[:plant:] FIASCO: A game of powerful ambition & poor impulse control.

Pang and Stop Sign have the need to settle things.

Swipe a 5, so the pool is now: 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6

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It's true that Stop Sign and I are family; in fact, we're Married. If nothing else crops up, I think we've got an obvious conflict here, and it's pretty clear what we need to settle if no one adds to that.

That's a 2.

PANG <-> STOP SIGN <-> RYCHORD <-> NUTTY <-> LURKER <->

Pang and Stop Sign are FAMILY, MARRIED, and need to SETTLE THINGS (need).
Stop Sign and Rychord HAVE HISTORY, and THE RESTRAINING ORDER IS STILL IN PLACE.
Rychord and Nutty are part of the ACTION SIX NEWS TEAM, and WORK PARTNERS.
Nutty and Lurker are UP TO NO GOOD with CONTRABAND (object).
Lurker and Pang have been FOOLING AROUND, ON THE AIR (location).

2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6

STOP SIGN's turn.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm not sure what Nutty and Lurker are up to with that ILLEGAL ALIEN, but it can't be anything good.

2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6

6 taken, Rychord's turn.

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Hey hey, sorry to delay. Went on an impromptu road trip today.

Me and Stop Sign had the restraining order put in place TO COVER OUR ASSES.

Another 6 gone!

2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 6

I was speaking idiomatically.

Lurker and Pang should be ashamed for fooling around on the air, IN THE KITCHEN SET FOR CHEF RON'S COOKING SEGMENT.

2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4

That's the last 6 gone.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

So I heard that Ryochord and Nutty were caught together OFF-AIR.

Swipe that 4, so:
2, 2, 3, 4, 4

FELIPE NO

They were "caught together" in the EXECUTIVE WASHROOM, but that doesn't mean anything: Nutty just has a wide stance.

Swipe another 4: 2, 2, 3, 4

Ok, with 4 dice to go this is the last round of setup! We should probably focus on filling in any gaps. For example: Why do Stop Sign and I need to settle things? Why do Stop Sign and Rychord need to cover their asses?

In addition, on your last setup turn you might want to clarify your role in the world. Lurker and I obviously have access to Action Six property, so we probably work for Action Six; Rychord and Nutty EXPLICITLY work for Action Six. Stop Sign doesn't, necessarily, despite having ties to two employees. One of you in the "restraining order" relationship needs to clarify which way the restraining order is going.

I'm going to go ahead and declare myself the weatherman.

One last thing: the last die is wild, so if — it'll be lurker, looks like — doesn't like the options available under that final 2, 3, or 4 she can just treat it as anything.

PANG <-> STOP SIGN <-> RYCHORD <-> NUTTY <-> LURKER <->

Pang the weatherman and Stop Sign are FAMILY, MARRIED, and need to SETTLE THINGS (need).
Stop Sign and Rychord HAVE HISTORY, and THE RESTRAINING ORDER IS STILL IN PLACE. They need to COVER THEIR ASSES (need).
Rychord and Nutty are part of the ACTION SIX NEWS TEAM, and WORK PARTNERS. Often spotted together OFF AIR, in the EXECUTIVE WASHROOM (location).
Nutty and Lurker are UP TO NO GOOD with CONTRABAND: An ILLEGAL ALIEN (object).
Lurker and Pang the weatherman have been FOOLING AROUND, ON THE AIR, IN THE KITCHEN SET FOR CHEF RON'S COOKING SEGMENT (location).

STOP SIGN's turn.

How ya doing, buddy?

Even though there is a restraining order against Rychord, there's still that FILE THAT NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED. Maybe Stop Sign has access to it, maybe she doesn't. Maybe Rychord has it. We'll see!

I am a part-time administrative assistant to one of the station bigwigs. I spend my free time peddling a dubious health product through an obviously bullshit multi-level marketing scheme.

Taking the last 4:

2,2,3.

