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Fiasco Classic

Fiasco Classic

softcover book

$25.00
$25.00
Sale Out of Stock

Fiasco Classic is the award-winning GM-less game for 3-5 players, designed to be played in a few hours with six-sided dice and no preparation. During a game you will engineer and play out stupid, disastrous situations, usually at the intersection of greed, fear, and lust. It's like making your own Coen brothers movie, in about the same amount of time it'd take to watch one.

THINGS CAN GO WRONG, FAST...

...Maybe some dude from youth group talked you into boosting a case of motor oil, but now your cousin is dead in a swamp and you killed him. Maybe you and your girlfriend figured you could scare your wife into a divorce, but things went pear-shaped and now a gang of cranked-up skinheads with latex gloves and a pit bull are looking for you.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Fiasco is inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong - inspired by films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan. You'll play ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control. There will be big dreams and flawed execution. It won't go well for them, to put it mildly, and in the end it will probably all go south in a glorious heap of jealousy, murder, and recrimination. Lives and reputations will be lost, painful wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, your guy just might end up back where he started.

This purchase includes the full-color PDF as well as the EPUB and MOBI versions of the book.

Time: 4+ hours

For 2-5 Players

Ages 18+

What's Included

134-page softcover book

PDF edition

To play, you'll need: Four six-sided dice per player- in two different colors and several dozen index cards

Get the Digital-Only Version

Itch.io

DriveThruRPG

Indie Press Revolution

Free Downloads

All Fiasco Classic Downloads

Playmat PDF

Facilitating Fiasco PDF

More Playsets

For Retailers

Are you a retailer or distributor interested in stocking our games? See our retailer information page to see how we can help!

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What is Fiasco Classic?

Fiasco Classic is an award-winning story-telling game inspired by cinematic tales of small-time capers gone disastrously wrong. You’ll tell a story about ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control! Lives and reputations will be lost, painful wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, you just might end up back where you started. You probably won’t be lucky.

Built for Fiasco Classic

Playsets, alternate tilt tables, and advice for using Fiasco Classic in the classroom and making your own playsets

Praise

“Damn this Fiasco game is ingenious.”

–John Rogers, TV and film writer for Leverage and The Librarians

“Fiasco is unique among RPGs because it encourages us to actively reach for that moment we all dread in most games, that moment when something truly awful is going to happen, with possibly dire results for our characters.”

–Wil Wheaton, Actor and Writer

“I think, for me, there’s a kind of non-Aristotelian catharsis in that active rehearsal of everything I fear and dread and also pine for; it’s a chance to dance with Poe’s Imp of the Perverse, to give in, to make the dangerous choice—it’s the same thing release I get from the act of writing. But writing is a solitary discipline for the most part and Fiasco… Fiasco is so gloriously communal.”

–Kelly Sue DeConnick, Writer ofCaptain Marvel,Pretty Deadly, andBitch Planet

“Fiasco is roleplaying stripped down to sheer elegance, to virtually zero ramp-up time. The notion of playing ambitious crooks with poor impulse control — inspired by a host of movies like Fargo or Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels — is both inspiring and immensely replayable. But the real genius of Fiasco… is that now you can enjoy it in almost any setting you like.”

–Diana Jones Award Committee

Press

  • RPG Review: Fiasco

    "Imagine not just laughing with your friends for two hours, but – and I’m not saying this will happen with every game of Fiasco – walking away from an evening’s gaming with the outline of a screenplay you’d actually watch."

    Shut Up & Sit Down 

  • Fiasco - An In-Depth RPG Review

    "Hands down one of the best RPGs I have ever played. It delivers exactly what it promises: a self-contained, no-prep session in which a comedy of errors and bad decisions results in a complete fiasco."

    Wired 

  • 8 Non-Combat Roleplaying Games For When You’re A Lover, Not A Fighter

    "Fiasco is a hilarious disaster—and I mean that in the best sense."

    Gizmodo Australia 

  • Five Board Games That Aren’t For Kids

    "If done right, every game will play out as if a cursed monkey’s paw was in charge."

    Lifehacker Australia 

Fiasco on TableTop

Fiasco Classic vs Fiasco

  • Fiasco Classic

    You get the rules and 4 playsets in a 134 page softcover book. You can print out playsets from the book, or fan-made playsets from FiascoPlaysets.com. Playset booklets have a total of 144 elements.

    You'll need 4 six-sided dice per player, in 2 different colors

    This edition takes 4+ hours to play

  • Fiasco

    You get everything you need to play the game in one box- including reference cards and 3 playsets. Playsets elements are on cards and include a total of 49 needs, locations, objects and relationships.

    No dice needed

    This edition can be played in 2 hours

    Learn More 
Why Are Both Still in Print?

Fiasco in a Box!

It’s been ten years since we first published our original tabletop game Fiasco, and we’re incorporating everything we’ve learned about stupid disasters, poorly-timed plans, and precious things on fire into this new edition.

Want to start play faster, with no dice? This edition is for you!

Check It Out