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[Fiasco] Camp Machete Lake: Come for the drugs and fog-shrouded island, stay forever
jdarksun
StrugglerCORegistered User regular
StrugglerCORegistered User regular
What is Fiasco?
Fiasco is a GM-less storytelling role-playing game for 3-5 players that attempts to evoke small-time capers gone disastrously wrong. Think Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, or A Simple Plan.
How is it played?
How is it played here?
Let's try Play by Post. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed. Must bring your own weapons.
Interested? Sign up in Bold Limegreen.
Players
jdarksun
vertroue
Grunt's Ghosts
Denada
Sir Fabulous
Events
Setup Begins!, and Setup Continues!
Setup Results!
Allocated Dice
Grunt's Ghosts: 0 0 (both from Red)
jdarksun: 0
Sir Fabulous: 0 0
vertroue: 0
Remaining Dice Pool
BLACK DICE: 0 0 0 0 0 0
RED DICE: 0 0
WHITE DICE: 0 0 0 0 0 0
Remember, when a RED DIE is used... someone dies!
Fiasco is a GM-less storytelling role-playing game for 3-5 players that attempts to evoke small-time capers gone disastrously wrong. Think Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, or A Simple Plan.
How is it played?
First is the Setup. The players pick a play set. A bunch of black and white dice are rolled, then the players go around the table defining the characters and situation using those dice. At the bare minimum, each character needs two Relationships (one for each player's character on the player's right and left), a Need, an Object, and a Location. Sometimes more! The goal of the setup is to create intertwined characters with partly joint, partly opposing goals and a situation where it can all go wrong.
Remember the three rules of storytelling:
1) Who wants what?
2) Why can't they have it?
3) Why do I give a shit?
It's all cooperative for the players - there isn't really a "winner". The players win if an awesome story is told, even if some or all of them die. The dice are used to guide setup, but can be used in any order by whichever player wants them.
Want an example?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_903809&feature=iv&src_vid=WXJxQ0NbFtk&v=uuJizhyf-y4
After the setup comes Act 1. All the dice are gathered up and re-rolled, and the players take turns setting up and resolving Scenes. If a player chooses to set up a scene, they set the stage and determine the participants. And... action! Things happen. The scene plays out. At some point, the other players make a call: does it resolve well, or does it resolve poorly? The player then receives a white or black die (respectively), and finishes the scene. (During Act 1, that die is handed to another player. This is important! But we'll get to why later.)
What goes on during Act 1? Planning for the heist, character interaction, whatever, as long as it's building towards a climax.
After half the dice from the pool are handed out, things take a turn: it's the Tilt. The Tilt is Things Going Wrong. Chaos. Panic. Bad stuff. The Tilt is handled like the Setup, with dice rolled and used to guide what exactly it is that's going crazy.
An example of Act 1!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXJxQ0NbFtk&list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C&index=8
Once we've figured out what's going wrong (everything), it's on to Act 2. Act 2 is just like Act 1, except the players keep their dice instead of handing them away. What do we do with those dice?! We keep handing them out until... the Aftermath.
Roll those dice you got from the two Acts. Total up the like dice. If you've got different dice, subtract the smaller total from the larger, noting which color had the larger total. That final color/value combo is the outcome for the character. Low means bad things. Tragic things.
But tragedy is good!
An example of Act 2...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj7NcdDh-WM&list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C&index=9
Remember the three rules of storytelling:
1) Who wants what?
2) Why can't they have it?
3) Why do I give a shit?
It's all cooperative for the players - there isn't really a "winner". The players win if an awesome story is told, even if some or all of them die. The dice are used to guide setup, but can be used in any order by whichever player wants them.
Want an example?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_903809&feature=iv&src_vid=WXJxQ0NbFtk&v=uuJizhyf-y4
After the setup comes Act 1. All the dice are gathered up and re-rolled, and the players take turns setting up and resolving Scenes. If a player chooses to set up a scene, they set the stage and determine the participants. And... action! Things happen. The scene plays out. At some point, the other players make a call: does it resolve well, or does it resolve poorly? The player then receives a white or black die (respectively), and finishes the scene. (During Act 1, that die is handed to another player. This is important! But we'll get to why later.)
