That’s right. Polaris wins Most Innovative Game of 2005 and Game of the Year of 2005 from the Indie RPG Awards.

Congratulations, Ben!

This one is by my sister Adiel. We played while my family was visiting back in Erie. Sadly, we didn’t get to finish the story, although things were moving at a good clip. At some point in the near future, I’m going to have to write up the Actual Play for all to see.

(This account was also posted on The Forge. You might find the responses from the folks there to be interesting.)

Once again, we gathered for Polaris. Raquel is traveling for three weeks, so we wanted to pick up the pieces after our last session. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.

Quotables

“Black, scaly and oozy…that has to be good for something.�

“Do I get to bleed acid?�
“If you’re good.�

“There’s a talking head in my basket.�

“Not dead yet.�
“Well…decapitated.�

Overview of play

We played through five scenes during this session.

Scene One
During Maia’s recovery from the wounds that she had suffered, she begins to transform into a snake demon herself. All the parts of her body that were injured by the snake demon grew black scales, and her one eye turned deep red. She tried to conceal this, but one of the junior Healers noticed and ran to spread the alarm. Maia slipped from the building, but not before the damage was done. In a public ceremony, Maia was removed from the Order of Mesarthim, much to the relief of Raquel’s fellow players, who had a hard time remembering this name.

Scene Two
In the meantime, Rastaban was summoned by his lord Thuban to deliver a basket to Chancellor Almech. In this basket was the head of Andromeda, the daughter of the Chancellor. So, Rastaban went by secret ways to deliver this present. However, not all was well. Andromeda’s head was demon-possessed, for it began talking to Rastaban, demanding to know where the Spring Child was. Even when he clove the head in two, it was no use. A demonic slime creature (like a shoggoth, for those of you who know what that is) was pursuing him. As Rastaban cast about him, a door opened and voices shouted to him to hurry. Rastaban leaped for safety but was assaulted by those on the other side. Although he fought valiantly, Rastaban was quickly overwhelmed and bound. As he was held fast, both Chancellor Almech and Thuban entered the room. Apparently their feud was a lie, masking their secret alliance. Again, the question was put to Rastaban. “Where is the Spring Child?�

Scene Three
For Sadal’s scene, we stepped backwards in time a bit, returning to the death of Gemma, his sister. He came down from the tower and entombed his sister in a case of ice, which he placed in his home. Her death drove him insane with grief, leaving him a wreck of a man. All he could do was sit in her presence, mourning his loss with anguished cries. Then, in the midst of his grief, he heard Gemma’s voice. “Go to Thuban, and swear to him your sole allegiance.� So, he sought out Thuban, who gladly accepted his oath of personal fealty. But he required a test of loyalty. On the bed in the room was the daughter of Chancellor Almech. Thuban required that Sadal demonstrate his loyalty by executing her.

Sadal drew his sword and raised it. Then, he looked at Andromeda. She looked so peaceful, so much like his sister Gemma, slumbering like he remembered from when they were younger. He hesitated.

And then the blade came down.

Scene Four
In shame, Altair wandered out into the wilderness. Although he was not consciously directing his steps, he soon found himself in the ruins of Muphrid, where he had first found the Spring Child. There he found Muliphein, the Knight of Haunting Beauty, whom he had dueled in the battle for the remnant. Altair hotly accused Muliphein of being a traitor, but Muliphein demurred. “Look around,� he said. “Change is coming. The snow is melting. The remnants themselves are melting. It is inevitable. I merely support the rising tide.�

“I must protect my people,� Altair replied.

Muliphein nodded. “Of course.� Then he gestured to the ground. Snowdrops were blooming. Altair bent down and picked one. As he turned it over in his hands, Muliphein spoke again. “It is so beautiful, is it not?�

Altair looked at the knight. He looked to the melting towers of the remnant. Then he placed the flower in his hair and turned back toward the remnant.

Scene Five
Through her knowledge of Chancellor Almech and a measure of cunning and desperation, Maia found and rescued Rastaban. This cost her, as another arm sprouted from her right side. But, as she did so, she was discovered by her friend the Chancellor. His bodyguards carried torches of flame, and so his dealing with the darkness was made obvious to her. In return, Almech seemed amused by her outrage, especially in light of her ongoing transformation. Perhaps he was merely amused by her apparent hypocrisy. At the same time, he actually seemed to find Maia attractive in her new state. So, he permitted her to leave. Rastaban had already made his escape at this point, but they met outside the Chancellor’s stronghold beneath the tree that had once been Al Bali. Together, they left to recover the Spring Child from her hiding place.

Behind them, a figure left the shadows and followed them.

Sticking it to Rastaban

Argh! Once again I feel like I dropped the ball as Rastaban’s Mistaken. At least, this time I think that I have an idea why.

When I framed Rastaban’s scene, I was originally wanted to escalate the conflict between Thuban and Almech. After all, this conflict has provided much of the shape of the story up to this point. Murdering the child of the Chancellor seemed like a good way to do it, especially if the head was actually a trap. The scene that followed was freaky. I did my best to paint a disturbing picture of Andromeda’s head, first speaking and then levitating from the basket, gradually morphing into a horribly demonic form. It was creepy and disturbing.

Just one problem. In no way did it put stress on Rastaban. Doh!

As I was thinking about this earlier today, I realized a portion of my error. Up to this point, Rastaban has been the uber-cool Knight, capable of amazing feats of stealth and prowess. As a result, the last thing that I need to do is give him more opportunities to demonstrate his coolness. Instead, I need to get under his skin. What other hooks do I have in him? Well, he is engaged to a woman that he loathes. Maybe I ought to do something with that, eh? Or what else is on his Cosmos? What does he love? What does he care about? Maybe I need to start hammering that a bit, eh? Might be good.

Bringing a Bang

So, Polaris is a prep-free game, right? Well, I’m beginning to wonder if that’s not completely true. I would suggest that each player should have an idea of where he wants to direct the story, but more practically, I think that each player should show up with a Bang to toss at the protagonist for whom he is the Mistaken. Just one should be enough, mind you, and it may not even be needed. But, I think that play would be improved if each player had a scene in mind to pitch at his “opponent�. That’s what I need to do for Rastaban, and it’s probably good advice for everyone. Come with a little bit of prepwork done, so that you can help get the ball rolling. Once it’s in motion, there’s usually not much problem in keeping momentum, but getting started can be hard. So, come prepared to give things a push.

Final Thoughts

Again, the post-game debrief was helpful. It was generally determined that we needed to detour into some interpersonal issues, especially with Maia or Rastaban, or we would find ourselves ending the game far too quickly. Of course, when we say “interpersonal issues�, we actually mean “love triangles�. For some reason, Polaris brings out the soap opera in all of us. But, since Raquel is traveling, it will be late May before we can return to the frozen wastes of the North and discover what happens next.

But that all happened long ago, and now there are none who remember it.

First a definition. From Merriam-Webster Online:

koan: a paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and to force them into gaining sudden intuitive enlightenment

In this thread on Polaris, I propose a koan of sorts.

When the world has been destroyed, what remains?

I propose that Polaris stories are about answering this question.

I also propose that the answer that someone gives to this question is critical to determining how he will live his life.

Fulfillment

There are moments as a game designer when you suddenly get overwhelmed, when deep in your heart you realize that it works, that someone else has used your game to make art that’s meaningful to both them and to you.

That happened today.

(The previous report can be found here.)

(This account was also posted on The Forge. You might find the responses from the folks there to be interesting.)

Battle is joined in the remnants! Demon armies attack! Dragons clash in the air, and below, the Knights of the Order of the Stars deal death!

At last, we return to our Polaris game. Let’s get into it.

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.

