[Polaris] 2 Player - Tales of Starlight and Ice: the Fall of TallStar

[Steven Stewart]

Long ago, people were dying at the end of the world. But hope was not yet lost, for NA'IR AL SAIF and CHELEB still heard the song of the stars...

FIRST, initial impressions are recorded....

• Fanfuckingtastic! - probably the best roleplaying expierence I have had in the last 3 years
• Now a fanboy - playing the game cemented my advocacy of it, and opened new avenues, for me personally, for future roleplaying expierences and sessions. I probably won't pick up DnD ever again after playing Polaris. I don't think that the game expierences that I have had with the former will ever live up to the latter. Just tatoo fanboy on my ass and be done with it.
• Fullfilled my expectations - even without the moons (as player roles), it still lived up to my high expectations.
• Missed the moons - while this will be discussed in detail later, I can definetly see where having the moons would help the play expierence. The game becomes pretty focused on Protagonist / Antagonist, without the moons to help smooth things out. There is a lot of responsability on each player to create story and conflict, and having the moons to give suggestions, or even take the story in an unexpected direction with their characters would have been helpful.
• Want to play more - Would love to play more, hopefully with more people. But playing with two people got me thinking, that there is probably an oppurtunity for someone to create a 2 player narration game, that is not a "relationship game", and more of a fairytale or adventure style of game with elements of the fantastic, but one that is designed for the purpose of 2 person play.

SECOND, where the setup is revealed...

Before launching into the actual gameplay, and now that the "highlights" have been discussed above, I wanted to write the play report in the same fashion of the expierence I went through. So before going into the characters, and the game, I wanted to talk about the setup and just getting a game together. This is like a report in a way, so it is a bit long, and more factual based, some opinions are given as to what worked and what didn't, but mostly if you want that skip to the end.

Getting a game together was hard. It took about 2.5 months to get 2 more players in Tokyo (one of the world's largest cities) to have the time to commit to 2-3 hours of play every two weeks. Part of that was people who are interested, frequently have busy schedules. Distances are vast, the majority of game players in Tokyo (that I have met) are primarly English teachers, and therefore live on the edge of the city, while I live in central Tokyo. Also most English teachers have non-standard days off. But eventually I managed to get two others to commit to play after using JIGG on yahoogroups. [Link for those interested ---> http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/JIGG/ ]

Since it took so long to get a game going, and I knew the two other players didn't own Polaris, I wanted to have a good setup. I resisted the urge to fall into the traditional GM hosting a game role, and write up a bunch of handouts, having seen other posts that advise against it. This appears to be good advice. Eventhough it is tempting to do a crash course in the setting and rules so your group can make the most of the time to play, I would recommend not to do that. You set up a situtation where you are the "gamemaster" eventhough there is isn't one in the game. To some extent, that is going to happen anyway, if you know all the rules and have read the book, but the others have not. Giving a crash course just amplifies that.

But I did do some setup. First I printed up three copies of the star-names, I think these are handy for play. I printed off both Ron's graphic [box and lines] version of the key phrases and Ben's version in the back of the book. Matthew, the other player liked the former, and I prefered the later. But different people think in different ways. I also printed off copies the sample aspects, so that the precious and delicate tome wouldn't have to be manhandled too much during character creation.

But before I handed any of that stuff out, I had made up one single page handout. It wasn't a summary though. It was two parts of the book that I had copied by hand [typed] and put in the same typeface as the Polaris book, centaur. I copied word for word the "Moments frozen from the flow of time", and instead of taking excerpts from the other setting parts of the book, I copied the one section that I thought summarized the character's roles the best, the section "Your Battle..." on page 28 word for word. You can put both of these on a single A4 sheet.

My impression, is that this set-up helped us focus on the game, without a single player "explaining the game." Although there was plenty of that as well, at least the first impressions of the game were from the game itself. My plan was to have each player read the handout first before even giving out the character sheet. I think it worked well.

For the actual environment of play, my wife [bless her heart, she doesn't game, ever, but understands it and supports it] helped me out and went out and a got a candle. The candle was cool because it is blood red at the top and fades to deep purple at the bottom. I cleared off the table we were going to be playing, and just had the handouts, the candle, some Enya and Silk Road Music, and a single clear but frosted D6, and some pencils. It worked well to help establish the feeling of the game.

For snacks and food, (we started at 7pm, so I wasn't providing dinner to anyone) she had gotten bottle of white wine, herb cheese spread with crackers and chips, and cholocate covered almonds. While it might not seem important, I do think the whole environment you use (music, food, general messiness of the game area) all helps focus the expierence. It made a big differance to me to have all that stuff, and do think that the expierence was different for it, than say if we had instead of played at noon, on a saturday with a TV in the background and some cheetos.

