Post by FraaOrolo on Nov 16, 2016 23:57:13 GMT 1
Welcome to Microscope fun times!
I've decided that because we have the luxury of playing online people are welcome to come and go between rounds. That being said, we optimally need to keep the same total number of players the same throughout the game because every round is lead by a player acting as the "lens" in our microscope and this role would pass clockwise around the table. Obviously we don't have a table but we can at least have a turn order to determine this. We need that anyways because we'll be taking turns creating content in our timeline anyways, I just want to ensure that everyone will be getting a chance to be the "lens" even if they are only around for some amount of the rounds.
Microscope is suggested to play with no more than 5 players so if there is more interest than that I'm sure you'll get a chance to hop in at some point. Order in which people post in this thread will be the seating order for the sake of turn order.
I'm going to give a basic rundown of how the game plays. It's mostly self explanatory but feel free to PM me questions or even just ask in the thread as I'll probably post the question and answer to the question in the thread anyways.
History
Tone: Every piece of history you create must have a tone. Either it's light or it's dark and this affects how other parts of history interact. This is your primary influence over what other players create within your period or event. If Humanity makes contact with an alien race and the tone is light that means very different things to any piece of history created within that than if the tone were dark. That being said, the active player is never wrong about the tone they choose but they do have to explain it to the rest of the players. Note that you should strive to maintain a majority of the events nested within a period that match the tone of the period. This isn't a rule but something to try and keep in mind.
Legacy: Every round a new Legacy will be chosen. These are more or less topics, people, events or things that we will be revisiting in the future (maybe). They do need to be specific and not a broad concept and every round one of selected from something that happened during that round of gameplay.
Gameplay
Remember that this is a group game and you have no ownership over something you create for it the moment your turn ends. So if you make a beautiful city full of vibrant culture and then the next player makes an event in which your city gets nuked, nothing you can do about it. Remember that you can always continue exploring your city between it's founding and when it gets nuked and be happy. This being said, be nice everyone. Respect each others ideas and don't just do things to mess with people. Adding to other peoples ideas in unexpected ways can be very good for the game but don't do it so much that it might come off as bullying etc. I don't expect this to be a problem but I figured it still needed said.
I'll encourage people to add images to their posts if it helps describe something but it (obviously) isn't mandatory. If someone's description of something isn't super clear or you don't quite get something they said, ask them! Likewise, you can't use too many words when describing things. If you're vague about something then don't be surprised when someone else comes along and hijacks it. If I were to create an event on the timeline in which humanity makes first contact with the alien species "X" but don't say anything about "X" then I can hardly complain when someone else reveals that "X" are violent warlike teletubbies.
Setup
First order of business is everyone who's interested in participating in setup checks in and weighs in on the Big Picture for our game. The Big Picture is a vague summary of the timeline we are about to create. This needs to be vague on purpose because this is really just the idea we're going with, save the world building to actual play. If no one has ideas or someone requests it I can list off the suggestions in the pdf. That being said, I don't really have any suggestions or strong opinions on the Big Picture so hopefully someone else does.
After that we will bookend our history, creating periods that mark the beginning and the end of our timeline. So have ideas for that prepared with any Big Picture suggestions you make to make sure things keep moving at a good pace.
Next will be the Palette where we Ban/Allow things from our timeline. These need to be specific enough that everyone understands exactly what's banned so make sure to use your words. This step will continue until we go a round without every single person Banning or Allowing something. I won't enforce turn order on this step for the sake of speed but if someone who is ahead of you in the turn order wants to allow something you banned or ban something you allowed then their choice will stand. That being said, talk about things with each other and be as specific as possible. What you want to ban might not actually be what they want to allow once you get to the exact specifics of it.
Finally we'll do an initial pass on history. Every player will create either a period or event. This isn't done in turn order so any player can add an event to another players period.
I'm making a google doc to keep track of the game. Everyone should have editing privileges so feel free to add content you created to the doc so I don't have to find it all. Like mysticjuicer I will strive to like every post that has been documented to make sure that everything is in line. Links to posts is all we *need* in the timeline on the doc but if people really want to make the doc house the entirety of the game I won't stop you but I might be slow to do it.
Player Order
If you've played Microscope before and I missed something in here, tell me. If you haven't and you want further clarification tell me. Serious, I've never done something like this before and I want to try and do it as right as possible.
The following people commented in my interest thread so consider yourselves poked
scymrian
phrawger
hamvvar
I've decided that because we have the luxury of playing online people are welcome to come and go between rounds. That being said, we optimally need to keep the same total number of players the same throughout the game because every round is lead by a player acting as the "lens" in our microscope and this role would pass clockwise around the table. Obviously we don't have a table but we can at least have a turn order to determine this. We need that anyways because we'll be taking turns creating content in our timeline anyways, I just want to ensure that everyone will be getting a chance to be the "lens" even if they are only around for some amount of the rounds.
Microscope is suggested to play with no more than 5 players so if there is more interest than that I'm sure you'll get a chance to hop in at some point. Order in which people post in this thread will be the seating order for the sake of turn order.
I'm going to give a basic rundown of how the game plays. It's mostly self explanatory but feel free to PM me questions or even just ask in the thread as I'll probably post the question and answer to the question in the thread anyways.
History
- Period: The broadest type of history you can create. Don't give specific details, just a one sentence summary of the events that happened within this period.
