A Baptism (of sorts)...

 Hey, we're back. I moved to Chicago recently for grad school. Lost my job of seven years. So it goes.

Where were we?

 How's Chicago going, you ask? Here's a highlight from my first month:

I installed a bidet yesterday. It took two attempts, partially because I almost flooded my bathroom as an unintentional intermission.

The apartment I live in was once inhabited by a goblin. According to the maintenance guy and leasing agent, the place required some organic grass-fed all-natural elbow grease to turn over. I'm still getting acquainted with its little quirks - they did a good job, but it seems like every day or so I uncover some sealed evil buried in a corner.

Anyway, a bidet. Love it, nothing better than reducing paper use. It's 2024, I think we've moved past analogue toiletries.

Ordered a basic one, no frills. A solid foundation, entry-level if you will. The box promised easy installation, and it was:

1. Attach the hose to the bidet body.

2. Attach the bidet body to the toilet seat.

3. Turn off the water pressure to the toilet, let the tank drain.

4. Attach the T-junction, reattach all the hoses.

5. Turn on the water pressure and voila.

As I went to turn the water pressure back on, the rusted-through knob snapped off at the pipe after a quarter-turn, unleashing the strongest jet of water I've seen in a long time. The knob gets blasted across the bathroom and I'm blinded by a combination of water and wild animal panic.

There's nothing at hand to block the water except my body, so I jam my thumb against the nozzle to prevent the biblical flood from drowning the sins of my bathroom. Wipe my face. Give myself a 5-count of unfiltered, grade-A panic. Consider my options.

My phone is on the sink above me, the podcast continuing as if my heart isn't beating fast enough to drive a rave to ruin. I reach up, dial my maintenance guy, leave a shouty, urgent message about flooding my apartment. Navigate to the leasing company's website, put in an urgent "please come in without my permission, I'm fighting for my life here" maintenance request.

Consider my options. I'm attached to the wall by  my thumb. My apartment is 450 square feet, give or take. The floor of the bathroom is already covered in a thin layer of water from the five seconds of spray. If I let it go, I run the risk of flooding my entire unit. I don't have anything here I can plug it with.

The knob. That'll have to do for now, hopefully. I'm not religious, but I pray it's still in the bathroom and not fifteen feet away beneath my bed.

There! In the corner behind the door, just within reach of my stretching foot. Thank god I've cultivated monkey-toes; I grab it, thumb still firmly pressed into the broken valve, and shove it back into the wall. It's stuck fast, thankfully. I get every towel in my apartment and barricade the threshold in case the book of Genesis returns to my bathroom.

Thankfully, when the maintenance guy arrives twenty-five minutes later, God's wrath is still sealed away. He turns off the water to the unit and takes out the knob - the water spray smacks him in the face.

He's never seen anything like it. How is it still pressurized? He says it'll drain eventually, and I empty out my water pitcher, my mixing bowls, my glasses, and we catch the rest of the water as it empties out. "A lotta stuff still in there?" he's laughing, but it's the desperate laugh of a man who doesn't know if he'll be alive when the sun sets.

He replaces the valve, replaces the tube - "Oh, wow, that's a lot of corrosion" - and turns the water back on. We stand over the toilet like the Vega brothers over an open car trunk, but there's no signs of life.

"That was quick thinking with the finger," he said as he dumps three mixing bowls of water into the bathtub. "With water pressure like that, it would have flooded this entire unit in less than 5 minutes. Should be fine now, just have to keep an eye on it."

"Great." My brain is already busy totaling the value of everything in here and comparing it to my renter's insurance. Does my insurance cover interior flooding? Wraths of god? How many completely fresh starts can I brute-force before I embrace complete ascetic minimalism?

Days later, the bathroom is still dry and the bidet was a great decision.

Chicago's pretty fun, too.

In a Wicked Age Actual Play - An Unseasonable Cold

 In A Wicked Age is a tabletop role-playing game designed by Vincent Baker and released by Lumpley Games. It is designed to create a series of one-shots in a loosely-connected anthology, with various characters looping in and out over the course of the chronology.

The setting is implied through the Oracles, which are four tables of story elements from which each session is generated. Each Oracle provides a rough genre of tale, from violence and war, to ghosts and ruins, to political intrigue or drama.

The Oracle used for this session was God-Kings of War.

Previous, in a wicked age...

...a chest containing the tax monies of a rural province, and the soldiers carrying it...

...a bitter and unseasonable cold, caused by warring elementals...

...the site of a pitched battle, ground churned and stinking, and the widows mourning there...

...a soldier's plain shortsword, gradually developing a taste for the blood of women...

    We see the village of Jaduqar, a village on the border of the Empire, far-flung in the northern hinterlands. The town is gripped in an unseasonable cold caused by the local elementals, who are engaged in a vicious and violent conflict with each other. The frenzy of their fury has spilled over and gripped the townsfolk in a bloodlust - more than thirty of them wandered into the nearby fields and violently murdered each other. The sudden deaths have left the rest of the villagers adrift.

    Due to the unnatural cold, the harvest has suffered, and without laborers to work the fields, the village is ill-equipped to pay its tithe when the Imperial tax collector, Barrold Sap-Rissen arrives with his retinue. The tax collector sets up in the tavern, unsure of how to proceed after collecting a pittance from the grieving villagers.

    One such villager is Ibari, a young roustabout who seeks an easier path through life. One of the first to respond to the sudden violence, Ibari stumbled across a seemingly-normal short-sword...unbeknownst to him, the sword is a prison for Frost Sliver, an ancient spirit which can freeze and shatter memories. Emboldened by the spirit in the sword, Ibari goes to the local tavern and attempts to take the taxes from Barrold but he is ill-equipped to deal with the man's guards and is driven away. The spirit in the sword directs him to hide in one of the now-abandoned homes.

    We see a woman at the killing field, Excelias, who lost her husband in the induced frenzy. Outwardly average, Excelias is actually the sole surviving member of an ancient imperial bloodline which grants her eyes dominion over the forces of Winter. She wanders into the killing field to search for his corpse, which draws the attention of Fridela, one of the winter spirits lurking on the outskirts of the village. Excelias attempts to compel the spirit to leave, but Fridela is empowered by the field of death, and the elemental summons a sudden blizzard which drives the woman back towards the village.

    Fridela feels the draw of Frost Sliver's power emanating from the village and moves in its direction. She appears to Ibari in the form of an old woman and attempts to take the blade. Frost Sliver warns Ibari and the boy uses the blade to dispatch her hag-form. Fridela disperses herself across a flurry of blood-red snowflakes and buries Ibari beneath its weight. Frost Sliver uses its power to subdue Ibari's life-force and places the boy in a torpor beneath the snow.

