On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 01:19:39AM -0700, Robin Lee Powell wrote:IRC actually might be better, because it'd all be recorded.
>
> http://www.lamemage.com/
>
> It's a history-construction game. I have the PDF. I'm going to
> try to make people play it at LogFest. We should do it as a phone
> game, too. In Lojban.
Anyways, here's a summary of the gameplay, stolen from the PDF.
It's essentially a shared world-building co-op storytelling game,
*except* that no collaboration, or even suggesting, is allowed.
This has (I belive, I've not actually played it) two important
effects: (1) everybody gets to be surprised by what happens, which
increases engagement (2) the pushy people can't dominate everything.
- --------------------
- Humanity spreads to the stars and forges a galactic civilization…
- Fledgling nations arise from the ruins of the empire…
- An ancient line of dragon-kings dies out as magic fades from the
realm…
These are all examples of Microscope games.
In Microscope, you build an epic history as you play. Want to play a
game that spans the entire Dune series, the Silmarillion, or
the rise and fall of Rome in an afternoon? That’s Microscope.
But you don’t play the history from start to finish,
marching along in chronological order. Instead, you build your
history from the outside in. You start off knowing the big picture,
the grand scheme of what happens, then you dive in and explore what
happened in between, the how and why that shaped events.
You are free to jump backwards or forwards, zooming in or out to
look at whatever you want, defying limits of time and space. Want to
leap a thousand years into the future and see how an institution
shaped society? Want to jump back to the childhood of the king you
just saw assassinated and find out what made him such a hated ruler?
That’s normal in Microscope. You have vast creative authority. You
can make whole empires rise and fall at will. Dream up a utopia or
destroy one with nuclear fire. You have that power, but remember
you’re not alone: everyone else at the table can do it too.
You create independently, but not in isolation. Each facet
you add to history builds on what other players built before you.
You expand on their ideas, and they expand on yours. History might
not turn out the way you expected. Be prepared to think on your
feet.
When you zoom all the way in to a particular moment in time, all the
players share the stage and role-play together to find out something
we want to learn about the history. Did the crew of the Icarus know
the aliens were on Titan? Did the rebels really fake the government
crackdown? Do the knights remember the original meaning of their
ritual vows? We role-play and see. The more you play, the more your
once simple summary becomes a detailed tapestry, full of meaning and
surprises. History snowballs.
What you need to play
Microscope is for two to five players, but three or four are best.
There’s no game prep and no GM. You can play a single session, or
keep coming back and exploring the same history over and over again.
You’ll need a stack of index cards and something to write with,
along with table space to lay everything out. Smaller cards, like
blank flash cards, work even better because they take up less space
on the table.
[snip]
teaching step 1: explain the concept
First, read the “What Is Microscope?” section out loud. Instead of
reading it all yourself, have the other players take turns. Then
say:
“The author of the game says I should read this part to you because
it’s really important: All of us sitting at this table have equal
creative power. At times we’ll have different roles and
authority, but we’re all equal participants and authors.
“It may sound like I’m running the game because I’m going to be
explaining a lot about the rules, and I may interrupt and jump in to
clarify how the game is played. But I don’t have any more authority
than anyone else when it comes to actually playing the game --
there’s no GM.
“Now that we know what the game’s about, we’re ready to get
started.”
teaching step 2: game setup
Follow the steps in “Starting a New Game.” You can read the first
one or two paragraphs of each step out loud or just summarize, as
you prefer.
Players new to Microscope may try to brainstorm too much detail
about the history during the setup. Don’t hesitate to jump in and
tell players to save those ideas for later. Follow the steps
rigorously.
“Microscope is a little like Poker: you want to keep your cool
ideas close to your vest until you use them. If the rest of us know
what you’re going to do ahead of time, it’s not as interesting.”
teaching step 3: explain play
“Now that setup is done, we’re ready to start play. We
already know more about our history than we did when we came up with
the single sentence idea, and as we play we’ll find out more and
more.
“The basic structure of the game is that we keep going
around the table adding to the history, making either a Period, an
Event or a Scene. For each rotation there’s going to be one player
called the Lens, and that player is going to pick a particular Focus
that everything we create has to relate to. So if the Focus is a
city, each player is going to get to add something to the history
that somehow relates to that city. It’s a topic to keep us all on
the same page.
“If you make a Period or Event, just describe what happens as though
we’re seeing it from a birds-eye view. You’re in charge, and the
rest of us are eagerly listening to hear what you have to
say. If you make a Scene, we all pick characters and
role-play to find out what really happened in that moment of
history.”
- --------------------
-Robin
--
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