Fiasconauts - Episode Ratings
Fiasco is an improv heavy role-playing game without the need for a game master. Players act out a movie, scene by scene, based on the relationships, needs, objects, and locations loosely chosen during the setup phase. The stories are all about powerful ambitions and poor impulse control.
Fiasconauts is a podcast where the hosts simply play Fiasco.
Fiasconauts on Spotify
Fiasconauts on Apple Podcasts
Ratings are out of 10
Episodes are listed in the order they were released from newest to oldest.
A T.O.S.S. Up on Tusk!
This chaotic setup had a lot of potential, but the players simply were not supporting any one direction to take the story and things progressed clumsily. Brandon has a funny character, the “School Dad”, and same for Huber who plays a plummer who thinks he’s the best at what he does but only breaks things. As soon as things are getting exciting, Jessica just pulls all the stakes out of the story and makes it so nothing matters at all.
Players = Huber, Brandon, Ian, and Jessica
Rating = 3
A Midsummer’s Nightmare
Sit back and watch the performance and backstage mishaps of a Shakespeare play which has been entirely re-written by the performers in an attempt to put on a good show so that the king will not hang them all! Playing as performers, all players do a great job with their improvisational Shakespearian lines, but no one does this as amazingly as Amanda who goes above and beyond with the thought put into her comedic rhymes. As the players act out their character’s roles in and outside the play, the story on either side of reality is a little hard to follow at times.
Players: Brandon, Amanda, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 7
And To All A Good Night!
The Christmas spirit is sending out its sense of joy and stress as people stumble into bad decisions on their way to a Christmas Carol recital. Brandon and Jessica’s characters create a meaningful bond as Carol duets while Ian and Amanda’s character similarly create a very genuine friendship. These two pairs of characters develop their stories separately for the most part—but meld together in the end very well. For once, the character’s relationships are not centered around sex—though Jessica forces in a very uncomfortable sexual mishap into an otherwise pleasant story.
Players: Brandon, Amanda, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 5
Fiasco Fiasco!
For this fiasco, the players act out people who are playing a fiasco—and this works out extremely well! Brandon acts so convincingly as the stereotypically narcissistic x-boyfriend. Ian plays the character we can most identify with—a woman with no surprises or hidden agendas who thought she would spend a nice night playing fiasco. Then there is the host of the story’s fiasco, Jessica’s character messes with everyone’s emotions as she tries to figure out her own. The relationships between these three characters are so deeply involving you’ll be wondering what might happen between each of them the whole time!
Players: Brandon, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 8
Hellmouth High
In the typical high school setting, vampires, vampire slayers, amateur supernatural investigators, and a gross fleshy form of a popular kid make up this fiasco. Unfortunately, Jessica’s character manages to make everything uncomfortably revolve around sex in weird ways. Huber does a good job of building mystery, Ian creates a terrifying monster, and Ben plays an interesting monster slayer character…but Jessica once again messes up a perfectly good fiasco.
Players: Huber, Ben, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 2
Hashtag Superheroes
Follow the story of reporters in a PR firm managing the public perception of superheroes…their clients. Sounds like an interesting fiasco right? …well it turns out this one is all about STDs while every character’s motive is driven by sex. This one went off the deep end with how uncomfortable and awkward it makes the listener. Special guests Janel and Andy do a great job picking up how to play.
Players: Janel, Andy, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 1
Malfiendish Manor
Vampires, those who are cursed to never die, and a heaping load of time travel encompass this wild fiasco. Ian does a good job playing a character who is trying to fix the world through time travel—as he has done several times. Huber plays the hilariously friendly and relaxed grandpa of Ian’s character who takes the bold steps to push the story into new dimensions. The story gets pretty chaotic, but they somehow tie together all the events and their little elements.
