Fiasco, Etc.

I recently played Fiasco with the Monday night Doomslakers. It was my first experience with GMless RPGs. Overall, I had a lot of fun. But that was mainly because that's my crew and we always have fun. So what about the game itself?

To be specific, we played a Cthulhu-esque version or playset.

I am not sure how I feel about the game. I hesitate to criticize it because I don't believe I "get it" yet. Favorably, I can say it is brilliant and interesting. Perhaps if I'd read the rules completely I'd have a more robust comprehension. But who can be bothered to do that?

I was confused about how the game is supposed to proceed. I believe this is because my gaming history is almost 100% based in "traditional" (the cool kids say "trad") gaming, so I'm expecting loose RP until things heat up, then some kind of turn order with a person in charge. But GMless games, of course, aren't like that. They have a story structure strictly imposed by the game's rules. Because that's how you generate an actual story... otherwise it's a series of random follies that you can later describe as a story.

I confess I prefer the latter. It's my bag.

But since I've only dipped my toes in GMless and/or story gaming (we're playing My Life With Master now) I am reluctant to offer real criticisms of any of these games. It's not you, it's me, baby.

ASIDE: It is not lost on me that I was involved in early story games development and contributed a modest entry to their history with The Pool and The Questing Beast. But as I've said many times in the intervening years I really never played my games much. Just a handful of times, really. For example, the Monday night group has been meeting every week for over 5 years and we've never played either of my old games, nor have I even suggested or desired to do so. And my games are still structured as GM/Player, with fairly simple narrative tools. To this day in almost every game design I brainstorm there is something akin to the Monologue of Victory from The Pool. I do love that concept and I think it's quite nice in play. But maybe... maybe that's the full extent of my interest in leaning toward ye olde "N" in the G/N/S framework (which, as I understand it, is way out of favor these days... sort of like promoting Lamarckism at university after 1900 - the internet moves fast).

ASIDE 2: Hah! The Questing Beast (TQB) has one star rating in each star category except 1-star! I suppose I should be grateful for that. But it's still funny how people will get a free game and then give it a low rating... like there's not enough salt in the soup at the soup kitchen, ya beggars. lol