[Polaris] How to Demo

[Ben Lehman]

This is a discussion regarding my game Polaris, which is in late-stage editing and playtest right now.  If you want to contribute, and need a copy of the rules to refer to, please PM me with your e-mail address.

Over in Eric Finley's playtest thread

I'm wondering how you'll be doing quick demos. Is it important to get everyone into each role? Or at least to get them in place as a moon and a conflictee?

The answer to this question is a big whopping "I don't know."

The problem here is that Polaris is a GM-full game, where each of the four players has a specific role to play with regard to each of the characters.  In an ordinary game, these roles rotate by the scene, so everyone gets a chance to be the main character, play the bad-guys, or play allies.  Some of these roles are more "powerful" than others, and in the context of a real game, this is fine.  But, in the context of a demo, I'm worried that the players on the sides wouldn't enjoy it as much.

(Also, in the context of a demo, there is pretty clearly not time for that, nor can you necessarily count on others to generate quality, enjoyable conflict (you may end up with a griefer, or just someone with stage fright.))

I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts on either of these matters, or in general how to present the game in a 10-15 minute block.

yrs--
--Ben

[Eero Tuovinen]

Random thoughts:

I suggest streamlining heavily. Just present the chargen and conflict systems, and that's it. Explain the four-player gridlock verbally, but do the actual conflict demonstration in the normal GM-player configuration. You should be able to handle 2-3 players that way.

Rules-wise this means scrapping the moons, and letting players do Heart-Heart conflicts to demonstrate the system. So in that way it's just like a Dust Devils demonstration, except that you'll also be telling about the things that are harder to demonstrate.

Put the conflict key phrases and their meanings on cards or a sheet, so the players have something very concrete to pick things from.

One interesting option would be to concretize the player roles by providing dummy players: put pictures of Jack Nicholson and Cher on posters, put in headings of "Full Moon" and "New Moon", and write down what their jobs in the game are. Prop the dummies on the table in front of stools. Explain that normally players take these roles towards each other, of course. But in the demo, you, Jack and Cher can handle the Maiden and the moons, so all participants get to concern themselves just with being Hearts. You should get some ice-breaking mileage from doing Jack's and Cher's voices, as well.

Other than that, it's just a matter of having a scenario that ends up in a furious melee some two minutes out of the gate. Just like Dust Devils.

[Larry L.]

Now bear in mind here I have not an ounce of experience at running a successful demo. I do, however, have a ton of experience with two-player console fight-game parties.

If you have a few potential players around, you'll have to keep them  around in a small crowd to spectate, since you obviously can't do ten players at once, right?

A GM and a ringer play the New Moon and the Full Moon. The very first scene of the demo, you might need ringer for the Mistaken too.

Each potential player can come into the game as the Heart. Let him play a scene as Heart, since that's the most intuitive role for most gamers.

Next scene, the Heart (having a little more experience) becomes the Mistaken, and a new player is brought in to play Heart. The New Moon and the Full Moon trade seats. (just because)

Thus, everyone gets two scenes to play in serial.

Maybe players can "advance" to one of the Moons or something, too.

Anyone who has played the game before, seems to get it, and visibly conveys enjoyment is a suitable ringer. ;-)

[Kesher]

First off, I have to say that I would love to see Cher and Jack actually play Polaris...

That said, I think Eero probably has the right idea with ditching the Moons.  The core of any conflicts is the Heart and the Mistaken, and if you set up pregen characters, handed out a nice, color-coded cardstock version of what I now think of as the "Conflict Table", you could go to town with you, essentially, playing both Moons and "conflict coach", if a Heart or Mistaken is confused about what's actually possible in terms of allowable action.  Actually, you might benefit from someone who knows the game (Larry's "ringer") playing the Moons and you acting as coach.

You could even potentially map out, say, four possible scenes, each at least starting as a different type of conflict (combat w/ demons, courtly intrigue, psychological fencing between the Heart and others in the Cosmos, and so on).  You could start the conflict off with "And so it was..." and a bit of beginning narration, and then let the players take it from there.

Even though it's not kosher in the game itself, I do like Larry's idea about switching players from one role to the next, too, maybe for each scene, maybe less symmetrically depending on how the whole experience is floating.  I think it is important for demo players to get a sense of how it feels to play at least the two central roles.

Aaron

[Andrew Cooper]

This might be totally ridiculous but it is a thought.  Is there going to be another person or two there who are experienced with the game that might help you run the demo?  If so, why not have them take the place of Jack and Cher?  That way the 2 or 3 people playing the Hearts can actually see the interaction of the different people playing the Mistaken and the Moons at the table.  You could even take turns being the Mistaken and Moon for the different Hearts so they also get a feel for the rotation.  Anywho, that's my completely inexperienced idea.

[Harlequin]

Honestly Gaerik's is an interesting thought.  With some well-set-up scenes, you could do two-demoer, two-participant demos which really showcased the structure.  Requiring two interested demoees means you wouldn't want this to be your only approach, Jack and Cher would want to be on hand, but when available it could be structured to work really well.

I would say do it like this.  Have demoer #1 (say, Ben) sit to the North and demoer #2 (I volunteer to help) sit to the West at a table for four.  Get your two marks into the other two chairs.  We've got a stack of protagonist sheets in the middle of the table, the top one has South as the Heart and East as the Full Moon.  The scene North sets, as the Mistaken, is a prewritten demo scene which has clear and specific single roles for each participant, with the Full Moon role fairly straightforward.  Write and practice the scene to be very snappy, and as the Mistaken use "And so it was" as a hard cut like I did in my playtest.  Then flip that sheet off the stack, revealing a second protagonist sheet, making East the Heart and South the New Moon.  West frames the scene, and again it has clear single roles for each participant, with the most straightforward one being the New Moon role.

An example for the first scene, with demoee #1 as Heart and demoee #2 as Full Moon: Your liege [F.M.] summons you into his presence and is to convince you to marry a woman you hate [N.M.] while she spits and snarks and insults your manhood.  Then a demon [Mis.] attacks the lot of you, opening with "...She dies."; explain just "But only if" and "You ask far too much", at this time.  The Mistaken keeps this first conflict simple by conceding "And so it came to pass" early, no matter what they asked for.  An example for the next scene might be a social conflict with your sister [N.M.] being seduced by a brother knight [F.M.], the Mistaken covering just atmospherics and conflict statements, no character.  Second conflict can get a little more interesting, and will show how conflict statements trump Moons' guidance.  Again the Mistaken plans to end it early, this time using "It shall not come to pass" early so we can showcase the dice.

If the demoees are into it, we flip to the next protagonist sheet of the stack and one of the demoers (say North) requests a scene as the Heart, a scene which again intentionally delineates single roles for everyone.  Basically at this point it's "If you're interested, we'll continue, and you can see how it feels to be in the Mistaken's seat."  But because the Heart's scene framing privileges are strong, we can still direct play to planned scenes that will be punchy and demo-worthy.

If you want to showcase the structural aspect with all four players, I'd say this is the only way to do it right; two ringers, two demoees, a couple of scenes.  Prep that AND a one-on-one demo with Jack and Cher, and use whichever you have the resources for at the time.

- Eric