Quotables

“I have no control over what your sister does with her face!�

“Hey, look what my pants do! I don’t know why!�

But First, An Aside

This AP report actually covers about one and a quarter sessions. The first part of the session was on March 1, 2006. However, we were just barely into our second scene when I received an emergency phone call. William, a teenager in our church, had been diagnosed with a brain tumor at the end of January. That night, he had taken a turn for the worse. In particular, one of William’s friends at church was very shaken and needed to talk.

We called the game early, and off I went.

On March 5, William was declared brain-dead. On March 7, he was taken off the respirator. Within 15 minutes, his heart stopped. He was sixteen.

Polaris is a game of loss. This March, as I stood at the grave of a teen, I experienced loss. I believe that William is with his Savior now, but still, I had hoped to have more time with him.

Then, Raquel traveled to Colorado, schedules didn’t line up, and soon a month had passed. Finally, we managed to assemble on April 12 to play.

This time, it was a success.

Overview of Play

Sadal had gone to the headquarters of the Order of Mesarthim to seek Maia. Instead, he found Aludra, Maia’s apprentice, whom Sadal blamed for the scarring of his sister Gemma. He compelled Aludra to come with him and heal his sister. However, as a result, it was fated that both Aludra and Gemma would die.

Then came the massive battle sequence. This was very cool.

The Knights were passing in review in a celebratory parade when a huge demon army attacked. Leading them was Muliphein, once of the Order of the Stars, now a demon himself. He rides a skeletal dragon (essentially a dracolich) but is himself the most beautiful Knight ever seen. I took to calling him “the prettiest Knight�, so the group quickly named him “the Knight of Haunting Beauty�.

Altair took to the sky on Agate, his ice dragon. Being Altair, he quickly moved to engage Muliphein. A well-placed ice blast shattered the dracolich, causing Muliphein to plummet onto the remnant wall. Unfortunately, it simply reformed on the ground, shattered bones rattling together into place. Seized with a chivalrous impulse, Altair alighted from his dragon to battle Muliphein, while Agate turned to fight the dracolich. Altair drew his sword. The two of them stood above the gate. All about them, the battle raged. Then, Altair struck.

Maia had been in the grandstand during the parade, and now she was trying to escort both Andromeda (the Chancellor’s daughter) and the Spring Child to safety. But it was not to be. Muliphein had sent a demon for the Spring Child. It took the form of a giant serpent with a wolf’s head and claws sprouting from its back. Maia fought it, stabbing deeply into its underbelly. However, the acid blood spraying from the wound burned her severely, melting one of her arms and the one side of her face. Then, in desperation, Maia reached within herself and reversed her Hand of Healing. Into this demon, she poured every disease that she had ever healed. Writhing in agony, the demon died, crumbling into dust. But both Andromeda and the Spring Child were gone.

Rastaban had also been near the grandstand when the demons attacked, and so he saw Al Bali the Swallower emerge from the shadows and slip down the corridor, following Maia. He knew that this demon was the Chancellor’s personal assassin, so something must be up.

Indeed, Al Bali had been sent to capture the Spring Child. But he had other ideas. When he cornered the Spring Child, he picked her up and consumed her. But he was unable to consume her essence. Instead, she tore herself from his stomach and continued to walk away. In anger, Al Bali impaled the Spring Child with his claws. But it was too late. The change had begun. From within the demon something burst, ripping apart his body. Poppies sprouted where the Spring Child’s blood had fallen. Where Al Bali had stood, now a tree swayed in the wind. High above in its branches, the Spring Child lay in a cradle of living boughs. Rastaban crept from the shadows and rescued the Spring Child.

This is the first tree ever to grow in any of the remnants.

Sadal took his stand in the streets, rallying the Knights to his side. The demons fell before his furious onslaught. Soon, Sadal had cut his way to the side of Captain Megrez, whom he had once accused of being possessed. Now, they discovered brotherhood in the battle, fighting back to back against the rising tide of demons.

Then Sadal saw his sister Gemma, walking through the battle. Her face was no longer scarred; Aludra had healed her. She beckoned to him, and he followed. Captain Megrez called after him desperately, but it was no use. Megrez was pulled under by the demons, who tore him apart.

Gemma led Sadal to the top of the tallest tower in the remnant. All around them, the city burned. Then, behind them, Aludra came running up the stairs, calling for Sadal to wait. With a fluid motion, Gemma drew Sadal’s sword and ran Aludra through. Then, without another word, she threw herself from the tower.

With her dying words, Aludra confessed that she had used demonic power to heal Gemma. Her last words to Sadal were, “The Spring Child….�

Altair was losing the duel. Muliphein was just too skilled. So, Altair leaped to safety, calling for Antares. But Antares was not responding. He had been courting Gemma, and he saw her fall. In the skies above, the dracolich tore into Agate, causing him to fall from the sky. The dragon crashed into the grandstand, killing Senator El-Nath’s son, earning Altair the eternal hatred of a Senator. Then Muliphein moved in for the kill. But Antares intervened. Having torn himself away from Gemma’s body, he threw himself on the Knight of Haunting Beauty. But Muliphein was too fast. With a swift motion, he cut down Antares, wounding him so severely that he will never be able to fly again.

With a cry of fury, Altair charged Muliphein. His rage gave him strength, and he ran his sword through the other Knight, pinning him to the wall of the remnant. But then Altair’s eyes met Antares’. All that Altair saw was anger and disbelief. Antares blamed Altair for his wound. He blamed Altair for Gemma’s death. Their friendship was shattered.

Altair looked at his friend, twisted and broken on the ground. He looked at his dragon, tangled in the wreckage of the grandstand. The enormity of his loss crashed in on him. He pulled his sword free and slunk away, head hanging in shame and grief.

Muliphein mounted his dracolich and sounded the retreat. Quickly the demon horde withdrew. Behind them, the remnant continued to burn.

Group Input

First, a quote from Ron. In this thread, he says, “[S]potlight time during role-playing is not monologuing, but rather being the recipient of enthusiastic suggestions, cheerleading, and a general verbal barrage. This is the norm in my current regular group, and any time the spotlight-person doesn’t feel like dealing with it, he or she just says, ‘[S]hut up, let me do it,’ and everyone else does.â€? In this session, I found that our group embraced this idea whole-heartedly.

First, certain descriptions were the result of group collaboration. The wolf-headed serpent demon is an excellent case in point. We had established that the demon was a large, shadowy serpent in a previous scene. When the time came to flesh it out, Gabrielle was the Mistaken. However, it was Ralph who suggested the wolf’s head. Did Gabrielle have to incorporate it? Of course not. However, the entire group immediately expressed enthusiasm for the wolf’s head, so Gabrielle chose to incorporate it. The inversion of the Hand of Healing was also Ralph’s idea.

Second, I found that at least Ralph and I were acting as cheerleaders in the Heart-Mistaken conflict between Raquel and Gabrielle. Not only would we offer suggestions as to potential conflict statements, we would generally heckle them as the conflict went on. I recall saying things like, “You can’t let her get away with that!� or “Roll dice! Roll dice!� I’d like to think that these interjections were helpful. At the very least, we egged them on to increase the intensity of their conflicts.

I think that all of this is an important lesson. I was talking with Crystal about various items related to roleplaying, and she said that she often feels intimidated when she has to manufacture a narration out of whole cloth. However, she finds suggestions to be very helpful, because she is able to draw on the resources of the group as a whole and merely exercise editorial oversight, when she is stuck for ideas. I’m guessing that most of us end up in that position from time to time. Encouraging kibitzing within your group can be a good way of encouraging creative input from everyone.

Final Thoughts

Everyone agreed that this was a great session. I think that it is because each character experienced a major crisis point. The one possible exception to this is Rastaban, and that’s my fault. I’m Ralph’s Mistaken, and I probably should have made him bleed more. However, the setup was too cool, and I was actually enjoying where it was all going. Oh well.

