Does a PC Have Amnesia? Try This!

[Jaeger]

The only time I was in a group where a PC had amnesia - The GM made the whole character.

The player just got a blank character sheet that he filled out as he went along trying stuff out.

The other PC's found him wandering naked in a grassy field. The player with the blank PC sheet was totally down with this and it was a lot of fun for all involved.

But I can't see a player trying to use amnesia as a cop-out in any of my games, and expect to have any say in chargen what so ever.

If you have amnesia, you have amnesia and you don't know jack. Here's your blank sheet...

Oh, wait you want to know your stats/skills/etc.? OK, who are you then?


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[Napftor]

Do you think that's a good idea?

Heh, yeah I do. The handful of songs and knowledge I've picked up in the last year of wandering the countryside is consistent with the character's 1st-level status.

 

[Warren Okuma]

Sorry, but I can't let this one lie.

First off, Maldor, this isn't an issue of being 'forgiving'. If I ask my players to come up with some back-story, and one of them uses amnesia as a cop-out, he's essentially telling me that he doesn't CARE what his character's history is. This character didn't just appear out of nowhere, living in a vacuum; he's got family, childhood friends, and all the things he did to acquire the skills and abilities he possesses. If someone's not willing to do ANY work on that — even just a couple paragraphs will do, I'm not asking for a novella — while everyone else at the table put forth such an effort, that player should expect the DM to throw in elements he may not have requested.

Mind you, this can be an interesting exercise when handled properly. The player has to be willing to accept that he may have elements in his background that he might not be comfortable with, and be willing to play them out.

Second, the action you proposed — killing off all the other characters while they're asleep — would have two results in any game I run, and that a competent DM should do in my opinion. You would be asked to leave the premises, with the knowledge that you'll never be invited to another game. The other characters would be subjected to a "reality check", in which your character never undertook that action, and was in fact never a part of the group. No DM should ever be willing to participate with a player who is so willing — if not eager — to ruin everyone else's fun for personal satisfaction.

One last thing.
Have you never heard the phrase "turn the other cheek" or "forgive and forget"?

Nah, let him kill the PC's, then when they make new characters buff them up by a level or the equivalent and let them avenge their own deaths. Bounty, the CE's dude's enemies hiring the new PC's etc...

Yup. Lots of people was after the old group. Now that it's down to one member...

 

[Zephyram]

I'm currently playing a 2e dwarf who I started with amnesia.. Which I always do when I join a new group. It gives me a good idea of the ability of the dm.
This most recent amnesiac of mine turned out not to really be a dwarf at all.. But a construct.. Of course the circumstances are a bit different in his case.. He's a construct with a soul. Started with half a soul.. The the paladin who was supposed to be sacrificed to complete me, and thus bring about the resurrection of Moander, was killed by and ifrit that I freed from an iron flask.
I wished to be complete and bam.. Now I have the soul of a paladin, and somehow the whole party wound up on Athas.. Still trying to figure out how lay on hands works in a world with no "gods". Which opens up a whole new set of questions. All in all I'm happy with the way this amnesiac turned out.

Just my two cents.

 

[Maldor]

Have you never heard the phrase "turn the other cheek" or "forgive and forget"?

Hell NO you might as well put on a shirt that says welcome and go laydown in front of your door.

as for your payback idea it's just petty erase his name becuase what he had a relapse and forgot the name he was useing for the last year. You would be the one destroying the game by deliberletly sitting the tone of it being ok to be a ass to someone becuase you didn't like how they sit up THEIR character. So what he didn't give you a family mimber to kidnap or kill. Maybe he just need more time did that ocure to you heck i have played though 2 or 3 game nights without a name becuase i was still deciding on one i don't genrally pick a alignment starting out becuase i like to get a feel for the character and game world how long did you give them to make the character? Is it a new game world?
as for kicking him out rather then just restart to before you and rest of the party started acting like dicks. Thats just you trying to shift the balame for your silly and spiteful "Joke" not being found funny.

P.S. option 2 if you stop hitting them when they go down and don't use a weapon you can usally get off on a fine of less then $150. if you plead giulty

P.S.S. i do not think anyone should resort to violance as a first step in resloving a conflect try talking first but it is usally a very good way of reminding rude people why they should make efforts not to upsit poeple.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I think that's kinda fair enough if someone comes up with 'My character has (explosive!) amnesia' as an entire background. Especially if you can all have fun with it. Think it'd work with one or two players in my group - some of the others would take it personally.