Players: Huber, Amanda, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 7
Alpha Complex
In an automated world, a clone is uploaded with your memories in the event of your death. This Fiasco sticks to it’s four main characters…or two characters and their clones. Ian does a good job building up a grand mystery to uncover, but is unable to figure out how to wrap it up himself. Newcomer Mary picks up the game quickly and does pretty well. She ends up resolving the whole mystery and its many facets near the end by herself. Jessica was tired and didn’t seem to enjoy being apart of the show at all. Her character is annoyingly over reactive and doesn’t play much of a role in adding to the story.
Players: Mary, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 2
Fiasco in the Federal Bureau of Control
In this multidimensional quietly strange workplace, mysteries abound in the cafeteria. The players struggle to find grounding to build a plot off of and end up with a really short and uninteresting story. Much of the character interactions and motives revolve around a marker which, by the end, does not play as significant of a role as a pastrami sandwich does. There is only one NPC character they bring in which didn’t manage to bring the much needed spice to this dull, sad story.
Players: Huber, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 2.5
Fiascopades in The City of Coin
This revisit of the city of Kalveed from the group’s Dungeons & Dragons podcast: Tabletop Escapades. I was very exited about this one as this city was a highlight from the other show and there is a lot of lore to pull from. However, this takes place before the events of the D&D podcast, so they are not able to tie in much of the characters from Tabletop Escapades and they don’t take advantage of the unique city’s characteristics. It is a five person Fiasconauts; Two interesting stories develop within this large group but they come together very poorly near the end. Kyle does leverage his character’s relationships very well setting things up for a good clash, but there is little payoff when the moment comes. Everything falls apart by the time they run out of scenes leaving things unresolved.
Players: Kyle, Huber, Ben, Brad, and Ian
Rating = 3
The Lodge
With an interesting skiing rivalry involving an NPC character that just doesn’t go anywhere, some dull relationship issues, and Jess getting drunk before they even get started…this one can be skipped. They had to crank up the wackiness at the end for the story to do anything. There is one particular profession that is hilarious and one NPC alluded to near the beginning shows up near the end for a few good laughs.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 3
Rainbow Mountain
Rainbow. Peek into the strange traditions and rules of an isolated cult community where Kyle’s character is in charge! This fiasco focuses on the investigation and capture of the one who broke the yogurt machine. Characters indoctrinated into the Rainbow religion have to put up with its strict rules while not getting kicked out of the society. As usual, with Jessica in the fiasco there is a lot of unrelated side chatter at the beginning and between scenes which really takes you out of what is going on between the characters. Rainbow.
Players: Kyle, Amanda, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 7
The Big Anime Con!
Fortunately, you don’t need to know much about anime to enjoy this fiasco set in a costume wearing, social media status fueled, trend craze convention. Ian’s larger than life annoying yet very likable costume designer character is the main attraction to this story. The story and its characters are easy to follow, but frankly, it’s just not super interesting. Unfortunately, the players use all of their white dice way too fast and end up running through the last scenes knowing they have to have bad endings.
Players: Kyle, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 6.5
The Evening Strangeness
A lot of strange things are happening around the small Florida town—some of it interesting, and some of it uncomfortably gross. This fiasco has a very fun and entertaining “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” scenario which is completely separated from the other half of the story were a few guys go out to a swamp to have sex with some sort of grotesque monster. Jess plays well as a new police officer who is not confident in anything she does working with Brandon as her superior partner. The body snatchers side of this fiasco is perfect, but the other swamp monster sex side of it really takes away from that—especially near the end when they merge the two.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 6
Peasants’ Presence
The premise of this fiasco is that the peasants of a kingdom kill the king and rule the land themselves…but the players hardly stay focused on the fiasco and talk about uncomfortable sexual and vulgar topics—and Jessica is the one to blame for all of this as she tends to steer fiascos in this direction. The setup is 20% setup and 80% nonsense fueled by Jessica’s unfiltered spouting. Much of this uncomfortable discussion makes it into the fiasco itself with gross sexual situations and a lack of a general direction. The one thing is Kyle’s portrayal of a ghost who enjoys upholding weird curses on the player characters.
