Fiasco! is a table-top role-playing game in which the players generate story elements, create characters, and act out a story in the vein of Office Space, Fargo, and The Ice Harvest. Played over the Setup, Act I, the Tilt, Act II, and the Aftermath, Fiasco sessions devolve into the madcap misadventures of people with grand ambition and poor impulse control.
During the setup, players roll a pool of dice to randomly generate story elements, including character relationships, details, locations, and needs. During Act I and Act II, dice are assigned to indicate positive and negative outcomes. In between the two Acts, the Tilt elements are chosen, which introduce chaos, obstacles, or left-turns to further drive the story into nonsense. The Aftermath closes, which outlines each character in a short montage, and ends the story.
The playset for this session was Heroes of Pinnacle City, a super-hero themed playset which runs the gamut from Silver-Age nonsense through Vertigo-style hyper-violence. Here's what happened:
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Barbara Braddock, AKA Officer Bear-Arms: A former police officer turned journalism intern, Ms. Braddock was the subject of a mysterious experiment which enhanced her strength and reflexes to super-human levels...and granted her the ability to turn her human arms into bear arms, complete with hair and claws.
Dr. Jeremiah "Jeremy" Hawthorne: An exiled Dimorian (alien) scientist who enjoys running experiments on pre-warp sentient species. He's hung around Earth for quite some time and settled in Pinnacle City to run his lab out of the University. Explains his work as "giving a chimp a handgun and watching what happens."
Ms. Glick: An alien anthropologist who was dispatched to Earth to study humanity and aid in its development of warp technology. Over her long life she's had repeated run-ins with Hawthorne, to her chagrin. Her sympathy for humans has led to her teaming up with Officer Bear-Arms to aid the human in her crime fighting.
Freedruck Mueller: The younger of two powered twins, Freedruck looks 14 but is actually in his mid-30s. In an attempt to appear older, Freedruck joined a local Pinnacle University study run by Dr. Hawthorne concerning the growth of facial hair. Unfortunately, Hawthorne's experiment resulted in Freedruck's long-term memory getting locked in his impressive mustache. Yeah.
August Mueller, AKA Augustus Injustice: Freedruck's elder brother, August has the ability to stretch his fingers and toes to incredible lengths. Over the course of his super-villainy, August has decided to make one more score in order to get himself and his younger brother out of the City.
ACT I
Scene I - Dr. Jeremy Hawthorne is interviewing Freedruck Mueller at Pinnacle Perk, the local coffee shop. Freedruck was the newest subject in an experiment to force hair-growth, which it did...at the cost of storing his memory in the hair. Hawthorne is very amused, and pays Freedruck the $5,000 before leaving.
Scene II - Ms. Glick, alien anthropologist, receives a call from her boss at the Galactic Federation. Apparently the Dimorians are stirring up trouble on Earth, and the Federation has information that Jeremiah Hawthorne is one of the instigators. Ms. Glick asks that she not be assigned the case, but the boss hangs up on her.
Scene III - Officer Bear-Arms returns from a night of crime fighting and investigation. She's stolen the account numbers to Hawthorne's bank account in the Cayman Islands. Convinced she's discovered something important, she calls up her contact, Ms. Glick, and sets up a meeting at Pinnacle Perk to discuss the development.
Scene IV - We flash back to before Scene I: Augustus calls his brother to discuss their escape plan...and then executes a flawless bank robbery before making off with a few grand. They plan on meeting up that evening to finalize their schedules.
Scene V - Freedruck's back at Pinnacle Perk the next day. His memory loss means he's come back to the coffee shop for the third day in a row, expecting to meet Hawthorne. A well-meaning barista reminds him he's already met his friend, so he leaves in confusion.
Scene VI - Hawthorne calls up Ms. Glick. It turns out his cover identity of Jeremy Hawthorne is under court injunction for ethical violations regarding his experiments. Ms. Glick agrees to help, but they'll have to meet up, as she thinks he's up to something.
Scene VII - Ms. Glick meets with Barbara at Pinnacle Perk. The bank account information actually contains a hidden Dimorian cipher, which she can't break. Convinced that she's alone in her fight, Barbara leaves the coffee shop in a huff.
Scene VIII - At work, Barbara runs into August in his civilian ego. In an attempt to endear himself to her, August gives her a lead on another bank robbery story. The two leave on good terms and Barbara goes back to her cupboard office, and tacks the story to her Wall of Crazy.
Scene IX - August meets with Hawthorne and attempts to join the hair-growth study out of jealousy regarding Freedruck's success. Hawthorne gives him a pill bottle, telling him to take once daily, morning and evening.
