 Baking Points (BP). BP is spent to perform signature moves and other fantastic features of baking-based wrestling. BP is restored at the GM's discretion – do something sufficiently cool and the GM may see fit to award you a BP. A character may never have more than the pre-defined maximum BP. /SIDEBAR/ Bakehouse Brawl is probably best suited for short sessions as opposed to long-running campaigns, but that's not to say you can't run one if you feel you have enough material and your players are having fun! Fun is key – the aim of the game is design ridiculous characters that feature in ridiculous situations in a bizarre bakery-infused world. // THE TOUR: Bakehouse Brawl is a touring show that travels between cities putting on wrestle-baking extravaganzas. To set up the tour, find a map of a large place, preferably a big country or continent. Pick a sequence of six major cities that the tour will be visiting. **footnote** Please note, this map does not need to be of real places. **** Then decide on the theme and teams for each show. Here’s an example: Show 1: Cakes, 3 sets of 1 vs 1. Show 2: Biscuits, 3 vs 3 team match Show 3: Bread, 3 teams of 2 Show 4: Puddings, 3 sets of 1 vs 1. Show 5: Pasty, 1 vs 1, winner stays on. Show 6: Tea Party, free for all, last man baking. The teams and fight orders are randomly drawn, just before the start of the baking. The format of each event is the same - the entrances, bake-fighting, and then the judging. Longer runnings campaigns could focus on building up the audience of the Brawl, drawing in bigger crowds in bigger arenas. THE SHOW THE ENTRANCE: Each player takes it in turns to introduce (as dramatically and over the top) their character to the audience. TAKING THE CAKE Baking is the core of the show, and the competitors are judged on their finished products. There are three stages to baking. * Mixing: preparing the ingredients and getting them together in the correct quantities. * Cooking: turning the mix into food, often by adding heat. * Presentation: making the product look as good as it tastes. Each stage is divided into three rounds. In each round the competitor makes a skill check to progress the baking. The sum of the skill checks in a stage defines the flavour for the mixing, the quality for the cooking and the presentation for the decoration. Within a stage, the same skill cannot be used more than once. There is no opposed roll or target number when baking a normal recipe. A normal recipe is something a regular cook would be able to accomplish with aplomb given no unusual circumstances. Each d6 added to oppose the baking skill check adds to the complexity of the recipe. The advantage is two-fold: one, you get the opportunity for more points, two, you get an additional dramatic effect from your success. TAKING IT TO THE MAT There is nothing in the rules against interfering with another competitor’s baking, or just outright starting a fight. This is Bakehouse Brawl! Fighting over cake is what the audience is here to see! Choosing to fight means that a competitor won’t make any progress on their baking that round. If a fight breaks out, it lasts until all those involved no longer wish to continue. Fights take up the entire round in which they're started. The only rules are nothing sharp, or of any extreme temperature (hot or cold) can be used as a weapon. Otherwise, if it’s dramatic, it’s allowed. COMMENTATING Players not involved in fights are encouraged to act as the commentators, adding additional drama and characterization to the descriptions given by the combatants. INITIATIVE When interacting with other characters, the person starting has the initiative. They decide what the action will be and then the other characters describe how they will react. Everyone involved makes a skill check. The character with the highest roll from the skill check then narrates what happened. That character then wins the next initiative and determines the next action. With teams, add up the skill checks of the collaborators to decide the highest result. The dramatic effect that takes place is decided by the difference between a character’s skill check and the highest skill check. /SIDEBAR/ Rocky Road is attacking Big Baker Bob. The Road starts with a simple punch for damage to start. Bob wants to dodge the blow and use the follow-through for a throw. Rocky rolls a 3 and Big Baker Bob a 9. Bob's throw does 6 points of damage to The Road, and the Big Baker now has the initiative. // The damage dealt to a character is the difference between their skill check and the highest skill check. When a character reaches 0 hit points (HP), they must make a Stamina skill check to beat the amount of damage done to stay conscious. If a character falls unconscious, they can be revived by a comrade spending baking points (BP) and ramming a delicious baked good into their mouth. This also restores HP equal to the roll (e.g. a roll of 3 + a skill of 5 = 8 HP), although this (of course!) cannot exceed that character's maximum HP. An unconscious character awakens naturally at the end of the next round. Injuries are gained either from dramatic effects or by taking additional damage after being reduced to 0 HP. An injury is a reduction of 2 to a single skill, chosen by the person inflicting it. Make sure to describe it dramatically. Health is fully recovered after the show, but injuries need to be treated between shows. DRAMATIC EFFECTS As an alternative to a numerical result, a competitor can go for a dramatic effect. These affect relationships between characters, improve or destroy the baking, and create tension. They also excite the audience, improving or ruining audience excitement by the same number of the skill check result. An 8+ or better provides a dramatic effect of: wrestling: the audience is silent, and then suddenly a "wooooooooOOOO" sound develops