    Excelias is in the tavern, where a visiting bard is playing. Known as Valentine, the bard immediately ingratiates himself with the woman, and the two share an intimate moment. During the afterglow, the pair hatch a plan to steal the collected taxes and flee south to escape the winter.

    Valentine distracts the guards while Excelias attempts to seduce Barrold. It seems the captain is falling for the act when Fridela manifests outside the captain's window and shatters the glass. The captain's body protects Excelias from the worst of it, but the shards slice deep into Sap-Rissen and splatter his vital fluids across her. She grabs the taxes and tells the spirit that it can have the sword - all Excelias wants is the coin. This assuages the spirit, and Fridela leaves to seek the sword...

    Elsewhere, Frost Sliver has completely dominated Ibari - the young man's body heat has been completed subsumed by the spirit in the sword and Ibari is now an ice-animated corpse. Then, unbeknownst to Fridela, the sword-bearer arrives at the tavern just as the spirit is leaving. It breaks down the door and confronts Valentine. The bard attempts to fight the zombie, the Frost Sliver murders the tax collector's guards, and then shatters Valentine's recent memories. 

    Frost Sliver is advancing on Valentine when Excelias comes down the stairs with the tax chest. She is initially confused about the bard's sudden aloofness, but then confronts the frost zombie. She uses her magical sight to discern the magics animating the boy's corpse and unravels them with a single word. The zombie crumbles to the floor and Excelias picks up the sword, with plans to flee south and sell it. Then she and Valentine can start a new life with the tax coin and sword sale.

    Valentine, now with no memory of this woman who is clearly familiar with him, schemes to play along. Once they're outside the village, he'll kill the woman, take the sword and money, and continue south to an easier life. The two leave Jaduqar behind as night falls and another snow storm approaches.

    When they stop at a cave for the night, Fridela arrives, a harbinger of the oncoming snow. She confronts Excelias and attempts to weaponize the woman's guilt about leaving with another man so soon after the death of her husband, but Excelias maintains her mental fortitude and throws off the spirit's mental assault.

    Valentine attempts to take part in the conflict, but he's woefully prepared for a magical conflict. The strings on the bard's lute are snapped when Fridela sharpyl reduces the temperature, and it begins to snow blood.

    Excelias brandishes Frost Sliver and calls on her magical bloodline. In a moment of magical clarity, she realizes she has the ability to access all of Frost Sliver's stolen and shattered memories - it turns out the spirit in the sword was the one responsible for the death of the Empire in the Ice, leader of a major faction of Winter Spirits. She uses the sword to plant the memory into Fridela, which convinces the spirit that it has actually been defeated.

    Fridela flees, and the snow returns to normal. The temperature rises slightly, and the pair are able to start a fire for the night. In the relative comfort of the cave, the two reconvene for an intimate moment before they start on south again, for warmer climate and easier times...

Facilitator Notes:

With about half a dozen sessions of In a Wicked Age under my belt, I've really started to see what kind of emergent stories are possible with this engine. Though I have yet to have a group run for long enough to really get the anthology going, the sessions themselves always turn into something special.

Fiasco Actual Play: Heroes of Pinnacle City 2

Fiasco is a table-top role-playing game about characters with grand ambition and poor impulse control. Players generate a network of character relationships and the associated details and act out a story in which the house of cards topples magnificently.

This session used the playset Heroes of Pinnacle City, in which players are superheroes, villains, and other folks of power.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Willy Boyle - a 13-year old boy who has the ability to change reality...and uses it to become President of the United States of America. With his reality manipulation Willy forms the Executive Order to help him run the country...preferably well, not into the ground.

The Cabinet - Willy's first creation, the Cabinet was created to be the perfect adviser. Unfortunately, Willy misspelled "Cabinet" and thus created an eldritch abomination. So long as the Cabinet fulfills his master's will, he's fine...

Florence "the Drainer" - an individual with the ability to drain vital essence from his victims, the Drainer serves as Boyle's Vice President and Fixer.

Jeep Wrangler - An alien from a distant planet, with the ability to control geometry and geometric shapes. He has come to Earth to seek help in saving his planet from a doomed fate.

Tsunami - A woman with the ability to control the weather on a grand scale. An up-and-coming superhero, she plans to use her powers to solve the energy crisis. Stu Nami's sister.

Stu Nami - A meteorologist, recent divorcee, alcoholic, with minor superpowers. Absolutely furious that Tsunami has arrived on the scene to not only steal his thunder, but steal his super-identity and powerset.

ACT I
Scene I - Young Willy Boyle has manipulated reality so he becomes the President of the United States at the ripe young age of 13. He's hired his local meteorologist, Stu Nami, as his chief scientist, and Stu recommends Willy use his powers to create himself an adviser. Willy does so, but misspells "I need a Cabinet" as "I need a Kabnet." A tentacled monstrosity appears, but assumes the shape of an imposing man wearing sunglasses.

Scene II - Willy is in the Oval Office when he sees the Drainer outside on the White House lawn - he's draining the life from some of the locals. Willy offers Drainer as much life as he can create in exchange for the Drainer's service, and the Drainer agrees.

Scene III - A flying saucer lands in Kansas and drops off an alien, with the sole purpose of utilizing the native life to reproduce. The alien's first Encounter is a Jeep Wrangler, so he takes it as a name. Stu Nami happens to be in the area inspecting a local river and attempts to capture the alien, but Jeep escapes.

Scene IV - Tsu encounters Jeep Wrangler and the two hit it off, after an important conversation about consent. The two connect on a deeper level, but their incompatible biologies mean it can never be a thing. They decide to get it on nonetheless.

Scene V - Stu and Tsunami talk about her entry into the public awareness, and she refuses to stop so he can keep trying to be a superhero. Distraught, Stu stumbles into the news station, drunk and coked out of his mind. He stammers through his segment, talking about how he feels inadequate due to the arrival of Tsunami on the scene. There's a hurricane taking place over Kansas, which Stu knows is because of his sister's broken heart over her incompatibility with Jeep Wrangler. He gets suspended for going to work on cocaine.

Scene VI - We see Willy's first term pass from the Cabinet's viewpoint: it's alright, but nothing special. There are a lot of problems but each and every issue is fixed pretty easily, thanks to the Cabinet's advice, the Drainer's lack of scruples, and Willy's ability to change reality. We get the feeling that the Cabinet is unfulfilled, but all he wants is to help the President, so it's okay.

Scene VII - Willy is talking to Stu about the Drainer's appetite - it's starting to get difficult to fulfill his needs, as he started off with vermin, then larger animals, and now swaths of land. Willy is using his abilities to draw forth abandoned planets for the Drainer to devour. Tsu overhears the conversation and worries about the Drainer.