Players: Kyle, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 1
Zombie Apocalypse At CostCo!
With a fun and well grounded scenario where opposing encampments of zombie survivors are named after the superstore they reside in, this fiasco becomes a satire of the sexualization of women as characters focus almost entirely on their need to find a suitable “mate”. This need was never established in the game setup, but nevertheless, it becomes the main driver throughout the episode. There are some funny moments and a pretty good trio of sun bathing old ladies known as The Magnificent 6. But with the women objectivism and ranking of them by male characters, this fiasco takes an uncomfortable joke too far.
Players: Kyle, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 3
Terror at Sea!
Their ship trapped in the ice, the crew must find their way back to civilization before they go mad…or worse. This fiasco stays well grounded in a dark, foreboding, and mysterious tone—but it does not deliver answers to many of the mysteries and is unable to cover much of the events leading to its end. The characters are unique and each play their own role in the story.
Players: Kyle, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 6
Sunset in Miami!
As high government officials playing an influential role in the lives of the people of Miami, the characters of this fiasco share a mysterious past which slowly unravels through to a revealing finally. Well…the finally which could have been was cut short by the time the last scene was finished. All three players masterfully contribute to the growing mystery of “the wolves are out” while at the same time not knowing what that means. There is a great villain which becomes the by-standing center-point of this fiasco’s comedic blogosphere plot driver. Unfortunately, the player characters roles and personality are a little hard to differentiate. Also, there is a happy upbeat song which plays in the background which just does not fit the tone at all.
Players: Kyle, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 7
Business Casual
What a great compact well tied together fiasco! The solid story very closely involves all three unique player characters. This is Blood’s first time playing and he does great as this warehouse manager that doesn’t care about anything beyond his own problems. Kyle does great playing as an extremely casual and crude character who completely cannot adapt to the new uptight and proper work environment…This character develops a ridiculous plan after making a flimsy discovery. Kyle also brings in the story’s antagonist, Margret the HR manager who seems to have taken control of the whole company with her thirst to fire people through a terrible management system called REX. Ian brings in the main character who’s series of small mistakes at the beginning set in motion a hilarious plot which intertwines the characters.
Players: Kyle, Blood, and Ian
Rating = 10!
Splash!
Everyone plays the parent of a child involved in a birthday party in a waterpark—but none of that matters when it is discovered that there is a mystical person living in a closed off section of the park. The weed smoking park entrance attendee played by Ian is great and there is a funny situation involving a dog meant to be a birthday gift. There is not much that happens throughout and there is a little too much focus on the church group the characters are in.
Players: Kyle, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 5
Town and Gown
(Ian’s favorite up until this point)
Not much happens in this fiasco, but in an unusual way, a fiasco about mundane everyday life is a welcomed change. The close pact between Kyle and Ian’s characters easily becomes the main driver of the show as they carry the story along by uninvitedly influencing all other characters. “We’re sisters now”, “We’re good people now”, and especially “Umm” are a few lines you’ll hear said by the annoyingly hilarious duo of Kyle and Ian’s college delinquent characters.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, and Ian
Rating = 8
Back Stage Fiasco
All player characters are well differentiated in their character roles, voices, and motives in this theater performance fiasco. Brandon brings a great act as the play director who is posing as a French man. Jessica takes on the entire play by herself as she is the only character acting in the play. Ian’s character hilariously takes on all other jobs of the play rushing around to meet other’s demands. With this being practically a three person production, any NPC characters introduced end up getting confused with the player characters. With everyone getting a bad ending due to the role of the dice for the epilogs—this fiasco is left with an unsatisfying end.
Players: Brandon, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 6
Fiasco in Game Development!
This fiasco has a rough time fitting in all the items in the setup, but Ian saves the show by introducing a character which takes over the story. Kyle’s stern hard facts podcast host is great at pressing for answers to specific plot conflicts. Overall, with only three players, the story and its elements are left feeling rushed and underdeveloped—though it does round out nicely.
