[Polaris] Live Playtest

[Judd]

Sounds interesting.

Could you give me a few more examples?

[Ben Lehman]

This isn't from Actual Play.  This is just made up, for example purposes.

Heart: I punch him in the jaw, knocking him out cold.
Mistaken: Okay, if a giant demon rises up out of the earth and swallows your entire city whole.
Heart: Heck no.  I don't punch him.

Result: Action never was initiated.

Heart: I kiss her, and she melts beneath me.  She loves me.
Mistaken: *spends trait* Okay, and you can tell that she is possessed by a demon.
Heart: *spends trait* You ask too much.
Mistaken: Okay, and acidic blood rains from the sky.
Heart: Let's stick with the demon.  *spends trait* And, even after the demon leaves, she still loves me.
Mistaken: No!
*roll dice*  Heart wins

Result: She is possessed by a demon, but loves the knight underneath.  Acidic blood does not rain from the sky.

yrs--
--Ben

[Judd]

So, conflicts are resolved as a kind of back and forth between the players involved in the conflict, negotiating, finding out what it is worth for them to achieve their goals.

When negotiations break down, enter the dice.

Yes?

[Ben Lehman]

You've got it.  It's like "Double Dog Dare" with some IIEE and resources.

I'm curious -- how do people find the format of a live game report?  It was admittedly a bit of an experiment.  Is it something worth doing again?

yrs--
--Ben

[Valamir]

your first made up example confused me a little bit.

I'd thought from my last reading of Polaris that the scale of a conflict was tied to the number of traits activated.  In the first example (the punch in the jaw one) no traits were activated...wouldn't swallowing the city whole be too large stakes?

[Ben Lehman]

I'd thought from my last reading of Polaris that the scale of a conflict was tied to the number of traits activated.  In the first example (the punch in the jaw one) no traits were activated...wouldn't swallowing the city whole be too large stakes?

The old conflict system is dead!  Long live the new conflict system!

Seriously, though, the whole game is revised, and I am long overdue in forming it into a new text.

yrs--
--Ben

[Valamir]

Ahh.  I look forward to seeing it.  Polaris is just shivery cool.

[Sydney Freedberg]

(Dev says: this is like kung-fu jane austen.)

That is too damned cool.

[Harlequin]

As for the format... I think that it's probably better to take the same notes, but to post a version which is cleaned up and annotated (dice mechanics, trait expenditures, etc).  We can get some interesting stuff, like pacing and emphasis, out of this format, but nothing you couldn't distill down and make explicit when commenting on the play.  Long live the new conflict system!

Note that if you can get me an even halfway parseable text of the new edition by Friday, I have a playtest group for you and we're in our off-week from Dogs.

- Eric