RYCHORD'S turn.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, apparently Pang and Lurks were just doing what they did on the air TO GET FAMOUS. Huh.

That's a 2. so:

Dice Pool: 2, 3

I'm a reporter for Action News Six. They hired me because I'm a man of action. Thinking it through isn't the action reporter's job, that's what the folks at home are supposed to do.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Pang and Stop sign are going to settle their marital differences using TOOLS OF THE TRADE.

Last 3 gone, so the dice pool sits at 2 (but Pang said Lurker can choose anything she wants because the 2 is wild LIKE PANG AND STOP SIGN AFTER A FEW BEERS).

I'm the lead anchor for the ACTION SIX NEWS, and I was hired for my looks, not my brains. On camera I'm the star, and if I think you're trying to steal my job, I'll do anything to stop you.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You didn't hear this from me, but I heard that Pang and Stop Sign have to settle things... WITH THEIR MUTUAL EX.

deuce is wild, boys.

Oh, I'm pressbox hot: the female sports reporter! I buy my suits from Don Cherry's garage sales.

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2 Dice Rolls *black dice

Let's put that all in one place:

PANG <-> STOP SIGN <-> RYCHORD <-> NUTTY <-> LURKER <->

Pang is a weatherman for Action Six; a miserable track record has him worried about his job. Snow in August? Those bastards at AccuWeather have it out for him.
Stop Sign is an administrative assistant to one of the station bigwigs, and spends their free time peddling a dubious health product through an obviously bullshit multi-level marketing scheme.
Rychord is a reporter for Action Six, and a man of action.
Nutty is the lead anchor for Action Six, and extremely protective of his position.
Lurker is the Action Six sports reporter, and a goddamn snappy dresser.

Pang and Stop Sign are FAMILY, MARRIED, and need to SETTLE THINGS (need) WITH THEIR MUTUAL EX. If things get violent, some TOOLS OF THE TRADE (object) are probably getting hauled out of storage.
Stop Sign and Rychord HAVE HISTORY, and THE RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST RYCHORD IS STILL IN PLACE. They need to COVER THEIR ASSES (need) because of THAT FILE THAT NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED.
Rychord and Nutty are part of the ACTION SIX NEWS TEAM, and WORK PARTNERS. Often spotted together OFF AIR, in the EXECUTIVE WASHROOM (location).
Nutty and Lurker are UP TO NO GOOD with CONTRABAND: An ILLEGAL ALIEN (object).
Lurker and Pang have been FOOLING AROUND, ON THE AIR, IN THE KITCHEN SET FOR CHEF RON'S COOKING SEGMENT (location), and NEED TO GET FAMOUS (need).


Alright, setup's done. Time for

ACT ONE


where things get a little more complicated. First things first, let's re-roll all these dice — and the colors matter this time.

White dice: 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

Black dice: 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6

A little bit top-heavy.

HOW ACT ONE WORKS: When it's your turn, you choose to either ESTABLISH a scene, or RESOLVE one. Either way, your character's in the spotlight.

If you choose to ESTABLISH, you set the scene: expressing the situation, who else is in the scene, what your character wants, the conflict, etc. The entire group then takes turns adding details, inserting dialogue from their own characters (if present), possibly having their characters collude or conflict with — then, when it's clear the situation has to be resolved one way or another, a non-spotlight player RESOLVES the scene. To resolve, choose a black or white die and give it to the spotlight player. If it's a white die, the scene ends well for them — the conflict goes in his or her favor. If it's a black die, they fail — they don't get what they want. Once the course of the scene has been set, it's down to the players in the scene to narrate the scene's conclusion.

If you choose to RESOLVE, it's much the same except for one detail: you don't set the scene, the rest of the players do. However, when resolving, you get to choose your own die. Resolving gives you less control over the overall story but a little more control over your own character's fate.

In ACT ONE, don't keep your scene-conclusion die! Pass it to another player.

