All of the past board games that I've reviewed are board games. This one will not be, but I figured that I'd include it in the board games name, because it's in that vein of games (played with friends, not a video game, etc.) So, without further ado, I present to you the Indie RPG known as...
Fiasco
"Fiasco is inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong – inspired by films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan. You’ll play ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control. There will be big dreams and flawed execution. It won’t go well for them, to put it mildly, and in the end it will probably all go south in a glorious heap of jealousy, murder, and recrimination. Lives and reputations will be lost, painful wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, your guy just might end up back where he started."So, what do you need to play it? Fortunately, not much:
•3-5 players
•4 dice per person, 2 light and 2 dark (light for good resolutions, dark for bad)
•A Fiasco Playset {free ones are offered on the site}
•A copy of the Fiasco Tilt Table and the Fiasco Aftermath Table {Gotta buy the book or PDF for this one}
•Something to write with and on (the game suggests index cards and pencils)
•90 minutes - 3 Hours
Things start out normally, but quickly get out of hand. It's a game of escalating stakes, shifty characters and strong motivation. Everything may not be related at the beginning, but by the end everyone is usually in a huge entangled web of events, from which they can neither escape each other or their fates.
Pros:
•Deep character development
•You can drag others down with you, to create hilariously tense moments
•A story is crafted in the time it takes to watch one unfold in a movie
•Requires lots of thinking
•Game progression is escalated and controlled by the players
•Easily changed to fit the players {There aren't imagination police, so why not?}
•Game doesn't slow down after the start of act 1
•Allows room for beautiful nuances
•Twistedly lighthearted
Cons:
•It only works if everyone is invested in it
•Can be derailed if someone just argues their way through everything
•Requires lots of consensus... lots.
•Best if the players are comfortable with each other, because some of the subject matter is heavy
•There is no winner. Everyone loses to some degree. (Not exactly a con, just something to note)
•Starting act 1 on the first game can feel intimidating
Final Thoughts:
Dude. Great game if you have awesome friends. Get the gang together, and play the heck out of this game! It's a fun time for all!
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I've also included some story from my first game. This is as I remember it, and some of the details are a bit fuzzy. If something wasn't right, well then, whoopsie. :P
It's setup so that people can just scroll by if they want, but if you'd like to read it, you should! It all started very normally, I was a community worker who just happened to drive a van full of weed in a small rural town...
... who also happened to secretly be a hitman for a huge drug organization run by Emily. My vice was lime-aid, and I was haunted by a past event of accidentally killing someone while driving drunk on said lime-aid.
Act 1, Part 1
After a night of beating Kendrick and Miguel up (wearing my trusty popcorn bowl to avoid the aliens), I was just sitting in a bar, drinking my lime-aid. I was already a bit tipsy, but that wasn't going to slow me down much. Well, I was about to order a rather large amount when I suddenly realized that sitting next to me is none other than the sister of the guy that I had hit years ago, Maegan.
Well, I decided to do what any other would do: apologize.
It didn't go as well as I would have liked, as her other brother, Kendrick, came in and took her away before I could even finish.
They skiddadled back to their mobile home where they sat on the couch and feasted on microwave pizza in front of the tv. They were just chilling until the police showed up. Unfortunately, Maegan freaked out and both were arrested.
Act 1, Part 2
They weren't going to get out of there easily, because the police were onto the drug operation. Miguel, trying to earn the favor of drug crime boss Emily decided to break in, and frame Kendrick for something awful. So, he sneaked in, seduced a guard and shot her, putting Kendrick's fingerprints on it. It was all going beautifully, until he realized that he had shot Kendrick in the arm. Well, no time to worry about that, thinks Miguel, as he exited the building.
I decide that there is no doubt about it, I need to go in and get Kendrick and Maegan out. I had a grudge against the police and busting them out would settle the score. So, following suit, I seduced one of the female guards and convinced her to open the jail cell. Things were going wonderfully until I realized it was actually a guy that I had seduced, and I fled in terror, both of our hearts aching for a love that wasn't.
When the paramedics showed up, they took Kendrick and I sneaked aboard, to see a doctor about that broken heart of mine. Miguel and Maegan, not to be left out, followed in my mini-van full of weed. Or so we thought...
Act 2, Part 1
The hospital proved to be a quick in and out deal, apparently the medics don't react too well to stories of broken hearts. So Kendrick was walking away when suddenly a guy put a sack over his face and threw him in the back of a car.
Maegan and Miguel decided that going to the hospital was for losers, so they started selling the marijuana from the back the van to the poor and needy. Before Maegan realized what was going on, she was shot and killed by Miguel, and she died.
Miguel quickly left Maegan and went back to Emily, to present both his share of the weed money, and Maegan. But for Emily, that wasn't good enough, so when he turned around she shot him in the back.
Maegan woke up in heaven. God came up to her and told her that she still had more to do, so he sent her back. When she came back to earth, she realized that she was not left unscathed. She wasn't who she used to be, but instead became the very van that held the weed on the day that she died.
So, seeking revenge, she disabled her breaks and drove herself straight towards me.
Act 2, Part 2
Kendrick realized that his hands weren't tied, so he pulled off the sack. And who did he see sitting in the front seat? None other than his brother, whom he had previously thought to be dead, hit by a drunk driver years ago.
Miguel awoke with some blood around him. He shrugged off his injury and stood up. He sneaked into the lair of Emily, and grabbed a shotgun off of the wall. He crouched behind her, then jumped and started beating her with the gun. Emily died right there, and Miguel grabbed a cape and sat down in Emily's chair. He was the leader of the drug organization now.
Emily awoke in hell. Satan said: "You are one of my best, why are you here, get up there and kill him!" So Emily awoke on earth as herself, grabbed her gun and ran into the room where Miguel was. But Miguel killed her first, so she got sent back to hell. Satan wanted her to torment people, but would not allow her to go back again. So, she went back to earth as a ghost.
I was in a tree. I had climbed right as Maegan had driven her car at me, and I was not coming down anytime soon. But then, Kendrick and his brother started shouting to me that I was right—the aliens were real! The aliens weren't actually aliens though, they were angels, who pretended to be aliens to run science experiments, relating to how people respond when drunk on lime juice. They convinced me to come down, so I did. As soon as my feet hit the ground though, Maegan backed in to me, breaking both of my legs. My upper body was inside of the van, as she proceeded to back into the river. Then I started sinking, drowning in my van surrounded by my weed.
Little did anyone know, that the van was actually a great grandchild of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Maegan arose out of the water and started flying into the sky. She went into space, and had tea with the aliens. She returned to earth, and saw Emily grabbing Miguel and throwing him thousands of feet. She could either save Miguel or save me, drowning at the bottom of the river. She dove into the water and saved me.
Epilogue
Maegan flew off into the distance, and I was not able to hang on, and suddenly weed and car seats tumbled on top of me, as I fell 30 feet.
Miguel was buried right below where I landed, and since he was an atheist, he wasn't in heaven or hell. So he just reached up, grabbed some of the weed and started smoking it.
I ended up landing in a playground, midst lots of children and teachers. Upon seeing the weed, every child in attendance's innocence was shattered. My career as a community worker was ended, and my humiliation followed me to the end of my days.
Kendrick ended up doing pretty well. He was reunited with his family. His brother and him just ended up doing cool guy stuff.
Emily continued to walk around as a ghost, tormenting all of us. It must have been satisfying, because she never said otherwise.
THE END!
So, pretty crazy huh? I loved it. I can hardly wait to play it again! Anyway, that's all! Bye bye.
-Joshua
I will be playing this game.
ReplyDeleteI am playing this game!
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