Fiasco Reflection

Dice by flickr user Devin Arndt

Fiasco was one of the most creative exploits I have been a part of. I had no idea what to expect especially because I did not know what exactly was a table-top role playing game. In terms of preparation, my group and I were at most skeptical, with the exception of Jake, who seemed like he had a broader sense of how this game worked. I thought I was more overwhelmed than worried about how this process was going to play out because of the enormity of rules we had to know. Everyone had some idea of how to play, but some had different interpretations than others. In fact, this variance of perspectives is exactly what drew our interest and got the ball rolling. Perhaps this was the essence of the game, we just had to find out for ourselves.

After setting criteria which we all agreed on, the game slowly began to take shape. Emphasis on the word “slowly”. Because no one was completely sure of what was going to happen, there was a tendency to “play safe”. Some of us wanted to keep our actual names for the game but others argued that creating a narrative from scratch might be the point of the game and yield more creative results. With this is mind, my group gradually became more comfortable through discussing the relationships, albeit random, we would be involved in.

I really enjoyed the set up of Fiasco even though it was technically the most time consuming aspect for us. The intricate web of characters and their relationships was exciting to create especially with a group of five students collectively giving their input. With the intention of creating the best story possible, our group dove into a flurry of narrative options while we each played out a scene. I found myself giving and taking advice about everything, which basically helped weed out some options that did not fit into our plot. Sometimes I would listen to the general consensus that I should not kill my client (I was a drug dealer) and other times I would stick to my gut and acquire multiple dangerous weapons to cause chaos and to protect myself.

This freedom of choice could not be more prevalent in Fiasco as the entire objective was to use our choices to impact the overall plot. The availability of choice reminds me of other games we have played that did not necessarily provide it. For example, Dear Esther was a very straight forward, linear type game that did not contain room for creativity and collaboration that Fiasco offers. Another important aspect of the freedom of choice in Fiasco is that it allows multiple scenarios to intertwine without completely complicating the plot line. Of course there is a possibility that a plot revolving around eight or so relationships can get extremely convoluted and confusing, but my group did a great job of walking that fine line between creating an intriguing story while keeping things relatively simple and clear.

During discussions, our professor really emphasized how Fiasco can be seen as an actual form of writing.  In other words, playing Fiasco is equivalent to writing an essay. I agree with this to a point. The idea of forming a well thought out structure that helps guide a story fits perfectly with the objective of Fiasco, but the involvement of several other minds and opinions distinguish the type of writing Fiasco employs. I seem to relate Fiasco more so to our podcast project. The notion of collaboration shines through both the podcast project and Fiasco. Without the collective thoughts of my group, we would not have been able to mold this dramatic and intense story that we are proud of today. Playing Fiasco not only exposed me to an entirely different mode of creative thinking, but it also shed light on how writing is not just a straight forward process.

 

 

 

 

Fiasco: Our Story

Credits B Rosen 

I’m not going to lie, I felt pretty overwhelmed going into the meeting with my Fiasco group. I had looked over the instructions on how to play the game, but I was very confused about how the whole thing worked.

When I met with my group, it took us almost an hour to get started because we couldn’t quite grasp the concept; however we decided that, whatever we didn’t understand, we would just improvise. We first chose Boomtown as our playset because we found the name captivating. Then, we each determined our relationships with those around us. My relationship with the person to my left was that we were both Chinese Opium sellers and the person to my right and I were both criminals; this ended up working perfectly for me because I was a criminal who sold Chinese Opium. Our story turned out to be an odd and dramatic one; odd in the sense that we all wanted to kill people in the story. For example, Frunk Trump (the person to my right) and I turned out to be secret lovers and it was my goal to kill him. I teamed up with one of the players and we were going to go kill him. All the while, Frunk was at the dentist where player 4 was selling Chinese Opium. Yes, this part of our story was odd indeed, but hilarious to recount. It was interesting to see how, although we would have to choose weird objects or needs, we were able to connect them all to produce a story that, although not completely realistic, was indeed enjoyable. As we fell into the flow of telling our story, I continued to gain more and more confidence in what I wanted to say and how specific I was in my moves. I was originally scared to maybe say something foolish or out of place, but I noticed that the main point of Fiasco is to make this game your own; it’s a great way to let go and create your own story. As a group, I think that we all worked well together. We all seemed to have the same mindset of making our story playful and entertaining as opposed to a structured and serious one. For example, I wanted to kill my secret lover, another player kills the current mayor and takes over, and so on. Neither of us was concentrated in winning, we were just focused on having fun by creating a story of our own; one that was interconnected and engaging. All in all, I think that we did a great job at creating our story. Although we might’ve misread a couple of the rules, we still made it work. We all worked together and, whenever it was needed, we helped each other add to the story. By the time we finished, I felted relieved and content: relieved that playing the game didn’t turn out to be a disaster just like I thought and I was content with what we had produced.

