[Polaris] "...But only if everybody in the world dies."

[Jason Morningstar]

Me, Lisa, Nik, and Jonathan had a nice game of Polaris today.  We were all learning (Lisa and Jonathan had played a demo and I own the book), and we all agreed that after playing we were now officially ready to play for real.

Some general notes:  Ben, the game book is really, really hard to use.   I wish it had an index and/or a table of contents.  It's all there, but it's hard to find. 

We had a lot of confusion about terms and scene framing, probably as a result of being contaminated by Dogs in the Vineyard.  Initially we were trying to describe what was at stake, rather than declaring what we wanted in conflicts and throwing it to our opposite to amend.  Once this clicked conflicts really motored along. 

We all made a conscious effort to create and re-use characters, and tightly wound a couple of plot threads around NPCs we all shared, which was cool.  For a short game this worked pretty well.  Jonathan's wife was also Nik's lover was Lisa's rival in the Nebula Council, etc.

For some reason we failed to draw in the Moons at all - as players we were throwing in suggestions, but the interaction was, in general, pretty procedural - there wasn't much roleplaying going on at all.  Everybody commented on this when we were finished. 
Most of the conflicts revolved aroound player characters.  I'm not sure what went wrong. 

We had one weird situation where a player character (me) was possessed by a Mistaken demon as the outcome of a conflict.  It  put me in a strange place and muddied the narration a bit - was I supposed to behave badly, driven by a demon?  Did the Mistaken control the demon, but not my PC?  I headed off this confusion by narrating its expulsion, but it was an odd moment.

The game moved quickly to some very large-scale conflicts with high stakes.  By way of illustration, our session ended with everyone in the world save 150 slaughtered by the Mistaken as the result of a very hard-fought conflict.  We were all fine with it, since it was essentially a one-shot, but in a long-term game I wonder what checks and balances exist to keep conflicts small and a campaign viable. Believe me, this "and so it was" got sent back to be re-tooled plenty of times. 

Everyone really liked the collaborative character creation and the ritual phrases, although some took to it more easily than others.  We all had a good time but I seriously think that a lack of clarity in the text hindered our session. 

--Jason

[Ben Lehman]

Hi, Jason!

I think that failure to draw in the moons probably was a result of your tight winding -- in any given scene, if the Heart and the Mistaken really know what they want, there won't be any place for the Moons to fill in the gaps.  It is in the slower paced bits that they get the chance to jump in.

I think that getting the conflicts right is really key -- Polaris ain't Dogs, and there's no need to discuss stakes beforehand (indeed, it can hurt the natural escalation.)

Note that, technically, major changes to the world are, like the Knight's death, illegal until the knight is a veteran, and further can only be asked for with a "but only if" statement, and thus are prone to immediate cancellation.  This is covered in the Conflict chapter under "what you can ask for and what you can't" and mentioned again in the Experience chapter.

Also, if your knight is possessed, you play the demon.  This is covered somewhere in the "playing the game" chapter.

I don't have the book with me so I can't give page references.  Maybe someone else could?

Glad you had a good time!

yrs--
--Ben

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks, Ben. 

I think on some level we realized we could object to the world-shattering stakes, but it was late in the day and nobody really minded - it was fun to see Jonathan squirm.  We actually talked through the last couple of conflicts informally to decide how it all went down without using the game mechanics. 

Another comment - the game so lends itself to truly mytho-poetic moments and images.  One memorable image from our game is Nik's character frozen into an icy throne, his head facing the stars, deep within the Mistake - the price he paid for freeing his father from captivity.  Coolness.

--Jason

[Ben Lehman]

One memorable image from our game is Nik's character frozen into an icy throne, his head facing the stars, deep within the Mistake - the price he paid for freeing his father from captivity. Coolness.

Damn!  Are you sure you aren't going to play again?  'cause "The Frozen King" would be an awesome demonic antagonist.  :-)

I'll just steal him for the next time I play the game.

yrs--
--Ben

[Arturo G.]

Ben said:

Note that, technically, major changes to the world are, like the Knight's death, illegal until the knight is a veteran, and further can only be asked for with a "but only if" statement, and thus are prone to immediate cancellation.  This is covered in the Conflict chapter under "what you can ask for and what you can't" and mentioned again in the Experience chapter.

Also, if your knight is possessed, you play the demon.  This is covered somewhere in the "playing the game" chapter.

I don't have the book with me so I can't give page references.  Maybe someone else could?

Page 75: Section title: "It is important that you know what you can ask for and what you cannot"
Page 84: Section title: "How novices become veterans"

About the demon possesion, I cannot find it explicitly now, but in page 63 it is said that "the protagonist's Heart always retains guidance the protagonist, no matter what the situation".
Were you referring to this?

Cheers,
Arturo

[Ben Lehman]

Thanks, Arturo!

Yeah, an example beneath that passage mentions demonic possession specifically.

yrs--
--Ben

[Jonathan Walton]

Jason failed to mention that my character managed to retake the Fortress of Grit & Rime from a horde of demons through an amatuer performance of his opera, "Retaking the Fortress of Grit & Rime by Strategy," directed by the Queen herself.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Jason failed to mention that my character managed to retake the Fortress of Grit & Rime from a horde of demons through an amatuer performance of his opera, "Retaking the Fortress of Grit & Rime by Strategy," directed by the Queen herself.

Wow. Hamlet and Eno in one sentence. It's like you're me!

[Ben Lehman]

Jason failed to mention that my character managed to retake the Fortress of Grit & Rime from a horde of demons through an amatuer performance of his opera, "Retaking the Fortress of Grit & Rime by Strategy," directed by the Queen herself.

Jonathan, when I actually meet you, remind me to slap you for that.

yrs--
--Ben