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

So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don't you know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well, I just don't understand it.
— Marge Gunderson, Fargo

I think a plan is just a list of things that don't happen.
— Parker, The Way of the Gun

Do you see what happens, Larry? DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FIND A STRANGER IN THE ALPS? THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS, LARRY! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FEED A STONER SCRAMBLED EGGS!
— Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski (TV edit)

FIASCO is a game of big dreams and catastrophic failures, small-time plans and ugly consequences. It's driven largely by random chance and narrative creativity: there are no character sheets, no monsters, no stats — just people, making awful mistakes. If you'd rather tell a story than worry about which sword does more damage, this is your game.

The rules are fairly simple; again, this game is narrative-driven. We'll learn as we go. What we need to get started is:

5 players (including myself), so: 4 of you.
A setting.

Fiasco's developers release a new setting every month, so we're not starved for choices. The setting defines what sort of characters are available, what motivates them, what sort of trouble they can get into, that sort of thing. I need you guys to pick one. Even if you don't want to play, feel free to chip in your advice on setting.

Boomtown: The Wild West.
Main Street: A small town in the southwest.
Tales From Suburbia: Self-explanatory.
The Ice: McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Touring Rock Band: Self-explanatory.
Transatlantic: Aboard the luxury cruiser Leviathan, 1952.
Reconstruction: Southern Virginia, 1867.
Manna Hotel: A 20-room motor lodge three miles north of Manna, Kansas (population 1,200).
Lucky Strike: A United States Army Replacement Depot near Le Havre, France in the autumn of 1944.
Last Frontier: The forests and fishing villages of southeast Alaska.
Gangster London: London's East End.
Flyover: Middle America. High school football, endless cornfields, and the occasional Mexican drug mule.
Dallas, 1963: The president is coming, although he really shouldn't.
All The Damn Time: Sam Howard is a time-traveler (though he would really rather not be). NOT RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR FIRST GAME, but we'll do it if you insist.
1913 New York: Change is in the air — sweeping, terrible change — but it's a good world if you can get on top of it.
London 1593: The Queen has enemies everywhere; a reckoning draws nigh.
Town and Gown: A small-town university.
Dragon Slayers: The fallout after a group of brave heroes finally takes care of the troublesome local monster.
Quest for the Golden Panda: Mythic China. You live in interesting times.
Objective Zebra: Mid-WW2 aboard the U.S. Navy submarine SS-495 (USS Saddleback), stranded in the mud off the coast of lower Saxony.
News Channel Six: In the trenches at Action Six News, losing ground in an already-tiny market. The bastards at Action News Eleven always seem to be one step ahead.
The Jersey Side: Jersey City. Corruption and envy in the shadow of Manhattan.

There are so many options that if everyone just picks their favorite we'll never see a consensus, so: vote for three. Most votes wins; again, feel free to vote even if you can't or don't want to play.

Warhammer is still on schedule, I'm just delaying it for another week or two so Zephyrin can get back from his Army Man business. Fiasco is a comparatively brief game, we have a good shot of finishing within June.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Sign me up

I vote for Tales From Suburbia, The Ice, and uh, fuck it. Touring Rock Band.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

gimme gimme

votes: Tails of Suburbia, 1913 New York, and News Channel Six.

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

Sounds like fun, I'd like to be in.

I vote for Tales of Suburbia, Reconstruction, and News Channel Six.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Count me in!

Hmmm...

Touring Rock Band, Dragon Slayers and News Channel Six all seem quite good for bad behavior.

How ya doing, buddy?

I wonder how this will turn out.

I'm partial to Town and Gown, 1913 New York, and Main Street.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

My votes go to Dragon Slayers, All The Damn Time, and Quest for the Golden Panda.

FELIPE NO

I'd be in. London 1593, Gangster London, Dragon Slayers

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

Aw, I wanted in, but it looks like I've been beaten to it. Regardless, my choices:

1) Quest for the Golden Panda
2) News Channel Six
3) Dragon Slayers

Jam it back in, in the dark.

2 Dice Rolls *BLACK dice.

STOP SIGN IS UP, but if the rest of you have questions don't hesitate to ask.

