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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7352459" data-attributes="member: 42582">In our session today we had only 3 players (others couldn't make it) and so I suggested we try something different. I bought <a href="https://www.evilhat.com/home/a-penny-for-my-thoughts/" target="_blank">A Penny for My Thoughts</a> years ago now - it has very catching visual design - but had never played it. But for whatever reason I've been re-reading it over the past week, and knowing that our crew would be a bit short I brought it along.The premise of the game is that everyone at the table is an amnesiac undergoing treatment to recover his/her memories - all have taken a drug, Mnemosyne, that allows glimpses into the subconscious minds of others. The default framing is rather melodramatic, based on recovering first a pleasant memory, than an unpleasant one, then the reason that you lost your memories.But an appendix has a Cthulhu-esque variant, where the first memory is one of a small victory against the darkness, the second of a horrible defeat, and the third of the events that blasted your mind so that you lost your memory. This seemed like the more fun version, and was what we played!The basic structure of the game is simple: at the start everyone writes down 5 "memory triggers" which are then all put in a bag/bowl. For each of the three memories to be recovered, the player first draws a memory trigger. Then each other player in turn asks one yes-or-no question about the events that the memory trigger is related to, which the player whose memory is being recovered must answer "Yes, and . . .".  With some context established, the main player then starts to "recall" his/her memory, but at key moments of action must ask another "What did I do or say then?" An answer is offered, and the player then turns to another and says "Or was it . . .?" and an alternative answer is offered. The main player then "recalls" which is the true memory ("Yes, I remember now . . ."), and goes on until the appropriate number of crunch points have been dealt with (there is a penny collecting-and-spending mechanic that decides how many crunch points in each recovered memory).  At which point the player rounds things off and concludes "And that's what I remember."So this is not a RPG, it's a pure cooperative storytelling game. It's relevance to this thread is the way in which a strong sense of shared setting was very quickly developed, even though one (and perhaps another) of the players had never read HPL or come across Cthulhu, deep ones, mi-go, Nyarlathotep, etc before. It was also interesting to see the setting evolve, as the weird science got increasingly more weird.The game uses a device called a "Facts and Reassurances" sheet, to be read by the patients at the beginning of the treatment session, to establish genre. For the Cthulhu-esque version, that tells us that the setting is early 20th century, and that there may be aliens, spirits, terrible gods, and horrific surgery. But all the details emerged in play.One example: a player drew the memory trigger "Something slimy on the back of my hand" and the resulting questions with "yes, and . . ." responses had established that he was being experimented on by deep ones in a laboratory. Later narration in response described a sense of the laboratory getting warmer; and another player's contribution in response to "What did I do or say then?" included a reference to the laboratory being in a volcano and the heat shields failing. The player chose that response, and went on to establish his escape from the laboratory (a small victory against the forces of darkness).The next player first memory had established that he had a precognitive brain implant which allowed him to see places of sanctuary. It had ended with him escaping on a train from Paris to Marseilles. He now had, as his second memory trigger, "Flickering lights and lightning flashes". The first question was "Were you on the Eiffel Tower" - "Yes, and I was trying to harness the power of the lightning with my lightning catching device". THe next was "Was the flickering of the lights due to your sight wavering as a result of the implant?" Which also had to produce a "Yes, and . . ." response. And then either the next question, or maybe a "Yes, I remember . . ." following "What did I do or say then?" meant that he fell from the tower - into a net that (as another answer led to) his precognition had led him to place there. He went on to recall the failure of the lightning catching device, and the reaslisation that he needed a more powerful device - so he travelled south to Naples to harness the power of a volcano.So a "memory trigger" written at the start of the game, before volcanoes had even been mentioned, turns into an idea for a device on the Eiffel Tower to harness the power of lightning, which connects to the idea of secret laboratories in volcanoes to harness even greater power.This experience, plus similar experiences in the tamer context of RPGing, are what make me think concerns that GM control over setting is necessary to maintin consistency (of causation, of story events more generally) are exaggerated.EDIT: I also thought I would try and say something about how quickly setting and character emerge in this game.THe first memory trigger I drew was "Flowers on a grave" - which led to "Was it an ancestor of yours?" "Yes, it was the grave of my Great Aunt Gwendolyn, and I wanted to make sure she did not come back as a zombie"; "Had the protective symbols been erased?" "Yes, and they had been replaced by sigils from the Necronomicon"; "Had a portal to the Far Realm been opened in the coffin?" "Yes, and I was trying to make sure her body didn't get sucked into it".I then ended up remebering that I threw the gravedigger through the portal instead, so that it would not take the body of my Great Aunt; and that when I got back to my house the person who had tampered with the gravestone was sitting on my doorstep - so I shot him. The questionairre on which one records one's recovered memory asks a question after each one. For the first memory (A small victory) it asks "To what did you owe the victory?" And I had to answer "Ruthlessness".It took 3 questions + "yes, and . . ." replies, plus 3 moments of crunch with the two options for "What did I do or say then?", to establish that backstory and personality for my "character".That's not completely dissimilar to how a GM's framing can interact with a player's establishment of theme/agenda in the context of a RPG.</blockquote>

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