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Timothy Pinkham
United States
La Palma
California
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I've played Fiasco once (using Boomtown) and it was one of my favorite RPing experiences.
My personal problem with Fiasco, and the idea of playing it more, is this:
While I love the mechanics, the thematic content is more gritty, twisted, disturbing, ugly, etc. than I prefer.
Has anyone played a "lighter" version? Are there any playsets that soften the harshness of vanilla Fiasco?
Has anyone compiled a stripped-down Fiasco System-Only document?
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Marshall Miller
United States
Medford
Massachusetts
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You should get the Fiasco Companion. It has rules for "softer" outcomes.
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The Harnish
Germany
Duisburg
NRW
Cult of The Harnish Leader
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As Marshall says, the Companion contains softer, less gritty, tilt and outcomes tables which take some of the bite out of the game. I have a "Dungeon Delve" playset that's also designed to be kid-friendly and so has the sexuality and profanity stripped out, but the key to "nicer" stories are the soft tilt & outcome tables.
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Timothy Pinkham
United States
La Palma
California
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Thanks for the input, Mease19 and MJ Harnish!
MJ Harnish wrote: I have a "Dungeon Delve" playset that's also designed to be kid-friendly and so has the sexuality and profanity stripped out
This is the kind of thing I'm looking for. Do you think that individual playsets will be the deciding point for me? Is that where theme and content are most noticeable?
The Companion sounds interesting, but I don't plan to look beyond free resources at this point.
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Scott Slomiany
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Well, stripped down, the game is basically:
Create some characters.
Put an equal amount of good outcome and bad outcome chips in the middle of the table.
Pull out a chip for each scene. The end.
Or are you looking for playsets with the naughty bits pulled out?
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Michael Bachelor
United States
Washington
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Toil and Trouble is a playset I have used. While some aspects were lighter, it still had a very terrible, tragic (yet strangely satisfying) ending.
Touring Rock Band probably has some drug and sexual references, but I think has he potential to be more humorous than some of the original Fiasco sets
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Timothy Pinkham
United States
La Palma
California
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ghostOfChristmas wrote: Well, stripped down, the game is basically:
Create some characters.
Put an equal amount of good outcome and bad outcome chips in the middle of the table.
Pull out a chip for each scene. The end.
Or are you looking for playsets with the naughty bits pulled out?
Thanks for the concise summary, and yes, I'm looking for those kinds of playsets. And I wish there was a version of the Fiasco book written for guys like me.
Fiasco book wrote: You can expect some foul language and salacious depictions of reprehensible behavior, which will likely be par for the course in play as well. If that sort of thing bothers you, this is probably not a game you will enjoy.
To which I mentally answer: "Yeah, that bothers me. But I like way the game pushes the story along!"
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Brian Cooksey
United States
Nashville
Tennessee
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I'd recommend the soft tilt & aftermath, too. It sounds like it's exactly what you're looking for. I recently played the Fiasco High playset with the standard tilt but the soft aftermath and it worked really well.
As far as free stuff, there's a Companion preview on Bully Pulpit's site but it doesn't contain the tilt or aftermath.
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TimothyP wrote: I wish there was a version of the Fiasco book written for guys like me.
The Fiasco companion. Just get it, it's exactly what you're asking for and it's cheap.
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It might be difficult to change the basic premise of Fiasco, i.e. lack of a happy ending for most characters and the need for at least awkward situations in the scenes. But it seems to be entirely possible to play in a light comedic style by using a suitable playset and toning down the tilt and aftermath, as suggested.
If you are willing to do some design, it is quite straightforward to make your own playset by combining bits and pieces from the free playsets available, Fiasco Companion does even have instructions for this. And that book is the only place to get the softer tables (as well as a few playsets using those tables), unless you want to design your own.
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TimothyP wrote: I've played Fiasco once (using Boomtown) and it was one of my favorite RPing experiences.
Walk away and savor that experience.
Fiasco is an amazing one-off, among the best I've ever encountered. As you said, it's a fabulous experience.
But it gets stale very quickly, unfortunately. It'll never be as much fun as that first time, and can rapidly descend into going through the motions and tedium.
I'm sure this isn't the answer you're looking for, but walk away.
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The Harnish
Germany
Duisburg
NRW
Cult of The Harnish Leader
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E Decker wrote: But it gets stale very quickly, unfortunately. It'll never be as much fun as that first time, and can rapidly descend into going through the motions and tedium.
I think there are a lot of people who would disagree with this. I've played the game more than a dozen times, half a dozen with the same group of players, and it's always been great. In fact, with most groups it gets better because the pacing and scene framing improves with experience. It's the go to game for my home group when we want a fun one-shot, and is still the hot game at every con I've been to in the past couple years. I have also introduced the game to the teens at the after-school club and a year later it's still their favorite game to play - to date we've played nearly a dozen sessions of it.
TimothyP wrote: Thanks for the concise summary, and yes, I'm looking for those kinds of playsets. And I wish there was a version of the Fiasco book written for guys like me.
The problem is that the game is designed to emulate a very specific genre of movies and escapades and for the most part they're not PG-rated. You can find examples of movies that also fit the genre that are, but the material that inspired the game is all a bit over the top, dark, gritty, and filled with a certain amount of profanity and sex.
You need the soft tilt and resolution tables from the Companion (which still contain profanity BTW) or you can simply hack the game and write some yourself - it's not really rocket science but you may find it hard to get a really satisfying range of outcomes without stuff going very black.
You won't find many "young adult" friendly playsets out there because most players are not interested in them. I wrote mine to use with the after-school club kids, especially in teaching the game. However, all of the 17+ year old players when they play on their own choose the racy playsets - that's what they like and what they want to play too. The Companion's "High School" playset is pretty clean as well IIRC.
I'm working on other toned-down playsets but it's slow going because it's not high on my priority list and they do take some time to refine and create. If you send me a PM with your email address I'll send along the Dungeon Delve playset to you. However, you can pretty easily adapt any existing playset - just cross out the elements you don't like and then go from there. In almost all there are enough elements left to make the game still work perfectly fine.
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MJ Harnish wrote: However, you can pretty easily adapt any existing playset - just cross out the elements you don't like and then go from there. In almost all there are enough elements left to make the game still work perfectly fine.
Indeed. What I've also found useful is combining pieces from several playsets so that there are no blanks left - especially relationships and needs are often quite compatible between different playsets. The objects and locations are where differences tend to show, but those are IMO the easiest to come up by yourself.
How I've designed new playsets is to start with a movie or setting with the desired tone, try to find a playset that almost fits, remove the "bad" portions, and then read through some more potential playsets to fill the blanks that are left. If there are still blanks, you should have enough examples by then to be able to invent something yourself. While that method does not produce blindingly original material, it is fast and easy, and the resulting playsets fit the intended audience much better than the originals.
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MJ Harnish wrote: I think there are a lot of people who would disagree with this. I've played the game more than a dozen times, half a dozen with the same group of players, and it's always been great. In fact, with most groups it gets better because the pacing and scene framing improves with experience. It's the go to game for my home group when we want a fun one-shot, and is still the hot game at every con I've been to in the past couple years. I have also introduced the game to the teens at the after-school club and a year later it's still their favorite game to play - to date we've played nearly a dozen sessions of it.
Sure, there are plenty who'll disagree (especially on this site). But I think there are a lot more who would agree than there were half a year ago.
Oddly enough, it was your own excellent review that helped me put a finger on just why the game feels so hollow. 
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