Players: Casey, Jess, sev, Stuart, Martin

In a small town, the mayor is up for re-election, a con man comes to town, a dentist falls in love, and a little old lady is revealed to be so much more than she seems.

Dr. Clara Constantine (Casey) is a small-town dentist with a big-time crush. She's probably the most highly educated person in this little town but that doesn't stop her from getting entirely foolish over ...

Roger Montague (Martin) is a con man, who thinks he's got this town in his pocket. Whether the city decides to refurbish the old ballfield or raze it and turn it into condos -- or a cat sanctuary -- he's going to walk off with the cash. His latest "investor" is ...

Cosme Violeta (Stuart), a cat-adoring retiree, was charmed into giving Roger a bag of cash despite her initial suspicions of him. She was eventually talked into re-taking control of her own life if only to finally stop listening to ...

Soraya Mendel (sev), formerly an administrative assistant in the mayor's office, now works in the bloated and corrupt local social services organization. To her, Cosme is a symbol of all that's gone wrong with the system. This lady doesn't need a social worker; she just needs a friend! To this end, she enlists the help of her former coworker...

Quiel Rowley (Jess) is an essential cog in the mayor's political machine, but she's always dreamed of running for office herself. Soraya talks her into running -- if there's ever a time, it's now, when the corrupt mayor is running against his corrupt brother.

By the middle of the game it looked grim -- we'd spent a lot of the good-outcome dice and had a preponderance of bad-outcome dice waiting to be played. Our tilts were exactly where the story was headed anyway: Love rears its ugly head, and "you thought it was taken care of, but it wasn't." We took a turn for the romantic-comedy while the plots from the first half of the game came undone, one after another.

In the end, Quiel gets the girl, Soraya gets dead, Cosme's secret past is revealed (she's Roger's ... father?), Roger's scheme is revealed but he does get away to scam another day, and Clara loses her dental practice but gains the love of her life.

This is among the best games of Fiasco I've played so far. We retained a remarkable degree of sense & continuity, the balance of action vs. flavor scenes was just about perfect for me, the silly & gonzo were present but never actually overshadowed the fiction, and Stuart's doodles of the town's political signs & cartoons were the cherry on top.

Highlights of the game for me (not including the sketches) were:

Watching Casey switch between uber-competent dentist mode & goofy adoring mode when Cosme reminded her of Roger.

Cosme's epic Rube Goldberg machine, which was her ultimate undoing.

When the plot complicated itself (ohhhh, yeah, and Quiel has that (totally legit) bag of cash in her office. That can't look good!)

"Remember when we played Campaign Manager together as kids?"

Highlights for me:

Clara getting a hold of Roger's number - "Will you meet me? I'll be there in thirty seconds." (You always want to give it thirty seconds, so you don't sound desperate.)

Anything where I got to be either Roy or Troy. I love playing unrepentant, shallow, two-dimensional assholes, especially when they're identical and at each others' throats. Also, the introduction of this plot let me semi-consciously draw references to some of my favorite gags from Futurama, The Daily Show, and Puck-style giant surrealist caricatures.

The scene where Quiel, having heard Clara just say that she overheard Quiel's plans and thought they were great, almost confessed her lifelong love for Clara, only to take one of the first act's few black die as Clara gushed that she'd make a great mayor. (Oh look, this glass of wine just transformed into a chaser.)

Cosme's agreement to fulfill Soraya's need to get out of her care- on the condition that she become Quiel's new campaign manager.

Quiel's confrontation with Roger after an investigative report revealed none of his plans for the baseball field were legitimate:

• The three cell phones Roger keeps (one for each con), all ringing more and more frequently
  
• The dramatic score/Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go/Hot In The City/You Spin Me Round ringtone medley this led to (which I fully intend to remake in Audacity at some point)
  
• Quiel grabbing the last one and answering Clara's call to Roger, resulting in a poly-ironic surprise twist for all involved
  

The three stages of the Quiel-Cosme scene that followed that:

• The revelation that Cosme was the chief financial backer for the little league, up to and concurrent with her job as campaign manager for Quiel's cat-shelter-based campaign
  
• Quiel instantly recognizing- before I did- that this meant Cosme would have known about Roger's conflicting plans all along, and angrily demanding an explanation
  
• Cosme's flustered, disconcerted response that she was under the impression that they were going to form some sort of Kitten League, in the same vein as the Puppy Bowl
  

Quiel and Clara's happy ending