Players: Kyle, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 6
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary
The player characters, each with their own NPC, are introduced to each other on a train headed to Tipperary where they participate in a mysterious competition. The characters themselves are entertaining and diverse, but things get a little choppy with the competition stages. Ben has a great performance with his energy drink public figure character with a big secret. Ian’s NPC character is a dog which silently brings so much comedy as it skillfully competes in the competition.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Ben, and Ian
Rating = 7
Fiasco High
A lot of events are covered in this high school fiasco branching perfectly across several locations and character motivations. The player characters and the NPCs are all very similar—so similar that they often mistake each other as playing different characters. Some great highlights involve a dead dog in the trunk of a car and Applebees security.
Players: Kyle, Ben, Damiani, and Ian
Rating = 7
Death on Paradise Island!
Mysterious Armani suit wearing people, an elevator that can go sideways, a remote detective convention—this fiasco is filled with the silly geniusness that only Kyle can bring. Each of the characters are very unique, two of which have a great backstory which pays off by the end. It starts with a petty reservation mix up with the hotel and ends with complete chaos with a criminal mastermind. Things never slow down or get off track as everyone moves the story along with unity.
Players: Kyle, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 9
Fiasco at the Harvest Festival!
Centered around a sauce competition, this fiasco almost has three complete acts. There is a great tie in of how character’s work lives, love lives, and dark pasts all mix together so well at the sauce festival. Every character is unique and Kyle is there to throw in a wrench in the form of a new character, crazy description, or a hot-dog-man. There is a great part with one bush that seems out of place. Brandon and Ian’s characters have a feud over who gets to name their sauce “DD’s Sauce” which plays a strong role throughout and enriches the player dynamics.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 9
Crazy, Noisy, Bizarre Summer!
This fiasco has a unique spin because the players are given random powers which they use throughout the fiasco in a great way. Although their powers are great, Kyle creates a villain worthy of their talents. Brandon creates a great scene as the chef of his restaurant—a place where characters often meet up. Ben creates a very solid character who goes through a character arc of a prideful loner to a team player by the end. The story gets a little hard to follow near the end, but it all ends with a good joke—which comes at the cost of having an abrupt and unsatisfying finally.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Ben, and Ian
Rating = 7
Nut People!
This messy fiasco has several unconnected plot arcs and each event has a hard time advancing the story. A certain disguise and a back yard surgical operation bring some wacky comedy. The backstory of two player character’s father is the backbone of this story—coming to end in a very subtle but powerful way.
Players: Kyle, Huber, Amanda, and Ian
Rating = 5
Salem 1692
As this is a 3 person fiasco, it is expected that it will be shorter than a normal 4 person game—but I feel this one covers very little ground story-wise. The characters are played well and the story does round out by the end. The visual description of the reverend throughout the fiasco plays into some funny moments in the minds of other characters throughout. Bob the demon is great as well.
Players: Amanda, Jessica, and Ian
Rating = 7
Tournament Arc!
This fiasco has some of the most unique characters and probably the most wacky endings the group has ever had. With his first fiasco, Damiani does great fitting into the way the group plays but ends up creating a mess with time-travel that is so ridiculous that you can’t tell exactly what time jumps have taken place—although keeping up with the timeline doesn’t matter at that point because there are much crazier things going on. Brad takes on the bad-guy role with a character voice that is worthy of a professional voice actor. The little story there is and the events leading up to the tournament are very intriguing and entertaining. Unlike many other fiascos this group has done, the wackiness has a gradual incline making it bearable and retaining interest.
Players: Brandon, Brad, Damiani, and Ian
Rating = 7
Hard:Wired
There is just too much good potential in this fiasco’s setup for Brandon, Huber, and Ian to cover in just two hours. Characters are diverse and interesting, but the story events are a little hap-hazard with no one really pushing the plot along. One character’s motivation to upload themselves to the cyber verse becomes the main driver of the story, but the slow advancement of the plot forces this to end abruptly. All three of them seem to really enjoy this one which goes a long way.
