Microscope vs Outrunners
Compare Microscope and Outrunners side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Microscope | Outrunners | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Universal | Horror, Cyberpunk, Fantasy |
| Tags | Narrative, Worldbuilding, GM-Less, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Fiction-First, Collaborative | Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Narrative, Fiction-First, Collaborative, Survival, Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Worldbuilding, Strong GM Support |
| Core Mechanic | No dice, no GM. Players take turns adding Periods (eras), Events, and Scenes to a shared timeline. A rotating Lens player picks a thematic Focus each round. A Palette of Yes/No elements sets boundaries. Scenes are role-played to answer a specific question about the history. Play jumps freely across time. | Each character assigns one die from a d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, and d4 set across six stats, then rolls the relevant stat's die against a difficulty number; if half that die's maximum already meets the DC, the action succeeds without a roll. Rolling a die's maximum value without beating the DC triggers a Twist of Fate, exploding up to the next larger die. Fate Points, earned mainly by failing rolls, are spent to reroll, sway outcomes, or invoke the Hands of Fate at a narrative cost. |
| Dice | Diceless | d4–d20 |
| Complexity | Very Low | Low |
| Availability | Paid | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 2 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | ORC 1.0 (free SRD) |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Lame Mage Productions | Einsol's Razor |
| Year | 2011 | 2025 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Groups who want to collaboratively create vast histories spanning centuries or millennia: perfect for worldbuilding sessions, one-shots, or as a campaign-creation tool for other RPGs. | Groups who want a rules-light, emotionally charged one-shot or short campaign about doomed characters racing to outrun a foreseen death, and GMs who want a portable fate-and-survival horror premise they can drop into almost any setting with little prep. |
| Highlights | Flexible across any setting and genre, zero prep required, no GM needed, useful as a worldbuilding tool for other campaigns, simple rules anyone can learn in minutes, generates unexpected creative results | Every character begins with a prophesied glimpse of their own death, which seeds concrete clues into the story and ties each session's tension to a deadline the player already knows is coming. Rolling a stat die's maximum without meeting the difficulty explodes it up to the next larger die, turning desperate long shots into escalating last-second reversals rather than flat failures. Fate Points are earned mainly by failing rolls and then spent to reroll, sway outcomes, or invoke the Hands of Fate, so setbacks bankroll later comebacks and every intervention carries a narrative cost. |
| Considerations | Can produce incoherent timelines without group alignment, one player can dominate if others are less assertive, no mechanism to resolve creative disagreements, sessions can stall without a facilitator | The default Adamah setting is sketched in only a few pages and the game expects the table to invent most of the world at session zero, so groups wanting a prepared, detailed setting must supply it themselves. Equipment grants only narrative permission rather than mechanical bonuses, so players who enjoy itemization or tactical loadouts will find nothing to optimize. The foreseen-death premise is built to resolve at the Vision's deadline, making the game strongest as a one-shot or short arc and harder to sustain across a long, open-ended campaign. |