Starting the game was indeed hard, but getting into the flow of the game turned out to be rather easy for us. We didn’t use any particular strategies that I can recall, but what we did do was pitch in good ideas when one of us didn’t know how to continue the story. Also, my group was very good at being patient and explaining certain rules or turns when someone didn’t understand. I think that these qualities were what helped us succeed. Playing Fiasco was definitely unlike anything I had ever done. It’s weird to think of this game as a form of writing, but after having played it I realized that it really is. You’re creating a story with very little guidance; we were able to be as explicit or as concise as we wanted to be within our turns and we were able to each add a significant piece to the story. This was without a doubt a great way to explore a new form of writing and broaden our perception of what can account for being a written piece. With this, we definitely put into use our rhetorical composition learning objective. By playing Fiasco we were able to explore a new form of writing while adapting our story to any new constraints that came up. It put into play not only our teamwork skills, but also our creativity. We also exercised the writing as a process learning objective because we all had to pitch in ideas and new plays which in the end led to a conclusion. It took a lot of different plays and moves from each of the players involved to create the final product.

All in all, playing Fiasco was a great experience. The feeling of confusion in the beginning later turned into excitement which allowed me to become fully engaged in the game and take the most out of it.

Reflection – Fiasco

Suburban Zebra by flickr user MariAn[the Fog]

It is incredible that with merely dices, tables and index cards, players are able to orchestrate a story and tie all bits of seemingly irrelevant information together in a coherent chain. Before playing Fiasco, I was nervous about the fact that I have to improvise in the game, worrying that I might make up a boring story. Yet through the game, I discovered the wealth of my creative mind by piecing together scenes established by other players and identifying the logic inside it. Together we formed a comprehensive, consistent and attractive fiction with an unexpected ending.

My character, Julliet Grande, shared a criminal relationship with Crazy Carl, the character of the player sitting on my right, who made drug deals. While Crazy Carl was in urgent need to earn money from his deals, Julliet, an already respected drug lord, in fact wanted to earn appreciation from her boss (the character of the player on the left) of a medical institution where she worked as a client as her main job. The story took a twisted turn and became snaky when my object was “information”, and my boss with another player Jamie Jones, a divorced man who tried to obtain weeds, shared a mutual secret of mutilating and murdering. By joining the two facts together, I actively spoke up in the game and gave birth to the climax when I claimed I knew their secret, using it as a bargaining chip to publish my under-appreciated medical research paper, while leaking the secret to Jamie’s resentful ex-wife. This insidious act connected me with Jamie’s ex-wife, who was Carl’s sibling and thus also became involved in drug deals. Together we three formed an alliance against my boss and Jamie. The end act occurred in a shopping mall where Carl lured Jamie out on the pretense of selling drugs and intended to kill him in revenge for his divorced sibling. Yet my boss who went to meet Jamie was mistakenly shot and died immediately; at the same time the police, whom I called to investigate the secret murder, arrived and arrested both men.

It is noted that through this game-play experience, we subconsciously applied multiple principles for writing fictions. Fiasco is more like composing a story than simply having fun. The game itself resembles a brainstorming process, where we bring together pieces of information and create a whole picture, filling gaps by improvisation and imagination. For example, a need for conflict was never implied in the relationship between me and my boss, yet in order to mediate my two identities as a drug dealer as well as a normal client, I created this conflict to ensure that everything made sense. There is also an irony of situation when most people didn’t get what they longed for due to the natural development of the game. Such irony brought about an unforeseen yet understandable ending which is commonly considered as a trait of fiction.

