Microscope Review

Microscope

This little game allows you to create a world collaboratively with your friends, using nothing but a stack of blank index cards and a pen. And your imagination!

I got a hold of this game and found it to be excellent.

There are several types of cards, but the main ones are Periods, which represent large swathes of history, Events, and Scenes, which you can roleplay.

Here are some cards from an actual game I played with my family.

The vertical cards in the top row are Periods. The horizontal cards are Events, and the remaining vertical cards are Scenes, which can either be role-played or not.

Illustrations are optional!

There is no GM, but players take turns writing out one or two index cards with their ideas. Cards do not need to be played chronologically with the world's history, but do need to stay between the Start and End Periods.

Each round of play has a focus (hence the name Microscope), and every card played during that round has to have something to do with that focus. In the game shown above, one round of play had "Nuclear Weapons" as the focus.

I was unable to find this at any of my local game stores, but you can get it at Amazon.

Oh, and the book even has a section at the end for turning the history you've created into the backstory of a traditional RPG campaign with a GM.