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Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at the Utmost North
Once upon a time, as far north as north can go, there lived the greatest people that this world will ever see. They are gone now, destroyed just as the world destroys all beautiful things. All that remains are these moments we call memories, moments frozen from the flow of time.
Chivalric Tragedy at Utmost North is a game for three to five players set during the final years of the Northernmost People, just before the remnants of their civilization were swallowed up by their own Mistake.
This is no longer a history; this is not yet a story. This is all that remains. Whatever else is what you make of it.
(synopsis from www.tao-games.com)
Chivalric Tragedy at Utmost North is a game for three to five players set during the final years of the Northernmost People, just before the remnants of their civilization were swallowed up by their own Mistake.
This is no longer a history; this is not yet a story. This is all that remains. Whatever else is what you make of it.
(synopsis from www.tao-games.com)
136 pages, paperback
First published January 1, 2005
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 30, 2021
Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world...Long ago, before recorded history, in an unchanging time before the concept of history itself, the people lived in a glorious city in the far north of the world. Under the endless night sky, they sang the ancient songs, and danced the ancient dances, and drank wine distilled from ice as they debated philosophy and recited poetry and watched the movements of the stars. Their king was the wisest and most fair of men, and their queen was the kindest and most fair of women, and their knowledge and compassion kept the people on the right course for longer than any could remember.
And then, something went wrong.
And so it was...Polaris is one of those games I've known about seemingly forever, since I started really paying attention to RPGs that weren't either D&D or White Wolf, and I've wanted to play it for about that long. It's theatricality appeals to the goth kid in me--the sitting in a circle around a candle, looking into each other's eyes, and all reciting the key phrases. I've even heard of hacks that take the game in directions I'd love to go, like playing courtiers in Carcosa in the days just after the Stranger in the Pallid Mask arrives or playing warriors in service to Queen Serenity fighting against the Dark Kingdom. Anything that's elegiac in tone, hearkening back to a lost age of glory now gone forever but whose fading remnants the PCs will fight and die to defend, is a good setting for a game of Polaris.
And furthermore...The basic structure involves four players, each of whom plays a Stellar Knight who fights for the remnants of the people against the mistaken, demons that arrived with the first rising of the sun. Their quest is necessary, as the demons arrive every spring and fight fiercely until autumn, but the people mostly do not believe. They think the demons are a myth, or not so great a threat as the knights claim, or that they will break on the walls of the remnants of their ancient city, and many of them ignore the knights or mock them as they play strange and unpleasant melodies inspired by the sun.
That leads to the main arc of the game, where each knight gradually realizes that their quest is futile. They can never win against the mistaken, and all their effort will not save the people. They can only hold off the tide for a while until they die or until they fall themselves to the mistaken's temptations and enter the Mistake one last time, riding out in the spring to fight their former friends. It is their goal to do as much as they can before then, or perhaps to give in to despair and enjoy what time they have left before their corruption and downfall.
You ask far too much.The game is divided into scenes focusing on one knight at a time. Each of the four players takes a specific roll, as follows:
--The Heart, who plays the knight.
--The Mistaken, who plays any enemies of the knight--generally, but not always, demons--and the environment and background.
--The Full Moon, who plays characters with whom the knight has a societal or hierarchical relationship, like fellow knights, artistic colleagues, members of the senate, and so on.
--The New Moon, who plays characters with whom the knight as an emotional or personal relationship such as close friends, lovers, family members, and so on.
The Heart and the Mistaken make statements about what will happen and then negotiate over what results they find acceptable, using various ritualistic key phrases. But only if... in response to a statement, for example, means that statement A will happen if B also happens, but if that's too much, the phrase You ask far too much! might be used. If everything is acceptable, negotiation ends with And that was how it happened.... The Moons help negotiate between the Heart and the Mistaken or suggest appropriate courses of action, and the Mistaken may pass off secondary characters for them to play if there aren't enough characters in the scene.