Players: Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 6
King of the Ring!
Brandon is so good at playing the dumb character and just about steals the show. Brad comes in playing one of the best NPC characters (a hardcore and impatient show manager) who meshes with Brandon so well! The story is centered around how the public views each character and the evolving gimmicks they create. Naturally, there are a lot of chaotic wrestling scenes full of yelling in this one, but the action carries through well enough to a crazy ending.
Players: Brandon, Huber, Brad, and Ian
Rating = 7
Fiasco in Gangster London
The three characters of this fiasco are thick as thieves as they conduct a high stakes heist in just the 3rd scene! Things slow down from there, but the character’s shifting predicaments—plus their hilarious accents—make the story interesting. Things get intense, mysterious, then desperate by the end with an awesome final showdown! The downside is that all three characters are characteristically very similar and have situations and relationships which vary only slightly.
Players: Huber, Brad, and Ian
Rating = 7
Fiasco on Flight 1180!
With the characters enclosed on a plane, there are several flashbacks. Brandon’s character is meant to be a tough dude, but Huber pulls a Huber with his ordinary flight attendant character going on a rampage about people’s movie preferences by the end. Back stories take a while to develop as no one decisively establishes something the first time the opportunity comes up. There is a twist at the end that just doesn’t quite pay off. Huber’s character transformation leads the story along nicely.
Players: Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 6
The Tallest Christmas Tree in the Nation
The Christmas tree plays a small part as the overpowering facebook town counsel and Kyle’s frequent and sudden funeral scenes take over this fiasco. The young high school characters have close relationships. One is dumb, aggressive, but sensitive—another is trying to just figure things out—while Kyle’s character has a violent split personality. A lot of ground gets covered story-wise, but the important things either don’t get attention or the investigation just doesn’t reach anything.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 6
Fiasco at the Pen Show!
The tightly nit character relationships allowed for a greater focus on the player characters and a few well established NPC characters. Most scenes included more than half of the four player characters advancing the story for multiple characters at the same time. Brandon’s ridiculously mischievous character, Amanda’s third wall breaking monologs, Kyle and Ian’s husband and wife relationship—this fiasco has a lot of really fun character interaction.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Amanda, and Ian
Rating = 10!
Camp Death II: The Deathenning
This one surprisingly captures the tone and mood of the original Camp Death, but unlike the title suggests, the deaths are too infrequent to keep things moving. Characters having different views and history with what happened last year creates some of the best parts. Brandon’s character takes the show as he charges into the mystery as deep as he can. Here’s to Camp Death III!
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 6
Dragon Slayers!
Great characters with interesting and funny relationships. Each character has their own separate story and all are interesting to follow. The king is another great NPC by Kyle and there are many funny NPC characters within the kingdom and the nether-realm. The good characters all around make up for the lack of a complete story and big events.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Ben, and Ian
Rating = 8
Fiasco in Oasis Lake
The lake has dried up—and the town with it—leaving a mysterious hole in the middle. The underutilized setting is made up for by the varied characters, their backstories, and their link to the underlying mystery. The mystery surrounding the main plot item grows with its every interaction while Kyle pulls in a deeper history with multiple flashbacks. This fiasco could have used a few more scenes to develop the story because they had to end it pretty abruptly.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, and Ian
Rating = 8
Midnight at the Museum
The scene to scene events never amount to very much, but it manages to stay interesting throughout with funny character interactions. Specific characters like Kyle’s forgetful Grandpa who is always mixing up the security guard’s names, Brandon’s flat Earther motivations, and Huber’s 12 year old who is obsessed with rocks—“the power of youth!”
