[Polaris] Two scenes frozen from a convention show

[Arturo G.]

Some days ago I got the record of our quick Polaris show at PuCLN, a national Spanish game convention held in mid July.
It was an incredible successful session. Players wanted more, and many other people were attracted to have a look. Many people got really interested in the game.

Hearing the record again I was thinking about how people who are exposed for the first time to story-oriented games, react to Polaris. In my case, the players grabbed the idea easily. We were also using my colourful flow-chart for the conflict sentences, and it helped a lot. I think the players were having small troubles from time to time with the cosmos, the play structure and the consequences of the sentences, but they were mainly having a great sensation of freedom, and also expectation in each conflict.

We had only time for a row of scenes, plus another one to show how continuity works. This is a translation of the two scenes where I was not being Heart or Mistakes.

H = Heart; M = Mistaken

Scene A

H: But hope was not yet lost, for Betelgeuse still heard the song of the stars.

M: And so it was, that Alchibah the evil noble from the ice citadel, to separate Betelgeuse from her beloved Bellatrix, decided to match her with Menkar, his old enemy. During a banquet, Alchibah got up, clang his cup, and announced with a load voice which echoed in the hall that Menkar and Bellatrix will be engaged and their houses will be one.

H: You ask far too much (theme exhausted is fate: "heart-rending separation").

M: (Alternative) Alchibah said: "Betelgeuse, I know about your love for Bellatrix,
but I will never approve it if you do not win a contest with Menkar, your long-time enemy".

H: (Chose last) But only if the contest is well-balanced and both, Menkar and Betelgeuse have equal chances to win it.

M: You ask far too much (theme exhausted is Office: "Knight of Stars", he is a knight and Menkar is not. A balanced contest will not be fair for Menkar).

H: (Alternative rejected by the moons) But only if Betelgeuse may choose the contest terms...
H: (Alternative) But only if the contest is chosen by a high judge of the kingdom.

M: (Chose last) And furthermore, Alchibah said that the judge has already been chosen. "He is this man sitted near me, who has come from a distant remnant". He is a very pale and slim man. (Theme used: "Fate: A demon named ???", the judge is surely related with that demon),

H: And furthermore, the test for Menkar should be the same for Betelgeuse.

M: (Very quickly) And that was how it happened!!

NOTE: Everyone rejoices and laughs, because even if the knight and his enemy do the same test, it does not mean at all that it is a fair contest. The heart of Betelgeuse cried (and laughed) when he realized his mistake.

M: And so it was!

Scene B

The heart explains the cosmos of Rigel, his knight character
I have the diary of the supposed greatest explorer known in our land. He tried to reach the place where the sun touches the horizon.
NOTE: The player did not know that Polaris setting includes such a theme about South explorations. I told him, and he was amazed. It was nice that he thought on it himself.

The diary has thousands of words, and he has never read it. It is not necessary, because when he opens it, the book speaks, supporting and advicing him, like an old friend. The diary is a character in the cosmos, in the new moon section. The wise man in the book is called Deneb.

His family thinks he is mad. They think he should stay at the remnants, fighting the demons. They emotive chains have been lost, and they are in the full moon section, as they represent the call for his duty.

His antagonist, the only character in the mistaken part of the cosmos is The Sun! For example, when Rigel  tries to arrive at some place the Sun creates a river to avoid it.
NOTE: We talked to redefine this to create a playable character for the mistaken. "The Sun" in Rigel cosmos is actually a demon who is always expressing and acting through The Sun light. The knight call it "The Sun", but he is a very particular demon.

Play begins
(I have tried to translate it mainly in third person and past, although the heart and the mistaken changed many times form third to first person, and from present to past and back).


H: But hope was not yet lost, for Rigel still heard the song of the stars.

M: And so it was that when Rigel was in one of his quests, looking for a path to the South, he was sleeping. But he got awake by the presence of a small creature, with a tail finished in a sting, which left small firing footprints and which was fleeing with something: The book of Deneb.

H: But only if the book is too heavy for this [small] creature, and it cannot flee quickly. Indeed, it is moving at a very slow pace.

M: And that was how it happened.
The creature noticed it cannot flee with such a heavy burden; it was a very small creature which had only little delicate wings. Then it shrieked and immediately hundreds of similar creatures appeared flying to help on carrying the book.

