I'm involved in a Play by Post game of Polaris, and thus far, it seems to be going pretty well.  A question did come up today, though, for which we don't have an answer, and I was hoping if someone here could tell me what was intended by the But it was no matter statement.

The thread being referenced is HERE.

In a nutshell, a scene has been started up which contains everyone in a Heart's cosmos.  The Mistaken has begun her job of seeding turmoil and doubt ... and the Full Moon, using one of the characters under her guidance, attempted to help the Heart by saying some soothing words.

The Mistaken used a But it was no matter statement to dismiss what the Full Moon's character did.  Afterward, we weren't sure if that was actually okay. 

We know that the Mistaken or Heart can dismiss or accept suggestions given by the Moons toward what happens to the scene in general, or to the Heart ... but we're not sure if the Mistaken or Heart can directly dismiss, out of hand, what a character controlled by a Moon says or does. 

Conflict statements can come into play once the Heart reacts to what's been done, after the fact, and so may affect/lessen a Moon's influence that way, but can a character's actions be wholly canceled?  I guess it's the difference between mitigating the effects of a Moon's character's actions, and cancelling the character's actions entirely.  How is the But it was no matter envisioned to be used?

Hope that made sense.  Thanks for any clarification you can give.  It's appreciated.

Hi, Katya, and welcome to the Forge!

This is a slightly difficult question to answer because of the nature of your chosen medium.  I'll say what the right thing to do is in the tabletop setting and then you do whatever you should to translate it into play-by-post format.

So the scoop is that absolutely, by the rules, the Heart and the Mistaken can use "but it was not matter" to cancel an action on behalf of a Moon.  Both the Heart and the Mistaken must use the phrase, one after the other.  If the second instead says "we shall see what comes of it," a standard Heart / Mistaken conflict begins around that phrase.  (if you're unclear on this I'll go into greater detail, but there's a fair amount of text devoted to it in the rules.)

In practice, the Moon often will cajole the Heart or the Mistaken into "backing them up" on a conflicted statement.

Also in practice, sometimes there is an action that both the Heart and the Mistaken want to see negated, but it's also cool enough that people don't want to see it outright dismissed from the fiction.  I have the feeling that this is your situation?  In this case, the person who uses the negating phrases can, if they so choose, describe how their character(s) do something to partially or completely negate the effects of the Moon's character's action.  Thus, instead of the action not happening, events simply play out so that it is ineffective.

yrs--
--Ben

Okay, that's what I needed to know!  Thank you very much for the reply, AND for getting back to me so quickly.  You ROCK!

No problem.  Good luck with your game!