Author: Stefan

Writer Emergency Fiasco

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A long time ago, in a different world, I committed to a writing exercise using two pivotal tools: Fiasco and the Writer Emergency Pack. A twelve-week journey that allowed me to play Fiasco solo and led to the creation of my novella, Honeymoon.

Let me talk about these two things real quick.

Fiasco

Logo of the game Fiasco

Fiasco is a role playing game designed by Bully Pulpit Games about people with high ambitions and poor impulse control. It’s as rules-light as a TTRPG can come, GM-less, and really more of an improv game, rather than a game about classes and powerful builds. In fact, you don’t even really build a character. Instead you determine the relationships between your characters, what is important to them, and create a story from there.

The goal of the game is to create an all-too-human story of flawed people trying to get ahead in life, pushing the envelope too much, too far, until it all descends into one hell of a–uh–fiasco. Think of caper movies, gangsters and mobsters, of people down on their luck and desperate. Coen Brothers movies, Breaking Bad, that kind of stuff.

Wil Wheaton and friends did an amazing playthrough of Fiasco on his old Geek & Sundry show, Tabletop. In fact, that episode is what made me aware of the game in the first place, and I did everything I could to get my hands on a copy of the book. I recommend watching the setup bonus episode, as well as the two parts of them actually playing the game. It’s a fun watch.

It’s the perfect game for writers and actors, but I have had fun playing with all sorts of people that like to play TTRPGs.

In Fiasco, you roll a handful of dice (four per player) and use the results to pick details from a list of relationships, needs, locations, and objects. These are provided by themed playsets that are meant to invoke a specific type of story.

Sample playset page from the playset “Roadkill” by Christine Roth.

Since it’s based on dice, the setup is somewhat random, so you never really know what you get when you sit down to play Fiasco. Each player gets to create or play out a scene on their turn to, hopefully, get their character ahead in the game. Each scene has a simple resolution mechanic: it’s either bad for them, or it’s good. When starting a new scene, the player can choose whether they get a good or bad outcome, but they are at the mercy of the other players, who get to establish the scene for them. Or they can choose to establish, maybe putting themselves in a good frame for the scene, but the others get to decide whether the scene resolves good or bad for them. During your scene, others play their characters or other NPC that might be part of it.

There are no systems or rules for the scenes themselves. It’s pure narrative exploration of characters and their goals and drives. The random elements determined at the start might play a role in a given scene, but it’s about as freeform as it can get.

The game has a few more rules past that, such as the Tilt Table that is rolled on halfway through the game, which introduces two really–really–bad twists for the characters. Also, at the end, there is a system for determining the Aftermath for all of your characters, which is based on the amount of good and bad scenes you had. These are represented by white and black dice–you get to roll all the ones you collected at the end. The more dice of a color you have, the better your chances for some decent outcome. But don’t count on that.

Writer Emergency Pack

The Writer Emergency Pack by John August of Quote Unquote Press is a deck of cards meant to help you get unstuck during your writing. Focus on your current scene, characters, or whatever else is going on, draw a card, and get inspired by it. Each card has two sides. The first has a title, art, and a quote to inspire you. The other has a few sentences explaining the idea behind that card, and a short list of exercises to help you think about your story or characters in different and new ways. They don’t tell what to do, they just get you thinking in new or interesting ways about what is you are already doing. Even if the card’s themes and exercise don’t fit your current situation at all, sometimes it can be helpful to just think through what-ifs to get the creativity flowing again.

It’s a great tool to have for any writer–random prompts and thought exercises are always a good way to break through the infamous writer’s block.

Writer Emergency Fiasco

So, how does all of this work together as a writing exercise?

First of, I use Fiasco to set up a situation. I pick a playset, roll some dice, and put together relationships and the details that are important to them. With all that in mind, I come up with characters and some backgrounds, as well as an initial situation. Given the nature of Fiasco, I don’t really need to plot out a lot of details ahead of time. All I need to know is who the characters are and in which order they get to act out their scenes. Usually, you simply go clockwise around the table. In this case, I’d determine it randomly or just decide.

From this point on, I essentially just “play” the game, establishing one scene at a time, writing a piece of short fiction for each. I decide randomly whether a given scene should resolve good or bad for the character, I will roll on the tilt table after everyone got their two scenes, and so on. Standard Fiasco stuff.