H: But only if in the stories of the old Deneb, Rigel read that he already found this kind of creatures, and they have a compulsion for salt. Thus, Rigel always carried a pouch of salt in his belt. He took it and spreaded the salt on the ground.

M: But only if these demon-creatures, which may not avoid their compulsion for salt, where attracted to it by the smell. But "The Sun", knowing the expertise of Rigel in these matters had negated these creatures the smelling sense.

H: You ask far too much! Too many creatures without the smelling sense (theme exhausted: Blessings - "Demons Lore")

M: (Alternative) But only if the salt lands on the ice and it melts with it.

H: (Chose the last) But only if the seconds that the salt took to melt in the ice gave Rigel enough time to draw his sword and throw it to the demon which carried the book.

NOTE: We discussed here that there were not only one demon-creature carrying the book. The heart asked for help to the player of the Book character, who said that the book may get awake and help.

H: (continuing the conflict with "But only if...") The salt melted the ice during some seconds, enough for Rigel to shout to Deneb, the wise-man in the book: "Deneb, guide me with your cries to the hideout of these bugs!".

M: But only if the noise produced by the wings of the hundreds of creatures made Rigel's voice faint and get lost.

H: But only if the hearing of the book is so fine that it can hear the voice of Rigel.

M: But only if the demons shrieked imitating the voice of Deneb, which is heared coming from many different places and directions.

H: And furthermore, the demon-creatures shrieked creating a horrible concert; but, as they all live in the south they slowly traveled in that direction to their hideout, and Rigel followed, not the voice of Deneb, but the demons terrible noise, always to the south. (Theme exhausted: "Demons Lore")

M: And furthermore, as Rigel perfectly knew, these demons were extremely intelligent, and as they anticipated that Rigel would follow them, they guided him to a place were the ice ended, where there was a high precipice, and where Rigel could not follow them. The demon-creatures were lost in a luminous fog. (Theme exhausted: lost in the record)

H: And that was how it happened.

NOTE: The heart was pleased with the end of the conflict. We commented that the next scenes would surely include a search for the book.

M: And so it was.

---------------

[Steven Stewart]

That sounds really great! I espically liked the aspects that seem to evoke old-world myth, and the creative use of demon lore and salt to entice the deamons.

Just one observation, it seems like in that last scene, that there were a lot of "but only ifs" for the conflict. Did it get confusing ever. Also it does sound like that in that last scene that if the heart came up with something for but only if, that the mistaken would simply just try to work around it until they got what they wanted? Was that inentional, it seems if I was the heart in that situation I would be quite frustrated with that, and start asking the moons for some clarifications on the situtation. Perhaps I am misunderstanding it, but it would seem that in the short term, there was a lot of exhausting of themes from the start of stealing the book, and yet in the end they stole the book, while there was a lot in between, it didn't really impact the outcome at all. Sort of a stonewalling technique we will do this all day but you will lose the book. I wonder if using some other phrases would have changed things a bit.

Personally if I was in that situation as a moon, I might gently prod the mistaken, to give up on that line of narration as it was exhausted (no pun intended) after so many back and forths. But that is just me.

Thanks for sharing, I really did think that both scenes instill that otherwordly fairy tale like quality that people seem to go for in this game.

Cheers for now,

[Arturo G.]

Hi, Steven!

Yes, the fictional stuff was awesome.
And yes, the second scene was a little confusing and complicate. They were still getting used to the negotiation structure. Indeed, there were another couple of moon interventions which I did not report for clarity.
But you are right. The heart was introducing new ideas and elements constantly, while the mistaken was phrasing aggressively to block them. I think that one part of the problem was that the heart was accepting with his "But only if" the previous stuff of the mistaken. He was trying to stop the theft using incredible nice fictional stuff, but not yet backing it with the full power of the key phrases.

The first block of the heart using "You ask far too much" was very nicely solved by the mistaken offering an alternative which was different on nature, but still blocking the purpose. At the end, the heart tried to break the conflict with an "And furthermore", reversed by another "And furthermore" of the mistaken, which was definitive.

I think that the players also need to get used to the possibilities of the conflict ending phrases. For example, there were a couple of times where "It was not meant to be" would have ended the conflict nicely for the heart. But it is a difficult phrase to remember and use for beginners, typically concentrated in learning the main negotiation system.

I think that for their first try they were doing it pretty well, fighting to learn and control the mechanism but at the same time using the power of their fictional stuff freely. It was really nice.

Arturo