Starting up a professional wrestling company is all the rage now-a-days. All Elite Wrestling (AEW) recently had its inaugural pay-per-view event, called Double or Nothing. According to this wrestling fan, it was a monstrous success. Great wrestling, engaging storytelling, and a breath of fresh air with new performers I had never seen before. When you see a company like AEW put on a successful first show, it’s easy to think “How hard can it be? I bet I could run my own wrestling promotion.” There are a few pro wrestling tabletop games out there, but most of them focus on the in-ring action. Not many games put you in the role of the promoter, running your own wrestling company. Until now. Let’s play Book It!: The Pro Wrestling Promoter Card Game!
Book It!: The Pro Wrestling Promoter Card Game
Publisher: Foam Hammer Games
Designer: Paul LaPorte
Gameplay:
The game is played over 6 rounds. Each round, all players will book a wrestling show, trying to gain fame and money. There is a reputation track that determines how popular each player’s promotion is. The player with the highest reputation at the end of 6 rounds win. At the start of each round, you will select which city your event will take place in. Different cities offer different effects or benefits.
Each player starts with 6 weak, generic wrestlers called Jobbers. Jobbers, and their upgraded counterparts Journeymen, are local wrestlers that you always have access to using on your wrestling shows. The other wrestlers, referred to as non-local talent, are famous wrestlers from all over the world. There is a public pool of wrestlers available to purchase. These are wrestlers you can hire for a single event, and will result in a better overall rating for your show.
There are also action cards you can purchase; Special Announcements and Dirt Sheets. Special Announcements are typically cards that can enhance your own wrestling event in some way. They might earn you more money, or let you re-hire a wrestler. Dirt Sheets are cards that can undermine your opponent’s promotions. These can injure their wrestlers or hinder what wrestlers they can hire. There’s also a chance that buying a Dirt Sheet will blow up in your face, causing you to lose points in reputation. These cards all specify when they are able to be played.
After all players decide they are done with purchases, each players begins booking their event. There are bonuses for matching wrestlers the same style, the same popularity, and the same technical ability. These are likely the determining factors when deciding which wrestlers to hire during the purchase phase. Once everyone is settled on their event, add up the points as specified in the rules. Each match will have a score from 1-5. There are ways for matches to score more than 5 points, but that usually involves stacking special abilities based on other factors. Add up all of your match scores to give your event its overall score. You will gain reputation based on that score.
Players return all hired wrestlers and city cards, and a new round begins. This continues for 6 rounds and the player with the most reputation has successfully run the most impressive wrestling promotion.
Theme:
There is so much to unpack about the theme. First, the obvious nods to current professional wrestling. One of the things I love about this game is how it parodies famous wrestlers… but not legends or hall of famers. All of the wrestlers in this game are based on or inspired by current wrestlers. Some of these are in WWE or the aforementioned AEW, and some of them are underground stars of the independent wrestling scene. There are no homages to Hulk Hogan, The Rock, or Bret Hart in here, but we do see inspiration drawn from Samoa Joe, Asuka, AJ Styles, and so many more. I think my favorite has to be Mox Ambrosia based on Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose. Even before Moxley became a headline grabber over the past month, this was my favorite. Another great one is Justin Lightning Tiger based on Jushin Thunder Liger.
Aside from the real world parodies, this game is made for wrestling fans. Even just the terminology it uses is known by wrestling insiders. Calling the local chumps ‘jobbers’, the more aggressive action cards as ‘dirt sheets’, and even the match rating system mimicking Dave Meltzer’s 1-5 star ratings. The different wrestling styles and even the effects of some of the cities are rooted in real world wrestling history. Guess which city gives the biggest boost for hardcore wrestlers. If you said Philadelphia, the home of the groundbreaking ECW and all of the pro wrestling violence it gave birth to, you would be correct. There are so many details that go unnoticed by non-wrestling fans who play this game.
I need to shout out the female representation in this game. Not only did they include parodies of real female wrestlers, and make female versions of wrestlers that are male, but they also didn’t handicap the women wrestlers while competing in matches with men. The genders of the wrestlers do not impact the score of the matches at all. In today’s wrestling landscape women’s wrestling needs to be celebrated for how amazing it is. Book It! gets it right.
For Parents:
The money tokens could prevent choking hazards. But those are really the only small pieces to worry about.
The strategy is probably a little advanced for anyone under the age of 12. But I would be very comfortable playing this with a small child on my lap, helping me decide which wrestlers to hire. Even though real world wrestling may have its moments that make me wonder if I’m a good parent for letting my children watch, this game has none of that questionable content. Wrestling should be family friendly, and Book It! keeps it that way.
It’s pretty easy to set up and has an insert that keeps the different types of cards separate. So set up time is minimal.
Final Thoughts:
When I first saw this game, I was hesitant. I typically don’t enjoy modes of video games that put you in the role of a promoter or booker. I enjoy playing out the matches. Not just setting them up and scheduling them. This looked like a tabletop version of those video game modes I was familiar with. I was so wrong. Book It! offers resource management and competition between players that I was not expecting. I found myself hiring wrestlers I knew my opponent wanted, based on the bonus they were getting from their current city. Hiring less impressive wrestlers so I could save money for Special Announcements cards was a fun dynamic. The interactivity between players is what really makes this game shine.
My only real complaint with the game is that what it does well with high player counts, it kind of falls flat with only 2 players. It’s not difficult to see who is going to win with multiple rounds left if things get out of hand. It’s not a unique problem. There are other games I love that share this problem. It’s just the nature of a game that does such a great job of encouraging, and relying on, interaction between players. The less players you have, the less interactions you’ll have.
Pro wrestling is an ever changing platform. In 3 or 4 years the pro wrestling landscape will likely look very different than it does today. Many of the wrestlers that are parodied or represented in here might not have a real world counterpart that is still actively wrestling. That won’t change how the game is played, but there would be less “ah-ha” moments from wrestling fans. I would love to see an expansion with additional new wrestlers, or even a legends pack where older wrestlers are represented in the game. This is a definite opportunity for growth in this game and an easy way to stay relevant. More Special Announcements and Dirt Sheet cards could be added as well.
One of the most telling things I can say about this game is this: a friend of mine, who is not a wrestling fan, told me that the game was a lot better than expected after he first saw it. I know that sounds a bit like a back-handed compliment. Pro wrestling is a pretty “love it or hate it” theme. For a game that sticks to that theme so heavily with small details and references, the fact that it can be enjoyed by someone who made an initial judgement based on that theme speaks volumes to the gameplay. Book It!: The Pro Wrestling Promoter Card Game has something for both gamers and wrestling fans to enjoy. And if you happen to be both, it’s a mega-powerful combination.
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