Someone just asked me why I felt the need to write this manual as there are probably a kazillion others out there. The answer to that question is quite simple. Efedding has changed over the past nine years that I have participated. There’s a lot of things that we think are common sense that the newbie just doesn’t understand. Also, there’s a lack of patience in explaining these things. Perhaps it would be better to just say that e-wrestling is not what it was back in 99. It has gone from a hobby or a way to make friends and have fun to a nightmarish arena of flames, impatience and egos. Nobody wants to take the time to help newbies out by working with them. Instead people just mostly see them as “another jobber to kill”. Some people have tried to help but I don’t see how writing a manual in an arrogant tone of voice that puts people down really accomplishes anything. So thus I’m creating a manual and if anyone has anything to add to it please email me and if I feel it’s something that should be added I will do so.
Deciding a fed that's right for you
There are three different types of efed out there currently. The first is Roleplay based, in which matches are decided purely on roleplay skill alone. Second is Angle based. In angle based feds matches are decided according to angle and rps have no bearing whatsoever. Lastly, there is the Real federations, or federations in which you can play as RVD, Stone Cold or your favorite wrestling show superstars. There are also some hybrids running around. Like the SWA for example is an rp angle hybrid and we accept only created characters..no real wrestlers. Now my first fed, the IWF did accept real wrestlers in the beginning as well as created superstars.
So the big question you have to decide first is what do you want to do? Do you want to play as RVD and adhere strictly to the WWRVDD ( What would RVD Do?) philosophy? Or do you want to be a little open ended, create your own character and go out there and see what YOU personally can do. Now that doesn’t mean that your character can’t be like RVD. You could take something you really like from him..like perhaps his laid back attitude (not his catch phrase mind you) and incorporate it. Or maybe you just like his high flying style..alright then set yourself up to be a high flyer. However, remember in a created character only fed you cannot be EXACTLY like your favorite superstar. They may not accept you or they may release you if they find out that’s the case.
Now that you’ve found a fed you’re interested in, it’s time for character creation. If you’re in a Real federation this is kinda a no brainer. But if you’re in a created character only fed, you have a lot to think about. Here’s the list of things I think about when forming a character.
What is my character like?
Appearance
What is his or her background?
Where are they from?
What style of wrestler are they?
Do they have a manager and if so what are they like if they are played by me rather than another player?
Height, weight and other stats
Entrance
Name
What’s My Character Like?: This means attitude and quirks. Are they aggressive or passive? Are they a face or a heel to the core? Is my character out to be conniving and evil whenever they can or are they here to give their all and win that title? Are they friendly or egotistical?
Appearance: I hate when people say “see pic base”. This is the section where you tell us not only if you’ve added any personalization to your characters such as tattoos or a specific clothing line only they wear. Their in ring attire and out of ring attire also goes here. Remember you may not know it but some people can’t SEE your pic base.
Background: History is an important part of efedding. Your back story or background will tell us a lot about your character. Was your character a wrestler before he joined the federation? Or was he a waiter at a bar and grill, a gangster, personal trainer, or a drill sergeant? You can do anything you want and the quirkier it is the more eyebrows you’ll raise.
Where are they from?: This is about as important as background. Are you a tribal man from the heart of Africa? Are you an Asian kick boxer or death match champion? Are you a hardcore gang banger from the streets of Brooklyn or are you an upper class snob from Maine? Where you’re from can mold your character’s attitude as much as your back story.
What style of wrestler: If you join an efed, it means at some point and time you’re going to have a match. When you have a match, the card writer needs to know what style you wrestle in order to write the match properly. Are you a risk taking, neck breaking high flyer, a cold and calculating technical wrestler, a big beefy smash all in my way power wrestler, or a throw rules to the wind and whack em over the head with a chair hardcore icon?
Manager: Many superstars don’t have a manager and do well without one. Some people just feel the need to have someone else they can rant to in their promos other than the normal run of the mill interview staff. Managers are as much a character as you yourself are. If you’re going to use one, you need it to be as detailed as perhaps even your character itself is. Sometimes managers have big mouths and they can get into trouble too.
