Amnesia as a way to introduce characters - how effective it is?

[GPuzzle]

Often, my players start not knowing each other, where they are, how they got there - and I've found that to be pretty effective as a GM. However, is it really as good as it seems to me?

[falloutimperial]

To me, the problem isn't how effective it is as much as the opportunities it denies. Characters cannot have meaningful previous connections in their history that they are aware of, and that is the entirety of a backstory in the usual sense.

[Rhynn]

To me, the problem isn't how effective it is as much as the opportunities it denies. Characters cannot have meaningful previous connections in their history that they are aware of, and that is the entirety of a backstory in the usual sense.

Not really.

"meaningful previous connections in their history" is the backstory.

"that they are aware of" is irrelevant.

The real problem is that for the amnesia to work, he GM has to come up with the entire backstory, and that may be a lot of work, and may end up with something that the player won't like. It's risky, but it can certainly be done well.

Amnesia is a bit of a cliche, but in a story-based game you can definitely use it. Addressing the amnesia has to be a big part of the game, though, which may give the amnesiac character too much spotlight time, unless you make sure the other PCs have good hooks, too.

In a character-driven sandboxy game, it's probably harder, but can still work, provided you place enough clues for the player to actually find.

[inexorabletruth]

By my experience, most of the PCs in campaigns I run have amnesia anyway, lol. They don't know why they became an adventurer, who their families are, where they come from or where they're going. All they know is, what their name is and how to use the weapons at their disposal. Good enough for 90% of the campaigns out there.

I think this cheats the campaign though. A well thought out background adds so much more depth to a character. Amnesia denies those that would use a thorough background the RP opportunities they would normally take.

Waking up and remembering nothing but the thirst for adventure can sure help to cut the crap and get onto the game, but it stunts a character's ability to develop itself unless you somehow intend for them to get their memories back.

Also, the DM wouldn't have to write the BGs for the players. In fact, I recommend against it. Instead, when the time is right, end the session, and give a player who had their memory jogged 24 hours to write an in depth back story with a personality and history based on how they've played their characters out so far. This would create an interesting introspective opportunity that your players may have never seen coming.

[Red Fel]

I wouldn't encourage amnesia. To me, it reads like a cop-out by the player. As a player, I want to feel invested in my character, and I don't get the same feeling if the background is parceled out to me over time that I would if I lovingly crafted it; as a DM, I want my players to feel that investment. That said, laser-guided amnesia is something I can palate - the idea that most of the character's backstory is intact, but certain key parts have been blanked out. I'm also alright with false memories, again to a limited extent.

My concern with amnesia, put simply, is that if allowed, it permits a player to play a two-dimensional murderhobo. No friends, no family, no history, no emotional connections whatsoever. It permits him to be a totally blank slate.

There are certainly players who can do wonderful things with such a concept. And given enough experience with such a player, along with a few under-the-table understandings of what the character's forgotten history would entail, I might be convinced to permit it in isolated instances. But that's an exception, not the rule.

If you must allow a character to have amnesia, put a price tag on it - control. Let them tell you what they want out of their character, give you some general guidelines, but under no circumstances do you let them decide what it was in their life that they have forgotten. If they want to skip out on writing that piece of their backstory, you get to write it for them - while giving deference to their characters, of course. Don't do something that completely goes against the concept. Further, the players have to agree in advance to comply with what you produce. I don't usually advocate in favor of taking control from players - generally, I'm strongly against it - but in this case I find it very appropriate. If they want you to write their backstory, they have to live with the consequences.

[falloutimperial]

The real problem is that for the amnesia to work, he GM has to come up with the entire backstory, and that may be a lot of work, and may end up with something that the player won't like. It's risky, but it can certainly be done well.

Just so. The point of a backstory beyond giving plot ideas to the DM is to influence and explain the character. When I play a character, I can't effectively make in-character decisions if I don't know why I am the way I am unless I am given something to work with, a context.

