Players: Karen Twelves, Dennis Jordan, Regina Joyner, and Sean Nittner
System: Fiasco
Playset: Rainbow Mountain
Our normal DCC game was cancelled so we had a game day at our new place. Yay! We started with some Cards against Humanity, then a few games of Castle Panic, and then, nice and warmed up, we played a little Fiasco!
I haven’t played the other American Disaster playsets yet, but I look forward to. This one was great.
The Setup
Clemency Caroline (Karen) – Sister-wife of Michale Tree. Clemency grew up on Rainbow Mountain and it was the only thing she ever knew. She was married to Michael Tree, and with the first wife (Meridith) in poor health, she stood a good chance of becoming first wife herself.
Relationship: Work – Michael Tree’s right and left hand (sister wives)
Location: Secret Places – The Meal House’s attic.
Rebekkah (Regina) – A new recruit instantly taken in my Michael Tree as a new wife, and favored above all others. Rebekkah was sweet and innocent, with no concept of her privilege.
Relationship: Community – New Arrives. Rebekkah and Hank arrived at Rainbow Mountain on the Green Machine together. A giant green bus.
Need: To get into…the locked room.
Hank Spyrakos (Sean) – The dupe, in almost every sense. Hank’s life had fallen apart and believed Rainbow Mountain would be a new start for him. But his life stunk because his brother ruined it…and going to Rainbow Mountain was even worse, as he was the hated there being the black sheep child of the disgraced Sister Wife that left the commune.
Relationship: Family – Older Sibling. Spruce Meadow Tree is Hank’s older half-brother, son of of Michael Tree and Grace. When Grace got pregnant with Hanks Father (the Sherrif) she was cast out of Rainbow Mountain and took Spruce with her. It’s all very messy.
Need:To get to the truth…about the state police investigation.
Spruce Meadow Tree “Tripp” (Dennis) – the Prodigal son of Michael Tree, who after his mother left the commune, turned to a life of crime. Tripp was a wheel-man that turned state’s witness, but that went south, so he was hiding out in the only place he knew, Rainbow Mountain…and offering up Hank as a peace offering to get in.
Relationship: Romance – Uncomfortably sharing a love partner. Both Tripp and Clemency Caroline were secretly having sex with the nearby farmer’s daughter Cindy Peppers. Communicating with anyone off the commune, was bad enough, secretly having sex with them… would have either one of them exiled!
Object: Outside world – Free clinic birth control pills. Tripp had connections outside the commune to get things people needed, especially those things that surrounded fertility (birth control pills, plan B, and pregnancy tests).
Clemency Caroline (Karen) – Sister-wife of Michale Tree.
This whole thing is incestual enough to need a family tree.
Play is the thing
We opened up with Hank and Rebekkah’s arrival together as bus buddies and their automatic segregation. Rebekkah taken in as Michael’s chose, and Hank given shit duty. Literally. Shit duty.
From there we established the tension between Rebekkah and Clemency Caroline (she always goes by both names, never just Clemency, and certainly not C.C.) over who would be the next 1st wife after Miriam passed (she was very sick). Clemency Caroline guarded the role. She had been one the commune all her life, this 18 year old “sprout” couldn’t just come and usurp her.
Karen established that Michael’s birthday was coming up in a week, and that everyone on the commune was preparing their gifts for him. The tradition being that the truly devout had been working on their presents at least since his last birthday, if not further back. Animals were raised by handed and slaughtered for a meal for him. Other things, all hand crafted had been given to him every year, and Rebbekah was told about his birthday with only a week’s notice. She thought that she might have the greatest gift of all though…a child in her womb!
That scene pretty much put the rest of the game in motion. Clemency Caroline went about trying to make sure the usurper miscarried, everyone else on the commune was feverishly working on presents, Rebekkah wanted to confirm she was pregnant, Tripp profited from all kinds of secret deals to supply pregnancy related products form the outside, and Hank pretty much just suffered, having to do three times the work, because nobody else was doing theirs.
Tilt
Death, after an unpleasant struggle.
Mayhem, magnificent self-destruction.
After the tilt, things definitely got hairy. Hank saw Clemency Caroline push Rebekkah down a flight of stairs and tried to call his father (the Sherrif) but he chose Tripp as his accomplice to break into the locked shed out back rumored to have a phone in it, and when Tripp realized he was calling the cops, panicked and cold clocked his own brother.
Clemency Caroline sought out do Rebbekah at every turn and the young sprout lied about being with child, only to have the bleeding of her miscarriage revealed. The state police arrived (tracing the cut off phone call), death and arrests ensued.
Aftermath
It was bloody, Clemency Caroline, Miriam, and Michael Tree all died in the confusion. Tripp went and served his time. Rebekkah (17 as it turns out) was taken back into custody by her parents and sent off intensive therapy. Hank had it the best off in the end (I think an 8 white) and was hitchhiking on the lonely road with Betsey, the loyal goat from Rainbow Mountain.
As for the commune, it was shut down and Farmer Peppering (Cindy’s father) bought the land for pennies on the dollar. Brutal.
Thoughts on the game
I like playing the downtrodden character, it’s fun to be the guy who gets the short straw every time, but in doing so I forgot about ambition. Hank was a fine character, but not motivated to do much of anything (despite two needs being adjacent to him) till the very end, which was really just to get out of this horrible (as he saw it) place. Not sure what Hank should have wanted, but I’m going to try and make sure I don’t forget next time to make him want something.
Hi/Low status was interesting in this game when it switched, mostly between Clemency Caroline and Rebekkah, as the former tried to control, but ultimately feared the latter. There was a bit of the same status shift (again from fear) between the brothers when Tripp thought Hank was savvy to his reason for being at the mountain. That is fun stuff to play with.