Playing Fiasco With Polygon

In an attempt to work through my vasty backlog of half-finished blogs. I’m going to be posting up a few little short ones here and there.

It’s wild to me when I stop to think that back in the day, I used to post up blogs at the rate of 2-3 a week, whereas now it’s more usual for me to post one every 2-3 months.

Though to be fair, a lot was different back then. It was before I had two kids, back before I was trying to run a charity (as opposed to sometimes just running a fundraiser, which is a big difference.) Back in the beforetimes of covid…

Anyway, one of the things I regret leaving by the wayside is posting up blogs of stuff I’d done that you could access online. That way even folks who didn’t go to a convention could watch the panels I was on. Or even people who don’t subscribe to it, could hear me guest star onto a podcast, or catch me do a writing Q&A or play D&D or some other sort of game.

I feel like over the last 4-5 years, I haven’t shared more than 10% of the stuff here that’s available online.

Like, (Pat said, doing an expert segue) the time I played Fiasco with the folks over at Polygon.

(I’d be angry about this screencap if I hadn’t made it. As it is, I’m just angry about my face.)

If you’ve never heard of Fiasco before…. boy. I don’t know if this is a good introduction to the game or not. It’s a delightful collaborative storytelling environment to be sure, and I *love* me some worldbuilding as you know. But… it kinda went off the rails.

In a good way, I feel. And it was certainly a ton of fun. And it certainly shows how flexible the game is in terms of what you can play. But, as is often the case when I play a game, I kinda push at things to see what I can get away with narratively and creatively. It’s not that I want to break anything, I just get kind of excited full of ideas, and when you get to play with a group of folks as delightful as this….

Let’s just say it was a wild ride…

Also, I would like to go on the record as saying that I didn’t go into this game with *anything* planned. It all happened organically. My hand to glob.

Polygon posted up an article about the game, titled “Fiasco proves how fun it is to role-play without a DM.

They even generously subtitled the article, “Patrick Rothfuss joins us for some collaborative storytelling” instead of something more realistic like, “Rothfuss weirds up our game and then drives us off a narrative cliff.”

But yeah. It was a ton of fun.

Extra points anyone who can guess in the comments below as to where I stole the inspiration for the voice and demeanor of my character….

Later space cowboys,

pat

P.S. We’re slightly more than one week into the Kickstarter, and we’re currently at $247,283. (SO close to cracking a quarter million.) We’ve unlocked a lot of stretch goals, most of which center around making the books cooler and better when we go to press, and the team is actively investigating what else we might be able to add if things keep going this strong.

But yeah. It’s been a delightful launch of the first book from Underthing Press. Thanks so much to all of you who have helped by jumping in and spreading the word.

 

This entry was posted in appearances, Beautiful Games, cool things, gaming, geeking out, meeting famous people, Stories about stories., videosBy Pat30 Responses

30 Comments

  1. Chad Davis
    Posted June 9, 2022 at 8:46 AM | Permalink

    No pressure, But I check your blog just about everyday. I love your writing style and was pleasantly surprised to see a new blog!

    Keep up the great work, I appreciate you sharing your stories!

    • Posted June 9, 2022 at 4:07 PM | Permalink

      Yeah. I’m hoping to do more short ones here and there to get back into the swing of it. I enjoyed writing them, especially the ones about my sweet boys…

    • Tristan Bloomer
      Posted June 9, 2022 at 11:36 PM | Permalink

      yea same. i almost subconsiously exited out because i didnt expect anything

      • Peter Pevensie
        Posted June 11, 2022 at 2:32 PM | Permalink

        Same XD. Excited to see what’s coming!

  2. Julia
    Posted June 9, 2022 at 2:47 PM | Permalink

    I had an IfTTT program running to tell me if you posted a new blog, (it would send me an email) but that doesn’t seem to be working anymore. I saw you share this on Twitter, that’ll do, I guess.

    I’m so glad that the Kickstarter is another smashing success and I look forward to whatever’s next. The good-enough blog post – let’s make that a thing.