Scene VIII - The Drainer has taken to space and returns, having eaten the moon, an act blamed on an alien threat. Willy says they have to hide it from everyone. He convinces the president to use his power to take over the world...with the resources of the entire planet behind them, Willy will have no trouble feeding the Drainer. They decide to start with the UN.

Scene IX - Jeep Wrangler - now known as The Reproducer after Tsu got him to download Tinder - is in search of a secret graveyard near the White House. He finds evidence of the Drainer's feeding, and that the Drainer is the one responsible for draining the moon. He tells Stu.

Scene X - Tsunami has been working in Washington DC to fix the energy crisis, and she hates it. She goes to a meeting of the Executive Order at a Denny's and has a falling out with her brother.

Scene XI - Stu leaves the Denny's, drunk and ripped on cocaine. He goes to the television studio and uses his government clearance to get on the set, where he reveals to the nation that it was the Drainer who ate the moon.

Scene XII - The Drainer is eating a homeless man when the Cabinet finds him. They argue about the moon and whether the Drainer really did eat it. The Cabinet reveals its true form and mind-sucks the Drainer to learn he really did drain the moon. He threatens the Drainer to keep his snacks light before he flies off.

THE TILT
Mayhem - Misdirected Passion
Failure - A Stupid Plan Executed to Perfection

ACT II
Scene I - Willy, the Cabinet, and the Drainer are delivering a speech to the UN. Willy manages to throw suspicion off the Drainer by blaming the disappearance of the moon on an alien threat. He says he's going to unite the world against this enemy under the US flag.

Scene II - The Drainer meets with Jeep Wrangler to discuss his appetite. Jeep Wrangler has the ability to shrink planets into tiny spheres and keep them on a necklace or chain - and his homeworld is there because his race needed to find a new sun. So Jeep Wrangler unshrinks Zilliax 45 and sets it in orbit.

Scene III - The Drainer drains Zilliax 45, which Jeep doesn't like. But they get over it when Jeep shrinks Zilliax 45 down as a peace offering.

Scene IV - In the absence of the moon, Tsunami has been manually controlling the tides. The pressure of maintaining the tides while her brother gets all the recognition eventually gets to her, and she lashes out with her powers against the coasts.

Scene V - Stu gives a broadcast about the sudden flooding all along the oceans. Unfortunately, his withdrawal causes him to stumble and knock himself out on live TV.

Scene VI - The Cabinet confronts the president about how his staff are acting out and causing trouble. Willy doesn't know what to do and tells the Cabinet it's his problem - but the Cabinet's only want is to help the president. They're interrupted by Stu, who calls a meeting about his sister.

Scene VII - The Executive Order meets at Denny's, where Willy confronts the Drainer about his crimes. The Drainer confesses, unrepentant, and fights the Cabinet. The Cabinet opens and consumes the Drainer, imprisoning him within himself.

Scene VIII - The Drainer is imprisoned inside the Cabinet - it's fractal and recursive. The Drainer attempts to drain the Cabinet from the inside, but it's too large in there. He's unable to affect the Cabinet on such a scale.

Scene IX - Jeep Wrangler meets with the Cabinet and asks for advice with his frustration. The Cabinet recommends Jeep to a sex therapy group.

Scene X - A week later, Tsu meets with Jeep, who has taken a vow of celibacy. Tsu has calmed down and is keeping the weird weather at bay. The two discuss their old romance, and in a moment of weakness, Tsu loses concentration and lets a wave sweep Jeep out to sea.

Scene XI - Stu is on a cliff nearby and sees the whole thing. He's drunk and high, and pitches forward off the cliff.

Scene XII - The Willy unites the planet at the UN as the United Nations Under God, or UNUG. The Cabinet, now with an upset stomach, flees into the night, now fully an eldritch abomination.

THE AFTERMATH
This is President Willy Boyle, standing before the Galactic Senate. He delivers a rousing speech and unites the galaxy under the Earth banner: a United Galaxy Under God, or UGUG.

This is Jeep Wrangler, adrift on the open ocean. He washes up on an island and notices the beautiful spheres growing on the trees - he spends the rest of his life romantically entangled with coconuts.

This is Tsunami, identified as a planet-level criminal by the United Galaxy Under God. She's picked up by a police cruiser and spends the rest of her life in galactic prison.

This is Stu Nami, covered in piss and sleeping in a gutter. He's lost his position and dies, poor and high.

This is the Drainer, partially melded with the Kabnet. He wanders the inside of his prison, eternally hungry and broken.

This is the Kabnet, wandering the planet. Freed of his need to advise the president and forever infected with the Drainer's hunger, he feeds on the less fortunate, and knows what it's like to want something for himself.

Facilitator Thoughts
This was a gold-star session. Everyone was very in-character, for better and worse, and the stories weaved together well. It was an example of how Fiasco can serve as a screen-writing aid.

Fiasco Session Write-Up: Manna Hotel

Fiasco is a table-top role playing game heavy on the improvisational story-telling and light on the dice rolling. It concerns characters in possession of grand ambition and poor impulse control, and most of the story elements are randomly generated at the beginning, pulled from a specific Playset. The best comparison is to a film by the Cohen Brothers, in which a house of cards is built upon unsteady ground.

Fiasco is played across five stages:

The Setup, in which players choose a Playset to randomly generate relationships and their associated details: needs, objects, and locations.

Act I, in which players establish and resolve scenes. The end-result of these scenes, whether positive or negative for the character, is determined by a die taken from the pools in the center of the table.

The Tilt, in which the players with the strongest narrative through-lines choose Tilt Elements: unexpected events, characters, or items which turn the story on its head.

Act II, in players drive their characters to an inevitable conclusion. Guns go off, precious things are set alight, and loose ends are tightly wound together.

The Aftermath, in which the players provide final, conclusive scenes determined by the net-positive or net-negative dice accumulated throughout gameplay.

The playset used for this game was Manna Hotel, included in the Fiasco Playset Anthology '11. Set in the sleepy town of Manna, Kansas (pop. 1200), it concerns a 22-room motor lodge and the strange folk boarded there...

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Ruth Yoder - An old-world Mennonite woman keeping watch on Manna for the Kansas City mob. Operates the Manna Hotel, and is often seen knitting at its front desk.

Sabrina Wimples - Highly ambitious. Serial cheater. Militant lesbian. Recently collaborated with Leopold Tinman to steal a honey badger and a black bear from the nearby Calgary Zoo.

Leopold Tinman - A bitter veteran of the Korean War...or the Vietnam War? One of them. Suffers from severe tinnitus. Assisted Sabrina in her zoo heist, but doesn't know what to do with the animals.

