Players: Jerome, Jered, Marc
Issues: Blindness, War Orphans, Manifest Destiny
Shock: In a world where everyone is blind at birth, people are spontaneously gaining the ability to see, thus sparking a bloody civil/religious war.

One of the most interesting parts of this game was the world. What would a modern world look like, if designed by and for the blind? So many things would be different, from common courtesies (everyone hummed at different pitches almost constantly, and shouting was very rude) to fashion (smells and clothing textures played a huge role) to science (no need for light, no need for television, no need for windows or doors) to entertainment (music was the largest form of recreation) to combat (melee based, for what good are projectile weapons to the sightless?) to basic senses (everyone possessed heightened levels of smell, touch, hearing, and taste, called Blindsense). In such a world, even simple things like identifying someone you met were radically different from how we think of them. We spent a lot of time fleshing out this universe we’d built, and we all agreed that it would make for an awesome Microscope game.

Our three protagonists for this fascinating adventure all led somewhat tragic lives. We only got to two scenes each due to some fun but time-consuming roleplaying. Still, we seemed to resolve things pretty quickly, and thus no one felt like their character’s tale was untold by the end credits. Here are the three stories we crafted:

Dr. Octavius Whittaker (played by Marc) – a married father of two. Logical, intelligent, and born into great wealth, his goal was to find and eliminate the source of sight: what was causing people to suddenly gain the ability to see, and how could he stop it? His antagonist was Dr. Thomas Alden (Jerome), a sighted-sympathizer who wanted to shut down or otherwise subvert Whittaker’s studies. As the CEO of OcuCorp Industries, Whittaker had immense power to forge ahead with experiments into the nature of sight (things like “light” were unknown to this blind race). But one fateful day, the unthinkable happened: Whittaker himself gained the power to see. Alden—already sighted, but passing for blind—found out, and threatened blackmail. A deal was made, and Alden got a promotion. But then Whittaker took another step: he began using his wealth to pressure politicians into a passing a radical piece of legislation that would remove the eyes of all children at birth. Alden tried to plead with Whittaker in his home (“Look at this flower in my hand. You’ve never experienced anything like this. There are whole fields of these out there, Octavius. Would you deny others the chance to ‘see’ them, as you have?”), but to no avail. Whittaker was steadfastly committed to the old ways, and refused to allow the “abomination” of sight to continue. So Alden outted him. Both men ruined the others’ reputation, and were let go from OcuCorp. Alden ended up blacklisted, and Whittaker lost all political influence. In the end, Whittaker underwent an experimental eye removal procedure, which resulted in a disfiguring infection, but not death.

Billy “Ace” Jones (played by Jered) – A charismatic, blind street urchin, age sixteen. He led a band of war orphans called the Proudcoats. His goal was nothing less than the end of the war itself: he wanted to save up enough money to petition the President, or start some kind of political movement, or anything, whatever it took to end the pointless fighting. With his loyal gang members at his side (including Banjo, Crazy Legs, Snapeye, The Jumper, Gecko, Stinkweasel, and Goldtooth), he felt that his goal was drawing near. But his antagonist, a rival gang leader named Amy St. Cloud (Marc), made this task much harder. She and her gang, the Demolition Rascals, were in it for the money, and nothing more. The two gangs butted heads during a holiday celebration, and Ace ended up robbed and roughed up. His hideout was wrecked, all his money stolen: desperate, he went to Amy and tried to plead with her. He wanted to organize a march on the capital with all the other gangs in the area. Amy, surprisingly, agreed. When the day of the march arrived and the groups met on the steps of the government halls, Amy’s betrayal became clear: she had some planted gang members in Ace’s group incite a riot, and Amy herself denounced Ace as a radical terrorist to any media source willing to listen. Ace’s reputation was ruined, his gang mostly arrested, and his dream shattered. But all was not lost: in later life, Ace moved on to civil rights work, trying to break down the prejudices between the blind and the (increasingly common) sighted members of the populace. His dream of a world without war began to become reality, slowly.

Colonel Ari Devine (played by Jerome) – an orphan and religious zealot, he was a colonel among the sighted rebels, and held a belief stronger than most in the truth of the great prophecy: that one day, the sighted would rule the world. His fervor was matched only by the arrogance and general unpleasantness of his antagonist, a rival Colonel named Leeto (Jered). Orders came down from the General. Devine noted that they appeared to have been tampered with, but did not report this. Leeto and Devine were sent out on a raid of a nearby supply depot. Things went south: Devine’s men were ambushed. Under heavy attack, they called for Leeto to assist, but he refused, claiming that he was tied up with his own battle. Devine’s team beat a retreat, but were flanked and outnumbered. Only a few survived. Devine himself made it out, but was rendered blind by a massive blow to his head. He returned, woozy, and immediately petitioned the general to launch an investigation of the faulty orders. In the resulting court marshals and aftermath, Leeto was fond guilty of tampering with the orders, and stripped of his rank. He spent the rest of his days as a lowly grunt in the army, cleaning up after those he once commanded. Devine, meanwhile, was honorably discharged, for as a blind person he could no longer be counted among the faithful sighted. He was sent to the blind town nearby, thrown in prison, and barely managed to survive until his parole years later. Now blind but still not fully able to use his Blindsense due to years of sightedness, he wandered the streets, a bitter, forsaken man.

Great game guys. Would love to Microscope this and see more of how the world got the way it is. Feel free to chime in with other details as you wish.

That is a really intriguing setting. Well done. I could totally see how world creation could suck you in, and yeah, a Microscope history exploring the shifts in society as sight fails and rises again would be really interesting (Jered: kind of like the shifts in dominance between the water-breathers & air-breathers from Inherit the Seas, but sight vs no-sight is an even more fundamental tilt).

How did the new Shock sheets work out for you guys? I'm not expecting miracles, but the old ones were such dogs that I'm hoping the new ones can reduce confusion and clutter. Let me know if you've got any tips for changes. Ideally you wouldn't notice you were using them at all...

Ben, one thing we found missing on the sheets was a place to put the Issue that you own.

It would be handy to have a simple summary for conflicts and escalations, and an explanation of Features (roll one die per feature) and Links (risk to re-roll your side of a conflict)

Ben, one thing we found missing on the sheets was a place to put the Issue that you own.

Good point. My dilemma is whether to put it on the top or the bottom, in case people do fold the sheet. Or both?

It would be handy to have a simple summary for conflicts and escalations, and an explanation of Features (roll one die per feature) and Links (risk to re-roll your side of a conflict)

That makes sense, but I probably won't recap the rules on the sheet a) for lack of space and b) because I don't want to recreate and distribute the rules without Joshua's permission (that would be lame of me).