This week we finished up our game of Fiasco and completed what the game calls the “aftermath”. In order to determine what path your character ends on, each player must add up the number of dice they have. Then depending on their sum and whether it was mostly white die “good” or red die “bad” they can red the aftermath cards and determine how good or painful of an ending their character gets. My character had a higher sum of the red die so my ending wasn’t as happy as I thought it was going to be because I got “rough”. Basically, I needed to come up with something bad that happens to my character so that they remember it as a lasting lesson. To do that I played off of what my “lover” in the game did and since we were cuddled up in the middle of the desert I had a rattlesnake bite me and had to have my foot amputated. All of which sucked but compared to the other players wasn’t that bad and I still ended up with my lover.

After we finished the game we wrapped up the class talking about some leadership skills such as beliefs, values, morals, and ethics. I thought it was interesting how we discussed where we learn which leadership skills apply to us while growing up. In my opinion, I think our leadership skills are highly influenced by our family/friends, school, and religion if we have one. The perspective that having integrity is not always a good thing came as a surprise to me. When I think of having integrity it seems like an inherently good thing, like we are honest and steadfast to our beliefs. However, if those beliefs and ideals that we hold could be evil ones thus making one’s integrity a bad thing.

The class discussion then prompted me to think about how my own beliefs, values, morals, and ethics were reflected in my gameplay. I think in the beginning I definitely tried to keep my character as similar to myself as possible but quickly learned that in Fiasco that is impossible and also makes for a boring plot. I then noticed how a switch occurred midway through the game when I started to make my character do and say things that I would not do in real life. It’s kinda scary how when presented with an opportunity with no real-life consequences we can choose to live vicariously through an imaginative character and be either the best or worse versions of ourselves. So what does it say about my integrity that I enjoyed playing a manipulative and deceitful wild west gangster?