Here’s the twist, though: I will draw a card from the Writer Emergency Pack for every single scene. I will think about the card, get inspired, do the exercises on the back, and let the card be the prompt for the fiction. The thing with solo roleplaying is that it’s heavily reliant on prompts. Oracles, spark tables, random events–all tools to replace the GM and their guidance. In this case, the Pack will serve that function for each scene.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I have done this once before, like a decade ago. The playset I used was called “Roadkill” by Christine Roth. It’s inspired by movies like Thelma And Louise, From Dusk Till Dawn, True Romance, Natural Born Killers, Stand By Me, Heartbreakers; Kleine Haie, O Brother, Where Art Thou, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. As well as TV shows like Breaking Bad.

I created three characters and their relationships, writing one scene a week. Before each scene, I would draw a card and write a post working through how it would work. And after each scene, I would write a post summing up of how I ended up writing what I did, how the card helped, and so. It was a great exercise, and ended up in me writing a short novella called “Honeymoon.” You can read all about here–I documented the entire process over on my old blog, which was more focused on writing and other topics.

Anyway. Here I am, wanting to do it again. I’ve been wanting to get back into writing for a while now, and I’m also trying to find a use for this new blog, which is focused on TTRPG. And, well, playing Fiasco as an exercise in creating fiction seems to serve both ambitions well enough.

Well. First I would need to do is pick a playset. And there are so many of them online–from Office-like satire setups to Buffy-style vampires, the community has been creating amazing playsets for years now. After reading through a bunch of them, to be honest, I came back to Roadkill. It’s just the sort of story I really enjoy. It’s small, personal, messy. I also decided on using three characters again–just a simple triangle of people about to drive off the cliff, so to speak (or for real, who knows).

I won’t bore you with the details of how we got here, but I rolled the dice (4 for each character) and got the relationships. Here is what I have so far:

Relationship: Crime, Undercover cop and criminal
Object: Weapon, Bomb and Detonator

Relationship: Work, Both Want That Promotion
Location: In Public, Table In A Fast Food Joint

Relationship: Romance, Love Long Lost
Need: To Get Away, And Start Over

In the next post, I’ll dive deeper into the trio of characters attached to these relationships and details. For now, I leave you with their names: Bill, Ash, Jay. Simple, common, just a bunch of regular people about to get sucked into one hell of a fiasco (have I made this joke before?).

I think that’s it for now.

I strongly recommend you check out Fiasco. It’s just a fantastic game that can be played in an evening. They released a new card-based version of Fiasco a few years back, making it a bit more accessible. But I still prefer the classic version using dice and playsets.

The Writer Emergency Pack is also a fantastic tool for writers. It’s not really meant to be used to kickstart every single scene of your writing, as I am using it here, but more to help you think about your story in new and unexpected ways when you feel stuck or lost.

My goal is to write one scene a week, as well as the pre and post scripts about the cards and the general progress of the story. If all goes well, this is not last time you hear of Bill, Ash, and Jay, and their high ambitions and poor impulse control.

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDay2025 Day 30/31: Experience/Reward

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Much to my dislike, I had to skip a day. It happens. But at least now I get to wrap up the #RPGaDay2025 event with a nice pairing of prompts: Experience and Reward.

I started this blog about a month ago, coinciding with this challenge. The reason for this was a desire to talk about TTRPGs that I enjoy, that I’m working on, that excite me. And while I missed the first few days of RPGaDay, I got caught up quickly and have been using it to post something every day.

I tried to draw from my own experiences with the hobby–from running games, to interacting with design, to the social aspect if it all. I didn’t want to just talk about things that happen within a game, but wanted to be meta, approach it through the eyes of someone who wants to create within and around TTRPG. Share my insights, knowledge, experiences, and struggles.

And here we are now. I found this experience quite rewarding. I used to write a lot some years ago–a few finished(ish) manuscripts, some shorter stories, and so on. But I fell off for some reason or another, focusing my creative endeavors more on running games, prepping and making up stories. Which has been just as rewarding and fulfilling, to be fair, but damn, I always wanted to get back to putting words down. Find and improve my voice. My style. And this blog is part of that ambition. And this challenge was a great way to kickstart it all.

This is all still new, and my reach is virtually zero, but, if you’re someone who read along throughout the month: Thank you.

In the coming months, I hope to dig more into actual game-related posts. I’m sitting on a near-finished draft of a celebration and deep dive into one of my favorite games, Spectaculars. I also want to dig into some other games that strongly influenced what kind of GM and player I am. Plus lots of other stuff I want to try out. And, of course, I want to talk more about Project Star Quest, as well as some other unrelated game design ideas I have.

So, yeah. To wrap this up, let me say that #RPGaDay2025 has been a quite rewarding experience. Which is kind of poetic, no?

