D&D 5E (2024) Amnesia Sequence Yea/Nay?

[TiQuinn]

No, it wouldn’t bother me if it happened once, but it’s also not something I’d want to happen repeatedly. I would probably go back to figure out what happened, and at that point, I’d expect to be able to do something about the mystery, I.E. I’d find this faction.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Four forms of RPG amnesia:

1) The characters forget something that happened during play, so the players know what it is. This is the sort of thing that might happen during a visit to the Feywild, and relies on the players role playing in good faith.

2) The characters forget something that happened outside of play, so the players do not know anything has been forgotten. This is the best for a surprise twist, especially in a horror scenario.

3) The characters forget something, the players know something has been forgotten, but not what. This is going to trigger an imediate investigation, and serves as a central plot driver. See Planescape: Torment.

4) The players forget something the characters know. This is the normal state of affairs.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

If you don't want the players to actually even know about the stronghold yet... there's any number of "magical effects" that could keep the hold a secret. You can just make up whatever you wanted for that. Or even if you don't want to "hide" the stronghold... there's no reason why there couldn't just merely be a guard or two out front that is all friendly-like and just redirects the party elsewhere, giving no indication what kind of a stronghold it is. Heck... just put an Arcane Lock on the front door with some sign indicating it's some warehouse or something and the players might just walk right on by.

I want the party to know about the stronghold and the faction. It's more that I'd prefer a slow reveal in a perfect world and I was thinking that maybe the amnesia sequence might be one way to trickle the information in slowly and alert them to possible danger. The faction doesn't want the party to know about the faction.

The party has already encountered watch-beasts set to guard the periphery of the stronghold. And has some indication that the beasts are being fed by....something. They've also come across a slave outpost run by the faction, though they mostly avoided it and received little in the way of clues that it was any such thing.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I'm concerned that the PCs will not accept a mere shooing, due to the nature of what they're looking for. And while I can certainly telegraph the faction's strength, the party has more than sufficient power relative to the faction to get themselves into actual trouble. Prolly still ways to handle it.

Perhaps, instead of amnesia, have the stronghold protected by some kind of ultra-subtle, but powerful, mind-affecting magic akin to Douglas Adams' "Somebody Else's Problem Field"?

That is, the SEP field makes things "invisible" by exploiting the part of sapient brains that enables folks to "look the other way" when they see a thing they don't want to see or that would cause them inconvenience if they openly recognized. Seeing an unhoused person panhandling, for example, or a conspicuous box in a public place, etc.

So perhaps there's some kind of mental magic or space-warping effect which prevents anyone not in the group from being able to see/reach the place? This has precedent in fiction, as an example the Hogwarts grounds are "unplottable" so external maps cannot depict its location relative to other locations. (The Marauder's Map exploits this loophole: it can depict the Hogwarts grounds because it doesn't show where Hogwarts is, being only an "internal" map of the grounds and castle itself.)

This would let you give the players seemingly free rein to investigate the place, "find nothing", and then only learn the truth much later, without having to use amnesia, and without nearly so much risk of the players deciding "nope, we're gonna fix this thing RIGHT NOW" rather than letting sleeping plots lie.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Perhaps, instead of amnesia, have the stronghold protected by some kind of ultra-subtle, but powerful, mind-affecting magic akin to Douglas Adams' "Somebody Else's Problem Field"?

Well...the faction is sneaky and cunning and technologically advanced (albeit to no more than base steampunk levels) but unfortunately not super strong in magic. They are entirely capable of constructing something that -looks- innocuous or unpleasant; or maybe drugging someone so they're addle-headed and don't perceive things normally. But auras that induce mass delusions are probably beyond them.

 

[AlViking]

I have a player that on a fairly regular basis cannot attend the game. I have them disappear with only a vague recollection what happens. I've dropped hints they're being pulled into the feywild but that's all they remember. It works fine for us and adds mystery to our game.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Well...the faction is sneaky and cunning and technologically advanced (albeit to no more than base steampunk levels) but unfortunately not super strong in magic. They are entirely capable of constructing something that -looks- innocuous or unpleasant; or maybe drugging someone so they're addle-headed and don't perceive things normally. But auras that induce mass delusions are probably beyond them.

