What is Rumbleslam?
Put simply, it’s the most fun tabletop game out there!
Well, that was easy. What next? Oh, okay, I’ll go into more detail to back up my outlandish claim! Rumbleslam is a wrestling game filled with fantasy tropes, so expect elves, trolls, dwarves and so on. There are wrestlers you may recognise, but which are legally distinct from such wrestlers. Who is Macho Man Randy Savage? This is Ronnie Salvage! A dwarf in a big hat, glasses and tassels!
The game plays like this, you have a 10x10 grid to play in - this is your ring, with turnbuckles you can climb in each corner and ropes around the outside that you can use to bounce off of to move further than your move points (MP) would allow, at the cost of 1 action point (AP). Sometimes this movement is interrupted by an enemy wrestler, and if this happens, you clothesline them! This grants you an extra Copper die to your attack roll. The turnbuckles can be climbed up and jumped from, allowing you to soar clear over enemies and try to escape a tricky situation. When you target an enemy with a turnbuckle attack, you can land in any square adjacent to them, even if that space would have been beyond your range of the attack - something to keep in mind for planning out some cool turns, but keep in mind, you only have 5 rounds, and once you’re pinned or thrown out of the ring, that wrestler is out!
A custom Rumbleslam ring I made for the Back Alley Brawl rules. The idea of it being a hastily erected ring in the carpark (yes, it’s a fantasy carpark) using crates as turnbuckles and barbed wire for ropes. There are even light up lampposts in each corner that I wired up to batteries underneath!
Each wrestler you choose has a stat card which tells you their name, a picture of them, and the pose of the wrestler in the picture matches the pose of the model which makes recognising your models very easy, even if you paint your models to your own paint schemes. You also have your stats which are Attack (ATT), Grapple (GRP), Defence (DEF) and Dexterity (DEX). You also have your stamina (health), special moves and abilities, AP and MP. On the reverse of the cards you get some information about special abilities and Crowd Pleasers. Crowd Pleasers can be tested for by using AP, or sometimes there are moves and allow you to test for free as part of abilities and so on, but the crowd isn’t always on your side, and some wrestlers are Heels, and they don’t want the crowd on their side!
Games last about 30-mins for 2 players, but you can easily play with more players, or play larger games where you have more points to spend on wrestlers. Superstars cost more to book in the match than your standard wrestlers, but their abilities and stamina are often greater than your standard ones. The game plays for 5 rounds, and if you haven’t eliminated all of your opponents wrestlers by then, a winner is determined by the highest hire cost remaining in your teams, with costs halved for unconscious wrestlers.
Superstars! References! Definitely not someone you recognise!
This is The Gravedigger. The version on the top is the Limited Edition Badass Gravedigger, from when he had a biker gimmick - the bike is from Rumbleslam’s Back Alley Brawl expansion. Underneath, I magnetised the heads that the model comes with so I could choose between hat on or hat off!
The game is heavily supported by TTCombat with new releases and Event Exclusive limited editions (most recently we got a clear resin Ceneleon). So far this year, we’ve had a couple new teams and a whole bunch of Superstars, including a cat-based team that ties in with the Egyptian themed Casino (think of casinos as a theme for the teams within) along with a brand new Tag Team for them, plus superstars. A new rat team with rodent Superstars - and this team and some of the superstars utilise new mechanics for poisoning! Then there’s Ceneleon and the Event Exclusive Clear Resin one I mentioned before.
Again, Rumbleslam is a massively fun game that plays fast and is very easy to pick up after a round. The rules aren’t heavy and the models look great. If you haven’t played it yet but has got to this point in the article, I really hope you’ll head over to TTCombat and pick up a copy!
