The premise is that we're all walking down a quiet, residential suburban street, and we see a house from which the occupant is obviously in the process of moving, or more likely has already moved, because there is a skip outside, in which can be found various personal objects such as a computer screen, a sofa, some clothes, maybe a picture or two, etc.
In the first stage in the game a sheet of paper passes round the player group 3-4 times, and on their turn each player writes on the sheet an object such as the ones mentioned above. They also write next to the name of the object either +, - or +/-, to indicate whether it represents a positive period or event, a negative one, or a mixture. If they like they can also write ++ or - -, to indicate that the period or event in question is either very positive or very negative, but don’t write anything at this point about what kind of event it is.
In stage two, the sheet passes round again, and this time each player decides on a location, how old the character was, and what connects the character to the object; forex, if it was the computer screen, it could have been given to him/her by his/her parents as a present on graduating from University. If the computer had a – by it, it could have been the occasion for a family row, perhaps because the parents bought a computer that was unsuitable, and it emphasised the generational technology gap between them. If it had a + by it, it could be a scene of jubilation on him/her graduating; there could be a party either at the family house or at the character’s first house-share; if +/- it could be bitter-sweet: joy at the character’s graduating, but sadness at the fact that they’re finally leaving home for good. Etc.
The same thing happens for each of the objects mentioned, and after the event has been decided upon, as in Microscope, the players come up with a scene, decide on what characters should be in that scene, and roleplay them. Following this they try to fill in some specific sections of the character sheet.
After a few scenes the player group stops and talks about the character, and tries to formulate some more general observations about him/her (by which time they’ve probably decided on age and gender, but not necessarily- it will be up to the player group when to decide to fill in on any of the fields on the character sheet). At this point the facilitator should encourage the players to decide how they feel about their character, i.e. is he/she a nice person, a bit chauvinistic, bad-tempered, lonely or self-effacing etc.? Are they ambitious, generally successful in life, or is there something that has always held them back? And so on.
When the players have filled in as much as they can on the character sheet, they should try to come up with a reason why the person is moving (it is hoped that by this point they will have established whether the house is single-occupancy, shared with a life partner or is a house share). Also, is this event positive, negative or neutral? If negative, the character could have got divorced, and is moving out (perhaps into a bedsit?) of the couple’s erstwhile shared home. If positive, they could have got a promotion, and are moving to be nearer to their new job, and if +/-, the above could still be true, but in moving they are having to break their family ties or their friendship circle.
If folks are interested in playing this, I’ll get to work on a ‘character sheet’, and will endeavour to formulate the above into an intelligible set of rules
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