Will Hindmarch has built a mind-bending Fiasco playset, in a Primer/Timecrimes sort of way, and I love it. All the Damn Time needs playtesting from experienced Fiasco players (it is not an ideal first playset). If that’s you, check it out, give it a try, and report back. If you are interested in how far you can push the game’s constraints, I think this set is a good example along one axis.
“Fiasco was one of the greatest storytelling RPGs I’ve ever played. I highly recommend it.” - Wil Wheaton
Among the many honors Fiasco received at Gen Con, perhaps the greatest was having it played by this bunch of writers and all-around fantastic guys:
In honor of this event, we’re adding the Los Angeles 1936 playset to every PDF download of Fiasco sold until the end of the year.
Written by Chris Bennett and released exclusively for Gen Con, Los Angeles 1936 puts Fiasco players in the black and white world of Raymond Chandler’s L.A., full of smoky nightclubs, Hollywood starlets and hard men with guns looking to unravel all their grand dreams.
If you’ve already purchased the PDF from one of our distributors, please log in again to grab this special edition playset for yourself.
If you haven’t bought the PDF, you can find it at Indie Press Revolution or Drivethru RPG!
We here at Bully Pulpit are very excited to be able to say that Fiasco won a 2010 ENnies Judges’ Award from Jeramy Ware. He explains his reasoning on his blog:
I had an extremely difficult time choosing which one of the fantastic products we received to recognize with my Judges’ Award, so in the end I went with the most important criteria I could think of – which one provided the most fun at my game table.
…
[Fiasco] took a group of people who barely knew each other and had us playing and laughing together for nearly 4 hours without any hesitation or awkwardness. I don’t know that there is a better test for a roleplaying game.
Thank you Jeramy and all of the ENnies Judges for your time and consideration. We’re very honored. Thanks also to Ryan Macklin for accepting the award on our behalf during the ceremony!
Turns out Medical Hospital has a lot of moving parts. There’s a die mechanic that relies on three dice that are always visible on the table. There are 18 objects that can be bought and stolen during the game with the currency you gain (or lose) through surgery, and the surgery itself is very equipment and paper intensive. The currency also needs to be tracked. The easiest way to handle all this is to atomize each of the 18 elements onto a little card, which can literally change hands. People understand this. But it poses two problems. First, production – packaging 18 cards is just a pain on a number of levels. And second, it clutters the playing area to an insane degree, and playtesting shows this is not OK. The surgery itself is hugely cluttered and full of mess (which is very appropriate and fun).
So I’m thinking about trying to consolidate all the stuff onto pages that you can write on, record sheets that tell you:
1. Who the player-surgeons are
2. How much currency they currently have
3. The status of the dice, as well as instruction about what that means
4. The status of each object and who controls it
That’s a lot.
Here’s a Here’s a revised example…I am actively killing my darlings. Complications are gone, relegated to an optional component. Here’s some post-playtest detritus.
I am not sure if this remains too dense, too complex, too hard to use. Let me know what you think, approaching it strictly from the point of view of the usability of the materials. Thanks!
It’s official – we love the people who play our games, and somebody noticed! Thanks very much for this honor.
Congratulations to Danielle Lewon, who had a very good year with Kagematsu, John Harper, who killed everyone with fire with Lady Blackbird, and Paul Tevis, who rightly won the “most innovative” award for A Penny For My Thoughts.