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDay2025 Day 29: Connect

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TTRPGs are inherently social engagements. More so than they are about rules, about setting or genre, about the characters or their stories. They are about us, the people playing them. Spending time together once a week, a month, whatever it takes, for several hours. Talking about them between sessions. Dreaming and arguing and just hanging out around this hobby, this shared entertainment. Yeah, they’re just games, but the time we carve out from our hectic lives, that’s real. That matters.

Back in my day, we would decide to get together to play games (sometimes on a whim the day of). What we would play and who would run would be decided after we got together. It’s just one of the things we did, like going to the bar or seeing a movie. These days, in my anecdotal experience, it seems like games are often more structured. There’s a GM or two who always run, there’s a set date or dates, and the group meets to play for a a few hours before logging off again. Then again, I’m exclusively playing online now (for reasons), so by view may be skewed a bit.

One thing I’ve learned in recent years just how important it is to maintain your connections and relations with the other players. To me, running and playing games is still very personal, despite the online-only nature of it. When we get together to play every Sunday at to 2pm local time, I’d like to feel like I’m hanging out with friends. That it’s not just a time slot being filled for another online game. To that end, I’d like to surround myself with people that’d like to be part of a group, as well. Not an easy thing to do in general, let alone online. But it’s worth trying, I think.

And it’s work, not going to lie. Whenever I’m looking for a new player, which happens on occasion as peoples’ schedules shift, I try to have a long, honest conversation with whoever shows interested in my pitch. I try to make it as clear as I can that I’m looking for someone to join this group, not just a single game for a few hours. Like joining a team, I guess. It’s a tall order, for sure. Joining an established online group as the new person, it’s intimidating. But I try my best to establish some connection ahead of time. Find common interests, talk about our experiences with games, with the hobby. And I always offer a straight up mulligan–we reserve the right to just say “Thanks, but it’s not working,” if things indeed aren’t working out after a few sessions. This, instead of ghosting or starting drama. Set expectation for each other. Most of the time, it works well, even if it’s not working out in the long run. Sometimes, there’s still drama, but at least we tried.

These days, we hang out on our personal Discord server. I’m the admin, and I organize most events and schedules. But I try not to be in charge if I can help it. I don’t tell people what they can and can’t talk about, unless it’s toxic in some sense (which doesn’t really happen). I do my best to make it feel like a community, a bunch of friends hanging out. And I think it’s working. People chat, hang out. They are getting excited about upcoming games, argue over movies, even play video games together. Whether I’m there or not.

But it is work. It’s a constant effort to keep people involved, engage each other. Luckily, I’m not alone. Some of the members are more active, more chatty, keeping this small, private server alive. And all I can do is be grateful for that. For my friends.

I never want being part of this group feel like a chore. I always reassure everyone that they never need to give a reasons if they can’t make a game. Just a heads-up that they won’t be there. No excuses, no hard feelings.

Don’t take your gaming friends for granted. Even if they’re just words and voices on the other end of the internet. They’re real people, with real feelings and aspirations and problems. Treating online games like they’re just a time slot you fill to play another game might work for some groups. But playing with actual friends, on and offline, can deepen the experience. Make it more personal. More real. If you’re willing to put in the work.

It’s a social hobby, after all.

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDay2025 Day 28: Suspense

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I think the trick to introducing true suspense in a game is threefold:

Player buy-in is probably the most important part. If you want to run a game that relies on misinformation, lies, deception, and incomplete knowledge, the players should be settled on that ahead of time. Some games aren’t really made for mystery or thriller type games, so players might expect that they can ask questions and roll dice until they get a full picture. Telling them upfront that you will leave things hanging a lot, fade out of scenes right after a shocking discovery without a chance for them to interact with until they exhaust their options, that’s a crucial step to make true suspense feel cinematic and grounded.

Which brings me to second important part: leave things hanging. Suspense is built on not having all the answers, on leaving gaps. On pieces of information that don’t fully line up. Even dice rolls shouldn’t always yield all the answers, with the exceptions of whatever version of critical rolls the game provides–those should lead to breakthroughs. True information, dramatic reveals.

And that’s the third part, then. Some clues must just be given. They must be complete, true, and sensible. You can’t gate all information behind skill checks and luck. If a character would be able to learn something useful based on their background, learned skills, or other factors, just give it to them. No roll. No random luck. Don’t even wait for them to ask a question. Just make them feel smart for having chosen certain aspects of their character that now give them unique insights.

These three parts: Buy-in, Obfuscation, Revelation, are the key to good suspense. Juggling these, finding the balance between the lies and the truths, that’s a bit of a vibe. My advice would be to keep things short, unfinished, when you’re unsure whether characters should figure something out or not. Rely on dice in that case. Or be upfront without circling the subject too much, in a case where their characters should know something. Remind them. Help them.

