Polaris
he/him
5.0
(3)
Timezone
Language
Identity
About Polaris
I have always been a lover of storytelling and worldbuilding. For most of my childhood and teenage years, that manifested in leading fantastical adventures for my friends, younger sister, and various cousins. If it had been organized, I guess it would have been LARPing, but I'd rather call it what all of this is at its core: I love playing pretend. In high school and college, I channelled some of this creative urge into theatre clubs, building sets and strutting my few hours upon the stage. I also began leading real-world adventures, becoming a guide for backpacking trips and teaching kids at outdoor schools and nature centers. During those experiences, I learned that oral "storytelling" as an art form is one that you can find people who take seriously, and I began to practice that art on trails and around campfires (and in the mirror, let's be perfectly honest). Then a magical thing happened: while I was teaching at an outdoor school's semester program, a 16-year old student asked me if I would be willing to run a game of Star Wars 5e for them because "you're good at stories, right?" I dived in, and discovered that TTRPG's offer everything I love about playing pretend, and invite players to show some of the beautiful parts of their inner selves, whether the real world shines its light on those parts or not. In the years since then, I've run a few DnD homegames, both online and in person, and one wonderful PbP game. I'm the 'forever DM,' but I like it that way.
At a glance
Less than a year on StartPlaying
1 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Inclusive, Teacher
Featured Prompts
My favorite books are
Brief list, and why: The Hobbit: my first fantasy book The Broken Earth trilogy: Subversion of known tropes The Outermost House: Descriptive prose that borders on poetry The Poisonwood Bible: Keen awareness of perspective Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Fanfiction & philosophy
People are always surprised when I tell them
That I sometimes do stand-up comedy. It's different from my other hobbies and habits, but I've found it very rewarding. After moving to Denmark, the English night at an open-mic comedy club was my first English-speaking communities. A mic, a crowd, and pressure to be entertaining - like teaching.
When I'm not running games I'm...
Either teaching, playing, or outside. I teach english and science to teenagers (7-10th grade). I'm a stepdad to two young girls, and we are in the process of finding and rating all the playgrounds in our city. I go on backpacking, canoeing, or climbing trips often. My dog comes with.
How Polaris runs games
What excites me most about TTRPGs is inspiring each other to create together, and to explore what sort of world and what sorts of characters that inspiration leads to. That means that my worlds need to be able to expand according to what interests the players and characters, and it means that I (and possibly NPCs) will encourage roleplay and meaningful narrative decisions. After input from my players, I lay the foundation for what sort of a setting and world we want to have, sometimes with the help of a prewritten module, and sometimes without. Then, that world grows and shifts in my mind as I drift into exploring its lore and fantasy during daydreams as I walk my dog, commute to work, or whenever. That approach means that I often incorporate homebrew elements into my worlds, and am excited when players offer ideas or wishes. Combat is exciting and fun, but "kill all the goblins so that you can get to the next room and kill bigger goblins and get the treasure" is not what motivates me as a GM. I prefer combats to me motivated by the narrative, and to have goals and elements that complicate them to add depth. Yes, that guard you killed did have a family, or friends, or a life... if you ask. Any thread that the players pull on should reveal itself to be part of the tapestry of the world - especially when I didn't expect them to pull it.
Featured Prompts
My favorite trope is...
that when you try to make your world better, you do. This is the center of heroic fantasy for me, always. We need that when, in the real world, the big problems are so big; and the ways we each can make things better are too often too small to feel (though still real!).
Rules are...
All the things that I don't need to make up on the fly. They exist so that when you say "I want to try this thing," we have a way to make that attempt meaningful. The rules only exist as a scaffolding to our world, and are only useful when they help us tell our story.
When it comes to voices
I have fun, and lean in. In all my storytelling experience, changing tone, rhythm, volume, and quality brings emotion alive in the movement of words. Even written, each character should have their own speech patterns. I am not good at accents though - I'll only try if the vibes call for silliness.
Polaris's ideal table
Featured Prompts
I think it's a red flag when players...
fail to listen to each other. Not all of you are equally comfortable speaking to the whole group, or asking for the spotlight. It's part of my job to give each of you time to shine, but I need my players' help to make each other feel comfortable and heard.
My table is not the place for...
The 'murderhobo.' I want to care about your character. I want them to grow, and change, to touch the world and be touched by it. That means that, for your character, the game world is real, and the NPCs are real people. Exploring your character's worst impulses should have in-world consequences.