Jumping into new RPG games can seem quite challenging for some players, which is why they often give up on it. If you are someone who doesn’t tread quickly into the land of new RPGs, the Fiasco game might be the right option for you.
Fiasco role playing game is probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to join in an exciting RPG adventure. Whether a novice player or a DnD veteran, you will get a grip on this game pretty fast and get dragged into it with its unique playstyle.
An earlier edition of this game looked like your classic RPG with dice and index cards, while the latest 2nd edition is much simpler, bringing only a setup board and some cards. The rest is up to your imagination!
Things to know before you dive in the game of Fiasco
The first thing you should know about Fiasco is that it doesn’t have a GM. This particular feature is replaced by focusing on individual players and allowing them to narrate their own and sometimes the storylines of others.
There are multiple Fiasco game playsets to choose from, and my friends and I decided to try on the Tales from Suburbia. As the game itself notes, it’s about Poppleton Terrace, a grand suburb full of middle-class people trying to keep up with the Joneses even if it kills them.
The playset gives you the characters, and more importantly, it defines their relationships. The game itself requires minimum prep time as there is no long character creation period and can last from two to four hours, compared to some classics like Call of Cthulhu or DnD, which can be played for years.
The setup
For starters, when your group sits at the table, you will need relationship cards that define your relation to the players from your left and right sides. Everybody will have two cards between them, one being a description of the type of relationship and the other being either location, object, or need card.
I will explain through my own game:
I had a relationship card with the player on my left called “Romance,” which defined us as “divorced and remarried spouses,” and we had a need card between us as well, expressing his need to get respect from me in our romantic relationship.
Now, to the player on my right, I’ve had a relationship forged in crime. The second card was an object card with a vehicle – Ducati 1098 sport motorcycle.
Other players had their own unique connections similar to this one, but for me, this is essentially the whole setup. The cards defined a couple of facts about our adventure, but everything else was left to us to decide.
So in the first case, my spouse decided to be a military type that always demands more respect, and we argued that that strictness was the reason we divorced in the first place before getting remarried.
For the second scenario, my friend and I agreed that we’d served some time together in the can, and there we constructed a plan to steal a fancy and expensive Ducati motorcycle from one of the rich guys in the neighborhood.
Gameplay
The gameplay consists of two Acts.
Players are taking turns in telling their story, and they can choose to either “establish” or “resolve” their story or relationship with someone. For example, I established that my friend and I met in jail and then met after we were released to plan out a motorcycle theft, but it’s up to others too to, later on, resolve the story for us. It’s choosing if you wish to define a story’s beginning or end.
At the end of telling your story, you choose whether you think it will end positively or negatively for your character by drawing a card from the appropriate deck marked “positive” and “negative.” To set the setting for Act II, all of you will use cards you obtained by having good or bad outcomes to your scenes in Act I.
After everyone’s had a chance to lead a couple of scenarios, the Tilt comes in. Tilt is a phase between Act I and Act II where a sudden incident happens, turning the game on its head.
Tilt will use elements of the outcome cards (positive/negative) to provide you with an unforgettable plot twist in the shape of a Failure or a Tragedy.
The first comes in if you’ve had more positive outcomes and its card can say something like, “You thought it was taken care of, but it wasn’t.” The latter comes in when you’ve had an abundance of bad outcomes, and a Tragedy card can say something like “Death, out of the blue.”
Once your narrative has concluded, you will have the opportunity to describe the consequences of your characters’ decisions. Consider this similar to the sequences after a movie’s credits that show us what each of the protagonists is up to after the key events of the film. It’s a quick and easy way to close things up.
Note: Since the Fiasco game can take you guys in all kinds of directions, it’s vital that everyone feels comfortable for the whole duration of the game. The game offers “Let’s Not” cards that anyone can tap if they aren’t feeling comfortable with the direction the story is taking. When that card is tapped, the storyline should be changed.
Final thoughts on the Fiasco game
Honestly, I had an exhilarating experience while playing Fiasco, and I expect you will, too. It is definitely one of the games that will put everyone’s creativity in focus and make you laugh, brainstorm, and solve problems at the same time.
In the end, the goal of the Fiasco board game is to see that your story goes interestingly and naturally and really to get everybody into that role playing experience.
