RE: [Roleplaying Games] GM-less Play RPGs, A Treatise in One Part
Wow... I still haven't finished looking into these, but thank you for taking the time to go into so much detail!
I don't know why, but when you had mentioned GM-less games, I hadn't pictured this wide of a variety. I had imagined more of an Oracular style. I would have expected essentially GM driven games where the GM is replaced with some sort of mechanic that generates conflicts for the players to resolve, and then a specific algorithm the players have to follow to decide if they had met the objectives and to determine some sort of score.
Or maybe various deck building games where the conflict is somewhat static, but players work cooperatively to defeat it while it's being made stronger and stronger as time goes by... but I guess this is really more of the first thing I mentioned.
I'm probably going to have to play all of the titles you've mentioned, but I'll definitely have to start with Microscope as it is the least like what I would have expected. I suppose my point is my imagination is far more limited than I realized. It didn't occur to me that players wouldn't just be playing characters.
I can't upvote this post enough. Thank you.
I hadn't even gotten into the subfield of specifically Oracular games which are driven by various kinds of card interaction. In part, because I'm just not really crazy about RPGs which use cards as a mechanical resolution solution (and that's purely a physical limitation issue, not really a judgment on whether they are good for the purpose or not). But those exist!
I'm glad that I can provide you with an entirely new world to explore, and it is an entire world and it is worth exploring. You have just stepped foot into a much broader, more disturbing universe than you ever expected.
Also, Microscope is awesome and you're starting in a good place. (One day I'll get around to talking about Follow in detail from the same author. GM-less, character-focused, and almost guaranteed to have one of the party betray the others every round – mechanically-enforced. Good stuff.)