I think the most important thing I did was read the book several times, espically the setting part in the beggining. When the other player had a question about Polaris' setting, instead of telling him, I would find a section of the book that I thought answered the question. I would read a section (a paragraph or two) and then discuss what I thought it meant, but I started with the book itself.

Third where we discover the history of our players ....

I don't want to dwell too long on this. But since every game is an experience of individuals, and its impossible to separate those individuals from the experience and the actual play.

ME – Steve – Possess much geek-fu. Having been gaming for a long time, and a lot of different games, although Polaris is the first "narrative" type of game I have played. I own the book, have read it several times, have read the forums on it, have read several of the GNS articles, have listened to the entire Paul Tevis podcasts of his Polaris sessions, and have read many actual play reports, try to stay current on what is going on in the independent game community. Have nothing against other game styles, and frequently play MMORPG, Boardgames, card games, and miniature games (like Pirates of the Spanish Main). 

Matthew – Also possess much geek-fu. Hasn't play a game since moving to Tokyo though in May. I perceive just wanted to "game", rather than looking for a specific type of game. Mentioned earthdawn a lot (I have little or no expierence with that game), doesn't have Polaris, hadn't played it before, and only browsed some of the Actual Play posts before.

Third player, don't know, he bailed on us, though he may have a good reason (I don't know why), but we waited 30 minutes at the station for him. Since Matthew traveled a hour and an half for a three hour game session (that's right – total travel time 3 hours = game time of 3 hours), we soldiered on.

We are going to try to get a third player, and if I can't find one through JIGG, I might ask a non-gamer (who keeps asking me what gaming is) at work to play. Though I fear once I lend him the book, he might be scared off. We shall see what comes of it...

Fourth, the Forging of Swords and the nature of the Stellar Knights...

I had a very good idea of the protagonist that I wanted. But I restrained myself from writing him up before meeting the other players. I didn't want to constrain the others too much, but also I thought having a solid idea before the game started would help the other's as well, since one person in the group  could take a lead, and we wouldn't be left with the "what do we do now?" syndrome that I have heard of others.

I think both Matthew and I are the type of players that like context for our characters, and want a bit of thought before the game began before charging into story. So I don't think we could start with our knights as a blank slate. I think in other words that we are both "Immersion players". [see this link from Seth on a similar topic regarding Polaris -- > http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17777.0, note I don't know what version that Seth was playing, but the version that I was playing with – Up Above the World Edition – contained enough setting information for me at least to feel that I was immersed in the character].

So this part of the game took the longest. In our three hours of play, I think that probably an hour was spent on just generating the protagonist. Partly because Matthew hadn't read the book. He would ask a lot of questions about the setting, and I would take the time to read whole sections from the book. And while that took a bit of time, I think it paid off in spades.

While I know everyone is eager to begin play, I would recommend savoring the creation moment, and make the most of it. I do think it will pay off in the long run.

We decided to use a four person character sheet though we were playing with two. I think that helped as well. When we filled out our Cosmos, we kept separate those characters that would be "New Moon" and those that were "Full Moon", that helped with the context and immersion I think. But I get ahead of myself.

We started with blank sheets. I suggested the first thing is to think of the character in broad terms and start with a name. We each had the star names. I had an idea [somewhat stolen and modified from Paul T's unforgettable character Sirius] of a knight that had great potential, but was yet to prove himself. He was the "golden child" of the knighthood, and everyone expected great things from him. His story (at least as a starting point) would be whether he could live up to or even wanted to bear that burden. So I choose Na'ir Al Saif, bright tip of the sword.

Matthew, stated that he wanted a character that was like him. And looked through the names and came up with the idea of a Loyal Knight, not a flashy one, but a rock solid dependable one that did the right thing, and could be depended on (I think waiting at the train station for 30 minutes for someone who didn't show, could have contributed to that, as he even mentioned "you know someone that shows up on time"). He came up with Cheleb, the dog of the Shepard.

Next we spent a lot of time looking through the aspects. I had mine in mind already, and Matthew looked through them all. He had trouble with one, and I suggested a Fate, "Ideal: Loyal Knight". The nice thing is we had a nice parallel going on, as I had "Ideal: Bright Future". I could already see where things were going. With two players, one advantage you do have, is that it can be really easy to set up parallel but different themes, and I think that clicked well with the development of the rest of the story. We left the shared fate for last.

One other thing we did was fill up the cosmos. I pushed for this a lot. And while I had a few characters in mind for new and full moon sections, I ended up adding about 3 as a result of Matthew's sheet.

I figured (correctly) that with no moons, it was going to be hard to generate secondary characters on the fly. And that without moons to give suggestions, it might be helpful to have a lot of characters to choose from during scenes, to add or change the story.  So even though we didn't most of the secondary characters in our first scene, we have a pretty full Cosmos. I think that really will help, (and did in our first scene but I get ahead of myself). We spent about thirty minutes developing the Cosmos section.

