Fireside Chat: Fiasco! A Deep Dive into GM-less Gameplay
Lou and Brennan were asked to talk about Fiasco. And… technically, they do. But they also spiral delightfully into their philosophies on actual play, GM-less games, improv, storytelling, and basically anything else that crosses their minds. It’s messy. It’s chaotic. It’s exactly the kind of fireside chat Fiasco deserves.
And because Lou launches into a full “Italy lore” segment about his study abroad, we went ahead and dug up some old college photos of him. Bellissima!
Comments (76)
Little Lou in Italy is sooooo so CCUTE 😍💚🤍❤️
Was the word Lou was looking for roulade?
That's what I thought too!
A chicken tater is diced chicken and diced potato mixed together, rolled into cylinders and deep fried
That's EXACTLY what I thought
Lou needs to be on Gastronauts and request chicken taters...
Everyone’s chicken taters are so fancy and here I was picturing a catdog style half Dino nugget half tater tot
Chicken tater (how I picture it) 1. Grill or bake a chicken breast with bbq sauce of your choice. 2. Shred the chicken and mix with some green onions, set aside 3. Make a mash potato dough, take a handful of the dough, flatten into a disc and place a spoonful of the bbq chicken in the center. Form a ball around the chicken. 4. Coat the ball in flour, egg wash, and a panko/breadcrumb mix (add paprika, parsley, Parmesan, salt, and pepper or other spices of your choosing) 5. Fry until golden brown. Serve with coleslaw or a light lemon aioli.
croquette!
Totally didn’t catch the callout to A County Affair in the ep title until I heard it spoken aloud 😂
I forget what it's caled but you can do a cordon bleu thing with cheddar and broccoli, so potatoes and bacon bits or even than cheesy-tater-alli-whatever stuff would 100% be a doable thing.
If WBN wants to do a GM-less game on video again; I'd love for them to do A Quiet Year.
I love everything about this fireside, but on the most important topic. In my mind a chicken tater is a tater filled with chicken. The cordon blu situation, which sounds delicious, would be a tater chicken.
Lou - involtini di saltimbocca! 💚🤍❤️
Same as someone down there : I live in Japan, ate raw horse meat (carpaccio) once, not my favorite but I did it. My funny anecdotes is that in Japan they do not eat rabbit anymore. It’s more than often a companion. But in France we/they still eat it. Much less now but still. My students are always as choc as Brennan was about horse meat when I tell them the neighbor or my grandfather, professional chef, and how he use to cook them. I’ll spare you the horror story for my poor mom. She can’t eat rabbit anymore. Anyway, seing Brennan choc for the first time was funny as hell x)
Lou’s Italy story just reminds me of my own trip to Rome where I ended up in a random osteria hiding from the rain at night after having to buy a power adaptor cause I forgot to bring one. One of the best meals I ever had: a lovely lamb stew and tiramisu but an absolutely heavenly cacio e pepe. While I’ve had some good versions of it since then honestly I’ve been chasing the high of that pasta that hasn’t been satisfied yet
Y'all I'm at Dragonsteel nexus and just met Christopher Paolini. I'm wearing a WBN campaign 1 shirt and he recognized it.
this is amazing i’m beyond flabbergasted and proud that i share a fandom with christopher paolini
Spotify wrapped came out… turns out I listed to 7,703 minutes of WBN this year….
I just finally did the math, that’s 5.35 days of nothing but WBN, and doesn’t even included how much fireside I listened to…
🐴 how hungry
Honestly if y'all are on Gastronauts I need someone to do the Chicken Tater Challenge. 🤣
Biasco yippie! Idk if others agree, but I think you guys should try the Fiasco ttrpg. it's much less constrained than the bg, and the mechanics encourage waaaaay more player interaction / fucking each other over. there is a bigger setup commitment, so it might not be as suited for actual play. But the community playsets have really unique settings, and the other players deciding the good v bad ending is 👌
Incredible episode of nacho sins. Love the listening and good teacher takes on these games, it's often tough to articulate what I'm looking for with game mechanics and these are great touch points.
Brennan describing GM-less games as the "cool" teacher is so, so very good. Explains so much.
Does anyone happen to know the C/K word that Brennan was talking about, on the topic of myths and fairytale? Phonetically it sounds something like kar-ma-ka-dell-ih-kah and I swear I have a bunch about what it is, but cannot remember how to spell it to Google it 😭
According to the transcript, Carmina Gadelica!
Lou: *licks fingers and smacks lips* "Mmm~ Majestic!"
My esteemed fireside denizens, I present for your consideration what I believe to be the answer to the greatest philosophical quandary of our time. Food nomenclature follows certain rules and patterns. It must, to stave off the horrors from beyond. And when a food name is but two words, the historical precedent tells us the following: The first word is a flavor, a cooking/preparation technique, a secondary ingredient, or some other descriptor. The second word, however, is the central element, the main event, the reason we all came to the table. Consider Pumpkin Ravioli, a delicacy Lou Wilson, that most elusive of fireside guests, mentioned in this very episode. Or BBQ Ribs. Or Buffalo Wings. Chocolate Cake. French Toast. The list is truly endless. All of this is to say that, with the utmost respect to our dad, Brennan Lee Mulligan, it is simply impossible to define a Chicken Tater as a piece of chicken stuffed with potatoes. If that were the case, it would be called Tater Chicken. Honored friends, I put before you this unassailable truth: when we attempt to define the mythical Chicken Tater, I posit that the Tater MUST be the central focus, and the Chicken the secondary element. The name demands it; if it were anything else, it would not be named thus. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Yes! I was imagining a chicken leg shaped breaded and deep fried mashed potato/hash brown concoction. And I would eat it
That explanation of fiasco makes the phrase "he totally bottled it" (meaning "he totally screwed it up") make perfect sense!