I’ll get him next time.

But that all happened long ago, and now there are none who remember it.

(The previous report is here.)

(This account was also posted on The Forge. You might find the responses from the folks there to be interesting.)

Here we go again. We’ve shuffled the player roster a bit, but we’re back in the game. That’s right. We’re playing Polaris again! Indeed I have three sessions to summarize. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.

Quotables:

“You’re the one who possessed him in the first place.”

“He’s far too cool to actually draw his sword.”

“Because everyone knows you don’t look into a mirror around possessed people.”

“Perhaps his miraculous healing threw him off.”?

Players

Since we’ve started a new game, I figure that I’d introduce the players again, including our newest member.

Seth: that’s me. I like mythic settings that are more poetic than “real”?. I like stories with tragic endings. I am therefore squarely in the target audience for this game. Last game I played Na’ir al-Saif, a younger Knight stuck in the shadow of his older brother. This time I wanted to play a more extroverted character with more opportunities for action. Oh yeah, and I wanted a dragon.

Gabrielle: my sister. She has similar tastes to mine in roleplaying, which made Polaris a no-brainer for her. Last game she played Mintaka, a brooding, self-absorbed Knight whose jealousy drove him to murder. This time, she wanted to play someone a bit grander, who perhaps wouldn’t be so internally oriented.

Raquel: our friend. Raquel had tried roleplaying with us once before, when I ran Jailbreak from Unknown Armies. That session was mixed success at best; however, her interest in the activity was peaked enough that she had expressed an interest in trying again. Polaris was a much more successful endeavor with her. In our last game, Raquel played Bellatrix, the haughty Knight whose pride brought so much pain to so many. I’m not precisely sure what Raquel was angling for in this game, but I’m guessing from her comments that she was hoping to avoid being the chew-toy for the story. So far, I’m not sure that she’s actually getting her wish.

Ralph: another friend. Yep, this is the Ralph Mazza of Universalis fame. He games with us on Friday nights and had expressed an interest in playing Polaris. Actually, it was closer to groveling; he really wanted to play. He is still getting the hang of the Key Phrases, but I think that he is quite enjoying himself.

We set up the seating arrangement in the following order, going clockwise around the room: Seth, Gabrielle, Ralph, Raquel. So, for those of you keeping score at home, that means that Ralph and I are a Heart/Mistaken pair, as are Raquel and Gabrielle.

Characters

Last game, I think that we may have woven our characters a bit too tightly to each other, which kicked things off into a higher gear than may have been good. This time we created characters that were a bit further from each other, which has created a slower game pace. Ralph also discovered a rule that we had missed last game. During character creation, each player gets to add one item to every other player’s character sheet in the section of the Cosmos for which he is responsible. This means that I added one item to Ralph’s Mistaken section, Raquel’s New Moon section, and Gabrielle’s Full Moon section. This was an addition that I appreciated. In this way, each player could actually put his mark on each character before play actually began. As a result, there was a lot more discussion and cross-pollinating of ideas during character generation, which is always a good thing.

In the end, we produced four characters.

Altair, a reckless dragonrider for the remnant (Seth)
Sadal Melick, Champion of Clan Draco, one of the greatest Knights of the remnant (Gabrielle)
Rastaban, a Knight-assassin determined to avenge his father’s death (Ralph)
Maia of the Order of Mesarthim, a healer-Knight (Raquel)

In other words, we have Tom Cruise from Top Gun, Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove, an elvish ninja, and a fairly well-adjusted, even-keeled Knight. So, of course, we start doing our best to dump all the trouble in the entire game on Raquel. It’s fun!

Overview of Play

I’m not going to go into any particular details about play. Suffice it to say that our first scene involved Maia accidentally getting one of the lords of the remnant possessed by a nasty demon, and things have gone badly since then. In addition, Altair brought a baby back to the remnant, which he found in the haunted ruins that he obsesses over. This child has already revealed herself to be more than an ordinary child. Indeed, she is the Spring Child. What exactly this means, we haven’t established, although we all have our theories.

And, of course, Maia currently has the Spring Child and is about to be at the center of a political firestorm. Fun!

On Being a Moon

In retrospect, I think that we shortchanged the Moons in our last game. Any character that was in opposition to the Heart ended up being guided by the Mistaken, so frequently the Moons were in a secondary or passive role. Upon further review of the rules, though, I realized that we had been messing this up, so we resolved to change it this game.

Hoo boy. What have we released? Bits of the game broke open even further for me.

Here’s one example. The scene was centered on Sadal, which meant that Gabrielle was the Heart, Raquel was the Mistaken, and I was Full Moon. In this scene, Sadal is confronting Knight-Captain Megrez who was supposedly accused of being possessed. We all knew that he was not possessed, as the entire situation was the result of a communications mishap that we had seen earlier in the game. However, it seemed to me that it would be boring for Captain Megrez to simply roll over and submit to an exorcism “just in case”?. So, instead, I started playing him as having an offended pride, eventually calling in several of his Knights to see this miscreant off.

The funny thing about this is that I was heaping on all sorts of trouble, but I was not the Mistaken. According to the logic that we had assumed during our last game, I was “only”? a Moon. But I learned an important fact to consider as a Moon. You want to align your interests with either the Heart or Mistaken in a given scene. In this case, I knew that I was giving Gabrielle all sorts of trouble and that, when she finally tried to veto with “But It Was No Matter”, Raquel would be waiting to take up my statements with “We Shall See What Comes Of It”?.

And she was.

On Getting Started

When we got together for our first session of actual play, we went over our characters so that we could remember them. Then we stared at each other. Someone needed to get things going, but no one had a good idea. So Gabrielle decided to kill someone. That’ll work. So she started a scene where the Demon in the Mirror killed one of Maia’s patients. Well, that wouldn’t do, of course, so instead the death was negotiated to a possession and then the patient turned out to be an important noble and you can’t let possessed nobles just run around, so Maia tried to chase him, but then she was stopped by someone else needing help…. And things were suddenly in motion. The moral of this story: sometimes you just need something to get things moving, and then everything will be fine.

Random Thought

Ralph hates elves. He thinks that elves are silly.

Ralph hates ninja. He thinks that ninja are silly.

Ralph is playing an elvish ninja.

And liking it.

This game rocks.

But that was all long ago, and there are now none who remember it.

According to its designer, Polaris is about activism. In light of my recent discussion, I thought that this was quite interesting. After all, as Christians, we have an escape from the downward spiral of uncaring that is described in this thread. FYI, there is the use of language in this thread. (Aside: I think that the expression “the use of language” is really quite funny.)

(The previous report is here.) In this post, I wrote:

“Or, for that matter, what does Na’ir say about me? Originally I wasn’t wanting to play a noble loner, which is my default character, but I think that’s where I ended up. At the same time, Na’ir was fiercely dedicated to a people who failed to care anything for him. In his death, Na’ir saved them all from an agonizing demise, yet they spit on his grave and called him a traitor. Still, I thought that his story ended happily. After all, he did save the people, and even if they don’t care, I do. No one else remembers the noble death of Na’ir before the walls of his remnant, but the four of us do. Indeed, our memory of his life and death still remain while the people of Polaris are already dust. And, somehow, that is enough for me.”

I thought about this a bit more, and it made perfect sense. We know that the remnants of Polaris fell. After all, “it all happened long ago, and now there are none who remember it.” So, by definition, my memories of Na’ir’s service to his city outlasted the people’s despise of his supposed treachery. And isn’t that part of our hope as Christians? Our Creator, the Author of this story, remembers all the sacrifices that we have made for Him, and His memory is eternal. Those around us mock us, but one day soon they will all be dust, scattered in the wind. Yet our God will remain, and His remembrance is forever. So what does Na’ir’s ending say about me? It says that I’m a Christian. (The next report is here.)

