To me, the phrase that "What's so cool about Lucha Libre" brings to mind is "simple and satisfying". Short games can often end up feeling either like the quick start for a longer game that will never come or like a couple of mechanics mushed together on a notes app and published. "What's So Cool about Lucha Libre" created by Simon Moody is neither of those things. This game instead, hits the sweet spot of short rpgs: nothing is missing and nothing is extraneous.
What's so Cool About Lucha Libre? is a wrestling game built using the "What's so Cool about Outer Space" game engine. Several of my talking points about this game will thus technically be talking points about Outer Space. This will not change my opinions about them in this game but it is something to be aware of.
Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this game, I want to quickly praise the layout of the book. Layout should never a make or break for anyone but my god does every page of this look and read clearly and wonderfully. Not only was everything easy to find in the game, even just quickly scrolling through on my phone, but even the act of scrolling is a treat. Seeing what pages melt into one another and what pages are their own pretty islands. All photos are credited at the front of the book as well which is commendable and I hope we get to the point in the industry where it is simply default.
Apart from one line that I will get to later, all the rules are interwoven together. Character creation is also rules explanation is also world and theme building, one rule references another rule which is part of another rule. Rather than being overwhelming, the writing and rules are good enough that it all works together and is able to use your prior knowledge of a mechanic to help explain a new one. It creates a feeling that everything in this game “clicks together”, working with itself to create an easy to remember game.
Each wrestler picks a cause, a signature style and two traits. Instead of those three things being their own bespoke mini mechanics, each does two things at minimum with Cause doing a little more: each provides a +1 on a roll where they are relevant and each tells you something about the character. This is elegant game design, turning picking character options from what seems the most powerful to what fits the character you want to play. In addition, it is also perfect for a game about wrestling: what is a gimmick but what a wrestler fights for, how they fight, and what abilities they have to help themselves?
Building off of the game's elegance, I adore how much the numbers in the game are based entirely around giving +1s and -1s to a roll. Minions can give a -1 instead of dealing damage, bosses and enforcers can do both, your character's abilities can give +1s as mentioned above (unless they don't! All three character choices can give you -1 to a roll instead if your cause will be hurt, your traits actually hinder you, or most excitingly for me, if your signature style gets countered.) This lack of additional numbers to keep track of, keeps the game feeling connected to itself as well as keeping things simple for the players at the table.
Your character has 3 "hit points" which are called Falls. It is not better or worse than other systems but I am a huge fan of games where hit points stay the same no matter how much you advance in the game. It helps add a sense of danger while ironically making encounters easier to balance around safety. It being 3 Falls is also a cute tie in to real world lucha libre whose matches are best 2 out of 3 falls.
Now, here is where the game goes from a competent wrestling simulator with a good book to an excellent wrestling game: your character has a Guacamelee style Super Ataque, and when they go to 0 falls, they die. . . but you keep playing them in the spirit realm.
Super Ataque is in many ways the glue that holds the rest of the game together and why I keep saying that many rules will refer to other rules. Super Ataque's dedicated page goes into various things you would expect it to do like auto inflict damage, destroy an obstacle, etc. But other rules later on will also provide ways to use your Super Ataque such as healing your friends or in the spirit realm providing you with an interesting risk reward quest if you are there because your character died.
However, Super Ataque also holds my one gripe with the game. It is a one use trick that you slowly regain your use of, cleverly using a d4 as a physical tracker. However, one of the ways to start gaining your Ataque back is to "take a fall without trying to resist the consequences". While I understand the spirit of this, it's a classic video game "the more you take damage the faster your super meter goes up." However, no where in the game does it say that a player *can* resist the consequences of reducing their hit points. So to me at least, this reads as either a simple "gain super meter for every damage you take", or an unfortunate oversight that the author forgot to remove. Perhaps a different version of the game had a mixed success for damage or maybe this is written as intended with the not resisting consequences being meant narratively rather than mechanically.
Conveying magic and worldbuilding through mechanics makes the game stand out in a really positive way.
First the worldbuilding through mechanics. There is not a separate "this is the world and this is the rules" section. Instead, worldbuilding is told through things like one of the belief options mentioning that you could fight on behalf of GD or "one of the old gods", or one of your ability options being "elemental manipulation". But it goes deeper than that.
The mask your character will have is important not only for personal and cultural reasons but also because it magically ties them to both the material world and the spirit world. Despite not being bicultural I can still see a really good metaphor there for an object that hides your face, allowing only what you intentionally present out while also forcing you to choose which world you interact with.
Because as the game points out in a small list, anything in the spirit realm can't interact with the material world and vice versa. Several other juicy bits of worldbuilding exist in this list including how there are layers to the spirit realm and you can only visit one of them and that there is an Aztec god who's offer to take you to the ninth level you cannot refuse. Xoltol and GD are the only deities mentioned by name which I adore. They are more or less the only ones necessary to name. Otherwise, the game refuses to detail much of the world, only revealing teasing bits of it that spur the imagination. It's a neat hat trick I've personally only seen a few writers pull off so praise to Simon Moody for their writing skills.
Because of the worldbuilding done and the magic your character has, death in this game is literally another adventure. Once you take your 3rd fall, you are forced into the spirit realm where you can only come back with the aid of a god or spirit. The process and mechanics for calling on aid are detailed in their own section. This concept is interesting to me as it is a great way to get players to risk their character's lives because if they die, you just get to go on a whole new cool adventure! The game even gets around the Spit the Party nature of this adventure hook by already allowing alive PCs to go to the spirit realm. I could easily see a member of a party dying and the rest shifting to the spirit realm to help them, changing the story to be about that for a while.
The GM section is competent and well written. Good advice sub sectioned into clear snappy starter sentences. Nothing sticks out as either extremely great or notoriously egregious but praise to Simon Moody for being able to write some very abstract ideas succinctly.
The opponents section provides three levels of villains that are all unique but easy to remember. I love that bosses are both guarded by a ward and that that ward can be gotten around by either figuring it out and circumnavigating it Monster of the Week style or by using your Super Ataque on it. I also appreciate that the Bosses section out and out says that they can do anything not listed in their mechanics that makes narrative sense for them. I see that as being very helpful for a first time GM running this game.
And I think this game makes a great first time GM game. It's simple and intuitive enough that they won't need to be afraid of forgetting rules but it's also enough rules that it feels like more than just playing pretend. As well Luchador films have enough of a crossover appeal with horror fans, sci Fi and fantasy fans, superhero fans, and of course wrestling fans, that this game could bring a lot of people together that wouldn't otherwise be interested in DnD or Monsterhearts.
What's so cool about Lucha Libre is everything a small game should be. It is written clearly, with no space wasted and no feeling of being cramped in. The rules are simple enough for first time players and gms while being satisfying enough for a good one shot or short campaign with more experienced players. And of course, Simon Moody is inspired enough to go beyond making this just a wrestling sim and adds wonderful details like mask magic and the spirit realm that this game feels less like a genre emulator and more an example of the genre itself.
In a fraction of the world count of this review, Simon Moody has delivered a distinct and wonderful game that I can see anyone at any level of gaming literacy enjoying. Much like an alternate universe Bret Hart, this game is the Elegance of Execution.