It's obvious that characters will crop up that don't really belong to anybody; the illegal immigrant, the bigwig that Stop Sign works under, the "mutual ex", etc. If they'd add something to a scene, go ahead and put them in! NPCs are community property; if you're not in the spotlight, feel free to yank on their puppet strings.

This will probably be a little clumsy to start but we'll soon get the hang of it.

It's my turn. My character has a lot of complications to deal with. Let's see. I choose to RESOLVE. Put me through the wringer, people: starting with STOP SIGN.

It's another day at WTGF Milwaukee. What do I want? Who do I want it from? Who's going to help and who's in my goddamn way and who hired this goddamn Mexican intern is it so hard to get a decent fucking cup of coffee, for the love of—

How ya doing, buddy?

ESTABLISHING scene.

Location: in the Action Six break room. It's a break room like any other, except with Action Six posters plastered all over. Anchors staring at you from the posters everywhere. There is no escape.

There is a soda machine, snack machine (with an unusual number of pork rinds) and a coffee machine that looks like a Doctor Who prop. There is also an open ice chest filled with bottles of spinach-green, viscous liquid.

Characters: Stop Sign (Hilary), Pang, Rychord, anyone else who wants to step in for a coffee break. Hilary has asked Rychord into the break room to discuss... the file (and perhaps sell him some of her miracle product). But Pang gets in the way. As always.

* * *

Hilary finishes writing on the sign next to the cooler. It says, in big block letters:

FREE SAMPLES FOR MY LOVELY CO-WORKERS!

VITAPURGE Natural Vitamin Drink and Colon Cleanser

"Give in to the urge - VITAPURGE!!!"

Official Milwaukee Distributor: Hilary Thunderhumpen

"God, married for a year and it still looks weird," Hilary says, under her breath. Of course, to other people, it's more like: "Oh, Thunderhumpen, yes! Such a great name for a weatherman, don't you think? It's German, of course. Very noble... blue blood somewhere in his ancestry, I'm sure."

At that moment, an Action Six reporter walks into the room and opens his mouth to speak to Hilary... but then, the Thunderhumpen also comes in, empty coffee cup in hand and a scowl on his face. Hilary shoots the reporter a meaningful glance that seamlessly turns into a practiced, cheesy smile. "Oh, boys, just in time to try some VitaPurge Formula 45! Give me your cup, darling..." Hilary moves over to her husband. As she's doing so, she looks over to the reporter. "You can help yourself. Not that I hate you or anything, just... oh, you know. Court order and all that, ha ha ha. " Her smile widens, showing a set of perfect teeth. Perfect, that is, if you don't count the slightly green tinge around the gums.


Let me know if I'm doing this wrong. Sorry for godmodding your name, Pang, but since you didn't specify your name, and it's my name too, I couldn't resist

* * *

RYCHORD's turn.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Randy McMann, action reporter, steps into the break room briskly. With a round of "Hey-o"s and "hey hey hey!"s to his fellow workers, and a special "Teeeee-Humpster" for Hillary's husband, he briskly heads towards the coffee machine and stops dead in his tracks when he notices the free drinks in the ice box. Without so much as glancing at the sign, he proceeds to down one in a gulp.

"Wow, not bad!" He exclaims as he reaches for another one, and then puts one in his coat pocket for later.

Then, as he's looking around to see if anyone cares about his beverage stocking, he notices Hillary, standing next to the ice chest with the juice. She's looking away from him as she does, and he looks her up and down once very carefully (with stops to admire the naughtier bits), before starting to reminisce about his meteoric rise to action reporterdom, which she had aided to bring about.

Oh, the things they had done in their days as young, idealistic journalists looking for their first big scoop. And to say that she has gone to such lengths to keep him away from her in public, even though she can't stay away when she knows no one else is around.

But who can blame her? She knows just as well as everyone that "Old Man" Thunderhumpen doesn't have what is needed to keep a woman like her happy.

No. She needs a special kind of man.

A man of grace, passion, and FIRE.

A MAN...

of ACTION.