An example can be found in the characters of Batman and the Joker. We can understand the actions of Batman because we know why he takes them. We cannot understand the actions of the Joker because he has no reason to act. He is insane.

It's what makes main characters interesting. A character that you control needs a history and development, otherwise he or she cannot grow as the story develops. This may be acceptable to people who play for the tactical element of the game, but even to them dynamic characters can be nice to have and easy enough to run.

[Lorsa]

Often, my players start not knowing each other, where they are, how they got there - and I've found that to be pretty effective as a GM. However, is it really as good as it seems to me?

It depends on why you are doing it. Is it just to get an excuse why the characters are together, sort of lazily get away from the problem of having to come up with backstories as a group or is it because the players enjoy exploring a past they know nothing about?

If it's the former, it probably isn't as good as it seems to you but if it's the latter then there's no reason you should stop.

I've GMed and played amnesia characters and it can be great fun. However, this was done as solo play, where there was only one character's past to explore.

[AMFV]

I wouldn't encourage amnesia. To me, it reads like a cop-out by the player. As a player, I want to feel invested in my character, and I don't get the same feeling if the background is parceled out to me over time that I would if I lovingly crafted it; as a DM, I want my players to feel that investment. That said, laser-guided amnesia is something I can palate - the idea that most of the character's backstory is intact, but certain key parts have been blanked out. I'm also alright with false memories, again to a limited extent.

My concern with amnesia, put simply, is that if allowed, it permits a player to play a two-dimensional murderhobo. No friends, no family, no history, no emotional connections whatsoever. It permits him to be a totally blank slate.

Well just because the character as amnesia doesn't mean the player has to, you could have a lot of interesting backstories that you develop with the player that their characters are unaware of.

I do agree that it is a kind of laziness if you just let the DM do all the work and don't try to interact with your backstory, even if you don't know it. So I would agree on that count, but if the player wants amnesia and actively investigates it, it's a different story. The player has to deal with unique consequences.

While I agree with you in general case, and I agree with your specific exemption later, I just wanted to say that a character having amnesia, doesn't necessarily mean that the player doesn't write a backstory.

Also amnesia for an entire group could be really interesting. There is a Star Trek: TNG Episode about that, which was excellent on of the best episodes, and it dose a really good job covering that particular concept. I can't remember the name now though.

[valadil]

I played in a LARP where everyone had amnesia. Once an hour a GM would give you an envelope with a memory in it. The game lasted for a whole weekend and was fantastic.

I also played in a game where a friend played a character with amnesia. He used it as an excuse to have no background or personality. It was awful.

A strong roleplayer could probably get away with playing a character with no memory in a tabletop game. My real problem with it is that it adds to the GM's burden. He's already got the whole world to run and now you're going to put him in charge of a PC's backgrounds too? That seems backwards.

[Chronos]

Frankly, it just strikes me as lazy, on everyone's part. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing: If your group doesn't care about backstories and such, and would rather devote their resources to other aspects of the game, have at it. But as others have said, if you have any players who are interested in the role-play aspects, it severely hamstrings them. Better, I think, if you're going to go the lazy route is to just say nothing at all, or so little that it might as well be nothing: "You're all going on an adventure for your own reasons. Go.". That way, those who don't care about backstories don't need them, but those who do still have room to introduce them.

[JeenLeen]

I played one game that sorta worked like that. (We had memories, but found out they were fakes and were slowly getting back our real memories.) It was okay, but we felt cheated out of original character concepts.

More on topic, I would primarily be concerned with the players getting personalities/backgrounds they don't like, or that don't synch with how they've played their character thus far. It could work out well, depending on the players, but I would be hesitant about such a game.

(On the other hand, for a rather short game (1-3 sessions or something), I think it could be a cool concept--again, if the players are okay with less control over who they play.)

[Blarmb]

This has been used once in the game I'm running.

The player wanted to have a character with a particular flavor to their mechanics but the only source of those kind of powers in the setting wouldn't really mesh with the game I had going. So we gave the character Amnesia up until recently and just had her initial back story cover the time since she regained her memories.

