Jay, Andy, Martin, Chris, and I played a very interesting combination of games that Jay came up with, namely using a slightly abbreviated version of Microscope to come up with a basic setting and then playing Archipelago using it.

The setting we came up with was a fantasy world inspired by Miyazaki' s anime films, where a great Sage disappeared in the past leading to a time of tyrannical takeover and finally rebellion and revolution. We set our game in the time of rebellion. I'll let others fill in details of the story, but I was pleased (and actually a bit surprised!) by the interesting and satisfying ending we arrived at.

I was glad to have the opportunity to finally play Archipelago, and enjoyed the game. I think the Micropelago combination would work well for longer-term games, but I'm thinking the front-loading might be a bit much for a one-shot. Also I'm not sure what I think about Archipelago itself. It might be my gaming preferences; I like to focus on role-playing, so the addition of having to do other meta-level things as much as we did took me out of the game in a way I found a bit jarring. Also if your character isn't in a scene I felt there was quite a bit of downtime for you. This was valuable information as it helps me know how to revise the game I'm working on. Having said all that I want to reiterate how pleased I was at the story we constructed, and I found the final twist Andy gave the story at the end to be wonderfully interesting.

Anyway I was glad to meet everyone and experience the game! I look forward to the next session!

Best Wishes, Manu