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 7
The Scoop
Many of the first scenes take a while to get anywhere as each starts right where the last left off. Things pick up though when suspicions arise and characters do whatever they have to to follow the mystery. What starts as a funny thing that keeps reoccurring, that thing later becomes the shocking introduction of the main plot twist. Kyle’s character gets a good backstory tie-in just before the end. The very end gets pretty wacky, but it is actually an invited change of pace.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 7
Back to the Old House
This play-set has a lot of potential where characters return to a house to resolve something terrible which had happened long ago. There were a lot of interesting directions it could go…but Ian mentions that it can be like the Adam’s family—and it ends up being a dumb Adam’s family episode with some messy Scooby-doo type chaos. The whole thing was a mess in every aspect because they didn’t establish enough before jumping into it (Brandon was right). The two voice actor women try too hard to impress each other with their talent and the story is just too simple and boring…like the Adam’s family. Brandon brings in some good parts.
Players: Brandon, Amanda, Ashley, and Ian
Rating = 2
Heist!
The story and the way Kyle made character relationships intertwine was amazing! Kyle also kept forcing new NPC characters into the first act for such an amazing payoff throughout the whole thing. The heist itself happens very quickly and is hilariously chaotic yet easy to follow. This one covers a full fiasconauts story in just the first act and the transition into the second phase of the story is setup so well. It ends with a perfect finally bringing back a character from the beginning which works well for a final twist.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 10!
A Superheroic Fiasco!
My very first experience with Fiasconauts—this one defined the 10 in my 1-10 rating scale! Goofy characters with strange powers have a grounded and established place in the world. Ian and Kyle’s characters make a hilariously incapable duo with a funny background which brings in 3 great NPCs. Brandon gets to be the experienced Batman character with one of the best NPC characters Kyle has ever performed…AND! -Ian’s Dad joins weaving in a solid story with a great twist and a character with a wacky superpower that fits in with the other’s so well. Perfect after credits scenes top-off this amazing improv masterpiece.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Dr. Hinck, and Ian
Rating = 10!
Home Invasion Fiasco!
This one goes off the rails crazy with a high stakes conflict which will determine the future of existence on Earth. There are a lot of funny character interactions and tie-ins into the story. The heavy amount of mystery is supplemented well with the character’s more mundane and ordinary daily activities. The story gets pretty crazy a little too early and you’re left almost waiting for the final confrontation to just happen.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Jason, and Ian
Rating = 7
Fiasco with the Touring Rock Band
This story is focused on the group of character’s reputation as they move closer to—and at the end—perform a concert. Aside from Brandon’s character, the other characters were too similar and not very memorable…to the point where I couldn’t tell who was who. Some good things are that they stay grounded and the ending of Brandon’s character is pretty funny—but that is not enough to save this one.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Ben, and Ian
Rating = 4
The Zoo
This one has one of the best NPC characters ever: The Comptroller + Kyle does an Australian accent for his character all the way through. Amanda, Brandon’s wife, really takes control of this episode with her own crazy spin…which becomes the main interesting plot of this fiasco. The only reason this didn’t get an 8 is because it feels like it drags on for too long.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Amanda, and Ian
Rating = 7
White Hole
This one has a solid story and interesting premise all the way through to the after credits scenes. Things get a little silly with clones by the end—but this adds a lot of good comedy throughout. There is one NPC introduced at the beginning that is such a good addition to bring in some laughs.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Jason, and Ian
Rating = 7
A Fiasco of Biblical Proportions!
This is an awesome western complete with awesomely funny characters and even a heist—but things turn way south as soon as Ben brings demons into the world about 3/5th of the way in…it just gets ridiculous from there. Guest brothers, Max and Nick Folkman, have voices that are indistinguishable which makes it hard to tell which character is speaking.
Players: Kyle, Ben, Max and Nick Folkman, and Ian
Rating = 4
Fiasco at Regina’s Wedding
Brandon and Kyle are so funny with their “marriage” and the interactions between characters are interesting throughout. The story gets hung up on characters blackmailing and there are some potentially awesome story moments that just don’t play out as well as they could or just get skipped entirely.