The game points out that more decisive statements are better. Don't say, "Aldebaran swings his sword at the demon," say, "Aldebaran skewers the demon with a single blow," because it provides more room for negotiation. There's no point in negotiating over the effects of a single strike.
Finally, if the Heart and the Mistaken cannot agree, there's a dice-rolling mechanic to decide the outcome.
It was not meant to be.Knights begin each game filled with Zeal for their cause, but it gradually goes down as they suffer setbacks and confront the sorrows of the world. When it reaches zero, they have an encounter with the Solaris Knight or the Ice Maiden, legendary members of the people who later turned traitor, and their fate is revealed to them--every knight will eventually, inescapably, betray the people. This replaces their Zeal with Weariness, which climbs as they face further misfortune until finally it reaches its zenith and the knight falls to the Mistake. Unless they manage to negotiate their death beforehand.
The game is thus, as the subtitle says, chivalric tragedy. The goal of the Mistaken is for the knight to fall, and the goal of the Heart is for the knight to die gloriously achieving some goal. And since there are four knights, each player gets a chance to play each roll each game, charting their own tragedies and glories until the ultimate end.
And that was how it happened.Most of Polaris is discussion and negotiating over what would make a satisfying and dramatic story. The clearly-defined roles make it easier for conflict to arise, since the Mistaken is supposed to be trying as hard as they can to ruin the Heart, but mediated through the key phrases, and the fact that everyone gets the chance to play each roll (hopefully) prevents it from becoming personal. Plus, everyone knows going in that it's a tragedy. There are no happy endings, only degrees of catharsis.
I love the actual-play examples, too, which have a lot of confusion, players not knowing what to do, backtracking, and so on. They're not all full of poetry and sorrow, they're examples of how players would actually act during play. Much like how Nobilis is a game about aspects of reality engaging in a secret conceptual war over existence and then the example of play is the PCs mowing down guards at a military base or leaping from a jet as it's being destroyed by an attack helicopter.
I've wanted to play Polaris for a long time but have never gotten the chance, since it requires four people who all have a certain mindset toward RPGs. But I hang out with a lot more indie RPG kind of people now, and I have one of those wood-wick candles that hisses as it burns, so maybe the time will finally come before my own Zeal is replaced with Weariness.
But that all happened long ago, and now there are none who remember it.
September 3, 2013
Ben Lehman's groundbreaking RPG is also an excellent read, whether you play the game or not. He has created a truly unique "otherworld" not only in setting, but in the precise language used to describe it... intricate and elegant, but chillingly precise. The use of language is critical to how the game plays out, and that is evident in how he writes. Even if you never play the game, it is worth a read.
May 10, 2017
A fascinating rule set for running a tragic Lord Dunsany-esque narrativist role-playing game that my gaming group would not touch with a 10' foot pole.
November 25, 2020
This is the narrative RPG sans GM. It is fascinating in concept, but I could not wrap myself around the background. The system is rooting in language which is okay but I just couldn't feel pulled in my it. I really want to like this but I'm not there. Maybe if I played with someone else it could make better sense. What I enjoyed the most strangely was the list of Star names ordered by constellation. That I liked a lot. Very cool names.
July 7, 2021
I am very excited by Ben Lehman’s Polaris. It seems to be an incredibly well-designed game that knows what it wants to do thematically and tonally and has the mechanics to make it all happen. I have not played the game yet, so I am creating this review from reading the text only.
The first quarter or so of the book is setting information delivered as fiction. Lehman has a poetic style that suits the subject wonderfully. This section sets the stage for both the content and tone of the game as we learn about a fairy-tale-like world in the utmost North for whom the seasons of the year are like the parts of our day. Spring is the dawn, summer is the day, fall is dusk, and winter is the night. There is a mythical background in which these people of the North once lived in splendor and pleasure before the coming of the first dawn; they were parts of the night and the stars themselves. But with the dawn came a kind of corruption and addiction to the lights on the horizon. There is also a myth of the Fall, called the Mistake, which has released demons into the fallen world and against which the knights played by our players must endlessly fight. And the story is a tragedy, because the knights will eventually learn that the mistaken cannot be permanently bested and must be fought against forever, and every knight who was once a zealous novice will become a jaded veteran and eventually give in to the wickedness that surrounds them.