(The previous report is here.)

(This account was also posted on The Forge. You might find the responses from the folks there to be interesting.)

We did it. After five sessions of play, we wrapped our first game of Polaris. I admit that we cheated a bit to get there (more on this below), but still, what a ride! For those who are interested, the previous session report is here. Let’s get into it, shall we?

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.

Quotables: “Are you going to die?”? “I’ll try!”?

Okay, plotting epic conflict–not knitting.

Overview

There’s a lot to go over, and to make my life easier, I’m going to lay it out by character, rather than in chronological order.

When we last left Bellatrix, she had walked out to the Mistake with her demon child to meet its father. Of course, we all knew that this meant that Marfik had returned for one more scene. As Bellatrix and Marfik argued, I narrated Marfik brushing off his skin which flaked away to reveal his true demon form. We agreed that it looked something like this but worse. Embedded in his chest was a crystal in which burned the light of the Sun. Bellatrix and Marfik argued about their agreement, which was written on a scroll in Marfik’s possession. Even though Bellatrix tried to tear it up, she was unable, since she had signed it in her own blood. Marfik, though, had used someone else’s blood, so he was not bound by it. Bellatrix tried to kill Marfik but was unsuccessful.

At this point, Azrakralizec materialized from the shadows and was about to kill Bellatrix. However, Marfik’s son stopped him, insisting that she be crucified on the wall instead. Bellatrix took advantage of the lull, picked up her son, and threw him at Marfik. The spines on his head cut Marfik, seriously wounding him. Then, Azrakralizec drew his shadow sword and attacked.

We cut away to another scene at this point. When we returned, the duel had ranged out onto the floor of the Mistake. That’s right, Bellatrix was dueling Azrakralizec in the very heart of the Mistake. The light of the midnight sun shone down through the mist, illuminating the combatants as all the demons in the Mistake gathered to watch. But Bellatrix was no match for her opponent. With a mighty blow, the demon clove her sword in two and cut deep into her chest, hurling her to the ground. In a rage, she leaped to her feet and charged him with her bare hands. He simply sidestepped and cut her in half.

As she lay dying, Marfik bent over her to taunt her. “At least you kept your part of the agreement,” he sneered. But, where her blood stained the floor of the Mistake, a single snowflower bloomed. This connected quite well with Bellatrix’s first scene, where she rejected a flower that Marfik had brought her. Sadly, only Gabrielle actually picked up on this in the middle of play. If Raquel and I had been a bit more aware, we might have played it up even further.

Meanwhile, Heka was disowned by her father for being part of a secret marriage. Moreover, her son was again showing signs of being tainted by the Sun. So she took him to a holy man in the remnant who put the blessing of the stars upon her son. “He will be safe,” he said, “for as long as this city stands.” She thanked him and left.

Mintaka wandered out into the wastelands, heading towards the South and the mythical Flame of the South. He fended off snow demons by humming the ballad that he had written for Heka, but eventually he succumbed to the elements. When he awoke, he was in a strange place in the South. The players all knew that it was modern-day New York City, which led to some amusing moments. Eventually, Mintaka located the Flame (which was a gem of some kind) and evaded capture by running down the side of a building. Then he began the long journey back to Polaris, followed by several inhabitants of the city that he had left.

However, the snow demons attacked again, killing several of his followers. However, Mintaka fought them off with his lute. This led to an interesting post-game discussion. Gabrielle saw her character as physically assaulting the demons with his lute, while Crystal and I thought that she was using music to kill the demons. Once the demons were dead, Mintaka pulled out the Flame and cast it into the snow. Then he turned his back on Polaris and led the surviving members of his small band back to the South.

Na’ir Al Saif quested out into the wilderness, seeking the Wail of the Wilderness which has slain his father. But soon the Wail found him, manifesting as a business-like demon who informed him that one person would die in the remnant every hour until he agreed to work with them. Na’if refused, cutting the demonic manifestation in half with his sword. This did not seem to affect the Wail, which continued to speak to him. Na’ir then turned and headed for the Mistake, where he cried out his challenge to the demons below. He could not agree to the Wail’s demands, so he knew that he must try to do something at the Mistake to force the problem to end. Only the Wail responded, reminding him that people were dying in the remnant. So, gripping his father’s sword, Na’ir descended into the Mistake.

As he descended, he met the Frost Maiden, who blocked his way. When he refused to stand down, she smiled and said, “I will only step aside for my friends.” And then she stepped aside, allowing him to continue into the depths of the Mistake.

At the bottom of the Mistake, Na’ir found Marfik. (We figured that this was soon after Bellatrix’s death.) Na’ir challenged Marfik, thinking that he was behind the current attack on the remnant. With a contemptuous blow, Marfik shattered Na’ir’s sword, leaving him gripping only the hilt and a jagged stub. In turn, Na’ir plunged the shard into the crystal on Marfik’s chest, causing it to shatter. Blazing light exploded from the shattered crystal, burning Na’ir and blinding him as his eyes melted away. Yet, as he put his hand out, he felt the shards of his father’s sword on the ground. Gripping them, he stabbed Marfik through the chest, killing him. Then he heard the Wail again. “We are all still here,”? it said.

We cut away at this point. When we returned, Na’ir was emerging from the Mistake, bloody and broken but still clutching the hilt of his father’s sword. Nonetheless, he knew what he had to do. He staggered to the remnant and entered it. The city was full of wailing and crying as the Wail exacted its vengeance. He groped his way to the top of the Starsinger tower, which is the tallest tower in the remnant. Grasping the hilt of his father’s sword, he plunged it into the floor. Then he lifted his face to the sky and called out a name. And the stars began to fall. And with them, they brought healing and life.

In response, the Mistake belched up a demon horde which poured from its maw, hurtling towards the remnant. Na’ir drew forth his father’s sword, which was reforged in ice, and personally led the defense of the remnant. He rallied the defenders, including Heka, and forced the demon horde back from the remnant. Then, in a scene reminiscent of Return of the King, cavalry from another remnant arrived and charged.

The demon horde was scattered. A falling star obliterated the Wail. The remnant was saved.

And then, as Na’ir turned from the battle, a stray arrow pierced his heart. He fell, and he died. No one remembered him and his noble leadership. No songs were ever sung of his sacrifice. Indeed, he was blamed by the people for raising the Mistake against the remnant. He was accounted a traitor to the people, and his name was dust on the winds of time, forgotten by all. Except for us.

How We Cheated

For a variety of reasons, we knew that this was going to be the last session of the game. And so, admittedly, we cheated. Only two of the four Knights were actually played through to completion. Heka and Mintaka were left incomplete. However, there were good reasons for this. In many ways, Heka was largely played as an innocent. Crystal didn’t really “get”? the game until the last couple of sessions, and, as a result, her character wasn’t really “Knightly”? until the end. Instead, she seemed to be the sort of person that justified all the Knights’ sacrifices. The players unanimously agreed that it would be too heart-breaking for something really terrible to happen to Heka. So we decided to let her off the hook. Certainly, her fate is tied to the remnants, and the remnants will fall, but we don’t need to know how it happened.

Mintaka is a bit of a different story. By the end of his arc, Gabrielle saw him as having regained some of the honor that he had sacrificed by murdering Arcturus. However, that honor was not to be found in the lands of Polaris. In part, she made this decision because she felt like Mintaka’s story was running out of steam. Gabrielle and Crystal had a hard time being truly adversarial to each other, and I think that it showed in the lack of intensity in their characters’ stories. So, rather than jumping the shark with Mintaka, we ended his story here.

Besides, now we can take it from the top, with another player. Ralph will be joining us when we start things up next time. I’m looking forward to being his Mistaken.

