Players: Xander Matthews, Mia Blankensop, Karen Twelves and Sean Nittner
System: Fiasco
Playset: Nut People
Well, of all playsets to be the first one I’ve played twice, I didn’t expect it to be the Nut People. But, when life hands you a pile of pecans, make pecan pie I guess.
Notable quotes
“Forbidden love nuts.”
“Saving is for ugly people.”
“You good at trying to, or are you good at fixin?” “…Yeah.”
“You slept with my Sugar?” “It wasn’t sleeping, it was just hate’n”
The setup
Fighting for love
Early on we had some hi-jinks in an air balloon, a staged kidnapping, and even later a staged arson, that turned into a real arson. But all along, what we we realized is that both Sugar Mitter and Chris Quick wanted the love of Mara Bea. Mara Bea was never going to love Chris on account of her being a lesbian and she was never going to trust Sugar, on account of sugar being so horribly impulsive that she slept with Chris behind Mara Bea’s back to have a baby (Barlow) for them to raise together.
This led to one of the coolest fights I’ve ever had in a game. Mia and I were both yelling at each other, making accusations of one kind and another, which finally led up to the quote from above.
Mara Bea: “You slept with my Sugar?”
Chris Quick: “It wasn’t sleeping, it was just hate’n”
I loved it. It was the result of the Tilt (Truth -> An unwanted confession) but it was so powerful that it really drove the rest of the story, which of course, was abysmally bad for Mara Bea.
How it happened
This for me, is the most important part of why this game worked so well. At the break (for the tilt) I mentioned that Sugar and Mara Bea had really good motivations. Strongly trying to protect what is there, reform and/or impress the other and were generally providing a good enough story that the rest of us could be supporting characters.
Mia though, was really creative in trying to find ways to bring Chris more into the story. She suggested a flashback scene (we ended up having several) that tied Mara Bea and Chris together (more so than my original idea of Chris wanting pecan wood from Mara Bea to start making pecan wood toys). Unsurprisingly Chris was secretly in love with Mara Bea, and when she came to him, drunk and miserable from breaking up with Sugar, it became obvious how he felt.
Thoughts on this game
Xander had to leave after the tilt, but we were able to work that out just fine. We took out two dice, and made his character (the vagrant nut thief Darren John Bob Sadley, Jr.) a minor character from that point forward.
I had some confusion about some of the character metioned. I rolled up that Xander and I were “Darren Sadley Jr. and Chris Quick, pecan visionary.” I figured out something to do, limp though it was, as a pecan visionary. but the score didn’t give us any idea of who Darren Sadley Jr was, nor did the relationship. We eventually decided he was a local vagrant, but this did take us some time to sort out. It started me thinking about the you make me feel game we had been playing during the workshop. I wanted <adjective> <relationship>, and <name>. This particular relationship just gave us names and we struggled a little bit with it.
If you want to see the full instructions of “You Make Me Feel,” we wrote them up over on Chick Flick’s website: http://improvchicks.com/2012/04/04/you-make-me-feel/
Nut People! Hooray! Sean do you think Mr. Sadley Jr. is problematic in the Setup or was it your instance of play? Because I f’in love Darren Sadley Jr.
I’m just wondering if I missed something. Is he supposed to be a character we recognize from the score, fiction, or real life, or should we, like other elements in fiasco, just built from what we see (his name)?
No, he’s just whatever you make him, like Marcie Lowell in Flyover
Cool. Good to know for this playset (and others). And now that I think of it, the “Jr.” sells it. He immediately becomes part of the community as people know his father, etc.