Polaris, session one


In the interests of time, I'm going to post this in a couple of installments. This first will be our setup and the first two scenes we played.

Chris, Larry, Duck and I gathered at my house last Friday. We decided to set things up on the back porch. This worked out well because not only did we have a small, round table, just big enough for the four of us to sit around, but we actually then got to experience the setting of the sun, which is a thematic element in the game itself.

Polaris lends itself to atmospheric additions, so while playing we drank chilled white wines, ate pale cheese and apples with bright red skin. And, inevitably, star fruit... Our soundtrack for the evening was The Harmonic choir, Hearing Solar Winds[\i] and Sigur Ros,( )[\b]. Last but not least, as suggested by the rules, we placed a candle in the center of the table and lit it with the correct ritual phrase when play began. Effective, more or less, in getting us focused after char gen.

Here are our piquantly doomed Knights of the Order of the Star:

Heart (Chris): The Lord Megrez
Mistaken (Larry):
Lady Antares
Dabih, the King of Blood, demon
The Mistake
Full Moon (Aaron):
Lady Rana, wife of convenience
The Festival of the Summer Solstice
New Moon (Duck):
The Opalescent Reflecting Pool
Pleione, daughter

Offices:
Knight of the Order of the Stars
Fate:
Relationship-- The Lady Antares
Idea-- Betrayal
Blessings:
Starlight Sword
Ability:
Lore-- Demons
Technique-- Know Hidden Demons

Ice: 1 Light: 1 Zeal: 4 Weariness: 0



Heart (Larry): Sir Arcturus
Mistaken (Chris):
The Crucible of Black Ice
Alcor, Black Lord of the Undead, demon
Full Moon (Duck):
Lord Marshall Pavonis
The Honorable Senator, Lord Lesath
New Moon (Aaron):
Southkeep
The Lady Antares, betrothed

Offices:
Knight of the Order of the Stars
Fate:
The Lady Antares
Blessings:
Starlight Sword
Ability:
Lore-- Demons
Attribute-- Big
Attribute-- Brave

Ice: 1 Light: 1 Zeal: 4 Weariness: 0


Heart (Duck): Sargus
Mistaken (Aaron):
Elgrove, demon
Full Moon (Chris):
The Lady Antares, fellow knight, possibly fallen
Dabin, missing best friend
Octans, fiend hunting for Dabin
Sadr, unloved wife
New Moon (Larry):
Pupis, father, corrupted by Elgrove
Atik, mother, manipulative
Mencar, sister, unappreciative

Offices:
Knight of the Order of the Stars
Fate:
The Lady Antares
Blessings:
Starlight Sword
The Call of Home
Ability:
Lore-- Demons
Attribute-- Heartless

Ice: 1 Light: 1 Zeal: 4 Weariness: 0


Heart (Aaron): The Lord Wezn
Mistaken (Duck):
Thrum, Hammer of Fire, demon
Full Moon (Larry):
The Honorable Senator, Lord Fornax
Alderamin, Frostmason
New Moon (Chris):
The Lady Antares, sister
Botein, childhood friend and superlative musician

Offices:
Knight of the Order of the Stars
Builder of the Falling Wall
Fate:
The Lady Antares
Blessings:
Starlight Sword
Ability:
Lore-- Demons
Technique-- Architect

Ice: 1 Light: 1 Zeal: 4 Weariness: 0


For those who don't know how Polaris works, each character listed above starts with "Heart" and ends with "Ice/Light/Zeal/Weariness"; each player at the table plays one aspect of a given protagonist (Heart/Mistaken/Full Moon/New Moon).

For our shared fate, we created the Lady Antares, whom I first decided was Lord Wezn's sister. She then became Lord Arcturus' betrothed, a fellow knight who, even if fallen might be of use to Sargus, and I don't have in the notes how she was related to the Lord Megrez (it quite possibly was left open.)

SCENE ONE
After lighting the candle and speaking the proper words, I began. I chose to create a scene as Sargus' Mistaken. Sargus' father, Lord Pupis, who is controlled by the Demon Elgrove, summons him to a personal audience. This immediately put the burden of playing the scene on Larry (New Moon), which wasn't my intention, but Larry graciously went with it anyway. We had some discussion about what kind of other characters Chris or Larry might be able to introduce into the scene, if they desired. We also talked about how Larry and I might handle Lord Pupis together, given our unique "double-control" of him.

Larry as Lord Pupis orders Sargus south, but Sargus questions Pupis' motives (since he knows about Elgrove's domination of his father; dirty family secret...) At this point, there's no actual conflict. I describe Pupis' posession from Elgrove's p.o.v. After some discussion about how conflicts should be phrased, I push ahead with Pupis ordering Sargus into the southlands, never to return. We then decided we weren't sure if this could be allowed. Duck rebutted my original proposal with the key phrase, "It shall not come to pass." This put him in the position of needing to make a roll at a disadvantage. At the time, I believe we calculated him as needing to roll a five or less on the die (sorry Chris, I'm having a little difficulty reading your notes); a good chance of success, but he could still fail. However, as I re-read things in the rules, it looks like, as the Heart of a Novice, with the challenge value being one (Ice), this placed him in real danger of failing the roll: He needed to roll a one. Either way, if he failed the roll, it seemed to us that he'd be out of the game for good ("never to return"); we read this as fairly similar to character death, which a given protagonist can't will for themselves until they've become a Veteran. Unsure, we changed it to heading south on a particular quest (to recover the Gem of Eternal Twilight, I believe.) We weren't sure if Duck (as the Heart) or I (as the Mistaken) should be rolling. We decided on him, and he made it (when we assumed the challenge value was a five.) This successfully negated my previous statement. The notes and my memory are a bit unclear here, but I think we just ended things with a non-conflicted description of Sargus looking deep into his father's eyes with Elgrove knowing he can be seen, but impotent at the moment to continue the charade. Sargus leaves. In retrospect, I don't think Sargus exhausted a Theme, either, with his rebuttal, though I could be wrong.

We kind of stumbled our way through this first scene, but were eager to start fresh. We went clockwise around the table and Chris began a scene as his Heart, the Lord Megrez.

SCENE TWO
The Lord Megrez and his retinue rides out into the glacial wastes and finds himself in pursuit of Dabih, the King of Blood, who has ambushed a traveling sled. After killing all the menfolk, he is running accross the ice with the remaining young women (the group was on their way to a different Remnant for the Festival of the Summer Solstice), pulling the sled by its tether, kidnapping the maidens for his own foul purposes. Dabih is described as a hulking (10' tall), humanish figure with a distended gut, gangling arms, dog-legs and a vast maw that continually gushes hot, smoking blood, burning holes in the ice as he runs.

Chris initiates a conflict and states that Lord Megrez charges down the snowy slope, beheading Dabih and sending him back to the smoking pit of the Mistake. Dabih (Larry) responds with "You ask far too much", exhausting the idea, Betrayal (with the idea that one of Megrez's men is secretly sympathetic to the Demons). Chris rephrases, stating that Megrez severs the tether of the sledge, freeing it from the demon's grasp. Larry accepts, and adds "But only if..." Megrez's valiant charge seperates him from his men. Chris agrees with "And so it came to pass."

