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Fiasco
THINGS CAN GO WRONG, FAST...
...Maybe some dude from youth group talked you into boosting a case of motor oil, but now your cousin is dead in a swamp and you killed him. Maybe you and your girlfriend figured you could scare your wife into a divorce, but things went pear-shaped and now a gang of cranked-up Mexicans with latex gloves and a pit bull are looking for you.
It seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Fiasco is inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong - inspired by films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan. You'll play ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control. There will be big dreams and flawed execution. It won't go well for them, to put it mildly, and in the end it will probably all go south in a glorious heap of jealousy, murder, and recrimination. Lives and reputations will be lost, painful wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, your guy just might end up back where he started.
Fiasco is a GM-less game for 3-5 players, designed to be played in a few hours with six-sided dice and no preparation. During a game you will engineer and play out stupid, disastrous situations, usually at the intersection of greed, fear, and lust. It's like making your own Coen brothers movie, in about the same amount of time it'd take to watch one.
...Maybe some dude from youth group talked you into boosting a case of motor oil, but now your cousin is dead in a swamp and you killed him. Maybe you and your girlfriend figured you could scare your wife into a divorce, but things went pear-shaped and now a gang of cranked-up Mexicans with latex gloves and a pit bull are looking for you.
It seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Fiasco is inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong - inspired by films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan. You'll play ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control. There will be big dreams and flawed execution. It won't go well for them, to put it mildly, and in the end it will probably all go south in a glorious heap of jealousy, murder, and recrimination. Lives and reputations will be lost, painful wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, your guy just might end up back where he started.
Fiasco is a GM-less game for 3-5 players, designed to be played in a few hours with six-sided dice and no preparation. During a game you will engineer and play out stupid, disastrous situations, usually at the intersection of greed, fear, and lust. It's like making your own Coen brothers movie, in about the same amount of time it'd take to watch one.
132 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
May 30, 2013
The term "role-playing game" carries a lot of baggage with it, ultimately because the role-playing games that most people have experienced are either frameworks for telling fantastical adventure stories, or are games (like video games) based on such frameworks. Fiasco is, in some respects, the most role-playing oriented role-playing game I've ever seen, even though it lacks most of the things that have become essentially synonymous with the term. For instance, it doesn't have character sheets, levels, skills, character advancement, attack tables, combat rules, equipment lists, or treasure of any kind. Thinking of it that way, one could make an argument that it isn't a role-playing game at all!
But it is. It's just wholly different than any other role-playing game ever written. As such, I feel the need to clarify that Fiasco is a "collaborative acting and story-telling party RPG." The book describes how to play the game of Fiasco. In a game, a table of 3 - 5 people play the characters in a psychological drama usually involving some kind of crime or heist that goes horribly awry, that they make up as they go along.
The book describes how the people at the table - all players - choose a setting (what the game calls a "playset") for the story that they're going to tell. Each playset consists of four pages, with each page presenting random tables for four sorts of things that connect the different characters: relationships (mandatory for adjacent players), objects, locations, and needs. Somebody rolls a pile of dice and then the players take turns selecting dice from the results that correspond to the choices they find particularly interesting. Then, having relationships and at least one other connecting element between each player, the people at the table fill in some detail, collaborating on creating their characters. Once that's done, each player takes a turn, performing improvised scenes with his character and another player to advance the plot and develop the relationships. The dice act as a nice guiding mechanic, as other players either get to tell you what the scene you perform will be, or get to decide whether it ends well for your character or not. Halfway through the game, two players are selected at random to determine what "goes wrong" to mess up the flow of the action, and the players take a break to discuss how the game is going, what they liked, and ideas for where it will go (this break is a mandatory part of the game, written into the rules). Finally, the players get back together and continue performing scenes as before, working toward the climax and resolution to the plot.
It's a wonderful game, that results in very interesting and often very funny stories that you build with your friends. I highly recommend it, particularly for people who like to write, act, or otherwise tell stories.
Even though I love the game that results from the book, I have to gripe a bit about the book itself. Like most RPGs, the book leaves a lot to be desired as a reference work. The book is geared for one reading, walking the reader slowly through the steps of the different phases of the game. Unfortunately, it's clearly was not made for repeated readings, much less being able to look stuff up during play. The instructions are scattered throughout the entire volume, and so finding what you want to look up is often an exercise in re-reading entire chapters of the book. Thankfully, the game is pretty elementary, and players should know how to play the game after actually playing it once or twice.
