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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Welcome to your first game of Fiasco!
The first order of business it to make sure everyone has the playset. It's available to freely download, so please do so, as it will make the set up go faster and more easily.
A game of Fiasco has five parts: a Setup, Act One, the Tilt, Act Two, and the Aftermath. I'll explain each briefly here, and go into more depth as we get to each one in play.
The Setup uses the playset we chose to create the initial situation. It contains a table of tables -- all d6 driven. The tables will help us choose relationships, needs, objects, and locations between the characters.
Once those are chosen, we'll take some time to mesh it all together, and then get started.
Act One will be the first series of scenes. Each player will get two scenes per act, and you'll have your turn going around the table. You'll want to use your relationships, push for your need, and use your object and/or relationship in your scenes.
After Act One comes the Tilt. We'll choose two items from the Tilt table that will throw some gasoline on the fire that is the game so far. 
Once we've identified the Tilt, we'll do Act Two. Again, there'll be two scenes per player. It's very much like Act One, with one small difference we'll cover when we get there.
And finally, the Aftermath. Each player will roll dice against the Aftermath table, and we'll use the result to produce small vignettes that show the final results for the characters.
The Tilt and Aftermath tables aren't freely available, and to respect the publisher's IP, I'm not going to make it freely available. But we'll get through it.
So, we start by seating ourselves around the table. The text suggests that the player who grew up in the town with the smallest population goes first. So, where did you all grow up? And how many folks lived there? (Ballpark numbers are probably OK here. )
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
And also, who the heck are you? If you could share a couple of sentences about yourself, it'll help us know with whom we're playing. I'll start:
I'm Dave Wilson. I've been on BGG since 2002. I played AD&D and various other RPGs in high school and college, took a 20+ year hiatus from role-playing (though I still played board and card games), and got back involved in 2007 or so. My role-playing renaissance has involved newer games, such as Fiasco, InSpectres, and Primetime Adventures.
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
I'm Justin, a mathematician/computer programmer by trade. I grew up in Lincoln NE, population ~300,000. I've been boardgaming "officially" since 2008, with some sporadic bouts of boardgames all through my childhood/high school. I've never found any of my brief experiences of D&D-ish RPGs to be to my taste -- they always seemed more like tactical miniatures games than role-playing. Fiasco seems to be quite the opposite of that, so I'm thinking it could be right up my alley.
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JonnyRotten
United States
Montpelier
Ohio
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Well, I've tried to get several games of Fiasco going on-line, so I guess I'll take this seat right he-ah. Ahhhh. Quite Comfy.
My name is Jon. I'm a Robot Programmer Guy. I used to be in IT until I transitioned. I've been married 10 years, and we have four little gamers.
I'm mostly a board gamer, though my roots are in DnD. I borrowed a copy of Fiasco from Jeremiah Lee about 4 months ago and fell in love, though I can't find anyone to play with, so I'm hoping this works out.
I can't always get on during the day, and sometimes nights can be busy too, but I will try my best to keep up and not drag this down.
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
jgilmour, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I already have players set up for this game. It's part of the RPGGeek Newbie-friendly Play-by-Forum initiative, and this game was organized here: http://www.rpggeek.com/geeklist/115264/item/1999378#item1999...
There is another game organizing here: http://www.rpggeek.com/geeklist/115264/item/2000038#item2000... You may want to check to see if it's still open.
Again, sorry for the mix-up.
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Ira Kalina
United States
Deerfield
Illinois
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
My name is Ira Kalina and I'm a lawyer in Chicago with 3 young kids. I played D&D in high school and Champions in college, then had the long lay off while I played video games (and actually got to work for a now defunct game company). About 4 years ago I connected with a great group of people through meet up and we played D&D4e for a while, then shifted over to board games which I am now consumed with. Unfortunately "life" gets in the way of an RPG campaign so I'm intrigued as heck by games like Fiasco that appear relatively contained.
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Scott Nunemaker
United States
Springfield
Virginia
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
I'm Scott Nunemaker, and I grew up in Rochester, NY (Population +/- 250,000) but now live in the Washington, DC area where I am a practicing Architect with a wife and two kids.
I've been serious about gaming since 2009 (board and card games exclusively). In High School I dabbled a little in Role Playing. I had a core group of friends that enjoyed some basic D&D and a few others. We never took it too seriously when it came to rules, etc. Now, with a family and a full-time job, face-to-face RPGs are pretty much out of the question. Learning about this play-by-forum really drew my attention and will hopefully allow me to get some time with these types of games. I'm looking forward to this new experience.
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JonnyRotten
United States
Montpelier
Ohio
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
daw65 wrote:
Sorry, I thought this was the signup. That other item looks like it is full as well, but perhaps I'll set one up!