Part of the buy-in is also player trust. If they have good ideas as they talk through their findings–in or out of character–join in the conversation. Reassure them of things that they know for sure are true, closing some of the distance between the facts of the story and what players might understand. Likewise, remind them of the uncertain elements, tease them a little. Make up some possibilities their characters might guess based on the same character aspects as giving them facts. Lead them down some train of thoughts. Manipulate them, even. And, of course, never confirm or deny anything that their characters can’t fully know–create contrast between the facts and the speculation.

Picture of a bookshelf with books who have each a prompt written on their spine. Daily Prompts 1) Patron 2) Prompt 3) Tavern 4) Message 5) Ancient 6) Motive 7) Journey 8) Explore 9) Inspire 10) Origin 11) Flavour 12) Path 13) Darkness 14) Mystery 15) Deceive 16) Overcome 17) Renew 18) Sign 19) Destiny 20) Enter 21) Unexpected 22) Ally 23) Recent 24) Reveal 25) Challenge 26) Nemesis 27) Tactic 28) Suspense 29) Connect 30) Experience 31) Reward Question Prompts (roll D6) 1) Who 2) What 3) Where 4) When 5) Why 6) How Mood Prompts (roll D10) 1) Envious 2) Nostalgic 3) Proud 4) Enthusiastic 5) Confident 6) Optimistic 7) Lucky 8) Grateful 9) Contemplative 10) Excited Subject Prompts (roll D8) 1) Adventure 2) Character 3) Genre 4) Rule 5) Accessory 6) Art 7) Person 8) Lesson

#RPGaDay2025 Day 27: Tactic

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I’ve been posting about RPGaDay most of the month now. Missed the first few days, but it’s been steady ever since. Lots of thoughts and ideas on running games, on game design, rules, concepts, as they relate to the daily prompts.

Truth be told, though, I don’t have a plan here. Every day brings a new prompt, and every day, I just sit down and write something that comes to mind. Often, I don’t even know what to write about until after it’s done. No plan, no tactic to the challenge. Just winging it.

That’s how I run my games, too. One session at a time. See what happens. Let the players lead me along with their ideas, react by solving their solutions to whatever problem is in front of them, then let their reactions inform my next step.

Now. That’s not to say I don’t have a vision. An ideal ending, a final destination. A goal to reach. I think that’s a writer thing? The planners and the pantsers–one plots the the whole thing they want to write, the other finds out as they go. Flies by the seat of their pants. That’s so totally me, for sure. I have some ideas of what should be coming up, which story beats I think are neat. Character reveals, twists, betrayals, all that. But I never really know when, where, how, why, what.

Running tactical games is a little different, of course. For that, I will seek out maps, plan encounters, balance and set up fights. In fact, it’s the most time I spend on planning my current games of Draw Steel. Because, I think, it’s important to have these things sorted out. Combats are complex, they take time, and there’s lots going on, so I make sure they’re designed well enough to keep it fun and interesting.

Story, though, it’s a lot more loose. To me, there are no facts until it’s said out loud in game. Maybe I had an idea for an NPC’s motivation toward the party. But if I have a better idea later on, based on more ideas and events, I will just change it. Most often, the players won’t know the difference, as they don’t see any notes I might have. I adjust narrative facts as I see fit, while respecting what’s established. Even if things have been established, things can be changed later within the context of the goings-on.

I have this tendency to throw in story beats, twists, reveals, which I never thought of before in the heat of the moment. Just a cool line of an NPC that doesn’t fit any of the things I jotted down up to this point. And then I will spend a week trying to square that circle, often pacing back and forth, or spending another sleepless night dreading about it. About why the fuck would I have done that in the last game?! And, pretty much all the time, I have these breakthrough moments. These ideas that just make it make sense. Using random prompts can help me get there, too. And if everything goes well, I can introduce these new ideas the next time–hopefully before I add something else unexpected I must deal with later. Ha.

The reason I’m telling you all of this is because I want to reassure everyone that it’s fine to just make shit up as you go. Here’s the secret: know your goals. Have a vision. Have an idea of where you want to land, without thinking about how you’ll get there. The game is the journey, after all. Players will pull and push your plans in every possible direction. No plans can withstand the, erm, creativity of player imagination.

Sly Flourish has a lot of good insights into running games in his Lazy DM series. Probably the best advice is to have a list of possible secrets the players could learn during the course of a sessions. And secrets could be all sorts of plot-related information. Just have that list of things you want them to learn, and insert them whenever it would makes sense. Whenever it feels right.

If there’s any tactic to running games, let it be this: Let it go. Know where you want to end up, and enjoy the ride there.