But it is. It's just wholly different than any other role-playing game ever written. As such, I feel the need to clarify that Fiasco is a "collaborative acting and story-telling party RPG." The book describes how to play the game of Fiasco. In a game, a table of 3 - 5 people play the characters in a psychological drama usually involving some kind of crime or heist that goes horribly awry, that they make up as they go along.
The book describes how the people at the table - all players - choose a setting (what the game calls a "playset") for the story that they're going to tell. Each playset consists of four pages, with each page presenting random tables for four sorts of things that connect the different characters: relationships (mandatory for adjacent players), objects, locations, and needs. Somebody rolls a pile of dice and then the players take turns selecting dice from the results that correspond to the choices they find particularly interesting. Then, having relationships and at least one other connecting element between each player, the people at the table fill in some detail, collaborating on creating their characters. Once that's done, each player takes a turn, performing improvised scenes with his character and another player to advance the plot and develop the relationships. The dice act as a nice guiding mechanic, as other players either get to tell you what the scene you perform will be, or get to decide whether it ends well for your character or not. Halfway through the game, two players are selected at random to determine what "goes wrong" to mess up the flow of the action, and the players take a break to discuss how the game is going, what they liked, and ideas for where it will go (this break is a mandatory part of the game, written into the rules). Finally, the players get back together and continue performing scenes as before, working toward the climax and resolution to the plot.
It's a wonderful game, that results in very interesting and often very funny stories that you build with your friends. I highly recommend it, particularly for people who like to write, act, or otherwise tell stories.
Even though I love the game that results from the book, I have to gripe a bit about the book itself. Like most RPGs, the book leaves a lot to be desired as a reference work. The book is geared for one reading, walking the reader slowly through the steps of the different phases of the game. Unfortunately, it's clearly was not made for repeated readings, much less being able to look stuff up during play. The instructions are scattered throughout the entire volume, and so finding what you want to look up is often an exercise in re-reading entire chapters of the book. Thankfully, the game is pretty elementary, and players should know how to play the game after actually playing it once or twice.
February 6, 2020
Incredibly fun storytelling game, with just the right amount of structure, not total improv. Tons of additional free content for it on the internet beyond the included few settings.
July 2, 2025
Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, literally. I want to play
Read
March 29, 2021While this is exceptionally well-written and the mechanic + plot set-up are incredibly interesting to me (the "Fargo" and other crime thriller inspirations read loud and clear) there were a few semantic things that annoyed me to no end while reading through most of this manual.
First of all, I absolutely despise when a book, game, or any other material assumes that I am a male or want to play as a male character and proceeds to use exclusively male pronouns throughout the course of the reading. Fiasco constantly refers to your character as "your guy" and "he" and while this would normally not really bother me, the only other references to women are either NPCs or some theoretical other player's character, with whom the book ONLY references as either being romantically or sexually involved with you, the man.
There is a small joke later on in the replay section about the "token girl" character who introduces a session of Fiasco to you with her all-male group, but this "self-aware" joke falls horribly flat when Fiasco previously does nothing to try and actually represent women in any way outside of the stereotypical "babe that drops her drawers." So, nice. I know that it's a convention of the genre, but the whole point of Fiasco is that EVERYONE is meant to be a fuck-up and loser, so I don't really understand why it's so bizarrely sexist.
Besides these minor nitpicks, it seems genuinely fun and I would want to try it out with a previously experienced group. I really like how there's no GM and everything is player-driven. It seems like majority roleplay over inventory management (like D&D) so it's definitely not for everyone since it's basically improv, but I would give it a try.
First of all, I absolutely despise when a book, game, or any other material assumes that I am a male or want to play as a male character and proceeds to use exclusively male pronouns throughout the course of the reading. Fiasco constantly refers to your character as "your guy" and "he" and while this would normally not really bother me, the only other references to women are either NPCs or some theoretical other player's character, with whom the book ONLY references as either being romantically or sexually involved with you, the man.
There is a small joke later on in the replay section about the "token girl" character who introduces a session of Fiasco to you with her all-male group, but this "self-aware" joke falls horribly flat when Fiasco previously does nothing to try and actually represent women in any way outside of the stereotypical "babe that drops her drawers." So, nice. I know that it's a convention of the genre, but the whole point of Fiasco is that EVERYONE is meant to be a fuck-up and loser, so I don't really understand why it's so bizarrely sexist.
Besides these minor nitpicks, it seems genuinely fun and I would want to try it out with a previously experienced group. I really like how there's no GM and everything is player-driven. It seems like majority roleplay over inventory management (like D&D) so it's definitely not for everyone since it's basically improv, but I would give it a try.