Still, playing Fiasco is not completely identical to my traditional approach to writing a story. The game proposes a new way of writing which really helps me with rhetorical composition. The difference between this gameplay and the other work I’ve done is that “I didn’t do those with prior planning or purpose”.  While I usually have an idea of what is going on when writing an essay, the skills and strategies employed in Fiasco, such as creating the conflict and devising the vicious scheme, just came along spontaneously. There was no intention, no careful planning. The fact that we composed an appealing and structured plot despite the lack of outlining in advance shed a new light on my future writing method. As opposed to careful planning before writing, as I usually do, I learned that I could just set up a background and develop some clues, through which my thoughts are provoked and my story grows by itself.

Also, through Fiasco, collaboration of group members is invoked as we joined together to brainstorm and inspired each other during the process. A single step of one player can affect that of another. Therefore such domino effect requires us to align our thought processes in order to complete the plot.

It is wonderful to see the process of scattered information converging into a fluid and rich river. Overall, I believe that I really did improve my writing through this thought-provoking gaming experience.

Fiasco and Frenzy

Gathering around to take part in a game you have very little knowledge of is no doubt a bit intimidating. Personally, I didn’t know what to expect and I could probably say that about my group mates as well. Automatically, I thought the process would take way longer than it actually did because of the general uncertainty of what we were doing. It was the first time any of us had played a tabletop roleplaying game, but I thought I could learn to appreciate this form of gaming as it was as our session progressed.

Starting off we all were assigned really strange, peculiar roles and it was comical at first, but then we all realized we’d have to form relations and try to connect a story amongst us all. After the relationships had been settled between all the players, we found it difficult to start of the story in a way that would make sense for all of our characters. We got a solid story started up after a while and as we moved forward, we all became better at progressing the story. I’ve never done improve before, so I’d admit it was difficult coming up with a story on the top of my head, but it became increasingly easier as the mood got lighter amongst us all. The general narrative that we created surprisingly made sense in the end and connected all of our characters. I was the only one to survive in the end, but even then I still had a very unfortunate ending by being ‘dead on the inside’.

I’m very proud of the narrative we all contributed to and felt all of us had an important part in making it such a comical yet sadistic one. At first I was unsure how this game would compare to a work of literature, but after experiencing it, I completely understand how this game is a work of fiction. Taking creative ideas and forming and organizing them into a narrative this way is no different than actually writing an essay, book, or other medium of literature. Looking at it more broadly, all games in general provide their own narrative that players experience and playthrough. Every players’ gameplay differs, so in a sense every player creates their own narratives based on their own ideals and logical thinking.

Initially, I didn’t know what role I’d take on or if I’d even be an important one, but after playing through Fiasco, it was clear every character had a huge impact on the narrative and I think that’s very unique about this game. Compared to the majority of times when I’m writing literature, this game stood out particularly because it was collaborative and was based on what the person before you wrote. I’m used to independent writing and forming my own thoughts and ideas to put in the form of an essay, but this experience definitely opened my eyes up to other forms of literature that don’t necessarily mean literally writing on a sheet of paper by yourself.

This assignment was definitely an experience that I’ll never forget and has taught me a lot about writing in general and the different forms of media a narrative can live through. I feel as I’ve progressed in this one experience alone by improving my improv and vocal storytelling skills to create stories. This assignment also allowed me to experience more collaborative approaches to literature and how many can drive a story at once. Overall, I really enjoyed playing Fiasco and wouldn’t mind playing again or introducing it to my friends in the future.

Fiasco and Frenzy

Gathering around to take part in a game you have very little knowledge of is no doubt a bit intimidating. Personally, I didn’t know what to expect and I could probably say that about my group mates as well. Automatically, I thought the process would take way longer than it actually did because of the general uncertainty of what we were doing. It was the first time any of us had played a tabletop roleplaying game, but I thought I could learn to appreciate this form of gaming as it was as our session progressed.

Starting off we all were assigned really strange, peculiar roles and it was comical at first, but then we all realized we’d have to form relations and try to connect a story amongst us all. After the relationships had been settled between all the players, we found it difficult to start of the story in a way that would make sense for all of our characters. We got a solid story started up after a while and as we moved forward, we all became better at progressing the story. I’ve never done improve before, so I’d admit it was difficult coming up with a story on the top of my head, but it became increasingly easier as the mood got lighter amongst us all. The general narrative that we created surprisingly made sense in the end and connected all of our characters. I was the only one to survive in the end, but even then I still had a very unfortunate ending by being ‘dead on the inside’.