The middle half of the text is the rules and procedures for play. There is no standard GM, as each player has a role in relation to each other player. You play the Heart of your own protagonist, while the player across the table from you plays the mistaken and your personal antagonists. The players to either side are the moons, full and new, who act as judges during your conflicts and play the tertiary characters of your story during the free play portions of your scenes. Moons can and should throw out suggestions, but it is up to the Heart and the Mistaken to incorporate or reject those suggestions. Every player throughout the game will play all these positions as each player takes turns creating scenes as the Heart of their own protagonist.
Characters have the things you would expect—items, jobs and positions, talents and abilities, recurring themes or narrative notes—but they are presented as a simple list and do not add to dice rolls or affect encumbrance. These elements are used instead not only narratively but as a kind of currency to demand things of the narrative being negotiated during play. Let me explain.
The brilliance at the heart of Polaris is the conflict system, which runs entirely by what are called “key phrases.” The game literally manages the conversation being had as what happens in the story is worked out using these key phrases. Each player makes declarations about their character’s actions and the impact those actions have. At any time, the opposing player (the Mistaken to your Heart, or the Heart to your Mistaken) can reject or modify your statement, adding “But only if . . .” or “And furthermore . . .” or “You ask far too much . . . “ or “It was not meant to be . . .” or “It shall not come to pass . . .” Each phase has its own rules about when it can be used and what phrases can follow it. Things might be successfully negotiated and settled using words only. Some phrases demand that you “exhaust” one of your attributes (those items, jobs, abilities, etc. mentioned above) because they make a greater demand on the narrative. And one phrase leads to a single die roll. You and your Mistaken have worked the story to a point where you each want different things to occur, and you can declare to the Mistaken “It shall not come to pass,” which means you are willing to roll for it. If you succeed, you get your way. If you fail, the Mistaken’s proposal happens. By this method, each conflict and die roll comes with ready-made stakes. It’s a brilliant way to do conflict as drama instead of through a randomization technique. I love that the randomizer is present for that one case, though.
The characters have a one way track from novice to veteran, from inexperienced to experienced, from hopeful to hopeless. Different events or decisions call for a roll to see if your character “advances” down this track or not. The device is both moral and tone measurer as well as pacing mechanism.
It’s really an exciting setup and approach to RPGs, and it is perfectly clear why the game has garnered a lot of attention since it was published in 2005.
I love that the game forces a particular tone through the use of these key phrases. Using the key phrases (which appear not only during conflict but at the beginning and end of each game session and the beginning and end of each scene), you cannot help but sound like a fairy tale, or a folktale, or like something from a saga or Homeric epic tale. The whole narrative landscape is open, but there are certain verbal channels through which the game must pass that places these productive restraints on the conversation. It is beautiful, simple, and elegant.
Whether you play this game or not, it is worth the read and the consideration.
The first quarter or so of the book is setting information delivered as fiction. Lehman has a poetic style that suits the subject wonderfully. This section sets the stage for both the content and tone of the game as we learn about a fairy-tale-like world in the utmost North for whom the seasons of the year are like the parts of our day. Spring is the dawn, summer is the day, fall is dusk, and winter is the night. There is a mythical background in which these people of the North once lived in splendor and pleasure before the coming of the first dawn; they were parts of the night and the stars themselves. But with the dawn came a kind of corruption and addiction to the lights on the horizon. There is also a myth of the Fall, called the Mistake, which has released demons into the fallen world and against which the knights played by our players must endlessly fight. And the story is a tragedy, because the knights will eventually learn that the mistaken cannot be permanently bested and must be fought against forever, and every knight who was once a zealous novice will become a jaded veteran and eventually give in to the wickedness that surrounds them.