February 18, 2013
Sometimes it is a chore to work your way through a rpg rulebook, but the rules for Fiasco by Jason Morningstar were a delight to read. Every segment starts with a quote taken from some 'fiasco'movie.
The layout and artwork add to the overal feel of this book.
I've heard fiasco decribed as "coen brothers: the rpg" and that is what you get. The idea is that the players create a story that devolves to misery. think movies like "Uturn"or "the way of the gun". seems like an interessting game and I can't wait to give it a try
The layout and artwork add to the overal feel of this book.
I've heard fiasco decribed as "coen brothers: the rpg" and that is what you get. The idea is that the players create a story that devolves to misery. think movies like "Uturn"or "the way of the gun". seems like an interessting game and I can't wait to give it a try
September 20, 2014
Wow, I just finished reading this game. Make no mistake, for this is not standard rpg fare. This game is brutal and enjoyable and very unique. As a 48 year old GamerI have played and run a lot of games. This is a new take on the old "things go all to hell" books and movies like Fargo and Blood Simple. It is fresh and modern and is dark and sexy. Amazing game! Myself and my group are going to play this one very soon. We have to! It has to happen! lol
November 7, 2012
Some interesting ideas here for a storyteller game, but maybe not enough "game" to really grab my interest. Still, I plan on giving it a play at some point.
Update: This is pretty much my "go-to" game when I want to play a pick-up RPG. An awesome game that offers just enough structure to get things started and keep things moving.
Update: This is pretty much my "go-to" game when I want to play a pick-up RPG. An awesome game that offers just enough structure to get things started and keep things moving.
June 20, 2013
A very intriguing, evocative, and genre-appropriate story game.
November 10, 2015
on second read through this is even funnier and more promising then i remembered. on saturday we will try it out.
March 22, 2023
Good evening and welcome fellow Children of Chaos.
I really like the idea for this one and I have wanted to play this one again. Sadly the only time I got to play one of the players was a prick who spent the whole time taking the threads started, hooks introduced, and elements built and sabotaging each and every one of them. Not in a fun way, but in a jarring and stupid way.
Far more interesting than the card game version released later, this game is my answer to a question I asked a while ago "Is there an erotic thriller TTRPG".
A fantastic game for a one shot and one I'd like to try again.
I really like the idea for this one and I have wanted to play this one again. Sadly the only time I got to play one of the players was a prick who spent the whole time taking the threads started, hooks introduced, and elements built and sabotaging each and every one of them. Not in a fun way, but in a jarring and stupid way.
Far more interesting than the card game version released later, this game is my answer to a question I asked a while ago "Is there an erotic thriller TTRPG".
A fantastic game for a one shot and one I'd like to try again.
October 5, 2013
At the very end of the book Jason Morningstar talks about the true purpose of the game--the relinquishing of central authority/the sharing of narrative authority among all players.
He should have put that blurb up front.
The game, when viewed through that lens, makes much more sense--the careful steps of the setup, the round-robining of turns, the reliance on group consensus in assigning die. Without knowing the guiding principle in advance, the rules can feel a little muddled until you get through them.
Which is a shame, because they appear to be perfectly suited for the plots the game is supposed to achieve. There's lots of possible fuckups, danger, etc, in the best low-noir style. Character creation is actually plot motivated and takes almost no time, and the game appears to run pretty quickly--you could finish in about two hours, I think. The provided settings and plot lists are innovative and fun--while reading them I had about a dozen ideas for grim, gritty, blackly humorous short stories. The replay section does a far better job of explaining the game than the rules ever do. Maybe in a future printing the replay can be broken up throughout the book to provide examples.
I will probably run the game for some friends, but I do not know if I will run it with my regular gaming group.
He should have put that blurb up front.
The game, when viewed through that lens, makes much more sense--the careful steps of the setup, the round-robining of turns, the reliance on group consensus in assigning die. Without knowing the guiding principle in advance, the rules can feel a little muddled until you get through them.
Which is a shame, because they appear to be perfectly suited for the plots the game is supposed to achieve. There's lots of possible fuckups, danger, etc, in the best low-noir style. Character creation is actually plot motivated and takes almost no time, and the game appears to run pretty quickly--you could finish in about two hours, I think. The provided settings and plot lists are innovative and fun--while reading them I had about a dozen ideas for grim, gritty, blackly humorous short stories. The replay section does a far better job of explaining the game than the rules ever do. Maybe in a future printing the replay can be broken up throughout the book to provide examples.