One of the maidens is described as having fallen off the sledge, and reaches out to Megrez in appeal to save her. Megrez pushes the maiden aside and charges at Dabih (no conflict yet.) Larry starts a conflict by stating that Dabih picks up the maiden and bites off her head. Chris challenges with "And furthermore..." Megrez strikes his sword into Dabih's spine, cutting him in half. He burns the idea, Betrayal, on his side this time (it's gettin' a workout!), betrayal of the maiden. Larry pushes this statement with "And furthermore..." the screams of the remaining maidens at sight of their brutalized companion fill Megrez's heart with grief. He burns the trait, Knight of the Order of the Stars, since he callously sacrificed the maiden. Chris accepts it with "And so it came to pass."

The rest of the maidens are safely returned to the Remnant, and the scene is ended with "And so it was."


Maybe it was because it was a combat, maybe just our growing confidence, I don't know, but things moved much more smoothly this time. Once we started getting a handle on how the key phrases related to one another, it became really intriguing to see how the scene would play out (I was a Moon during the last scene.)

As a last note, an Experience roll seemed warranted for the Lord Megrez, given his callous treatment of the unfortunate maiden. He made the roll, and so gained one point in Light and lost a point of Zeal. He also gained the Fate, Relationship: Gratitude of the Families of the Maidens Who Were Saved.

We played two more scenes, but I'll have to list them tomorrow. The above should give you plenty to chew on, Ben!

Aaron

Hey, guys! Thanks a lot for playtesting.

It sounds really great. Dabih is excellent! And shoving the maiden aside to fight the demon. Wow. I'm really very impressed with the characters, too. Can't wait to read the rest.

Great, that is, except for the parts where the rules were unclear.

So.

Yes, you're reading the die mechanics right. At the beginning of the game "roll with a disadvantage" means the Heart needs a 1 on a d6 to succeed, and the Mistaken needs a 6 on a d6 to succeed. This changes as the game goes on. I need some big warning sign on "It shall not come to pass..." like this is probably a bad idea at the beginning of the game.

Speaking of which -- where's the experience? If Sargus failed his roll, he should have rolled it, definitely. How did it turn out? Refresh or Advance? Did you give experience for Megrez pushing the maiden aside to go for the demon?

It seems like you handled the "never to return" just fine. Another way you might have done it -- give Sargus to "Exiled to the South" office. That way, when you get tired of playing Sargus in the South you can just remove or change the aspect.

Looking forward to part 2.

yrs--
--Ben

edit: Trait? Did I say trait? I meant aspect. Move along.

Interesting. I hadn't realized that we muffed the first roll. The understanding was certainly present after that. It's really cool that what you're trying to do early on is massage your opponnet into a position where she feels the need to declare "It shall not come to pass" because to do so yourself sucks rocks. The plain old tactical situation, evolving as characters advance, that drives story creation is a wonderful (I really mean super-cool) piece of game.

Ben, who rolls? I pushed for (and I think we all agreed on) the interpretation that the Heart always rolls no matter who spoke the phrase that requires the roll. Is that how you'd intended it? If not, I think we need a more clear spelling out of rolling mechanics. And either way, it's not entirely clear how the challenge value is determined. In one place it seems to be that the Moons just decide. In another it seems to be based on the exhausted theme from the last conflict. Our interpretation on the fly was that if there was an exhaustion last conflict (what defines a conflict?) we used that rule and if not, the Moons decided.

Sargus made his roll (because we were messing things up) so didn't get an experience roll. Megrez' experience arose from callous decision-making. Megrez got an advance. In the next two scenes that Aaron's due to post today sometime, there was at least one other experience roll and it was a refresh. Refresh is only for the Heart's Themes (and the Mistaken's side of them), right?

Also, the rules talk about which characters the players direct. But it's also built in that the Heart and Mistaken can simply veto stuff narrated by the Moons and the meat of the game is about how the Heart and Mistaken negotiate the SIS entries. In our final scene, Larry was Heart and I was Mistaken and there were a few times when I just narrated the Heart doing things. Larry typically fought back and we generated good stuff. But is this just generally kosher? And what about if in my mind, there were demons invading his mind/psyche that were trying to have him do inappropriate stuff (which is the case)...any difference? I wasn't trying to deprotagonize the Heart so much as really stick it to him (socially) in conflict, but I could see someone interpretting it that way and feeling bad.

I made up a table trying to show which key conflict phrases could follow and at what cost or with what limitations. Mine wasn't great, but it still helped a great deal. You need something like that in the rules when you're done. A flow diagram or something might be better.

Maybe I'll have more after Aaron posts, my memory sucks and I'm sure that on Saturday morning, after we played I had more than this to say.

Chris

(edited for clarity)

Megrez's heart scene was really cool. After my initial response to Chris' action, he got this competitive grin on his face and said, "Bring it." I narrated the horrible bit about the demon charging forward and biting the maiden's head off, expecting, you know, he damn well won't allow that narration to stand. But then he took it and ran with it to the slaying of the demon. I hadn't planned to let him off his nemesis in his first scene, but this was just too wicked to pass up. By the way, I narrated the consequences to Lord Megrez as "his heart shattered" -- emphasis on the poetry over the actual effect, which was left ambiguous.

Miskatonic wrote: By the way, I narrated the consequences to Lord Megrez as "his heart shattered" -- emphasis on the poetry over the actual effect, which was left ambiguous.

After my initial response to Chris' action, he got this competitive grin on his face and said, "Bring it."

Aaron wrote: After lighting the candle and speaking the proper words, I began. I chose to create a scene as Sargus' Mistaken. Sargus' father, Lord Pupis, who is controlled by the Demon Elgrove, summons him to a personal audience. This immediately put the burden of playing the scene on Larry (New Moon), which wasn't my intention, but Larry graciously went with it anyway.

Oh, boy, sorting out rules questions in public (how embarrassing)

1) The Heart always rolls. Statistically, it doesn't matter, but yeah.

2) The challenge value is whatever Value is associated with the last Theme expended. If no theme was expended, the Moons decide. In addition, add Zeal or subtract Weariness if appropriate. (And, to answer your implied question in your play notes that I got, this will always result in a challenge value from 1-5, as long as you keep your Values between 1-5 {which, legally, you ought to}. Try it yourself.)

I'm considering changing this to just "moons decide" but I'm not certain.

3) Only the themes of the character rolling for Experience refresh, and they refresh for both the Heart and Mistaken sides.

4) The Heart and the Mistaken can pretty much just veto anything that the Moons say / do, but often the other player will stand up for it. To give an example from my playtest with Vincent and Meg and Emily:

Meg was playing Aries, a Full Moon character for me. Aries asigns me to ride Southern Patrol, a dangerous job that I'm not trained for nor able to do. I question his orders, and he insists.

At this point, I could have said "I convince Aries not to send me," but, most likely, Vincent (my Mistaken) would have jumped in and started negotiating that statement. Does that make any sense?

5)

Christopher Weeks wrote:
In our final scene, Larry was Heart and I was Mistaken and there were a few times when I just narrated the Heart doing things. Larry typically fought back and we generated good stuff. But is this just generally kosher? And what about if in my mind, there were demons invading his mind/psyche that were trying to have him do inappropriate stuff (which is the case)...any difference?

