Future game topic, checking interest.

**This game will be played on Roll20** Wasn't sure where else to post this, but I'm planning a game to play once my current 5E homebrew is complete (likely summer start) Where the characters have no memory of themselves. Through the campaign they'll discover their abilities and backgrounds and what caused their amnesia, they'll then have the choice to repeat the actions that caused it with hope for a better end, or try to prevent it from happening in the first place. The characters have been made, with some randomization, including race and gender, all characters are playable without difficulty, its set in Eberron and will be played with the 5E ruleset, thought I'm using the 3.5 campaign setting for area notes (Since there was A LOT of Eberron coverage for 3.5 and I have all the books) The game would be set during the Great War. Why I'm asking about interest is because the PCs will start with a blank character sheet that has their race, gender, and level. They won't recall their class, abilities, or allegiances until later. This will require creative thinking and role play (dice don't help if you're not sure what to roll). I have a system of my own set up to determine how things may manifest, so if you're a sorcerer and you get attacked, 'muscle memory' might throw up shield to protect you, you then recall you have the ability to cast spells and can work to regain your lost knowledge with that stepping point. If you're a barbarian and take a good hit of damage you could start raging, and hey...guys....I'm a big smashy barbarian! The recall of abilities would take some time, but not enough to be a terrible detriment, it would be the investigation of who you were and what led to the circumstance that is the main focus of the campaign. So.....thoughts?

Well, first off, this post is gonna get deleted if it's not directly about Roll20, so: How are you going to work the character sheets? I would suggest having two sheets for each character; one for them and one for you. Theirs, leave blank, and they (or you) can fill it in as you go, with information copied over from your copy! You could even arrange it so they can make certain rolls from your sheet until they learn enough... for example, give them macros that tie into the 'real' sheet for their dierolls for basic stats or something like that. Now that that's out of the way! I personally love the idea of an 'amnesia' game, and have something similar on a back burner in my mind that I've been mulling for a couple years now. I think it would be great fun to watch as the players slowly remember what their characters are, a little bit at a time. The main problem I see is one of player agency... how can you possibly make a character that suits the player, without talking to them about it first? I mean, if the guy who really wants to play a barbarian finds out he's actually a sorcerer, well, he just won't have as much fun. I think it would take quite a bit of trust between the players and the GM to pull something like this off... the GM would have to ask quite a few questions to find out what they'd like to play, and that would give the players quite a few clues as to what they're going to end up with. Not to say this is impossible, but it's probably the main difficulty I see with something like this. Alternately, you could run it with a lot of those aspects left blank at first, and develop the character piecemeal as play goes on and the player decides various things about himself along the way, in the guise of 'discovering' them. The other issue is one of completion. If the game is 'about' discovering who the player characters really are, then what happens when they've learned everything? Regardless, don't let me talk you out of it. I'd like to see what happens! Might give me some ideas for my own campaign, if I ever get off my butt and start building it! -Phnord

Sounds like a good story! Like the idea that you don't know what class you are until something happens. What days are you thinking for this? I know you said down the road but maybe you have some in mind.

Phnord, I appreciate your input, its shows forethought, but the way this ill be posted in the LFG is that characters won't get to choose or know what class they'll be playing, they won't even have an idea what options are available, and each person will be assigned a character by me, randomly, before the start of the game. They'll get to create their personalities from the start, as with most amnesiacs they don't have their history to go off from to change the way they look at the world. I was going to have 2 sets of sheets, and a 'saves' system so when something does happen (like the sorcerer with shield) they can save to see if what is essentially muscle memory kicks in. They'll be starting at 3rd level so they'll each have their subclass which will help both define them and possibly confuse the players behind them at first. It will rely on players that can RP through the frustration and make the best of a situation. Cleverness and creativity :) On your second question, what happens when they've learned everything? There is the story behind the amnesia, how it happened. While they're figuring out who they are they'll be learning about what happened, and they'll have the chance to either put it to right or become the villains and stop it. I'm not going to add detail because I don't want to give away any part of the story itself, so please forgive the vague. Sim181, I'm glad you're interested!!!! I'm really looking forward to it and have been putting in a lot of time already, the days available are Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons (I'm EST) but when summer comes around I'm not sure where I'll be yet :) The game that this will be replacing currently plays on Wed afternoons at 4pm EST, the goal for them is to end around 12th level and they've just reached 8th with milestone leveling, so it should be easily by july/august to start.

Sounds cool to me. The only limitation i'd have is times - gotta be 9PM EST or later. As an interest check tho, i'd be pretty interested in how this would play out. It would need to be more than just the first two games we learn all our abilities, and from then on we're just moving forward. It'd need to be some kind of constant thing - maybe the memories were trapped in a gem that was shattered, and as we obtain shards we learn more about who we were. Could be some fun moments, when, after bonding and becoming friends, I learn that another player was the one who put me in prison in the past. Or something like that.

I think this idea is brilliant! it sounds like a challenge I'd be up for in regards to the whole amnesia / random character thing. I'm not familiar with 5E nor am I familiar with Eberron. However, I'd be willing to learn and it wouldn't be hard to not understand certain aspects / lore of the world in-character if the character has amnesia. Hit me up if you're going to do this, I am an old-school roleplayer that has played almost every class in 3.5 edition, so roleplaying any part or understanding their role in the game won't be hard for me.

OH OH OH I AM SO IINNNNNNN

Lima, can I message you? Just so I have your name for when I do get it started? i'm expecting sometime in July maybe?

FullStack said: It would need to be more than just the first two games we learn all our abilities, and from then on we're just moving forward. It'd need to be some kind of constant thing - maybe the memories were trapped in a gem that was shattered, and as we obtain shards we learn more about who we were. I plan on having it take quite some time to figure out all of the abilities, and the story I'm writing is pretty in depth and is based around the Mournlands incident, but that's ALL i'm going to say about that :p. The overarching story will be more than enough to keep the game going once the players DO remember everything, and if all goes as plan (knock on wood) the party will have reason to have bonded even when all angles and stories come about. I'm super excited about this idea and I've been working on it for about a year (the story, i'm just now putting it into a Roll20 setup) If you're interested I'll send you a private message so I have your name ready when I start to plan its 'go' time. Its not a guarantee, obviously as schedules change over months, but as you've shown interest I would like to give you the chance if the possibility is there. :)

I'm interested in this entire idea, it will depend on day and time but put me down as very interested

DEFINETYL INTERESTED!!!!

Oooh, that sounds so cool! Reminds me of that show Dark Matter on Netflix (slow start but very worth it). I think the times could be tricky for me (I'm EST and work may interfere) but I love playing off character/background revelations and tension! If you need someone who can go with the flow, but still make the reveals meaningful, please keep me in mind!

As I was typing this I saw Brett beat me to it, ha ... but yes, sounds like Dark Matter (SyFy, and Netflix after season airs). I’d be interested in the campaign, but depends on date/times you run it.  I’m EST.

Definitely interested. I'm in Alaska so I doubt the day/time will work for me.

Never doubt date/time. I'm a nightshifter, so standard hours are WAY different, but we'll see come summer. Everyone who has stated interest, I will send a quick message to, just to keep your name available for when I am ready to run :) Thanks guys and gals.

Hello stacy. The game concept is definetely very intriguing. Could you also send me a little message when the LFG for this game goes up ? Thanks :)

@Stacy Day/Time dependant, I'd also be interested to hear when your LFG goes live for this game! Thanks, Ari x