Finally we decided a shared fate. We picked Bellatrix, the Warrioress that leds the Knight of the Order of the Stars. Based on the nice parallel themes of knighthood we had, we thought she might make a good Fate. Now after the first scene (see below), I think we may end up changing that Fate (I have no idea if that is "allowed" in the rules, but we will if we think it makes a better game. Since Na'ir's Sister seems to be actually more of a common Fate, but right now since we have done only one scene each, we left it as to see how it develops). I think it makes an interesting fate, because not just is she the leader of the knights, she could also represent the "Stellar Knights" in general as a group.

So here are the two knights of our tale...

Na'ir Al Saif – the bright tip of the sword

Mistaken:
Senator Rastaban – Father of Chara – Dislikes Na'ir Al Saif personally, thinks he is arrogant, and dislikes the Stellar Knights because of his hate of Na'ir Al Saif.
X-1, the Lord of Doubt – A demon lord who whispers doubt from the shadows

I choose both of those. The Senator to allow for some interplay between different aspects of the cosmos, and X-1 because its cool. But also because it is a good foil for a knight with a bright future, and I think a black hole is like doubt.


Full Moon
Bellatrix (F)– Leader of the Stellar Knights
Thabit (M)– A loyal knight – taken from Cheleb (Matthew's Character Sheet)
Ras Elased (M) – Keeper of the Knight's Lore, (again taken from Matthew's Character Sheet)

New Moon
All of the family member's are taken from the same constellation, Orion.
Rigel (M)– his father, has great expectations of his son, and rides him hard, he is blinded from a crusade, and is reknown hero of the people
Alnilam (F)– younger sister, artist enraptured with the Sun, also the lover of Arrakis
Chara – a childhood friend, just returned from a different remanant, her father is the Senator Rastaban

Aspects
Blessing: The Call of Home – I just think this is a cool thing. So I picked it. It actually works well with the concept, and I think that it is a family heirloom given by his father. If I had more faith, and had been playing with a group that I know well (this was the first time the two players had meet) I think the first scene would have been framed with the father giving it to Na'ir Al Saif.
Fate: Ideal: Bright Future – this is taken from personal experience. The burden of having everyone in your life telling you what great things you will accomplish, but that you have to work hard to achieve it. But also having your whole life of opportunity in front of you. What do you do with it? Will you live up to it? Will you reject it? Will you sputter and fizzle like a shooting star, or will you go on like the Pole Star? But also useful, since it shows that he does have potential and can arise to the occasion.
Shared Fate: Bellatrix.

Cheleb Dog of the Shepard,
Mistaken
Rau – the Charming Demon, Slayer of his father
Senator Yed Prior – Former student of Ras Elased, enemy of Knights, scorned and rejected lover of Bellatrix (the leader of the knights) now the Head of the Senate of the Tallstar Remanant

Matthew came up with Rau, based on his experience (I think it was Earthdawn) in another game, where the players spent two years chasing down an elusive, but charming demon. The setting material resonated with him, and that experience so he wanted that to be his villain.

I came up with Senator Yed Prior, after Matthew filled in the first part of his cosmos. The bit about him being Bellatrix's scorned and shuned lover was probably the last thing we did to the character sheets prior to starting play. I can't remember who suggested it, but the other one said "yeah that's cool!"  But it shows how even though I came to the game with some strong ideas (I had my character sheet filled out in my head) we could work off each other's sheets. And is a strong and well-designed aspect of the game.  I encourage people to spend 10 to 20 minutes looking at each other's sheets and trying to build relationships (that make for good story) before playing. You might find something that someone else missed. 

Full Moon
Bellatrix – leader of the Knights
Sabik – A Knight – we actually added this in the middle of someone's scene, we realized we needed some "blank" characters and fellow knights to use at a moment's notice. I don't reckon that either Sabik or Thabit will have a long life expectancy.

New Moon
Ras Elased – former teacher and father figure after his father died (the same in my full moon, and the same teacher of the senator in his mistaken)
Thabit – a knight, a close friend, and a loyal knight as well, Thabit and Cheleb are the knights that Bellatrix can depend on like good Master Sergeants in a modern military. They are the foundation stones of the knighthood.
Alnilam – lover his bound Companion Arrakis. We added this to help tie our two characters together better. She is Na'ir Al Saif's sister.

Aspects
Blessing: Bound Companion Arrakis – (note arrakis is a dude in this game). Matthew picked this first near the beginning of the process before the cosmos was filled out, but I love it. It works well with the theme of "loyal knight".
Fate: Idea: Loyal Knight – again the core of the character
Shared Fate: Bellatrix

I really enjoyed this part of the game. It went longer than I wanted, but I think we ended up with some really strong characters. And I was worried that I was going to dominate the character creation process, but I didn't, I think the ideas worked well, worked off each other, and still gave us both our "immersion process" that we wanted.