Miskatonic wrote:
Megrez's heart scene was really cool. After my initial response to Chris' action, he got this competitive grin on his face and said, "Bring it." I narrated the horrible bit about the demon charging forward and biting the maiden's head off, expecting, you know, he damn well won't allow that narration to stand. But then he took it and ran with it to the slaying of the demon.

Emily,

Regarding the "shattering," it was purely inspired by the flavor prose in the manuscript. I actually didn't do as much of this sort of thing as I would have liked. There wasn't actually anything in the mechanics to encourage this sort of poetics. Rather, I think it's that there's nothing in the mechanics to prevent this sort of poetics. Whereas in [insert strawman RPG here] with all its sim baggage, somebody would have been all, "What kind of saving throw do you make against that? Does it do hit point damage?"

Regarding the first scene, I felt very much put on the spot. Duck seems to be very good at impromptu in-character arguments; me, not so much. I kinda fumbled around a bit until I figured out how to throw the ball to Aaron. After a bit of trying to role-play the father's deception and it not being clear to the others if he had an ulterior motive in mind or not, it occured to me to just narrate out, for sake of the other players, that the father was indeed scheming to send his son away so that he wouldn't be a threat to the Mistake. It seemed like an appropriately "fairy tale" way of doing things.

Ben wrote:
Look forward to the rest.

SCENE FOUR

Let me preface this scene by saying that there's no way my notes (I was taking them at this point) are going to capture the furious give and take that was going on. By now we were all throwing out statements, changing tactics radically, laughing, etc. 'Course, it was getting late and we'd been drinking wine, but in this scene it felt like we explored the roles of the four protagonist aspects more than in any other. I'm going to split things up into mini-paragraphs; each one represents (approximately) one add to the ongoing narrative by one of us.


And so it was that Lord Arcturus (as narrated by Larry) sat idly and disinterestedly watching a courtly ball in the Remnant of Southkeep. He is dwelling on his lost, beloved Antares.

The ball is a masque, and at midnight all the maskers will remove their masks and be revealed.

A woman in the crowd, masked as a bird of prey, seems to be watching Lord Arcturus.

She appears at his shoulder and asks him to dance, surprising him by knowing his name (he, too, of course, is masked.)

They dance to the howling music of the Summertime.

Lord Arcturus is then surprised to find that he's attracted to the stranger.

He thinks though, surely, it's only an attraction of the flesh, for his heart is given to Antares.

We had some discussion, as this was piecing together, about whether or not different points of statement were conflicts or not; in each case we just let it keep going forward as free play

"Surely I've seen you before," says Lord Arcturus. "Your Lordship is mistaken." He becomes a bit more aggressive: "You smell familiar." She becomes pensive, "I must go." Lust swells in the Lord Arcturus and he pulls her close gropes her indelicately. A conflict begins...

It's worth noting here that I, as Larry's New Moon, was playing the masked woman, as she was a minor, unknown female character. However, as soon as Chris (the Mistaken) decided that Larry had gone too far, he smoothly (in my memory, anyhow) took her over. Chris responded to the groping with "You ask far too much", burning the theme Relationship: Antares for obvious reasons. Larry revised with "You smell ready; let's find out what might happen." Did I mention we'd been drinking pale, chilled wine... The Moons (Duck and I) vetoed this revision as being at least as strong as the original action. He once again revised to "You musn't leave me. Things are difficult, and you remind me of my sweet, lost true love." Chris accepted this statement, "But only if..." her own suitor witnesses her dancing with Lord Arcturus. Larry responded with "But only if..." he (the suitor) is trapped in a dance with the Matriarch of the Ball and cannot presently act. Chris ended the conflcit with "And so it came to pass."

The suitor doesn't recognize her, in her mask.

Though she appears to be struggling in Lord Arcturus' grasp, he doesn't act to help her.

As the dancers remove their masks, gasps sound from the far side of the ballroom; people gather in a crowd

Suddenly, a firm hand clamps down upon Lord Arcturus' shoulder. "Have you forgotten my daughter already?" It's Lord Lesath, Antares' (and I guess Lord Wezn's!) father.

The HawkLady vanishes towards the commotion (she hadn't removed her mask.)

A wail arises from the crowd.

"What, my Lady Antares, you have returned?!?"

Lord Lesath rushes towards her.

This character was being played by Duck, the Full Moon. Larry decided to veto it, and, rather cleverly, turned it into the next statement

Lady Antares rushes towards Lord Arcturus and swoons in his arms.

Lord Lesath notices Lord Arcturus' eyes look towards the Hawk Lady, who has appeared again.

This statement, which must have been made by Chris, momentarily taking over Duck's rule of the character, was deemed a conflict by Larry. He responded with the very strong "It shall not come to pass!" This time we figured out the difficulty factor of the roll correctly, and he predictably failed. The statement then occured as stated. This ended the conflict.

The Lord Lesath brings Lord Arcturus' caddish ways to his daughter's attention. She decries his dishonesty and strikes him.

I was playing Lady Antares here (in a strange reversal); Larry once again vetoed, figuring out a way to modify my statement to his advantage

She looks at Lord Arcturus and asks, "Is it true?"

He glances away suddenly and says "I don't know what you mean."

Chris deems this conflictable, and responds with "But only if..."Sir Chara (a new character, her lieutenant, I believe) bursts onto the scene, asking her questions regarding her recent whereabouts. Larry rebutts with "But only if..." Sir Arcturus releases his grasp on his true love, allowing her to fall to the ground (I think this was to cause a distraction; correct me if I'm wrong, Larry.) Chris decided that "You ask far too much", burning the theme Office: Knight of the Order of the Stars, for being so rude to a lady (even if she's also a knight!) Unless my notes are wrong here, we screwed up, and instead of Chris revising his statement and then allowing for a rebuttal, Larry immediately responded with "But only if..." while the Lady Antares is distracted with Lord Chara, he's again distracted by the Hawk Lady... You know, typing this, it looks like something's screwy. Chris, Larry? Can you spot anything? Maybe it was Chris, speaking for Lord Arcturus who wanted to drop Lady Antares? Then the rest of the conflict would seem to work out...

ANYHOW...

Lord Lesath sees that Lord Arcturus is distracted again by the Hawk Lady and forces his way between them, protesting.

Lady Antares protests.

Lord Lesath accosts the Hawk Lady.

Lady Antares wants to leave.

Lord Arcturus notices that she's missing her Starlight Sword, and asks her where it is.

"Let us be alone, and I'll tell you all", she says.

"You shall not leave with her!" says the Lord Lesath.

Lady Antares relents.

Lord Arcturus agrees to leave the ball.

A certain hawk-masked Lady tries to follow him into his private chambers.

He pushes her away, and Chris decided it's a conflict.

He opened with "You ask far too much", burning his theme Relationship: Antares. Larry revised with "He takes her hand and says his heart is given to another." This statement is accepted, "But only if..." he agrees to take her favor, a colored scarf. Larry relents with "And so it came to pass", and the scene is ended with "And so it was."

As Chris pointed out above, Larry made an experience roll since he failed a dice roll and, I guess, failed again. His themes were dutifully refreshed.

At this point, we decided one round was enough, and we blew out the candle, Duck saying "But that all happened long ago, and now there are none who remember it."