    • Posted June 9, 2022 at 4:06 PM | Permalink

      Yeah. I’m hoping to get a newsletter up and running before too long. But with everything going on, it’s hard to count that as even in the top 100 projects I have going on…

    • Posted June 11, 2022 at 8:51 AM | Permalink

      I rely on either GoodReads or the subreddit, personally. :)

    • Cozmin
      Posted June 12, 2022 at 12:35 PM | Permalink

      If you follow Pat on Goodreads you will get a notification for every new blog post. Highly convenient.

  3. Kayla C.
    Posted June 9, 2022 at 4:46 PM | Permalink

    Hey Pat,

    That’s awesome! Glad you are enjoying some good gaming time, and have connected with some new friends over at Polygon :D As a girl who has been following you since 2011, I’m thrilled that you’re still living life to the max.

    Quickly and politely though, I want to mention that there are many out there, myself included, who would really appreciate an update on the Chapter Reading you promised back in December. It’s been over half a year, good sir…

    Looking forward to more short-form blogs, and publishings from Underthing Press, but please make sure you’re a man of your word and keep the promises you already made (and that people paid for,) right?

    Cheers!

    • Posted June 9, 2022 at 5:33 PM | Permalink

      Kayla, this is so careful and kindly phrased. Thanks so much.

      I feel terrible I haven’t gotten that out for everyone. I have an update blog about half-written too, but haven’t had time to finish that yet either. Which (you guessed it) I feel terrible about as well.

      This is just to say: I’m sorry. It’s still in the works. I haven’t forgotten. I just did what I always do, which is in trying to make something bigger, better, and cooler, I also made it more complicated and slow.

      More details soon (ish)

      • Kayla C
        Posted June 9, 2022 at 10:09 PM | Permalink

        I so appreciate you taking the time to respond to this. I definitely don’t want you to feel terrible. I know you have many responsibilities as a father and businessman that you have to attend to first.

        Also, sorry for double posting. Total accident on my end. Yes, in the middle of revising and trying to find the right words and positive tone, I must have hit send.

        Be well and have a fabulous weekend!

      • Valenteen
        Posted June 10, 2022 at 7:14 PM | Permalink

        I appreciate that struggle as I suffer it as well
        {Warmest greetings from year 8 of my doctoral program}

        I want to chime in, though, that many of us donated when we thought it would be a simple dropping of a pdf, rather than a reading. As magnificent as I’m sure the reading will be, for me, it was the simplicity and immediacy of something that was already done that enticed me so. I *love* that you added the stretch goal of the live reading and got more money for a good cause, I sincerely do, but can’t it be a “both + and” situation? A simple text drop for those who got to $333,333.333, then the full allstar reading for those who hunger for it?

        I hate that I feel this way, but having donated for immediate release and then to have things pushed back *feels* bad. I wish it didn’t, I don’t like that I feel this way, but it does. I’ll neverever regret giving to charity, but I can’t deny feeling like something was taken away that, in some sense, we earned.

      • Peter Pevensie
        Posted June 11, 2022 at 2:31 PM | Permalink

        Thanks Pat! I gotta say I’m really excited for you to write a short story live, as It will be interesting to see what your editing process and such is.

  4. Kayla C
    Posted June 9, 2022 at 4:48 PM | Permalink

    Hey Pat,

    That’s awesome! Glad you are enjoying some good gaming time, and have connected with some new friends over at Polygon :D As a girl who has been following you since 2011, I’m thrilled that you’re still living life to the max.

    Quickly and politely though, I want to mention that there are many out there, myself included, who would really appreciate an update on the chapter reading you promised in December.

    Looking forward to more short-form blogs, and publishings from Underthing Press, but am also super stoked to hear more from my old pal Kvothe. I donated an extra amount last year just to get that chapter!

    <3

    • Posted June 9, 2022 at 5:34 PM | Permalink

      Heh. I see your revision here. I don’t know which one you’d prefer I keep, so I’m going to leave both up, and just say “I’m sorry” and “Thank you” twice, as you deserve it.

  5. Maïwenn
    Posted June 10, 2022 at 8:57 AM | Permalink

    Dear Pat,

    It’s great to read anything from you! Though I must say that I particularly love your blog posts about your little ones, they always make me cry *and* feel warm at the same time. You have a gift with words, hell, you could write a manual for a printer, I’d probably buy it. So no pressure, keep writing what you want, when you want.