Thoughts on Ice and Light

When we started playing Polaris, I eyed Ice and Light and thought, “We’re not getting any mileage out of those at all.” Even when I took advances, I bumped Ice based on my opinion of Na’ir (who I saw as being quite duty-bound), rather than on my own sense of gaining Effectiveness.

Boy was I wrong.

During Na’ir’s climactic battle, I used “It Shall Not Come To Pass” about four different times in quick succession. He had just tipped over to Veteran Status, so his Ice was 4 and his Weariness 1. Therefore, I could get my own way 50% of the time. So, while my Mistaken desperately tried to thwart me, I kept brushing aside her complications.

“It shall not come to pass.”

“It shall not come to pass.”

And what I really meant was, “You won’t stop me from getting the death scene that I want.” More on this in a bit.

It all worked because I put Na’ir in a situation where he was supporting the societal structure at the peak of his Effectiveness. As a result, I was able to force the outcomes that I wanted. Rolling well helped, too, I admit, but the thematic decisions that I had made over the course of the game in continuing to ramp up Ice suddenly had a massive impact at the story’s climax. It was amazing.

Thoughts on Getting The Exit You Want

I’ve generally been talking about Mistaken tactics during this series of Actual Play posts. However, I noticed something this session about playing the Heart. Every Knight will eventually betray the people unless he dies first. So, once your Knight clicks over to Veteran, you should be angling to get your Knight to die before he betrays that which he loves. There are a couple of obstacles to getting the good death that you want. The first is, of course, the Mistaken, who ought to be doing his best to make you pay for anything resembling a happy ending for your Knight. The second obstacle, though, is all the unfinished business that your Knight has. So, part of the tension of the game is trying to finish up the work at hand before betraying the people. Ideally, your Knight should die in the process, keeping him from doing any more damage to the people.

To get this to work is a bit tricky, though. You can only call for your Knight’s death as a “But Only If…” statement, which means that you need to get the Mistaken to throw down. On top of that, you have to accept the Mistaken’s statement in order to get your death scene. (Think about it, and it will make sense.) So, how to get your pristine death scene? Here’s how I did it.

First, I started digging up all the things that I wanted to accomplish for my Knight. He saves the remnant from the Wail. He transcends his blindness to lead his people in a desperate battle against the hordes of the Mistake. For a brief moment, he achieved that sort of mystical stature that only few heroes achieve. I kept pushing and pushing and pushing, trying to get a rise out of my Mistake. Then, when the Mistake began throwing out obstacles, I just slapped them down with “It Shall Not Come To Pass”. This worked because of all the Ice that I had accumulated, of course, but I think that it would also work with “It Was Not Meant To Be” or judicious application of “You Ask Far Too Much”. The goal here is to get your Mistaken to hand you a conflict statement that you’re willing to accept. Until he does, no mercy.

Of course, this approach could backfire. I could have failed all those rolls for “It Shall Not Come To Pass” and started racking up the Experience checks. But, nothing worthwhile can be accomplished without risk. So, in our game, finally the Mistake threw out “But Only If Na’ir is blamed for the demonic attacks.”

And, in that moment, I thought of a passage from Ecclesiastes:

Also this I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me. There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it and constructed large siegeworks against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words are not heeded. (Ecclesiastes 9:13-16)

“That’s perfect!” I thought, and so I ran with it. “But Only If Na’ir dies.” And the Mistaken accepted it.

A Brief Meditation on the Mistake

While I don’t buy Joseph Campbell’s overall thesis, I do find some of his observations on the hero story to be interesting. The one in particular that I recall is the “Journey into the Underworld”. In the Journey, the hero descends into the Underworld and faces his greatest challenge. As a result of his victory there, he returns with life and knowledge for his people. When we had finished up our Polaris game, I realized that, at least in our game, the Mistake was the Underworld. Two of the characters had gone to the Mistake, seeking knowledge. Both had made sacrifices within its depths and had returned with the knowledge that they needed. Just an interesting observation. I wonder how other Polaris groups approach the Mistake.

The Necessity of an Aesthetic Sense

As I mentioned earlier, I have been writing a lot about tactics, particular the tactics of playing the Mistake. However, it is important to remember that Polaris is not about “winning”. The goal really is to create a good story through the use of the strategy and tactics. As a result, all the jockeying for position between Heart and Mistaken needs to be counterbalanced by a shared aesthetic sense of what makes for a good conflict outcome. (I mention this idea here.) There were several times over the course of our game that a Heart or Mistaken said, “But I don’t want to object to that. I like it!” That is good. It’s important for all players to be willing to say, “I like the outcome of this challenge, even though it means admitting that my opponent got the better of me.” When a player says something and everyone else nods, being a Jerk needs to go out the window. The scene is right; don’t mess it up.

Post-Game Observations

After the game, we found ourselves sitting around, talking about our characters. In particular, Raquel raised an interesting point. She said that the group had worked for Bellatrix to have something of a heroic ending. However, she wasn’t persuaded that Bellatrix really deserved it. She said that Bellatrix had been arrogant and selfish, putting her own desires ahead of the welfare of the people. As a result, Raquel found herself pondering Bellatrix’s story quite a bit. What did it all mean?

Or, for that matter, what does Na’ir say about me? Originally I wasn’t wanting to play a noble loner, which is my default character, but I think that’s where I ended up. At the same time, Na’ir was fiercely dedicated to a people who failed to care anything for him. In his death, Na’ir saved them all from an agonizing demise, yet they spit on his grave and called him a traitor. Still, I thought that his story ended happily. After all, he did save the people, and even if they don’t care, I do. No one else remembers the noble death of Na’ir before the walls of his remnant, but the four of us do. Indeed, our memory of his life and death still remain while the people of Polaris are already dust. And, somehow, that is enough for me.

shadow of a stone
swirling snowfall obscuring
tracings of a star

But that was all long ago, and there are now none who remember it.

(The next report is here.)

(This account was also posted on The Forge. You might find the responses from the folks there to be interesting.)

Okay, no procrastinating this time. Our group played on Wednesday, and I’m going to get the actual play written up quickly this time. (Not like last time.) So, let’s get into it, shall we?

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.

Quotable: “Our funerals tend to be interrupted by demons.”

Pregame Discussion

Even though there’s no GM in Polaris, the social dynamics of the group still push certain people to the fore. I’m usually the GM, and I own the game, so I still tend to have the role of “rules-monger� and “whip-cracker� in our group. So, before beginning play, I convened the group to discuss various issues. I discussed how I had discovered that we had been shorting the Moons of their Guidance of certain characters. Gabrielle asked how precisely we would end the game. And, finally, we spent some time providing Crystal with some “look-and-feel� for the setting.

That was an interesting chunk of the discussion, actually. I didn’t want to make a list of setting items that would then need to be enforced during play. Instead, I suggested that we all discuss the mental images that we had and try to get them synchronized. Raquel said that she didn’t have any ideas on what the setting looked like, aside from some fuzzy notions, but it hadn’t mattered, since she understood her character. So Gabrielle and I waxed eloquent about how we saw the setting. Here are some selected excerpts, drawn from memory:

“There is more city than is needed by the people. There is this sense of emptiness everywhere. Certainly there are many inhabitants in the remnants, but they always seem to be somewhere other than where the action of the story is occurring.�

“The remnants are always quiet. The falling snow muffles the sounds, of course, but just in general, everything is quiet.�

“The people are living in the shadow of ancient greatness.�

“It’s like Minas Tirith and Mordor. Once the men of Gondor were great, but now their strength is waning, and their Enemy is growing strong.�

“Everything is in shades of white and ice-blue.�

“The demons are red and orange. Bold colors are demonic.�

“The people only die from violence or a broken heart.�

“Knights are capable of wuxia-like feats in combat.�

All in all, it worked. Crystal asked some questions, which we answered, and I think that it made all the difference. She seemed much more engaged in the game this session, although I still don’t think that it is nearly as gripping for her as for the rest of us.

An aside regarding ritual space: we sat in the family room (our living room) to discuss these matters and then moved into the quiet room for gameplay itself. It seemed important to me to keep the spaces distinct. Talking about the game is not the same as playing the game, and I wanted to maintain that distinction by keeping the area set aside for gameplay “sacred�. The discussion was quite helpful, but it did not belong in that specific space. Once the preliminaries were complete, we moved into the quiet room and began play.

Overview

We had two of the protagonists achieve Veteran status in this game. Bellatrix had (somehow) been told that Mintaka had murdered Arcturus and proceeded to confront him in the street. She was prepared to execute him, when Captain Sargas (the commander of these knights) walked around the corner and saw Bellatrix knock Mintaka sprawling. Both Bellatrix and Mintaka assured the Captain that it was merely a training exercise, which he then insisted on observing. Bellatrix again threw Mintaka to the ground and put her blade to his throat. Mintaka then pushed the blade away with his hand and punched her in the stomach. Then he stood and walked away. However, the attack on another knight required an Experience check from Bellatrix, which pushed her to Veteran status.

Mintaka then went to Heka’s house. It had already been established that Heka had given birth to a demonic creature which burst through the window and escaped. In this scene, Gabrielle established that Mintaka had been standing outside, hearing Heka in pain, yet he did nothing to help her. The Experience check that Mintaka earned pushed him into Veteran status as well.

This, of course, necessitated that the knights meet either the Solaris Knight or the Frost Maiden. I took advantage of being next in turn order to narrate Bellatrix’s encounter with the Solaris Knight. Gabrielle was able to narrate Mintaka’s encounter with the Frost Maiden.

The two scenes were very different. I narrated Bellatrix walking down the street, when an unnatural blizzard springs up. As she walks down the street, another knight meets her, coming from the other direction. His eyes blaze with fire, and she knows that it is the Solaris Knight. He draws his sword and salutes her, nodding his respect. Then he passes by, taking the blizzard with him.

On the other hand, when Mintaka returned to his quarters, he found a fire cheerily burning in a hearth, the table set with food, and the Frost Maiden standing before the open window, strumming a lute. She turns to him and smiles. Then everything vanishes before his eyes.

Bellatrix confronted Heka, demanding that Heka tell her what is in her womb. Heka tells her that she sees evil. All the while, the demon within her is taunting her. So, Bellatrix drew her sword and stabbed herself in the belly, trying to kill the demon. But she failed. The demon crawled out of her, smiles and says, “Mother� before running off.

However, Bellatrix is able to pull herself together, stagger off, and rescue Heka’s son. After exorcising him, he is completely fine. So she returns to Heka’s home with the child and places him in the house. Then the demon child of Marfik beckons to her from an alleyway. “Come with me, Mommy,� he says. So she takes his hand. “Daddy is waiting,� it says. So they walk out into the wilderness.

In the meantime, Na’ir confronted his brother and killed him, revenging his father’s murder. Before he died, though, Na’ir’s brother claimed that they were not really brothers. Along the way, Na’ir earned the Fate that he would be accused of both his father and brother’s deaths. As Na’ir dragged his brother’s body out into the wasteland to hide it, he found Arcturus’s body lying by the wall. So, he brought it into the city.

Heka came to see the body of her dead husband. While she stood by the cold slab, she spoke to the demon that constantly tormented her, “You win.�

Mintaka awoke to find a scroll, ordering him to the funeral of Arcturus. Instead, he packed his things and left the city, questing into the South to find the Flame of the South.

Bellatrix once again came to the Mistake. Her child led her deeper into its bowels, and, as the light faded, memories of the torment that she endured the first time began to return to her. Finally they came to a door which opened on a room of flame. “Enter,� boomed a voice, and they compelled her to enter.

And that’s where we wrapped up for the night.

Thoughts on Veterans

I had a couple insights of Veteran status that I thought were quite interesting.

First, I found that the scene where a character gained Veteran status seemed to grow in importance, relative to other events in the game. Technically speaking, Bellatrix gained Veteran status when she struck Mintaka in the face. That act seemed to take on additional resonance, because that was her turning point. There has been plenty of other Knight vs. Knight conflict going on, including an out-and-out murder. Yet, this one strike had added resonance and weight, simply because this one pushed her over the edge.

I felt the same about Mintaka’s scene. In some senses, he didn’t do anything. But, that was the point of the scene. Here, Mintaka has essentially turned his back on his love for Heka. The rest of the session bore this out, as Mintaka decided to run away from everything at the end of the session.

The scenes with the Solaris Knight and Frost Maiden bore this out. The Solaris Knight salutes Bellatrix as a fellow warrior against the people, and the Frost Maiden offers a counterfeit of the happy home life that Mintaka wanted. Each is a corruption of the essential nature of each character, and I thought that both were quite powerful.

I also gained some insight on game strategy, especially being the Mistaken. Now that Bellatrix is a Veteran, she can die, but this can only be the result of a “But Only If…� statement. So, when Bellatrix stabbed herself with her sword, I immediately grabbed for “And Furthermore…� specifically to remove the possibility of allowing Bellatrix a noble death at that point. At that point, I realized that, as Mistaken, I can make the Heart’s pursuit of a tragic death very, very hard. Evil laughter ensued.

A Couple of Random Observations

Both Raquel and I have noted that we are looking forward to this particular run of Polaris to wrap up, in part because we would like to try it again, from the beginning, applying all the various insights that we have learned up to this point. I’m finding that there are more depths in this game than are immediately apparent. This is a Very Cool Thing.

I’ve also noticed that each play session has been quite good, even though I don’t think that we have really been “in the zone� for any of them. I credit at least a portion of this with the solid game design. It seems like it would require a lot of work to have a bad Polaris experience. This is also a Very Cool Thing.

I still maintain that the candle is not optional. Actually, if we start a new “campaign�, even if it’s with the same people, we are going to get a different candle. It would be sacrilegious somehow to use the same candle. I’m also planning on finding a crystal clear d6 to use as the official “game die�. I’m such a geek for props.

As always, this is a great game, and we are all greatly enjoying it.

But that was long ago, and there are now none who remember it.

(The previous report is here.) (This account was also posted on The Forge. You might find the responses from the folks there to be interesting.)

My Polaris group has actually managed to squeeze in a couple more sessions of play since I last wrote here So, naturally, I’m being nagged to write it up for Actual Play. So, here I am. There’s a lot of territory to cover, so I should probably get started.

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.

Overview

Quotable: “Or maybe it’s Marfik; he’s the one who’s been dying lately.�

I don’t want to descend into “and this happened, and this happened�, but context is helpful, after all. So I’ll give a basic summary of the events that during these two sessions. (I don’t have the notes with me, so hopefully I’m getting this correct.)

At the end of last session, Bellatrix was brought up on charges of desertion. She wasn’t at the wall when the demons attacked our remnant; instead, she was talking with Marfik, a fop with apparent demonic connections. So, following my dictum from last post (“Be a Jerk�), I pushed this hard. As a result, Bellatrix was branded “Deserter� on her forehead, which makes her a social outcast. However, she does retain her membership in the Order.

An important exchange occurred when Raquel (Bellatrix’s Heart) wanted to incorporate the testimony of Arcturus, a great knight with whom Bellatrix is secretly in love. My initial response was “But only if Arcturus will never love you�. Apparently I was asking far too much, so I offered “But only if Arcturus loses all respect for you�. Love or respect? Raquel chose respect, so it has been established that Arcturus will never love Bellatrix. This has led to a couple of interesting effects, which I will discuss later.

Heka’s life got weirder as she was attacked on the walls of the remnant by Arcturus (who may or may not have been possessed), causing her to fall outside the remnant. This struggle blinds her, but it opens her inner sight so that she can see the true nature of things. This will only get her into more trouble, no doubt.

Na’ir is desperate to impress his father, and he managed to do quite well in this session. He even foiled an assassination attempt aimed at his father, which was the result of plotting by Marfik. On the way, he actually killed Marfik, but apparently this wasn’t enough, since Marfik appeared elsewhere later in the story. (Obviously, there is more here than meets the eye.) And, although Marfik shattered his starlight sword, we established that Na’ir would inherit his father’s sword, but only after his father was dead.

However, Na’ir suffered loss. He idolizes Arcturus as being the ultimate knight, but he discovered that Arcturus was willing to lie to him. Later, he discovered that Arcturus was involved in the assassination attempt.

Mintaka Starsinger continues to pursue Heka, which culminates with a desperate rescue of Heka from demonic forces that take her captive. As the demon bodies rot around them, Mintaka reads her a sonnet that he has composed in her honor. We left the scene without determining Heka’s response.

After her initial scene, Bellatrix did not appear again until I (as Mistaken) narrated her leaving the remnant, walking out the Mistake, and (with Raquel’s consent), leaping in. As this was the last scene of the night, it made for an effective ending point.

When we reconvened, Raquel had considered what she wanted to get out of this situation, so she established that, at the Mistake, she had discovered the Deadly Secret. I was ready for her, however, and managed to get my own particular desire out of the negotiation: Bellatrix was pregnant with Marfik’s child. How this happened is beyond us. There are a couple of possibilities, but we have not established any of them yet.

As the session proceeded, Raquel revealed the Deadly Secret, to wit, that Heka had secretly married Arcturus and was pregnant with his child. Yep, all sorts of pregnancies going on around here. Crystal was cool with it, so it was established. (Why yes, Arcturus *did* try to kill Heka….)

I was determined to get a little more violence into the game, so I narrated a demonic assault on the remnant. Bellatrix took her stand against the general of the horde (Azrakralizec), killing his steed, when Marfik stepped from the shadows and waved him off. Bellatrix then whirled and stabbed Marfik through the heart. He kissed her on the lips as he died.

Mintaka heard the news about the secret marriage of Arcturus and Heka and was filled with a cold fury. He waited until nightfall, went up onto the walls where Arcturus was standing watch, and stabbed him in the back.

Na’ir al-Saif went to visit his father and found him dead. The Wail of the Wilderness (a demonic force of some kind) had killed him. But Na’ir knew that his brother was involved somehow. So, he belted on his father’s sword and went off to kill his brother.

Potential issues with negotiating future effects

We’ve been doing a lot of negotiating for future effects. Things like “Arcturus will never love you� or “You will not be the one to kill Marfik� and suchlike. The system allows for this sort of negotiation; indeed, it explicitly permits it. This is a powerful aspect of the game which should not be overlooked. The ability to create a Destiny for a character which cannot be denied (e.g. a geas or a doom of some kind) can be quite potent in a tragedy like this. However, one potential pitfall is simply forgetting what has been negotiated for the future. Several times Raquel (the recorder for the group) had to remind us of things that we had previously negotiated that contradicted current facts or negotiations. Certainly, having a “scribe� for the group helps deal with this problem, but it is something to remember.

Also, there is the potential of negotiating away so much future freedom that the rest of the story becomes locked into stone before it is even told. This hasn’t happened to us yet, but it’s worth pointing out.

Heart/Mistaken rivalry

The rivalry between Heart and Mistaken drives the game, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I noticed, as game play proceeded, that Raquel removed the gloves and began to come at me viciously. Part of this was fed directly by the cruelty that I was visiting upon Bellatrix. So, as I ramped up my assaults on her character, it only fed her desire to increase the intensity of her assault on mine. I see this as a good thing; the competition has improved the quality of the game for me. However, it is a feature that should probably be pointed out to players of the game. To do this right, you’re going to have to get in someone’s face. Some folks might not like that. I know that Crystal and Gabrielle have both admitted that they have felt uncomfortable being responsible for bringing adversity on someone else. However, it is the engine that drives the game, and it should not be ignored.

Immersion issues

In the comments section in this blog post, Ben Lehman mentions mixed responses to Polaris from an immersive perspective. What I’m *not* wanting to do here is go over the immersive issue in detail. Rather, I want to offer Ben some feedback, based on a conversation that I had with my wife about the issue. So, Ben, here goes!

Crystal likes to get into her characters’ heads. She wants to know her character well enough that she can decide how her character responds to a given situation. So, we talked about this the other night, and, along the way, we discussed Polaris. Here is what she struggles with.

First, it is hard for her to jump from character to character. The constant switching of roles is challenging for her, since she doesn’t feel like she can settle into character before it’s time to move on. This is something that might be overcome with practice. As she mentioned, we’ve only played Polaris a few times, and this has been a time of Real Life stress (recovering from giving birth; lack of sleep from newborn; extended period of sickness in the family, including said newborn). As a result, it has been a hard time to pick up the nuances of a new RPG. However, I can easily see how provision needs to be made to allow a player who seeks the “immersive� experience to settle into his character. It is possible that the nested ritual space (the opening and closing of scenes) could assist in this regard. Next time we play, we will discuss this and see if we can’t come up with any good ideas.

Second, she doesn’t feel like she has enough setting to hang her character on. I refer you to a similar thread in the Alyria forum. Notice the sorts of questions that Ron is asking. These are the kinds of questions that Crystal wants answered. Now, I admit that she has not read the book, which does affect things. However, when she asks me things like, “What do normal people do in the remnants?�, I can’t provide her with a canon response. It would go a long way to help the “immersives� to answer some of these questions. To that end, here are some questions:
–What does the average person in the remnants do?
–What does commerce look like?
–How are the remnants governed?
–What distinguishes a given remnant from the others?
–What structures belonging to the people exist in the wasteland?
–What do the people eat?
–What do the people wear?
–What kinds of animals are available to the people?

To illustrate what I mean, check out some of the final text describing the Citadel: Citadel Commoners Merchants Noble Houses High Lords Keepers Restored

I grant that I am biased, but I think that there is enough information here for an immersive to hang a character upon, without sacrificing a certain flexibility of setting which is important in games like this.

Now, certainly, an easy answer is simply, “Make it up yourselves!� Personally, I’m comfortable with this. I come at Polaris as providing a certain mood, and setting details exist merely to support that mood. That’s how I tend to approach Legends of Alyria. However, based on my experience with designing Legends of Alyria, I know that this is not enough for some folks. The added detail will not harm the game experience for someone like me, but it will probably enhance the game experience for someone like my wife.

Summation

This is still a great game, which we are enjoying greatly. I’m hoping to be able to sit down and play the next session soon.

But that was long ago, and there are now none who remember it.

(This account was also posted on The Forge. You might find the responses from the folks there to be interesting.)

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.

Ever since I read a playtest version of Polaris, I have been drooling with anticipation at having an opportunity to play it. It seemed to be in a similar vein to Legends of Alyria and Nobilis, which are two of my favorite games. So, when Ben announced pre-orders just as my birthday (and gifts of cash) arrived, I knew that I wanted to purchase this game and take it for a drive. So, the other night, my copy in hand, we sat down to play Polaris.

Players

Seth—that’s me. I like mythic settings that are more poetic than “real�. I like stories with tragic endings. I would therefore appear to be squarely in the target audience for this game.

Crystal—my wife. Crystal generally does not like heavy system intervention in her games. If she has to think too hard about how to do something, it tends to ruin the gaming moment for her. I thought that the freedom of narration in Polaris would appeal to her, and I was correct.

Gabrielle—my sister. She has similar tastes to mine in roleplaying, which made Polaris almost a no-brainer for her.

Raquel—our friend. Raquel had tried roleplaying with us once before, when I ran Jailbreak from Unknown Armies. That session was mixed success at best; however, her interest in the activity was peaked enough that she had expressed an interest in trying again. I sent her a copy of Polaris to suggest that we try it, and she enthusiastically embraced it. Given that there was a recent birth in our family, plus we have been dealing with possible whooping cough in our respective families, we were all a bit exhausted coming into the evening, both physically and emotionally, but still this turned into a great evening of play.

Environment

First, a discursus. I haven’t been really happy with the quality of my roleplaying of late. Often, I have felt too tired to summon up the necessary creativity, but for whatever reason, I have not felt like my roleplaying fu has been particularly strong. We recently attempted Dogs in the Vineyard, and I felt like I fumbled through the entire session. It didn’t have the zip that I was accustomed to. I’m not blaming the games; obviously lots of folks have gotten good mileage from DitV. However, something was off.

I didn’t want Polaris to be another failure, so I started considering the last time that we had achieved successful play. When we first moved to Illinois, Gabrielle, Crystal, and I used to play Nobilis on Friday nights. It was a great success. Our play more recently had been lackluster. What had changed?

As I pondered this problem, I soon identified one major change. In my house, we have set aside a special room that I named the “Quiet Room�. (I didn’t figure that my children would understand “Meditation Room�.) We had decorated it in a faux Japanese style, which means that you’re sitting on the floor around a low coffee table. My sake sets are on display in this, as is the daisho that I was given by my family before we moved to Illinois. Outside one of the windows, we planted a dwarf cherry tree, so that we can see the blossoms from the window. (Ben, you might be a China geek, but I’m a Japan geek.) Ideally, this is a special room dedicated to being a haven of peace in an otherwise crazy house. In reality, it often becomes a dumping ground for stuff, as we try to fit eight people into a house that seems to be running out of room. It is often a mess. However, it was in this room that we had achieved some of our best roleplaying. Since then, we had been gaming at the dining room table, which works fine for the boardgaming that we do but was apparently the kiss of death for our roleplaying.

So that day, before Raquel came over, we completely overhauled the quiet room. We bought a new set of bookshelves to fit the additional books that had accumulated in the room. We moved the children’s books into another room. We also shuffled the furniture around, moving the coffee table to be under the window, so that the center of the room was empty and ready to receive people. We bought a special candle and candleholder for use in the game and dug out the incense. In short, we prepared the creative environment.

As the rest of this post will demonstrate, our efforts paid off handsomely. We all agreed that the room had been an important part of focusing our attention on the game. Perhaps it is another aspect of creating the ritual space that Chris Lehrich talks about in his article.

I bring all this up to make an important Actual Play point: the environment in which you play is not neutral. Structuring your environment to provide maximum creativity is an important part of roleplaying.

Power of Ritual

Now, to the game. When I had read the rules, I fell in love with the use of ritual phrases for conflict. Also, intellectually, I knew the importance of the general key phrases to open and close the game and to introduce the protagonists. However, it is a completely different thing to experience it. We all gathered in the quiet room, where I put the candle in the middle of the room. I then called everyone to order and explained that the game always opened with a particular phrase. As I was teaching the game (and had paid the money for the game), I claimed the right to be the first person to open the game. So, I lit the candle and intoned, “Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.�

Chills, folks. Chills.

I felt completely on-point for the entire game, and I credit it largely to this innovation. Through this symbolic act, we were all agreeing that the time had come to focus on the game. I’m still trying to figure out how to steal this for other roleplaying games. If nothing else, perhaps I’ll use the candle. I’m not really sure.

However, what surprised me the most was the effectiveness of the phrase used to introduce characters. As this was the first session that we were playing, a sizeable chunk of our time was spent on character creation. Honestly, I had thought that it was a little odd to use the “character intro� phrase at the end of chargen. However, once we had put together our characters, we went around the room, each repeating the phrase. Again, I went first: “But hope was not yet lost, for Na’ir al-Saif still heard the song of the stars.� And at that moment, I felt something stir in me. The world is coming to an end, but here is one who will not go down quietly. I could tell the others felt it as well. As we went around the room, each character’s name rang out like some mythic hero. The knowledge that only tragedy awaits each of them only added to the poignancy of the moment.

I commented to Ralph yesterday that, from the outside, it all feels so silly, saying these special words. Yet, it works, and it’s almost frightening how powerful it is.

The Importance of Being a Jerk

As I was meditating on the lessons learned from this session of play, the biggest one was simple: when you are the Mistaken, be a jerk. I don’t mean that you should be cruel to the other player, but you should be as cruel as possible to the character. Show no mercy. The funny thing is that this actually results in better play for everyone, specifically the player controlling the Heart of this particular protagonist. Here is an example from play.

So, we had been circling around some weird love triangles between a couple of the PCs and an oily fop named Marfik. That is all well and good, but I wanted me some violence. So when it was my turn to frame a scene, I dropped my character (Na’ir al-Saif) straight into a battle scene. He is walking guard duty on the walls of their remnant when a demon army hurls itself from the wilderness at the remnant. Raquel is my Mistaken and picked up this thread with relish. Suddenly the demons were flaming beasts and, at Crystal’s suggestion, they were led by a skeletal general riding a dracolich monster. This was all working for me. Then Raquel threw her first curve ball. The demons were throwing fireballs (or somesuch thing) at the wall where I was standing, shattering it and making me fall into the heart of the oncoming army.

I wasn’t expecting that, but it was cool. Na’ir al-Saif is a bookish sort of fellow, trying to prove himself to his father and get out from the shadow of his older brother. So this was working well for me. An opportunity to distinguish myself in combat! Sweet! So I narrated how I stood up and slaughtered the squad of demons that I had landed in. Then I moved to attack the general on his dragon by cutting off one of the dragon’s legs.

Then Raquel threw her second curveball. She cut to the ramparts where Marfik is standing on the ramparts next to Giauzar, my brother. Both are watching me in the battle. Marfik says to Giauzar, “This is not going as planned.�

I was in awe. You need to understand that, while we all had this sense that Marfik was a Bad Guy, we didn’t know that it was this bad. We also didn’t know that my brother was involved at all. Up to this point, he was just the standard overbearing older brother to me and the Master Starsinger teaching Gabrielle’s character. With one brief narration, Raquel had completely rocked our comprehension of the entire story.

But wait! There’s more!

Much as I liked Raquel’s narration, there was no way that I was going to let her get away with such large changes without getting a little something for my troubles (both present and future). So I said “But only if Na’ir achieves great victory in the battle.� So, Raquel gets her cool cutaway scene only if I get to deal out major butt-kicking. Well, Raquel isn’t so sure of that, so she counters with “But only if Na’ir is greviously wounded in the battle.� Well, that satisfied my aesthetic sense, so I accepted. “And that was how it happened.� So, while the villain and my brother watched from the ramparts, I cut off the leg from the skeletal dragon, which promptly fell on top of me.

And so it was…

It was probably the coolest scene of the evening, and it only worked because the Mistaken and Heart were completely biased advocates for their aspects. Had we been trying to cooperate to draft the story together, it would not have been nearly as cool as it was.

Wrapping up play

There are other points that I could mention, but I’m starting to run short on time. Suffice it to say that, despite the aforementioned fatigue, it was a great evening. Finally, we agreed that we were getting too tired to go on, so I said the closing phrase: “But that was long ago, and there are now none who remember it.� Then I blew out the candle.

Summation

Ben, this is a great game. I’m looking forward to getting a lot of mileage out of it. As it stands, this is already on my list of things that I wish that I had done. The entire group is looking forward to the next session with eager anticipation, wanting to answer that most vital of questions: “But what happens next?�

But that was long ago, and there are now none who remember it

(The next report is here.)