"I think his lover is a guy. Is homosexuality a bad thing in this society?"

"That's up to us. If we want it to be fine, it's fine. Or if we want to explore it as an issue we can say gays are persecuted."

"Cool. Yeah, I want it to be an issue and have homosexuality be forbidden. Their love is a secret. Everyone okay with that?"

And so it was.


players: Alex, Drew, Brian, Ben

Everybody picked up Polaris very quickly, which is pretty impressive. I think the main bobble was me not explaining the transition from free play to conflict as clearly as I could have.

Nekkar (Drew protagonist, Alex antagonist) -- Forbidden love makes strange bedfellows, by which I mean turning away from your fellow knights and joining what turns out to be a demonic cult. Whoops.

Ara (Brian protagonist, Ben antagonist) -- Ever since she found a shard of a fallen star as a child (and refused to share it with her best friend!), Ara has been convinced that _she_ is the hero who can save the people, nevermind what the elders say.

Both stories totally hit the mark of focusing on things the protagonist cared about. When Polaris goes awry, that's usually what's missing.

I had a great time playing Ara's bitter childhood friend, Corvus. Brian put out some great heroic flaws for Ara that made being the antagonist really fun.

Drew and Alex, I thought you guys did a great job of zeroing in on Sirius as the center of Nekkar's character. And then wisely not killing him, at least not until Nekkar freakin' ran him through at the end game. Sometimes true love means impaling someone on your starlight sword lest they make googly eyes at a demon.

Also kudos for checking with the table and asking "hey, are we all cool with exploring a society where homosexuality is persecuted?" That's exactly how it should be done.