and grows in intensity from the crowd / a move suddenly becomes a special trick that helps define the character baking: the judge (depending on the stage) makes a comment in approval of a technique or taste A 5-7 provides a dramatic effect of: wrestling: shouting and getting on their seats, the audience is cheering / a special move goes down perfectly baking: a special ingredient is shown to be one of the judges' favourites A 2-4 provides a dramatic effect of: wrestling: someone in the audience makes a "boo" noise and is shouted down from others / an extra prop is thrown into the Brawl and is used for effect baking: a judge says a decoration or technique is not the most horrible thing he or she has ever seen A 1 provides a dramatic effect of: wrestling: a little kid asks for an autograph / a blow that should have been spot-on misses, giving the character another initiative baking: this reminds a judge of something their grandma made A 0 provides no dramatic effect, sorry. A -1 provides a dramatic effect of: wrestling: a little kid asks for an autograph then rips it in pieces, stomping on it in front of you / a blow that should have missed hits, losing any initiative baking: this reminds a judge of something their grandma made...that they hated. A -2 to -4 provides a dramatic effect of: wrestling: someone in the audience makes a "boo" noise and then others take it on / an extra prop is thrown into the Brawl and is used to stomp the player, causing 2 hp damage baking: the icy stare from the judges is so powerful it stops all noise in the arena. A -5 to -7 provides a dramatic effect of: wrestling: the audience is in their seats jeering and throwing things / a signature move is impossible to make/replicate this fight baking: a chef bleeds or otherwise uses something potentially poisonous and the mix has to be thrown away A -8 or worse provides a dramatic effect of: wrestling: an actual injury is incurred / a special move becomes a special debacle baking: something explodes THE AUDIENCE: The audience is here to be entertained. Two of their favourite things have been combined, and their expectations are high. Whilst good baking will keep them sated, only blood... okay, drama and fighting ...will really make them happy. The audience excitement starts out at 5. Successful dramatic actions will increase it by five per action, whilst failed dramatic actions will decrease it by five. Mr McMacaroonwants the audience to be excited as possible for the tour, and for the profits. An audience excitement of 10 is the minimum expected. Above 20 will keep him happy. Get the excitement over 30 and the competitors can expect a bonus and get an additional skill point each. If the excitement drops below 5 the audience will become increasingly restless. Below 0, and they’ll start to leave. They will start to riot, rising like an angry yeast dough if it drops below -5. JUDGING: Paul “The Eyes” Hollywood Deep piercing blue eyes that seem to be able to gaze into your soul. He focuses on flavour and quality. Mary “Killer” Berry An older woman always precisely dressed. She focuses on appearance and technique. Judging is done by each judge based on the events of the game. Each wrestler (or team) starts at 50 points. Each baking round interrupted removes up to five points (three rounds of three stages makes a maximum of -45 points for interruptions.) Dramatic actions can increase or decrease the point values for the stages. Each successful roll for the mixing and cooking stages can gain ten points from The Eyes. Each successful roll for the mixing and presentation stages can gain ten points from Killer. BETWEEN SHOWS: After each show, the wrestlers each gain one skill point. In between shows, the competitors get a chance to interact and improve their cooking. Taking it in turns, each player sets up two scenes for their characters, adding other competitors and creating NPCs as needed. Other players may interject their characters into a scene a single time, unless at the cost of their own scenes. Actions the competitors could get up to include: * Kayfabe - Working towards a personal goal or getting want they want from another character. Doing this dramatically in front of the cameras will also increase audience excitement for the next show. * Finding better ingredients for the next show. If the character succeeds then they get an additional +1 bonus to skills checks during mixing. * Finding a better recipe for the next show. If the character succeeds then they get an additional +1 bonus to skills checks during cooking. * Practising decoration for the next show. If the character succeeds then they get an additional +1 bonus to skills checks during decoration. * Sparring - practice fights and training with another competitor. You gain a +4 bonus you can use once against them during an upcoming fight, by they also gain a +2 bonus they can use once against you. * Interaction with fans - This could be signing autographs, attending celebrity events or being interviewed. If you get the result you want, your effect on audience excitement is increased by 1 for the next show, whether negative or positive. * Socialising - relaxing and not doing much. Start the next show with an extra 5 HP, if you succeed. * Therapy and working out - required to remove an injury. * Merchandising - add an extra +5 to the audience excitement at the start of the next show. SOME TERMINOLOGY FOR COMMENTATORS: prize ring beat mat kayo (K.O. or knock-out) pattypan - A pan for baking patties. pattycake - a game of slapping hands for children ramekin - a small dish used for baking and serving food for one person palaestra - wrestling gymnasium. headlock/wristlock grapple dumpling coctile - baking or exposing to heat as a brick flying mare panary - storehouse for bread, or adj. of bread shirring - baking shelled eggs colluctation - struggling