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I bought it as soon as it came out. My copy is number 29 of 108. I've meant to play it for two – three? - years. Yet, every time I started reading it I stopped.
Why? The setting. A heavy block of symbolism, ice and despair, it rests at the beginning of the book and makes for a daunting start. I'm used to games like PTA, that go "make your own setting, here are the rules", or Dogs in the Vineyard, with "I'm just a designer making this stuff up, you do your own stuff, that's cool". Here, it feels so very serious. And so cold.
Oh well. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. And today, that means I'm finally going to hack my way through the ice to find out what all the fuss is about.
The setting: Reading through it
(Note: I wrote the section below before playing the game. I left it as it is, so you can see the contrast between reading and experiencing it).
The game is set in the past of a different world. Everything is told – and played – in the past tense. Here are the basics:
The world once had a great city, Polaris, built of ice and starlight. The people there knew only stars, no sun; ruled by a just and lawful king, and a loving queen, they were happy. The queen had her own order of soldiers, given to her by the king, and led by their captain, Algol.
Then came the Dawn – when the sun rose, followed by the moon. The king loved it, and cried for its beauty; the queen didn't, and her guardians took an oath to stop the dawn's influence. They were known as the Order of the Stars. The first oath was sealed with a kiss – between captain Algol and the queen.
Then came the Mistake – a disaster that left the city a smoking crater spawning demons. The book gives several possible explanations and orders of events; however, it seems likely that the kiss was the beginning of the Mistake.
Characters are Knights Stellar, of the Order of the Stars. They stand between the remnants of the people and the demons that would devour them.
(I find it easy to attach an oedipal interpretation to this backstory – but that might just say more about me than about anything else).
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Written in high style, the setting description is at once poetic and cumbersome. Here, for example, is the description of the Queen:
"With him, there was a girl and yet, beside him, she was his queen. Stark and quiet, with a laugh rare like blue starlight, she held breath in her eyes – and such a smile! - to look upon her was to love her, and love her the people did, but Polaris loved her most of all".
Very much will depend on how you like this style of writing. Personally, it's not what I want from a role-playing book at this point (my opinion may change), but others like it.
The setting: Actual play
So. After reading through the book, I gathered a few friends (exactly three, in fact, as Polaris is meant for four people). One player read the intro out loud...
...and it all clicked into place. The rhythm of the prose, the imagery, it all sprang to life. A new dimension, all of a sudden. I felt as if I'd just opened a pop-up book instead of black words on white paper. This book should be read aloud. There's a beauty, lightness and air in the phrases you don't get from the written page.
However, we hadn't the time or patience to read the whole setting in this way. If I ever decide to run a campaign, though, I will set aside an hour for someone to read the setting chapter to the others; it's wonderful. As it was, I ran through the basics, read some passages out loud, and then started explaining the rules.
At the start of the game, we were all pretty good at staying in tone. Things were cold, spiky, icy; lots of desolation and high peaks. However, we hadn't internalized the setting completely, and towards the end of the evening – at two in the morning, after a few bottles of wine – we found we had unwittingly started reverting to "gritty medieval" mode. The castle described in one of the final scenes was very European, holy grail-style. There's a lot to focus on in the game, and we weren't able to keep it all in our heads at one time – so the setting slipped. In GM-less games, where there's not a GM with the responsibility to keep the vision intact, the tone of a game can easily drift.
The rules: A quick run-through
Polaris is for four people (no more, no less), and the stories they tell will be tragedies.
One of the most interesting things – and challenging to get into – is that there is no single GM; each player has guidance over different elements of each others' story. That means that if you are the main controller of a character – that character's Heart – other players will control the character's opposition (Mistaken), emotional relationships (New Moon) and societal and hierarchical influences (Full Moon). There's more detailed information about this in the book, of course.
The other thing that got my attention was how conflict works. When your character gets into trouble, which is usually (but not always) stirred up by whoever's your Mistaken, you don't immediately roll dice. You and the Mistaken will start a quick round of negotiations, using specific ritual phrases. If the Mistaken, for example, says "As Ursus reaches for his beloved, he slips on the ice floe and falls into the icy river", you can answer with the phrase "But only if..." and say something like "But only if... he sees the silver key he's been searching for under the ice". Or you can answer with the phrase "You ask far too much", and the Mistaken will have to come up with an alternative statement, so you can choose which one you like the best.