I'll let the others comment more on this, but I just want to recap the huge variety of types of scenes that were played:

Scene One: Psychological battle of the wills with a demonic twist.

Scene Two: Straight out demon-slaying (and maiden mutilation, I guess...)

Scene Three: Verbal sparring spiced with sudden violence.

Scene Four: Courtly intrigue, lust, guilt and equivocation.

All in one night!

In both of the long paragraphs above -- the conflicts, I think Aaron got substantial parts of our roles (Larry as Heart and me as Mistaken) reversed. It's an easy mistake to make since I was putting words in Arcturus' mouth (as I noted in a note above, and seems to have been naughty of me). Re-read those with me trying to get him into trouble by having him act poorly and it all sorts out.

Chris Weeks, via PM wrote:
What makes a conflict? If my oponent is narrating, does a line become the first line of a conflict sort of retro-actively if I choose to use a key phrase?

When an experience roll results in an advance, do you envision us playing out the gaining of the advance?

Kesher wrote: Antares mocks his Wall, claiming that, had it been stronger, she would still be safe amongst the People.

Kesher wrote: Chris responded to the groping with "You ask far too much", burning the theme Relationship: Antares for obvious reasons. Larry revised with

Larry wrote:
Whoa there! 'Twas Chris that narrated Arcturus' groping and womanizing. I was trying to portray Arcturus as the faithful knight who would not betray his lost love. Needless to say, much conflict ensued from Chris trying to put lecherous words in my knight's mouth.

Yes, Duck was very successfully playing the busybody father quick to point out any and every flaw in his daughter's suitor. "Oh! I caught him looking at another woman again!" Irritating but fun.

While we're all patting Duck on the back, I really thought he shined in scene three. I think I (at least) tended to narrate from the third person and he did the best job of integrating the actor and director stances. The scene he framed is the best example of that.

We played our second session last night. We played through five scenes but I only have the notes for the first three. Maybe Aaron will mail them to me or maybe he'll just post them here later. We did hit some stumbling blocks. I'm just going to post the first scene because it's long and I have stuff to do. But I'll be back.

Scene 5
I wanted to rev up the engine and see if anything sounded wrong -- we are playtesting, after all. So I framed our first scene with all four of our protagonists present at a banquet held by Lord Lesath, celebrating the return of Lady Antares. It is immediately obvious to Lord Megrez that Antares is a fallen knight and a demon. With disgust at the merry-making, he stands and calls her out as a demon.

We all sat in the same configuration. Larry's my Mistaken, Duck is my New Moon and Aaron is my Full Moon. Larry responds to my calling out with "All the Knights present turn against Lord Megrez."
...You ask far too much and I exhaust my office Theme.
......"The knights murmer in disbelief."
.........And so it came to pass.

Lord Megrez asks the room if he is really the only one who can see her for what she truly is.

Sargus examines Antares for reaction. She's pale and astounded but appears to be sincere in her surprise.

"Is her glamor so strong? Can't any of you see beneath to her worm-ridden flesh?"

Sir Arcturus, Larry -- my Mistaken's Knight, rises and shouts "This is an outrage." but is shouted down by Sargus' "Let him speak!"

"There must be a trial of some kind, if none of you see what I see. She cannot be allowed a place in our sanctum as a demon, but I see that you cannot see what I see."

Lord Wezn, Antares' sister rises and publicly support the idea of a trial, "I have seen things that make me question my sister's status."

<We ended up having a discussion about the control of the protagonists and the role of the Moons during narration and conflict. I don't think we resolved it to a degree that felt at all official, so I'd like to hear what Ben thinks. I think we decided that Aaron and Duck had some level of veto power over what happened to their Knights and that they could speak whatever they wanted, but that the Heart and the Mistaken had some level of veto power over what happened in the scene...OK, I don't remember what we decided exactly. Anyway, how's it supposed to work in a scene with multiple protagonists?>

Lord Pupis -- Sargus' possessed father, rises and claims Megrez' accusation to be an outrage. He calls for Megrez' exile and the order does exile the Knight.
...But only if in the process of exiling Megrez, the involved Knights are granted his vision and see the demons in Lord Pupis and Lady Antares.
......You ask far too much. And Larry burns his side of my Ability Theme based on Megrez' ability to see hidden demons.
.........the knights who still have Zeal are granted clear vision
.............But it was not meant to be. (Which backs us up to before the exile. This was, I think, our first use of that key phrase.)

In response to Pupis rising and calling him out, Megrez advances on him, drawing his sword, and announcing to the room that Pupis too is possessed and that further, everyone already knows it. Megrez then cleaves the demon's head in twain.
...But only if Elgrove (the demon) then possesses Lord Megrez.
......And so it came to pass. (Which I think is pretty cool.)

I have a question about this next bit. How does anyone (our group, Ben, etc.) feel about interruption? Larry narrates all the female Knights jumping to there feet...(and I think they're going to kill or arest Megrez) and I just barge in with "'There's your target ladies (pointing to Antares), get her.' and they do." Larry just rolled with it...sort of.
...But only if Lord Megrez' genitals blacken and grow to two foot diameter.
<This was followed by a long pause on my part and a short discussion about how to handle stupid entries into the SIS and whether there was anything in the written system to deal with it.>
......But only if the effect is extremely temporary and no one knows about it.
.........But it was not meant to be. (which again, strikes it from the record.) Instead he responds to my interruption (which again, may have been the real problem..?)
...But only if the demon uses her power to turn the attacking Knights into demon thralls and they kill all the knights present (sans protagonists).

<We had a discussion here about what my phrasing "get her" means. We seemed to decide it was accepted as "kill her.">

......It shall not come to pass. (I have to roll a one to get it my way and we're all assuming that I'll lose and Larry's doomsday will come to pass. But then I make the roll! A one shows it's beady little eye and we're all like "Whoa!" And it did not come to pass! It's really worth noting that there was this whole escalating tension thing talking about the narration and the outcome and the crappy probability and then this huge release. We were all highly invested. You know, a one in six isn't that uncommon, but it sure seemed remote when we were all thinking about it. Aaron noted that this was a display that randomness really does create suspense.)

So Lady Antares is restrained and nothing demonic happens. (I was expecting her to get waxed as per our earlier conversation. I'm not sure what I was missing, but it appears that I'm the only one who thought that was the inevitable outcome, so I rolled with it -- and anyway, it's all good.)

Megrez had a pending experience roll and scored a refresh. Ben, the rules seem like they're saying to make the roll right when whichever trigger is pulled. I like that, but our group came to the conclusion that we'd wait until the end of the scene for purposes of flow and continuity. Thoughts?

And so it was.

The, um, black genitals bit was my unfortunate knee-jerk attempt to fight back and create a narration that would be totally unacceptable to Chris. We came to the conclusion that I could just keep adding silly stuff (Dumbo ears, whatever) and Chris could effectively negate them with minimal effort. Is there some provision in the system for striking such stupid stuff (Moons?) or is this strictly left to the sensibilities of the players?

We never really did settle the question of how the rule that you can veto stuff that "affects" your protagonists works out. I actually rather enjoyed it last session when we weren't using that rule and Chris was putting words in my protagonist's mouth, because it created an enjoyable conflict. Also, this seemed to give the Moons a kind of power to do things outside the conflict resolution system. They didn't really have to make their
appeal to the Heart or the Mistaken for things involving their own protagonists.