This worked well enough since the power set was obscure and alien enough that most other characters either didn't know what to make of it, or would be likely to interpret them incorrectly.

The end result was a character that had a neat power set, without having to throw off the feel of the game. We've even had occasion to RP pre-amensia scenes as dream sequences that never quite seem to stick fully in the character's memory.

I think it's a fun tool, used correctly.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

There's a horror game, Dread, which uses a questionnaire (usually with leading questions like "Whose voice can you never shake from your darkest dreams?") for its character creation, mainly because numeric stats aren't important to the game, just statements on who the characters are and what walks of life they've trod. Usually, you start the game by filling out the entire questionnaire, then giving it back to the GM to be used as fodder for the game.

If you wanted to do an amnesia setup? Have everyone get a list of loaded questions. They begin the game without answering any of them. Every so often, tell someone to pick a question and answer it, as a memory returns. Now, you make the unfolding of memories something that engages and shapes the characters in a surprising way. (Also with anticipation: what will be revealed next?)

• Why can't you stand the sight of blood?
• How did you learn Old English?
• Why are you afraid of heights?
• Who betrayed you when the business fell on hard times?
• What was "the business"?
• Who is the masked woman in your memories?

Also, there's a cool game, A Penny for My Thoughts, premised around amnesia and recovering memories.

[GungHo]

I wouldn't go to that well often. It works as an occasional device, as does "met in a tavern" or "we're going to prison", but all the time and it gets real stale (I'm looking at you, Bethesda).

If you're going there because you're worried about people coming up with disparate, incompatible backgrounds, sometimes it's good to have a brainstorming session with the players to plan out the characters, especially if you're intending to have a long term campaign. Let them have some agency in how they met and why they'd ever like each other.

That being said, if you're good at improv and know your players' tastes, it can be fun. However, don't go into it thinking it will save time. You'll spend just as much time trying to make it all make sense.

[PersonMan]

I don't see why amnesia means anything but 'the character doesn't remember their past'. I mean, some people may play it as 'the player doesn't know the character's past either', but it's not a must-do.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I wouldn't go to that well often. It works as an occasional device, as does "met in a tavern" or "we're going to prison", but all the time and it gets real stale (I'm looking at you, Bethesda).

"You all meet in a prison tavern. You don't remember who you are."

[Segev]

There is an episode of One Piece wherein the gang are all whammied with amnesia that makes them wake up and remember nothing since some time they went to sleep in the past that was before they met the rest of the crew. This isn't played out for too long, as the audience knows they all should know each other and how they relate to each other, but ever since I saw it, I have thought it would be an interesting way to start a campaign.

Have everybody build level 1 characters, and encourage them to have planned out characters up through level X (I'd recommend 5 or 9 or so). Secretly have them using their level X sheets, while telling them they're using their level 1 ones. Have them describe a "typical" evening, explaining they're starting off separate and will meet "in game." Then, describe them all waking up after going to bed on said typical evening, together, in a strange room (middle of a dungeon crawl) and possibly in clothes that are different than what they expected.

This works best if you have very thorough personalities for them and some idea of the personal growth they want their PCs to go through, so you can map out rough ideas of how they formed into a party and paths to resolving any obstacles that would keep them from becoming trusted friends.

As the game progresses, let them roll and secretly modify numbers until they realize they're acting as higher level than they should. Then let them start "remembering" things. Play out, over the course of the first dungeon or even over the course of the campaign, flash-back scenes of the PCs meeting each other or of them working together as if they knew each other, working through and working out some of the plot elements they thought were "ahead" of them.

[illyahr]

There is an episode of One Piece wherein the gang are all whammied with amnesia that makes them wake up and remember nothing since some time they went to sleep in the past that was before they met the rest of the crew. This isn't played out for too long, as the audience knows they all should know each other and how they relate to each other, but ever since I saw it, I have thought it would be an interesting way to start a campaign.

