Polaris for one-shots and con games

So you want to play Polaris, but you've only got a few hours to do it in, because you're at a con or whatever. Man, why does this "Ben" guy keep writing games where you can't finish in one sitting. He must be one of these crazy regressive game designers who loves GM fiat (it's true! I am!)

Old way: Run until you run out of time. Feel bad that you didn't finish the story.

New way: So let's say you have four people. Make two Knights. Pick two players to be the Hearts. These people should be sitting across from each other, so that anyone who isn't a Heart is a Mistaken for someone.

If you're liberal with experience, you should be able to finish the game in 3-4 hours, with a little time to spare.

3 player version: Make two knights.
5 player version: Make three knights, sitting so that each player is a Heart or a Mistaken and one guy is both. Either that or make two players, and sit them so that you (the guy organizing) is neither Heart nor Mistaken.

This works for games which take their authority structure from Polaris (like Shock:) as well.

DokiDoki! playtesting

Would some people be interested in coming over tonight for to playtest Doki Doki, my card game of shoujo manga hijinks?

(no subject)

From Chris.

HBO is doing an adaption of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." But they've decided, apparently, that the book needs some changes. Namely

But the fact that Mr. Brown’s work has been translated into 17 languages and has sold five million copies around the world was not enough to convince HBO that a film version would draw a sizable mainstream audience. When the channel broadcasts its two-hour adaptation of the book, beginning Memorial Day weekend, at its center will be a new character: a man who was part Sioux, was educated at an Ivy League college and married a white woman.

“Everyone felt very strongly that we needed a white character or a part-white, part-Indian character to carry a contemporary white audience through this project,” Daniel Giat, the writer who adapted the book for HBO Films, told a group of television writers earlier this year.


I'm livid. Please, let's kick some shit about this.