If you are a mature traditional roleplayer looking for an interesting and revolutionary piece of rpg design ,and playing with exactly four players is to a problem to you, I really recommend this game. No GM, competitive <b>and</b> cooperative play, and radical game design - but enjoyable even to grognards like my friends and I.
Thanks for the review, CJ! You did an excellent job in both describing the game itself and the perspectives your group brought to it.
I do have to disagree with your suggestion that this is a game for a "traditional roleplayer," insofar as I see collaborative storytelling as a different sort of activity from "traditional" roleplaying on a fundamental level: once you no longer see the world through your character's eyes, but rather as the author of your character's adventures -- whether affected by game mechanics or not -- you're no longer playing the same type of game. As always, though, I should point out that this is not an indictment of collaborative storytelling, which I greatly enjoy.
On the other hand, I have to say that this bit...
Quote:
We took it in turns to launch a scent each. You don't have to, but for a first game it works pretty well, and I recommend it.
...arguably does describe a stereotypical "traditional" gaming group.
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We also found in our group that the Moons are very, very important. Much more important than we realized at first. My suggestion to anyone playing this is go to 11 as a Moon. Suggest all sorts of stuff. Be aggressive in the story. Give your opinion and make even more suggestions. The way the game is designed, the Moons cannot break stuff since the final say is up to the Heart and the Mistaken; however, with the Moons firing on full cylinders you get loads of really great twists, betrayals, love stories; etc.
Also, one of my good friends, Anna, is releasing a game called Thou Art But A Warrior, which is a morph of Polaris that takes at the end of Muslim Spain and the beginning of the Crusades. Very well done. There are some changes to the system to make it work for the topic, but it's very much based on Polaris. It's very well done and much recommended. The site is here.
aaron
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We also found in our group that the Moons are very, very important. Much more important than we realized at first. My suggestion to anyone playing this is go to 11 as a Moon. Suggest all sorts of stuff. Be aggressive in the story. Give your opinion and make even more suggestions. The way the game is designed, the Moons cannot break stuff since the final say is up to the Heart and the Mistaken; however, with the Moons firing on full cylinders you get loads of really great twists, betrayals, love stories; etc.
Quote for truth. This is particularly true if you can narrate stuff that either the Mistaken or Heart will support. In this way, you can actually join forces with either Heart or Mistaken as you desire.
I'm perverse enough to think that it's more fun to side with the Mistaken, but that's me.
We also found in our group that the Moons are very, very important. Much more important than we realized at first. My suggestion to anyone playing this is go to 11 as a Moon. Suggest all sorts of stuff. Be aggressive in the story. Give your opinion and make even more suggestions. The way the game is designed, the Moons cannot break stuff since the final say is up to the Heart and the Mistaken; however, with the Moons firing on full cylinders you get loads of really great twists, betrayals, love stories; etc.
Absolutely. We all were involved pretty much all the time, and that was what made it so enjoyable, even though many scenes only featured oe protagonist.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FruitSmack!
Also, one of my good friends, Anna, is releasing a game called Thou Art But A Warrior, which is a morph of Polaris that takes at the end of Muslim Spain and the beginning of the Crusades. Very well done. There are some changes to the system to make it work for the topic, but it's very much based on Polaris. It's very well done and much recommended. The site is here.
aaron
Very interesting indeed! I happen to have an academic background in the period and a pretty good knowledge of Moorish culture and the Reconquista, so I would love to see this, either as a playtester or to write a review.
Absolutely. We all were involved pretty much all the time, and that was what made it so enjoyable, even though many scenes only featured oe protagonist.
Very interesting indeed! I happen to have an academic background in the period and a pretty good knowledge of Moorish culture and the Reconquista, so I would love to see this, either as a playtester or to write a review.
cj x
Anna is one of the nicest people I know. If you contact her from the email on the site I put in my above post, she'll no doubt give you the beta stuff for a play test. I know she can't get enough of those. I'm sure she'd love a review too when the game comes out.
aaron
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Last edited by Aaron.Brown; 04-04-2008 at 05:35 PM..
Reason: Forgot words. I dumb.
Excellent review, and I really loved getting your perspective on Polaris.
I'm also going to second (third?) the recommendation for Thou Art But a Warrior. Especially if you're interested in the Caliphate of Cordoba. Much as I love Polaris, TABaW is even better.
This is a hard thing to say over the internet, but I'm truly touched by reading this review. Polaris was a painful and complicated birth -- I have poured a lot of blood and sweat into it -- so it is an emotionally charged thing for me to read.
This review both expresses a deep understanding of the game itself, which is fantastic to read at any time, but also an insight into a lot of the stuff I struggled with while writing the game (for instance, the shape of background material is a result of me struggling with the flavor text of Nobilis: what it did well but also how it failed me.) So that's wonderful to read.
Additionally, my biggest disappointment with the game is the people who seem to regard it as an artifact or text rather than as a game. So hearing about it sitting on your shelf for three years, then finally getting played, is really heart-warming. The game is not a museum piece to be admired, it's a game, to be played and enjoyed by gamers like me, and maybe some of their friends. I can now imagine all those other copies not as seeds that have failed to find fertile soils, but instead as simply dormant, awaiting the right conditions to grow and flower.
So, all in all, it is a wonderful thing to read during a bad day. Thank you.
I do have to disagree with your suggestion that this is a game for a "traditional roleplayer," insofar as I see collaborative storytelling as a different sort of activity from "traditional" roleplaying on a fundamental level: once you no longer see the world through your character's eyes, but rather as the author of your character's adventures -- whether affected by game mechanics or not -- you're no longer playing the same type of game.
I have a funny story about this.
I'm sitting in Vincent's living room floor, maybe June 2005? I'm preparing the text of Polaris for the final layout bits, Vincent is doing the final runs through the second edition of Dogs in the Vineyard.
Vincent: "Hey, Ben, do you use 'role-playing game,' with a hyphen, 'role playing game,' with a space, or 'roleplaying game' without a space?"
Ben: *thinks for a minute* "I have no idea. Let me check in Polaris." *checks*
Ben: "Actually, I don't use the term 'role-playing' once during the whole book?"
Vincent: "Oh. I guess that would fix my problem."
--
Ultimately, I don't have a strong attachment to whether or not Polaris is consider a role-playing game. Some people strongly believe that it is not, some people strongly believe that it is. Here's what I can say:
* For me and many others, it scratches the same itch that role-playing scratches.
* Practice has shown that people who like role-playing games will like Polaris, and will learn things from playing Polaris which will help their other play.
* Polaris shares many many elements with primal RPGs (D&D, T&T, and so on), including talking in character, getting in touch with your character's emotions, making decisions for your character, announcing in-character actions, multi-session play with a stable group, heroic adventures, and so on.
* For those who feel like role-playing == immersion, some people who are into immersive play have reported that Polaris is really great for it, other people have reported that it has been really bad for immersion. I'm not one to judge either way, since I'm no longer trying to be possessed by a character while I play.
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