Have everybody build level 1 characters, and encourage them to have planned out characters up through level X (I'd recommend 5 or 9 or so). Secretly have them using their level X sheets, while telling them they're using their level 1 ones. Have them describe a "typical" evening, explaining they're starting off separate and will meet "in game." Then, describe them all waking up after going to bed on said typical evening, together, in a strange room (middle of a dungeon crawl) and possibly in clothes that are different than what they expected.

This works best if you have very thorough personalities for them and some idea of the personal growth they want their PCs to go through, so you can map out rough ideas of how they formed into a party and paths to resolving any obstacles that would keep them from becoming trusted friends.

As the game progresses, let them roll and secretly modify numbers until they realize they're acting as higher level than they should. Then let them start "remembering" things. Play out, over the course of the first dungeon or even over the course of the campaign, flash-back scenes of the PCs meeting each other or of them working together as if they knew each other, working through and working out some of the plot elements they thought were "ahead" of them.

This is a fantastic idea, however it requres a level of experience on the players' parts to work. Most of my players are experienced enough to pull this off, so would it be ok if I stole this?

[Segev]

This is a fantastic idea, however it requres a level of experience on the players' parts to work. Most of my players are experienced enough to pull this off, so would it be ok if I stole this?

By all means. I'd be delighted to hear how it went, too. I doubt I'll ever really have opportunity to use it, myself.

[Jlerpy]

"You all meet in a prison tavern. You don't remember who you are."

Is that a tavern that's in a prison (privvy wine, anyone?), or tavern that's a prison?

[Lucid]

Often, my players start not knowing each other, where they are, how they got there - and I've found that to be pretty effective as a GM. However, is it really as good as it seems to me?

I am thinking of starting my campaign somewhat like this, though I'm still not sure as I've still got quite some fleshing out left to do.

My idea was to have them all make separate backgrounds. The pc's would remember everything up until the start of the campaign, when they end up in a dimensional storm and dropped in the middle of the desert, along with several other npc's and creatures.
The way this could go would ideally be shock at first, then joining together out of necessity for survival. After this I'd imagine most of them would try to find a way home, but that's when the plot kicks in.(which would be related to the storm that put them there)

This way you've got characters without real amnesia, who know who they are, but still unknown to each other and the situation they're in.

[Sajiri]

I was/am planning a solo game for someone where the player has amnesia. Basically the character was supposed to have done certain things before the game began, but I didn't want to tell him what that was because 1. It was a big plot twist and 2. I didn't want to dictate his character's past exactly.

So I told him he could come up with some basic ideas at first (dont set anything in stone) and as the game progressed he would be given opportunities to define his background as he also learnt more of the plot. (eg. "so do you remember what country you were from?" "Oh I came from this place I think") The plan was that he would be able to design his background as he was learning the plot points of what he also did in the past, so we would kind of build it together.

Unfortunately I discovered later that the beginning I had- waking up washed up on a beach with no memory, discovered by someone that helps them along and gradually get to discover and define their past- was also exactly how Steambot Chronicles (his favourite video game) began

[Jlerpy]

Unfortunately I discovered later that the beginning I had- waking up washed up on a beach with no memory, discovered by someone that helps them along and gradually get to discover and define their past- was also exactly how Steambot Chronicles (his favourite video game) began

That's also the start of The Bourne Identity.

[Sajiri]

That's also the start of The Bourne Identity.

Also, something I have never been aware of.

Im fairly sure they werent carried there by a sea monster though

[Jlerpy]

Also, something I have never been aware of.

Im fairly sure they werent carried there by a sea monster though

Uh, no. Not unless one counts the CIA as a "C monster" :)

[Beleriphon]

The amnesia idea works reasonably well, especially if you consider that the players are usually just as non-aware as the movie-version of amnesiac characters. This allows you as GM to introduce ideas and settings and be able to genuinely surprise your players. You can play the whole "I'm your mother" card when the characters get famous, and make it true or not as needed.