Microscope Union is already much more polished than I expected, which means it’s time to let slip the hounds of playtesting. As usual, I’m looking for people who will actually play the game and give feedback, not just read it. Because Union is a built on Microscope, you also have to already know how to […]

First playtest of Microscope Union was beautiful and bittersweet: Nathan grew up on the farm. As a young man he sees strange lights in the sky, a sight that fills him with quiet wonder. Belle comes from the big city. She hates the country, hates working on the farm, but eventually she and Nathan fall […]

Want a Microscope book overseas but don’t want to pay an arm and a leg on shipping? You can now order Microscope print-on-demand thru Lulu. Lulu now prints in a variety of countries (Australia, Canada, and all over Europe) so if you’re outside the US it might be cheaper and easier for you. You might […]

In Microscope, the sense of not knowing what’s going to happen next is provided by the simple fact that humans are unpredictable, and your fellow players are human. Spot on.

Great interview with Tre’ and Pete for LUG Con (“Let Us Game”), an online gaming convention. We pre-recorded it back in August, but it just went online. We were supposed to talk for 30 minutes but we got on a roll and time slipped by and then the sun came up. Tre’ also hosted a […]

The video from our Collaborative World-Building panel at ConTessa is up: I think we could have talked about this for hours. And hours. And then a few more hours. Thanks to Meguey Baker, Brad Murray, Lowell Francis, and our host Sherri Stewart for a very fun and insightful discussion.

There wasn’t a group on Google+ for Microscope, so Pete Yagmin grabbed by the bull by the epic fractal horns and set one up. Microscope RPG community on G+ How’s that for being the change you want to see?

I’m reading David Wright’s translation of Beowulf. I’ve read Beowulf before but one of the points Wright makes in his analysis is that it’s not just the events that happen in Beowulf but that the audience of dudes in horned helmets knew who the historical figures in the tale were and knew both their histories […]

We were at Emerald City Comic Con, manning the story games table, when a kid comes up with his Dad. He’s maybe 10 years old and he’s curious about these games even though he’s never played a role-playing game before. And I mean intensely curious, not just idly asking. He’s heard of Dungeons & Dragons […]

These quickstart seeds are addictive. Time for some science fiction: What category should I do next? Fantasy seems like the obvious choice. The Dark Lord stretching his hand across the free lands, etc.

In honor of Emerald City Comic Con I whipped up some Microscope quickstart history seeds with a superhero theme. Quick seeds are ideal for cons or any time you need to sit down and get playing in a hurry. Now put on your cape and go punch history in the face.

There are more great Microscope game write-ups out there than I can keep up with, but these are a few of my recent favorites: Psionic scream heard across the stars — Easily the most epic Microscope play report I’ve seen in quite a while. After the first session the story continues with the Retreat, the […]

Microscope. A Cold War history. Lots of serious drama that left us craving even more Cold War Microscope. Mockingbird The British agents on operation “Mockingbird” are set up in a flat in a ghetto of emigrants who got out of the Eastern bloc and came to the West. The agents have been hunkered there for […]

The best Microscope game ever might have happened at GeekGirlCon this weekend. I wasn’t even in the game. Didn’t even see it. But from what I’ve heard it’s now my favorite session ever. Two sessions, actually. A very small and very brave girl came up to our table. One of our expert facilitators leaned down […]

The sage and savvy Emily Care Boss being interviewed by Evan Torner on his blog Immersive Gameplay. Evan Torner: What recent games have you played that you think will create huge ripples in the way we think about, design and play games? Emily Care Boss: Microscope, by Ben Robbins. This is a game that takes […]

One of the marvelous things about the modern world is that when you publish a game electronically, people around the world can buy and download it instantly. Microscope games have popped up all over the globe, but now Denmark seems to be the latest nation to get the fractal history bug… Utopia The Second Coming […]

Inspired by a comment from @scottybomb, I just started a living or dead thread on twitter: Fight Club time: if you could play #MicroscopeRPG with anyone living or dead, who would it be? #livingordead What’s your answer? I’m struggling to narrow down to one choice, but I’m liking this game.

It’s Emerald City Comic Con, late Friday night at the indie RPG tables, and I sit down with some awesome new folks (Hi, Daniel! Hi, Gabi!) to play some Microscope. “What kind of history should we make?” “Let’s do a zombie apocalypse!” “Cool, zombies! Well wait, do we want to do modern times or something […]

Don’t you hate it when you’re sitting on a bus with your friends and you’re trying to play some Microscope but every time you sit the cards on your lap the bus hits the breaks and -blooey- your epic history flies down the aisle? Yeah, that sucks. Technology to the rescue! Trey Marshall has developed […]

It’s always fascinating to me when people who’ve never played Microscope before–or anything like it for that matter–really dig in and talk about the experience. Into The Gamescape is a podcast in the UK that normally covers board and card games, but they took Microscope for a spin and spent a good chunk of their […]

Remember how I said we played a mess of birthday Microscope at Story Games Seattle, all without realizing it was Microscope’s birthday? Here they are, plus a few more stragglers from the weeks before and after. Beware: several of these are experimental “short form” Microscope, where the whole history is actually a very short period […]

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Microscope’s release. I’d forgotten it was the day, but we unwittingly celebrated by playing a slew of Microscope games at Story Games Seattle. So much better than cake. I’ve been playing Microscope for three years now, but it still feels like only yesterday that we sat down and […]

RPG Countdown compiled sales stats from 126 brick and mortar stores to figure out their top 100 selling RPGs of 2011. Microscope comes in at #23, which is pretty sweet. I talk a little bit in the podcast about the connection between Microscope and my old D&D game, how I used to run spin-off campaigns […]

Seriously, that’s how they explained D&D to me. Listen to the interview, it’ll make sense. Ben Robbins Interview with Bad Wrong Fun This interview brought to you courtesy of Alex Guzman, mastermind of Bad Wrong Fun. They’re running an insane campaign combining Microscope and West Marches. I warned them there were Things Man Was Not […]