Height Weight and Other Stats: These need to be realistic. You can’t have a 8 foot tall 600 pound man running around the federation. I think the world’s tallest man is only 7 foot 8 and he has to be thin as carrying weight for someone that tall is super hard on the joints. I doubt he would take the high impact punishment of wrestling too well. Other stats to consider are nickname, trademark moves and finishers. Does your character have a pre decided nickname? If they do, be ready to be asked to live up to it. Do they have any moves they prefer to work with in a match? Finally, what do you want to end the match with? That one devastating move that will put you on the map?.
Entrance: How do you want your character to come down to the ring? Do you want pyro or flames or smoke? What colors? Should the lights change? Do you have strobe lights in your entrance? Or are you the type that’s just short sweet and to the point? You can be as detailed or as simple as you want here too but I suggest you not go too simple. Some people even mention how they enter the ring or what they do on the turnbuckles. Ya know the basic stuff. Also, it would be wise not to go too crazy with it. There have been characters whose entrances take up entire three to four minute songs, which is not realistic for TV unless you’re making up a Triple-H-like return at the time. In other words, a one-time use, temporary entrance.
Name: Some people just never really give their character a name. They’re known by a stage name or nickname. Names can be creative or they could be as simple as you want them to be.
No efed looks at rps the same way. Some prefer storyline based rps that have nothing to do with the match at hand per say but focus more on the character development. Others like strict match rp where you address your opponent and basically talk trash. In the SWA we allow character development but it has its own forum and does not count towards your 2 roleplay min. It’s not very fair to your opponent if you put in a 4 page roleplay about how you woke up and brushed your teeth when he/she put out an rp that was 2 and a half pages about any history you two may have had in the past and focuses on the match at hand. It seems logical to me that if you have a match in order to win you must rp at your opponent. This doesn’t necessarily mean trash talk. Originality is very important to efedding. Some feds are ok with you blatantly ripping off a WWE gimmick but in the general fed scene it’s frowned upon. That’s not to say that if you like an idea and want to incorporate it you can’t but you should definitely put your own spin on it. Also I would like to point out that drawing on your past too heavily can make people tune out. We don’t care if you were in fed A and it’s ok to mention it if it’s pertinent to the RP or gives us insight to your character. But when it gets to be like 8 pages of history it gets boring. We don’t want to know your whole history in fed A. You’re in the SWA now or whatever fed you happen to be in and being stuck in the past can stunt your future growth. People will start asking questions or thinking “Well if you’re so damn stuck on that fed then why are you here? Why even bother go wait for it to reopen or something.” In a way when you take it to that extent it’s like a slap in the face to your current federation that you’re in and if you’re in it I would think you joined because you liked it right?
General roleplay layout: RP’s can be done in a variety of ways. The most frequent I have seen is “script” form where it’s written out kind of like a play script. Here’s an example:
The scene opens up inside the gym. Wrestler A is seen pumping iron. He finishes the rep he’s on and then sits up, drying himself off with the towel he gets from the nearby bench. Once he’s done he tosses the towel back on the bench and speaks.
Wrestler A: Wrestler B, I’m facing you tonight and whether we’ve had a history together or not, I’m going to enter that ring tonight and give you my all. If it just so happens we do have a history together…
He grins.
Wrestler A: Well history will not repeat itself.
With that he goes back to pumping iron at the weight machine and the scene fades out.
