players: Marc, Cy, Pat, Ben

I really should call this game something dignified like "Gunslingers Under A Distant Star," but no, I can't deny the truth. Everyone at the table agreed, the emerging theme of the game was Bros Before Broodmates.

We started with "Human settlers on an exotic alien world devolve into superstition, forgetting how their own technology works," but everywhere we turned, we were confronted with stories of tragic bromance. What did Roland the gunslinger do that turned his insectoid compadre Tluk-chuk into a blood enemy? What drove Khyris the Cunning to take over the tribe, starting him down a path that would found his empire of Satrapies? Yep, crimes of bromance.

If there's a moral to this story, it's: don't let your beloved hive broodmate from the old spawning pool come between you and your man-buddy. Or probably more accurately, don't be a xenoracist dick and gun down your buddy's beloved broodmate just to get what you want. Bugs have feelings, yo.

I really dug whole Nightmare Years period: meteor strikes the planet, throwing up dust clouds that throw the whole ecosystem into chaos. Plus the scene with now-overlord Khyris preparing to execute his rebel twin brother Khryus (again with the bromance): "okay, that's pretty good, but I'd like a little more haunting..." Jumping backwards & forwards in time spawned some interesting stuff, like the idea that Tluk-chuk had been partners before they were enemies.

If we played again, lots more android preachers. They have no souls, but they were perhaps the most human characters in the game. Pax Vobiscum.

I particularly enjoyed the overall vibe of the game. It was a very odd world we invented, with hive-mind bug settlers, tribesmen misusing ancient technology, and people running around in energy balls. Sci-fantasy, I think. Anyway, I agree with you Ben that the shift from Tluk-chuk as an enemy to a friend as we looked back in the timeline was very interesting. When I first set Roland as the focus, I expected him to be a hero, but he turned out to be pretty much a huge dick. And that's perfectly okay. Tluk-chuk, the bug bounty hunter, was very reasonable, level-headed, and fair, and certainly justified in his vendetta. It was fun to see a character I'd originally thought of as a villain turn out to be a hero, and vice versa.

The robot preachers were definitely awesome. No question there. Need more robot preachers!

One of the aspects of Microscope that I enjoy most is that it--moreso than other story games I've played--really rewards you for dropping cryptic hints. Adding seemingly-unnecessary details to the world can turn out to have major consequences further back in the timeline. Case in point for this last game: the Atmospheric Cleanser (or "sucking machine" in Tluk-chuk's language). It was originally going to be just a device with no other remarkable features, but someone added the fact that it and the surrounding area were set up like a shrine. This led to the machine having a basic AI and the creation of the worshippers of the Great Totem some indeterminate amount of time earlier, which was integral to the plot involving Khyris and the accidental death of the chieftain's daughter, which led to the rivalry between Khyris and Khyrus, and on and on... see, all it took to get that entire plot rolling was the incidental mention of a few carvings on the surface of the Cleanser. I find that fascinating. It's also interesting to think about how the game might've been different had that detail not been mentioned. Would the events involving Khyris have gone anything like the way they did? I doubt it.

Great session guys. Fun stuff.

One great scene that hasn't been mentioned yet was when Tluk-chuk and Roland finally dueled to the death. Roland seemingly took the high road and let his old friend gun him down, but he'd actually downloaded his psyche into a nearby android preacher. Tluk-chuk then ran into Roland in his new metal body and, thinking he was just another android preacher, proceeded to confess that he still considered Roland a friend and his revenge was exacted with a heavy heart. Roland, speaking as an android but exhibiting his most human moment of the session, comforts his old buddy.

Great session guys. I'm really digging Microscope.