Also in this session we came to the realization that we should be burning entire themes and not the individual entries under these. This altered the stakes of conflict significantly. (For the better, I think.)

Oh, we also had some discussion on how some text on "tragedy" and in particular the author's take on it with relation to the game would be good. The word is horribly abused by the media to mean generic victimization, and I presume Ben is talking about proper literary tragedy. The system clearly drives the protagonists down such a path.

Hi, guys. Am I right in my assumption that this was Megrez's scene, and the other characters were there as secondaries?

Here are a couple of textual excerpts that might help you clear up your confusion.

page 32 of the Polaris PDF wrote:
Whenever one protagonist appears in a scene which focuses on another protagonist, the first protagonist's Heart retains guidance over her character. Generally speaking, no situation can ever cause the Heart of a protagonist to lose guidance over the character's actions.

Example: Lord Arcturus rides out with Dame Beid to patrol the wastes. Despite the fact that Arcturus is a rival of Beid's (and thus listed in the Mistaken's section of her Cosmos), he is still guided by his own Heart and not the Mistaken.

Example: Lady Corona Borealis has delved too deep into mystic lore, and been possessed by the demon Etzlitotec. While the demon controls her actions, her Heart retains guidance, and decides what the demon makes her do, taking advice and suggestions from the Mistaken.

page 37 wrote:
If you are using another protagonist as part of a scene (or even if you
aren't), either side (of the conflict) can include them in their statements, but only with the permission of that protagonist's Heart.

page 34 wrote:
As such, if the Moon guides a character to take an action that the Heart or the Mistaken objects to, they can negate, oppose, or disregard that action as they see fit by simply using the it will not come to pass... key phrase (no roll is necessary).

Larry Lade wrote:
Also in this session we came to the realization that we should be burning entire themes and not the individual entries under these. This altered the stakes of conflict significantly

Christopher Weeks wrote:
Ben, the rules seem like they're saying to make the roll right when whichever trigger is pulled. I like that, but our group came to the conclusion that we'd wait until the end of the scene for purposes of flow and continuity. Thoughts?

Yeah Ben, that was Megrez' scene.

Scene 6

Duck frames this scene as Wezn's Mistaken.

And so it was that Lord Wezn left the banquet after the incarceration of his sister and headed for the local bar to quench his undying thirst. On arrival he orders "frigid glacial...drink" but no matter how much he drinks, the thirst gnaws at him. The bartender approaches and asks the Knight what troubles him, asserting that he can sense a sad heart.

Wezn contentiously asks the bartender who he is to ask about such and gets back that it's the barkeep's job to ease such pain. At this Wezn scoffs, doubting the keep's ability to help. The bartender moves on down the bar, refilling the drinks of other patrons.

The band strikes up the song that the imp(s) were singing (last week) in scene three, from Wezn's childhood. Wezn, already troubled, is deeply annoyed. He barges into their set, stopping them and ask where they learned it. It was a special request, they answer and then a general argument ensues with Lord Wezn harshly slapping one of the musicians. The verbal ferocity of the encounter escalates with one of the non-slapped musicians (I think) yelling that maybe what the people are saying is true -- that the Knights are a useless organization whose time has passed. Wezn plunges a dagger through the incautious artist's heart, killing him on the spot.

<Larry and I agreed that this earned an experience roll and Aaron got an advance, taking "Idea: Mean Drunk" as his new aspect. Sweet! It was a bit tricky figuring out which theme that should go in and what kind of aspect it would be. Aaron was leaning toward a relationship but I mentioned and then, I think, Larry advocated for making it an idea.>

I think it was previously established that there was an old drunk Knight at the bar.

With a gesture, the Bartender sends Sir Jhaba over to confront Wezn and the old Knight challenges Wezn. <my notation enters conflict mode at this point but I'm not sure it should have for another couple statements>
...Wezn tries to calm Jhaba, "brother my quarrel is not with you. Di you hear him slander our order?"
......Jhaba agrees that the Knights time has gone.
.........<Aaron said something about Jhaba's attitude, but my notes are lacking.>
............And furthermore Jhaba certainly knows that the knights are for protecting the people, not killing them. <Duck exhausts the Mistaken side of Wezn's Office Theme.>
...............And so it came to pass. Lord Wezn sheathes his sword, is reminded of his thirst and agrees that he was wrong. He turns to leave in disgrace.

<Duck isn't done with Aaron though! We spent some time talking about Revenge of the Sith and the earlier SW movies before starting to play. Duck even commented on Lucas' severed hand fetish...hmmm> Jhaba attacks Wezn with his back turned and slices his hand off.
...You ask far too much. <Aaron exhausts his Starlight Sword aspect.>
......Only two fingers are severed.
.........But only if they're the last two.
............And so it came to pass.

Wezn is horrified and angry, accusing "you have shed the blood of one of your brothers!" Wezn then weeps.

Jhaba responds by realizing what he's done and breaking down. He thrusts his sword into his own gut, killing himself.
...But only if while this is taking place, Wezn sees the barkeep looking on with demonic glee.
......And so it came to pass.

Wezn then accuses the bartender of ordering the song that started all this. The bartender denies it and points out the window into the bright snow where Wezn sees two impish young women smiling and dancing with his severed fingers. They vanish in a puff of smoke.

And so it was.

This is a long one. We noticed that the scenes between Larry and I are much longer on average than the scenes between Duck and Aaron. I wonder if we should shuffle seating and see how that affects things.

This scene is framed by Larry for Lord Arcturus.

Scene 7
And so it was that Lord Arcturus was leader of an incursion into the Crucible of Black Ice, to destroy Alcor. This was a great and hazardous journey...which claimed many of the Knights.

< I wedged that last bit into Larry's opening narrative and he was like "yeah, OK, I never specified how many there were, so there can still be lots left." Which points out that my input wasn't that great. It provides tone, but not much effect. I think we're learning how to say things that will matter, not just to our imaginations but so that they're backed up by the system.>

The expedition finally arrived at the Crucible's entrance and began the descent with torches lit to illuminate the way. <Then I push back with> The heat from the torches melt some of the ice above, causing a fresh freeze around the tunnel. The Knights slip and slide a long, long way into the depths of the ice. <It was interesting here that my original verbiage included "toward the Mistake" because I was envisioning the Crucible as being close. Larry was fully ready to conflict about it but once we realized he was only objecting to a detail I considered trivial, I just backed it out of the narrative and we were happy. Conflict avoided -- good or bad? Dunno, but it worked.> The slide lasted so long that terror gave way to boredom when finally they were dumped roughly into a great black bowl of a chamber. The blackness is thick and tangible and seems to drink the light given off by starlight swords.

Lord Arcturus lights a lantern.
...It shall not come to pass. The lantern broke on the way down. <I'm at a disadvantage and Larry rolls a success.>
......And so it was.

Larry narrates that in the new light, the Knights observe shadowy figures lurching about on the rim of the bowl above.

They dump baskets of woven ice crystals over the edge, which come tumbling down toward the Knights.

As a moon, Aaron offers up that one of the Knights freaks out, screaming and dropping his sword.
...It shall not come to pass. -- Larry doesn't like it. No roll is needed.

