[Polaris] GenCon '06 Embassy After Hours Game

[Nev the Deranged]

I came to the con knowing that at some point, I wanted to play Polaris. Some time Friday night I realized I had a much better chance of doing that if I walked around with it in my hand, so I did that, and lo and behold, it worked! Go me.

Julie, Joe, Eric, and myself sat down to play at one of the tables in the Embassy dining area. Julie was the only one who had played before, so I deferred to her quite a bit, but things went pretty smoothly all in all.

The Knights:

Sir Thuban (Eric), who took "My name shall be accursed" for a Fate, and "Masterforger of Starlight" for an Ability, establishing that he was responsible for forging all of the Starlight Blades that the Knights carried into battle.

Lady Aludra (Julie), who had "Loyal Steed Shackleton" for a Blessing, and "Renowned Champion" as an Office, it was she who led the Knights on their most important missions.

Sir Sirius (Joe), who took "My loved one will die by my own hand" as a Fate, and "Quick Reflexes" as an Ability. Sirius was a young and inexperienced, but enthusiastic knight.

and finally, Sir Maaz (myself). I took the Office, "Sword Marshal of the Order of the Stars", and the Ability "Falling Star Strike", claiming the role of the chief instructor of swordsmanship to the Knights.

Our shared Fate was the demon Lacerta.

I am writing from memory, which is sketchy at best, even with the sheets in front of me. Fellow players, feel free to correct or expound as needed.

I believe Julie kicked things off, as our only veteran player, with Lady Aludra leading a contigent of knights into one of the ruins to the South, to flush out the demons that had taken refuge there following a battle. When the party arrived at the ruin, one of them, Sir Rigel, was possessed and tried to attack his fellows. Lady Aludra knew then that the demonic presence was not strong enough to oppose them physically, and resolved to destroy it. Unfortunately, this would exact a terrible cost- for it meant striking down Sir Rigel- her own son. This turned out to be an appropriate sacrifice for slaying Algol, the son of Lacerta. This scene kicked us off nicely, and established that demons can bear offspring, implying that they care for them in some way as well.

Next up, IIRC, was Eric. He decided that Sir Thuban had gotten it into his head that he might forge a weapon using the power of the Dawn instead of the Stars, and that it might aid the Knights against the Mistaken. He traveled to the Leftmost Library to do research, and managed to get ahold of some forbidden texts from the vault. I messed this scene up somewhat by not quite figuring out how to frame a conflict... partly because I ended up wanting the same things that Eric did- for Sir Thuban to follow through with his research. I was stuck trying to come up with ways to oppose him in-characterly (meaning have characters who tried to stop him), which was stupid. I should have been causing trouble for him by getting him DEEPER into trouble, not by trying to keep him from it. But it worked out alright, with Sir Thuban using the forbidden knowledge he had gleaned to forge the Sword of Dawn. The price for his indiscretion was his removal from office. Eric crossed out "Masterforger of Starlight"... but replaced it with "Forger of Dawn".

Joe's turn was next, and Julie cleverly set a scene which would affect the contents of everyone's Moons. Sir Thuban was a mentor of Sir Sirius, but Sir Edasich had been Sirius' teacher. Sirius awoke from a nightmare in which Thuban slew Edasich (or was it the other way around?) and made haste to see if the dream held any truth. He found the two on the practice field, sparring, but assumed they were locked in mortal combat. He interfered, causing Edasich to lose much face with the other knights- which Edasich clearly blamed Sirius for, moving him solidly into Sirius' Mistaken.

  For myself, I had my eye on that Sword of Dawn that Sir Thuban had forged. I decided that Thuban and Maaz were well acquainted, since he forged the Starlight Swords and I trained the Knights in their use. It made perfect sense for Thuban to ask Maaz to take his new creation into battle and test it against the demons. Which he did, and it seemed to work marvelously, slaying a demon with one blow... except that the demon's blood was absorbed into the blade, causing it to flare up so furiously that it burned the side of Maaz' face, leaving a permanent mark. He would come to be known as The Branded Knight, and he would soon find his new blade an untrustworthy weapon at best (this was specified by Julie). Moreover, he would have no choice but to wield it, because as he sheathed the burning blade next to his Starlight Sword on his belt, the latter was melted and utterly destroyed by the unnatural heat from the Sword of Dawn.

At this point we decided that the season would change before the next round of scenes, from the season of battle to the season of intrigue (I forget which is which). Knowing we had Rigel's death, Thuban's fall from office, Sirius' new enmity with Edasich, and Maaz' scarring all before us, it seemed an appropriate shift in focus.

Although it turned out not to matter, since we were all pretty burnt by then. I could have kept going (I generally prefer to go with the momentum), but I wasn't going to press it, since I knew the others had serious booth-duties in the morning.

It was a great game, and really set up some neat conflicts that would have been fun to explore. I dig how the game works, even if it took me a few tries to get a handle on it. I'd really like to play some more, I will try to sell some friends on it.

Thanks to Julie, Eric, Joe, and of course Ben!

[Ron Edwards]

Hey,

I know it may be buried in the haze of GenCon recollection, but what experience rolls got made? What for?

Best, Ron

[Eric J. Boyd]

Dave,

Thanks for writing this up. I've been loving Polaris ever since I bought it last year, but I hadn't had the chance to play until Gen Con. Of course, that meant my memory of the rules was a bit hazy, so having Julie at the table made things run much more smoothly.