I will probably run the game for some friends, but I do not know if I will run it with my regular gaming group.
November 13, 2019
This is not your traditional role-playing game. Oh, there is definitely role-playing involved, but it's more of an improv collaborative storytelling activity where dice are used (only in the set-up and tilt phases) to randomly determine some story hooks and ideas. I've played a few games of Fiasco and they were a blast. I've found that most people really enjoy the set-up (assigning aspects to characters people play and seeing what gets assigned to characters- the more goofy or salacious, the better) more than any other part of the game. Playing out the scenes seems to be a little more challenging, mainly because some people are just not that great with coming up with ideas on the fly or role-playing out characters (which this type of game seems geared toward), though a lot of this can be mitigated by group input (it's supposed to be collaborative). The game also seems to be geared toward dark comedy situations (though nothing says a game has to be that way and I'm sure a group would have no problem making a serious game). I'd recommend it for groups looking for some light-hearted entertainment for the night or who want to try a different kind of role-playing fare.
January 2, 2018
A great game!
An imperfect rulebook.
I found myself constantly flipping back and forth to reference small things, and the tables needed during actual play weren't all together in a convenient place. There's a "cheat sheet" page which is meant to remind you of the basics, but it didn't have nearly enough info to serve that purpose.
The playsets (settings and details needed to play) included in the book weren't really to my taste, but the free playsets available on the website were wonderful. I highly recommend digging through those for something that fits your specific group rather than using one of the ones included in here.
An imperfect rulebook.
I found myself constantly flipping back and forth to reference small things, and the tables needed during actual play weren't all together in a convenient place. There's a "cheat sheet" page which is meant to remind you of the basics, but it didn't have nearly enough info to serve that purpose.
The playsets (settings and details needed to play) included in the book weren't really to my taste, but the free playsets available on the website were wonderful. I highly recommend digging through those for something that fits your specific group rather than using one of the ones included in here.
May 4, 2014
I prefer my roleplaying cooperative rather than confrontational, but I've had some great laughs playing this game.
October 28, 2020
The new box set further distilled the great ideas of the original, and eschews dice+tables in favour of multipurpose card decks. Old content can be updated by using card blanks so it’s not lost!
September 7, 2019
Imagined playing out a Cohen Brothers movie as an RPG one-shot and you have Fiasco. Players start by setting selecting setting, make up characters, then establish key relationships, items, and locations through a mix of dice rolls and creativity. Once the game starts, each play takes turns choosing to either setting a scene with (location and characters) OR determining how the scene resolves (who "wins").
After everyone's taken a turn, Act I is over, a "tilt" is determined (a twist or complication) then players resolve a second round culminating in a climax where each character's fate is determined by the dice the good and bad dice they accrued throughout the game.
It's a brilliant introduction to acting, improve, story beat structure, and roleplaying all in one little book. There's also hundreds of fan-created settings out there should you not like the dozenish in the book.
Good stuff.
After everyone's taken a turn, Act I is over, a "tilt" is determined (a twist or complication) then players resolve a second round culminating in a climax where each character's fate is determined by the dice the good and bad dice they accrued throughout the game.
It's a brilliant introduction to acting, improve, story beat structure, and roleplaying all in one little book. There's also hundreds of fan-created settings out there should you not like the dozenish in the book.
Good stuff.
November 18, 2017
This is clearly a good game, but I’ve issues with how the rules are explained. There is a single example of real play in the whole book, it’s not complete (skips over several parts) and it comes ONE HUNDRED PAGES into the book. Spent most of the time going back and forth to make sure I understood a rule.
September 5, 2018
Just finished playing this for the first time and it is a brilliant game, simple but infinitely repayable. The rulebook is funny and simple to understand - the abridged game transcript is a nice touch. I got this off a file sharing website but now I will definitely be buying it - looking forward to playing again.
December 22, 2017
Excellent in concept, I'm eager to try it out. I've got a good feeling about this one :)
May 5, 2018
Great game, terrific rules!
April 22, 2019
Super fun to play with your improvisation-loving friends!
August 2, 2019
An incredible RPG. Trying it out on Sunday. Will update this after I've got it down.
February 24, 2023
Played the Antarctica one: the penguin guy burned the plane. All the penguins died. He was bummed. Then we all froze to death. It was awesome.
