Oh, Fiasco. How do you do such a great job of bringing out my "dirty girl" side? I try to keep it so well hidden. Playing you is like a guilty pleasure that gives whomever I play it with a glimpse into the darkest part of my Id. You have temporarily transformed me into a drug- and sex-addicted rock singer, an androgynous stock trader, a Stepford wife who grows marijuana and can dispose of dead bodies with ease, a lazy housewife who cheats on her husband with her step-son, and (most recently) the 18-year-old daughter of a meth cook who slept with her boss in a soybean field.
I know I have talked about Fiasco here before on GeekMom, and it has been reviewed on GeekDad. If you would like to know more about the mechanics of the game, GeekDad's review is excellent. I felt the need to snag a couple of friends into playing another campaign of Fiasco this week in honor of Bully Pulpit's Kickstarter for their new game Durance, which you can back through July 2.
My husband (Tim) and I got together with GeekDad Jonathan to play a game of Fiasco Thursday night. We went through a rather large stack of possible scenarios (Bully Pulpit releases a new one for free each month on their website) and settled on Flyover (now with more corn!). Our dice rolling prompted the following story:
Relationships:
- Sally Jo Mae/Wilford Hilshire III: Romance (this one time, drunk, in a soybean field). Also, he's her boss at the brand-new Progress Ethanol plant.
- Wilford Hilshire III/Junior: Crime (meth entrepreneurs). Their Object was a weapon – a 100 gallon tank of anhydrous ammonia.
- Junior/Sally Jo Mae: Father and daughter. Their need is to get out of this county, to escape family and tradition.
ACT 1: In the first act it was established that Wilford Hilshire III, former Texas oilman fallen on hard times, is a sleazy drunk, Junior is kind of lazy, and Sally Jo Mae cooks and cleans up after her father and her deceased mother's father. Sally Jo Mae regrets sleeping with her boss (Wilford), respects her elders because she has to, and works at the factory. Wilford and Junior cook meth together by skimming chemicals from the factory. Sally Jo Mae doesn't know anything about it.
TILTS: Between acts we determined that someone is not so innocent after-all. Also, there is paranoia in the form of a sudden reversal of status, fortune, or sympathy.
ACT 2: Wilford discovers that the feds are tailing him while Junior is tailed by Mexican drug lords. A flashback reveals that Junior has been arrested for possession of meth supplies, and is responsible for turning in Wilford in return for all of his charges being dropped. Sally Jo Mae leaves her grandfather while he has a heart attack and escapes to the factory. There, her father and boss's meth escapades have come to a full-on show down between Wilford, Junior, the Feds, and the drug lords.
AFTERMATH: Junior ended up getting out of the situation. The charges against him are dropped, and he ends up back in his trailer – alone. Sally Jo Mae is transported to Mexico where she wakes up in a bathtub full of ice and miscellaneous incisions all over her torso. Wilford attempts to escape from the Feds in a truck full of flammable chemicals and crashes into the ethanol plant. The truck explodes...twice... and he dies. THE END.
If you are still curious about Fiasco, Wil Wheaton will be playing it on TableTop sometime this year. If you are interested in Fiasco, or want to check out a science fiction no-prep role-playing-game, check out the Durance Kickstarter before July 2.