At this point, most of the rest of the scene is conflicts. As the Mistaken, I start it off.

The baskets splinter and break during their tumble and as the alcohol inside spills out and onto the Knights, the entire crucible goes up in flame as a spark between sword and stone touch things off.
...You ask far too much <The moons accept the exhaustion of Arcturs' Office.>
......The chemicals in the baskets seep out into the frigid air and put all the Knights to sleep.
.........But only if the Knights are captured unharmed.
............You ask far too much < I also exhaust Arcturus' Office.>
...............The Knights awaken in captivity.
..................And furthermore they find that they are missing their starlight weapons.

< I think it was during this conflict, right here, that we broke for a sec to talk about the escalation from chains of but only if to chains of the more expensive and furthermore as a pretty nifty mechanic. It's a kind of downward spiral that's really effective at building a sense of escalating stakes. It's also good in that there can be at most four exchanges once you do make that escalation as the Themes will exhaust. Something that I got to thinking about is that there's strategy in letting your opponent have something early on at the cost of a Theme exhaustion so that you're in a better position to drive them into a forced roll once theme are exhausted in one of these spirals. At least, that's the kind of playing that Larry and I were getting into. I think it makes less sense between Duck and Aaron.>

.....................And furthermore Arcturus finds that the rusty bars of their prison are breakable with his great strength. <Larry exhausts his Big trait>
........................And so it came to pass.
Lord Arcturus and both of the survivors from his company find themselves in a great and trackless maze of ice, deep beneath the surface with a disturbingly worn floor.
...You ask far too much <We had to discuss what aspect of the above narration, Larry was objecting too. I didn't really know how to modify the statement until I found that he wanted more survivors.>
......With all three survivors...
.........But only if the Knights soon stumble upon Alcor's stronghold.
............And so it came to pass.

As they enter the stronghold, the minions of Alcor swarm over them, clawing and tearing at their flesh. As their suffering increases, they can see their swords being played with by lesser demons for the ammusement of all.
...And furthermore in the chaos, Lord Arcturus stumbles across the room and comes to where is sword is, taking it up. <Larry exhausts Starlight Sword.>
......And furthermore as you gratefully heft your sword, Alcor laughs deeply and expostulates "This gives me great pleasure...it is just how Antares died (gesturing to Arcturus's men who've been reduced to skeletal pulp) -- abandoned by her leader, my minions had an easy time of it...ha, ha, ha." < I exhaust Arcturus' relationship to Antares.>
.........And furthermore Sir Arcturus, enraged, shouts "you shall not tell lies about the lady I love; I shall survive to wed her" and he strikes down Alcor in a single smiting blow! <He exhausts his Fate.>
............And furthermore you (Arcturus) realize that Alcor was right. There is no Antares to return to, even if you will live to see her body again. < I exhaust his Demon Lore>
...............It shall not come to pass <You've got to give Larry credit for perseverance, but his disadvantaged die roll fails and it does, in fact, come to pass...>

The minions of the slain Alcor are busy sucking the marrow from the bones of Arcturus' companions, allowing him to escape.

We did experience at the end of the scene this time. The moons assigned Larry/Arcturus an experience roll for abandoning his companions which resulted in an advance and Larry took Betrayal of The People as his new aspect. The other experience roll, for the failed die roll at the end, resulted in a Theme refresh.

And so it was...

I narrated Sir Jabbah into existence in Scene 6. The idea was that the demonic barkeep had kept serving the old knight long past the point where he should have cut him off, to further his ruin. I role-played his drunkeness as indeterminately Scottish/hillbilly.

Scene 7 was the Polaris equivalent of a dungeon crawl! What I thought was interesting about this scene is the amount of time advanced by each statement. Previously, each statement made in conflict has been sort of the equivalent of a combat round. Here, hours of adventuring passed with only a few sentences.

My observation is that Chris and I are more into narrating blatantly antagonistic stuff to push things into the conflict system, whereas Aaron and Duck are more subtle during free narration so statements don't quite set off a hostile reaction.

It's really worth noting that there was this whole escalating tension thing talking about the narration and the outcome and the crappy probability and then this huge release. We were all highly invested. You know, a one in six isn't that uncommon, but it sure seemed remote when we were all thinking about it. Aaron noted that this was a display that randomness really does create suspense.)

Wezn is horrified and angry, accusing "you have shed the blood of one of your brothers!" Wezn then weeps.

Jhaba responds by realizing what he's done and breaking down. He thrusts his sword into his own gut, killing himself.
...But only if while this is taking place, Wezn sees the barkeep looking on with demonic glee.
......And so it came to pass.

A few things.

As per Larry's note, all the places that I typed Jhaba, I should have typed Jabbah.

Aaron, the ordered list of propensity to force refutation implies something about the people listed. I wonder if it has more to do with the people across the table from them? Particularly in the case of placing you last in the list. Duck seems willing to accept almost all input from you and just bend like the willow.

Ben, if I understand things, we have one more Polaris session scheduled during your playtest window. What kind of info should we be looking to provide you? I mean, what would be more helpful than what we're doing?

Chris

Christopher Weeks wrote:
Ben, if I understand things, we have one more Polaris session scheduled during your playtest window. What kind of info should we be looking to provide you? I mean, what would be more helpful than what we're doing?

It occurs to me that we had agreed before playing that we would be using the fast advancement rule so our knights would be veterans in three sessions, but I don't think we've actually been using that rule. Maybe we should advance our knights to veteran before the next run.

I was going to ask this after you finished writing up all the scenes, but:
What do the character sheets look like these days, anyway? What are the Zeal scores, the new aspects, the changed aspects, and what got added and moved in the Cosmos?

yrs--
--Ben

SCENE 8

And so it was...
If I recall correctly, narration proceeds collaboratively between Aaron and Duck as usual. Aaron frames the scene. It is autumn and (Duck's) Sargus, having been separated from his troops, sees a shape in the ice. It looks familiar... it is what remains of Dabin, who has been away searching for Octens. A trail of blood and guts leads over the rise. Sargus draws his sword and follows the trail. Chris, as Full Moon (where Dabin resides in Sargus' cosmos), interrupts, "But he's not dead!" and it's accepted into the narrative.

As Sargus kneels to inspect his comrade, the ground erupts, and (Aaron narrates) demons emere and pummel Sargus into unconsciousness.
You ask far too much. (Gift: Starlight Sword)
Aaron offers: Demons burst forth, as their bodies soldify they take on the appearance of charred and smoking wood, with faces becoming familiar. His lost father's face! The faces speak with his voice in tandem, "You have failed to protect another that you love!"
Duck takes the revised narration.
And so it came to pass.
Duck has the Heart take up Dabin's sword and cut off the heads of the demons in a whirlwind flurry. Aaron replies that there are four heads, and as they chunk through ice in blood, they shimmer and change to the face of Lord Megrez, laughing and laughing and laughing. Duck states that the only way to kill them is through the brain, and so Sargus does so in a whirlwind motion.
Sargus sees his friend gasp again, and tries to ease his suffering. (through consolation, not mercykilling or anything). Aaron states that the end is clearly coming for Dabin. Between spouts of blood he utters, "Why... did... you... not... help... meee..." Duck repiles that Sargus feels grief at Dabin's passing, but at least he knows that it was the work of demons.
And so it was.