This fireside was a fiasco in the best way possible!
Man I am so excited for this 5 piece combo served up by the one te only America's national treasure himself the great Lou Wilson!!! With the greatest players in the game, so excited!!! Fly me to the moon Lou!!! ❤️ 💙 💙 💙💙💙💙
Chicken Kiev
The FSCs are always such a riot 🤣 Definitely needed this pick-me-up after a stressful week. Grazie mille!
OST when
Not before Christmas. Taylor put out an update that things got crazy and it won't be out before the holidays, but he's still working on it.
I saw a House of Gainz show in LA this summer, and it was maybe the best two-prov I’ve ever seen. I have to find a way to see more!
That sounds amazing I love these people, they keep me sane in a crazy world
The discussion in this ep kinda made me wanna write an essay
No, I do get the move from magician to magi, who are the Zoroastrian priests. And there are a number of dragons, both enemies like Zahhak (eats brains) and heroic characters like Fereydun (who turns into a dragon to test his sons). I actually think that a Shahnameh inspired campaign could be quite fun. You guys could help old Mazdak not end up upside down in a leg forest (he's sort of a IRL Thjazi Fang).
I neeeeeeed a Fireside extra where Lou cooks things and pairs with wine!
Lou<uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Do you all plan to release a transcript for this episode as well? They have been extremely helpful in jotting down quotes, getting a more comprehensive understanding of the topics you all dive into! Thank you for all your hard work
My dear stromboli lovers, check out the beauty of the chicken ballotine
ITS CALLED SPATINA!!! My mom makes it every Christmas lol
I swear to God if my mom just calls it this, and is wrong... I'm going to be so mad lmfao
Improv, GMing, and childhood development have A LOT of overlaps, man. Brennan talking about pushing the boundaries of the world and then making sense of it, it’s just like…yeah, makes sense, that’s what little kids do. They test boundaries in order to make sense of the world and feel safe in it and it makes sense that every time you’re in a new world where those boundaries either don’t exist yet or are not clear yet as the player, you push and test those boundaries to see where those walls, fences, gates, etc. are and how to make sense of the world you are new in. Human nature is nifty and I wonder how much inner child healing we do when playing TTRPGs…🤔
“Loved it, except for the racism, but I loved it.” It’s disturbing how many places and activities I could use that line on.
I studied abroad in Kumamoto, Japan and one of their local specialties is basashi which is raw horse meat. The day I arrived, my host mother asked me what I wanted for my first meal and without skipping a beat I told her and the entire family I wanted basashi. And by God, we went to the local butcher shop, got me some basashi and it was so goddamn good.
brennan saying that he needs a lot of parameters and discussion in order to do anything grounded is so deeply relatable in all aspects of my life omg
Please make a PO Box 😭 I wanna send y’all chainmail so bad
Mail it to Brennan’s affairs apartment where he keeps all his swords
Y'all should bring this chicken- tater idea to Gastronaughts❤️
I think there's a more chaotic idea from this episode they could bring to Gastronaughts...
I'm a prep cook in fine dining and I've been thinking about what chicken taters would be ever since the first episode dropped
I want tot try a marinated chicken tender, battered and fried, then slathered in mashed potatoes and fried again.
Hearing Brennan's rant about how "everything can be true" was really helpful for me, I've been struggling with burnout with my DND campaign for a bit now and that is helping me get back into it.
laughing at the alternate reality where Ame doesn't find the squirrel to take them to Stonerill, so Suvi kills a horse or two to feed the soldiers, and Eursulon rolls up like "oh hey, I got a killer recipe for that. Ame let me get some of your herbs & olive oil"
It's schnitzel!!
This was also my thought
VERY glad to have learned the origin of the "I don't have friends" bit
Someone tell me what the Karmedic Edelica is please. Im DEFINITELY spelling it wrong and google is not helping.
I would also like to know!!!
Young Lou photos so cute lol can't wait to listen to this fireside
I love the "top of my suitcase" analogy. The Bible is usually at the top of my suitcase because I grew up super conservative. I'm a new improviser, and it's been fun to have that stuff come up, even tho it's very different than my ensemble mates. 💜🫶🏾 Extremely affirming
Where does the square block go? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUbIkNUFs-4
I was thinking of this video too 😂
Is the guy behind Lou pushing the leaning tower over? That is some wild energy. Also how the hell are all the people holding it ever going to fix the tower with this guy around?
Brennan and Lou are best buds and Brennan having no idea that Lou LOVES eating dem horses, great stuff.
Whenever Brennan gets into that manic, anarchic mode as a player, like during the hospital arc in Misfits and Magic season 2, it always feels like when the straight-A kid on the block who isn't allowed to have sugar shows up to the birthday party and realizes that there's just a whole cake sitting right there, and nobody's going to stop him. I really loved Never Stop Blowing Up for that reason, cuz it was like: what if that energy, but as a GM?
put lou wilson on last meals and give him his raw horse
Cooking video of both of them making their versions of Chicken Taters, pleeEease!
"Mama!🤌 Why u breakinga ma nose?🤌" - freaky-ass Pinocchio i think
Keep the hits on comin'!
Italia Italia. A-Lou-Lou