Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wycen" data-source="post: 6063379" data-attributes="member: 13732">A couple weeks ago in the Pathfinder game I play in, run by the owner of Black Diamond Games, Gary, I was sitting at the table with everyone and we were faced with a situation that essentially made it very difficult to reinforce the barbarian.  A thought came to mind and I asked another player, "Don't you have that magic lamp, it should be able to suck up the cloud".  And voila! suddenly we could progress and help our isolated barbarian.  Too late I wondered to myself, would anyone else, say like the player who owns the magic item, have remembered it?After the game I started remembering other situations.  Our ranger's magic sword was destroyed by a rust monster.  I remembered reading the blog report about a session I actually missed where the ranger found another magic sword at a quarry.  I asked "what about that other sword you got?"  A few sessions later we were fighting a genie and in the middle of battle I remembered, "Don't we have that arrow of slaying?!"  I started thinking about institutional memory.Today I got an email from the other group I've been playing with and it irked me, which prompted this post.  For reasons I wont go into I'm considering dropping out of the other group, but apparently I'm their institutional memory as well.  Basically the email contained a list of magic items they believed we had and a list of stuff each of the other players wanted.  But guess what?  It didn't contain everything, like the missing figurine of wondrous power.  Or the haunt siphons, or magic ouija board.  The figurine of wondrous power particularly had me puzzled as to why it was missing because when I greedily said "ooh, mine" that prompted a couple people to say I'd already claimed enough magic items, one of the players being the guy sending the email.  Who also happens to take notes during the game.  Huh?But, maybe I'm wired to remember treasure.  Maybe institutional memory isn't what I bring to the table.  Maybe I just love tracking numbers and stuff.  I do of course, at least when it comes to games like DnD/Pathfinder.  Obviously other things pop into my memory, which have helped with bonuses to diplomacy rolls, but they don't seem to leave as big an impression in my memory.And if the wiki for institutional memory is correct, "it transcends the individual" so if just one guy remembers this stuff, is that the same thing?  Maybe I'm just an accountant. So does your group have institutional memory?  How has it affected your games?  Or maybe you have an accountant?</blockquote>

Verification