So, after reading the manual for Microscope I believe it is not a good fit for what we have here. Microscope is designed to be played in real time among the same 2-4 people, each taking short, bite-sized turns at being creative. That does not translate well at all into a forum world building project where we people regularly drop out completely after a single post, and even those who stick around may take weeks before replying.

Microscope is also focused around chronology. It encourages you to delve into the details about why and how an empire fell, but it does not seem to me that it would help create zany new ideas like the gutterfolk or vendors.

There were a few things about I liked that I suggest we incorporate though:
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[*]The timeline - essential for keeping things organized. Relative positions only. (I don't think we should use the period/event/scene structure. And the light/dark thing is pointless, even when playing proper Microscope.)
[*]Focus - After every so many posts, we pick a theme that all posts must relate to until the next round. This will help make sure we are building off of eachother's ideas instead of each making up our own parallel worlds. Perhaps we can have a free round every now and then.
[*]No ownership - as long as what you write does not contradict what has already been canonized, it is allowed. Nobody owns any idea and everyone is allowed to expound upon them or use them in their own posts. In fact, we should remove the author of the articles in the index to reinforce this idea.
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