I’m very proud of the narrative we all contributed to and felt all of us had an important part in making it such a comical yet sadistic one. At first I was unsure how this game would compare to a work of literature, but after experiencing it, I completely understand how this game is a work of fiction. Taking creative ideas and forming and organizing them into a narrative this way is no different than actually writing an essay, book, or other medium of literature. Looking at it more broadly, all games in general provide their own narrative that players experience and playthrough. Every players’ gameplay differs, so in a sense every player creates their own narratives based on their own ideals and logical thinking.

Initially, I didn’t know what role I’d take on or if I’d even be an important one, but after playing through Fiasco, it was clear every character had a huge impact on the narrative and I think that’s very unique about this game. Compared to the majority of times when I’m writing literature, this game stood out particularly because it was collaborative and was based on what the person before you wrote. I’m used to independent writing and forming my own thoughts and ideas to put in the form of an essay, but this experience definitely opened my eyes up to other forms of literature that don’t necessarily mean literally writing on a sheet of paper by yourself.

This assignment was definitely an experience that I’ll never forget and has taught me a lot about writing in general and the different forms of media a narrative can live through. I feel as I’ve progressed in this one experience alone by improving my improv and vocal storytelling skills to create stories. This assignment also allowed me to experience more collaborative approaches to literature and how many can drive a story at once. Overall, I really enjoyed playing Fiasco and wouldn’t mind playing again or introducing it to my friends in the future.

Fiasco – A Way to Heal Writer’s Block

As I sat to play Fiasco, I has mixed feelings. The games are designed for entertainment yet playing it is my English assignment. As well as that this game is the first multi player game of a sort that we encountered in our class, so group work would be crucial. However, as we started playing, we felt more comfortable with each other. From creating the relationships between the characters to interacting with each other and developing the plot we were able to design a unique story. Thus, as the game developed I was surprised how engaging it was to create a story together.

I like writing; however it is a very intimate process for me. Editing would be the only time I would be fine in working as a group when it comes to writing. Thus, the fact that we created a story altogether with such an ease was very surprising. Now that I look back I realize that we followed the same process that I would if I were to be writing alone. First the setting, then the characters and the relationship between them must be established. From then on we can slowly make the characters to interact and drive the story to the climax. The only difference from my way of creating the story and the one we used when playing Fiasco was its start.

I find it rather difficult to start a story in medias res, however Fiasco does it easily. As we established the relationships and their details, some conflicts already came under the light before we even started to play. For example, Jake’s character and mine were divorced and I was seeking revenge for the way he treated me. As well as that Christine’s and Jakes’ relationship’s detail was something they shared in the past. This already created a possible mystery. These details made the story intriguing from the start.

The way how we cooperated throughout the game was also quite interesting. At first I thought that it would be extremely hard for a person to understand what I mean and act accordingly, however we were all quick to catch the cues. Granted, sometimes the replies would raise a couple of eyebrows; for example, in Jake’s opinion the secret that he and Christine shared was a romantic relationship. However she surprised him by suddenly saying: “Someone found the body”. Little yet crucial things like that helped to not only develop the plot but added the spice to the game as you had to react accordingly and very quickly.  This reminded me of some theater exercises that my English professor did in my high school. What is said is said, and you cannot take it back. You must go along and develop the plot. If things do not go your way, then you need to adapt and still try to reach your desired result.

The last thing that I found very enjoyable in this game is that somehow by the end we tied all the characters together. One way or another all of us were connected and were in the same place during the climax. These connections reminded me of a movie Pulp Fiction where in the end all the characters are somehow related. The fact that this was not planned but happened as the story developed was even more peculiar. We were trying to make sure that the story makes sense and in the end involved everyone. Also, again without any specific intentions, we had some character developments as well. For example, my character went form a housewife that cherished her engagement ring to a drug successful drug dealer that got all the revenge she wanted.

Truthfully, I did not expect to be that engaged in a table top game. Playing this game was very like writing a story, however it has its own little differences, which is why I would recommend this game to anyone who is having a writer’s block. This game helps one to look at writing from a new perspective that can give some crucial insights. As well as that one would enjoy it if they have a good company.