Jeff Stalin - A junior member of the Russian Mafia in town to establish a criminal foothold. Fought against Tinman in...the war? Actively seeking to remove Ruth, as she's the lone representative of the Kansas City mob. Currently under-cover as a check-out boy at Manna Grocers.

Svetlanalanka Stalin - Jeff Stalin's twin sister, and partner in the mission. A fan of knives.

ACT I
Scene I - Tinman and Sabrina have just stolen a black bear and a honey badger from the Calgary Zoo and stashed the animals in their room at the Manna Hotel. The two go to Manna Grocers and buy out the meat department, alongside a cart full of ice and styrofoam coolers. The pair chat with the checker while Jeff secretly shakes up their 2-liters before loading them into the car. Tinman drives them out towards the hotel when a particularly violent bump pops the 2-liters, which throws Tinman back to the War, causing him to crash the car miles from the hotel. The two start walking.

Scene II - Satisfied at his prank, Jeff clocks out from Manna Grocers. He drives past Tinman and Sabrina on his way to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, he and Svetlanalanka discuss their plan, which amounts to causing petty vandalism in order to drive down morale. They decide to hit the zoo first.

Scene III - Svetlanalanka is interested in vandalism, but she reminds Jeff that they need to remove any influence from the Kansas City Mob - AKA, get rid of Ruth Yoder, the severe-looking woman in the bonnet who's always knitting behind the motel's front desk.

Scene IV - Ruth is knitting something behind the front desk when a man checks in - he says he's a zoo inspector from the city in Manna to inspect the Calgary Zoo, as two high-profile animals have gone missing. Ruth gives him the room next to the war veteran and the lesbian couple ("Praise God she's taken herself a man").

Scene V - Sabrina and Tinman feed the animals - the honey badger's chained up in the closet while the black bear's in the bathroom. They decide the bear is too much to keep in a hotel room and the abandoned schoolhouse up the road is a better option. Ruth drives a large panel van to and from work, so the pair decides to use it to transport the bear.

Scene VI - Tinman shmoozes with Ruth over their shared distaste for young folk. Ruth lets Tinman take the van, so long as he returns it the following morning, as she uses it to transport the local Korean population to church on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Scene VII - After a day at work, Jeff meets up with Svetlanalanka, who has decided the best course of action is to blow up Ruth's van while she drives it back from church. He agrees, and while she prepares to attack the woman he takes a handful of molotov cocktails to the Calgary Zoo and sets the entrance building on fire.

Scene VIII - Svetlanalanka lies in wait as Ruth's van - actually driven by Tinman, carrying Sabrina and the black bear - arrives at the schoolhouse. Svetlanalanka uses her smuggled rocket launcher to blow up the vehicle, though Tinman, Sabrina, and the bear escape unharmed. Before they can confront her, Svetlanalanka disappears into the Kansas countryside and Tinman runs off, thrown back into flashbacks to the War.

Scene IX - Ruth is knitting at the front desk when she sees a soot-covered, dusty Svetlanalanka slink back into the hotel parking lot. The visiting zoo inspector soon leaves, talking on his phone about how the zoo is on fire. Ruth puts 2-and-2 together and calls up the Kansas City Mob, who says they'll send some boys out to drive away the Russian menace.

Scene X - Sabrina tries to get the bear to track Tinman, but the animal isn't willing. Fortunately, she finds him asleep inside the schoolhouse, no worse for wear. Relieved that they're okay after the van mysteriously exploded, they outfit the bear with a harness and a nearby wheelbarrow, and ride the beast back into Manna.

THE TILT
Failure - Something Precious is on Fire
Guilt - A Showdown

ACT II
Scene I - Tinman has a flashback to the War while riding in the wheelbarrow. Whichever conflict it was involved Russian bear riders and a tank. Upon arriving at the hotel they apologize to Ruth for the van's destruction, but the woman seems preoccupied. Tinman and Sabrina offer to use their bear wagon to take the Koreans to church the next day, which seems to mollify Ruth.

Scene II - Svetlanalanka's pissed at Jeff - the attack on the zoo drew unwanted attention, and now they need to hurry to get rid of Ruth before the enforcers arrive from Kansas City. They make shivs out of some broken vodka bottles and storm the front office - but it's Sunday morning and Ruth is at church. They decide to take out their anger on her knitting, slashing it to bits.

Scene III - Svetlanalanka flashes back to her mafia induction, where she's tasked with killing the Mayor of Kansas City...but she's foiled by a junior member of the Kansas City Mafia, who is revealed to be a young Ruth Yoder.

Scene IV - Ruth is at the church graveyard when Sabrina arrives. The two have a heartfelt conversation in which Sabrina apologizes for destroying her van. They hug and go back to church.

Scene V - Sabrina flashes back to the zoo heist, in which Tinman is a distraction while Sabrina smuggles the animals out. She heads out to meet Tinman at the schoolhouse.

Scene VI - Tinman's feeding the bear when he finds Svetlanalanka's discarded rocket launcher. The combined stress and PTSD breaks his mental state and he decides the only way to be free is to blow up the zoo. Sabrina comes across him limping across the Kansas countryside and knocks him out for his own good.

Scene VII - We skip forward one month in time. Sabrina has opened a new zoo in the schoolhouse, with a ranting Tinman as the main attraction, and business is booming. Jeff comes by to visit and confesses to Tinman it was actually him who blew up the van. The betrayal drives Tinman deeper into his psychosis, and the guilt causes Jeff to wander out into the countryside.

Scene VIII - Ruth is at the church's graveyard when Svetlanalanka arrives. The two have a short conversation before they begin to fight! Blows are exchanged! Ruth throws Svetlanalanka into a gravestone! Svetlanalanka tackles Ruth through the stained-glass window! Ruth takes a gun out from her hollowed-out Bible and shoots Svetlanalanka! Svetlanalanka wrestles Ruth's knitting needles away from her and stabs her through the neck, ending the fight!

Scene IX - The enforcers from the Kansas City Mob arrive and meet up with the Koreans - they were secretly Ruth's contacts. They go to visit the Manna Hotel, which is under new management - Svetlanalanka meets them and confirms she's on their side...

Scene X - Sabrina has her new zoo up and running when she's visited by the zoo inspector. The man is hesitant, but revenues are up and Sabrina secures her licensing for future security.

THE AFTERMATH

This is Leopold Tinman. He's finally found some measure of security against the outside world, locked away in Sabrina's zoo. The outside world proved too much for him, and so he embraced his imprisonment. However, the trauma he's experienced will never fully leave him and his mind proves a more effective prison than any metal bars ever could.

This is Jeff Stalin, wandering the wilderness. He's distraught over his betrayal of his friend and once-enemy, Leopold Tinman. He's soon found by Sabrina and taken to her zoo, where the company of Tinman's nearness is a minor comfort.

