Hey guys! So I had been thinking about the RPing people have been doing in mafia games and I came to a conclusion... I totally want a game in these forums that focuses more on this. Something where everyone's goal is to play the part of a character and collaborate to tell an interesting story.
Enter Fiasco -- a storytelling RPG inspired by movies where ambitious characters make (often illegal) schemes to get what they want and then watch it fall to pieces (ie Office Space, Burn After Reading, Blood Simple) There's no GM and no preparation ahead of time apart from choosing the playset. It's for 3-5 people, so I may facilitate two games at once if enough people care to play (and assuming that's cool with the mods).
Basic Rundown of All the Rules:
Setup:
We will have a pool of 12-20 dice. The exact number is four per player. Half will be black (representing negative effects) and the rest will be white (representing negative). All the dice will be rolled, with their color ignored for the time being. Players will then take turns taking dice from the pool and spending them to choose elements out of a chart specific to the scenario (called a playset). The playset will have elements that help define the relationships between player characters (ie cousins, lovers, co-workers, partners in crime, etc.). These relationships will further be defined by either a need, an object, or a location. You can see part of a playset in this (https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-lBmFCSnlOxw/UYculZZ7lMI/AAAAAAAAMEo/_nz3UwNzwaY/s640/Fiasco03.jpg) screenshot.
The goal for the end of the setup is for each player to have a character that has a relationship defined with two other characters and for everyone to have a pretty good handle on where we're starting in the story.
Act I:
Act I is where the RPing starts to take place. Players will take turns having scenes. When it is your turn to have a scene, you choose to do one of the following:
1) Establish: You choose where the scene takes place and who is in it aside from your character. It can just be your character, it can incorporate other player characters, and you can bring in side characters. Other players can make suggestions, but you have the final say. But in choosing how the scene begins, you give the other players the final choice in whether they think the scene ends well or poorly for your character.
2) Resolve: You will choose whether your character's scene ends well or poorly. But in doing so, you give the other players full control over how the scene begins. They choose how it starts and while you can throw out suggestions, they can agree on something else entirely different.
So once you make your choice, the scene is established by either yourself or the other players. Then the scene begins. You and any players involved take on the roles of your characters and move the story along.
If you chose to establish, then as the scene starts to draw to a close, the other players will quickly deliberate how they think the scene is going and give you a die -- a black one if they think the scene should end poorly for the character or a white one if it ends well. Based on that choice, you and any other players use that to end the scene (you are free to interpret what is a "good" and "bad" ending to a scene for the character).
If you chose to resolve, then as the scene draws to a close, choose either a black or white die and end the scene accordingly.
In act I, whenever you get a die, you wind up giving it to someone else. You don't have to worry about your outcome as far as the game mechanics go. This act is meant to encourage you to establish scenes for your character, get to know what makes them tick even better, and start to set up schemes to get them what they want.
The Tilt:
Once half the dice are distributed, the game moves on into the tilt. A new chart is consulted and everyone rolls their dice, subtracting their black dice total from the white dice total. The people that have the highest positive and lowest negative scores will choose new elements to add to the game. Anyone can use these elements as appropriate in Act II. These elements involve complications that will cause plans to fail and people to panic. Examples include something lighting on fire, something valuable goes missing, or a secret gets revealed.
Act II:
Act II is almost exactly like Act I, with a couple exceptions:
1) Now you will HAVE to keep your dice. This encourages you to choose to resolve and try to get your character as close to their goal as possible. Of course, your fellow players may not make that easy.
2) The elements chosen during the tilt will need to be involved at some point.
The Outcome:During the outcome, everyone rolls their dice and subtracts black from white. A chart is consulted to give a basic idea of what your ending should be like and then we take turns creating a montage of what happens in the end for our characters. Often the result is either death or mental agony. A lot of the time characters end up one step below where they started. Rarely, a character will come out smelling like roses though usually SOMETHING still goes bad for them.
The closer you are to zero, the better your ending will be. In this sort of story, those who end up getting beat up through the whole thing should expect the same outcome. And those smug jerks can expect to get what's coming to them at the end as well. It's those guys who had to struggle to make things work for them throughout that earn their less than ideal happy ending.
This game is a lot of fun since you are guided to come up with some ridiculous things and there's a lot of free material we can make use of. I have the actual book with the rules and the above is pretty much a brief synopsis. My goal would be to create a fun forum variant using the free material and anyone that ends up enjoying this will hopefully buy the full manual and play with their meatspace friends.
A post below now has the scenarios I'm thinking of using. If you are interested in playing, rank them in the order of your preference and we'll see which we go with. I'll post the full playset once we're ready to get the game going.
Description of how a scene would go:
Player 1's character (Ms. Tate) is a woman stuck in a southern town full of people she deemed idiots. Instead of electing her for mayor, they elected a sexist, gullible, dim-witted man whom she harbors a lot of resentment toward. Now it's reelection time and she's seeking to sabotage him and the rest of the town. For her plan to work though, she needs one of her pawns (player 2's character) to blackmail the mayor for an affair that took place.
