Play Make Write Think

Game Details: Boomtown

My name: Collin Anderson

Greg’s name: Russell Cooper

Michael’s name: Edward Anderson

My relationship with Russell: both gamblers

My relationship with Edward: son of Edward

Edward and Russell’s relationship: former lovers

Need: to get rich through robbing a business

Object: railroad handcar

Location: across the tracks – boot hill

Tilt:

Russell: Tragedy – pain followed by confusion

Collin: Guilt – greed leads to killing

Edward: Innocence: a neighbor wanders into the situation

The first time playing Fiasco was difficult; before starting, I didn’t realize that the vast majority of the roleplaying was created entirely from the players. I thought there would be much more structure, but I found out the beginning framework that we completed in class was essentially everything we were given to work with. I played with Michael and Greg on Tuesday after class, and after setting up the relationships, needs, objects, etc., we initially found it very difficult to create a scene from scratch. Instead, we first came up with a main overarching plot that our story could follow, giving us a sense of direction and something to work towards. Given our starting setup, we came up with a plot that follows: Collin (me) and Russell (Greg) are a pair of unsuccessful gamblers in the late 19th century who lost a few bets too many, and now a gang of loan sharks are after them. They come up with a plan to repay the loan sharks by stealing gold from a train, recruiting the help of Collin’s dad, Edward (Michael). They wait at Boot Hill outside town and strike once they see the train. The robbery is successful at first, but things get complicated from there.

Given a plot to follow, creating scenes came much more easily. For the most part, we decided to create our own scenes to give us more control of our own characters. In my scenes in particular, I tried to develop the emotional strengths and weaknesses of my character: in my first scene, I described my ethical dilemma towards my gambling addiction, and how it was fueling my worst behavior and causing me stress. I also described the anxiety of being indebted to bloodthirsty loan sharks, and how that was driving the conflict for my character. Everytime we drew a white or black die at the end of each scene, we would describe a good or bad thing that happened at the end of the scene, such as Russell getting beat up by loan sharks and given a week ultimatum to repay his debts. For much of Act 1, we spent our scenes developing the reasons and desperation that led us to plan such a large-scale robbery. When Greg and Michael ran out of ideas for their scenes, I would offer alternative solutions for ways to advance the plot in a way that made sense. For example, in order to get Edward into the robbery, I decided to frame it as a way for Edward to reconcile with his former lover, Russell, and to show him he still cared. The robbery was a success, and as we made our getaway on the railroad handcar, the tilt began.

Given our tilt rolls, we knew at least one of us was bound to die. I could feel the pace of the storytelling accelerating as the climax unfolded: we started speaking quicker and bouncing ideas off each other with much more fluidity. It ended with the betrayal and the death of Collin, and Edward also died in a shootout with the police.

Writing about Fiasco stressed my critical thinking and reading resulting in writing by making me summarize and analyze our long, 2.5 hour session in less than 700 words. As we were acting out the scenes, we wrote down the details of each scene into a google doc, although I found out as I wrote my reflection that it was impossible to write all the details I wanted while also including my thoughts and reflecting on the game. This reflection was also writing as a process which made me revise and rethink the way I wanted to convey my thoughts succinctly. Collaborating with my peers was also a fun exercise, and we got to know each other better as we created a story together. Overall, the experience was positive for me and I got to create my own story in more detail than I’ve ever done before. The reflection also helped me format my writing in interesting ways that I would have never been allowed to do in high school. Fiasco effectively fostered creativity and a collaborative environment, making a fun and constructive game for all to play.

Yes. This was my experience of Fiasco. The mayor died, but the bookie lived. How can that be? Doesn’t the mayor have more power? Does the bookie even have a life besides gambling and losing money? Since when were bookies more successful than mayors?! Well, of course in reality, this is unlikely to occur, but in Fiasco, anything can happen. During my experience, my co-players and I decided to create a story with tons of drama. It started off with a bookie/gambler relationship. The gambler (named Jordan) was also a commissioner that worked closely with the mayor (named Johnston), Johnston was a drug friend of a 52 year-old woman (named Shiela), Shiela was the former spouse of a 37 year-old male (named Nate), and the bookie (named Zee) was the cousin of Nate. Our story takes place in an abandoned roadhouse in Main Street, where all the characters attempt to become rich through the discovery of a suitcase full of cash and get back at the city for what it has turned them into. While some were highly successful and others tragically fell, all players used the techniques of probing and telescoping in order to turn the story in their favor.

