D
dragonscythe
Guest
Original poster
Microscope RPG
A roleplaying and world-building experience that spans generations.
I am looking for 3 players interested in world and story creation. This game is played out in a non-chronological order, but uses a very simple system for keeping track of all of the details.
This game is simple to play and there are no character sheets, but because it can take a little explanation and some experimentation to get the knack of, I would prefer to keep this game a sign-up-required game.
Players will create the following through posts:
Periods (Eras) which can span decades or even centuries. This is the broadest element of the game and will read like a history book. This should provide mood, hint at cultural elements if applicable, and explain what themes really define the Period.
Events, which can span years or just minutes, are next. These read like news articles and cover a specific occurrence within a Period and mention the outcome. If there was a bank robbery, for example, I would want to know if the criminals escaped alive and if they caused major damage to the bank and not JUST that a bank robbery took place.
Lastly, we zoom all the way in to Scenes. Scenes answer a question about the story and tie into an Event. These can be written in one post by one writer and give all the play-by-play details. OR the poster can request a played Scene (which is much more interesting and the main focus of the game). Played Scenes ask a question to be answered though play, describe the basic setup for the scene and may suggest characters. When that question is answered, no matter how great or few posts between all players are required to get there, the scene ends and the game continues.
During a Played Scene, the players may create as many characters as they want (just by mentioning them in the fiction), but will designate a primary character for that scene. Just as in most IWAKU games, your primary character is yours alone to control. Secondary characters are up for grabs at all times. Primary characters are only yours until the scene ends.
I should specify that Periods, Events and Scenes can be created in any order. I could write a post about a great city and then someone else could post about how that city came into being on the next post. Someone else could write about the brave heroes who fought to save the city, but ultimately failed. Then I could write about how it had almost happened once before, but had been saved. Etc.
I won't set any hard-and-fast rules about how many Periods, Events or Scenes a player should create in a row before others post, but I would say that it will work best to give others a chance to post before creating several elements at once.
To keep track of all of this, I am using a website called linoit.com. Check out my example here to see what this will look like: http://linoit.com/users/dragonscythe/canvases/Microscope%20on%20IWAKU%20Example
Determining the genre, setting and basic direction of the game is the Big Picture. To sign up, rather than posting a character, I would like you to post 2 ideas for a Big Picture for approval. After 3 players have joined and submitted their ideas, we will vote for our favorite and go with that one. Big Picture suggestions should be no more than one sentence. Any genre is fine, I chose Fantasy for the forum because I wasn't sure where the most appropriate place to start was. Here are my two Big Picture ideas:
1. Mankind tries to rebuild in the ruins of once-great technology, fighting off strange monsters with magic and advanced artifacts of the past.
2. A secret cult has been working throughout history at the bidding of ancient forces of chaos to subvert human governments and forward a maleficent agenda.
The last thing I'll ask of you before the game will begin is that everyone help build the Palette. After we have chosen a Big Picture for the game, everyone may choose something that they definitely want to see in the game that normally wouldn't fit whatever genre we end up in (which may or may not happen. It's more a way to let everyone know you want it) and something you want to block from the game that normally would fit the genre (for example, in a space-exploration game, you might want there to be no non-human intelligence in the game) and this request must be honored.
A few thoughts:
-No specific years should be mentioned during gameplay, for simplicity.
-No time traveling entities should exist, because in a game that allows the creation of events in any order, ouch.
-Whoever is the writer of the Big Picture that is chosen will create the bookend Periods (the very first and very last Period that set the stage for everything that will happen in between--no Periods will come before the Start or after the End).
-Questions asking for more details about a Period or Event are acceptable and encouraged.
You can check out more about the game Microscope at: http://www.lamemage.com/
Let me know what you think! Questions or comments? Post your ideas for a Big Picture to sign up!
A roleplaying and world-building experience that spans generations.
I am looking for 3 players interested in world and story creation. This game is played out in a non-chronological order, but uses a very simple system for keeping track of all of the details.
This game is simple to play and there are no character sheets, but because it can take a little explanation and some experimentation to get the knack of, I would prefer to keep this game a sign-up-required game.
Players will create the following through posts:
Periods (Eras) which can span decades or even centuries. This is the broadest element of the game and will read like a history book. This should provide mood, hint at cultural elements if applicable, and explain what themes really define the Period.
Events, which can span years or just minutes, are next. These read like news articles and cover a specific occurrence within a Period and mention the outcome. If there was a bank robbery, for example, I would want to know if the criminals escaped alive and if they caused major damage to the bank and not JUST that a bank robbery took place.
Lastly, we zoom all the way in to Scenes. Scenes answer a question about the story and tie into an Event. These can be written in one post by one writer and give all the play-by-play details. OR the poster can request a played Scene (which is much more interesting and the main focus of the game). Played Scenes ask a question to be answered though play, describe the basic setup for the scene and may suggest characters. When that question is answered, no matter how great or few posts between all players are required to get there, the scene ends and the game continues.
During a Played Scene, the players may create as many characters as they want (just by mentioning them in the fiction), but will designate a primary character for that scene. Just as in most IWAKU games, your primary character is yours alone to control. Secondary characters are up for grabs at all times. Primary characters are only yours until the scene ends.
I should specify that Periods, Events and Scenes can be created in any order. I could write a post about a great city and then someone else could post about how that city came into being on the next post. Someone else could write about the brave heroes who fought to save the city, but ultimately failed. Then I could write about how it had almost happened once before, but had been saved. Etc.
I won't set any hard-and-fast rules about how many Periods, Events or Scenes a player should create in a row before others post, but I would say that it will work best to give others a chance to post before creating several elements at once.
To keep track of all of this, I am using a website called linoit.com. Check out my example here to see what this will look like: http://linoit.com/users/dragonscythe/canvases/Microscope%20on%20IWAKU%20Example
Determining the genre, setting and basic direction of the game is the Big Picture. To sign up, rather than posting a character, I would like you to post 2 ideas for a Big Picture for approval. After 3 players have joined and submitted their ideas, we will vote for our favorite and go with that one. Big Picture suggestions should be no more than one sentence. Any genre is fine, I chose Fantasy for the forum because I wasn't sure where the most appropriate place to start was. Here are my two Big Picture ideas:
1. Mankind tries to rebuild in the ruins of once-great technology, fighting off strange monsters with magic and advanced artifacts of the past.
2. A secret cult has been working throughout history at the bidding of ancient forces of chaos to subvert human governments and forward a maleficent agenda.
The last thing I'll ask of you before the game will begin is that everyone help build the Palette. After we have chosen a Big Picture for the game, everyone may choose something that they definitely want to see in the game that normally wouldn't fit whatever genre we end up in (which may or may not happen. It's more a way to let everyone know you want it) and something you want to block from the game that normally would fit the genre (for example, in a space-exploration game, you might want there to be no non-human intelligence in the game) and this request must be honored.
A few thoughts:
-No specific years should be mentioned during gameplay, for simplicity.
-No time traveling entities should exist, because in a game that allows the creation of events in any order, ouch.
-Whoever is the writer of the Big Picture that is chosen will create the bookend Periods (the very first and very last Period that set the stage for everything that will happen in between--no Periods will come before the Start or after the End).
-Questions asking for more details about a Period or Event are acceptable and encouraged.
You can check out more about the game Microscope at: http://www.lamemage.com/
Let me know what you think! Questions or comments? Post your ideas for a Big Picture to sign up!