Microscope vs The Quiet Year
Compare Microscope and The Quiet Year side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Microscope | The Quiet Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Universal | Post-Apocalyptic |
| Tags | Narrative, Worldbuilding, GM-Less, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Fiction-First, Collaborative | GM-Less, Worldbuilding, Collaborative, Narrative, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Fiction-First, Map-Drawing |
| 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. | No dice, no GM. A deck of playing cards drives play: each suit is a season, each card a weekly prompt. On your turn, draw a card, answer the prompt, and choose to Discover Something New, Start a Project, or Hold a Discussion. Draw on the shared map to represent changes. Projects take multiple weeks to complete. The Contempt Token signals when a player feels unheard. The game ends when the Frost Shepherds arrive (King of Spades). |
| Dice | Diceless | Diceless |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very Low |
| Availability | Paid | Paid |
| Runnability | 2 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Lame Mage Productions | Buried Without Ceremony (Avery Alder) |
| Year | 2011 | 2013 |
| 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 to collaboratively build a community's story through map-drawing: 52 weeks of discoveries, projects, and tensions before everything changes. |
| 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 | Card-driven structure (one card per week across four seasons) paces the narrative through 52 turns, map-drawing produces a physical artifact of the session, Contempt Token mechanic signals when a player feels unheard, works as a standalone game or worldbuilding tool for other campaigns |
| 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 | Contempt mechanic can create genuine inter-player tension, no way to revisit or undo earlier map decisions, map quality depends on group comfort with drawing, limited replayability with the same group |