Fiasco Scheduling

You’re going to play Fiasco next week. For starters, I’ve created a Doodle poll that includes an entire week in 3-hour overlapping blocks from 10a until midnight. Please respond to the poll and just denote each three hour block that you’re free. Count our class period on Th as free for the purposes of the poll, because I am cancelling the class period to facilitate gameplay scheduling. (I’ve made the times overlapping because if I put on the poll noon to 3 and then 3 to 6, maybe lots of you would be available from 1 – 4 but would mark no to each of those two. Does that make sense?)

So just indicate any 3-hour windows you’re available and I will see how difficult it is to create groups of 3-5 of you that include the entire class. I understand that it’s possible this process won’t work, and if it doesn’t we’ll go to a plan B but let’s see how it goes.

 

Fiasco

Due: 11/21

Once your Fiasco play group has finished playing, make sure as a group that you’ve filled out the Google sheet for your game session — note which playset you chose, the setup information, the dice rolls for Tilt and the Tilt details chosen, and the rolls for the Aftermath and the result from the Aftermath table. This information will help you to reflect on the game session.

Then each of you should write your own Fiasco reflection posts, in the form of an essay with complete paragraphs not as a list of bullet point answers (500 – 750 words total). I’ve divided up the questions below along two lines, but structure your essay however is best for your argument. Your essay does not need to start with part 1 and then move to part 2. Ultimately, your reflection essay should be an argument where you explicate what you observed in the process, rather than a narrative.

As you reflect on playing Fiasco, I want you to think about the game session itself as a kind of writing while also thinking about the reflection on the experience as a writing exercise. In other words, for this assignment the primary text that you composed is the Fiasco game session and now you’re writing a reflective essay about that writing. Think about and explain in your essay how the game session itself and the reflection you are writing about it bring you to fulfilling the learning objectives for this course.

Note that there are way too many questions below for you to address all of them. You should read over all of them and spend some time thinking about each, then choose to specifically address the ones that will lead to the most thoughtful reflective essay.

Describe the Experience

Without just recounting the narrative in briefer form, describe what the game session was like. Identify some of the key choices that you made (for example, you should definitely indicate which playset you chose and identify the relationships you defined with the two players to left and right, at least) and give a sense of the type of story that you created with the other players in your group. Instead of retelling the story that your group wrote collectively, step back and consider the shape of that story and describe it:

  • What sort of story did you tell?
  • What sort of characters and conflicts did it contain?
  • How did the plot unfold?
  • What sorts of narrative moves did you all make together?
  • How did your Aftermath montage play out?
  • Are you proud of the Fiasco story that you crafted?
  • Look over the list of literary terms on the course site and think about how your story employed these devices.
  • How did playing Fiasco give you insight into elements of fiction or narrative structures, and can you apply these insights to other types of literature (video games, comic books, movies, or traditional literary texts)?
  • How was the experience of playing a tabletop RPG similar to, or different from, playing a video game RPG?

As you describe the experience, you should also explain your own feelings and choices during the process:

  • How did you feel at the start?
  • What were you expecting and were you surprised by aspects of the game session?
  • What sorts of roles did you individually take on during the game session?
  • Were there certain times when you were more active or more forceful versus other times when you sat back and invited others to drive the plot forward?
  • Did you take on particular roles during game play (were you the one always turning the story towards comedy? or the one always bringing darker elements in? were you the one keeping the group focused on moving the plot forward or always pulling off towards digressions? were you consistently narrowing or broadening focus?
  • Were you more interested in role-playing your character directly (acting the part) or in describing scenes from an outside perspective?

Pattern Recognition and Learning Outcomes

In your reflection essay, you should also identify patterns that you noticed in your own behavior and thinking and the story that you created. Identify which of the learning outcomes you fulfilled during the process of game play — name and link to the specific outcomes, while providing at least a sentence or two explaining how this composition speaks to that outcome.

You might also address some of these questions:

  • Were the strategies, skills and procedures you used effective during gameplay?
  • Do you see any patterns in how you approached your role in the writing of this story?
  • How was playing Fiasco similar to or different from the other work you’ve done this semester?
  • What have you learned about your strengths and areas in need of improvement?
  • How are you progressing as a learner?
  • How can you apply the skills you used in crafting this Fiasco story to future writing projects? Where can you use these skills again?
  • What was the most interesting aspect of writing a Fiasco story?