Nov 4
players: Shuo, Pat, Josh, Ben

(Apologies if I was a little spacey during the game. I realized afterwards that the creeping stupor was a nascent head cold, so I may have been fuzzier than usual.)

The Knights of the Stars lead a bold attack and seize the outer ruins of the great city at the heart of the north, lost to the Mistake long ago. Yay, we rock! But hope is fleeting:

- Indus (Ben, antagonist Pat) was guided by the seer Lacerta lead the crusade to retake the ruins, and at first victory seemed close, but Lacerta's price is too high (guess who's a Mistaken?), and despite destiny, Indus is unwilling to doom so many of his people to press the attack. The hopeful start turns bitter, as the Mistaken wash forth from the ruins and storm the battlements of proud Tallstar...

- Musca (Shuo, antagonist Josh) strikes deep into the ruins, far beyond her fellow knights, and is ensnared by the Mistaken and cast down into madness. In time she returns to the people, but never truly escapes the madness and sorrow...

Indus seemed pretty straight most of the time, but I liked the very "reasonable" progression from optimistic honorable (and trusting) knight to iron-handed tyrant saving the people from themselves. It might have seemed like Lacerta wasn't getting me to do bad things, but in fact he was sowing huge discord in the long run. My "virtuous" behavior got the knights disbanded, and led me to overthrow the Council and arrest the lot of them. I like the whole "you can disband the knights, but we knights are sworn to virtue you can't take away" bit, i.e. we're not knights because we have a license, we're knights because of our oath to something greater.

The origin of Indus's "magic footstep symbol prophecy" is a great example of dynamic story gaming: Shuo (my sister) says our mother is dying and I have to abandon the attack to be by her side, Pat throws in that it's not a normal sickness, there's a magic symbol on her that's also in my footsteps, and I rebuttal with the idea that the symbol is a sign that I'm destined to beat the Mistaken: Mom already knows that, and it was her command (with advice from Lacerta) that I go and defeat the Mistaken and fulfill the prophecy, not sit by her sick bed. Mom is hardcore. So Shuo's attempted conflict (do I fight or be with my dying mother) got flipped into a totally different idea.

In hindsight the prophecy came true. Indus did defeat the Mistaken, by abandoning doomed Tallstar and leading the people far away to a refuge where they were safe. The whole "symbols in his footprints" made even more sense, because he did it by leading the people away, not fighting. Perfect. I totally should have pushed the last conflict one step farther: when I declared their haven would be safe from the Mistaken, and Pat pushed back But Only If I was remembered as a hated tyrant (they'd already ditched me in the wastes), I totally should have But Only If'ed for my sister to remember me fondly. Doh!

My loyal sergeant Massim losing heart and refusing to leave the city was priceless, because it let me express why I was doing it, what was at stake, etc. Massim's staying or going wasn't the conflict at all, but it was critical roleplaying to show what the real conflict was. Really good stuff.

I really liked Musca going mad and thinking she was the lost hero Hadar. I wished we could have done more with it: some way for Musca's madness to lead her back to the city, to make that a continuation or outgrowth of her madness, rather than it being more of a retreat from action. Being stuck in the heart of the Mistaken city made it pretty hard to bring in new people or build up personal connections -- that would have been an awesome place to be if we'd already had a few personal scenes to establish relationships first.

Swapping protagonist and antagonist was a cool experiment -- it was really interesting to see people switch hats. We should have done it with Indus too, but I figured we were pretty close to the end of his story. Josh and Shuo, what did you guys think of the swap?

(Hey, that's a pretty long summary for a guy with a runny nose. Pass me a kleenex!)

I liked the swap. It was nice getting a chance to play the antagonist without having to wait for a brand new game, even if it was just for two scenes. Now that I'm more familiar with the game's mechanics and objectives (which was definitely harder to grasp than Fiasco's the first time around), I'm eager to play Polaris again.

Ben, thanks for facilitating and navigating Pat, Josh, and I through the treacherous land of the North. I hope you feel better soon too!!

Being the antagonist (Mistaken) can be a lot of fun. Generally it's harder than being the protagonist, or maybe it's more accurate to say it's more critical, because if you can't get a handle on the protagonist and don't provide interesting pressure, most games falls flat.

Shuo I think you get the antagonist roll pretty well: your first move with Indus's sister Sadr ("You have to abandon your quest, Mom's on her deathbed!") was an excellent antagonist move, even though you were a Moon. It's pressure, but it's not so narrow that it doesn't give the protagonist (me) choices. I'd say that's really the definition of good antagonism in any story game: creating tough choices for the protagonist, not just hurting them.

Aww, thanks Ben. I'd love to play the antagonist for a full game next time. I think I struggled with the Moon role. I wasn't sure how much conflict I could make with the protagonist or when to jump in as another non-established character. I'd like to work on finding a better balance in my next game.