You wake up with no memory, now what?

[Hammerhead]

Or it could have just been a great party.

 

[werk]

I've never liked the missing memory intro. I mean, if you can't remember what your name is, how can you remember what languages you speak, or how to move silently, or cast spells, etc? Seems like you remember everything except your background and personality, which is too much a stretch I think.

It just never worked for me.

 

[Pbartender]

I've never liked the missing memory intro. I mean, if you can't remember what your name is, how can you remember what languages you speak, or how to move silently, or cast spells, etc? Seems like you remember everything except your background and personality, which is too much a stretch I think.

Real World amnesia works like that all the time.

 

[lukelightning]

The reason the characters have no memories is that they themselves are memories, and the island is all just a mindscape.

 

[pawsplay]

The PCs are fakes. That is, magically created imposters of a group of heroes. However, the original heroes managed to defeat the evil spellcaster before they were destroyed. Now the clones are at loose ends, people on both sides want to kill them, and very strange events have been set in motion.

 

[werk]

Real World amnesia works like that all the time.

But it doesn't make me want to get amnesia.

My point is that it is really hard to overcome, so why start out like that?

I think it's an excuse to railroad.

"you wake up and know nothing (see OP)"
"uh...I look for someone and ask them what happened/who I am"
"that person leads you by the nose into an adventure you can't/wouldn't avoid."

Weee, fun! Just start on the second or third session when I know enough that I can act on my own.

 

[werk]

Maybe they ate some shellfish?

"Amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) is one of the four recognised syndromes of shellfish poisoning (the others being neurologic shellfish poisoning, diarrheal shellfish poisoning and paralytic shellfish poisoning). All four syndromes share some common features and are primarily associated with bivalve mollusks (such as mussels, clams, oysters and scallops). These shellfish are filter feeders and, therefore, accumulate toxins produced by microscopic algae in the form of dinoflagellates and diatoms.

First identified recently in Canada, ASP results from consumption of domoic acid. The chemical can bioaccumulate in marine organisms that feed on the phytoplankton, such as shellfish, anchovies, and sardines. In mammals, including humans, domoic acid acts as a neurotoxin, causing permament short-term memory loss, brain damage, and death in severe cases. Red tides are associated with the phenomenon of ASP."

Not making this up...

 

[Abstraction]

I've never liked the missing memory intro. I mean, if you can't remember what your name is, how can you remember what languages you speak, or how to move silently, or cast spells, etc? Seems like you remember everything except your background and personality, which is too much a stretch I think.

It just never worked for me.

I think I worked a fun way to work with this, actually. I told the players not to spend their skill points unless they wanted to. Whenever they encounter a situation that requires a skill, they are free to say something like, "This seems familiar. I think I can read this language. Yes, this is Omnus, whatever that is," and then spend the skill points or bonus language to know Omnus. If they choose not to, that's fine too. Any skill points still left over do have to be spent when their memory is recovered.

So, here's my plot up to this point.

There is a sorceress-queen (could be something else) somewhere in the world, a place distant from the areas the players are familiar with from previous games. I'm kinda thinking of the witch from Narnia. There is a prophecy about six strangers (the group is six characters) who will someday defeat her. She has killed a great many strangers over several hundred years. When her advisor tells her that the fortunes predict that these strangers, meaning the PCs, have about a 35% chance to be the ones to defeat her, that is too high a chance for her. But, she also wearies of killing (or maybe unable to for some reason?). So she has them sent to the prison colony. This is an island where everyone loses their memory (meaning identity but not skills) every night. Picture the island as a pacman shape. In the center is a mountain wherein there is a cave complex. On the "other" side of the mountain from the prisoners is a harbor. Ships come in and go out, ferrying prisoners and supplies. When the ships are out to sea, they can activate a teleport device that takes within a few miles of several predetermined harbors, one of which is the queen's country. Maybe this uses a lot of energy somehow, so it isn't extremely abusable?

Inside the cave complex, there are pottery jars with what appears to be colorful mold. This is each prisoners identity. On every prisoners forehead is an arcane mark that corresponds to a jar in a great hall. Many of the jars are broken or contain only black dust. These are from long-dead prisoners. New jars on the other end are shiny and contain nothing. There is some sort of large receptacle that contains unimprinted mold and some procedure for using to split the identity from the person. Obvious question, why go to this much trouble? What kind of prisoners require this? Or, maybe, the queen or somebody else gets some kind of benefit from the jars?

I had two possible ways for the group to get into the mountain. One was if they see a clue scarred onto the back of the old guys hand. He says that maybe it's his name, but its unusual, like GWLYDF. If they write it down or remember it, it's the key in past a secret door. Another way may be to feign or cause an illness or death.

By the way, the group is six first level characters. They are an elf bard, a dwarf cleric, an elf ranger, a dwarf rogue, a human fighter and a human wizard. This is meant to be a long-term campaign up to (hopefully) twelfth level or possibly even longer.

 

[Slife]

Well... there's two members of each of the Major Good Races (TM).

Maybe each race has a destined leader... and if one is killed the next one in line takes his place. The evil witch has identified the first and second destined leaders, and wants to keep them out of the way. Since death wouldn't be effective, she settles on loss of identity instead.

 

[jayaint]

Let's assume the sorcerer queen had been using this island for her purposes for a long enough period of time and perhaps there had been some sort of interference by a rival on one of her teleports... causing her to be sent to the island herself. The grunts on the island don't know any better, I mean she never came and visited or anything, and she is instantly amnesiac and therefore can't cry out and tell them who she is. But with her innate power, maybe she has an inkling that she is not destined to be there, and will befriend the party, attempting to aid in their escape to free herself. If the party spouts enough anti-sorcerer-queen propaganda during and immediately after the escape attempt, even the amnesiac queen herself might give in and decide to fight against the "tyrant". (especially if her "jar is mishandled in anyway, cracked, broken, opened too early, etc... leading to a more permanent loss of memory for her)

Of course, a regent for the queen would hire illusionists and whatever it took to maintain the appearance that the queen was still there, and not harmed in the slightest by her rival's attack. Imagine the regent's surprise when intelligence reports come back with the description of a female sorcerer joining the escaped party's ranks, who matches up with the queen's form.

It might lead to quite an awkward battle scene where all the queen's troops and minions would bow down to her as they approached for the fight... leading the party to question exactly what had been going on.

Just random spinnings...