The players:
Alex
Sam
Bridget
Jasmine

At first we fiddled with a couple vague ideas that didn't really spark much until we settled on "invention." Something introduced that would change history. We vetoed iPods first off. Not realizing what he was unleashing (unbridling?), Sam suggested horses and that was it.

The introduction of horses changes an isolated society. We spanned from the moment the first horse came ashore to horses taking over society entirely.

The Pallet:
Yes:
Sympathetic villains
Chowder (a sort of code word for food)
Guerrilla warfare
Telepathy

No:
Horse fetishes (thankfully)
Saddles
Centaurs
Motorized vehicles
Vegetarianism (on the part of humans -- herbivores were a-okay)

Foci:
Nomads vs. Farmers (legacy: Dune Warrior horses)
Dune Warrior, the hella psychic politihorse (legacy: organized horse politics)
The decline of humanity's reign (I must have lost the legacy card. . .but we were seconds away from getting booted out, so we might have forgot to do the last one)


Oddly, we didn't really get into the origins of how horses got there -- we had one event card that basically said that a village is slaughtered by a rival nation on horseback. Next came the Era of Mounted Infantry, home to the Sand War, which created thousands of refugees who would become a nomadic society. Finally, the last horseless people are wiped out.

Here's where it got real. The period of The Meeting of the Minds where horses and people started to realize that they could communicate via telepathy. Horses at this point were still work animals. One scene took place on a lentil farm where farmer Sonny and his wife Briqenda were interrogating a nomad boy named Yesh about what he was doing skulking about their farm. Fortunately, their faithful horse Star (horsename: Fleetfoot, the "John" of the horseworld, we decided) tipped them off that something was wrong with the water. Yesh revealed through horse interrogation (a hoof pressed on his chest as he lay prone) that the nomads were in fact infiltrating the Irrigation League and plotting to poison all the farmers.

This kicked off the super cheery period of The Long, Hungry Nights. The war between the nomads and the farmers basically ruined the land, making people desperate and angry. The horses, now starting to secure themselves as their own society, were also ticked off by this. The humans couldn't take care of them anymore, so why work for them? A significant event in Horse History: a battle between the Red Clay Nomads and a herd of horses ended in the capture of three horses, two of whom would foal the most important horse ever. . .

DUNE WARRIOR (self-named)

Dune Warrior captured the heart of an adolescent girl in the Red Clay tribe. Although Dune Warrior felt a little compromised, she used their friendship to gain a hoof-hold in the nomad community. She also began to notice that her telepathic skills were unmatched, by man or horse.

Unfortunately, what with all the horses getting big ideas, there was a period where anti-horse politicians rose to power. While the movement was growing steadily, the gas hit the flame when Dune Warrior became the first horse elected to town council, though she had to compromise and have a psychic battle on the floor of the council hall. Unfortunately, an anti-horse march swept through Dune Warrior's district and when Reginald, her political rival, began setting stables with foals inside on fire, Dune Warrior abandoned her perfectly sane plan she made with the union bosses. She used her psychic powers to rally/control all the horses in her district, where there was merciless slaughter of humans who tried to harm horses. Unfortunately, Dune Warrior was betrayed by her second-in-command, a human, who said he was going to deliver a message to the City that Dune Warrior was declaring marshal law and needed backup, but instead told them that Dune Warrior had run amok. The City sent its militia and Dune Warrior was murdered in the streets. The betrayal was eventually uncovered, exonerating Dune Warrior post-mortem. However, her teachings and philosophies were passed on to all yearlings, impressing upon them the merits of civic involvement.

This lead to the formation of The Stable of Ten Thousand, a group of horses dedicated to the ideals of Dune Warrior, sometimes referred to as Dune Warrior horses.

Next came the Age of the Buffalo -- basically since horses were now super intelligent and could crush you with their minds, folks had to find another beast of burden. Buffalo-horse agriculture expanded the lands that could be farmed. The nomadic people were still around, but weakening in political power. The horses rallied to pass legislature that protected the buffalo from abuse by man.