For a two player game, I think it helps to have an idea of "what is this dude's story" before starting. You don't have the moons to help, and having that idea before hand helped both of us set up scenes.

Also for a two player game – fill in that Cosmos ahead of time. It really helps to have a nice full cast of secondary characters, when the moons aren't there to suggest things. In a way I almost think we created a more rigid and "bigger presence" of a relationship map than I expected, but also those "relationship maps" become our "third and missing player". We not only put down names, but also a sentence describing them, so we had in our heads some "ground rules" for how they will behave when brought into a scene.

I have exceeded the word count allowed (20,000 characters). That probably means this is too long. So I will end it here right now. Should I be allowed to continue, I will follow up with the scenes, general recommendations of 2 player play, and final thoughts. My apologies to Ron and Clinton if this is too long. But I think it is a great game, and wanted to do the best play report I could.

But that all happened long ago, and now there are none that remember it

[Ben Lehman]

Steven --

No worries, please post the rest.

yrs--
--Ben

[Steven Stewart]

Ok so here is the rest....

Part Five, where we discuss our heroe's fate and the Summer comes upon them

Now I know we broke the rules here, but after creating the heroes of the tale, we spent some time discussing some setting aspects, and laying some base story elements. I discussed that I thought Na'ir's story would be about his fate of having a bright future. We discussed how it was a game of tragedy. We discussed how we thought the knights worked.

This seemed [to me] to be a big issue for Matthew, about needing to understand the knights role in the world. I don't think the "Your Battle" section was sufficient for him. So I read a bit about a the mistaken, and then I thinked it clicked when I read just the parts about what the Knights do during the different seasons. If you are having trouble with a player getting into the role of a knight, I would suggest letting them read about the seasons.

We also wanted a place for our knights. So we decided that we would both be in the Tallstar Remnant. We also picked a season for them, and decided that summer would be a great start. Spring can be intense, and hard to get your head around for new people to the game. But it also means that (if it works out), that the story will end at Spring during one of the onslaughts on the TallStar remant, which why I call this thread: the Fall of TallStar.

We then spent a while going over the phrases. I mentioned how in many games not all of them are used, but also reminded him that there are a lot of options in a conflict. I also stressed the need for active v. passive, but I don't think he had his "spoon" moment yet (that was still to come).

Again, for a two player game, I think have this discussion can go a long way to helping make up for the loss of the third player.

Finally we decided that the moons could be brought into play by either player.

Part Six, where Cheleb meets with a serpent and has a moment of conflict with Thabit, and where Na'ir Al Saif become lost in the Wastes

Finally we started to play. We decided to do a scene each. I framed a scene for Cheleb, at Matthew's request. I won't go into all the details since this is getting longer than I wanted. But I will hit on some of the highlights.

First, I tried to force a conflict where there was none, This was a mistake, and was badwrongfun on my part. Espically since I connived an expierence check in it as well, and the basis for the check was thin if non-existent. But it was around Thabit and Cheleb. They stood upon a great crevice, with the ruins of a tower on its side at the request of Bellatrix. Thabit charged in, and Cheleb chided him for not being more caustious.

We did get over the awkward first conflict and learning to play part of the game though. The expierence roll was because Thabit was hurt by Cheleb's remonstrations, and since Cheleb was loyal, I thought that might discourage him. But it was thin at best.

Matthew almost had his spoon moment, when in a conflict he wanted to say something, and I said he couldn't, first he had to choose which of the two alternatives he wanted (it was the result of a "you ask far too much"), then he could say something. I don't think he liked either, and thought it wasn't fair, that he couldn't change either statement through his character saying something. Mind you I did take it pretty far with each statement. He was relieved though after picking one, that he could then say something and use the conflict phrases to add or remove it. I think this is a result of traditional game playing, and that players coming from a DnD background have to unlearn some of that when playing Polaris. Where frequently you can talk back and forth all day long with no game elements coming into play and then having an outcome based on the whole conversation, rather than resolving each statement as it comes into or out of play. Also I think it is having to unlearn the fact that the other player can impact how your character thinks or feels, or frequently uses the metagaming technique of "let me clarify what I really mean since you misintrpretteed me". In other words either confusion or abuse of the IEEE in traditional games. But I don't want to sidetrack on that right now.

In case it helps make sense of the above this is what happened:

The first choice was "Thabit falls to his death, and you hear an audible crunch of his bones" the second was "Thabit gets angry at your doubting his skills and bravery as a knights and gives you a nasty look as a result of you telling him not to climb down the ravine with his sword in hand. That looks fills you with a hurt feeling of betrayal"

Matthew as a player, but in character wanted to say "but I wasn't doubting your skills, I just didn't want you fall down the ravine with your sword in hand" and believed that Thabit wouldn't be that angry with him if he was able to say it. But I wouldn't let him, not yet. I told him he could say whatever he wanted after picking which two of the options he wanted to come in play. But he had to do that first, and whichever he picked would come into play unless he rolled to stop it. I was a bit heavy handed, but I do think it is important to get this point across early in the game, that the conflict statements can go a long way, and that they can impact your character's outlook and feelings.

