Jason Godesky offers a run down at his site:

* Firing Line. This game has one person on the firing line, and the rest of the group. The group takes turns throwing out random words; the player on the line has to respond with the first word she thinks of. This game breaks down your self-censorship.
* One Word at a Time. The players tell a story, each player contributing one word at a time. This one helps get the group working together, and further breaks down self-censorship.
* Yes, and! Each player throws out a declaration. Declarations must all begin with “Yes, and…”, forcing players to build on each other’s ideas without negation. This breaks down self-censorship even further, and trains players to build on each other’s ideas without negation.
* See Me. After an initial description—perhaps as little as a name—players take turns adding descriptions, until someone says, “I don’t see it.” This game trains shared imagining.
* Color/Advance. Each player takes a turn telling a story. The player on your left tells you when you can advance the plot by saying, “Advance.” The player on your right tells you when to fill in more color and description by saying, “Color.” This helps each player develop better descriptions, and better pacing.
* Counting. The group must count to 20, but no one can say two consecutive numbers, and you can’t form any detectable pattern. This trains players to listen to each other—what they say, but also their body language and other non-verbal communication.

As described above, yes, the procedures sound pretty godawful to your average indie player. Which explains why it has gotten almost zero reaction (now it has gotten One - thanks Joel!).

I don’t offer the above as something for Players to look at, but rather as something for a Polaris facilitator to look at. The great mistake, IMHO, of some indie design centers around not clearly delineating a facilitator-GM role, however they apportion out the other traditional elements of the GM role, they don’t seem to mention this.

So, in order to use this procedure, you need a Polaris champion, a player who will fulfill the role of facilitator, and just lead the players through the fun.

Of course, what you want from play differs from what I want, but I still suspect that if you actually dove into this experience and gave it a solid road test, you’d enjoy the hell out of it.

Maybe we should play Polaris sometime soon!

Peace,
-Joel