That's 24 votes, 12 from players and 12 from spectators. Let's see how it breaks down:

SUBURBIA: ///
THE ICE: /
1913 NY: //
NEWS 6: ////
RECONSTRUCTION: /
ROCK BAND: //
TOWN & GOWN: /
MAIN STREET: /
DRAGON SLAYERS: ////
ATD TIME: /
PANDA: //
LONDON 1593: /
LONDON EAST: /

A TIE between Dragon Slayers and News Channel Six. I'm going to go ahead and make a tiebreak call in favor of News Six, since — well, clearly I love swords and sorcery as much as anybody, but let's mix it up a little.

We've got 5 players, which means we need a lot of dice: 20 in total, 10 white, 10 black.

WHITE DICE POOL: 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6

BLACK DICE POOL: 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6

The dice colors don't matter in the setup phase, but they will later.

What we'll do here is take dice from the pool in sequence, going around the "table". For simplicity's sake we'll just go in an arbitrary order starting with me; this doesn't give me any real advantage. So:

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

Before we can start, we each need a Relationship with each of our neighbors; I need a relationship with both Ry and Stop Sign, respectively. If you create a Relationship, it need not involve you! For example, since I'm going first there are no relationships in place yet. I'm going to create a relationship between Lurker and Nutty: "Up To No Good". This is a 5 on the News Six Relationships List, so I remove a 5 from the pool:

DICE POOL: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

So now, Nutty and Lurker are collectively Up To No Good. Another player can choose to make this more precise, or they can add other details to the situation; but they can't change the essential NATURE of the relationship; those two are up to no good, period. In addition to these relationships, the game also needs 1 Location, 1 Need, and 1 Object. You can have more, that's just the minimum. The Need is generally the impetus around which the fiasco itself forms, and the more Needs there are, the faster conflict develops.

It's now Stop Sign's turn to add a detail. He can add a Need, A Location, an Object, or a Relationship. We need 5 total relationships to start. Only the existing Nutty-Lurker relationship is in position to become more detailed; everything else will just be a vague idea, so you can ignore the popups unless you want to clarify that relationship. Just like Relationships, a Need, Object, or Location is tied to a pair of "neighboring" players — it further defines their relationship. While there's no RULE against placing Objects/Needs/Locations before all Relationships are established, knowing the relationship between two people can make later details easier to understand. Here are your options.


RELATIONSHIPS


1 ACTION SIX NEWS TEAM

1 Work partners (co-anchors, cameraman/reporter, etc)

2 You and the dude who got fired last week

3 On-air talent/support person (writer, makeup, etc)

4 Management/talent

5 Tired mentor/ambitious protégé

6 Work rivals

2 FAMILY

1 Ex-spouses, current parents

2 Currently married

3 Siblings, at each other’s throats

4 You and your parent’s hot new spouse, who’s younger than you

5 You and your good-for-nothing in-law

6 Faked family

3 FOOLING AROUND

1 Secret lovers

2 “Secret” lovers only to yourselves

3 Friends with benefits

4 Did it once at the office Christmas party... you think

5 Don’t like each other much, but keep having sex anyway

6 Not having sex, but everybody thinks that you are

4 WE'VE GOT HISTORY

1 “I know a secret about you”

2 Odd couple room-mates

3 “We’ve been through Hell and high water together”

4 One of you cost the other one his last job

5 “The restraining order is still in place, you know”