The middle half of the text is the rules and procedures for play. There is no standard GM, as each player has a role in relation to each other player. You play the Heart of your own protagonist, while the player across the table from you plays the mistaken and your personal antagonists. The players to either side are the moons, full and new, who act as judges during your conflicts and play the tertiary characters of your story during the free play portions of your scenes. Moons can and should throw out suggestions, but it is up to the Heart and the Mistaken to incorporate or reject those suggestions. Every player throughout the game will play all these positions as each player takes turns creating scenes as the Heart of their own protagonist.
Characters have the things you would expect—items, jobs and positions, talents and abilities, recurring themes or narrative notes—but they are presented as a simple list and do not add to dice rolls or affect encumbrance. These elements are used instead not only narratively but as a kind of currency to demand things of the narrative being negotiated during play. Let me explain.
The brilliance at the heart of Polaris is the conflict system, which runs entirely by what are called “key phrases.” The game literally manages the conversation being had as what happens in the story is worked out using these key phrases. Each player makes declarations about their character’s actions and the impact those actions have. At any time, the opposing player (the Mistaken to your Heart, or the Heart to your Mistaken) can reject or modify your statement, adding “But only if . . .” or “And furthermore . . .” or “You ask far too much . . . “ or “It was not meant to be . . .” or “It shall not come to pass . . .” Each phase has its own rules about when it can be used and what phrases can follow it. Things might be successfully negotiated and settled using words only. Some phrases demand that you “exhaust” one of your attributes (those items, jobs, abilities, etc. mentioned above) because they make a greater demand on the narrative. And one phrase leads to a single die roll. You and your Mistaken have worked the story to a point where you each want different things to occur, and you can declare to the Mistaken “It shall not come to pass,” which means you are willing to roll for it. If you succeed, you get your way. If you fail, the Mistaken’s proposal happens. By this method, each conflict and die roll comes with ready-made stakes. It’s a brilliant way to do conflict as drama instead of through a randomization technique. I love that the randomizer is present for that one case, though.
The characters have a one way track from novice to veteran, from inexperienced to experienced, from hopeful to hopeless. Different events or decisions call for a roll to see if your character “advances” down this track or not. The device is both moral and tone measurer as well as pacing mechanism.
It’s really an exciting setup and approach to RPGs, and it is perfectly clear why the game has garnered a lot of attention since it was published in 2005.
I love that the game forces a particular tone through the use of these key phrases. Using the key phrases (which appear not only during conflict but at the beginning and end of each game session and the beginning and end of each scene), you cannot help but sound like a fairy tale, or a folktale, or like something from a saga or Homeric epic tale. The whole narrative landscape is open, but there are certain verbal channels through which the game must pass that places these productive restraints on the conversation. It is beautiful, simple, and elegant.
Whether you play this game or not, it is worth the read and the consideration.
June 2, 2023
Good book, although I expected more. I admit that I read it because I liked the cover, which is beautiful.
February 11, 2008
Polaris is am experimental table top RPG.
Setting: Polaris is a city-state at the top of the world that evokes Camelot more than anything. There is a king (also called Polaris), his queen (unnamed but with several epithets), the knights who serve as the queen’s guard, and the captain of the knights, Algol. Originally these people did not know the sun but only the stars, so they are all named for stars (the game includes a very extensive list of star names to help with this). But now the sun has appeared, and reappears every spring to dominate the sky all summer (remember, we’re at the North Pole), and with the sun came corruption. Whatever the exact cause of the corruption, Polaris is not what it once was. Now it is composed of four strongholds circling “the Mistake,” an opening into the pit of hell. Out of the Mistake pour the Mistaken, demons intent on destroying all that is left of Polaris.
Yet the people on the whole are passive in the face of this threat, idling their time away in gaudy parties and petty politics. Only the Knights Stellar recognize the threat and fight it. The PCs all play the roles of these knights, fighting against the Mistaken and their own inevitable fall into death or corruption.
Polaris questions how RPGs happen and are played. For a full description go here. Well worth a read.