    (and please accept my apologies, English isn’t my mother tongue so this comment is probably full of ‘oh-that-doesn’t-sound-quite-right’ tiny mistakes.)

  6. Mike
    Posted June 10, 2022 at 3:46 PM | Permalink

    Pat… love you buddy. I’m reading AWMF to my 13 year old girl currently with some edits on the fly ;)

    If there is anything you need help with in your 100+ projects…

    Hope you are doing well, my man.

    That’s all.

  7. Duff
    Posted June 10, 2022 at 5:24 PM | Permalink

    Happy Birthday Pat! My daughter informed me of this date after also telling me she had just finished Wise Man’s Fears (for the 4th? time).

    Glad that you are taking the time you need for your mental health and love all the charity work you do. Supporting you through these efforts makes me feel a little better about myself and the world in general.

    Take care and good logic to you sir!

  8. Posted June 11, 2022 at 8:54 AM | Permalink

    Oh hey, you’re doing the YouTube content creator face in that first screenshot! 😂

    Anyways. Excited for more blog posts to be pushed out! I do the same thing, where it gets to the point that I tell myself “just post something!”

  9. Peter Pevensie
    Posted June 11, 2022 at 2:26 PM | Permalink

    We’ve been waiting for years but he’ll tell us as soon as he has any news to share. I think he’s just taking his time to write a perfect book and I appreciate him for that.

    • Tom
      Posted June 15, 2022 at 3:53 AM | Permalink

      There is no perfect book and I would rather read a good book than none.

  10. Kitty
    Posted June 13, 2022 at 11:47 AM | Permalink

    Gods, yes. I recently read a trilogy where the first and second books were amazing, but the third was an absolute shambles. So disappointing. I don’t know if the author was under pressure from the publishers, or if she was just fed up with the whole thing and wanted to move on to something else, but either way it was just awful having it all fall to bits like that. I would hate for that to happen to KKC.

  11. Dinmacil
    Posted June 15, 2022 at 7:25 AM | Permalink

    Checking back and finding a blog post feels a small bit like unexpectedly finding Denna: frequently searching, sometimes joyously finding! I’m on my 7th or 8th read-through or so, and different parts resonate with me in different ways as I’ve grown over the years, so thank you again for these, the best kinds of stories!

    Really happy Underthing Press is taking off! You do you, sir! And I hope you can take the frequent badgering for The Doors of Stone as less of an anxiety-provoking irritation and more as a sign of the passionate sort of love and impatience that only arises from those amazing stories that give you something to hope and dream about!

  12. moon knight
    Posted June 16, 2022 at 2:40 PM | Permalink

    the worst thing you could do mate is to tell him what to do… his ego won’t accept it
    but i appreciate your post though

  13. nick_mad
    Posted June 16, 2022 at 3:45 PM | Permalink

    hey pat,

    i’ve been following you for years but this is my first commenting on one of your blogs, i’m guessing Benny was based on Tunnel Bob?

    i had that thought when i first watched the polygon video back when it came out.
    btw, you were absolutely delightful on it, i must have watched it at least 4 times and i can’t get enough of you playing Benny.

  14. Posted July 4, 2022 at 11:19 PM | Permalink

    Glad that you are taking the time you need for your mental health and love all the charity work you do. Supporting you through these efforts makes me feel a little better about myself and the world in general.

  15. Posted December 17, 2022 at 1:00 AM | Permalink

    Even though I’ve been a fan for a long time, this is the first time I’ve ever left a comment on one of your blogs. Do you mean that Benny was based on Tunnel Bob?

  16. Posted February 3, 2023 at 12:04 PM | Permalink

    Haha, love the voice :D Thanks for sharing the video!

  17. Posted February 21, 2023 at 10:51 PM | Permalink

    Indeed, gods. The first two novels in a trilogy I read lately were fantastic, but the last book in the series was a disaster. Wow, such a letdown. Whether the author gave in to publisher pressure or she was just tired of the project and ready to move on, the result was the same: a disastrous collapse. I hope it doesn’t happen to KKC.

  18. Posted October 17, 2023 at 6:06 AM | Permalink

    You organized this so professionally and everything is polished to perfection. The high quality of your work is evident.

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