Transatlantic

Rather than continuing to add additional posts on my age old Transatlantic play set for Fiasco, this will serve to warehouse notes and callbacks to Transatlantic out in the world.  Updating periodically when i’m feeling particularly vain and have too much time.

•  Transatlantic has a page on Boardgame Geeks.  Plenty of links and overviews.  Leave a rating if you like it.

•  Jaime Lawrence leaves warm comments about the joys of Transatlantic, the AP session summarized on Boardgame Geek,

“Transatlantic was the first playset for Fiasco that I played which was not found in the main book. It was a play-by-forum game and sadly petered out, but the setup was fantastic and I suspect that in real life, it could be excellent.

The style of the playset is outstanding; it begins by demanding that the most aristocratic person at the table read out the opening. This further sets the tone for the rest of the game. The elments are a cunning mix of the outrageous (Intrigue: Who are you and why are you in my closet?) to the seemingly mundane (Need: To Escape: From prying eyes). Wrapping them together is enjoyable and easy. It also results in a feel not dissimilar to the films on the movie night list – Titanic, with its odd and over the top subplots; the Posideon Adventure, with an unlikely group thrown together by fate even Duck Soup, with the Marx Brothers’ wackiness, is acknowledged.

Transatlantic was also the first playset I knew to use flashbacks in its setup, with locations like ‘Sweethearts’ first meeting’ referencing events before the game by design. It also contains such gems as the requisite homage to Lovecraft (Object: Sacrificial dagger with engravings of the loathsome Sea God ).

Transatlantic still stands as a clever and original setting for Fiasco two years on. Despite my failure to complete a game of it, I feel confident that it is a solid addition to the game and desire to play it again. It scores eight icebergs out of ten.”

•  BGG has an interesting Play-by-Forum Fiasco thread including Transatlantic.  Interesting to see Fiasco unfold over forum as the narrative shifts a bit.  This particular session is notable as being the most boat-y of the Transatlantic sessions I’ve encountered.  It may be that the text element is conducive to fleshing out the setting; in a similar way that verbal trends towards ‘character’.

Earlier threads on Transatlanctic, including AP and summaries can be found: here.