Players: Marc, Melissa and Pat

Our big picture was, "Impending disaster forces civilization to cope." We decided on a dying planet scenario, with bookends for the discovery of the impending disaster and the ultimate destruction of the planet. Our palette had Gryphons, Ghosts and Telepathy in the "Yes" column and Inorganic Technology and Magic in the "No" column. All of the technology in our world, from weapons to architecture, was grown from organic materials rather than constructed. For instance, the Biolord academy's campus courtyard was decorated with a large fleshy fountain that pumped a bile-like substance in place of water. Yeah.

The first focus we explored was Toxina, the Biolord prodigy. A Biolord turned out to be a super-being who, through cloning, mind-melding and harnessing the powers of "Mana", seeks to assimilate living creatures to grow their own strength and intellect. In a scene with her brother and rival Biolord Venax, Toxina hesitates when Venax warns her of the danger of reducing their species' diversity of skills and thoughts into a homogeneous hive-mind. Ultimately though, Toxina assimilates him along with the rest of the other Biolords.

The second focus was the sentient race of Gryphons, who co-existed with humans. Early in the history, an expedition to the center of the earth discovers a subterranean cavern inhabited by a large, crystalline Gryphon who claims to be the creator of their race. The queen of the Gryphons, who'd accompanied the expedition, agrees to join the creator in a beautiful, underground Gyphon version of Shangri-La. The rest of the surface Gryphons are then beckoned via gaping fissures in the earth which close up after them. The mass exodus was intended to protect the Gryphons from the impending planetary disaster.

Which brings us to the third focus, Planetary Cancer. This is where we finally got around to addressing the disaster itself. We jumped way back to our first bookend, where a group of scientists had just discovered nodules of a mysterious organic substance they dubbed Substance 347. When exposed to any DNA, the substance grew explosively and replicated the properties of the "seed" genetic material. Substance 347, later nick-named "Mana" became the basis of the civilization's bio-tech, the source of the Biolord's power and ultimately grew out of control and caused the destruction of the planet.

There were plenty of other interesting details, such as a technology that allowed for low-grade reincarnation of valuable people, albeit with each successive copy degrading slightly. I really like how the world ultimately came together from the rather disparate starting points. All in all, a very enjoyable game.

Thanks for facilitating, Marc!

A brilliant summary of the events. I had a good time playing this game. Three player Microscope can be slightly tricky, because we're short one brain for coming up with ideas, and short one player for scenes (which means if two characters are mandated, only the third player can introduce some new element to the activity). Nonetheless, an excellent adventure on a very strange, icky planet.