Developer’s Notes
The Antagonist gimmick is inspired by those wrestlers that could infuriate both the audience and the opposition alike with their words and antics.
When this Gimmick is in play, it adds 1 Crowd Point to the Event Pool during event setup.
The 1 Crowd Point ability allows you to reroll your DQ result. This is very important to understand properly. The player that introduces the DQ risk into a match is the player that rolls the DQ result.
As an example, let’s say Rowdy Rufus, an Antagonist, plays a Steel Chair during another player’s match versus Tsunami. Rufus chooses to play it on behalf of Tsunami in an attempt to help Tsunami defeat the other player. Rufus introduced the DQ risk into the match and rolls the result. He rolls a 3 and Lester Port is the referee. This would get Tsunami disqualified; not Rufus’ intention. So, he spends a Crowd Point to reroll the DQ risk and gets a 4; still not good enough. Rufus spends another Crowd Point to use the ability again. He rolls and gets a 6 this time. Success! Now the Steel Chair bonus is added to Tsunami’s rank for this match. Lastly, the Steel Chair has the potential to injure a player. Rufus rolls the injury result and rolls a 6. Now, the player is also Injured and must tap out a move and lose its bonus during this match. Rufus then draws another Gear card, face down, after playing the Weapon.
Narratively, this could be seen as Tsunami using the Steel Chair, but you could also embellish the story and say that Rufus ran to ringside with the Steel Chair and injected himself into the match.
The 2 Crowd Point ability operates similarly to the Sneak Attack card. When another player is being Interviewed during their Drama phase, the Antagonist can launch their own attack. The active wrestler gets attacked by the Antagonist and receives no Crowd Point rewards from the Interview. They also become Injured and must tap-out one move card they have in play.
Keep in mind, this can only be triggered if the active wrestler is in an “Interview”. If a Trash Talk or Ringside Conflict result is rolled on the Drama table, the active wrestler is not engaged in an Interview. If the active wrestler substitutes their Interview with Cut A Promo, they are not considered to be in an Interview. Timing is key here. If the Antagonist is quick enough to spend the Crowd Points and trigger the ability before Cut A Promo is played, the ability’s effect continues. If the active wrestler substitutes their Interview with Shoot Interview, they are considered to be in an Interview and subject to the effects of this ability as well.
This ability is not entirely like the Sneak Attack card where it allows for interrupting the Cut A Promo card, nor does it reward any Heat or Pop.