P1 chooses to establish the start of the scene. She states she wants her character to meet up with P2's character (Drew) somewhere, but isn't sure where. Another player suggests the local bar. P1 likes the idea and says it'll be at the bar in a quiet corner away from the loud patrons. The scene starts. P2 has Drew come in and sit with Ms Tate. The two have their dialogue. Ms. Tate brings up the subject of blackmail and Drew doesn't seem too sure he wants to go along with it. It seems like a jerky thing to do. Then Ms. Tate manages to argue that Drew could really use the blackmail money and Drew can't really argue against that. Players 3, 4, and 5 end up agreeing that Ms. Tate is well on her way to having Drew wrapped around her finger. They indicate that the scene will end up working favorably for Ms. Tate. Drew and Ms. Tate end the scene accordingly by having Drew agree to be a blackmailer.
YouTube videos of the game being played (more or less correctly?):
Setup (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuJizhyf-y4)
Part 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXJxQ0NbFtk)
Part 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj7NcdDh-WM)
Links to Bully Pulpit's Fiasco site where it can be purchased to be posted later.
All right, this will be my last post and then I'll let this die if nobody really wants to (and is available to) give it a try.
I said I wanted to post about my first game of this and I think this is as good a time as any. I don't remember it scene by scene, but I do remember the overall story and that's what I'll provide as an example of the sort of story you end up with. Our playset was "A Nice Southern Town."
First, of course, are the characters we ended up creating after everything was chosen:
Mayor Gump: The mayor of our tiny town that we chose to leave unnamed for some reason. Quite dim-witted. Sexist. Loved by the town. Not necessarily in that order. Up for re-election soon.
Drew: Closeted gay man. Ex-alcoholic. Had a one-night stand with the mayor. Not happy that he never heard back. Needs money.
Jed: Town prankster and had several records in the town's bar/pub games. His greatest feat was stealing Cocky, a rooster that served as the town's mascot. Got caught by Mayor Gump and shamed for it. Turned to alcohol. Now the town drunk. Makes Mayor Gump look like he's of average intelligence. Joined Alcoholics Anonymous and Drew is his sponsor.
Trixie (the Tricky Dixie): Considers herself Jed's rival. Ends up beating all his records (including a pissing contest!) after he succumbs to alcoholism. Has her sights on stealing Cocky for longer than he did and NOT getting caught.
Ms. Tate: Educated woman born and raised outside of the town. Thought she'd be able to jump start her career by running for mayor, but quickly found out that the town had a completely different viewpoint from her. Lost to Gump by a landslide and ended up being his secretary. Wants revenge on Gump and the town.
Act I:
The story begins in a private corner of the local watering hole. Ms. Tate meets with Drew. She had managed to piece together what had happened between Drew and Gump and wanted to use it to her advantage. She tried to convince Drew to blackmail the mayor. Drew was hesitant, but Tate managed to push the right buttons (he needed money and was still upset to be left hanging, after all). Drew accepted.
Not long after, Tate manages to run into Trixie. Her beating Jed's records was no secret so it wasn't hard for Tate to get Trixie on her side. Cocky was kept in a pen by city hall and Tate promised easy access.
Ms. Tate placed one more part of her plan into place by informing Gump he had a "3am meeting" at the church. Gump protested that that couldn't be right, but Tate managed to talk him into believing it. It wasn't hard, as it was clearly written in his planner, which she keeps organized.
This meeting, of course, was with Drew. Drew arrived at the church in time to catch Jed, his sponsee trying to break in to get the wine. Drew reminds Jed that alcohol is the devil's drink and temperence is the way to salvation. This manages to convince Jed to leave and Drew immediately realizes that the door had been open the whole time and Jed had assumed otherwise without even checking.
Soon enough, Gump meets with Drew. He's not happy to see who his meeting was with and Drew gives him a piece of his mind before revealing his plans to blackmail him. Gump says he has no proof and Drew replies that he just has to deliver his side of the story to the newspaper and it'll get printed. His reputation would be tarnished, true or not. (Gump's response: We had a paper?!) Gump reluctantly agrees to Drew's terms, but knows that paying him off would leave no money for his campaign.
While this is happening, Jed stops by city hall to begin his shift. Ever since he had stolen Cocky, it had been voted that the rooster would have two guards guarding him 24/7. A part of Jed's punishment, he and the mayor would have to cover a graveyard shift. With the mayor gone, however, it was only Jed.
Trixie arrives on the scene, sipping on a bottle of wine. She tries to convince Jed to get drunk with her, but Jed refuses, quoting things Drew had told him.Trixie leaves empty-handed.
Ms. Tate had a two-fold plan: 1) Drain the re-election campaign fund so that Gump would have nothing and 2) Have Cocky stolen under his watch to further establish hate and for the town to lose what it holds dearest. With the second part ruined, Tate had no choice but to admonish Trixie and take the rooster herself when nobody was looking. If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself, after all. She then tells Trixie to hold onto the bird.