What goes on during Act 1? Planning for the heist, character interaction, whatever, as long as it's building towards a climax.
After half the dice from the pool are handed out, things take a turn: it's the Tilt. The Tilt is Things Going Wrong. Chaos. Panic. Bad stuff. The Tilt is handled like the Setup, with dice rolled and used to guide what exactly it is that's going crazy.
An example of Act 1!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXJxQ0NbFtk&list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C&index=8Once we've figured out what's going wrong (everything), it's on to Act 2. Act 2 is just like Act 1, except the players keep their dice instead of handing them away. What do we do with those dice?! We keep handing them out until... the Aftermath.
Roll those dice you got from the two Acts. Total up the like dice. If you've got different dice, subtract the smaller total from the larger, noting which color had the larger total. That final color/value combo is the outcome for the character. Low means bad things. Tragic things.
But tragedy is good!
An example of Act 2...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj7NcdDh-WM&list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C&index=9How is it played here?
Let's try Play by Post. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed. Must bring your own weapons.
Interested? Sign up in Bold Limegreen.
Players
jdarksun
vertroue
Grunt's Ghosts
Denada
Sir Fabulous
Events
Setup Begins!, and Setup Continues!
Setup Results!
Allocated Dice
Grunt's Ghosts: 0 0 (both from Red)
jdarksun: 0
Sir Fabulous: 0 0
vertroue: 0
Remaining Dice Pool
BLACK DICE: 0 0 0 0 0 0
RED DICE: 0 0
WHITE DICE: 0 0 0 0 0 0
Remember, when a RED DIE is used... someone dies!
jdarksun on
0
Posts
From the Desk of Darth Vertroue Diplomat to the USA.
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
From the Desk of Darth Vertroue Diplomat to the USA.
OK, I'll post all the play sets I can find tomorrow, then we can pick and start play!
Oh my god are they great at setting up these scenes.
I cared so much about the characters.
It's almost like 3/4 of them are in the film/TV industry.
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
a: Will Wheaton
The blonde on that episode did not hurt either. She was having a jolly time and it showed.
A lot of those scenes end with people not really realizing what they are agreeing too in the heat of the moment, and then looking back on it and going "Oh that wasn't good for my character was it?"
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
I mean, BattleCon plays way different by post, near as I can tell, and we're having some fun anyhow. You guys might have to bend a few rules or tweak some stuff to make Fiasco play well by post - I think audience votes / arbitration may help if you're deadlocked - but I doubt it'll be unplayable.
Didn't mean to come off cynical.
Just making an observation.
I'm sure it will still be tons of fun.
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
From the Desk of Darth Vertroue Diplomat to the USA.
From the Desk of Darth Vertroue Diplomat to the USA.
We'll see.
Saturday Night '78
1913 New York
Flyover
Home Invasion
Last Frontier
Lucky Strike
Touring Rock Band
Touring Rock Band 2
Transatlantic
There's a 40 or so fan playsets also available, and five or six in the book itself (which I do not have on me at the moment, or I would provide a blurb for).
It's one of the few sets that doesn't have a clearly defined time, which could be fun to play around.
All of them look interesting of course, but that's my vote.
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
A couple ideas:
Since it's almost Halloween could do something thematic like Camp Death, Salem 1692, or Back to the Old House.
Since we're in Critical Failures we could go meta and do Dysfunctions and Dragons or Keeping On the Borderlands.
I honestly don't have a strong preference for any particular playset, though. I like the idea of an audience vote.
Boomtown is old west-themed.
Main Street is small town based
Tales from Suburbia is what it says on the tin.
The Ice takes place at an Antarctic research base (surprisingly good. I had a group of people go in expecting The Thing and it turned out to be a farcical rom-com with a twist at the end)
There's also a High School set, Las Vegas, a wedding, and one other one that eludes me.
I was thinking... how about the players nominate a few play sets they find interesting, and the audience picks from those?
@vertroue @Grunt's Ghosts any play sets you think look good?
bss, Auralynx, Egos, tzeentchling... watch this space.
Touring Rock Band
Camp Death
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
From the Desk of Darth Vertroue Diplomat to the USA.
I can get behind this one but I'd like to see some other suggestions if any of you actual players has some. :P
From the Desk of Darth Vertroue Diplomat to the USA.