Well, if it's not something they can do, maybe the reason they stick to this specific hideout and such is because they're exploiting something left behind by some other group? That could explain why nobody seems to know that there's a heavily-occupied fortress there. It would also explain part of why the denizens are so zealous about keeping people away; they don't actually know how to manipulate or control their magical protection, they just know that it works and know how to bring people in on the secret. If even one outsider were to get the secret and then escape, it could ruin their whole protection strategy and force them to waste a ton of resources on much more brute-force means of protection. It's sort of like how someone who gains immortality can actually become even more obsessed with preserving it than they were with acquiring it in the first place; once you have a fragile power, you want to ensure it will never be taken from you.

Based on what you said, with their roughly-steampunk level of tech, maybe it's a machine, so they can activate it but they have no idea how it really works, no idea how to repair it, and no ability to "reverse" letting people in on the secret. That could easily take an already kinda-paranoid, isolationist faction and turn it into an utterly absolutist, outsider-phobic group that can't stand even small intrusions into their territory.

If you still think this is just too much or not reasonable, that's alright. I'm mostly just trying to see if there's any way to make a non-amnesia approach work, because I really do feel like you're playing with fire if you attempt it. It's possible the players might just shrug and move on like you intend them to, but it's also possible that it instead makes them totally obsessed with figuring out what happened and why they can't remember, causing them to force the issue. Maybe you're okay with that, I dunno, but from the sound of it you'd prefer to let this threat percolate for a while, slipping under the radar while still being something the players know something about.

 

[payn]

If there is a well thought out story and plot to go with the amnesia bit the payoff would be enough for me to not mind it. If its just a device to tell the players "PCs must be this tall to ride" id find it rather unpleasant.

 

[aco175]

As a player, I would not like it much. I would go along with it and see what happens, but just saying you were drugged or gave up in a fight takes a lot from the player. It is a bit like the classic; you all wake up in a prison cell.

One thing I have done in the past is to play a one-shot with another set of PCs. I might make up some NPC types for play such as some who are city guards and soldiers and the local sage's student. Another time I had the henchmen of the main PCs go but this is not as fun. This other group meets the bad cult and gets killed or manages to sneak about for a while and learn some things- thus the players learn some things even though the PCs do not.

Now, when the main PCs find out about some stuff happening the players know but the PCs do not. They get wind of some soldiers missing or the sage mentions that one of his students went to investigate something and has not returned. Now the players are more interested and know some things that are about, even if you change things based on the first group sniffing around.

 

[pukunui]

Well, if it's not something they can do, maybe the reason they stick to this specific hideout and such is because they're exploiting something left behind by some other group?

To build on this, 5e has a number of spells on which you could base the effect: antipathy, hallucinatory terrain, mirage arcane, etc.

I am running The Wild Behond the Witchlight, which features a lake that is home to a unicorn. The lake has a magical effect that prevents any non-unicorn from approaching within a certain distance of it. (It has a loophole in that the effect can’t distinguish between a real unicorn and a fake one, so even just holding a stick up to your forehead can bypass it.)

Perhaps the fortress has a similar effect. You can allow the PCs to see the fortress, but they can’t get close enough to interact with its inhabitants. You can let the players faff about for a while before telling them that they’ll have to go do some research to find out how to approach the fortress should they really want to do so. You can make it as easy or hard as you want for them to learn the secret. (Mind you, stubborn/clever players might just decide to hide and wait for someone to leave so they can ambush them and find out how to approach …)

You could potentially combine the effects … so there’s a magical repulsion effect and an illusion that makes the fortress look like a hill or something. Perhaps you just tell the players that their PCs inexplicably find themselves going around the hill, as if there’s some kind of force compelling them to avoid it. It’s a mystery! And not every mystery needs to be solved straight away. They might have to do some research …