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

[EzekielRaiden]

I'm with the good doctor. This is using an unnecessarily powerful tool (half the reason amnesia is so widely disliked is because it is so powerful!) for a goal that...I don't really think even needs to be achieved?

If they're this hostile to outsiders, just have the party be shooed away by the residents until it's time to go there "for real." That preserves the mystery without taking away any agency; it's not like the characters have always been able to go to every single place they ever wished to go. (Otherwise, I'm sure some enterprising players would be paying a visit to the royal treasury now and then...)

I'm not totally against the use of amnesia, but in general I'd prefer that it be confined to some place or places where it's already expected that the party is "losing" some of the context they might otherwise have had. For example, having this be the inciting incident of a campaign is perfectly fine, because it's already understood that a lot of Offscreen Stuff comes into play before the campaign begins--indeed, beginning with amnesia could be a good way to let the characters develop naturally "on camera". Likewise, if there's a clear time-skip or "montage" moment, that can be a reasonable spot to have some amnesic shenanigans, because it's already understood that stuff is getting glossed over; this is doubly true if the party actually agrees to the amnesia in advance, so they know they're losing some memories.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Perhaps read my entire sentence.

I did in fact read the entirety of your sentence. Trying to respond as best I can? Perhaps with some overly slow editing to fully articulate my thoughts....

Put another way: The faction is there for longer term story and plot reasons. The PCs are kind of just... blundering into them while looking for something else. I WANT the PCs to ultimately learn that the faction is there and what sort of threat or long-term political considerations they represent. I'm trying to make that happen in a way that feels true to the faction's motivations.

 

[Weiley31]

I think it works great ala "our story begins" and the solo PC (duet style game) or Group is trying to learn who they are as the campaigns main goal with the "eventual" reveal setting up the second half/main endgame goal after the truth/reveal happens.

If it's not that, eh, something to discuss it over with your players in a session 0.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

If they're this hostile to outsiders, just have the party be shooed away by the residents until it's time to go there "for real." That preserves the mystery without taking away any agency; it's not like the characters have always been able to go to every single place they ever wished to go.

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.

 

[Ondath]

I agree with @Deset Gled that this could be an okay scenario you can use... Once. I think it can be interesting if certain enemies can mess with the game's ground rules and assumptions and force you to think out of the box, but do it more than once and people start to get annoyed. So really consider if you want to use this faction's amnesia ability here, or if you want to keep it for a more momentous occasion.

In my game, I had modified an existing D&D creature's lore to make it so that they worked like the Silence in Doctor Who - you forget any memory of them the moment you look away. The way it worked in-game was that the party would be exploring a nest of these creatures and I'd suddenly jump from a scene saying they found themselves running away and having used X class feature against an enemy they didn't remember. But I also said they regained all memories of this creature (and were immune to future amnesia) when they a specimen, so once the mystery was revealed the game continued as usual.

So my suggestion would be to enrich your idea with these: I'd there a way for the party to regain their memories at their own initiative (if they resolve the mystery, follow clues leading to another, weaker base of the faction that they can actually handle etc.)? Or will they just feel like they've been forced out of an area by the DM's hand? If it's the latter, I suggest you move the first interaction with the faction to a different time when it will be the focus, and not when they're chasing another plot. Because the way you do it now, it might come out of nowhere and annoy them.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So I don't have an issue with the amnesia thing itself and I've done similar (more about it later,) but if the goal is just to get the players to shrug and leave the faction alone this is both too heavy-handed and more importantly unlikely to work. Like at least I would see this is a setup of a cool mystery to be explored. What happened to us? How can we overcome this memory-wiping faction?

In my game I had this secret mindflayer coven, that worked under a cover of a sanatorium. So before the characters knew anything of this, one character decided to visit the place alone for some relaxation and treatments. And what actually happened is that he saw a mindflayer draining another guest, but the mindflayers used modify memory on him, to see it as just a healer administering a treatment to the client, and that is what I described to the player. Later they had disturbing dreams, as the suppressed memory haunted them. At some point the players started to suspect something might be wrong with the character and sought a high priestess to cast greater restoration on him. At that point the memory alteration unravelled and I described to the player what the character had actually experienced. I think this was a rather cool reveal, but importantly it was just a setup for the confrontation with the mindflayers. The trickery was not the end of this story, rather the beginning.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The time I would use amnesia is if the players visit the Feywild, since it is a traditional element of the folk tales that inspired it. I've just been rereading The Magician's Nephew, and noticed it's a property of Lewis's Wood between the Worlds.

But I would use it as an environmental hazard, not to paper over cracks in the plot.

Use it if the plot absolutely requires it, but if you can find any other way, avoid.

The scenario outlined in the OP sounds too railroady to me. You can tell a story through the medium of D&D without it being on rails. If the people in the fort are in the habit of capturing and drugging people who happen by, PLAY IT OUT. If the players happen to win, roll with it. Or if that can't happen, have the fort better hidden, so the players can't find it, or friendly, so they don't attack it.

If you really want to include the "captured and drugged" element, you could have it happen to some NPCs who the players encounter.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I think it really depends on the players. Some would be intrigued by what happened and want to investigate what happened while they were "out", others would find the whole thing to be a gross violation of player agency.

But nobody is going to go on with their business as if nothing happened, so the amnesia ploy is not going to help in keeping the stronghold secret longer while the plot advances. From that moment on the amnesia event is the plot, and the players will almost certainly go back to the last place they remember and try to retrace what happened.

In conclusion; don't do it.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

But nobody is going to go on with their business as if nothing happened, so the amnesia ploy is not going to help in keeping the stronghold secret longer while the plot advances. From that moment on the amnesia event is the plot, and the players will almost certainly go back to the last place they remember and try to retrace what happened.

In conclusion; don't do it.

So I don't have an issue with the amnesia thing itself and I've done similar (more about it later,) but if the goal is just to get the players to shrug and leave the faction alone this is both too heavy-handed and more importantly unlikely to work. Like at least I would see this is a setup of a cool mystery to be explored. What happened to us? How can we overcome this memory-wiping faction?

Yeah, fair enough. I suppose in spite of what I may have previously stated or implied, it's not really my intent to drive the PCs away from the area or faction if that's really what they want to pursue. So much as keep them from being blindsided by a force that is vastly stronger than they are likely suspecting. That takes pains to hide itself and how strong it may be.

Entirely possible the amnesia thing isn't the best way to go about that.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think the specific way you said you would use the amnesia might actually backfire on you... in that you implied that the players would hazily know they were captured, drugged, interrogated and sent packing... which would only inspire them to turn right back around and go back to get revenge.

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.