6 Went to journalism school together

5 UP TO NO GOOD

1 Coke-head and supplier

2 Robbing the station blind together

3 Plotting the downfall of the Big Anchorman together

4 Shooting an “art film” after hours using the station’s equipment

5 Blackmailer/victim

6 Moonlighting as thieves

6 US VS THEM

1 News team member and source/witness/subject of the big story

2 News team member and a major advertiser

3 You and your counterpart from Action News Eleven

4 News team member and Local bigwig (mayor, chief of police, etc)

5 You and the star of another locally-produced show on Channel Six

6 You and your friend from the Peabody Awards Committee

NEEDS


1 TO GET LAID

1 By the local celebrity or politician

2 Constantly

3 By a work partner

4 So I can have a baby before I’m fifty

5 By the Big Anchorman’s trophy wife

6 For the very first time

2 TO GET FAMOUS

1 By making it to a bigger market

2 By breaking into acting

3 By finally getting your own signature human interest segment

4 By winning a Local News Peabody Award

5 By getting the weekday six PM chair

6 By going out with a bang

3 TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

1 By blowing the lid off the whole story

2 By bringing honor and respect back to the local news

3 By finally making it to see my kid do that thing

4 By getting your own recurring exposé-style news segment

5 By saving a life

6 By bringing down God’s wrath on this wicked, heathen society

4 TO GET RICH

1 Through a secret I learned at work

2 By stealing something

3 By securing book and movie rights

4 By fabricating a story

5 By blackmailing the Big Anchorman

6 By scamming all my co-workers and then skipping town

5 TO SETTLE THINGS

1 By getting even with that douchebag who stole my story

2 By putting those bastards at Action News Eleven in their place

3 By getting that Big Anchorman fired

4 With that suit who doesn’t get your “vision” for the news

5 With our mutual ex

6 With that dude who landed me in jail

6 TO COVER OUR ASSES

1 By being a willing tool for powerful, corrupt forces

2 By covering up a major conflict of interest

3 By “taking care of” a witness

4 By destroying that freaking file/tape. So, so stupid!

5 By framing a co-worker

6 By hiding the fact that I’m illiterate

LOCATIONS


1 HARD NEWS

1 At the scene of a grisly murder/suicide

2 In the trailer park just after the tornado hit

3 At the crime scene the police don’t know about yet

4 In the big sinkhole behind Buddy’s garage

5 In the pointless live coverage of that severe weather event

6 At what will be the biggest drug bust of the decade

2 HUMAN INTEREST

1 At the home of Elmer Jenkins

2 At the high school football game

3 At the St. Agnes Rescue Mission

4 At the hospital for a live on-the-air colonoscopy

5 At the civil war reenactment

6 At Grandma Whittaker’s 102nd birthday party

3 ON THE AIR

1 On Six Today’s friendly morning show set

2 Under the news desk

3 In the control room

4 On Six Investigates’ angry exposé set

5 Behind the set, during the broadcast

6 In the kitchen set for Chef Ron’s cooking segment

4 OFF THE AIR

1 In the janitor’s closet

2 On the roof, right behind the big satellite dish

3 In the Big Anchorman’s dressing room

4 In the “executive washroom”

5 In the transmitter tower equipment shack

6 At the donut table

5 FACE TIME

1 Peabody Award for Excellence in Local News banquet

2 Groundbreaking ceremony for the local community college

3 Book signing for your recently-published memoir/cookbook

4 Benefit concert to pay for Little Billy’s medical expenses

5 Breast cancer awareness screening

6 Drinking it up at a local bar

6 OFF LIMITS

1 Sleazy hotel room with a hidden camera

2 Action News Eleven studio/editing room

3 In the evidence room at the police station

4 Official Peabody Award for Excellence in Local News ballot box

5 Local underground, high-stakes poker game

6 The Governor’s bedroom

OBJECTS


1 SECRETS

1 Positive pregnancy test

2 Evidence that you tampered with a crime scene

3 The contract someone just signed to jump ship and head to Action

News Eleven

4 Flash drive containing leaked U.S. military secrets

5 The sex tape to end all sex tapes

6 Channel Six’s real account books

2 CONTRABAND

1 Waaaay too much Pseudoephedrine

2 Bottle of whiskey under the news desk

3 List of sponsors not to piss off or report negatively about

4 Company laptop stuffed with porn

5 Big Anchorman’s coke stash

6 Illegal alien

3 TOOLS OF THE TRADE

1 Sky Chopper Six!

2 Little clicker that makes the weatherman’s blue screen work

3 Buggy and/or hacked teleprompter

4 Ancient news van held together by prayer and old videotape

5 Action Six Purse-Cam

6 Ol’ Blinky, the camera that all the cameramen say is cursed

4 WHERE'S THE WARNING LABEL?

1 .22 rifle the building manager uses to keep birds off the satellite dish

2 Bag of peanuts and someone’s well-known peanut allergy

3 Fire axe from backstage

4 Exotic animal, exotically out of control

5 Tainted cookies sent to the station by a disgruntled viewer

6 Carefully loosened 100 lb stage light right above someone’s chair

5 PERSONAL

1 Six Today anchor’s coffee cup collection

2 New tits

3 Homeless dude who lives out back

4 The Big Anchor’s Peabody Award for Excellence in Local News

5 Love letter

6 Lucky couch

6 PROPS

1 High-powered model rocket

2 Giant pot of boiling soup

3 Box of fan mail/hate mail

4 “Happy Bear” costume

5 Golden shovel from community college ground-breaking

6 “Condom demonstrator”

So, just to keep track, here's what we know so far:

Nutty and Lurker are UP TO NO GOOD.

