Fiasco is a role-playing game by Jason Morningstar, independently published by Bully Pulpit Games. It is marketed as a "GM-less game for 3–5 players, designed to be played in a few hours with six-sided dice and no preparation". It is billed as "A game of powerful ambition and poor impulse control" and "inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong—films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan."
Fiasco was the winner of the eleventh Diana Jones Award and has been one of the featured games on Tabletop.
Setting/playsets
Fiasco is designed to simulate the caper-gone-wrong subgenre of film. It shares creative control of the story among the players, even when determining who each player's character is. Themes of the game include black comedy, and poor impulse control.
Although there is no one standard setting, each game of Fiasco uses a "playset" that indicates the setting of that specific game. The core rulebook contains playsets for Main Street (small town America), Boomtown (The Wild West), Tales from Suburbia, and The Ice (McMurdo Station, Antarctica). Bully Pulpit Games also released a free Playset of the Month on their website. These, and many more, are available for free online on the Bully Pulpit Games website, with many fan-made playsets available online, as well. The Fiasco Companion provides additional advice on creating playsets.
Each playset consists of a basic description of the setting and:
six groups of six relationships between two characters in the setting
six groups of six needs to be shared by two of the characters
six groups of six notable objects
six groups of six notable locations
Each group and each element within that group is numbered from one to six.
Gameplay
Fiasco is a role-playing game with no GM, the game being set up before the action starts. The game is for three to five players, and takes between one and three hours, including two acts and an aftermath. The things required to play are:
four ordinary (six sided) dice per player of two different colors
a Fiasco Playset
a copy of the Fiasco Tilt Table and the Fiasco Aftermath Table
pen and paper
Set-up
The players first select the playset and roll dice (four per player—two light, two dark). The players then go around the table, taking turns to choose a dice. Using the value of the dice, the player selects a group, or an element of a previously selected group, from a list provided by the playset to establish relationships (one for each adjacent player), needs, objects, and locations. Each pair of adjacent players has a defined relationship and one other element (a need, object, or location) that is central to the relationship. After all dice have been used, they are all returned to a central pool to be used as the game progresses.
After all dice values have been used, each player will share with each neighbor:
One relationship
One need, object, or location
The players then discuss who their characters are, what they are called, and how they relate to each other, and the objects, needs, and locations their characters share. Once this is decided Act One is ready to begin.
Act One
In Act One, for each player's turn, she or he may choose either to Establish or to Resolve.
Should the player choose to Establish, the content of the scene—people, place, conflict—is determined by the player. Doing this allows the player to set up the scene as they wish. However, the resolution of the scene or conflict is determined by the other players, who will choose a light die (a good resolution) or a dark die (a bad resolution) to give to the player in the middle of the scene. The player must accept the resolution, acting out or narrating events accordingly.
Alternatively, should the player choose to Resolve, the other players dictate the circumstances of the scene: the characters with whom the player's character will interact, where it happens, and what the conflict within the scene is. Choosing this option gives the player control of the resolution, unlike the Establish option.
In Act One, at the conclusion of a player's scene, she or he selects another player and gives that person the Resolution die. After each player has had two scenes, half the dice are exhausted and Act One ends.
