A proper Fiasco

I talk a lot about the importance of play. Usually, it's related to fitness and then I go on to talk about Parkour and the importance of exploring what you are physically capable of doing. It's all true and important and good and stuff.

But we can't do Parkour all day every day. Believe me, I've tried - and I have the scars and obscene grocery bills to prove it. Play takes many shapes and sizes - and it's all great as long as it challenges your creativity, triggers your imagination, and is fun. I am of course talking about playing games. Well, good games... not WarPorn 3 on your Playstation.

I have a new favorite game and I think you all should know about it. In fact, I think you all should play it.

The game is called Fiasco. You can find it here. Fiasco is, to oversimplify things, a role playing game. Unlike most RPGs (Dungeons and Dragons, etc.) there is no Game Master. There also aren't any strict objectives. Or winners. Or rules, really. Fiasco is all about creating characters and plots like a fantastically delicate and elaborate house of cards, then not just kicking it down, but stacking it full of dynamite and blowing it all to hell. If you like the Coen Brothers movies you know how this goes: small-time characters in WAY over their heads generally behaving badly.

This is accomplished by rolling a pool of dice and then taking turns using those dice to create a network of relationships between all the characters. Things like "The Past: War adversaries" or "Crime: Embezzler and company accountant." Then you add in some delightfully volatile details like Needs ("To get rich through a re-written will") Locations ("The old oak tree") and Objects ("100 feral cats" or "digital recorder, accidentally left recording") When this is done you and your friends are left with a delightfully unstable powder keg of a  situation ready for some good exploding.

The game proper is played out in a series of scenes. Yes, you need to act. In fact, you need to improvise. It's potentially scary if you've never done it before but BOY is it fantastic life training.

(I'm going to stop talking about the mechanics of Fiasco now... if you're interested in more of that, check out this review)

Improv requires embracing some seemingly contradictory ideas. You need to be focused and attentive, but also relaxed and open. You need to be ready to contribute your ideas but also be ready to accept somebody else's idea and run with it. In a word, you need to be Ready. This should sound very familiar to anyone who has ever thrown him/herself at a wall or practiced martial arts.

There are two general principles in improv. The first is called Agreement, also known as the "Yes, and" rule. If, during a scene, someone says to you, "What's with the watermelon, Valerie?" then your name is Valerie and you're holding a watermelon. Run with it. Maybe you were planning on being a mechanic named Steve, but that was 2 seconds ago and a lot has happened since then! Saying "Yes, and" to everything requires that you be completely open and adaptable. You need to think of everything people give you as a gift.

The other big principle is to give good gifts back - to be Generous. This requires good listening and the ability to remove yourself from the outcome. This is perhaps my favorite thing about improv and Fiasco in particular: to be good you need to strip away any thought of "winning." If there's no winning, then there's no losing. There is only action. There is The Moment. What a fantastic mindset to develop.

Of course, at it's most fundamental level, Fiasco is about going gonzo and creating delightfully funny catastrophes. It may seem silly to try to pull deep lessons out of a game that makes you pretend to try to somehow embezzle funds from the local Chicken Hut with an army of 100 feral cats and your sister-wife, but I think there's a lot of value in developing the skill set Fiasco promotes. After all, our lives are 100% improvised. If you are open, accepting, and Ready, great things will happen.

Oh, one last word about Fiasco, if you're not sold already. Every month the creaters release a new playset bursting with potential mayhem. I dare you to check out these scenarios and not find one that piques your interest.