This is Svetlanalanka Stalin, who now runs the Manna Hotel. With her brother's mental breakdown, she attempts to go it alone and tries to carve out her own small empire based in Manna. Unfortunately, she's not quite up to the task and winds up getting busted by the cops.

This is Ruth Yoder, survivor of the church brawl. The Kansas City Mob does not suffer failure lightly, and though they nurse her back to health, she never sees the light of day again.

This is Sabrina Wimples, zoo tycoon. She enjoys a brief span of significant success providing work to local veterans at her Human Exhibit. But it's lonely at the top, and soon her exhibits begin to act up. One night the locks fail, and she finds herself as prey at the mercy of a gaggle of old, hungry soldiers. They eat her alive.

Facilitator Thoughts
The group walked out of this session pretty satisfied - due in part to a few vivid scenes and interplay between the plotlines. In particular, Sabrina's player ruthlessly pursued her character goals, resulting in some very dark imagery which contrasted nicely with the goofier mafia story. The highlight was the fight between Ruth and Svetlanalanka - a scene which exploded into play with very little warning and contained reincorporation of various, seemingly inconsequential images from earlier in play.

The best advice I've ever heard concerning Fiasco is to never let yourself get in the way of the character. This particular session was a study in how it can result.

In A Wicked Age Actual Play - Cast in Silver

In A Wicked Age is a narrative-focused role-playing game designed to create an anthology of one-shot sessions set in a sword-and-sorcery world reminiscent of Conan the Barbarian and similar stories. Unlike many other RPGs, players will often play different PCs across the sessions, with each session loosely connected to the others. This final bit of In A Wicked Age is accomplished through the We Owe List. Player characters who survive the first round of conflict against a stronger foe have their name put on the We Owe list, which guarantees a re-appearance in a future session. Think of it as a sort of meta-experience for character progression.

The main draw is that the story elements are randomly generated at the start of every session by drawing four cards from a standard 52-card deck and comparing them against one of four thematic Oracles. From there, the players pull characters and settings and pursue their characters best interests.

The Oracle for this session was The Unquiet Past.

Previously, in a wicked age...
...the guardian of a tomb, a statue cast in silver with ruby eyes...
...a youth or maiden, the reincarnation of an ancient sage, remembering uncanny arts but forgetful of safeguards...
...a market on the crossroads, full of sound and color...
...a new village built on the ruins of a forgotten people...

The Characters
Igor von Himmelstone is an aging treasure hunter, still possessed of some measure of pickpocketing prowess. He's set up a merchant stall at the crossroads market to sell his ill-gotten wares, including a strange key-like object recently acquired. His Best Interests are to keep the key in his possession, and to raid the tomb and sell its treasures.

The Sworn Shadow is a member of a loose organization of religious bodyguards and warriors. She took a vow to get the maiden, Wickett, to the tomb of the forgotten people in order to cancel out its powers before the revived cult can capture her and use her powers to control it. Her Best Interests are to deliver Wickett to the tomb, and to steal the ruby eyes of the tomb guardian.

Loshak, the Cursed Acolyte is the spirit of an ancient demon trapped in the ruby-eyed, silver-cast statue of a temple dog. Long ago Loshak was bound to guard the tomb against intruders, which is everyone, considering the civilization which built the tomb-prison is long-gone. Its Best Interests are to prevent entry to the tomb and to obtain its freedom from its statue by destroying the key.

The Session
Sworn Shadow and Wickett are moving through the crossroad market. Wickett seems fairly naive about her role regarding the nearby tomb, despite Sworn Shadow's efforts to instruct her. The pair visit the stand of one Igor von Himmelstone, and Sworn Shadow recognizes the tomb key on a lanyard around Igor's neck. Her attempt to obtain it is interrupted when members of the revived cult arrive and try to knife her. Sworn Shadow puts up a good defense, but the cultists are too numerous and make off with Wickett in tow.

During the struggle one of the cultists gets thrown into Igor's stand. Despite his best efforts, Igor is knocked out in a single punch and the cultists get away.

In the hills nearby, there's an entrance dug into the side of a particularly ominous hill. The cultists arrive with Wickett and enter, making note of the dusty, skeletal remains scattered around the floor. The cult leader approaches the tarnished silver statue dog and pokes one of its eyes...and the statue animates and attacks! Loshak proves too much a challenge for the cultists; his laser eyes vaporize a number of cultists, but the leader and some of his cronies escape with Wickett.

Igor wakes up and goes to the market lord to report the scuffle. Unfortunately, in this wicked age authority is often occupied by those with enough force, and the market lord is little more than a warlord with some thugs, so they turn him away. On his way back, Igor is ambushed by a rival treasure hunter. Igor's fighting skills are rusty, and though he lasts a bit longer than against the cultist, his rival trips him up and steals the key from around his neck.

Sworn Shadow tracks down Igor as the shop-keeper with the key and the pair team up to rescue Wickett from the cult. Igor specifically avoids mentioning that his key was stolen as they make their way into the hills.

Loshak has settled back into his guardianship when the rival treasure-hunter arrives, key in hand. Loshak, sensing the key as his way to freedom, lets the man get close before attacking. Unfortunately, the presence of the key trips Loshak up and the treasure-hunter steals one of his ruby eyes before escaping.

Sworn Shadow and Igor reach the tomb and watch the cultists outside lick their wounds with Wickett tied up nearby. The pair attack the cultists, with Sworn Shadow carving a path through their numbers while Igor holds his own against a single fighter. The pair eradicate the cult and take Wickett up towards the tomb entrance.

The treasure-hunter leaves the tomb as Sworn Shadow, Igor, and Wickett arrive. The three fight the treasure-hunter, obtaining the key, just as Loshak arrives. Loshak and Sworn Shadow fight, with Wickett attempting to take the key from Igor. Igor manages to knock out Wickett and runs for the tomb to unlock it, but Sworn Shadow catches up and puts him down with her swords. Loshak attempts to shoot her with its laser eyes, but Sworn Shadow dodges and manages to subdue the guardian.

With the key in hand, Sworn Shadow guides Wickett in sacrificing her powers to cancel out the evil of the tomb. With the tomb neutralized, Loshak reverts to a mortal dog (though a large one), and joins with Igor to seek out other tombs. Sworn Shadow reaches out to her organization and awaits another job...

We Owe...
Sworn Shadow
Igor von Himmelstone

Facilitator notes:
This is the fourth time I've played In a Wicked Age, and a re-start from my previous posts concerning the game. Those first three sessions were a little winding and long-winded. This one, more than a year later and with some other experience under my belt, ran very smoothly. I think the key to success was how this group is also familiar with Fiasco, another game with player-versus-player elements focused on one-shot shenanigans. We'll be playing IaWA again soon, and I look forward to seeing how this group advances.

