In Love With the Stars

Parents
The Stars, Our Constellations by Caroline Berg

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme by corvidcall

Further inspired by For The Honor by Quinn Vega

The Beforetimes
Each player draws 15 to 25 stars in the same shared space, physical (paper, white board) or digital. Each player takes turns drawing lines between 5 and 10 stars at a time to make a constellation. Constellation lines cannot cross any other constellation lines. Players continue to take turns until everyone has added two constellations, or there are no more clusters of at least 5 stars available.

During the Beforetimes, all constellations are given names. Taking turns, each player gives one constellation a name; they may also name a star included in or near the constellation they named. Continue, rotating between players, until all constellations are named. As names are given to stars and constellations, all players may discuss what the names might mean and their stories, but details are left vague and uncertain at this time.

The Ages of Legend
Early in the world’s history, great heroes, lovers, and legends set out on fantastic quests with the stars as their guides. Each player takes a turn playing a Legend; the rest of the players take the role of the Constellations. The Legend states the goal they wish to complete, such as achieving immortality, becoming divine, saving the world from a cataclysm, or roving the countryside to help the common laborer. The Legend’s player lists three to five Qualities, each on their own cards, that the Legend hopes to overcome within themself or that they hope to prove about themself. Examples include honorable, cowardly, ambitious, poor.

The Constellations give the Legend one seemingly insurmountable task each, which the Legend may attempt to complete in any order they choose. The tasks may—but don’t have to—be related to the Legend’s goal. The tasks, however, do tie into the themes and stories of the Constellations. The Constellations ask the Legend leading questions to explore how they go about accomplishing their impossible tasks.

Sample Questions:
- What aspect of the physical world must be changed for you to succeed?

- What creature stands in your way and why won’t killing it remove it as an obstacle?

- Who becomes an uncertain ally in your journey?

- What does the theme music sound like for this part of your journey?

- What strange magic do you learn and who was the unlikely benefactor of it?

- How does your hometown stay present in your thoughts throughout your journey?

- Who betrays you and why do you forgive them?

- Who offers you love and why can’t you reciprocate?

When the Legend has the opportunity to directly resolve one of the tasks, their player writes one sentence to describe what they believe the solution and outcome to be. The player who assigned the task also writes one sentence to describe an alternative outcome, positive or negative. The Legend’s player then flips a coin: Heads selects their outcome, Tails selects the alternative outcome.

The Legend may defy fate, in which they select the outcome opposite of what the coin flip determined. If they do so, the Constellation’s player replaces one of the Legend’s Qualities with a new one. Keep all Quality cards for use later in the game.

The Legend attempts to complete each of the Constellations’ tasks set out before them. Once they have done so (regardless whether they were successful in those attempts), they decide whether they accomplish their initial goal or if something else has proven more important in the meantime.

Lastly, all players work collaboratively to determine how or if the Constellations’ stories have changed in the wake of the Legend’s journey. The First Age now concludes.

The Second Age begins when a new player takes the role of a new Legend, with the rest of the players taking the roles of the (perhaps changed) Constellations, assigning new tasks in the path of a new Legend’s goal. So go the Ages of the world, Legend by Legend, driven by and in turn shaping the Constellations.

The Modern Age
Once all players have had turns playing Legends, the Modern Age begins. A nonspecific amount of time passes between the end of the last Legend’s journey and the start of play in the Modern Age. Each player takes the role of an average person for this world. “Modern” and “average” are completely subjective: they could be magical warriors, mundane students, sci-fi superheroes, or any characters more modern than the last Age and less significant than the Legends.

All Qualities from the previous phases of play are displayed face up and the players take turns selecting between three and five for their modern character. Players then pick a name and pronouns for their character and then introduce their character to the rest of the players. All characters are under the same starry night sky.

Players take turns sharing prompts with at least one other character. The player selecting the prompt fills in the blanks (___) and the players included in the prompt answer the questions. Each prompt leads into an in-character roleplay scene.

- I invite you out to dinner tonight. I say it’s because ___, but secretly I ___. Do you join me? Who would you rather be out with?

- I reveal to you that I have another persona that is actually pretty famous for ___. Have you heard of my persona? How does this reveal make you feel?

- I call you on the phone to talk. When was the last time we talked? How are your feelings for me different now than they were before?

- I sing a ___ song to you. When was the last time someone sang to you? What about this song are you just noticing for the first time?

- I’m in danger and ask for your help. Are you able to save me? How do your actions remind me of one of the Legends of the past?

- I introduce myself to you. Why do I already seem so familiar to you? What about this night makes it so easy for us to hit it off?

- I suddenly have a new ability that I feel very ___ about and I ask you for advice. Why are you the right person for this scenario? What Legend of the past does my ability remind you of and why?

- I feel comfortable enough with you to share a story of a past love I’ve since lost. Why do you think the relationship really ended? What memory of yours do you share to relate with me?

- I’m confronted by a malicious force and reach out to take your hand. How do you respond? What is this malicious force and what does it want with me?

- I confess my feelings of ___ towards you. How does this change our relationship? Why is this a terrible time for you to be confessed to?

Not every prompt needs to be selected. Once each player has picked at least one prompt and played through an accompanying scene, the game concludes with each player finishing the following sentence for their character: “I look up at the stars and…”

Analysis
The Stars, Our Constellations introduces the theme and process of creating constellations. The process of drawing stars and connecting lines to make constellations is almost entirely preserved in In Love With the Stars. Where the goal of The Stars, Our Constellations is to tell the stories of the constellations, In Love With The Stars uses the mechanic as prologue/worldbuilding. In Love With the Stars also borrows rotating player turns and "Ages" as a naming format from The Stars, Our Constellations.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme introduces the quest as a narrative structure, coin flip resolutions, and Qualities as a character mechanic. The asymmetric player roles of Lover and World are mirrored in the roles of the Legend and the Constellations.

Both Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme and The Stars, Our Constellations have collaborative discussion as a primary mechanic. In Love With the Stars expands on this by taking inspiration from For the Honor (which is, in turn, based on The King is Dead) by introducing leading questions and specific prompts to relieve some of the creative pressure of coming up with ideas.

Children
None.