After he choose, I backed off a bit and there was reconciliation between the two. Then we stopped the game for a bit to talk about why I was being such a prick. I think that Matthew got it a bit better after that.

I won't go into to the story aspects that much, except to say I thought the story was really fuckin' cool. We had a few moments where the moons really could have been useful. Particullarly when we got stuck on coming up with alternatives for "you ask far too much".

I am concerned that I took some conflict statements too far. And I think the moons might have helped with that. For that example, my character Na'ir Al Saif, was lost in the wastelands, his call of home failing him (we had many conflicts about that, I like my call to home). He finds himself at a tower.

I used the statement "But only if the tower is completely empty except for the Book of Lost Knowledge, that the Knighthood would consider a great treasure" Mathhew used "you ask far too much", and my revision was,
"But only if inside the tower was a dread lord of the Mistaken, hideous and foul, that was the height of the tower, and hanging from around its neck was a necklace of starlight swords taken from great knights and that Na'ir Al Saif slayed the beast with a single stroke of his starlight sword through its eye making him a hero to the Knighthood".

I think this was Matthew's Polaris "Spoon" moment. We discussed and thought about it. I don't think he thought it was fair that those were his two choices. He didn't like either choice. But I told him those were the choices man, you have to pick one. There is no other. I told him he could roll, but the odds were 1 in 6. I also told him that he could add complications later. I think that was when he got the active / passive thing, and the nature of the game. It went great from there, and we ended up with a book that I couldn't read, but that Ras Elased could (again showing how defining the moons really helped us in a two player game), and that I had to abandon my mission early possibly upsetting Bellatrix since the book was so delicate.

Again, there was a good moment here, since I said "you ask far too much", and he thought for a while (it seemed like along time, but it might have just been a minute, but it broke up the game pace, I think again the moons would have helped here, and in a way they did). He looked at the character sheet, and spotted Chara, and what I had written about her, and said "but only if Chara has disappeared from the Remant and noone knows where she is". That was completely unrelated to the conflict and think shows the true power of the conflict system to weave nice stories, and shows how the conflicts are between players and not characters. For the curious I choose the delicate book.

Part Seven, where-in some other ideas related specifically to weaving a tale of two knights is discussed

In summary, two player Polaris can work. I think that you need to have one player very familiar with the game. But we sorely missed the moons.

Listening to the podcasts by Paul T. is the second best thing to playing the game.

Define the moon secondary roles extensively. They will be your "third" player

Spend some time thinking about the story and roughly what the character's are about. This will also be your "third" player

It is really tempting to give a stuck player advice, in a two player game. Since one is the mistaken and one is the heart, that breaks the rules (I now understand why that rule is in there). Don't do this. It becomes like masturbation, somewhat gratifying and a single person activity, but not as gratifying as the real thing. That is what happens, the other player (who is stuck) will grab on to that suggestion, and then it is like playing by yourself. This happened once, we won't do it again.

Be patient, let the other player think. Discuss the story between scenes. (This is also your third player).

Part Eight, where final thoughts are mentioned
I know Ben always asks about experience. We had one roll, in two scenes. We almost had a second, but I managed to negotiate my way out of it. Total Time: 3.5 hours. 0.5 Hours waiting for third player that didn't show, about 1.5 hours setup and character creation, 0.5 hours discussing seasons and what knights do, about 1 hour for two scenes (45 and 15 minutes).

[Steven Stewart]

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world. But hope was not yet lost, for Na'ir Al Saif, Cheleb, and Antares still heard the song of the stars. And so it was...

Part the First, where we meet Jason who Guides Antares

Well we had our second session describing the fall of the Tallstar Remnant. Jason joined us, which made our game go from a two player game to a three player game (yeah! we make the minimum now). I don't want to get into all the nitty gritty details of the story, only as required to illustrate some aspects of play to the greater pool of people who like to play Polaris, the designer (cause they always like feedback on their games), and for other designers (including myself ;) who are trying to write games in a similar style.

So some background, we had a two player game last time (see the previous post), and that was spent about 60% creation and 40% playing. Last time we each got one scene. Now Jason joins us (like Matthew he commuted in by train 1:45 minutes to play - that is some dedication to the game folks, both players commute nearly two hours each way for about 2.5 hours of actual play). Jason was a bit late, and that started to cut into game time, and him being brand new to the game, I think we rushed it a bit. I have a much better knowledge of Cheleb (Matthew's character) and Na'ir Al Saif (my character) than Antares (Jason's Character).