Anyway, how was he supposed to know that those kids they had filmed while on their Columbian human watch trip for that report were actually hiding out from a gang of vicious drug cartel thugs, and that his choice to air the footage was going to lead to them getting caught? Did they really expect him to read that whole report they had handed him before going in to do what he was supposed to do, get a gripping story to awaken to folks back home to what was happening down there? The whole 15 pages? And could he really be held responsible for switching the out the tape that had been edited to remove the incriminating footage at the last minute with Hillary's and his own edit, mostly centered around it, while making sure no one saw him do it? No one was going to be moved with the boring footage of fields and farmers that the editors had chosen to run for their piece. And no one would notice his action reporting skills with it. The fight that he and Hillary had about his actions and how to stop themselves from being found out became ugly quick. But her haste in having that restraining order put on him was overdoing it. He knew it, she knew it, "Old Man" T-humpen was oblivious to it. Heck, he didn't even know they had a relation other than working in the same building, and the restraining order forced Randy to ignore Hillary in public anyway, so how could he know.

If only he had not left the paper trail that he did. Somewhere in the very voluminous archives of Action Six News, that file was waiting for someone to find it, and it was going to be him. If he could only bring himself to actually step into the archive room and spend those long hours sifting through the volumes of files to find that unmarked one with the notes on the scam. And then, she would be his again, he knew it.

But what could be less akin to action than sitting in a musty old archive room, diligently sorting through files and READING every unmarked one to find it? Just the thought of it made his bowels move. A lot.

Additional Spam:
Also, I hope I didn't screw up the established story with my nonsense here.

FELIPE NO

Chet Bradley, lead anchor for the past 10 years, enters the break room with droopy eyes and his usual plastered on anchor smile. He stayed up entirely too late last night at the local Emmy Awards in Topeka, celebrating yet another second place finish to that bastard Dave Reynolds at 10 Eyewitness News. "One of these days, Dave," he mutters under his breath for the umpteenth time.

Chet's mood brightens when he sees Hilary peddling her energy drinks. He purposefully strides into the room, shoves Randy and puffs up his chest. "I'll take one of those, darlin'," he drawls, tipping his cowboy hat at the supple Mrs. Thunderhumpen. After a manly swig of Vitapurge, he feels the stress of the previous night melting away, and he give the surly weatherman a hearty pat on the back.

"So what's it going to be for the weekend, pal? Should I start latherin' on the sunscreen now?" Dr. Thunderhumpen starts to answer, but before he can get a word out, Chet interrupts him. "Why am I askin' you anyway? I'd get a more accurate forecast from Randy's balls!" Chet guffaws to himself as the weatherman's frown deepens.

"Speaking of your piss-poor forecasts, I've got someone I'd like you to meet." Chet points to a beat up cardboard box in the corner of the room. The anchor walks over, bangs loudly on the side, and a flap opens on the side to reveal what appears to be sleeping quarters for a hobo. A small man crawls out and stares unblinkingly at the confused Action Six News staffers.

"Everyone, this is Carlos. Me and the sports genius were drivin' home from the bar last night after the awards, you know, 'cause what else is there to do in this town? Anyway, we see Carlos here trying to hitch a ride and we think to ourselves, you know what'll win Action Six the Emmy next year for sure? Mexican news! So we stuffed him in the trunk, and now we're going to put him on the air. We'll get him started with the weather, 'cause if you can do the job, Thunderhumpen, then this little frijole can do it blindfolded with a chicken tied to his head."

Thunderhumpen's face turns a very dark shade of red, and he turns to the coffee machine and begins noisily pouring a cup of coffee. It takes all of his self control to keep from rushing Chet and grabbing him by the throat, but one more of those incidents and he'll be giving the snow drift reports in Juneau.