Personally, I really like amnesiac characters as a GM - only 1 at a time, but can have a lot of fun working them into the story? Do insist they furnish me with some story hooks and their expectations for their background.

If it was the first case, I'd ask them politely to give more info or face the consequences!

Lately been getting into having players do really brief backgrounds for their characters. Flesh out these backstories during play. Find it gets really good results if players only have to keep a few key details in their head about each character. At the start at least.

 

[Dioltach]

I'd ask all the other players separately to come up with a name and brief background for any character with amnesia. Let them figure out why they're all calling him or her by a different name. This can get very nasty, hehehe ... Has anyone here read K.J. Parker's Scavenger trilogy?

 

[Lord Zardoz]

I really hope you are using "literally" incorrectly here.

, -- N

Actually, I am using it correctly, though I suspect you assume I meant buggery in its primary definition.

There was a pretty heavy battle going on, and some of the players had gone down. The player made the in game decision that the most in character thing to do at that point in the campaign would be to take all of the party treasure he could and then run away, never to be seen again.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[lin_fusan]

Bbackstories are a front-loading technique to find out what the player wants to do in the campaign. If the player does not participate, or uses the amnesia backstory then it means one of two things in my games:

1) The player is giving me free reign to design whatever backstory I want. He either wants to be surprised or he doesn't care about backstory enough to want to write it and rather have someone else dictate it.

2) The player is saying he doesn't want to bother with a backstory, which means I should simply ignore the character in terms of designing the story and campaign. He is the mysterious "man with no past" that appears in the movie, does his thing, then leaves, no character & story development necessary.

Both has a completely different tone. I try to ask the player which option he is using. If he picks #1, then the OP's idea would be fun and funny.

If he picks #2, then I don't even bother working to include him in the story. It's up to him to find something interesting in the game.

 

[cougent]

Never had anyone trying the amnesia stunt. That's because they know me. They just *know* any character of theirs who has amnesia - whether because they're lazy or because they think it's cool - might just have others remember him.

"We go into the tavern"
"Okay... It's moderately crowded. There's a pretty girl at one table. She sees you, walks up to you, knees you in the groin, calls you a bastard, and storms out"


"'DADDYYYYY! YOU'RE BACK!'"

"'Have you accomplished the... mission you were paid for by us? Only I hear the feds got a description and have sicced their nastiest hunter on you - and, by proxy, on us. You know we don't like that'"

These are just samples of the service I provide as a DM, free of charge. Players who play amnesia characters should always be grateful that you don't go Jason Bourne on their buttocks!

Of course, if he works with me on that background, and comes up with stuff that happened, things like that will probably hppen less often. I had a character like this once. He didn't know who he was, how old he was, or that he wasn't human, he just knew that he could beat the hell out of people with his bare hands, that he could make himself stronger by just thinking about it, and that he thought that the weak should be suppressed (it was a LE gestalt monk/egoist, formerly human, now elan. I left his former identity, actual age, old alignment, and identity on the creature who exprerimented with him to the DM. But I never knew what the DM had in store for him, since I retired him soon after creation).


Now, this thread inspires me. I think the next character I'm gonna play will have amnesia. I'm going to tell the DM to knock himself out.

I am inspired, I have done similar to this but not quite this creative (especially the Daddy one, )

I had a whole group that once did not want to "bother" with back stories so I did the old "you meet at a tavern" opening:
"You walk into the local tavern which is rather bustling with activity and quite loud with about 50+ people crammed inside. As the last of your group gets in the door a barmaid turns towards, drops her tray, and screams. Everyone else in the bar looks to see what she screamed about, as they see you they begin drawing weapons, roll for initiative."
Needless to say, this was NOT the opening they expected. I explained that although they did not want to create back stories did not mean they did not *have* back stories. A week later at the next session every player arrived with very detailed back stories.

My usual shtick is to have an NPC with Amnesia, and since I don't allow duplicate back stories I just say "Sorry, the amnesia back story has already been used, please try something else."