Fiasco Reflection

I had no idea what to expect when starting Fiasco because I had never played a role playing game before. The worst part was learning how to play. It took about a half hour, which felt an eternity, and led to a few group disputes. We, however, did a good job collaborating because none of us knew the rules perfectly and we combined our knowledge to determine the right rules. We then finalized the starting scene. The first scene started on Commerce Street. The objective of choice was food stamps/welfare check and our need was to get even with a police officer.

Although I did not enjoy setting up, I had a great time playing. I enjoyed creating my own alter ego and creating my own story. We came up with random character names we thought would be cool. I named my character Brian Blunt, and my partners named their characters Walker Smith and Parker Stone. We also came up with moves we thought of on the spot. I would never commit major crimes, but I was curious to see how certain crimes would play out. The crimes ranged from slashing a police car’s tires to creating a Ponzi scheme. These weren’t real crimes, but it was interesting to see how everything turned out in a role-playing situation.

The initial moves were conventional, but took strange turns quickly. The first move was Parker Stone and I smoking marijuana and getting caught by a police officer. By the end of our first turn Brian, my character, was in jail and Parker and Walker were working in a church. The game got stranger after that. Parker and Walker learned that one of the priests was molesting children, but when they spoke up no one believed them and they got fired. I got bailed out and made my own marijuana plant with Parker. Finally, I offered to investigate the pedophile priest for Walker. In the process I got caught, shot and killed and we ended the game. Walker ended up weak, Parker ended up grim and I ended up with “nothing to write home about,” which meant that I ended up where I started. Although I didn’t like that my character died, I enjoyed playing the game and making my own plot.

Some patterns developed while we were playing. We mostly gave each other white die (which meant good outcomes) at the beginning because each of us didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but progressively became less afraid to give each other black die (which meant poor outcomes) as the game went on. Parker and I also started to gang up on Walker. We gave him black die regardless of what he did. He ended up getting scammed by a Ponzi schemer, getting fired for accusing a priest of a crime and getting arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. Walker did get his revenge, however, the one time I was nice to him. I offered to investigate the priest, and Walker had the priest catch and shoot me. Even though I didn’t like that my character got shot, I knew he deserved it after the way he treated Walker during the game.

This game was more like a podcast than any other form of writing we have completed this semester. Both assignments provided the class and I with a new experience and an alternative way of writing. Most of the writing I did before taking this class consisted of a basic prompt and required components for the essay. Fiasco and the podcasts, on the other hand, gave me freedom and forced me to be creative while still maintaining structure. Fiasco and the podcasts were two of my favorite assignments this semester, and I hope to play Fiasco and complete similar assignments in future classes.