The Transcontinental Cyberspace-Enabled Elite Action Squad of the Polaris Playtest Legion (AKA, the IRC playtest group) met on Tuesday in IRC to do chargen and possibly initial scenes for our game. We only got through chargen, but it went really well, and it seems like most of us are pretty pumped for the game. The players are: Myself, Rich Forest, Shreyas Sampat and Jonathan Walton.

First, I'll put up the characters' sheets, then I'll talk a little about the experience. Anyone who wants to comment should, especially the other players, as I am sure to have forgotten some things.

The characters were Naos III, a knight torn between family and duty; El Nasl XVIII, a rake and revolutionary; Cygnus, a haunted gravedigger; and Astorië, the youngest of the Seven Sisters, a warrior princess type.

Naos III

Ice: 1
Light: 1
Zeal: 4

Offices: Knight of the Order of the Stars
Fates: Rischia, his wife; Naos IV, his young daughter.
Blessings: Starlight Sword
Abilities: Lore of Demons; Sculptor

Heart (Ben)
Ice Maiden (Jonathan): Al Haud, Sculpture Curator of the Right-Hand Gallery
Full Moon (Shreyas): Megrez, Knight Trainer
New Moon (Rich): Rischia, Naos IV

El Nasl XVIII:
Ice: 1
Light: 1
Zeal: 4

Offices: Knight of the Order of the Stars; Member of the Infamous El Nasl Family
Fates: Naos IV; Reshape the Knights
Blessings: Starlight Sword
Abilities: Lore of Demons

Heart (Shreyas):
Ice Maiden (Rich): Kuma, Lord of Stars
Full Moon (Jonathan): Rischia II, apprentice
New Moon (Ben): Rotanev and Soulocin, mischievous cousins; Naos IV, over-affectionate child; Electra and Merope, romantic interests.

Cygnus II
Ice: 1
Light: 1
Zeal: 4

Offices: Knight of the Order of the Stars, Gravedigger to the Knights
Fates: Atlas, demon of the Heart
Blessings: Starlight Sword
Abilities: Lore of Demons, Hatred of Demons

Heart (Rich)
Ice Maiden (Shreyas): Atlas
Full Moon (Ben): Megrez, Knight Trainer
New Moon (Jon): Cygnus, father; (unnamed mother)

Astorië
Ice: 1
Light: 1
Zeal: 4

Offices: Knight of the Order of the Stars, Youngest of the Seven Sisters
Fates: Atlas, father
Blessings: Starlight Sword
Abilities: Lore of Demons; Black Sheep

Heart (Jonathan)
Ice Maiden (Ben): Atlas,
Full Moon (Rich): Acrux, suitor; Electra and Merope, sisters ; Pleoine, mother
New Moon (Shreyas): Taygeta, Asterope, and Celaeno, sisters

So those are the characters.

The trickiest part of the character generation was coming up with the characters for the shared Fates. I think this might have gone smoother in person, but who knows. I definitely need techniques for speeding that process.

However, I think we came up with some pretty good stuff in the end -- one whizz-band plot making one, and one "okay, this is pretty good." Astorië and Cygnus, you will note, share a relationship with the demon Atlas. The story behind that is that Atlas was Astorië's knight father, who she was kept from for fear of bad influence. In the end, he died, and it fell to Cygus to bury him. It was at that exact moment that Cygnus decided he had had enough of burying the dead and made up his mind to go to war against the demons. He took the first weapon that was handy -- Atlas's starlight sword, which he was supposed to be buried with.

But, elsewhere, Astorië felt the call of her father's star, and manifested her father's sword. So who has it? Are the swords weak until they are combined, or will they become something else.

The other connection is much weaker, but potentially interesting also. Naos's daughter, Naos IV, has a little-girl hero-worship crush on the rogue El Nasl XVIII. The fate implies that perhaps they will be involved when she grows up, or some other sort of thing. Naos, of course, has an interest in keeping his daughter away from the infamous rake. We'll see what comes of it in play.

The main bulk of character generation time was devoted to filling out the diagrams, which was both difficult and rewarding. I think we got a little far from "just jot a few things down" and started making serious plans. We also got into making a linked web, so there are shared characters between almost all the players. This should prove interesting, at least.

Uhm, anyone else want to comment? Did I forget anything?

yrs--
--Ben

So, we decided that everyone's Ice Maiden should post session recaps, for the scene in which they were adversarial.
Cygnus II
And so it was that Cygnus, Knight of the Order of the Stars, was called to the gymnasium by Megrez, Master of Swordsmanship to the Knights, and on the floor of that icy chamber they crossed swords, while in Cygnus's heart there beat a flutter of fear, for shadows moved across the walls, and a hot wind carried a smell not of this land.
The wall of the chamber cracked! A voice asked Cygnus, what did the stars care for him, a lowly boy of the People? He turned to reply, and when he turned back, there was no swordmaster there.