Fiasco Actual Play: Boom Town

Fiasco is a role-playing game about characters with grand ambition and poor ambition control. Players roll dice at the start of the game to establish story elements like relationships, objects, locations, and needs; these elements help the players establish a tilting house of cards ready to tumble when the game begins.

Fiasco is played across five stages:

The Set-Up, in which players choose a playset and roll on tables to choose character relationships. Each relationship also features a detail, which is either an object, location, or need which is crucial to that relationship.

Act 1, in which players act out scenes featuring their characters. Players collect dice which represent positive or negative outcomes and ultimately determine how their story ends.

The Tilt, in which two players with the strongest narrative lines choose Tilt Elements, which introduce chaos, unexpected twists, or other events in order to shake up what's happened thus far.

Act 2, which plays similarly to Act 1, with another two rounds of scenes to ramp up the action. Guns go off, fires catch and spread, and animals are set loose.

The Aftermath, in which everyone rolls on a specific table to get a vague outline of tone for their character, and then montages the end of their respective stories.

The playset used for this game was Boom Town, included in the Fiasco core book. The setting is a small town in the Wild West gripped by settlers, gold fever, and mild racism against the Chinese. It leans much more towards Deadwood than Bonanza...

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Sandy Dick - Owner and Madam of the Dicksyland Tavern and Whorehouse. A strong woman in a hard town, she does her best to look after her girls while furthering her own fortune.

Mayor Tammy Teakles - Placeholder's first woman mayor. She was a former miner who stole a minor fortune to establish her political career. Wed Thunder Teakles as a matter of politics.

Thunder Teakles - The mayor's husband, and a seller of antiquities. Currently in possession of a large number of magical monkey paws, and employer/abuser of Jeremy Smith.

Jeremy Smith - A Chinese immigrant adopted by the Teakles. Currently helps operate Thunder's antiquities stand, and is the victim of much abuse at his hands.

Benjamin Chang - Another Chinese immigrant and owner of a local restaurant. Runs an opium distribution operation out of the back of the business.

Though-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Jameson - One of ten children, Mr. Jameson works as Placeholder's surgeon/barber/dentist, despite the fact that he has no formal education or training in any of the three practices.

ACT I
Scene I - Jeremy and Benjamin meet outside town. Chang has been working with Jeremy to secure his foothold in the town, and they set out on a plan to rob Thunder and use the money to secure Chang's opium trade - a first step to becoming mayor himself.

Scene II - We flash back to Chang's third month in Placeholder - in which the sheriff quit, the mayor vanished, and the preacher drank himself to death. Chang stepped up to fill the absences, but was passed over when it came to replace each of the three. Thus began his plot for vengeance.

Scene III - Jameson is working on Tammy's teeth when Chang shows up. After the mayor leaves, Chang bullies Jameson into revealing the dentist has come into possession of a bundle of TNT from a deceased former patient. He's buried the explosives at the Hanging Tree - the only landmark outside the town.

Scene IV - The mayor meets up with Sandy Dick and the two discuss matters in the town. Part of the mayor's campaign was healthcare for the townsfolk, but there's no budget for it. Tammy reveals her husband is in possession of a 12-pounder howitzer cannon from his service in the Civil War. The two plan t steal it and use it to rob a stagecoach taking money between banks.

Scene V - Tammy meets up with her husband and plies her feminine wiles to get his cannon. She claims it's for her sudden interest in pigeon hunting. Unfortunately the two get into a fight about his antiquities cart and he refuses to give her the cannon.

Scene VI - Thunder catches Jeremy sneaking back from meeting with Chang and verbally berates him for poorly stocking the monkey paws. With his temper sated, he goes to the dentist to discuss his wife's jaw and her gold teeth, which the dentist pulled earlier when they caused her pain.

Scene VII - Later that evening, Jeremy takes the box of monkey paws and buries it under the Hanging Tree, thinking he'll tell Thunder that he successfully sold the entire stock.

Scene VIII - Chang storms into the mayor's office. He's caught wind of her plan and wants in. In exchange for a cut of the profits from their stagecoach heist, he'll be her alibi to make sure she's not accused of the robbery.

Scene IX - Jameson's feeling pretty stressed about being a useless fly caught in everyone's web. He goes to Dicksy Land and lets everything out to Sandy - that he's got a bunch of gold teeth, that everyone's plotting things, and that he's buried a bunch of TNT at the Hanging Tree.

Scene X - We cut to the aftermath of Sandy successfully robbing the stagecoach. She hides the howitzer at the Hanging Tree, then goes back to the tavern with a box of gold. Thunder comes by drunkenly berating Jeremy - turns out he's found out about him burying the monkey paws.

Scene XI - Thunder leaves the tavern, and he's mistakenly taken the box of gold with him instead of the monkey paws. When he gets back to his home he realizes he's taken the gold and goes to bury it at the Hanging Tree.

Scene XII - While burying the gold, Jeremy falls out of the back of his wagon. He apologizes profusely, but Thunder sees an opportunity to take further advantage of him. Despite the fact that he's got gold, he's sold up, and he's back in his wife's good graces, Thunder tells Jeremy he has to make up for the lost profits by selling the rest of his inventory.

THE TILT
Tragedy - Magnificent Self-Destruction
Paranoia - What You've Stolen has been Stolen

ACT II
Scene I - Jeremy's desperately attempting to sell Thunder's wares, but the market in Placeholder is pretty saturated. Thunder comes by and is unimpressed by his efforts - he says he'll have to restock their inventory of monkey paws, and doesn't care how Jeremy comes into their possession.

Scene II - Chang goes to the hanging tree to dig up his share of the stagecoach robbery, but it's been taken. In revenge, and an attempt to take over as mayor, he dumps his stash of opium down the well after warning Sandy about his plan.

Scene III - Jameson notices the people in town have started acting strange - and eventually recognizes it as opium dosing. He knows Chang deals in the stuff, so he confronts the man, who blames Jeremy.

Scene IV - Sandy meets with Chang. They're the only two sober folk in the town and have decided to simply duck and leave Placeholder. Sandy's got a soft spot in her heart for Jameson, however, and decides she's going to try and get him to leave.

Scene V - Tammy's high as heaven, and she's wandering around Placeholder with her chest of gold clutched tight. She eventually makes her way to the Hanging Tree, where she meets up with Thunder, who is also incredibly high.

Scene VI - We flashback to Thunder in the morning. He takes a drink of opium-dosed water, goes to the Hanging Tree, and strips naked. Jeremy shows up and takes the howitzer in order to hunt monkeys. Then Tammy shows up and the two argue for a bit before reconnecting, emotionally and physically.