What finally put the nail in the coffin for humanity was a horrific plague that only effected humans. The Council, now made mostly of horses, discussed how to help humanity, or if they should. Dark Mercy of the Thorn Vent (did I get that right?), a horse representing the Stable of Ten Thousand, had a psychic duel with Blood Mane, an anti-human horse, and won, exploding the heads off of several anti-human horses in range. That being done, the council voted to help the humans by financing the continued research of Roger the Alchemist, who was working on a cure when he died. Despite this act of mercy, later in this period, the last human was voted out of public office.

Some highlights:
We managed to get the chowder/food thing in there by naming farm folk after the crops they grew. We had Lentyl, the girl who loved Dune Warrior, Kabbage, the sullen teenage boy who dared her to ride Dune Warrior for the first time, and, much later, Kale, a spineless council member, blatantly kowtowing to his new horse overlords. Sam was a particularly funny Speaker of the Council, who was VERY into protocol and regulation, and also as a nameless mob of young horse hot-heads. Alex played Reginald, Dune Warrior's greatest opponent, with an evil flourish, but not without nuance. It was Bridget's first time playing any story game ever and she did a great job -- the plague was her idea and a good clincher. Throughout history, there were many young horse warriors who wanted human blood to flow freely in the streets, which was awesome.

I think we did a great job of not having too many (or any?) winkwinknudgenudges to other horse-related literature or fandom (ie Gulliver's Travels, Mr. Ed, My Little Pony, etc.). It actually wasn't even difficult, we just played it true and strong and it stood on its own four feet! I've only played Microscope twice, but I find that I really enjoy giving something seemingly silly (like horses ruling the world) the weight and respect that it deserves. Makes for a fun balance, says I :)

This was a pretty damn good Microscope, and everybody totally brought it. Yay us! I have a vague suspicion that often what's needed to make a storygame totally rock is just enough excuse to not take everything totally seriously, so that people can loosen up a little.

It was also really interesting how the focus shifted; it turned out that we weren't really interested in the 'technology changes society' angle so much as the 'humans displaced by alien species' angle. Possibly because that's where the intense scenes came from. It's difficult to get good stories out of pottery horizons.

Dark Mercy of the Thorn Vent (did I get that right?), a horse representing the Stable of Ten Thousand, had a psychic duel with Blood Mane, an anti-human horse, and won, exploding the heads off of several anti-human horses in range.

I think that the horse who fought the duel was called Morning Warrior. (Memorable, I know. The Stable got a bit hidebound, I think). Dark Mercy of the Thorn Veldt was the First Poser Horse who didn't care much about what the Stable did as long as it was totally awesome. (Sorry about that. I suspect that 'veldt' is not a word much-used outside southern Africa.)

Also, awesome writeup, Jasmine; thanks!

Veldt makes WAY more sense than Vent ;) When I was taking name notes during the game, I wasn't doing it with the intention of having to repeat them later so I didn't clarify, oops. Well, anyway, it was an awesome name!

We definitely made it easier on ourselves by having the thing that was introduced be a living thing that could communicate. Although, if we hadn't, I imagine that it would have gone in the direction of the inanimate carbon rod from the Simpsons. "Did you actually get to SEE the rod?!"

I concur, this was an excellent writeup! On the topic of horse names, I really liked how the fact that Dune Warrior died so early on because we got to see how her legacy affected all the other horses, especially with them taking parts of her name. Morning Warrior and Dune Wanderer were both quite fun as leaders of the Stable Of Ten Thousand, and Jasmine's fire-burned-foal-turned-angry-pony with the half-skeletal face, Iron Winter, was super awesome--particularly the scene where she ended up psychically sharing her traumatic memories with the entire Stable, leading to their communal-catharsis-stampede-of-Ultimate-­Horse-Unity. :D

I am honored to have been sitting within earshot of this game.

I hope we weren't too loud, since we were sharing a table and all. . . . And by "we," I mean me. Hard not to get carried away sometimes. . . I should work on that ;)