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, […]

Why is it never a good thing when superheroes take over the world? Don’t ask why, ask Weillach (yes, the Supers take over) The Fleet Departs: A Microscope RPG Campaign Set-Up In other news, Microscope has landed on the beaches of Europe. Books are sitting on the shelves of Leisure Games in the UK, right […]

A couple more really excellent Microscope reviews. Age of Ravens » Microscope: RPGs I Like Ryan Macklin » Play-Review: Microscope There’s a lot of great observations in both of them, but I want to pull out a few choice quotes. Lowell’s review on Age of Ravens is a follow-up to his Cycles of Apocalypse actual […]

New challengers enter! I’ve never tried playing Microscope online, but during the playtest there were some fairly massive Wave games. Now that Microscope is out, some brave souls are trying out different tools to play online and graphically represent their histories: Magical Apocalypse — overview of the game, plus a post-it style history graphic using […]

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 […]

Microscope books are back in stock. My apologies for any heartache or Microscope-deprivation the brief drought might have caused. Rest easy, it’s over now. You can order one for your very own. Now go forth and ‘scope. If you’re going to GameStorm PDX next weekend, you’ll find Microscope at the terrifyingly-named-yet-wonderfully-friendly Indie Hurricane table. It’s […]

Some early reviews of Microscope are already in, so feast your eyes on them. If there are more out there that I haven’t stumbled across, let me know. Risus Monkey: Microscope (really nails it on the head) Хроники героев: Microscope RPG (yes, that’s in Russian. You should see a translation bar at the top for […]

Playtesters are the unsung heroes of game design. They get in the trenches, spend their time trying something new and dangerous so that when you get the final game and sit down to play you are that much more likely to have a good time. They are the gatekeepers of fun. Heroes, one and all. […]

Microscope books are nestled in their snug little boxes and winging their way to Indie Press Revolution even as we speak. So if you pre-ordered one, feel free to start hopping up and down in anticipation. IPR is also going to have a handful for sale at PAX East next week, so hunt them down […]

For the past two and a half years, I’ve spent less time on ars ludi because I’ve been heads-down, nose-to-the-grindstone, designing and playtesting a game. A fairly ambitious game, you could argue. Now, finally, I’m done: Microscope is finished, and I’ve unleashed it upon the unsuspecting world. It’s not what you’d call a “normal” role-playing […]

Yep, it’s done. You can buy and download the Microscope PDF immediately. Books are on the way. You can pre-order one now and it will ship to you as soon as it’s in stock. Like magic. Want both? There’s a bundle, so you can get the PDF now and the book later. What we in […]

A little while back, Jackson asked me if I was talking about my design process publicly (as in, online). I said no, because really I don’t, and he agreed he couldn’t really blame me, because he didn’t either. Well this is a behind-the-scenes look at a key change I’m making to the final version of […]

The big question: now that Man’s lust for war has consumed Earth in a nuclear holocaust, do the handful of survivors in their nations moon bases beat their swords into ploughshares, or do they finish what their missiles started and continue their tiny, bitter Cold War on the Moon? Answer: bang! bang! bang! We have […]

For Halloween, we tried doing some Microscope games with a horror theme. Microscope is kind of an odd fit for suspense or horror, because you usually know how things are going to turn out before you drill down and roleplay the details: you know the explorers are going to vanish mysteriously, before you play the […]

Most of the Microscope playtest reports were emailed to me directly, so only my greedy eyes get to see them, but here’s one from our elite playtesters north of the border. Ye older stellar empire with a rather large twist: Juggalos in Space Got your own Microscope actual play posted somewhere? Let me know and […]

It’s official. The Microscope playtest is all wrapped up.* A long playtest cycle (as in, nearly two years) can be quite a haul, so thanks to everyone who’s stayed involved, and thanks as well to all the folks who joined in to try out the very last version. Having a mix of old and new […]

“I am your king!” “Well I didn’t vote for you…” “You don’t vote for kings!” — oh my god, it’s a Monty Python quote The thing I always really enjoy about Microscope is the unforeseen creation. Someone introduces a simple idea, then someone else explores it a little more, then someone else takes it even […]

Only three weeks left of Microscope playtesting. Three weeks! I’ve already gotten some great feedback, but I’m really excited to read yours.

Wow, nice showing playtesters! We’ve got over 60 people this round. Not bad considering we’ve been playtesting this thing for over a year and a half. The playtest deadline is the end of September. I repeat: end of September. If you want to have an impact on the final rules, you’ve got to speak your […]

After much time and careful revision (and re-revision), the new version of Microscope is ready for playtesting. That’s playtest version 4, if you’re keeping track. If you’re a playtester, you should have already gotten an email with your download link. If I missed someone, contact me and I’ll fix you up (either in the comments, […]

In the build up to Go Play NW, I braced myself to facilitate pickup games every waking moment. As organizers we embraced the idea that there were going to be a lot more pickup games than scheduled games, but that’s also risky: you never know until the slot begins just how many people will be […]

Ping and I will be trying out the latest and greatest version of Microscope at Go Play NW this weekend. If it continues to work as well as it has so far, I should be able to bundle up and send out the new playtest draft late next week, after the obligatory post-con collapse and […]

I was kidding about the G thing, but it may turn out to be true. We played what may very well be the final version of Microscope last night, and it was good. I don’t want to jinx it, and yes it’s going back out to playtesters, and yes, no promises, because I’ll probably think […]