- Decide when the period is
- Describe what makes this period different from the ones around it
- Decide the tone of the period
- Decide when the period is
- Event: This is created within a Period. This is a specific event that took place during that period and has a lot more detail. Though it's not the most detailed type of history to don't try to make it too specific on the little details
- Decide when the event takes place
- Describe the Event, start to finish.
- Decide the tone of the event
- Decide when the event takes place
- Scene: This is created within an Event. This is as specific as you can get, all the way down to dialogue between people. This is the one spot where you can't have enough details but don't feel the need to type 1000 words if you want to make one, just know that this is your chance to create the tiniest details about something that you want.
- State the question. Your scene is revealing the answer to a question that someone might have about an event and your scene ends as soon as that answer is found
- Decide when this scene is. Review what is already known about the event it takes place in
- Narrate what happens in the scene
- Judge the tone of the scene. The player doesn't get to decide what tone their scene had. If a decision isn't easy then the tone is the opposite of the event it's within
- State the question. Your scene is revealing the answer to a question that someone might have about an event and your scene ends as soon as that answer is found
Note about scenes, if you've played microscope before then you're aware that we're not playing with group scenes. They would just take waaaay too long to do via forum so we are only playing with dictated scenes.
Tone: Every piece of history you create must have a tone. Either it's light or it's dark and this affects how other parts of history interact. This is your primary influence over what other players create within your period or event. If Humanity makes contact with an alien race and the tone is light that means very different things to any piece of history created within that than if the tone were dark. That being said, the active player is never wrong about the tone they choose but they do have to explain it to the rest of the players. Note that you should strive to maintain a majority of the events nested within a period that match the tone of the period. This isn't a rule but something to try and keep in mind.
Legacy: Every round a new Legacy will be chosen. These are more or less topics, people, events or things that we will be revisiting in the future (maybe). They do need to be specific and not a broad concept and every round one of selected from something that happened during that round of gameplay.
Gameplay
- Declare Focus: The "lens" chooses a "focus" for the round. Everything people add to the timeline must be related to the focus in some way (This can be basically anything you can think of, as broad or specific as you want)
- Make History: Starting with the "lens" each player adds Periods, Events and Scenes to the timeline. The "lens" can choose to create 2 of these as long as they are nested within each other.
- Lens Finishes the Focus: After everyone has added to history, the "lens" adds to history once more. Like before they can choose to create 2 things as long as they are nested within each other
- Select a Legacy: The player to the right of the "lens" (the previous "lens" or the player who will be the last "lens" in the case of the first round) selects something created this round to be a legacy
- Explore a Legacy: The player to the right of the "lens" then selects a legacy and adds on to history for it (can only create events and scenes here)
- New Lens: The player to the left of the "lens" becomes the new "lens", begin again from step 1
Remember that this is a group game and you have no ownership over something you create for it the moment your turn ends. So if you make a beautiful city full of vibrant culture and then the next player makes an event in which your city gets nuked, nothing you can do about it. Remember that you can always continue exploring your city between it's founding and when it gets nuked and be happy. This being said, be nice everyone. Respect each others ideas and don't just do things to mess with people. Adding to other peoples ideas in unexpected ways can be very good for the game but don't do it so much that it might come off as bullying etc. I don't expect this to be a problem but I figured it still needed said.
I'll encourage people to add images to their posts if it helps describe something but it (obviously) isn't mandatory. If someone's description of something isn't super clear or you don't quite get something they said, ask them! Likewise, you can't use too many words when describing things. If you're vague about something then don't be surprised when someone else comes along and hijacks it. If I were to create an event on the timeline in which humanity makes first contact with the alien species "X" but don't say anything about "X" then I can hardly complain when someone else reveals that "X" are violent warlike teletubbies.
Setup
First order of business is everyone who's interested in participating in setup checks in and weighs in on the Big Picture for our game. The Big Picture is a vague summary of the timeline we are about to create. This needs to be vague on purpose because this is really just the idea we're going with, save the world building to actual play. If no one has ideas or someone requests it I can list off the suggestions in the pdf. That being said, I don't really have any suggestions or strong opinions on the Big Picture so hopefully someone else does.
After that we will bookend our history, creating periods that mark the beginning and the end of our timeline. So have ideas for that prepared with any Big Picture suggestions you make to make sure things keep moving at a good pace.
Next will be the Palette where we Ban/Allow things from our timeline. These need to be specific enough that everyone understands exactly what's banned so make sure to use your words. This step will continue until we go a round without every single person Banning or Allowing something. I won't enforce turn order on this step for the sake of speed but if someone who is ahead of you in the turn order wants to allow something you banned or ban something you allowed then their choice will stand. That being said, talk about things with each other and be as specific as possible. What you want to ban might not actually be what they want to allow once you get to the exact specifics of it.
Finally we'll do an initial pass on history. Every player will create either a period or event. This isn't done in turn order so any player can add an event to another players period.
I'm making a google doc to keep track of the game. Everyone should have editing privileges so feel free to add content you created to the doc so I don't have to find it all. Like mysticjuicer I will strive to like every post that has been documented to make sure that everything is in line. Links to posts is all we *need* in the timeline on the doc but if people really want to make the doc house the entirety of the game I won't stop you but I might be slow to do it.
Player Order
- FraaOrolo
- Zejety
- scymrian
- phrawger
If you've played Microscope before and I missed something in here, tell me. If you haven't and you want further clarification tell me. Serious, I've never done something like this before and I want to try and do it as right as possible.
The following people commented in my interest thread so consider yourselves poked
scymrian
phrawger
hamvvar