Fiasco and Fiasco Classic: What’s the Difference?

What's the difference between Fiasco and Fiasco Classic? Which one should I choose?

Thank you for asking!

Fiasco, at its heart, is a neo-noir game about foolish people getting in trouble. It flips the script on traditional power fantasy roleplaying games. Both versions are built on the same premise—you and a few of your less reputable friends will get together to build an unstable and deeply unwise situation that exists at the intersection of powerful ambition and poor impulse control, and over the course of a few hours you will knock it all down like toddlers punching blocks, and have the greatest time doing it.

Fiasco Classic was introduced in 2009 to critical acclaim and rapturous delight. This version comes in a perfect-bound book and uses dice and detailed pick-lists to help you generate the starting situation. You track the whole whirlwind of calamity you generate using index cards.

The principal advantage of Fiasco Classic is the deep well of existing playsets to draw from, written by us and others. Its main disadvantages are the amount of time setup takes, the need for a double fistful of six-sided dice in two colors, and the blizzard of materials you will have to recycle when you are done playing. But if you are excited about authoring your own playsets, Fiasco Classic makes that very easy.

Ten years later we released a new edition, called, simply, Fiasco. This version is card-based, which addresses several disadvantages at once—with this version, everything you need comes in the box and setting up the game goes much more quickly.

It also introduces many new advantages, such as a refined sequence of play and a built-in safety tool. By putting the game’s components on expertly-curated cards, it is possible to easily mix and match playsets, as well as tune them for your particular interests and needs. It is also more portable and quick to play.

In our view, both versions of the game deliver the same core experience in slightly different ways, so you can choose whichever version works better for you and your friends. Either way, we hope you have a great time!