The unicorn befriends the young mother, but penniless she is driven to betray it, leading a wealthy noble to trap the beast for a pouch of gold, a sin that grieves her until she is old and grey. But the unicorn is not so easily caught… Her son goes forth and leads a hard life […]
Microscope Explorer won the Indie RPG Award for Best Supplement, which is pretty great. And congratulations to all the other winners. But congratulations too to everyone who put their heart and soul into making a game, whether you got an award for it or not. The award is not the important part.
“fall of league of supervillains creates world war” “outlawing of experimental drug unleashes social inequality” “rise of psi talents unites terrorists” The special bonus superhero Oracle from the Microscope Explorer kickstarter is ready to go! You can use the PDF and roll the dice or use the oracle online. There a lot of societal issues, […]
“Colonists set foot on a new planet and strive to make it home. Can it grow into a flourishing, civilized world or will the colony fail and be forgotten?” Brave New World is one of the new, improved seeds in Microscope Explorer, but I wanted to make it available for all those Microscope players who […]
Don’t you hate it when you sit down to play Microscope and then fumble about trying to pick a topic for your history? So many possibilities. Not quite infinite but really really big. And each minute of brainstorming and discussion is one less minute of play. As I’ve said many times, you don’t need need […]
It’s hard to believe Microscope is five years old today (almost seven if you count from the first game we played). And what better birthday present than brand new Microscope Explorer books, hot off the presses? Let the shipping commence..!
The first print test of Microscope Explorer just came back. Yep, it looks great. But before I press the big red button that starts the actual print run, I’m double-checking (and triple-checking) everything, then doing a second print test with those final corrections. One of main things I’ve been doing is stress-testing the Oracles to […]
“Wanted: Hundreds of monks to manually transcribe copies of Microscope Explorer onto thin pages of vellum…” What’s that? We’ve got machines for that now? Whew, that’ll save time. And monks. Now that the PDF is done I’m working on test prints of the book. When those check out, bulk printing begins. Depending on turnaround times […]
Microscope Explorer, the new supplement for Microscope, is available, right now. Backers have already had their hands on Union, Chronicle and history Seeds for months, so it’s time to give everyone else a shot! Books should be ready to ship in February but you can pre-order them now.
It’s always fantastic to chat with RpgGamerDad. After he invited me to talk about Microscope back in January I promised I’d come back when the Microscope Explorer was underway. So I did! RpgGamerDad Podcast: Ep 43 – Sunny Seattle Special RpgGamerDad also talked a bit about Microscope Explorer and his plans to run Microscope with […]
“We created the Citizen Kane of spaceship stories…” –Timothy Young Sometimes the excellent games sneak up on you. They disguise themselves with trenchcoats and fake moustaches and then, when you least expect it, they pounce! I played two games of Microscope Chronicle at PAX last year. The first was the story of a mechwarrior-style mercenary […]
Psst! Hey, kid! Want to score some cool new ways to play Microscope? I’ve got some Microscope Explorer right here… (uh, imagine me whispering in a dark alley, possibly wearing a ratty trench coat, tempting the youths with story games and that sweet, sweet imagination…)
Ever since the first playtest, Microscope Echo required the Lens to describe a faction going back and changing history. The idea was that this intervention kicks off each round and drives the action. But as I keep playing it, I’m thinking that requirement isn’t necessary. Players don’t seem at all hesitant to go back and […]
Now that all the spin-off games have gone through playtesting, I put up a proper introduction page to talk about what’s going to be in the new Microscope Explorer book. Three Microscope spin-off games? Detailed step-by-step seeds plus randomly generated seeds? All that lovely strategic advice? Yep, we got all that.
Four years ago today, Microscope is released: would-be players: “Oh cool! A game about time travel!” me: “Actually no. Players pick where in time they want to explore but the characters in the game can’t move through time. Except, uh, forwards. At the normal speed.” would-be players: “But… I can haz time travel?” Fast forward […]