Scene VII - Jeremy, high on opium, sets up the howitzer on a hill overlooking Placeholder. He hallucinates the townsfolk as monkeys and starts blowing up the town in an attempt to please Thunder.

Scene VIII - Chang watches Jeremy's rampage from a distance and decides to let it happen. After Jeremy runs out of ammo, Chang goes to the hillside and tells Jeremy he can get him to safety, but he'll need to talk to his boss back east. In the meantime, he goes to Tammy's abandoned office and sets up shop as Mayor Chang.

Scene IX - Jameson goes to the hanging tree and sees the chaos unfolding. During a moment of clarity he decides he's going to leave, and simply wanders off into the wilderness.

Scene X - Sandy sees her tavern has been destroyed, but most of her girls have survived. She takes them, steals some guns from nearby corpses, and leaves with them in tow.

Scene XI - Tammy's dug up the TNT and accidentally covered herself in TNT chemicals. Her and Thunder, high on opium, decide the only way for her to survive is to amputate.

Scene XII - Thunder amputates Tammy's hands, but he's not a surgeon and it's the 1800s. Things go poorly.

THE AFTERMATH

This is Sandy Dick. She's left with her girls to take up a life of banditry. Unfortunately, none of them are trained to fight or shoot, and most get sick or shot. While resting at a town she's recognized for her links to the Placeholder disaster, and is subsequently locked up.

This is Jeremy Smith. He's been taken in by Chang's druglord allies. Used as a mule and general enforcer, he spends most of the rest of his life wishing he was orphaned again, or at least employed by Thunder. At least Thunder's abuse was only verbal.

This is Benjamin Chang. He's mayor of what remains of Placeholder, Colorado. Under his thumb it becomes a crime town, which delivers immediate returns. Unfortunately, the trade between it and other crime dens draws the attention of other cartels, and Chang finds himself fighting for his position as never before.

This is Mayor Tammy Teakles, dead of opium overdose, major physical trauma, and fire.

This is Thunder Teakles, dead of opium overdose in the (handless) arms of his wife.

This is Though-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Jameson. He's left for another nearby town and received formal dental training. While working on a patient he learns Placeholder has recovered from its troubles, but shrugs it off, as that life is behind him.

Facilitator Thoughts
The Boom Town playset offers a very strong tone and setting most people are familiar with. As such, it's a good one to use for those who have never played before.

Fiasco Actual Play: Home Invasion

Fiasco is a role-playing game about characters with grand ambition and poor impulse control. The game emphasizes improvisation and collaborative story-telling over dice rolling and encourages characters to fail forward, rather than strive for success. In other words, everybody loses a little better than the rest.

The game is played over five stages:

The Setup, in which the dice are rolled to generate a network of relationships and the details (objects, needs, and locations) which inform the story. The players then synthesize these elements into a house of cards ready to topple.

Act I, in which the players take turns establishing and resolving scenes featuring their characters, the relationships, and the relevant details. Plots are schemed, rifles are set atop mantles, and keys are left in the ignition.

The Tilt, in which two players choose additional elements which can be introduced in order to destabilize the story, twist an established aspect of the story, and further complicate things.

Act II, in which the players again act out their scenes. Plots unwind, guns go off, and the story tilts in unexpected ways.

The Aftermath, in which players montage their final character moments. People die, buildings explode, and the Fiasco unravels.

The playset used for this session was Home Invasion, set in the small town of Poppleton, as unsettling events and unsavory characters begin moving into town. The playset lists Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Donnie Darko, and American Beauty as movie night inspiration.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

"Old Man" Henry Herbie Jeebies - A long-time resident of Poppleton, Old Man Jeebies claims to have fought in the Korean War and earned his right to not mow his lawn. Jeebies's sole companion is his beloved rooster, who wakes him promptly at 5 AM for ham sandwich time.

Robert "Bert" Mackintosh - Local weeaboo and general weird kid, Bert chose his nickname after growing weary of folks referring to him as "Little Robbie." Unabashed in his love of anime and marijuana, Bert possesses a general disdain for Poppleton, but especially his neighbor, Old Man Jeebies.

Richard Laundry - The new kid in town, Richard likes Inuyasha and other Japanese cultural milestones. Somewhat timid, Richard does his best to branch out and meet people, though his social awkwardness gets in the way more often than not.

Joe Free-Man - Local sovereign citizen, Joe Free-Man (pronounce the hyphen) legally changed his name from Freeman to include the punctuation. He's recently painted his garage door with a large image of the American flag, which does not go over well with the current Home Owner Association.

Leona van Housing - Some-nonsense chair of the Standards Committee for the Poppleton HOA, Leona bears a fondness for poppies and uniformity - through any means. Her drive often puts her at odds of the more entrenched citizens of Poppleton, which causes some strife in the small town.

ACT I

Scene I - Old Man Jeebies's rooster crows every morning at 5 AM sharp. The long-lived resident wakes up, makes himself a ham sandwich, and steps outside to enjoy the morning chill, immediately stepping on a rusted nail hiding in his unmowed grass.

"Just tell me what's wrong, dammit," Jeebies says.

"Well...sir, you do have tetanus," the nurse practitioner tells him. "But it's an advanced case, something you've had since before this morning. Have you stepped on any other nails recently?"

"I've got rusted nails all over my lawn, stay out of my business, goddammit!"

When he gets home, he discovers the rooster has escaped his yard, as the gate was left open.

Scene II- Bert gets woken up by his neighbor's rooster at 5 AM. He sits in bed, unable to fall back asleep, until it's time for high school at 8:30. The day passes as normal: he sleeps through chemistry, gets picked last and picked on during PE, and spends lunch playing video games on his phone. The one bright side is that there's a new kid, Richard, who also likes anime and probably won't has enough personality to disrupt Bert as the alpha-weeb.

Scene III - Richard's walking to school when he sees Joe Free-Man's truck and toolkit. There's a cordless nailgun sitting in the back, which Richard thinks will be perfect for his Inuyasha cosplay. Unfortunately, Mister Free-Man is watching from his porch, so Richard hatches a plan to take the nailgun when he's not paying attention.

Scene IV - Joe Free-Man watches the new weird kid walk off and sighs as he contemplates his upcoming meeting with the HOA Standards chair. He goes to talk with Leona about the upcoming Best Neighborhood award; Leona's plan is to plant poppies on every property, which would mean Joe's own garden would need to be uprooted. Joe's not going to have it, unless the HOA deals with the rooster which has been waking up the entire town for the past few years. Leona says she'll do it.

