I've been tossing around an idea for a new campaign where every player begins the game as an amnesiac skeleton, freshly reanimated in a forgotten crypt. They all revive at the same, and while they know some implicit things about themselves they have to slowly piece together what their lives were like while on their adventure.
The idea is to blend dark comedy, mystery, and existential horror into a single campaign, with strong narrative mechanics inspired by Disco Elysium. When characters attempt to recall a memory or understand a symbol from their past, they make ability checks to determine which part of their buried self resurfaces. A failed arcana check might indicate you weren't a strong magical student; or a successful religion check might point you towards the god you worshiped in life.
Questions I’m chewing on:
What’s the best way to handle progression? Should players slowly rebuild their classes/spells as they remember them?
How do I keep the memories personal and varied without front loading dozens of backstories?
Has anyone played something similar?
Would love to hear thoughts, ideas, or past experiences!
Sounds fun! Maybe just come up some really basic character descriptions: class, species, background but instead of writing a backstory... give the players a prompt. Like, maybe one week they remember they were an elf and let the player flesh that out.. another week they remember they were kicked-out of elf land... the player decides why. It would spread out the work across the players... and then you could tie it all together with some pivotal event if you wanted to.
I haven't played such a campaign, but I've read several novels / tv shows with such a premise. The key to making it interesting is to have strong personality traits for each character so even while amnesiac they are all different from each other. One might be a natural leader, another might be slimy and underhand, another might be charming and out going. This also means they get to set their ability scores right from the start.
That makes sense! I can see how making sure they have clear traits is important. Ability scores and proficiencies are things they should probably know from the start.
i think it depends on your party for the questions but make sure your party is fine with it and you dont end up railroading them into playing a character they dont want
I just finished DMing an amnesiac mystery campaign and I've played two characters with amnesia - one was a reborn bard of my own making, and the other had a whole secret backstory foisted upon me without my buy-in (it sucked and I hated every second even though the backstory was cool). The biggest thing I learned is really an echo of Aeroflare's point: make sure your players completely understand the campaign premise and the extent of the ownership over their character before you start playing.
For the campaign I ran, I gave my players the premise of the setting (walled city, history began 10 years ago due to magic accident causing amnesia, world didn't exist beyond the city limits) but I told them that there was room for variation in what they remembered about their past lives. Then I asked them how much amnesia they wanted to play with.
Most chose to be blank slates with family ties they remembered perfectly; I gave them total agency to create those NPCs like I would in a normal campaign. One player decided to be a total amnesiac and gave me full creative control of their backstory. And one decided he wanted to remember everything about his past life (but not the city/world itself) so that he could roleplay running from his responsibilities. This individualized approach allowed room for the campaign's central mystery (is there a world beyond the walls and what happened to it?) without infringing on player agency or consent.
As for the backstory reveals, I tied them with major plot points or NPCs, peppering them into the story slowly over a couple years. My players really looked forward to learning more about who they really were, or how their past was catching up with them as they were going about their daily adventuring.
I had a similar setup in one of my campaigns. One of the party members was a reborn bard with total amnesia, a character I actually wrote myself, but handed off to a player to control. Their backstory was fully fleshed out ahead of time, but they had no access to it at the start. Instead, we used skill checks and key moments in the narrative to slowly "unlock" fragments of memory.
Reading your post, I think you nailed it: the individualized approach is the most respectful and sustainable if you're going to explore amnesia at the party level. Thanks for the insight!
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I've been tossing around an idea for a new campaign where every player begins the game as an amnesiac skeleton, freshly reanimated in a forgotten crypt. They all revive at the same, and while they know some implicit things about themselves they have to slowly piece together what their lives were like while on their adventure.
The idea is to blend dark comedy, mystery, and existential horror into a single campaign, with strong narrative mechanics inspired by Disco Elysium. When characters attempt to recall a memory or understand a symbol from their past, they make ability checks to determine which part of their buried self resurfaces. A failed arcana check might indicate you weren't a strong magical student; or a successful religion check might point you towards the god you worshiped in life.
Questions I’m chewing on:
What’s the best way to handle progression? Should players slowly rebuild their classes/spells as they remember them?
How do I keep the memories personal and varied without front loading dozens of backstories?
Has anyone played something similar?
Would love to hear thoughts, ideas, or past experiences!
Sounds fun! Maybe just come up some really basic character descriptions: class, species, background but instead of writing a backstory... give the players a prompt. Like, maybe one week they remember they were an elf and let the player flesh that out.. another week they remember they were kicked-out of elf land... the player decides why. It would spread out the work across the players... and then you could tie it all together with some pivotal event if you wanted to.
I haven't played such a campaign, but I've read several novels / tv shows with such a premise. The key to making it interesting is to have strong personality traits for each character so even while amnesiac they are all different from each other. One might be a natural leader, another might be slimy and underhand, another might be charming and out going. This also means they get to set their ability scores right from the start.
That makes sense! I can see how making sure they have clear traits is important. Ability scores and proficiencies are things they should probably know from the start.
i think it depends on your party for the questions but make sure your party is fine with it and you dont end up railroading them into playing a character they dont want
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I just finished DMing an amnesiac mystery campaign and I've played two characters with amnesia - one was a reborn bard of my own making, and the other had a whole secret backstory foisted upon me without my buy-in (it sucked and I hated every second even though the backstory was cool). The biggest thing I learned is really an echo of Aeroflare's point: make sure your players completely understand the campaign premise and the extent of the ownership over their character before you start playing.
For the campaign I ran, I gave my players the premise of the setting (walled city, history began 10 years ago due to magic accident causing amnesia, world didn't exist beyond the city limits) but I told them that there was room for variation in what they remembered about their past lives. Then I asked them how much amnesia they wanted to play with.
Most chose to be blank slates with family ties they remembered perfectly; I gave them total agency to create those NPCs like I would in a normal campaign. One player decided to be a total amnesiac and gave me full creative control of their backstory. And one decided he wanted to remember everything about his past life (but not the city/world itself) so that he could roleplay running from his responsibilities. This individualized approach allowed room for the campaign's central mystery (is there a world beyond the walls and what happened to it?) without infringing on player agency or consent.
As for the backstory reveals, I tied them with major plot points or NPCs, peppering them into the story slowly over a couple years. My players really looked forward to learning more about who they really were, or how their past was catching up with them as they were going about their daily adventuring.
I had a similar setup in one of my campaigns. One of the party members was a reborn bard with total amnesia, a character I actually wrote myself, but handed off to a player to control. Their backstory was fully fleshed out ahead of time, but they had no access to it at the start. Instead, we used skill checks and key moments in the narrative to slowly "unlock" fragments of memory.
Reading your post, I think you nailed it: the individualized approach is the most respectful and sustainable if you're going to explore amnesia at the party level. Thanks for the insight!