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JonnyRotten
United States
Montpelier
Ohio
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
I updated that item for the playset I would like to run. You guys can sign up there if you would like to try it.
http://www.rpggeek.com/geeklist/115264/item/2000038#item2000...
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Justin, Scott, Ira, welcome!
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Scott Nunemaker
United States
Springfield
Virginia
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
daw65 wrote: Justin, Scott, Ira, welcome!
Thanks for taking us under your wing!
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
You're welcome! And Hanibalicious is welcome to Fiasco, as well, once he shows up. 
As soon as he does, and we get hometown populations (Ira, I'm assuming Chicago? Though your profile says Deerfield. BTW: I grew up actually in Chicago, so I never go first in Fiasco, unless I'm playing with a bunch of New Yorkers.  )
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Ira Kalina
United States
Deerfield
Illinois
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
If you grew up IN Chicago, then you are true city...
I work downtown and lived on the North Side for about 10 years, but the minute we had kid 2.5, we packed up and moved to Deerfield (Population 10-15,000...). Small town like Mayberry ;-)
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Hmm. No Hanibalicious yet. I've geekmailed him to see if he still plans to join us.
And this seems like a pretty reasonable time to talk about expectations for the game. I know that everyone has a real life, and that real life can get in the way, and that's cool. I do ask, though, that everyone checks in at least once a day, in order to keep the game from stagnating. More is OK, too, but at least once a day. And I know that things can come up to keep you away for longer than that. That's OK, too. I just ask that you pop in to give us a quick note letting all of us know. For example, "Hey gang, I'm going to be out chaperoning my son's weekend getaway, and I won't have internet access. Don't expect me back online until Monday." would work really well. It's so much better than having everyone waiting around and wondering, "Is he OK? Has he quit? Will he come back? When?" I'm a really big fan of communication, and keeping everyone informed.
Thanks a bunch.
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Ira Kalina
United States
Deerfield
Illinois
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Those ground rules sound good to me. I will usually have more frequent access during the work week because I am online all day. Weekends usually mean I'm only online early and late. Also, I just picked up the PDF so I will knock through the rules asap...
Looking forward to it. Game ON 
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Well, hmm. No response yet. I know it's all pretty new to everyone, so I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, I know you three would love to get started.
Here's what I'm thinking.
- First: when he shows up, we'll kick it into gear.
- However, if he doesn't appear by tomorrow morning (i.e., Friday), I'll geekmail him again, and we'll wait another day.
- If we still don't hear from him by Saturday morning, we'll move on, because at that point it becomes an awfully long time to sit around.
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
While we're waiting, let me go into the setup in more detail. We seat players at the table based on the population of the place where they grew up. Based on what you've said, I saw this:
Jeff 81000
Scott 250000
Justin 300000
Ira (Millions)
So, let's seat you all around the table, starting with Jeff, and working clockwise. It'll look vaguely like this:
--> Jeff ---
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V
Ira Scott
^ |
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--- Justin +-----
We'll be placing two scenario items in between each pair of players, at the corners of the table. In each corner there'll be a Relationship between the two players around that corner. There'll also be a Need, Location, or Object as well, that'll be important in some way to the players around that corner. These will come from our playset; if you haven't downloaded it yet, now is the time.
For ease of use in the forums, I'm going to represent the picture above as a list. Here it is:
Jeff
1. Relationship:
2.
Scott
1. Relationship:
2.
Justin
1. Relationship:
2.
Ira
1. Relationship:
2.
Jeff
I list it this way so we can fill the areas between the players, to set up our fiasco. You see the one relationship between each player, as well as the spot for the other scenario item.
And, because there was some initial confusion at my other Fiasco table, I'll say it again. The list above is supposed to mimic the circle around the table. That's why Scott is listed twice. Each "spot" relates to both players around it (above and below, on the list).
We use four dice per player, so 16 dice, all six-sided. I'll roll them here using the geekroller, and then come back and edit the post to look more pretty.
Let's assume for the sake of discussion that this is what I rolled. Yes, some dice are white, some are black. Right now, color doesn't matter. The number does.
 
Again, this is just a sample. When we actually start, I'll actually use the GeekRoller, and we'll see what we get.
Now, starting with Jeff, you each in turn would choose one die, and apply it to one of the spaces above. Each space can have two dice; one identifies the greater category, and then the other narrows it down. For example, if Scott wanted to help define a relationship, he can look at the Relationship charts (pages 4 and 5), and then choose one of the dice (let's say a 3) and decide that Justin and Ira are related "Around the School". Next would be Scott, who could begin to describe another relationship, or could start putting a need, object, or location somewhere, or could choose another die (how 'bout a 2?) to further describe that relationship. Using the "Around the School" chart, the 2 becomes "Teacher and student". If Scott did that, Justin and Ira are Around the School: Teacher and Student. When all the dice are chosen, and it's time to put it all together, you all can determine who is the teacher and who is the student.