At this point I assumed we'd wrap up, so I was about to blow out the candle and say"But that was all..." but everyone expressed a willingness to game on, so we went another round.

SCENE 9

And so it was...

Duck narrates a scene for Lord Wezn -- Wezn wakes up from yet another drunken night. He hears a knock at his door. It's Alderamin the frostmason, who says, "Come quickly." It seems there's a problem with the wall. Lord Wezn grabs his sword and follows.

Duck says that as Wezn approaches the wall, there is a crowd gathered. The ice bricks have sprouted flora and fauna. (peaches! and chipmunks!) People are excited. It's clearly not natural.

Aaron says, "What is this corruption that has stained the purity of my wall?! Have you ever seen this happen before?"

I play a random man, "No, my lord."

Aaron, "This must be purged from the wall!"

Chris plays a random woman, "But my lord, it's so beautiful!"

Duck states that a child presents a peach with a bite taken from it. Juices run from the child's mouth. The child is levitating six inches off the ground.
Aaron looks over the crib sheet for conflict choices a bit, stumped.

You ask far too much (Office: Builder of the Wall)

Some kibbitzing goes on about this; the moons approve of this use.
Duck revises, a beautiful young woman holds out a peach, and says "You should try it, it's good!"

But only if Wezn notices a worm visible at the bite.

And so it came to pass.

Aaron/Wezn says to the woman, "You best be careful what you eat, appearances can be..."

There is a gasp from the crowd. For, as Duck explains, she was an old lady a moment ago. The crowd converges on the wall and starts eating the peaches.

(Chris/woman, "It is the wall of regrowth!")

Aaron starts a conflict
But only if they began to fight for the choicest peaches.

And so it came to pass

Chris/woman, "My grandma's sick, I need that peach!"

Larry/man,"Mine! Mine! All mine!"

Duck,"Mine! Mine! All mine!"

Aaron states that Wezn rushes for containers with which to heave water onto the vines. The plants whither and die in the people's hands. Duck retorts
And furthermore (Ability: Architect) the wall is ruined by the water, leaving the plants frozen within.

And furthermore (Ability: Demon lore) the purifying water drives the madness from the people, who weep upon realization they have been tricked.

It shall not come to pass, finishes Duck.

Since Office was invoked in the last conflict (we doing this right?) Aaron can only fail on a 5 or a 6. He rolls a six!

Duck happily continues instead that the people angrily turn to Wezn. They start muttering about how he has killed musicians. (Prev. scene) Chris joins in with the mob. (I'm noticing here that his women's voices sound suspiciously like the "old crone" voice in Monty Python's.)

Aaron angrily retorts to the masses, "What do you know of demons? You stare at the sun as if it was your lover! I have fought demons! I am a knight!" Duck/the mob cry, "The sun will melt down your stupid wall!"
Aaron states that Wezn repairs the wall, and the people eventually wander away. Duck affirms with It shall come to pass. (I'm noticing Duck and Aaron have a tendancy to use such when not engaged in a conflict.)
Duck gleefully tacks on an epilogue that as Wezn and the frostmason chip at the wall, their rhythm falls into the tempo for "the song" that has been in all Wezn's scenes.

And so it was.

Wezn gets an experience roll, and gains an advance.

It seems the midnight oil has run lower than previously anticipated, so we call it a night.

But that was all long ago, and now there are none who remember it. I blow out the candle.

Chris likes to point out that he remembers it, what am I talking about?

I think Aaron has the character sheets, so he'd have to be bothered to report on changes to the cosmos. (cosmoi?)

Chris likes to point out that he remembers it, what am I talking about?

Good stuff, guys!

It sounds like the scenes are going much more smoothly. Is there anything that you are stumbling over these days, particularly?

yrs--
--Ben

Larry wrote:
I think Aaron has the character sheets, so he'd have to be bothered to report on changes to the cosmos. (cosmoi?)

Ben,

Lemme get you to rehash an answer you posted earlier, because I think we still did it wrong. So when determining which Theme to key the target difficulty to, use the last Theme expended on either side. Not the Theme burned in the previous conflict (as the rules seem to read). Right? As we've been treating the rules, one could have to go back to the last scene and figure out what Theme was burned, and that doesn't seem right.

We're still fuzzy on the difference between Ice and Light. We've been using the heuristic of fighting for oneself vs. fighting for others, but I don't think that's quite right.

I seem to recall having a good reason to not roll experience until the end, but I don't recall why right now.

Larry wrote:
I seem to recall having a good reason to not roll experience until the end, but I don't recall why right now.

Miskatonic wrote:
Lemme get you to rehash an answer you posted earlier, because I think we still did it wrong. So when determining which Theme to key the target difficulty to, use the last Theme expended on either side. Not the Theme burned in the previous conflict (as the rules seem to read). Right? As we've been treating the rules, one could have to go back to the last scene and figure out what Theme was burned, and that doesn't seem right.

We're still fuzzy on the difference between Ice and Light. We've been using the heuristic of fighting for oneself vs. fighting for others, but I don't think that's quite right.

pg. 24 wrote:
Ice is a measure of the strength of the Knight's relationship to the world
and society around him. A knight with a high Ice value will be able to oppose the demons well when fighting for the preservation of society or in relation to ideas, people or events that he cares about.

Light is a measure of the Knight's internal strength and prowess. A
knight with a high Light value will be able to oppose demons well when
fighting them primarily alone, with his own abilities and equipment.

I seem to recall having a good reason to not roll experience until the end, but I don't recall why right now.

scene 1
Larry as Mistaken of Megrez
-Scene takes place at the trial of Antares
Lady Antares was aquitted
Chris
-You ask far to much-burn fate Antares
Larry
-Megrez brings forth the first witness
chris-accepted but only if in the course of his accuasation he is accepted as an authority on demons
larry-and further more Lord marshal Paranis announces he is in possesion of the sphere of the Quasars used to detect demons
chris-and so it came to passd- Quasar sphere glows announcing that the lord marsall is possed
larry-it shall not come to pass(but heart wins roll)
chris-lord marshal is taken to the chamber of expunging frost
larry- the sphere brushes Megrez
chris-it shall not come to pass(wins) lights up next to Antares
larry-but only if after it glows everything goes dark
chris- but only if it breaks
larry and so it came to pass
lights/ Antares gone and so it was

Scene two
Sargus and Antares in alley outside courthouse
sargus threatens Antares but asks for info about Elgrove
antares is coy so Sargus runs her through
you ask far to much(office)
sargus holds sword to her neck
antsares pushes blade away the blade turns black where she touches it
sargus kills antares with decapitating scissor chop
and furthermore(antares)
Megrez and co come and mame Sargus
you ask far too much
they capture Sargus
sargus accuses megrez of being possesed and then exorcises Megrez
elgrove posses sargus
you ask far to much
antares corpse infected by elgrove stands replaces head and begins kissing and fondling sargus
Megrez free of possesion kills antares with sword
and so it was