June 24, 2016
This role-playing game is a stark contrast to Golden Sky Stories (see my review for that game). While both are rules-light storytelling games, that is where the similarity ends. Specifically violent and for adults only, the object of this game is bring everyone to a darkly humorous, well-deserved bad end, but to have a good time doing it. A successful play of this game would be like ad-libbing your way through a Coen brothers movie, which I have seen done on Wil Wheaton's TableTop. Our group, being storytelling novices, and none of us having played this game before, were not as successful. You'll have to decide what would work for your group. There are a lot of interesting ideas here, foremost being that there is no "game master", and while I found it to be a good read (and plan on reading The Fiasco Companion, purchased at the same time), I am on the fence about giving this one another try at the table.
April 9, 2012
Une lecture que j'attendais depuis plusieurs mois, une nouvelle façon d'envisager le jeu de rôle, et surtout des inspirations qui me plaisent énormément (Intolérable Cruauté, Fargo, Burn After Reading, Snatch, ...).
La lecture a été très agréable, rapide, malgré pas mal de répétitions qui ralentissent un peu la compréhension. Le jeu est très bien expliqué, et les Cadres proposés sont alléchants. Des gratuits proposés sur le site de l'éditeur me font également envie.
Il va maintenant me falloir convaincre du monde à me rejoindre autour d'une table pour mettre en oeuvre ces fiascos. Et mon appréciation pourrait alors encore grimper !
La lecture a été très agréable, rapide, malgré pas mal de répétitions qui ralentissent un peu la compréhension. Le jeu est très bien expliqué, et les Cadres proposés sont alléchants. Des gratuits proposés sur le site de l'éditeur me font également envie.
Il va maintenant me falloir convaincre du monde à me rejoindre autour d'une table pour mettre en oeuvre ces fiascos. Et mon appréciation pourrait alors encore grimper !
July 28, 2014
Today while celebrating Read an RPG in Public weeks I finished off Fiasco by Jason Morningstar. Based on what I had seen before I had convinced myself that this was more of an improve theater experiment rather than a role playing game. Now having read it I see there's more game there than I was lead to believe.
The rules seem clear enough but I think I would rather try this with an experienced moderator first. I expected more from the Replay in the back, like, well an actual replay, not just a very condensed version.
The game sounds fascinating and I really wonder how it will actually play out with the locals.
The rules seem clear enough but I think I would rather try this with an experienced moderator first. I expected more from the Replay in the back, like, well an actual replay, not just a very condensed version.
The game sounds fascinating and I really wonder how it will actually play out with the locals.
July 14, 2013
I've been gaming for fifteen years. I've played good games and bad. I thought I've seen it all. You want to do stuff? Roll some dice. Want to attack someone? Roll some dice.
This was my first real taste of an exceedingly non typical tole playing game. It is a neat team up of two of my favorite things. Movies and RPGs.The modern Noir feel of the game is one of the reasons that drew me to the game.The fact that no one person is in charge, but the entire group cooperating to create the best game is novel. All in all one of the best games I've played.
This was my first real taste of an exceedingly non typical tole playing game. It is a neat team up of two of my favorite things. Movies and RPGs.The modern Noir feel of the game is one of the reasons that drew me to the game.The fact that no one person is in charge, but the entire group cooperating to create the best game is novel. All in all one of the best games I've played.
July 19, 2012
Simply an amazing game. Fiasco emulates the kinds of movies where hapless people engage in criminal misadventures that invariable hilariously and tragically fall apart with elegance and grace. The system is a paragon of rules-light mechanics, avoiding task resolution nearly entirely in favor of getting the group to generate a fascinating and bizarre cast of characters, and having them stumble towards catastrophe. Both readable and playable, Fiasco is on of the best indie RPGs I've played.
April 8, 2013
Es un no-juego de rol que pretende y consigue emular las pelis estilo Fargo, Quemar después de leer, Sangre fácil y ese género de pobres desgraciados que tratan de dar el golpe y todo sale mal. No tengo nada en contra, y de hecho algunas de sus ideas son explotables para otros juegos de rol (por ejemplo, el sistema para crear relaciones entre los personajes es genial). Simplemente, me gusta ver pelis sobre ese tipo de historias, pero no tengo el menor interés en jugarlas.
November 27, 2014
Pretty much fascinated with this game at the moment. It's a collaborative GM-less rpg with a nod to fiasco or caper type movies. I've not played it yet but would love to get a game of this on. There's not much to the book itself as the game is rules-lite although it's brevity is not a criticism. The style of the book is engaging, the rules simple to follow and the whole game concept is excellent. Great product.
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