The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Sign up and Discussion] Microscope! A Game.
nightmarenny
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This is a Sign-up thread for a very abnormal RPG. Here we shall collaborately build a world.
Here we make heroes and Villains and plot there movements and motives.
Here we make History.
We are going to play Microscope!
The Official Page
So what's our setting?
One of the interesting things about Microscope is that there is no GM and we decide the setting as we play. So the game may be a fantasy, a Sci-fi or something completely unexpected but the group must first be formed before we decide.
How many players?
At most five counting me.
Do I need to have a copy of the rules to play?
It should be quite easy to get people up to speed as the rules are not very complex, unless the "Powers That Be" object to to much sharing of the rules.
How will we keep track of notes
I'm currently looking around for the best free Note-Taking software. Any suggestions?
Sign-Up Sheet
1) Nightmarenny
2) Jam Warrior
3) Dex Dynamo
4) EVOL
5) Fire Truck
Premise Revolution arises different ways the world over, as people struggle liberate magic from the purview of a few noble bloodlines
Pallet
Yes
Magical Patrons
Trains
Standing Armies
Magic Comunication
No
Wand, Staves, ect
Electricity
Guns
Hereditary Magic
Civilised races other than humanity
Gods
some living magical constructs
Here we make heroes and Villains and plot there movements and motives.
Here we make History.
We are going to play Microscope!
The Official Page
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. Want to explore an epic history of your own creation, hundreds or thousands of years long, all in an afternoon? That's Microscope.
You won't play the game in chronological order. You can defy the limits of time and space, jumping backward or forward to explore the parts of the history that interest you. 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 power to create... and to destroy. Build beautiful, tranquil jewels of civilization and then consume them with nuclear fire. Zoom out to watch the majestic tide of history wash across empires, then zoom in and explore the lives of the people who endured it.
Mock chronological order.
Defy time and space.
Build worlds and destroy them.
A role-playing game for two to four players. No GM. No prep. Microscope was playtested for two years by over 150 awesome gamers.
So what's our setting?
One of the interesting things about Microscope is that there is no GM and we decide the setting as we play. So the game may be a fantasy, a Sci-fi or something completely unexpected but the group must first be formed before we decide.
How many players?
At most five counting me.
Do I need to have a copy of the rules to play?
It should be quite easy to get people up to speed as the rules are not very complex, unless the "Powers That Be" object to to much sharing of the rules.
How will we keep track of notes
I'm currently looking around for the best free Note-Taking software. Any suggestions?
Sign-Up Sheet
1) Nightmarenny
2) Jam Warrior
3) Dex Dynamo
4) EVOL
5) Fire Truck
Premise Revolution arises different ways the world over, as people struggle liberate magic from the purview of a few noble bloodlines
Pallet
Yes
Magical Patrons
Trains
Standing Armies
Magic Comunication
No
Wand, Staves, ect
Electricity
Guns
Hereditary Magic
Civilised races other than humanity
Gods
some living magical constructs
Help me raise a little cash for my transition costs
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
nightmarenny on
0
Posts
Read RPG.net review: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15181.phtml
Rush back to sign up the fuck right now because this looks awesome and extremely well suited to PbP.
As for collaborative notes, surely Google Docs is the answer?
I'll give it another look.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
Is this RPG beginner-friendly?
edit: I already reserved a spot on the new mini-phalla so don't feel bad to be perfectly honest with me.
Fair enough. I essentially know nothing about how this works so was just spouting off the first collaborative writing platform that came to mind. If we need lots of pages linking to other pages then I guess we need a wiki then.
Maybe a shared Obsidian portal account? Campaign pages on there come with a wiki and it would allow public viewing of the results.
Apparently there's an official iPhone app, that's... not really useful here.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microscope-companion/id507267328
The Periods would be placed in a line from left to right in chronological order.
Under each Period from top to bottom we would place the Events which take place in each Period.
Periods then may contain one or more scenes.
Here's an example of the "Board" we would play on.
So I'm looking for the program that can handle that the best.
EDIT
An Obsidian Portal Account would certainly be up to the task but I bet I can find a simpler way of doing things. The information that must be conveyed isn't terribly intensive but organization is a little Tougher.
@EVOL
This might actually be a very good starting place. You do not play a single character, instead picking appropriate characters when we play out scenes. Along with that it is both very collaborative, in that the only goal is to work to together to have fun and make a cool history, and when not playing scenes very turn based.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
Great! I'll sign up then.
GoFund The Portland Trans Pride March, or Show It To People, or Else!