Our story explored the world of corruption. In summary, all of the players tried to gain more power through money. Through alliances and betrayals, some people were successful in the story while many others were not. It all started with the discovery of a suitcase full of cash and drugs. Everyone besides the former spouse, Nate, wanted in and did what ever necessary to get some of the profit. The climax started when druggie Shiela recognized that her former spouse, Nate, has a newborn, and because of her obsession with Nate and abuse of drugs, she steals Nate’s baby, ultimately killing it. The bookie, Zee, hears about it and then realizes that this was her grand opportunity. Zee recently found out about the stash and that her gambler, Jordan, has been keeping it a secret from her for so long, and wanted revenge, and was going to use her cousin, Nate, to do it. Zee also finds out from Shiela that the mayor sent her to kill Zee for knowing about the stash of money. Zee then wanted revenge on everyone. She wanted revenge on Jordan for betraying her by keeping stash a secret from her, the mayor for his corruption, and Shiela for killing her cousin’s baby. So, Zee and Shiela crosses the mayor and makes a plan to take down the mayor and the commissioner (also Zee’s gambler). Not forgetting that Shiela killed her cousin’s baby, Zee contacts her cousin, Nate, and lets him in on the plan so he can finally get his revenge on Shiela. This is when the climax peaks. Mayor Johnston, Bookie Zee, Commissioner Jordan, and Druggie Shiela all met at the abandoned roadhouse. Zee pretends to be dead so that the mayor thinks that Shiela carried out his hit, but quickly realizes there is no bullet and realizes he has been crossed. Shiela points the gun at the mayor demanding the money and then Nate pops up at the roadhouse, completely insane. He is shaking furiously as he finally sees Shiela. Shiela begs him not to kill her, while the mayor makes smart remarks. The game reaches the tilt. Fed up and so unstable, Nate shoots the mayor in his head, killing him. The commissioner begins screaming and Nate shoots her in her knee cap. Immediately the commissioner recognizes her vulnerability and calls in for backup. Shiela is still pleading for Nate to not kill him, and Nate, although hateful of Shiela, cannot work himself to kill her. Suddenly, the troops come in. The game reaches the aftermath. The story ends with Bookie Zee escaping the troops, and found a stash of drugs hidden in the attic of the roadhouse; she takes off on a dirt-bike. Both Druggie Shiela and Nate were captured by the troops; Shiela gets sentenced to 25 years in prison for drug dealing and use while Nate is acquitted of killing the mayor and has to go into mental institution as the courts found sympathy due to the death of her baby, and later becomes a successful caretaker. Mayor Johnston has a funeral where people cheer and honor him, but soon is exposed for his corruption and dealings with the cartel, resulting in his grave to be dug up, people to go after his daughter, and his name is wiped from history books. Finally, Commissioner Jordan is no longer protected by her troops as they realize her ties to the corrupt mayor and discovery of the illegal cash and drugs within the suitcase upon their arrival to the roadhouse.

I played Bookie Zee, the most successful character in the story. As I played Fiasco, I found ways to manipulate the story into my favor so that I was the most successful. At first, I thought my player had no chance to succeed the goal because the other players had strong alliances to one another and significant power, causing me to feel pessimistic about where the story was going to go for me. I honestly thought I would have the most black dice (TRAGIC!). But the story actually went in the complete opposite direction for me. When ever there was a resolve, I spoke up in order to craft a story that I knew in the long run would benefit me. When I saw one of the players crafting a story that I knew would eventually end badly for them, I made sure that I did not say anything. I let it play out and more often than not, it would just enhance my character’s chances of succeeding. Through my use of telescoping the game, I was able to achieve all my goals, and thus become the most successful person, because I made subgoals throughout the game by probing the decisions and outcomes of my other players. In the end, I was the only one who had all white dice, and I can honestly say, it felt amazing. I also noticed that my peers created scenarios that put themselves in a bad predicament rather than uplifting their character, leading them to more black dice. I found myself manipulating the other characters a lot. One of the characters I manipulated was Nate. He was a big part of my success story. Knowing that he had just lost his baby and he was mentally insane, I was able to use him to take down Shiela so that Shiela would no longer exist as a problem for me. I also manipulated Shiela whom I double-crossed, in order to take down the mayor and commissioner to achieve my goal of revenge. This brings up my strong use of telescoping. Once I achieved one subgoal, the next goal immediately became stimulated and by probing my environment and where the story was heading through the scenarios that my peers gave created, I was able to always put the story in my favor.

I realized that manipulation, probing, and telescoping were required in this game in order for success to happen. You had to betray and/or manipulate other players in order to “win” the game. This is where the “game” came into play. Yes, Fiasco is a collaborative game, but it is simultaneously a game of competition. Who will get the most white dice? Who will be able to successfully turn the story in their favor to achieve their goal? How far are you willing to take risks in order to obtain a positive outcome for your character? Will you play nice, fair, or evil? These are all questions that I asked myself while playing the game. After all, I did have a more competitive than collaborative mindset while playing, leading to my success. However, you have to know when collaborating is necessary and when you need to tweak your competitive methods by probing and telescoping to investigate how the temporary scenario can affect your character long term. One thing that Fiasco taught me was that story-telling does not require pre-planning. Sometimes the most interesting and successful stories comes from on the spot planning. In the beginning, I did not like the idea of acting out a scenario on the spot because I thought that none of the story will come together since I was always wired to plan. BUT NO! Go out and create magic. Even though a blank slate (paper if we were writing an essay) is daunting, conquer it through trial, mistakes, open-mindedness, and imagination. Even though our Fiasco story sometimes seemed so unreal, it was ok. It made our story just that- a Fiasco. And I would not change our story for anything because it was creative, intriguing, and unpredictable. Planning doesn’t mean perfect. Our story was not perfect and followed a certain flow.. and that’s ok. All good stories don’t follow a pattern or a strict criteria. Be loose. Go out of the box. Explore your entire mind. This is what Fiasco have taught me. And I will bet I’ll second guess planning before I write my next fantastic story.