No Luck Atoll – a Fiasco Playset


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A while back, a post on RPG.net gave me the inclination to play a Gilligan’s Island themed playset for Bully Pulpit GamesFiasco, but I was unable to locate anything that seemed to fit the bill.  Obviously, the only answer was to write my own…

The PDF talks a little about tone, as there is a mixture of both frivolous and darker elements in the list.  Generally, the zaniness tends to occur for the lower numbers, so if you want a more serious tone, keep the small numbers for the Relationships tables, or for the second pick in Needs, Locations, and Items.

Relationships

1 Family
1 Parent and child
2 Siblings
3 Cousins, or aunt/uncle and nephew/niece
4 Grandparent and grandchild
5 Long lost relations finally reunited
6 Have just become related by a marriage in the family

2 Work
1 Boss and subordinate
2 Co-workers
3 Former co-workers
4 One got the other their job
5 Hired help and employer
6 From rival companies/firms

3 The Past
1 Friends since childhood
2 Never been able to stand one another
3 A mentor and former student
4 One is responsible for the other’s downfall
5 Perpetrator of a crime and the victim
6 Share a dark secret

4 Romance
1 Current spouses
2 Former spouses
3 Childhood sweethearts, finally reunited
4 Lovers
5 Former lovers
6 Lovers, that have just become related by a marriage in the family

5 Crime
1 Thick as thieves
2 An officer of the law and the innocent person being pursued
3 An officer of the law and the guilty person being pursued
4 Were both in the brig
5 Former cellmates
6 Drug smugglers

6 Ship shaped
1 Stowaways
2 Ship-board romance
3 Passenger and crew
4 Officer and crew member
5 Were sharing a cabin
6 Have been shipwrecked together before

Needs

1 To win…
1 …big in the turtle race
2 …a talent contest
3 …back a family heirloom
4 …a race for leadership
5 …the heart of another
6 …your freedom

2 To break…
1 …a voodoo curse
2 …up a relationship
3 …the news gently
4 …new scientific ground
5 …a long-standing feud
6 …up the group

3 To hide…
1 …from family
2 …from The Family
3 …from the law
4 …from the demands of the world
5 …a dark past
6 …a way off of the island

4 To avoid…
1 …becoming savages
2 …whatever prowls the island
3 …having to tell anyone the truth
4 …an embarrassing scene
5 …anyone knowing you are here
6 …being on the island when it happens

5 To discover…
1 …how to make money off the island
2 …a lost tribe
3 …what is preventing escape
4 …lost memories
5 …the saboteur
6 …the identity of the killer

6 To finish…
1 …an ancient ritual
2 …the important experiment
3 …what you started
4 …your remaining days on the island
5 …that deal
6 …off your target

Locations

1 Built by the castaways
1 A relaxing spa
2 A golf course
3 A restaurant
4 A sentry tower
5 An SOS signal
6 A raft

2 Potential treasure
1 A lost city of gold
2 “X marks the spot”
3 A gold mine
4 A sunken pirate ship
5 An oil field
6 A large field of marijuana

3 Signs of natives
1 A giant, stone monkey head (the second biggest you’ve seen)
2 A working bamboo aqueduct
3 A totem pole, with a very unusual figure depicted
4 A clearing, surrounded by shrunken heads
5 A creepy temple
6 An abandoned village

4 Out of place
1 A metal hatch, marked with a sequence of numbers
2 A modern high-street, covered with vines, in the middle of the jungle
3 A giant stone door
4 A meteor impact site
5 A radio tower
6 A run-down research facility

5 Wrecks
1 Crash site of a space craft
2 A downed hot air balloon or zeppelin
3 A U-boat in the branches of a huge tree
4 A cargo ship, with a hole in the hull that was punched through from the inside…
5 A wreckage of a passenger aircraft
6 The wreck of the ship you were sailing on

6 Natural features
1 A hot spring
2 A fiery volcano
3 A luscious lagoon
4 A towering waterfall
5 A sticky tar pit
6 An adjacent island

Objects

1 A bamboo…
1 …Geiger counter
2 …generator
3 …record player
4 …washing machine
5 …water wheel
6 …telescope

2 From the chemistry set
1 Home-made glue
2 A phosphorus dye
3 A formula that unleashes the beast within
4 Rat poison
5 A renewable power source
6 A miraculous cure

3 Wildlife
1 A confused polar bear
2 A cheeky chimp
3 A talkative parrot
4 A frisky gorilla
5 A sleeping tiger
6 A caged lion

4 Oddities
1 A wooden puppet pierced by a whale’s tooth
2 A volleyball with a handprint
3 A well-thumbed copy of the Bible
4 A curious idol
5 A dowsing rod
6 An unopened parcel

5 Technological
1 A sophisticated android
2 A Mars lander
3 A jet pack
4 A submarine
5 A radio transmitter
6 An unexploded bomb

6 A chest…
1 …of magician’s tricks
2 …of movie props
3 …of cannonballs
4 …with supplies of food and water
5 …filled with pirate treasure
6 …containing a dead body

Tilt Table

1 Disastrous
1 A monstrous typhoon
2 An imminent tsunami
3 The island is sinking
4 A volcanic eruption
5 A catastrophic failed experiment
6 The End of the World

2 The natives arrive…
1 …looking for a marriage match
2 …in need of a sacrifice
3 …and demonstrate the castaways to be the real savages
4 …and put the castaways through some trials
5 …and mistake the castaways for gods
6 …and turn out to be cannibals

3 Someone new arrives…
1 …and provides the best chance of escape
2 …looking for one of the castaways
3 …seeking the island’s secrets
4 …looking to silence the castaways
5 …with terrible news
6 …with evidence of an impostor

4 A chance for escape…
1 …never seemed so close
2 …never seemed so impossible
3 …no longer seems a good idea
4 …was never more important
5 …leads to even bigger problems
6 …depends on leaving someone behind

5 Group dynamics
1 A romantic pairing has unforeseen consequences
2 A rift forms
3 Someone finally confesses their love
4 Someone takes things too far
5 Someone gets left out
6 Someone vanishes

6 Revelations
1 “I knew it: aliens!”
2 Signs of new life are found
3 “This has all happened before…”
4 This is where everyone needed to be
5 It’s all someone’s fault
6 The island isn’t what everyone thought

About Craig Payne

Despite being born tone deaf in one ear, Craig has risen above his disadvantage to achieve the lofty position of spending most of his free time mucking around on the Internet, tinkering with RPG rules, and failing on at least seven occasions to finish writing a novel.