“As the week continued, I could see the students becoming more comfortable not just with the game but with themselves and their interactions in groups. It was transformational for some: I saw students who started the class as awkward, self-doubting students and who were able to take some notable steps in developing their sense of […]

I got to chat with Keenan Kibrick on his new podcast, talking about Microscope, games in the classroom, and (spoiler!) how Romeo and Juliet ends… Games and Education: Interview With Ben Robbins of Microscope Keenan’s being doing great work adapting games for education. Kids playing Lord of Flies as a Kingdom game? Yep, that was […]

Yesterday we brewed the strong coffee (and tea) and sat down and talked about the wonders and woes of Kickstarters. (depicted: me doing some kind of magic trick, apparently) There’s an audio malfunction for about a minute towards the end that gives my voice a robotic, destroy-all-humans quality. You can’t make it out, but I […]

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 […]

Really fun interview I did on the RPG Gamer Dad podcast is now online. I talk about Microscope, Kingdom, the wonders of gaming with kids, the eternal font of fun that is Story Games Seattle, and some of the cool new stuff being crafted by Marc and Caroline. And yeah, I drop a few hints […]

Tim C Koppang has a sequel to Mars Colony in Kickstarter right now: Mars Colony 39 Dark. Nope, it’s not just a new improved Mars Colony. It’s Mars Colony from the point-of-view of the rebels. What’s different is that 39 Dark is a look at the colony from the people up instead of from the […]

Emerald City Comic Con is coming. Real soon, in fact. In case you missed it, the last two years have included some epic gaming. We showed up with a flag and a dream and carved a glittering city of gaming out of the untamed wilderness: 2012: Dance the Victory Dance 2013: Snatched from the jaws […]

A few of the latest and greatest Kingdom games from around the world. Are they playing Kingdom in Korea? The answer is yes. Plains Tribes — “Originally I was a little bit worried about how the tribal roleplaying would turn out, whether it would descend into a stereotype-fest a la every Hollywood movie with Indians […]

Michael over at Futile Position had a few short questions for me about Kingdom and Microscope. Unfortunately for him I had a few very long answers: Interview with Ben Robbins about his new world-building story game Kingdom (Futile Position) As a special bonus this interview also includes a recap of almost the entire second Crossroad […]

“When you’re sitting at the gaming table, it’s such a rare and sacred time…” You know how you think you don’t have much to say about a topic but then once you get started you go on and on and on and then before you know it you’re jumping around waving your arms to emphasize […]

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 […]

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 […]

I got a couple of questions from Polish gamer Maciej Sabat and I thought the answers might interest you too, gentle reader. Maciej has been running a summer RPG camp, deep in the forests of Poland and he’s unleashed the kids on Microscope. Wait, did you say “pics or it didn’t happen?” Oh you internet: […]

(Yes, that’s a game convention. An insanely beautiful game convention.) What would you say is the highest indicator of gaming success? Smiles and hugs afterwards? Yeah, that’s good. Lots of post-con game summaries and stories? Again, yeah, we love seeing that. But there’s one even better indicator of pure win and that’s when games make […]

A flurry of game designers put Microscope to the test, sparked by the RPG Book Club. Will they enjoy themselves or burn Microscope at the stake like the witch it is? Let’s see… War of the Beast-Men! — Jason Morningstar’s posse sets the bar: “You can’t call me a Nazi just because I refuse to […]

Here are some of the latest Microscope reviews and discussions that I think are particularly interesting: The Voice of the Revolution #53: April 2011 — excellent discussion of the core points of Microscope, starts at 7:51 RPG Book Club discussion thread — I mentioned the RPG Book Club earlier, but the pre-game discussion thread has […]

You know what’s awesome? Microscope is the new story-games.com RPG Book Club selection. RPG Book Club, May-June: Microscope The challenge: get together and play some Microscope before the end of June. Share your experiences with everyone else. If you’ve played before, play it some more (you know you want to). If you’ve never tried it, […]

I’ve been so busy since Microscope came out that I’ve fallen behind on cheering about the lovely actual play reports. Let’s fix that, shall we? Age of the Dragon Kings Rodent Monarchy Fission Biolords & Planet Cancer Slaves, Privateers & Hashish AIs: Stop Aggregating Yourself I also have unofficial reports of an entire Microscope game […]