Basic guidelines:
- On your turn, pick one die and place it.
- You can place it in any of the two spots between any of the players.
- The first die placed in a spot starts to identify that spot.
- The second die placed in a spot completes the spot's definition.
- Each pair of characters must have a relationship.
- There must be two needs.
- Each player should only be connected to one need. If both needs point to one player, then they get too much attention, and the player who has no needs tends to have less fun.
- There'll be one location.
- There'll be one item.
- The last die chosen will be wild. In other words, it can be any number, so Ira actually has a choice at that time.
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Scott Nunemaker
United States
Springfield
Virginia
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
I think I've got it!
As an example, on my turn, I could choose the and say Ira and Justin have a Romantic relationship. Someone else may then pick for the same pair and say that Ira and Justin are in a romantic relationship because one of them drank a love potion.
Someone may then choose and say that Ira and Justin need to get the truth about the ghostly voices Justin hears at night....and so on with other relationships, one more need, a location and an object. This sets the foundation of the scenario.
As far as time goes, I'm in the same situation as Ira. I'm online most of the day on weekdays and then after 10pm EST on weeknights. Weekend access is usually in the AM and late night. I check BGG frequently on my mobile as well.
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Yes! You've got it! And then, at the end, you all can figure out which of you drank the potion, and so on. There'll be this rich scenario all ready for you all to drive into destruction.
As for timing, it sounds like the three of us who've talked about it are pretty much in sync, with the exception of timezones. Cool.
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
I do have a question regarding non-relationships. For example, if Ira and myself have a Need "to get out of this class I'm failing" placed between us, does that signify that both of us have this Need (i.e. we are both failing a class), or is it that one of us is failing and the other is somehow involved with the need (maybe helping the other to get out of class, or hindering...), or does the Need only apply to one of us?
I guess maybe it could be any of these depending on how we hash out a coherent setup after the dice are assigned, but what's a good way to think of it?
Regarding times, I can check in several times a day mostly in the afternoon/evening (east coast time) on weekdays, and somewhat more sporadically on weekends.
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
You know, yeah, it could be any of those. It could differ depending on your realtionship, say. "Teacher and student" wouldn't both be failing, for example, but the teacher might want the failing student out to preserve his or her pass rate. "Teammates on the sports team", on the other hand, might both be failing. So yeah, there'll be a fair bit of interpretation once the dice are all chosen.
Of course, not only could that be influenced by other things, it might influence what you all choose to be those other things. Maybe someone really wants that pressure on the teacher, so they choose "Teacher and student". Or maybe they choose "Bitter enemies", because they want there to be that "one or the other will fail" competition. Lots of possibilities.
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Still nothing from Hanibalicious. I've geekmailed him again this morning, and let him know that if he doesn't come join us today, then come tomorrow morning, we move on without him. I'm sorry for the wait, gang.
In other news, I was able to find someone who is willing to be "first alternate", so that if Hanibalicious doesn't come join us, we'll still have a fourth player. So the show *will* go on. Thanks for your patience.
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Hanibalicious responded to this morning's geekmail. He has to back out, due to real world issues that would limit his time for this.
So, welcome Jeff! Come on in and tell us about yourself. And, um, where'd you grow up, and how populous was it?
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Jeff Coon
United States
Plano
Texas
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Hey all - very glad to be joining. Dave, thanks for letting me take the open spot.
Bio - I'm 35, married and live in Dallas. No kids (yet), but 3 dogs. I'm a Director of eCommerce, and my entire 15-year career has been in IT. I've been playing games my entire life. I got started early with boardgames, and played RPGs since around middle school. My RPG experience has been fairly traditional (D&D, Earthdawn, a little Champions). I've been interested in "indie" RPGs for a few years, but haven't actually found a playgroup. With so much media competing for attention (boardgames, books, TV & movies, etc.) I haven't had any time for RPGs in years. I would love to find some modern RPGs that are rules-light and be easily played as one-shots, such as at the BGG.con.
I grew up in Edmond, Oklahoma (pop. 81,405 in 2010) - a small suburb of OKC. I guess that makes me the lowest population.
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Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Re: RPGGeek Newbie-Friendly Play-by-Forum Initiative thread (yes, a better title will be found).
Welcome!
I've updated the large "details of the setup" post above, to reflect Jeff's arrival. Jeff, we're using the Toil and Trouble playset (just in case having the play-by-forum thread in the Toil and Trouble RPGItem wasn't enough of a clue  ). If you haven't found and downloaded it yet, you can find it here: http://dicemonkey.net/toil-trouble/ Grab it, and look it over, because you'll be going first.
Next up, the dice roll...
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Posted Wed Jan 25, 2012 7:11 am
