So I picked up this neat little game called Microscope from DriveThruRPG a little while back. After a few reads, I've decided I'd like to play with it. As my current group is more or less fully occupied with other gaming and Microscope lends itself very well to acting as much as a writing tool as it does a role-playing game, I'm going to make this a solo effort. The idea to play alone, along with the conceit of imaginary players, is taken from the Risus Monkey blog on the very same topic.
I'm also going to be using Corkboard.me to illustrate the 'board' of my Microscope play, as it's ideal to replace the visual impact of index cards. You can see my corkboard here - I strongly reccomend referencing it while you read this. I'm also going to be using a fantasy name generator for when my own creativity fails me.
I'm going to define four 'players' to start. These are all aspects of my own personal interests and inclinations. I'm going to be playing each of their turns, but each one of them will have their choices colored by the personality and interest I assign. They are:
Morgan: interested in the broad brush of history and large-scale activity - the rise and fall of nations. Likes big battles, cataclysms, and sweeping social changes.
Bob: interested in deeper themes and mythological implications. Likes meaningful stories, hubris, and happy endings.
Gilbert: The nerd. Interested in awesome setpieces, fighting monsters, exploring dungeons, and other popcorn fantasy tropes.
Dean: the tasteful one. Interested in developed cultures, ecologies, and travelogues.
My first step in playing Microscope is to come up with the "Big Picture" - that is, to summarize what this game is going to be about in a single open-ended sentence. I'm going to steal (and modify) one of the examples from the book;
Religious refugees carve out a new life (and empire) in the fertile land beyond the wastes.
I'm going to immediately bookend my history - give it a beginning and an end - by defining two Periods. Periods are the biggest building block of Microscope play - in tabletop play, they would take the form of an index card with the periods name, a brief description, and a note on it's tone (either light or dark).
My first period is the Flight from Persecution, when the people I'm going to be following flee their ancestral homes to escape genocide at the hands of a rival tribe. It's tone is dark, as the tribe loses its home and encounters great hardship. I name their civilization the Voryer, and their oppressors the Brus.
My second period is the Fall of Empire, coming at the very end of the history I'm going to be exploring. I don't know what has come before, but I know that what will end the Voryeran empire will be a rebel slave and a succession crisis. It's tone is likewise dark.
The next phase of the game is the Palette. Each player takes a turn adding an element to a Yes or No column - either banning something or guaranteeing the possibility of it being included. After a two rounds the palette is:
No: "Precursor" civilizations (the Voryerans are the first empire), large-scale magical catastrophes, large scale magic in general, divine interventions,
Yes: nonhuman races, previous civilizations, magical artifacts, schools imparting excellent or supernatural skill.
I opt to stop there. It is never okay to introduce elements under the 'no' section, and it is always okay to introduce elements included on the 'yes' table. I've established a low magic (outside of artificery) world where nonhuman races are probably about as common as variations in human ethnicity.
Now my little imaginary group undertakes the 'first pass'. Each of them can create a new Period or an Event (a specific occurance within a Period). Morgan creates a Rise of Empire period, wherein the Voryerans conquer and consolidate the region they have discover. It's tone is light - this is an era of triumph, after all. Bob creates the period just after the Flight from Persecution - An End to Wandering, in which the Voryer find their fertile new homeland and great shifts occur within their culture. It's tone is likewise light, and it takes place before Rise of Empire. Gilbert feels like no empire is complete without some emperors, and creates the Ascension of the Blessed King period between An End to Wandering and Rise of Empire. He defines the era as another shift in Voryer culture, where the various tribes are united in a series of bloody civil wars under a tyrant. It's tone is dark. Dean creates Through the Gates of Glory, an era after the consolidation of the empire where arts and culture flourish.
My next step is the actual play of the game. Each player gets a chance to add to the history, creating new periods, events, or scenes. The first player to go in any round is the Lens, who gets to set the focus (the theme of the round) and who can create multiple elements so long as they are nested (so an event and a scene, but not two new periods). Scenes are where a lot of the game will take place - where characters are created and questions about the history are answered.
My first Lens is Morgan, who sets the focus as the Religion of the Voryer. The other players can create whatever they like, so long as it somehow touches on this focus. He takes the opportunity to create the event "The Noble Pyruh Receives Revelation" under Flight from Persecution and the scene Conversation with Divinity within that event. Bob creates the scene under the same event Pyruh Gives Strength to his People.
Gilbert decides to run with what he's already seen created and decides to make the event Subversion of the Church for the Goals of the State in the period Ascension of the Blessed King. Finally, Dean wants some in-universe writing, and submits the scene "The Book of Pyruh" - though this is fairly outside the typical structure of a scene, I find it a pretty rad idea so I'm going to run with it.
Each of these scenes would usually be played out in person, with each player taking on a character or two. As this is solo play, I'm instead going to be writing a short story for each scene - eventually. Maybe. Or I'll be lazy and just answer the question a scene poses and leave the actual specifics to the imagination.
After the scenes are resolved (at least, answering their core questions!) we move on to deciding a legacy. The person who picks the legacy is always the person who was the focus before the last one or whoever would be last in the regular order. In this case it's Dean. A legacy is something that will come up down the road over and over again, shaping and altering the course of history, Dean selects the Book of Pyruh as this rounds legacy. As part of selecting the legacy he can also create an event or scene related to it. he decides to create an event in An End to Wandering where the holy book of Pyruh is codified - an event analagous to the Council of Nicea.
That brings us to the end of the first round, with some detail about the flight of the Voryerans and their first real prophet.
The second rounds lens is Bob, who is in the mood for some hubris - he sets the focus on the Blessed King, who he names Sulur, and creates an event (set after the subversion of the churh) - The Indignities of King Sulurs Reign - and a scene where he commits the act that will see him named a tyrant, wherein he steals the daughter of one of his vassals - Eldshya - to be his bride.
Gilbert is next. He wants this King to be the source of a lot of cool action, so he creates the event Sulur Defeats and Enslaves the Rhycine, with the Rhycine being a race of fierce, catlike nonhuman warriors. Dean, wanting a bit of geography included, creates the event Sulur founds the Imperial City, defining it as one of the early wonders of the Voryer civilization..
Morgan, as the lens from the last round, gets to select the legacy. He decides he likes the idea of some poetic justice, and decides that the murderer of the emperor in the final period is a Rhycine - one of the emperors bodyguards. The legacy is "Rhycine Embitterment."
With that done, I'm taking a break. I'll fill in scenes with short stories as I am inspired and have the time - otherwise I'm going to answer the questions they inspire and note down, in general, how they turned out. Thanks for reading.
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