Humanity spreads to the stars and forges a galactic civilization…
Fledgling nations arise from the ruins of the empire…
An ancient line of dragon-kings dies out as magic fades from the realm…
These are all examples of Microscope games.
In Microscope, you build an epic history as you play. Want to play a game
that spans the entire Dune series, the Silmarillion, or the rise and fall of
Rome in an afternoon? That’s Microscope.
But you don’t play the history from start to finish, marching along in
chronological order. Instead, you build your history from the outside in. You
start off knowing the big picture, the grand scheme of what happens, then
you dive in and explore what happened in between, the how and why that
shaped events.
You are free to jump backwards or forwards, zooming in or out to look at
whatever you want, defying limits of time and space. Want to leap a thousand
years into the future and see how an institution shaped society? Want to
jump back to the childhood of the king you just saw assassinated and find
out what made him such a hated ruler? That’s normal in Microscope.
You have vast creative authority. You can make whole empires rise and fall
at will. Dream up a utopia or destroy one with nuclear fire. You have that
power, but remember you’re not alone: everyone else at the table can do
it too.
You create independently, but not in isolation. Each facet you add to
history builds on what other players built before you. You expand on their
ideas, and they expand on yours. History might not turn out the way you
expected. Be prepared to think on your feet.
When you zoom all the way in to a particular moment in time, all the players
share the stage and role-play together to find out something we want to
learn about the history. Did the crew of the Icarus know the aliens were on
Titan? Did the rebels really fake the government crackdown? Do the knights
remember the original meaning of their ritual vows? We role-play and see.
The more you play, the more your once simple summary becomes a detailed
tapestry, full of meaning and surprises. History snowballs.
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