Some points about the creation of Antares. The star names are good. Jason had picked out a name on the train up down. So that speeded up the creation process by a lot. Like Matthew and I he drew on the meaning of the name for his character. Matthew and I had explained how basically during our own creation process we both made knights that were almost like "aspects" of the knighthood, Cheleb - Loyal Knight, Na'ir Al Saif - Knight with a Promising or Bright Future.

Antares ended up being a passionate knight. He also took Lore of the Wastes. Which made for a cool scene later on with Trees (or as they were first introduced, tall strange brown spires with bits of fluffy green sprouting from them). I think it helped that Jason was pretty easy going and just went with what was established and embraced the whole part we had so far about having a shared Fate of Bellatrix - the Leader of the Knights. We all kind of saw that the story (at the macro level) was going to be a story about the knights imploding in some way, and a lot of the conflicts played that out as well - more on that later and a question or two to Ben regarding guidance.

Jason also was very cool about pulling Characters off our sheets (interesting X-1:Lord of Doubt - Na'ir's Mistaken shows up in Antare's moon which I play. Not sure how that is going to work just yet).

Part the Second, where we contrast two player to three player play and there in lies a Question to Ben

Ok three player Polaris >>>> much better than two player play. A couple of points from the game to explain that broad statement:

During Antares first scene, Matthew is Mistaken and Jason is Heart, I am Moon. Matthew frames a scene describing trees (as tall spires of strangness) and a stream glittering in a forest. Antares is far south of Tallstar apparently.I as a moon just cry out (in character) "Look at those strange things Antares!" Now neither Jason or Matthew had described that Antares had companions, but they didn't say he was alone either. I did this mostly just to test out the moon rules. (I do this a lot, I can't decide if pushing things is an asshat thing to do and disruptive making a greifer or if it is to try and get everyone to embrace the rules and active narration - I guess the jury is still out on that one). This being Jason's first time playing is a bit confused now. But we get through it, and explain that as a heart he can either embrace the fact that a knight is with him, or not. He takes up with a "we shall see what comes of it". And so Scutum is born, a naive young novice out and about with Antares an expierenced knight knowledgeable about the wastes. Some comedy happens as Scutum starts to attack the trees.

But in the end the real part of the conflict came when strange voices and weird things happened in the forest. The end result is that Scutum is one third the knight he used to be (withered and tired) and he blames Antares for taking him into such danger so far from the Remnant they are out to protect. So we had two expierence checks for Antares in the first scene, and an interesting story line about how one of the knights feels the other brought them into unneccesary danger.

Reason for bringing this up, it shows how the moons can have a big impact on the game. If I hadn't thrown Scutum into the mix, it would have been a very different scene.

Interestingly enough, I think having only one moon can be far more lethal for the Protagonist. By lethal I mean speeding them upon their doom.At some points it was almost like having two mistaken. During one part of the scene, I (as moon) would threaten Jason the player to save Scutum or it was going to come back and bite him later on. Meanwhile Matthew is playing the mistaken to the hilt (but in a subtle way  - see below on where the fuck are all the demons). So the end result is Antares is put into several conflicts over Scutum and the effects of the weird forest on Scutum, and now Scutum sees Antares as someone who puts knights into danger.

One thing we haven't gotten yet is the playing the character part of the moons. In my scene, I was in a scene with Bellatrix  (our shared fate and leader of the knights) and having recovered the book of lost knowledge last game (which I can't read),I give it to her as our leader.

Now my memory gets a bit fuzzy, but basically the way I remember it, is that Matthew is Moon and Jason is Mistaken. Basically what happened is Matthew made one statement as Bellatrix, something like "why the hell didn't you follow orders you are supposed to be out mapping the wastes, your not supposed to be back until a fortnight from now! you idiot"but in much more flowery language.

QUESTION FOR BEN TIME
Now we got into a conflict, but Matthew (moon) can't conflict. So Jason takes it up. So right after Matthew makes his statement - chastising the oh so awesome knight Na'ir Al Saif, I say "but only if after looking at the book she realizes what a treasure it could be for the knights and realizes that it was so frail that he had to return home". Now we get into serious theme burning conflict. (I think we used all four themes in the end). Jason (mistaken) takes up the conflict, and it goes something like (sorry, can't remember every detail but everything was "and futhermores"):

OK - Bellatrix is cool with that but she covets the book and is going to send you back out into the wastes to finish your mission
Ok but Na'ir is such a badass and will get baddass rep for getting this book
But Bellatrix will take all the credit while you are gone
But while the public thinks that, the the other knights who are in the know, know that Na'ir was the badass
But the other knights will be suspicous and want to interrogate you about it, and why you have such a strange book, and why Bellatrix the leader says she getst the glory for it and not you.
So we run out of themes and I roll and I lose. So all these things happen.

