A very British Fiasco

Once, quite a while ago now, I was walking home from a roleplaying game with a Bulgarian friend. We were talking about the game that we'd just played and she mentioned how much roleplaying had helped the speed and fluency of her English.

I'm now training as a teacher of adults who are learning English as a second language and I have improved my teaching through roleplaying. I somehow learnt how to improvise instead of being completely thrown when that thing I prayed wouldn't happen, happened (and I'm talking as someone who manage to lock herself out of the classroom part-way through a lesson on one occasion!)

I can't help thinking that some of the students would benefit from and enjoy roleplaying, both for the language and the improvisational ability they might gain. I'm not going to attempt this in the classroom (I know that roleplaying isn't for everyone and I really don't think that I can shout loudly enough!), but it would be nice to have a resource for non native speakers.

At the moment my game of choice is Fiasco, created by Jason Morningstar.

As the Bully Pulpit Games website says:

' Fiasco is a game about 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.'

I like the idea of creating a Fiasco playset for people who want to improve their English for several reasons:

• It's easy to simplify some of the language without losing any of the core game.
• 'Facts' about British culture can be slipped in 'relationship: regulars at the same pub'
• Everyone gets a turn – in some games if you can't think quickly enough in the language the game is played in you're not really going to be able to participate but in Fiasco you are going to get at least 4 chances to frame or resolve a scene.
• Typical English expressions (e.g. 'hang on a minute') can be used and explained.
• You have to listen – you need to make a decision about what colour die to give.
• You can't plan what to say too much in advance – you have to think on your feet.
• I'm not starting from scratch, I'm creating a playset for an existing game.

So I guess, watch this space, or this space but you probably have time to get a cup of tea and a sandwich first because I've had this idea for a while and I have a few other projects I'm working on too.

This post is mostly just me thinking aloud but I do hope to make this a reality sometime soon.