Scene V - Leona decides on a course of action: considering Old Man Jeebies doesn't know where the rooster is, she's going to set a trap for it. She goes into the park and creates a poppy arrangement hiding a large bear-trap baited with birdseed, then sits and waits.

Scene VI - Old Man Jeebies, being the only one at the urgent care that morning, gets a ride to the Memorial for Victims of Traffic Accidents on State Highway 217, about ten miles south on State 217. He has a brief, passable conversation with the shuttle driver before he's dropped off.

Scene VII - It's after school, and Bert is smoking weed with Richard at the Memorial for Victims of Traffic Accidents on State Highway 217. They're talking about anime and cosplay when Old Man Jeebies shows up and gives them trouble for smoking weed there. Bert responds by mocking the old man for the loss of Mary.

"Yeah, if you were my husband I would have darted into traffic, too," Bert sneered.

"Mary wasn't my wife, you little shit," Jeebies said as he removed a well-folded photograph from his coat. "She was my cat, my beloved cat."

Old Man Jeebies wanders off, and Bert reveals he's getting something shipped for his own cosplay, a real game-changer.

Scene VIII - Richard is back in town and decides it's time to steal Joe's nailgun. He waits for a bit, as Joe is on his porch, but the appearance of the rooster in the sky prompts Free-Man to go inside, grab his shotgun, and start taking shots at the bird. Richard grabs the nailgun during the confusion, but Joe sees him leave with it in hand.

Scene IX - The next morning Joe is waiting on his porch as Richard walks to school. He confronts the kid about taking his nailgun ("don't do it again or I'll kill yah"), and Richard says he'll go inside and get it...so he goes inside and puts on his ghillie suit he bought because he's such a fan of Call of Duty, then sneaks out the back door. Joe, not willing to wait, knocks on the Laundry's door and is confronted by Richard's father, who insists he'll deal with his son.

Scene X - Leona watches the bird approach the rooster trap but gets over-excited and scares the bird away. Thinking it might be just a bit too much trouble, she goes to Joe and says the HOA will let him keep his American flag garage door so long as he helps her catch the rooster. He agrees.

THE TILT ELEMENTS

Mayhem - A dangerous animal gets loose

Failure - Something precious is on fire

ACT II

Scene I - Jeebies wakes up half an hour late - too late for ham sandwich time. When he goes outside to see if his rooster is okay, he discovers Joe's nailgun at his fence gate and believes the man finally went to remove his bird. He makes a deal where Joe will recover the rooster in exchange for the return of his nailgun.

Scene II - Bert wakes up to his alarm for the first time in recent memory. He has a nice breakfast and sees that his shipment has arrived - it's an authentic replica katana from Japan, with hentai art painted down the blade. He straps it to his back and walks to school, where he notes Richard is missing.

Scene III - We cut to the day before, with Richard sneaking through the park in his ghillie suit. He sees the rooster in the sky and crawls towards it...and gets his hands caught in the bear trap. We do a time lapse of Richard stuck in the park, hands caught in a trap, covered in a ghillie suit so nobody can see him as he's forced to sit in the park overnight.

Scene IV - Joe goes on a hunt for the rooster and finds it, which results in a slapstick chase through the town. Ultimately he catches the bird and returns it to Jeebies for his nailgun.

Scene V - Leona goes to check on her rooster trap and finds Richard stuck there. She extricates him from the steel jaws and sends him to the urgent care.

Scene VI - Henry wakes up at 5 AM for ham sandwich time, and he notices the rooster is flying around his yard, crowing louder and louder and growing larger and larger. Concerned that something strange is afoot, he calls the local police and the sheriff arrives.

Scene VII - While everyone is arguing over how to deal with the ever-growing rooster, Bert is annoyed at the chorus of crowing, sirens, and arguing outside his house. Intent on driving Jeebies from the town, he sneaks into the old man's house and burns all the remaining pictures of him and his beloved cat, Mary. Outside, Jeebies collapses due to tetanus.

Scene VIII - Richard wakes up in the hospital in the same room as a tetanus-ridden Old Man Jeebies. The two talk a little bit and make up, coming to terms with their alienation from the rest of Poppleton. After he's released, Richard goes to Free-Man's house and confesses to taking the nailgun, asking Joe to please make it quick. Joe says he wasn't ever going to kill him and teaches him a little life lesson about taking stuff that isn't yours.

Scene IX - Joe and Leona meet up and talk about their plans. Considering Joe effectively ended the rooster problem (we learn the police shot the rooster down, as he was growing too large), she's going to make good on her promise: everyone in the neighborhood has to paint a big American flag on their garage door.

Scene X - It's the day of the big HOA meeting to determine how they're going to win the Best Neighborhood contest. Leona says they're going to go patriotic, and we see the entire town has been painted with American flags.

THE AFTERMATH

This is Henry Herbie Jeebies, bitter old man. After his expulsion from the hospital, he learns the police shot down his rooster. He becomes a recluse, eating his ham sandwiches, bereft of both his pussy and his cock.

This is Robert "Bert" Mackintosh, social outcast. Rumor spreads around Poppleton that Bert was the one who burned Old Man Jeebies's pictures. Thanks to the alienation, Bert never learns any sort of social skills and spends the rest of his time in Poppleton alone, allegedly by his own choice, though deep down he knows that's not true.

This is Richard Laundry. With his first attempt at anime cosplay ruined by poor planning, he attempts one more: by lighting a large stash of fireworks. Unfortunately he's too close and gets caught in the blast, sending him back to the hospital with third-degree burns all over his body. The kids in high school aren't kind, and he spends the rest of his time there known by the name "Dick Wash."

This is Joe Free-Man, enjoying a cup of coffee. The past few days were strange, that's for sure, but things in Poppleton seem to have calmed down. He sighs contentedly as he looks down the row of houses, each garage door boldly painted with a large American flag.

This is Leona van Housing, Standards chair of the Poppleton HOA. The Best Neighborhood committee loved Poppleton's patriotism, and the town won the award by one point. Glad that the nonsense is behind them, she straightens the award in her office and happily goes back to her routine.

Facilitator Thoughts

This was a fairly experienced group of gamers, with only one player having never touched Fiasco. The game moved at a fairly rapid pace, despite regular stints of in-character roleplay, probably making this the quickest game I've yet played. There was a lot of good table-talk and rounding about to include previous story points.

I did notice one interesting thing about the playset: Home Invasion is very clearly supposed to set up something similar to Coneheads, Stepford Wives, or The Cable Guy with subtle supernatural or extraterrestrial elements. While the supernatural did kind of occur here with the rooster, a lot of the elements we wound up generated were pretty mundane. Maybe that's the headspace we occupied at the time, but it looks like we did wind up avoiding most of the overt weirdness presented in the tables. Maybe next time.