We played a hacked setting of polaris, with three players and two protagonists. The setting was the Roman Republic, with both protagonists members of the Consular Guard.

Galerius was a veteran of war and man of conviction.
When he went to the Temple of Saturn, the augury of his future was filled with ill-omens.
He was in the Senate for the fall of the republic, and in the power vacuum that resulted, stepped into power. Eventually, he was forced to spill the blood the usurper Suetonius (the man who instigated the republic's fall) to slake the thirst of the gods.

Decius was a noble playboy and was convinced he had the good life.
After Suetonius sent him out to wage war on the barbarians, he was promoted in rank.
While Rome fell, he was busy escorting his fiancee Appollonia, Galerius' sister, to his Mother's estate.
Eventually Appollonia gave birth to a child, who was named Galerius' heir.
Decius, feeling the pressure, chose to try to flee Rome.

That might have been one of the most "natural" Polaris games I've played. The characters felt like entirely real people, and their situations were entirely believable. Even when Galerius became emperor, it wasn't rushed or implausible, it flowed very naturally.

The shared relationship with Apollonia (Decius' fiance, Galerius' sister) also really fed the plot far more than I imagined. Even though the hearts never met in-scene, that crossed destiny tied the two stories together beautifully.

As a mistaken theme, imperialism threatening the democracy of the republic was excellent. I loved having my low-born fiance be a mistaken because now that she'd seen the advantages of privilege, she was all for aristocracy so long as she was an aristocrat. And then boom, a beat later her veteran soldier brother becomes the de facto emperor, but with popular support and purges the nobles... Really juicy stuff.

The only downside for me was that as a facilitator I didn't do a great job with the very last conflict of the game. We got into a rut of just reversing fortunes. I should have stepped back and reiterated the "add a price tag, don't just say no" concept. It was ironic, because it was the very last conflict of the game, and in the other conflicts we had done a great job of building/corrupting instead of saying no.

We also killed remarkably few named characters, which I think helped make things feel more real. Characters became important instead of just getting wiped out before they meant anything.

Matt, good job doing double-duty as both Heart & Mistaken!


Polaris Pro Tip:

Here's a really simple way to play Polaris correctly and avoid slipping into GMing during free play. We used this during this game and it worked great. I think it would have helped a lot with the Battlestar Galactica game:

- never start a sentence "You do/think/say/see XXX"
- always start sentences "I do/think/say/see XXX"

With "you" meaning characters other people have guidance over, and "I" meaning your own characters.

So if I'm guiding Decius and you're a soldier, instead of saying "Decius hears a soldier approaching" you should say "The soldier marches up to the house." It's up to me to say what Decius does/hears/etc.

I had an absolute blast with Polaris! Thanks Ben and Josh for putting up with me.

To be fair, the nobles were purged by populist uprising.

I love the system, and once you grok the details, much of it comes naturally. I'm sorry I missed the Battlestar Galactica hack; the themes are desperately similar. The system could be applied to just about any "fall of an empire" setting you please (I'm thinking of the Star Wars prequels and Song of Ice and Fire in particular).

Looking forward to joining in more games in the future!