Knowing this would be a short game, I decided to grab drama by the throat, moving Thuban immediately toward actions that could betray the People and cause his fate to be realized. Unfortunately, this made Dave's job as my Mistaken a little harder as he mentioned above. I ended up rolling experience for my forbidden researches and having the rewriting of my character take place as Dave noted. Didn't everyone end up rolling experience based on their actions?

All in all, a very satisfying intro to actual play of this game; I only wish I had the energy to go on longer. Hopefully I'll have the chance for a full game soon.

[Ben Lehman]

Hey, guys!

Thanks for playing.  Ron's question is my question.

yrs--
--Ben

[jrs]

Dave, thanks for writing this up!

My recollection is very hazy on the details, and I cannot find my character sheet that I saved from the game.  Here's what I remember about the experience rolls.  Both Joe and I had experience rolls as a result of failed conflict die rolls; we both ended up changing our numbers, my Ice went up, and can't remember which of Joe's scores changed.  We called for an experience roll for Dave due to his claim on the Sword of Dawn, he had a complete refresh.  Eric, sorry, I do not recall any details of your experience roll.  I'm pretty sure we each had one. 

I wish I had had enough stamina to continue with that game!

Julie

[joepub]

If only Gencon burnout hadn't taken its toll on us.

Observations:

-Eric's scene had some trouble at first defining what the conflict was.
Setting conflict in Polaris is different than in any other game I've encountered.

I started a conflict with "but Sir Rigel became possessed and turned on his fellows."
I was quickly informed that my statement should be something more like, "Sir Rigel became possessed, and turned two of his former friends into corpses as he ripped them in half."
The game benefits from players actually being CRUEL to the Heart they oppose.
It's weird that such a poetically written and designed game really benefits from the "go big or go home" mentality.


The game totally kicked ass. Julie's scene, with me as the Mistaken, was my favourite.

[Nev the Deranged]

So sorry, I assumed the Forge automatically notified me as the author of the thread, so I had no idea anyone had replied. My bad.

Experience rolls... good question. I have all the sheets but they are out in the car.

Off the top of my head (please correct me if I'm off base with any of these), Sir Thuban got experience for delving into the forbidden texts in the Leftmost Library, and possibly for forging the Sword of Dawn.  Lady Aludra got experience for slaying her own son, who was possessed by the son of her demonic rival. Sirius got his for estranging (is that a word?) Edasich. And Maaz got his for wielding the Sword of Dawn... I think.

I will try to remember to bring the sheets in tomorrow and see if I can't remember more. And if anybody can't find theirs I can mail you a copy or just transcribe it or something.

[Nev the Deranged]

K. Got the sheets in front of me now.

Julie (Aludra), Zeal 3, Ice 2, Light 1. You have listed Senator Almach in Full Moon, Aludra's brother Enif, son Rigel, and her trusted comrade and lover Vega in New Moon. Lacerta was our shared Mistaken, and for you specifically Lacerta's son Algol, who possessed Rigel and was then struck down by Aludra. I vaguely recall us wondering as we discussed what would happen in the Fall whether Vega was Rigel's father or not, and either way how he would react to his death at Aludra's hand. I don't think Almach or Enif came up.

Eric (Thuban), Zeal 3, Ice 1, Light 2. You have Maaz listed in Full, Sirius as your protege, and your daughter Lady Capella in New. Going for the crossover you have Senator Almach in your Mistaken, labeled "officious", along with Edasich (who was put there during Sirius' scene), and the demons Kurhah and of course Lacerta.

Joe (Sirius), Zeal 4, Ice 1, Light 1. Edasich started in your Full Moon, but ended up in your Mistaken as well as Thuban's. In New you list Thuban, your mentor, and Aquarius, your father, whom I don't think came up? Aside from Edasich and Lacerta, Furud, another demon, rounds out your Mistaken.

My knight (Maaz), Zeal 4, Ice 1, Light 1. Sir Thuban is alone in my Full Moon, I may have put him there during Eric's or my scene, to support my idea that their offices interacted. My New Moon features Pyxis, Maaz' "understudy" in swordsmanship, and Lady Andromeda, his betrothed. Neither of them came up as far as I can recall. Lacerta shares my Mistaken with Sir Aquarius (Sirius' father), whom I barely edged out for the Office of Sword-Marshal, and at the last minute I added the Sword of Dawn, since Julie made it clear that it was untrustworthy.

Hope that helps clear things up and maybe jogs somebody's memory.

I've been listening to Paul Tevis' Polaris webcasts, and also pondering things like, could Polaris work well as play-by-post? It'd certainly lose some of the ritualistic aspects, but the mechanics seem like they'd work easily enough. Also, I'm considering if the negotiation mechanics could be used to tell any kind of story (I don't see why not), and if nongamers might more easily absorb them if they were presented as a party game or playground game of the sort one might learn as a child, and then introduced to the more advanced stuff gradually.

Anyway, it was a good time. Next year, since it seems unlikely monkeys will be needed at all, I plan to come with friends rather than as a Forge adjunct, and do more hanging around the G.O.D. room playing during the day, so con-fatigue won't be as much of a factor. Trying to game when your eyes just want to shut and your brain is moldy oatmeal is not ideal. =P

[jrs]

Hmmm.  Well, I obviously got Eric's and Joe's experience rolls confused in my head.  I'm glad you saved all the character sheets!

Julie