Twitch Stream
One of the best moments in the session I "ran" was when we went into a scene totally expecting a certain outcome, and then in one of the last lines of the scene one of the players utterly turned the whole situation on its head, but in a way that still fit what we had built up to that point.
Also, you can play time.
PbP.
Wow, we sure filled things up fast. Alright I'm going to explain each section of play for those who haven't played before. We will now perform four start-up steps before we reach "Main Play". The first step is picking the big picture. A simple sentence long overview of the History you want to play. Anyone may freely suggest a Big Picture. We as a group will discuss and decide on one. Here are some examples to get the ball rolling.
An Ancient Empire Rises and Falls
mankind leaves the sick Earth behind and spreads out into the stars
Superheros protect society, undermining the rule of law.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
Humanity gains the ability to use magic.
I don't seem to be very good in thinking up huge scale plots I see.
Out of your examples, Nightmarenny, I think the third one has the most potential. The third one might be more fun to play as though..
edit: derp. I meant that the second one had the potential.
A revolution of thought sweeps across a Midieval fantasy nation.
Magic and technology come to blows in the American Old West.
I really like your first one, also, EVOL.
I like your last one too, Dex.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
I found an example game done in Google docs. Would this be up to snuff?
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1XALzRhFnF0LVDS7MquVPWHF-cydADlsxaqk5eVZGPus/edit?authkey=CMfDzqYM&hl=en_US&pli=1
edit: It looks like It'll be, uh, 5 hours later from this post till I'm online again.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
The world is thrown into Chaos when a number of Superhumons, both Heroes and Villains reveal themselves.
The Discovery of the World Tree and the subsequent creation of magic divides the world into three sides, Mages, Scientists and those unlucky enough to be caught in the middle.
Or did you mean pick characters? because the game works a bit... differently.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
I have a pretty good picture on how the game works now. I'm getting preeeetty excited.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
From dawn to dusk, the rise from the wilds of a civilised high fantasy world, followed by it's collapse back to anarchy, corrupted by unfathomable alien minds from beyond the stars.
I guess we get Fire to put forward an idea or officially abstain and then try and build consensus.
Sorry, I was working a bunch and didn't remember to check this thread last night.
GoFund The Portland Trans Pride March, or Show It To People, or Else!
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
GoFund The Portland Trans Pride March, or Show It To People, or Else!
Ok everyone has had a chance to suggest a premise so if nobody has any other suggestions we can begin voting now. If nobody has any objections we can use the voting rules for a later part of the game.
First, remember that everyone should at least be ok with the Premise so if you will have issues with the winner please say something. We will work something out.
Each vote is worth 1 to 4 points and each player gets two votes. The option with the most points wins. So
Magic and technology come to blows in the American Old West-4
Revolution arises different ways the world over, as people struggle liberate magic from the purview of a few noble bloodlines. -3
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
Revolution arises different ways the world over, as people struggle liberate magic from the purview of a few noble bloodlines. - 3
Is it considered bad form to vote for one's own suggestion? Ah well, I really like mine.
From dawn to dusk, the rise from the wilds of a civilised high fantasy world, followed by it's collapse back to anarchy, corrupted by unfathomable alien minds from beyond the stars.-3
I like the day used as a framing device for this one.
Funnily enough, a combination of my suggestion and Dex's old west one pretty much describes this homebrew campaign I'm writing up right now.
GoFund The Portland Trans Pride March, or Show It To People, or Else!
Revolution arises different ways the world over, as people struggle to liberate magic from the purview of a few noble bloodlines. - 3
Revolution arises different ways the world over, as people struggle to liberate magic from the purview of a few noble bloodlines
When I get home from work I'll modify the OP to reflect that.
Now we pick our Pallet. This is a simple list of Yes's and No's for our world. What does and doesn't exist? Anything that would be considered obvious from the description doesn't need to be included. For the "Yes" column we add only item that we are unsure the other players would want to include and for the No column we add elements that the other players may expect. If anyone needs further clarification just ask. We go around in no particular order but you may only add one a round and this stage is over when someone passes. Anyone that hasn't added to the list this round finishes up but there are no further rounds.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
Trains
No
Guns
Edit: Wait, when you said one a round, do you mean one yes and one no, or only a yes or a no?
@nightmarenny
GoFund The Portland Trans Pride March, or Show It To People, or Else!
Sorry for being unclear.
Also it would be good if we provided more information then just one sentence. We wanna make sure we all know what we are talking about after all.
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5
Wands, staffs or other tools to enhance Magical abilities.
edited.
One yes or one No EVOL
https://gofund.me/fa5990a5