Microscope and Beyond

[Shayuri]

A huge spaceship is sent from Earth to colonize a distant world...

 

[KahlessNestor]

So we don't have a genre picked out yet, right?

No genre picked out yet.

So we all pitch a premise and one of them gets picked?

We pitch as many premises as we want, and then we choose one, yes. So if you have more ideas, feel free. If you have the PDF, there are some history seeds listed, too.

THE BIG PICTURE

An arcane field of knowledge - long lost and forgotten by most - has resurfaced, throwing a civilization into chaos!

Civilisation had reached a shining pinnacle of Art, Science, and Magic, but then a Stellar Event occurred, and now all the rules have changed.

A huge spaceship is sent from Earth to colonize a distant world.

An ancient empire rises and falls.

Link to the brainstorming document.

Players:
[MENTION=6801311]KahlessNestor[/MENTION]
[MENTION=4936]Shayuri[/MENTION]
[MENTION=6855545]Archon Basileus[/MENTION]
[MENTION=59816]FitzTheRuke[/MENTION]
[MENTION=79926]ART![/MENTION]

 

[KahlessNestor]

Wow, that got big... Not sure why it posted like that.

 

[Archon Basileus]

Sorry, guys. Last stretch of work, and then I return!

In the meantime...

In the darkest recesses of space, the whispering dreams of a sleeping entity call out. A wise, but stagnant empire, answers the call, hoping to serve the entity in exchange for salvation from inevitable destruction.

 

[Shayuri]

Is the goal here to pick one of these, or to try to synthesize them into a coherent single idea?

Because looking at these, I could see how some of them...even a lot of them...could kind of blend together.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I think we could merge them easily enough.

 

[Shayuri]

Let me give it a shot, just to start the conversation off So let us see. I'll start by arranging them into a rough timeline.

1. In the darkest recesses of space, the whispering dreams of a sleeping entity call out. A wise, but stagnant empire, answers the call, hoping to serve the entity in exchange for salvation from inevitable destruction.
3. A huge spaceship is sent from Earth to colonize a distant world.
5. Civilisation had reached a shining pinnacle of Art, Science, and Magic, but then a Stellar Event occurred, and now all the rules have changed.
7. ]An arcane field of knowledge - long lost and forgotten by most - has resurfaced, throwing a civilization into chaos!
9. An ancient empire rises and falls.

In my mental model, there's a colony ship sent out from Earth, two in fact, but we'll get to that. The first ship is a slower-than-light generational voyage...most likely undertaken with the assistance of biological stasis, and a rotating crew selected for awakening during the voyage just to make sure it's all running correctly. It takes ages.

But, as they're en-route, Earth enters a period of chaos and comes out of it having forgotten some history (like when and where colony ships were sent), but with startling new tech, like faster than light drives. They send another ship to the same planet...but despite being the second ship sent, it gets there MUCH quicker. Thus, we have set up a conflict...the new colonists are already inhabiting the planet when the old ones arrive.

To make things even more interesting, lets tie this 'period of chaos' in to the dreams of the sleeping entity. Perhaps what befell Earth was a supernatural event. The return of old gods, old powers. Perhaps the key to FTL transit is magic, or psionics, or similar tomfoolry. The foothold they establish on the new world...fleeing persecution and hatred on Earth maybe?...becomes a kind of 'fantasy kingdom' to all outside appearances. Exotic 'races' that were humans who transformed themselves to fit niches, or just because they wanted to. Technology limited by a magocracy who don't want their power challenged by machines.

Which leads us to...the 'civilization' that is threatened by a 'stellar event' (the arrival of the other ship) which brings back 'lost and forgotten arcane arts' (technology and technological skills long suppressed).

And the players in this game could then be sort of semi 'hard' sci fi original colonists, or the magical descendants of the second wave of colonists...whose arrival on the world is now so old that it's probably mythologized. And of course there's room for mysteriousness too. This alien planet might have life of its own...and what of the whispers of those old gods? Why did human beings choose this planet...twice? Coincidence? Was it just one of the few good ones close enough to reasonably reach?

Lots of possibilities.

 

[ART!]

Let me give it a shot, just to start the conversation off So let us see. I'll start by arranging them into a rough timeline.
[...]

Nothing wrong with any of these ideas at all, but based on my understanding of Microscope, we are getting way ahead of ourselves and should not even be openly speculating or sharing ideas beyond these initial, very vague pitches. It taints the results.

One of the core concepts is that the results will not and should not turn out the way we expect. One of the big rules is that when it's your turn you do not ask for suggestions, discuss, or negotiate. That might sound harsh on the face of it, but it's a well worked-out system and produces good results.

Now that everyone has suggested a premise, we just need to agree on one. I don't care which one, and it's important not to be married to your own ideas in Microscope. The premises are all so vague that we could even randomize the decision.

After that, it's time for Bookending, then the Add and Ban stage, then we start on the history itself.

 

[ART!]

Here's my version of the premise suggestions, all squooshed together:

A great civilization discovers an ancient secret whose power both threatens the civilization and holds the key to its salvation.

 

[Shayuri]

Fair points, all. I have literally no idea how Microscope works, so I was just picking it up and running with it.