With the weatherman distracted, Chet glances underneath the bottle of his sports drink, and sees a white dot. He smiles. "If Thunderhumpen only knew what a vixen his wife is," he thinks to himself. Hilary had a system: white dot means "meet me in the executive washroom at 11" and black means "not today". Chet can see a white dot under Randy's bottle as well. The day is really looking up.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Derek Thunderhumpen seethes in the presence of the anchorman: the bastard's local celebrity had gone to his head.

"The forecast is... it's... you're a jackass, Bradley."

His own wife won't even speak up for him. He's not exactly a paragon of faithfulness himself, but it still burns him watching Hilary giggle over Bradley's little bon mots. He storms out of the breakroom, barking his knee on the corner of the donut table.

"FFFFFFFfffff."

"Should've said 'Cloudy with a chance of vengeance', yeah", Thunderhumpen mutters under his breath en route to the Action Six Weather Center (a large closet with a laptop). "That's what I should've.... sigh. Let's see what... tsunami warning? Oh, what the fuck."

Scene ends badly for Derek Thunderhumpen, thoroughly humiliated and harboring a dim notion of revenge. I'll take a Black 4 from the pool: since it's Act One, I pass it... to Nutty.

Dice Held: Nutty (Black 4)

White dice: 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

Black dice: 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6

It's Stop Sign's turn in the spotlight: Establish or Resolve?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

What happened to Lurker's turn?

How ya doing, buddy?

Not everybody necessarily needs to have a part in every scene. This was Derek's scene, and the trajectory of it was pretty clear already; nobody in the room respects him, so he's obviously going to storm off. I didn't see any point in dawdling. Let me go ahead and make this explicit:

If you choose to RESOLVE, you can jump in to end the scene at any time.

and let's also say that

If the spotlight player chooses to resolve, Establishing players can go in any order.

That way people aren't repeatedly getting screwed out of a chance to participate by quick-trigger Resolvers.

Also, since I think this might not be clear:

When you Establish, you don't necessarily need to include yourself in the scene (unless you're in the spotlight).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

RESOLVING scene. Looks like Nutty is going to have a bad outcome (from Pang's passing a black die to him?)

* * *

Derek storming out of the room, and then the man in a box... whew, what a mess! But Hilary recovers quickly. "Oh, you poor thing, did that bad Chet put you in it? Here, let me give you a drink." She hands Carlos a stickerless bottle of VitaPurge and a business card. "If you like it, maybe we can talk about distribution opportunities in Mexico. Okay?"

Hilary turns to Randy. "Oh, right, I almost forgot. We need to talk about that coffee you promised me. You know, the Columbian coffee.... oh, what was the brand again? It has a long name.. I'll write it down for you and leave it at your desk. Oh, and yeah... Randy, that bottle isn't really for you. That's a special one I brewed up.... just... for... Chet." She winks at Bradley. What a moron. Hadn't he realized that the whole white sticker thing was phased out a while back? Today, the white sticker just meant that he had one of the bottles with her special experimental ingredient in it. It should kick in after he anchors the News At 10. And not during the broadcast. Hopefully~

Passing by Randy's desk, she slips a note into his drawer. "Midnight, tonight, at the park."

* * *

Taking a white 1 and giving it to Rychord. Do the numbers signify anything at this point?

Dice Held: Nutty (Black 4), Rychord (White 1)

White dice: 1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

Black dice: 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6

EDIT: Thought I'd try to get Lurker into it, but she isn't in the scene. So I'm passing the die to Rychord.

How ya doing, buddy?

Okay, well. The point of switching spotlights, in part, is to create a new scene; you just re-resolved the existing scene without giving anyone a chance to make a new one. We'll just roll with what we've got for now, though. No harm done really.

(The dice numbers don't matter right away, but they do matter at the end of Act One, when we add the Tilt.)

Also - and this isn't really a rule, just a suggestion: when at all possible, set scenes in one of the existing Locations.

That all said, it's Rychord's turn. Rychord, would you like to Establish a new scene starring yourself, or Resolve one we create for you?

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm curious to see what you guys can cook up for me as a situation, and as such I choose RESOLVE.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well, this was a nice idea in theory.

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