At SteveCon Paris this week we played a game of Polaris, in French. I'll ask the strangely named Squeeze to email his translations to Ben if he hasn't done so already.

At first it was quite hard to get enough players. Squeeze and I were all gung ho but two people went home instead of playing because only Polaris was left as an option. This left two rather reluctant players one of whom was slightly worse for wear because of drink. We were also sat in a noisy and smoky pub with two other games going on in the same room (Snowball and Retrofutur). Not the best set-up ever for a game requiring interaction and concentration.

But Squeeze manfully stuck to the task, explained things very well and soon, without even noticing it, everyone was really into the game, even the two reluctants. In the end it was a very positive experience all round, the only downside being that we had to come to a premature end, even with the quick experience rules.

One small point that was raised was the need to drive conflict quite so vehemently. I suppose I was going on my Dogs experience here but the guy opposite me often got a rather raw deal whereas my PC's woes were pretty much self-inflicted. To what extent does anyone think that their might be more guidance on conflicts being less fateful and occasionally even joyful events? And to what extent should one be the defender of one's heart rather than conducting him to his fate?

For example, he had chosen to have an elder brother in his Mistake and I played him as overbearing and condescending. In the end, our protagonist was left at home with the women whilst his brother went to war. The only scrap he had was a grudging acceptance by his brother that he might have helped him kill a demon (He'd distracted the demon who was standing on his neck when his brother killed it).

In my case, I'd already chosen at the start to have rejected my fiancée cousin after having fallen in love with my sister. My fate was already sealed and it was a question of managing the method of my fall rather than the possibility. Plus I killed my confessor in my first scene. I ended up with quite a few experience rolls but really enjoyed the ride. Anything that my Mistake pilled on top was not something that I struggled against but took on board as adding to the experience whereas when I was the Mistake it was not so much confrontational but was definitely more me v him.

I'm hoping to run a game in English soon, possibly tomorrow, so any discussion would be helpful.

Cheers,
Steve

Steve --

Sounds awesome!  I'm totally psyched by your crazy incest story and want to hear more :-)

The decisions about happiness / sadness of conflict and whether you stick up for your knight or drive him into the ground are strictly player-based.  I wouldn't know what to recommend.  Do what you wanna do and it'll all work out.

yrs--
--Ben

I had my cousin as my Mistake and my sister as my fate. I also had my mother and my father in one moon and my confessor in the other. My father was also in Squeeze's Mistake as the head of the order of knights. My other theme was The Spirit of the Moon ability (whatever that means).

I decided that my cousin had been my fiancée but that I had recently dropped her having struggled with my conscience but finally fallen for my sister. My cousin didn't know why I would no longer see her.

In my first scene I discussed this with my confessor in the Church of Stars and confessed my love of my sister. He said that I should own up to everyone and, I think, go somewhere to reflect on the impossibility of such love. At this point my mother and sister came into the church. Thinking that my confessor was going to betray me, I ran him through with my sword, grabbed my sister by the hand and rushed out of the church.

In the next scene my cousin arrived on a horse. She was annoyed at having been dumped and wanted to find out why I had weaseled out of things. We had words. She wanted to know why I was holding a bloody sword. At this point she had moved beyond just wanting to find out why I had dumped in favour of finding ways to hurt me. I think Squeeze as one of my moons suggested to my Mistake that he needed to find a way of getting me to confess my love of my sister.

My cousin attacked my sister, rearing the horse at her and knocking her down. The commotion also attracted the attention of the guard and my father. They would shortly be on the scene. My father was having a scene with Squeeze's PC at this point and so never arrived having had to leave to fight demons.

So instead of my father, Zhou, the demon of regret disguised as my father arrived to make me squirm some more. He managed to get me to confess my guilty secrets, my love of my sister and the killing of my confessor, but at a cost. His rictus of delight revealed to my sister that he was in fact a demon in disguise, but only she had noticed that.

We had one more scene but I can't remember what happened.

The other hearts:
One lost his hand in fighting his rival, sacrificed his uncle to a demon in return for a hand made of ice, saved his rival from a demon on the battlefield only for his rival to turn on him.

Squeeze's fiancée's daughter was kidnapped by a demon. He managed to get the commander to promise him some knights to go find her but had to go to war first. After early succes a grotesque demon version of his fiancée's daughter confronted him and he killed her, only to find it was an illusion and he had killed his hope of happiness. At this point the demons started to win and everyone fell back in disarray.