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 6
Camp Death
This one has a lot of fun characters—especially the survivalist character played so well by Huber. It’s Brandon’s first time playing and he does extremely great. Many interesting NPCs die abruptly keeping things moving and interesting. It doesn’t get too wacky and the after credits scene is so good!
Players: Kyle, Brandon, Huber, and Ian
Rating = 9
Suburban Hell
In an ordinary cookie cutter home environment, anything but ordinary happens. Ben is the star of the show bringing in some of the most hilariously performed characters in all of Fiasconauts. This is Brad’s first fiasco—and what is the first thing he does?—he brings the Yakuza into the story. However, once they come into the story near the middle, the building events and interesting character development dissolves into a wild chain of sudden deaths. Each player brings in funny characters and events throughout, it is just unfortunate that these characters start to die so quickly that you’re left unsure who is already dead and who is just almost dead.
Players: Kyle, Ben, Brad, and Ian
Rating = 6
Idiots of the Southern Wild
In the great south where a church holds weekly bikini contests on a pontoon boat, David Change mixes things up with his skill of making woodcarvings and turns handicap parking tags into a valuable commodity. This fiasco is very messy; The scenes mix together everyone loses focus on their character’s purpose—the entire second act gets crammed into 20 minutes forcing everyone to speed through only one scene each. There is a lot of chaotic yelling which the microphone can’t handle and Ian doing the voice of a woman gets extremely annoying. There is a lot of uncomfortable stuff in this story as well.
Players: Kyle, Ben, Elyse, and Ian
Rating = 2
Beyond the Canadome
A few scientists along with 50 civilians go about their lives on Mars where everyone racially judges you based on what country on Earth you came from. Things start out great with each player passionately defining their character with a silly accent, but unfortunately there is very little character development beyond the way they talk. Players have a hard time keeping track of which character is racist against who and what motives a character has often mistakenly switching these aspects around. Ian seems to have gotten as tired of the other characters in this fiasco as I was and does his best to finish off the story as simply and quickly as he can.
Players: Kyle, Ben, Elyse, and Ian
Rating = 6
The Magic is Real
It’s all about the big magic show in Vegas! Don plays a sleazy magician hoping to run away with the exorbitant amount of money gambling professional Kyle is paying him. There are a lot of double crosses as the magic show’s final act—meant to honor the deceased father of Kyle and Elyse’s characters—is prepared. Overall, the story stays on track and the finale finally pays off well. A pastrami sandwich however plays way too much of an important plot motive—but it’s fun anyways.
Players: Kyle, Don, Elyse, and Ian
Rating = 7
Smells Like Teen Angst
Nerds conspire against the popular kids in this very 21 Jump Street esc fiasco. Huber plays an undercover cop who has the worst luck in maintaining his secrecy as the other players mercilessly and hilariously impose revealing actions and characters. Each character has well defined motives and the story develops smoothly until they start rushing due to a lack of time. The audio isn’t the best at capturing Kyles super soft speech and especially when everyone starts yelling—which leaves listeners wondering what is going on as the players wave finger guns at each other in the video. There is a lot of build up to the finally which ends up getting rushed through a chaotic and hard to understand yelling match.
Players: Kyle, Huber, Elyse, and Ian
Rating = 5
A Wild West Fiasco
There is a lot of opium and love interest conflict in the wild west. This is the very first fiasco with this group! Ian carefully explains everything and the others pick it up very quickly. Kyle’s character of Madam O quickly becomes the center point of conflict and character motives. She set up an interesting event to happen later but this, unfortunately, becomes just a quick blurb in the after credits scenes. Each character is well differentiated by their roles and motives. There is a strong building up of the story until Ben almost detaches his important character from the advancement of that story near the end of act 2. This sends the fiasco into an unsatisfying chaotic end loosing the finally everyone else was building up to.
Players: Kyle, Huber, Ben, and Ian
Rating = 6