Traditionally, you don’t plan ahead in a Fiasco game. Play to find out is sort of the core idea here, letting everyone establish/resolve their own scenes, leaning into the established details, and trusting that the tilt table halfway through will turn it all into a Fiasco.

However, the Writer Emergency Pack assumes that I have some idea of what’s going on to answer the questions and do the exercises within some context. Hence, I find it helpful to create a very rough, very broad outline. When I wrote The Honeymoon, I outlined the first act in quite a bit of detail, which ended up changing a lot in the actual writing thanks to the cards. The second act had a way simpler outline–just an initial idea for the setup of a given scene.

With that in mind, here is the outline for act 1 for Rat Trap. I also randomly determined whether a given scene is good or bad (white or black die). In the first act, you are supposed to give your earned die to another player, but I’ll determine this based on what actually happens in the scene.

• Scene 1: Bill (black): Bill drives to meet the “new guy” with Jay while flashing back to a meeting with the boss.
• Scene 2: Ash (white): Ash hits rock bottom and is given one last chance to pick herself up.
• Scene 3: Jay (white): Jay is excited about the job and fills them in on the plan: blow up a train to mess with a rival of the Boss.
• Scene 4: Bill (black): Bill corners Ash to talk, desperately wanting her to run away with him from this job.
• Scene 5: Ash (white): Ash finds herself torn between Bill and the Boss.
• Scene 6 Jay (black): Jay sets up the bomb inside of the train.

That’s it. This gives me enough of an idea of how I want the general thing to go, while leaving it way open for whatever will actually happen. This outline establishes how the gang comes together and uses the Weapon: Bomb and Detonator. They are key to Bill and Jay’s relationship, and a central plot point that will probably be part of the tilt in some way, shape, or form. The cards will surely change a bunch of this, or at least lead in interesting directions. I’ll do the same for the second act once we get there and establish the tilt elements.