Fiasco "Lite"
Aug 6, 2012 7:51:20 GMT -8
Post by kaitoujuliet on Aug 6, 2012 7:51:20 GMT -8
Inspired by Tabletop, my group decided to try out Fiasco at our last game. We used the Break a Leg playset, since more than half of us have some theatrical experience. But since we were also trying to cheer up one of our members who's had some medical problems lately, and since that person isn't big on "horrible tragic irony destroying my PCs," we decided to try it as a comedy game, using the Soft Tilt and Soft Aftermath tables found in The Fiasco Companion.
I'm pleased to say that it worked out very well! We came up with a story revolving around two former Disney child actresses, a contract to play Hedda Gabler (but only if the lucky person could get out of her current commitment), a faulty trapdoor, a batch of hash brownies, and a live ferret. A particularly fun part was working out the nature of the play we were putting on based on throwaway comments made during scenes. We eventually decided it must be a Gothic horror spoof comedy set at Christmastime.
As it happened, the distribution of dice ended up being fairly uneven, meaning that most people had lots of dice of one color, so decent endings were not too difficult. (I think the worst thing that happened to any PC was that a stagehand dropped out of college to spend more time getting high.) Still, I think next time we do this, we'll use the variation where each tier of ending goodness is only one number and anything above nine is maximum-level, just to make a good ending even more likely.
Anyway, I just wanted to report that with sufficient tweaking, Fiasco can make an excellent comedy game. Sometime I'd like to try playing the "straight" version, though. Maybe sometime when that one player can't join us for whatever reason. I have a feeling we're going to keep this as one of our go-to games for weeks when the whole group can't make it.
I'm pleased to say that it worked out very well! We came up with a story revolving around two former Disney child actresses, a contract to play Hedda Gabler (but only if the lucky person could get out of her current commitment), a faulty trapdoor, a batch of hash brownies, and a live ferret. A particularly fun part was working out the nature of the play we were putting on based on throwaway comments made during scenes. We eventually decided it must be a Gothic horror spoof comedy set at Christmastime.
As it happened, the distribution of dice ended up being fairly uneven, meaning that most people had lots of dice of one color, so decent endings were not too difficult. (I think the worst thing that happened to any PC was that a stagehand dropped out of college to spend more time getting high.) Still, I think next time we do this, we'll use the variation where each tier of ending goodness is only one number and anything above nine is maximum-level, just to make a good ending even more likely.
Anyway, I just wanted to report that with sufficient tweaking, Fiasco can make an excellent comedy game. Sometime I'd like to try playing the "straight" version, though. Maybe sometime when that one player can't join us for whatever reason. I have a feeling we're going to keep this as one of our go-to games for weeks when the whole group can't make it.