Now that was just a brief example but please note that in between the dialogue and the action paragraphs I hit enter twice to double space. This is just a courtesy and it makes it easier to read. “Script” form is what I’m most familiar with but my advice would be to start out with this and then maybe venture out as you become exposed to different rp types to find one that’s right for you. Be sure to always draw on history. If you and your opponent have no history then go on your history alone. Tell people about yourself if they don’t already know but as I said earlier don’t go overboard. Also if your fed has an archive like the SWA has it would be wise to do your homework on your opponent. Most important of all (as it is a taboo) never refer to a promo by your opponent as an RP keep in mind that these are meant to be spots that are aired on TV and as such you cannot really make fun of someone’s grammar or misspelling if the word would SOUND the same in a spoken promo. Another taboo I see quite frequently broken is the use of someone else’s characters in your promos without consent from them. Some places allow this but we do not and the reason being is two fold. First it forces you to interact with the person you want to work with which I think is a huge part of efedding and second it gets the character right. You’d be pretty angry if someone just up and USED your character and on top of that didn’t even get it right so don’t do it to anyone else.
Let’s face it, you can’t win all the time. Losses happen in efedding and sometimes it’s not because you did anything wrong at all. Some angle based feds have losses for angles. If you win, that’s great momentum but if you lose it could be fuel for the fire as well. I usually advise people to take the anger or disappointment they feel and write an rp or a segment on the next card. It’s not the end of the world just because you lose a match. If you’re not sure why you lost be sure to ask or perhaps asking in a writer’s forum about how you could’ve improved, but don’t go bugging the fed head for every match you lose about what you did wrong or you may find yourself annoying the heck out of them. It’s not really important that you lost, it’s what you do with it that counts.
This is the main reason why I take this “wins and losses don’t count” attitude. The real meat and potatoes of efedding is in the feuds and storylines. Both of these require COMMUNICATION and I cannot stress this enough. Some of the best feuds and storylines come from players who not only have a history of matches together but communicate. Now in some feds, the fed head has total control of who attacks who and when. While I don’t agree with this tactic, it was a common practice in the efed I first started in and I have to say that it made me able to think on my feet, to channel that emotion I felt into an rp and truly bring the house down. I think that’s also an important skill to have in efedding. In the long run efedding isn’t fun unless you’re involved in something whether it be a storyline or a feud. So I definitely stress that you get to know people or otherwise you’re going to be waiting to get a match whenever the fed head is out of storyline or feud matches and it’s going to be nothing but insults and you’ll be a character without a real aim.
Throughout your career, you may want to go from good to evil or from evil to good or maybe you just wanna hang out at a neutral spot for a while. If you’re in an angle fed, your fed head may decide when he or she wants you to be a face or a heel. This is an art. I hate to say it but either you have the heart to be completely evil sometimes or you don’t and some people like me hate being good all the time and we have to do something evil just because all that pent up evil has to go somewhere. Constant consistence is huge here! You can’t flip flop too much or you’ll be stuck as one or the other. So try to make it a good 3 or 4 month run as a face or a heel. Remember heels aren’t fan favorites and in angle feds because you’re a heel you may lose a lot because heels are meant to push faces and vice versa. You get a push from the faces and it’s shown by how hated you are and they get a push from you which shows from how loved they are.
Tag teams and stables can be run by one person or by two or three different people in the fed. If you form a tag team the key word for you is COLLABORATION. You are in a team and if it’s more than one person running the characters, you need to keep the others in the know. Work together and there shouldn’t just be one person running the circus. If any of you have ideas be ready to give them and if you’re listening just be ready to listen and then give your feedback. No tag team lasts long if the people behind them have one leader and a bunch of followers.
There are some things that just can’t be told or taught to you about efedding. A lot of it comes from just jumping in and getting the experience. Some places you have a lot of control and in others you don’t. I know in the SWA we have things set up to where you can send in show forms if you want to attack someone and you can give as much or as little detail as you want. Although if you leave only “I want to attack so and so” it’s up to the card writer how you do it. Strats are also a neat thing to mess around with. You can send in one just to let us know what your character is thinking going into a match or you can be as detailed to even include spots where you want your wrestler to do such and such to so and so. You can also give us a list of moves you’d like to use or what finisher you want to end the match with if you win. It’s a lot of fun but if you aren’t willing to improve and work on yourself, you won’t go very far. However, if you’re willing to improve, put in some elbow grease to become better, get to know people and really participate, then you’ll have not only a great hobby but also great friends for years to come.