[Polaris] The Fall of Tall Star Remenant Session 6

[Steven Stewart]

This is the same group that was playing in these sessions:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=21570.0
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=21570.0
http://www.freewebs.com/blamdesign/

This isn't going to be as long as other AP posts, just wanted to share a few thoughts about the game and what was going on. Jason recorded it, and I hope it turns out ok, if so we might put the recording on Blam Design.

Coherence
I think this group is pretty coherent. Our characters aren't involved in the same scenes, but we have a lot of the same things or themes going on. Pretty much as a group we have carried through from the original session of the idea that each knight represents an "ideal" and that their stories are about how that plays out. For example, Cheleb is the "loyal knight", Antares is the "Anti-Ares Passionate Knight", and Na'ir al Saif is the "Knight with a Bright Future". These were all aspects orginally on our sheets. Na'ir has lost this aspect, but for Cheleb it is actually causing him a lot of problems as all the knights that he has fucked over are coming back from the grave to screw up his life.

The reason why I think we are coherent is that all the players are engaged in the Shared Imagined Space, we are using some of the original ideas, the setting in a useful way, techniques, etc. It means that the clutch is engaged and the engine is going!

Some more thoughts on the Setting
We really all dig the setting. We really all dig the fact that we are going to fall. I don't know the CA, but then I don't really think its important since we are doing just fine after 6 sessions. We switched to Autumn this game, and we switched music.

Our last session was getting away from us, we had the Carnival of the Sun in full swing covered in the bits and pieces of dead senators that Na'ir had slain, the white tree rampaging through the city, our shared Fate Bellatrix revealed as the Demon she was, Cheleb becoming both the Leader of the Knights and the Leader of the Cult of the Sun. Antares riding with the Solaris Knight to spread the redemention of Venus by Fire and Sword to the people, and Na'ir going batshit crazy cause he was cursed to see that everyone was fallen by the book of lost knowledge.

So this game we switched from Summer to Autumn, and in the switch we talked as a group prior to starting, lets frame each scene as a fade into with a fortnight passing since the last game. Part of the scene framing and opening conflict would be what happened to our hereos during that time. Also since all of the Cosmos was just about empty on everyone's sheet, we filled those back up, and passed sheets to the left. I know that none of this is in the game rules perse, but it worked for us.

My only wish is that I could just say "I'm a Veteran". Na'ir has passed I think about 25 expierence checks since he was zeal one. I think it would be super cool if we all entered Autumn as Veterans, but it sort of feels like ass to fudge that. So I will just keep pushing for more XP checks until I am a veteran.

As a side note - our music for summer was Enya and Silk Road, our Sound Track for Autumn was quite a bit different -
Girls- Death in Vegas
Just Like Honey - Jesus and Mary Chain
Sometimes - My Bloody Valetine
(these come from Lost in Translation Soundtrack)
I Just Don't Think I'll Get Over You- Colin Hay from Garden State Soundtrack
Red Elevator - Jeff Tweedy - Chelsea Walls Soundtrack
Finale - ""
End Credits - ""
The Wallman - ""
Hello Are you There - ""
Cold December - Matt Costa
Astair - Matt Costa
Behind the Moon - Matt Costa
This last one is really appropriate with all the references to the Sun.

I also really like the mythic feel to the setting, it is quite easy to insert religous allusions into the game such as cutting out his own eyes, the ideas of knowledge, paradise, and the garden of eden, the ideas of reconilliaton and redemention,which are things that I think are quite cool to explore in a game.

End Thoughts and How it Has Played Out
I really dig this game. Not just the cool setting and what you can do with it, and the whole ambience thing, and knights, and demons, and shit. But just that it works so well. I continue to be amazed by its flexiability and how it almost just "drifts right into what the groups groove". And how fuckin' flexible it really is while still going the direction I want it to go but in a way that I didn't expect. 

For example - during last session, all of sudden Na'ir gives up his killing spree, he saw his lady love. He saw that she was fallen. This is because of a conflict two sessions ago. Jason was the one who inserted her into the scene. Had he not done that, well I might have continued the carnage of Tall Star. Instead my character, cut out his eyes. And his whole direction changed, he left with Chara to march to the Mistake to rid the world of it once and for all and redeem himself. He realised that the book that was going to rise him up actually tore him down. And so now he goes to reconcilliation and redemention.

Yet later on in this session he meets a knight who also has seen the book of lost knowledge (as he sees that Na'ir had killed the leader of the knights - he is marked as such - its an aspect on his sheet - Office - Slayer of Bellatrix, Fate - Marked as the Slayer by those who have read the Book as well as the blessing of "Blind" and "Redeem Chara through my death"). So we get into some conflict, long story short, Na'ir decides to do this knight a favor and cuts that knight's eyes out to prevent him from living the same shit that Na'ir went through. Now that wasn't what I had thought was going to happen at all.

But if I zoom out at a macro level  and look, yes Matthew is still about loyalty, mine is still about his action to bring about a bright future, and Jason's is still about Passion. Venus is still there and implied in the setting mateiral (Stars vs. Sun, where do planets fit?) and is a nice shade of grey. So at the scene by scene level we prevent what I have called "wanking" or "flat play" which I define as the story going exactly as you see it with no changes, it ends up being disappointing. But at the same time the story seems to have an overall theme and makes sense.

We had several scenes were guidance was broken, but it didn't matter, I needed an antogonist. It worked as long we didn't let Jason (Mistaken) take control of all the people. So basically we decided which one was going to try to fuck over Na'ir the most and that was played by Mistaken and the others by the Moon. It worked out.

We ironed out issues regarding too much mechanical conflict vs. not enough roleplaying in the conflicts, two sessions later and we seem to have the hang of it.

Closing Thoughts
This has been by far my favorite group of RP sessions in 20+ years of gaming. I am sad to see that it will only be two more sessions. I was really hoping that we could play it again with a different set of characters to see how it goes.

[Ben Lehman]

Hey, Steven!

It's really cool to see you post these play accounts.  I'm glad your having a blast with the game and your structure sounds really cool.  I don't have a ton to say with my designer hat on (it seems like all the rules and such are working out for you), so let me offer a couple of responses as a fellow player.

My only wish is that I could just say "I'm a Veteran". Na'ir has passed I think about 25 expierence checks since he was zeal one. I think it would be super cool if we all entered Autumn as Veterans, but it sort of feels like ass to fudge that. So I will just keep pushing for more XP checks until I am a veteran.

I feel you so much here.  I've been there.  The last game of Polaris I played I was the last one to go Veteran.  We were playing in a limited time frame (two sessions) and I really wanted to finish out the game, so I was really hellbent for leather on the experience checks.  My knight's first scene was to execute all members of the senate and declare himself military dictator over the remnant.  I massacred my own people, dealt with demons, killed my own pregnant wife, and so on and so forth  but I just could *not* get past 1 zeal.  Finally, in a scene where the last of my people were killed by demonic raiders as I led them across the ice (having abandoned our city), I broke into veteran and immediately rocketed up to 3 weariness.

It's a frustrating thing, definitely, but it does make it all the more meaningful when it happens.  I don't mean to read too much into random results, but that scene was really where Leo (my character) lost hope -- his people, the people who he was committing all of these atrocities to save, were totally and finally gone.  Now, I bet I could have read in different results had he flipped earlier (or later) but, regardless, there it is.

Also, I really like seeing your soundtrack!  I like the use of soundtrack in games a lot, although circumstances recently have kept me from doing it as much as I'd like (since sound is such a pervasive thing, if one person doesn't like it, you kinda have to not do it, you know.)

yrs--
--Ben