Scene 3
Arcturus in his chamber sees a cartoon of himself being bested Alcor-happened a long time ago
FLASHBACK
lady antaries is being lowered into a vat of bubbling liquid in Alcors lair
Alcaor is bald w/ a huge head w/ faces on three sides his lair is covered in ancient texts
they lower her into the liquid and when she is reaised she is obviosly a demon
you ask far to much
its not obvious she is a demon
Arcturus kills bad guys and sves Antares
but only if the new Antares insists on immediately copulating becoming pregnant
and further more the child would eventually grow up to unite the people and destroy the mistaken there is eternal night
and further more the child leads the people into eternal darkness
it shall not come to pass(wins)
and so it was

scene 4
Wezen determined the location of Thrun's strike point and built a tower to intercept. Thrun is an annual meteor strike. the meteor comes and wezen cleaves thrun in twain
but only if sword is ruined
but only if a chemical transformation between the demon and sword take place making an alloy that will make the wall impenitrable
it shall not come to pass( wezen wins)
before glee can rise the tower attracks mor meteors which strike bang...bang.. bang...
but only if the wall withstands
and so it came to pass-more alloy was found under each strike and aldamin and wezen work day and night to master the alloy they succeed
....but then the wall starts laughing at Wezen
it shall not come to pass(failed)
as the demon wall laughs stairs form on the outside allowing demons in
three blue ram horned demons cascade over the wall
you ask far too much
no stairs but reflection of two imps dancing with Wezen's fingures can be seen in walls reflection a townsperson comes and goes and tells people about the drunks demonic wall
but only if tension in the wall isd to great and the demon seeps out
you ask far too much
only Wezen can percieve imps
you still ask far too much
only Wezen and the man can see the imps
and further more the wall can influence those who gaze upon it
You ask far too much
the wall can influence only non knights
and so it came to pass
The gate opens and lets witness wander itno the mistake
but only if Wezen throws a remaining fragment of the wall into the peasants brain killing him(xp roll)
Aldarimin exits through gate
ask far tooo much
heads toward gate
too much
Alderimen resists gate smiles at Wezen and the yreturn home
Inh morning lord Wezen awakens to find Alderamin told others about the cool wall and 1/4 of the town has wandered into the waste
but only if those that wen't were sun worshippers and the remenant was strengthend by there departure
and so it was.

Could someone expand on that last session's report a little bit?

Particularly: Are people getting into the swing of the rules? What's the frequency of Experience? Are the Mistaken / Heart pairs still exhibiting different characteristic behavior? What "house rules" have you made and kept, and what work?

That would be awesome, if possible.

Thanks!

yrs--
--Ben

Yeah, I can't say I envy Duck having to transcribe those notes; I think we topped out at like, 15 pages of scrawl...

In answer to your questions:

1. I think we definitely, by the last time we played, were getting a better hang of the rules. In particular, I think our understanding of the potential subleties (push/pull-back) of the conflict statements grew immensely. If you look at the transcript, there's definitely more use of "And furthermore...", and also a much more common use of "You ask far too much", though part of that may have been because we realized it didn't really matter if we "failed" rolls; something interesting was still bound to happen.

2. Maybe Duck will post the experience gain as well (I'm pretty sure it was in the notes, though maybe not...), but the rolls were fairly frequent, though I remember a lot of "refresh" results. Though important strategically (necessary, really), I always found refreshes to be a bit disappointing, since nothing happens, at least in a driving-my-character-towards-the-END sort of way.

3. I would say our particular pairings were still working the same way. One thing we realized though, as we were talking before the session began, was that Duck and I had for the most part framed scenes as each other's Mistaken, instead of as our own Heart. We decided to change that for this session, though I'm not convinced it made a big difference.

4. We didn't do much in the way of house rules, really; there wasn't much need! However, we did try rolling for experience as it was called for (in the midst of conflict), and I at least didn't like it as much. So, if rolling (possibly multiple times) at the end of a scene would be considered a house rule, I guess that's one.

Ooops, the kid's awake, gotta go; I'm sure the others'll chime in.

Aaron

All right here goes the rest.
Scene 5
(as a note before scene five started we created a house rule that everytime someone had experience refresh they had to add someone new to there cosmos as they were deminishing to quickly)
We tried to drive themes of frustration and Catharsis
Spring
-And so it was ..that the knights were deep in the hardest sledge in years, faced w/ dwindiling resources. Lord Megrez, has just seen one of his best friends killed, he walks by the throngs of people in their chambers staring at the sun, many things have been neglected
-Lord Megrez confronts the quarter master and he refuses smartly-
Lord megrez bashes in his brains
-it shall not come to pass- 2exp roll 1 for action and one for action against the people. Exp advance and refresh.
-1/4 master's assistant doesn't care,
the apathetic masses are having a party with requisitions and supplies. Megrez busts in on them.
-and further more slays every one of them
-you ask far too much
-He slaps them in irons and drags them to trial
but only if a drunken sot throws a bag of gruel
-but only if he misses
-it shall not come to pass-success
-There is growing discontent in the room and is only half full
-Baron Celaeno demands an accounting
-Megrez accuses
-general outcry
one of accused is Baron's grandson
-"you shall give supplies back"
-"and they shall become squires, right?"
- the baron agrees
-but only if they are smitten
- but only if they redeem themselves when faced by demons
-but only if it gives the knights an edge
-so it came to pass
-lord Megrez leads them to the fornt in chains w/ sticks
-they die because they are too lazy to resist.

Scene 6

-The end of winter
knights grow weary of Wezen's tiresome wall
The people await first light of spring
the sun doesn't come and the people blame the knights
-the people all go home praising the knights
-far to much
-people are uncertain who to trust
-and so it came to pass
-the demon wall influences the people saying if the wall builder is slain the sun will return
-you ask far too much
-says knights are responsible but if people help the wall they can bring back the sun
- but only if a new contingent of knights arrives and desperses the crowd
-you ask far too much
-As the knights arrive half of the crowd leave
-the remaining climb onto the wall which grows legs and walks into the mistake.
-and so it was.

At this point we had a little post game forum
-we got lots of milage on the apothy of the people
and mixing tails of fairytale with those of polotics
- there was a question of what players were accomplishing in this game.
- Many thought the payoff was coming a little too slow. that the span of a character needs to complete in a quicker fashion than it did while we were playing -even with speed rules
-observation that futility may suck out fairy tale qualities
- Does the mistaken(player) actually deprotagonize the heart?
- Is the south a distraction? is playing there too difficult without any structure?
- a notice of parallel decent for both player and character.
-Tragedy vs Nihilism- What's the borderline? if there is no hope can there be tragedy?
- Are we the players experiencing futility/ frustration through the helplessness of the game mechanics?
- you get caught up in competitiveness, didn't want to get "beaten" again
-constantly overshoot on purpose, chesslike, predicting others statements
-please add examples of play to text.
-cheatsheats and conflict charts help a great deal
-character is deprotagonized by severely constrained want to pursue agenda, the heart both isn't and is the main character of a player
-sometimes feels like 1 player vs 3 gms
-easy to play antagonist role w/ moons
-Many moon cosmos characters were left unused- it gets messy for the mistaken to relinquish control
-Moons end up antagonist by the nature of the world-the people are all against you.

Note- I agree with Aaron- experience roles work better at the end of scenes

I just read what I just submitted. Sorry about all the misspelling and typos.

Duck wrote:
as a note before scene five started we created a house rule that everytime someone had experience refresh they had to add someone new to there cosmos as they were deminishing to quickly)