Act II
The next morning, Trixie phones Ms. Tate and asks if she can come over. The secretary allows it and soon Trixie arrives with Cocky, unable to keep the bird from crowing. Ms. Tate attempts to knock the bird out in desperation, but in doing so ends up killing it! This was not according to plan. They quickly stuff the bird in the refrigerator and Tate kicks Trixie out so that she can figure out a way out of it.
The previous night (and the reason Tate had such an easy time with acquiring the bird) is that Gump enlisted Jed's help into getting into the church and taking the money from the alms box... money Gump needed if he was going to pay off Drew AND get his campaign going.
The next day both thefts have been discovered. People were clearly more dismayed at Cocky's disappearance and begged Gump to do something about it. Gump said he'd personally lead the search.
This leads to a flashback showing the debate that ocurred between Gump and Tate before election day. The moderator attempted to sound like he knew something about politics but gave up when he stumbled over the word "budget" and instead asked about how the football team was going to be improved and how Cocky was going to be kept safe.
Gump's answers involved steroids in the drinking water and 24/7 surveillance on a rooster of all things. Tate's answers involved practicing and developing natural talent and letting the rooster be to focus the funds on other things. The people booed her off the stage.
Back in the present, Tate visits Jed and winds up tricking him into giving her his car keys. A montage starts as she drives to a nearby farm to buy a live rooster. Though she knew not any rooster could replace Cocky. Cocky had special golden feathers and that was what proved that Cocky could bring good luck and grant wishes and do whatever else people thought the bird could do. So she goes to a hardware store in the nearest city, has them mix gold paint, and just when they get it the right shade, she plops the bird in the paint and runs off.
While she's gone, Jed reports the theft to Gump and the two decide to investigate Tate's home while she's gone. The door is locked and in a moment of glory, Jed is actually able to legitimately pick a lock (turns out he was only bad at picking unlocked doors...). After some digging around they find the body of Cocky in the fridge. They dare not disturb the corpse further and instead leave to inform the town before she got back. They form a mob, ready to deal with the rooster killer.
Drew hears what's going on and, feeling confused and possibly betrayed, runs ahead to Tate's place. He manages to arrive just moments after Tate gets back. Drew, now panicking that he's involved with the rooster killer, starts to give her a piece of his mind until he notices the new Cocky, walking around, looking mostly alive.
Tate quickly explains that she took Jed's car to look for Cocky and found him roughed up just outside of town. Drew buys this and agrees he would defend Tate. Drew leaves again to confront Jed, whom he thinks was tricked by Gump into believing Tate killed Cocky.
Drew arrives at Jed's place and lets himself into Jed's dinky house. The two argue over what they had seen of Cocky. Finally Jed in a moment of desperation accuses Tate of being a witch. Suddenly Drew stops arguing. The rebirth of Cocky... the fact that no matter how much he didn't want to blackmail the mayor, she still somehow convinced him to do it... the fact that she even knew about the fling to begin with... it all suddenly made sense! Ms. Tate was a witch! For all Drew knew, Tate had used magic to make him sleep with the mayor in the first place!
While everything was erupting into chaos, Trixie, feeling guilty, went into the church's confession booth and confessed her sin. She was forgiven after doing five "hail Cockies."
It wasn't long before the entire mob was ready to burn the "witch's" house down with her in it. Unfortunately, Drew's visit had served as a warning and Ms. Tate was able to get away in Jed's car. All the town had to burn was an empty house and two dead roosters (Cocky II had died of paint poisoning).
Aftermath:
Ms. Tate: After her failure and due to her lack of funds and experience, Ms. Tate had no choice but to run away to another small town, doomed to be the secretary of another idiotic mayor.
Drew: Drew had to live knowing that he was a pawn in Tate's plan the entire time and that even Jed saw her for who she really was. Eventually his fling with the mayor was found out and they were both ostracized.
Mayor Gump: Gump was not re-elected and would go down in history as the town's worst mayor. Since he was also ostracized, he saw nothing to do but to try to continue what he and Drew started. They at least took comfort in each other's loneliness.
Jed: In all the chaos of the burning, Jed left the area and went back to the now empty church. He shuts himself in, downs a great deal of wine, and discovers the priest manning the confession booth had been keeping a log of the confessions, including Trixie's latest one. He finally had something to hold over her...
Trixie: Not that the jorunal would do much good, since the revelation of one witch in town led to a witch hunt for others. Upon remembering that somehow a GIRL had defeated men in a pissing contest, it was decided that she was a witch and she was lynched.
And that was my first game of Fiasco! I left out a lot of wonderful little lines that had us cracking up and got us excited, but I couldn't include everything. I'll have to come back and edit it to make sure it makes total sense (as I'm too tired to do it now). Hopefully any of you who bothered reading it found it interesting and will want to play at some point, even if it's not now. I'm always up for it though, so unless I completely stop frequenting this forum (unlikely for the foreseeable future), feel free to necro this (I just won't be the one to do it).