Scene X - Freedruck meets up with August and becomes enraged at August's competing beard. The two argue for a bit before one of Freedruck's beard hairs falls into his beer - when he drinks it, it unlocks his memories and he realizes what's happened. After he leaves, August takes three pills in a fit of jealousy.
THE TILT
Failure - Something precious is on fire
Guilt - Somebody develops a conscience
ACT II
Scene I - Hawthorne and Freedruck meet at Pinnacle Perk once more so Hawthorne can collect a sample. He pays the barista to look the other way as he shaves Freedruck before he leaves. Afterwards he calls up Ms. Glick and the two discuss the cipher before agreeing to meet at the Atlantean Memorial Atoll.
Scene II - Later on at the Atoll, Hawthorne decodes the alien cipher - it's the plans to a super-weapon which would set the planet on fire. He compares it to giving a gun to a chimpanzee and seeing what happens.
Scene III - Barbara is convinced she's found the source of this trouble- her wall of crazy consistently links back to a laboratory under the science building at Pinnacle University. She arms up, bears-out, and storms the laboratory, where she finds disguised aliens and deformed clones which reveal the origins of her powers. She sets the place on fire and stumbles back to August's apartment, where the two bang to relieve the tension.
Scene IV - As Barbara sleeps off her raid, August listens to the police scanner and hears about the fire at the lab. He calls up Freedruck and the two go to the science building, where they talk their way into the crime scene. Unfortunately his proximity to the alien tech activates his powers and the cops drag him away after recognizing him as Augustus Injustice.
Scene V - Freedruck once more meets with Hawthorne at Pinnacle Perk. Hawthorne comes clean about his experiments, his involvement with cloning, and his alien origins. The two part on alright terms.
Scene VI - Hawthorne decides the injunction isn't worth dealing with, so he plans on fleeing to Russia, where the Titanium Grizzly has opened the country's doors to powered individuals. He tricks Ms. Glick into thinking the cipher was destroyed, but he actually has it with him...and it turns out it's not actually a super-weapon...
Scene VII - Ms. Glick hunts down Barbara to discuss the cipher. Glick realizes the cipher wasn't actually destroyed and tracks it off-world, so she gets on her private ship and follows it into the stars.
Scene VIII - Barbara's disillusioned with crime fighting. She's sitting in the park, chain-smoking on a bench. A man nearby gets mugged, and she sits by and watches it happen, jaded.
Scene IX - August is in prison and wants to use his one telephone call to call his Freedruck. The guard misunderstands and calls his own brother, Jacob. So August calls Barbara to ask for help, and she hangs up on him.
Scene X - Freedruck has some pizza to clear his head and decides to help his brother. He calls the bank and tries to withdraw all their cash, but they say they can't do it if it's actually August's account...which Freedruck confirms, so they hang up on him.
THE AFTERMATH
This is Jeremiah Hawthorne on a ship leaving earth. He uses his clout to recruit a gang of alien toughs to go off into the stars and cause trouble. On a desolate planet he uses the cipher to unlock an alien vault and kick-start a smuggling empire.
This is Misglick, shedding her Ms. Glick persona as she leaves Earth. After resolving the Dimerian Crisis on Earth, she's rewarded with the position of Star Warden...and assigned to follow after Hawthorne to clean up his messes for the foreseeable future.
This is Barbara Braddock taking back up the mantle of Officer Bear-Arms. During a particularly brutal fight with Augustus Injustice, she's framed for the damage and sent to prison, where she spends the rest of her life surrounded by the criminals she put away...
This is Freedruck Mueller, regretful over his mistakes. After helping his brother, he makes a number of mistakes before becoming an electrician. While working on the city's power grid he accidentally electrocutes himself and shorts power to the entire city, dying in the process.
This is Augustus Injustice, taking back up his life of crime. He meets back up with his brother and enlists his help in getting the cash out of the Caymans. The Bank has a No Negotiation policy, and Augustus gets away with all his money.
Facilitator Thoughts
Each player in this session had played Fiasco previously, and four of us had played together previously (see Mission to Mercury and Suburbia recaps). Of these three sessions, this one definitely felt the most coherent. While Fiasco is a relatively easy role-playing game for new players, the game starts to shine when you have a consistent, experienced group with whom to play.
Out of all the sessions I've personally played, the Superhero playset also generated the most enthusiasm. Main Street, USA and Suburbia are good for drama, but the additional super-powered elements really allowed the game to go off the rails in a great way. Of course, compare this to the Mission to Mercury playset, which I've run with two separate groups, to luke-warm results each time.
No comments:
Post a Comment