Setting: Polaris is a city-state at the top of the world that evokes Camelot more than anything. There is a king (also called Polaris), his queen (unnamed but with several epithets), the knights who serve as the queen’s guard, and the captain of the knights, Algol. Originally these people did not know the sun but only the stars, so they are all named for stars (the game includes a very extensive list of star names to help with this). But now the sun has appeared, and reappears every spring to dominate the sky all summer (remember, we’re at the North Pole), and with the sun came corruption. Whatever the exact cause of the corruption, Polaris is not what it once was. Now it is composed of four strongholds circling “the Mistake,” an opening into the pit of hell. Out of the Mistake pour the Mistaken, demons intent on destroying all that is left of Polaris.
Yet the people on the whole are passive in the face of this threat, idling their time away in gaudy parties and petty politics. Only the Knights Stellar recognize the threat and fight it. The PCs all play the roles of these knights, fighting against the Mistaken and their own inevitable fall into death or corruption.
Polaris questions how RPGs happen and are played. For a full description go here. Well worth a read.
February 8, 2015
Clearly, one of the most iconic indie games from the initial surge of the category in the '00s.
That starts with the setting, which is beautiful, evocative, and doomed. It has a perfect majesty and a perfect tragedy to it that defines the whole game.
Beyond that, the game system is very elegant in what's now a pretty traditional indie way. The storytelling is relatively freeform and the conflict is based on negotiations. One of my favorite aspects of the system is its use of keywords that effectively introduce ritual back-and-forth to the game. I also appreciate the potential longevity of play, which isn't the case for many indie releases.
As an RPG historian, I also really like the ludography and ads at the back which together offer a great snapshot of the indie community at the time that Polaris was released.
I'm not sure that most groups will be up to playing Polaris, but it's nonetheless a great example of what a roleplaying game can be, and I would hope a majestic game for those who can manage it.
That starts with the setting, which is beautiful, evocative, and doomed. It has a perfect majesty and a perfect tragedy to it that defines the whole game.
Beyond that, the game system is very elegant in what's now a pretty traditional indie way. The storytelling is relatively freeform and the conflict is based on negotiations. One of my favorite aspects of the system is its use of keywords that effectively introduce ritual back-and-forth to the game. I also appreciate the potential longevity of play, which isn't the case for many indie releases.
As an RPG historian, I also really like the ludography and ads at the back which together offer a great snapshot of the indie community at the time that Polaris was released.
I'm not sure that most groups will be up to playing Polaris, but it's nonetheless a great example of what a roleplaying game can be, and I would hope a majestic game for those who can manage it.
February 24, 2013
Possibly the most "story game" story game out there. Ideas are intriguing, art is great and the overall "feel" of the fictional world is outstanding.
That said, the actual gameplay requires a lack of irony that I may not be able to muster. I appreciate what Ben did with the rules and from a systems standpoint I think they provide a pretty good setup for narrative arcs and dramatic tension between both players and characters.
The ruleset is somewhat "pretentious" in both trappings and tone, but I think it adds to the somberness of the setting and the tragedy the game is meant to convey.
Giving it three stars, when I get around to playing it that could easily go up or down by 1.
That said, the actual gameplay requires a lack of irony that I may not be able to muster. I appreciate what Ben did with the rules and from a systems standpoint I think they provide a pretty good setup for narrative arcs and dramatic tension between both players and characters.
The ruleset is somewhat "pretentious" in both trappings and tone, but I think it adds to the somberness of the setting and the tragedy the game is meant to convey.
Giving it three stars, when I get around to playing it that could easily go up or down by 1.
March 22, 2008
The setting given for this game is so imaginative and rich that I dreamed about it after reading. Very unique and interesting idea for story telling; I am eager to try it out.
August 3, 2013
Love the concept. Am a bit intimidated by the complexity of keeping track of so many protagonists, but the setting and world is amazing.
March 25, 2014
best indie storytelling, GM-less, low-dice game ever.
August 25, 2015
The weird coldness and abstractness of the setting is certainly interesting though for me lacked enough punch to get me excited. And I found the narrow focus of the system a little off-putting.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews