This week in Tabletop Leadership we played Fiasco. Fiasco is a role-playing game in which 3-5 players develop characters, relationships, objects, and locations together to create a scenario. These scenarios will either end good or badly, depending on how your mates perceive your situation. In my opinion, the hardest part of the game is understanding the point of it. It is very different from any game I’ve ever played. I struggled to understand what the overall goal is. Even when I knew how to play the game, I would get lost in the set up phase because there were a lot of characteristics to remember and keep track of. That is why it is good to write notes while you play!

Fiasco ties to leadership because it requires a lot of thinking ahead. If you are on top of everything then you can manipulate situation so that it goes well for your character. Leadership is all about influencing others. In Fiasco, your characters can be very influencing and you can steer the direction of the story to your favor. That is why I believe my friend Alex would enjoy this game. I see him as a natural leadership and he would want to get a full grasp on the situation within the game. He would be good at influencing others to help his character out and find the best possible solutions for the end.

In week 1, my group was only able to complete the set up phase. The session ended as soon as we named our characters. It wasn’t hard to figure out how to pick die and develop the characters, so we went faster as the game went on. None of us have played before which is why it took longer for set up than some other groups. I believe the session went well and we are all excited to see how it goes next week. I don’t have a complaint about the game, however I am worried about how well I’ll do while playing. I’m not particular skilled on improvisation, so coming up with scenes might be a bit difficult for me. Luckily the rest of my group seems to have a good handle on the game and I’m excited to see how crazy this story can get.