Ok! After reading through Garvey's excellent resources, and doing a bit of my own research, I think we're ready to start this thing off. I guess the first thing to do is to work out some characters, and then determine a seating arrangement. I believe we also need to determine some things about the setting, minor characters, where we're located, and the like. Anna has given us heaps of resources to work with, and I've got a few things rattling around in mind, but if anyone's got some strong feelings about this, let's hear 'em. Is there a formal process here? Or do we just start laying things out?
Comments
As for seating order, random choice is fine by me. I liked the idea of lining us up on the globe from east to west and setting us around the table that way.
East to west placement sounds fun. I guess it puts me first, too, given that I'm in Japan. Unless one of us is in New Zealand?
Oh and I'm in Nashville, TN for seating purposes.
Also, thanks for the heads up Dave. I'll alter my character plans so we don't have two.
I'm in Utah.
So to be clear:
For SimonC Infidel: RichD Star: Rugrsi Moon: Dave
For rugrsi Infidel: Dave Star: RichD Moon: SimonC
For RichD Infidel: SimonC Star: Dave Moon: rugrsi
For Dave Infidel: rugrsi Star: SimonC Moon: RichD
Rugrsi, any thoughts on the shared fate?
I'm curious what sort of thread structure we plan on using.
If we need many thread types I wonder how hard getting our own category would be.
It would be kind of cool if there were some setting appropriate images of heart, star, moon and infidel that we could place in our posts to identify what role we're playing. Like:
Although, after awhile, it could get old putting in the BB code. Plus it may slow the loading time of the pages.
I'll cast my official vote for Destruction of the Great Library for the shared Fate.
I was thinking to use the Crossroads structure of having two scenes running parallel so each Heart/Infidel pair has something going on.
I like that idea
I really like the idea of using pictures to ideantify the role. It's not essential, but I think it would add clarity as well as a certain aesthetic. It seems that Polaris is a game that takes well to aesthetic additions. If people think it would be a hassle though, that's cool.
How do you guys feel about starting an audience thread for this game? There was a bit of interest over at storygames in the suppliment, so it might attract some attention.
Since we are settled on the Library, our Taifa should be Toledo. The supplement marks it as the center of learning.
Name: Nasir ibn Hassan al-Aziz
Office:
Knight of the Order of Toledo
Fate:
Event: Destruction of the Great Library
Blessing:
Toledo-forged Sword
My Great-Grandfathers Journal
Ability:
Man of Reason
Skill: Medicine
Zeal: 4 Solitude:1 Unity:1 Weariness: 0
Cosmos:
Heart: Nasir
Infidel: Rodrigo of Aragon
Moon: Ibrahim al-Din, Al Saoor of the Bimaristan (Chief Doctor of the Hospital)
Star: Salima, my Betrothed
He is from an old and respected Arabic family. His great-grandfather was part of the battles the led to the Caliphate of Cordoba and his journals are full of the tales of conquest and the fine land that they built when the battles were done. Nasir became a Knight to protect his people and doctor for pretty much the same reasons. Up until now they've kept him in the background as a medic but as the number of Knights grows fewer and fewer they are having to call him up to the front lines. I just picked a cool sounding Christian Knight name for his infidel. I figure I'd give Simon free reign on how to bring him in. The Chief Doctor just went with him working in the hospital. Not sure where Salima will come but can't wait to find out! Hopefully these NPC's will be stolen for use with your characters and that you will have a few that I can fit nicely into my Cosmos.
Feel free to bounce ideas off of us here. Character creation is supposed to be somewhat collaborative after all.
Name: Faruq Ibn Ikram al-Katib
Office:
Knight of the Order of Toledo
Guardian of the Great Library
Fate:
Event: Destruction of the Great Library
Blessing:
Toledo-forged Sword
Chinese fireworks
Ability:
Man of Reason
Zeal: 4 Solitude: 1 Unity: 1 Weariness: 0
Cosmos:
Heart: Faruq
Infidel: Hafiz Ibn Nasir al-Rumi (Gaurdian of the Great Library)
Moon: Abu Omar al-Kabir (Head of the Library)
Star: Nashwa Ibn Ikram (Sister)
Office
Knight of the Order of Toledo
Fate
Event: Destruction of the Great Library
Relationship: Father-in-Law, Osvaldo
Blessing
Toledo-forged Sword
Ability
Man of Reason
Skill: Persuasive communicator
Zeal 4
Solitude 1
Unity 1
Weariness
Cosmos
Infidel Leoncio, barbarian Christian leader
Moon Osvaldo, father-in-law and powerful political figure.
Star Maram, wife.
Background
Once a knight who patrolled the borders, now married into a powerful house of Toledo. He spends most his time writing a history of the infidel tribes and his attempts to convert them to Islam. He is currently working on volume IV, documenting Leoncio. The other volumes are stored at the Great Library.
Name: ?Ish?q
Office:
Knight of the Order of Toledo
Fate:
Event: Destruction of the Great Library
Blessing:
Toledo-forged Steel
Histories of the Descendants of the Prohet
Ability:
Man of Reason
The Perfect Knight
Zeal: 4 Solitude:1 Unity:1 Weariness: 0
Cosmos:
Heart: Ishaq
Infidel: Arieh, a local rabbi, and a resistance leader.
Moon: Farid, an assistant at the Library, and a friend.
Star: Hava, the widowed daughter of Arieh
Ishaq is a sincerely converted Jew. His approach to the faith bears some influence from his upbringing in Jewish schools, so he focuses on an intellectual understanding of Islam. In particular, he is interested in following the path of the descendants of the prophet, and he belives that through study and prayer he can become the perfect knight of Islam. He spends most of his time alone, reading, but devotion to the faith also requires defending it with steel, should the need arise. He has a troubled relationship with the non-converted Jewish community, with which he tries to maintain ties.
Zeal starts at 4 for all characters. Solitude and Unity (since they look to be the equivalent for Ice and Light in regular Polaris) start at 1 for all characters. Weariness starts at 0 for all characters. They aren't stats you get to set, but change as you gain experience through play.
Also Simon, did you mean to put the Perfect Knight under Ability? It sounds more like a fate than a skill to me.
OK so we all have our characters. Anybody ever figure out picture icons for us? Anybody ready to start? I'm happy to come up with an opening scene for you Simon if everybody is ready to jump into this.
Yeah, "Perfect Knight" was intentional, but it might be too broad. It's meant to reflect the fact that he's studied a lot of texts, and so has a very clear understanding of what it means to be the perfect knight. It could be used for sticking to a moral decision, resisting temptation, passing judgement and being correct, and maybe fighting too. Is that too broad?
Ok, I'm slightly nervous about going first, but as long as you can give me a lot of OOC guidance while we play, I'm happy to begin. Yeah, please feel free to start a thread. If you find a picture you like for infidel, feel free to use it. I'm going to hunt around for some pictures now.
For star:
For moon:
For infidel (this one was tricky):
And for heart (once again difficult)