Now the question is, is that conflict OK? I thought it was. It started witha  moon statement that went into conflict, and ended up being a major conflict between mistaken and heart, eventhough Bellatrix was a moon character? Is that OK by the rules as written, or did we do something wrong? I think it is an important question, espically getting to the next parts (see where the fuck are all the demons? below). I personally liked the scene, it ended up playing to our major "theme of the story" about the knights v. knights and the impolosion of the order. But in the end the Scene was a series of conflicts between Bellatrix and Na'ir Al Saif. Now Bellatrix is a moon character. So what would happen is matthew would make a single moon statmenent and then the rest of the Scene was me and Jason "conflicting" over those statements and adding, and adding to it? Is that OK? I think the scene was about 30 minutes, and the moon only spoke twice since most of thirty minutes was "conflict". I was a hardass, and said that while in conflict the moon can suggest things to mistaken but can't take part in the actual conflict.

Finally, one thing that threw me for our change, was the shifting of roles. During Two Player Polaris, Matthew was my Mistakena and I was his (no Moon). In three player, I was Matthew's Mistaken, but Jason was now my Mistaken. Very weird to shift. I wonder if we should have started over, but we didn't want to lose what we had. Matthew is thinking about getting a fourth, but I am thinking maybe we shouldn't, it might screw up the game too much now, since we have a few scenes. Any advice on that?

In the end the Moon roll helps, a bunch. Makes for much better gaming. But I still think we need to work on getting the moon into the game more. Which leads to:

Part the Third - where we discover the Knights have no need for Demons, they do just fine themselves

The other theme of our play, is "where the fuck are all the demons". We barely used them in the game. It has become a very internal game. I guess technically they were there to some extent as "props and scenry" but not really in your face demonness. I tried very hard for demons, but was conflicted into them being an illusion.So in three scenes, the only demons we had was something that made an illusion, the lingering after effect of being stung by a demon (which happened last session and has become a fate for Cheleb), and the weird forest which makes people tired (and apparently whithers them as well!). So no blood and guts, flesh tearing demons. Just a weird flower and some demons of the soul...

But we still have about 6 expierence checks (2 per scene). So what happened? Well as talked about above, basically a Moon would make a statement or in my case when I tried to put demons in (but they were conflicted into an illusion), the conflict drifted into what the knights companions thought about them.

In Cheleb's case, Thabit (his close personal friend at the begining of the scene) is not in his mistaken. Chelebs was fucking around with Arrakis (who is a dude in this game, I just can't remember that for some reason) while Arrakis is being enraptured with the pretty demon flower left over from the demon (last session not this session). Meanwhile a 1000 serpents of scintillating colors of the sun shining through ice rip the flesh from Thabits body. But not really, there is no demon it was all in his mind. So now Thabit has gone bonkers (the flesh ripping thing turning into a just kidding, see did you soil yourself will do that to you). So denied my demons, and not wanting to be the type that keeps introducing the same thing over and over agian, near the end of the conflict tag on and furthermore Thabit thinks that you are now possessed by the Mistaken and distrusts you extremly. So we move him into the mistaken.

Again, I think this works well, as Cheleb's story is about loyalty, and this was his friend, but there was little demonness going on, it was all internal and mental (but a result of conflict).

Now in my scene, I have no need for demons, apparently Na'ir's need to be badass and live up to his potential is enough. After the Bellatrix conflict, for some weird reason which might actually scew up the game (see I might be a greifer?) I run Bellatrix through. Since I had refreshed from failing the roll (see above) I had lots of themes fresh to make this happen. We conflict some more, and the end result one dead leader of the knights who was going to steal my glory. So apparently I don't need to have a demon in my mistaken, I am good enough on my own.

I worry about doing this. In my head on the train ride this morning, I convinced myself that it wasn't a griefer thing to do, it was a reaction to have everything up to that point be very internal and subtle, and frankly speaking not really driving the story, it seemed a bit slow. That could be because we learning the game, I am not sure, but it seemed a bit slow to me even with the moon. But me popping Bellatrix, not slow. It was intense. There was lots of discussion about whether Jason should take the choice I kill Bellatrix or I kill Bellatrix but its not really Bellatrix it is a demon. He (suprisingly) went with the former. So now I have no clue what next game will be about - which in a way was cool. But it certaintly came out of left field, I don't think anyone including myself thought that Na'ir would slay our shared Fate in Scene 2. But he did. I guess that is one part that is interesting about the game.

So second question Am I a griefer, and an are we screwing up the game? Both in terms of slaying our shared fate and in terms of there being no real flesh and blood demons on the loose.

Side note to new players - once you start "and furthermoring" themes get burned quick. We use it a lot, and our conflicts flare up and sputter and die, and we end up rolling dice a lot. But that is cool too. At the end of 2 sessions, about 3 hours play total we have 2 Knights with Zeal -2, and One Knight Zeal 4.