Of course, sometimes you're not going to agree. Or you just feel like rolling some dice. That's when one of you will say "It shall not come to pass", and grab a die to see what happens. Depending on a roll against your character's Zeal (or Weariness, if the character has been around for a while), and his Light (internal strength) or Ice (sense of purpose) stat, either you or the Mistaken will get what you want.
Not all phrases can be used at all times. Some have certain prerequisites, others can only lead to a subset of phrases – and some require you to exhaust a Theme. All characters have four Themes: Offices, Fate, Blessings and Ability. When you've exhausted all four Themes of a character, certain phrases are no longer available to you.
One more thing I want to mention: Experience. In Polaris, you gain experience in two cases: When your character loses a conflict, and when your character does something that the Knights shouldn't do – act in a callous manner, despair, sympathize with a demon etc. That sounds bad, right? It is – because "experience" in this game means your character advances towards his/her inevitable, tragic end. Zeal decreases, or transforms to Weariness, even though the abilities Light and Ice can increase.
Making an example character
I know many people like to read how character generation is for a specific game, so here's a quick run-through.
First, I choose my knight's name from a list of star names. I choose Chara (meaning joy).
Then, I set my starting abilities. They're the same for all knights: Ice 1, light 1, Zeal 4.
Under each Theme, I write specific starting aspects – the same for all knights. Office: Knight of the Order of the Stars. Blessing: Starlight Sword. Abilities: Lore of Demons. Fate (here the group chooses a name, which shows someone ALL characters will have in their Fate): Gacrux.
I get to add two more aspects of my own choice. I pick two from the appendix, although I could have made up my own: Aide to Senator Altair, and Refined.
Finally, I note down one character (demon or human) for each of my three co-players to control in my story. The Mistaken gets the demon Perrica; the Full Moon gets Senator Altair; and the New Moon gets my brother Wezen.
As you see, the mechanical process is very simple. However, that's not where the complexity of this game lies.
Actual play: Emergent complexity and subtleties
In play, we hit some beginner problems that will inform how we do this the next time.
The first: One of the players decided to use two protagonists as part of his cosmos – that is, he let two of us run our own characters in his story. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out it wasn't. After a while, we were all travelling together like an adventuring party on a quest, which, plainly, sucked. I believe the game shines much more when each character gets focus on his/her personal story; tragedy is a personal thing, not something for a band of adventurers.
The second: We were clumsy with the conflict system. In particular, we used it to hang on for too long to our darlings. Two different favorite opponents were both used too much in scenes, but were never vanquished; one of them, a demon in bird form, had both wings cut off, its body impaled and its head severed, but still we somehow couldn't just let it die or fade away. Another, the ex-husband of one of the characters, had three swords through his body and his legs in burning lava – but there were still protests when he died.
That being said – I mentioned that the rules weren't complex, even though the game is. What I mean is that there's a lot to keep track of. There are four protagonists, each of which have complex interactions with the world around them; they each have a separate set of NPCs and places, different histories and abilities, and their actions and reactions – together with the dynamics of the different guides (Moons and Mistaken) – will make each character's story different in style and content. Trying to do each story justice, while keeping the setting firmly in mind, and trying to have a coherent vision of how the game plays, was a challenge; and when using the conflict system, it was hard to keep the stories and visions intact while having to use the added layer of competitive/tactical complexity introduced by the use of the phrases.
The game reminds me of Shock: in many ways – most especially in that it takes training. My first session of Shock: was a bumpy ride, satisfying in places, horrid in others; my last (so far) some of the best play I've ever had. I expect Polaris to be similar: It will take some time and practice to get a feel of the game – to "grok" it completely. However, from what I've seen so far, I believe it will be well worth it.
All in all
I've only played this game once, and to me, it seems clear it's not a one-shot game at all. It needs a campaign, and a group willing to take the time to grasp the complexity and subtleties little by little, to get maximum enjoyment from Polaris.
I recommend the game to those who like their role-playing challenging, full of potential, stimulating and new. If you're willing to explore the medium, and take it seriously, definitely try Polaris.
