So, I magically have a free Saturday for once, and I know there's people around here who were interested in RPGs but couldn't make a weekly time commitment, or didn't want to deal with rolling dice or all that math or big books and complicated rules. Well, if you're one of those people, then I have just the thing for you! This Saturday, I'd like to host a game of Fiasco. This game is a blast and very easy to pick up even if you're never read the rules or role played before.
This is not the same kind of game as DnD or Shadowrun, we will not be rolling dice to fight monsters or defeat evil, in fact dice will only ever be rolled twice, and those dice are more like guidelines anyway. Instead, we will all be trying to build a fantastic story together, even at the expense of our own characters. Here's the elevator pitch from the rulebook:
Fiasco is inspired by cinematic tales of small-time capers gone disastrously
wrong – particularly films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the
Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan. You’ll play ordinary people
with powerful ambition and poor impulse control. There will be big
dreams and flawed execution. It won’t go well for them, to put it mildly,
and in the end it will probably collapse into a glorious heap of jealousy,
murder, and recrimination. Lives and reputations will be lost, painful
wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, your guy just might
end up back where he started.
Here's a link to the rulebook. Don't let the page count fool you, most of it's big fancy graphics, all you need to get the core of the game is the overview on page 10, it's like a page and a half. If you want to read more, that's cool. If you don't want to read at all, that's cool too, I can (and will) explain as we go.
Like I said, this game's a hell of a lot of fun, so if you've got that time, I recommend you give it a try.
"ShadowDuelist is a god."
-Teague Chrystie