Part the Last - where we discuss what is beatiful

I love this game, with a passion. It is beatiful, it is fun to play, and easy to play. If the above parts were critical, well that is the useful bit of an actual play post. This is the fanboy part of actual play, but hopefully people will also find it useful in designing their own games.

The Names and Constraints of the Setting - most people see Polaris as being unconstrained, but it is really both. But here is the important point, it is constrained where it needs to be and open where it needs to be which equals Kick ass design. I love the fact that almost all Polaris games have Scutum, Rigel, and Bellatrix or other important star names like Arrakis. I love the fact that in everygame they are different. It makes for a shared game expierence for those of us who follow other actual play of the game. It is reminiscent of the early days of DnD when everyone played the same modules but had a different expierence. It is a shared myth in essence. The myth of the Knights of the Orders of the Stars. It makes the game greater than just the singular expierence of a single game group seeing how many different groups deal with the myth of the fall of the knights.

I love the character sheet, how it is organized and most importantly how it is used. I think beyond the conflict phrases, and shared GM responsability it is the single best "game element" of the game. The fact that the sheet it put into the middle of the table for all to read. The fact that everything important in the game is on it. The fact that as narration happens the sheet changes. This really is radical, important, and innovative if you sit with it for a while. In DnD all I ever did with my character sheet in terms of game elements (I made lots of notes but none of them impacted game elements) was adjust hit points, cross of spells, and adjust my phat loot. Any other game element changes were/are a result of changing phat loot to get that magical goodness so I can get more phat loot. Also think about DnD, most of the important shit is hidden behind the GM screen. Not so in this Game. Its all there in front of you. And as the story changes, you change it, and it has impact on the game! Wow. Plus it just feels cool and fun to make the changes and talk about them. Here are some examples from our game:

Matthew has "Stung by Serpent Demon - Affects his Dreams". Now that is an aspect, we can use it in the game, we can use it in conflicts. We can use it in story. It shows up differently than other aspects, we know it was an adder. Game Effect - can be used in conflicts, but more importantly records a ket event for Cheleb.

I get to the add the ahem "office" ahem of "Slayer of Bellatrix, Marked". Even if I am griefer (see note above) how kick ass is that. I will get to use that in the game. The marked part comes as part of the beatifulness of the conflict. When Bellatrix died, her blood mingled with the Book of Lost Knowledge. Originally in the conflict, I was permentately marked, as the slayer of bellatrix, but after resolving conflict - it is that only those who have knowledge of the book can see the mark. We decided on office, that might not be right, but still it is really fun to make those changes. Game Effect - again can use it in conflict, and a key event for everyone.

Thabit moved from Friend postion in the Moon to Mistaken. That was a moment right there. I think it made it concrete what Cheleb had lost from his quest in the Wastelands. Game Effect, I now get to play Thabit to the hilt.

So in my future games, I will definetly think hard about the character sheet and how it can be used as integrated into the system as Ben has done with his. It is no longer just a record, but as critical to the game as dice, or the conflict statements.

Finally - this games enables players to realize cool beatiful events and things. The setting reinforces that. Evertime we play I read the following from the Princess of Spring: "Plants and Flowers sprout behind her as she walks". The whole world is upside down from traditonal jeudo-christan thoughts. Spring is bad, cold and ice are good. We played that up to the hilt in our narration. Such as when I described that Bellatrix was holding a vigil during the summer (we started in summer), at the deepest, darkest part of the rement, hiding from the sun, a large round chamber where she sat waiting for the knights to return from their quests, lit only by the lamps of starts that hung on the wall. So the leader of our order is hiding out in the "dungeon" of the remnent. If you embrace the limited setting material provided you get some really neat stuff. The beatiful forest at the edge of the ice is alien and strange. The heat makes them drowsy, it is only with the pure glacial water that Scutum collects each winter that Antares is revived. Arrakis, the bound companion is enraptured with the flower left behind from a the shimmering serpent demon. The remains of a ruined tower inside is the full color of the rainbow of the high sun piercing ice. The thousand of snake demons that attack Thabit are the same colors as they devour his flesh, colors unseen by any knight below, the purples, greens, yellows, reds,pinks, and blues rich and alien. The comedy of Scutum hacking at trees and seeing their blood sticky and strange (sap).

The fact (altough she hasn't shown up yet and I don't know if she will) that Antares Mistaken is Venus, the Engine of Fire, a beatiful woman who is also a machine. Passionate yet machine like. Ragging flames one minute and seductive the next. That she is starlike but not a star, the brightest object in the nighttime winter sky.

I recommend that people really embrace the setting, think about what it means to hate the sun and love the stars.

Well as always this has gone too long. But hopefully I added something to the overall lore and mystic of Polaris and had a point or two along the way that others can use to enhance their own (regardless of being Polaris or some other game) gaming expierence. That is always the goal, share what I have done, on the off chance that someone else will find it useful.

But that all happened long ago, and now there are none who remember it...