And here's the dice pool after Pang's turn:

DICE POOL: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

There's nowhere I can't reach.

You know, I could start screwing around right now, but from what I understand of this game, there's going to be plenty of opportunity to do that later

Right then. I'm taking a 4 from the dice pool and establishing that between Rychord and I, WE'VE GOT HISTORY.


Nutty and Lurker are UP TO NO GOOD.
Rychord and Stop Sign HAVE HISTORY.

Here's the dice pool after Stop Sign's turn:

DICE POOL: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

Lurker's turn.

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

I should have clarified this better: relationships are always between people with adjacent turns. For the sake of keeping things moving, I'll just swap Ry and Lurker's turn order, so you can have a History with Ry while still keeping Nutty/Lurk's relationship intact.

In future, though, please create relationships with between "neighbors": if Lurker creates a relationship for herself on her turn, it'll have to be with me since she already has a relationship with Nutty, and Rychord would have to create a relationship for himself with Nutty, since he already has a relationship with Stop Sign, etc.

Actually let's just list all the possible relationship pairs that aren't already established.


PANG <-> STOP SIGN

LURKER <-> PANG

RYCHORD <-> NUTTY


Regardless, since I fiddled with the turn order for the sake of expedience it's now RYCHORD'S TURN.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Oops, sorry about that, Pang.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Let's see if I got this right.

There's a rumor that Lurks and Pang have been FOOLING AROUND.

That's a 3 out of the pool.

DICE POOL: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

Yes?

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm certain that I read somewhere that Pang and Stop Sign are FAMILY.

That's a 2 out of the dice pool.

DICE POOL: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

FELIPE NO

Actually it was your turn. Is your turn.

Oh wait I can totally rollback your post!

For the record:

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

Pang and Stop Sign are FAMILY.
Stop Sign and Rychord HAVE HISTORY.
Nutty and Lurker are UP TO NO GOOD.
Lurker and Pang have been FOOLING AROUND.

DICE POOL: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

LURKER'S TURN

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

We were... busy. Being up to no good.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well somebody take lurker's turn, I'll be damned if I let this thing die before it even gets started.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Not my fault that he didn't post again like a normal person.

Ryochord and Nutty are Axtion Six News Team Go. So that's a 1, so the pool is:
1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

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

I'm going to clarify Rychord/Nutty's Action Six relationship: Rychord is a reporter, and Nutty is his cameraman. That's the last of the 1s!

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

Pang and Stop Sign are FAMILY.
Stop Sign and Rychord HAVE HISTORY.
Rychord and Nutty are part of the ACTION SIX NEWS TEAM, and WORK PARTNERS.
Nutty and Lurker are UP TO NO GOOD.
Lurker and Pang have been FOOLING AROUND.

The pool: 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

STOP SIGN's turn.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Pang, let's say I wanted to use an object. Will I be able to take a die for the category of object and then another die to specify what object it is this turn from the popup, or am I only allowed to take one die a turn?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yeah, you'd only be able to define the category right away, one die per turn. Odds are someone else would choose the specific object before it came round to your turn again, but then they might not.

Just a reminder: Objects, Locations and Needs all go between two neighboring players, just as Relationships do.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Thanks, Pang. In that case, I'm going to say that Nutty and Lurker are up to no good with CONTRABAND, removing a 2 from the dice pool.


The pool: 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

RYCHORD's turn.

Most amazing jew boots

It seems that Lurker and Pang were fooling around ON THE AIR!

And that's a 3 gone.

The pool: 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

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

Not only do Stop Sign and Rychord have history, but the restraining order is still in place.


That's a 5 out of the dice pool.

The pool: 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6

Jam it back in, in the dark.