In a campaign I’m running, I want to steer the story into an arc centered on memory loss being weaponized—very similar in vibe to The Silence from Doctor Who. The core idea is that the PCs will interact with NPCs and events, then later have no memory of them.
I’m torn on execution:
Do I let the players fully RP these interactions and trust the characters to forget, even though the players won’t?
Or do I avoid RP at first and instead use unsettling narrative time-skips—moments that feel wrong and disjointed? For example: a character suddenly slurs the last few words of a sentence they don’t remember starting, or realizes they’ve been standing in the same place for several moments without any memory of how they got there.
I once played under a DM who handled something similar beautifully with a False Hydra. We kept finding random arrows after fights, strange signs that didn’t make sense—until we eventually learned the hydra had killed a ranger who’d been traveling with us the whole time. The DM had planted evidence of a party member we never remembered, and the reveal was devastating in the best way.
That’s the feeling I want to capture: unease, loss, slow realization, and narrative horror—not confusion for confusion’s sake.
Any ideas on structure, pacing, or techniques to pull this off cleanly and effectively would be hugely appreciated.
To help highlight the unease idea toward the beginning of the campaign, I might suggest giving players a subtle hint that their character's memories are fallible. maybe the second time they open their satchel they discover a note they have no recollection of writing to themselves warning them of future toils. maybe the fighter's sword is freshly, inexplicably bloodstained, or maybe the wizard is missing a couple of spell slots.
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Having fun? I would hope so. Lets see how much fun you're having after the lich starts dipping into it's 1/day spell slots.
Yes I'm aware my username is completely awful, just do your best to ignore it.
I would start by messing with your players at the start to let the fear build up, but eventually you're going to have to trust them to RP not knowing things that the players know. A good table will be able to handle it.
Do I let the players fully RP these interactions and trust the characters to forget, even though the players won’t?
No, definitely not. If the players know what's going on then the players will not experience any horror or tension, instead it will become a silly "isn't it hilarious that my character doesn't know this thing we all know" situation.
I'd swap the orientation. Because it's relatively impossible to unknow something, asking player characters to do it is likely to be unsatisfying. NPCs on the other hand, can easily act as odd as you want them to. Have an NPC with a faulty memory, let the PCs interact with them, and then give them the line, "if it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone!" A significant glance at the PCs should be enough to suggest that maybe more is afoot than anyone knows about...
If you want to get the same feeling as when your DM ran the False Hydra, go with the second option. The disjointed feeling sounds like what you want to go for.
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He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
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In a campaign I’m running, I want to steer the story into an arc centered on memory loss being weaponized—very similar in vibe to The Silence from Doctor Who. The core idea is that the PCs will interact with NPCs and events, then later have no memory of them.
I’m torn on execution:
Do I let the players fully RP these interactions and trust the characters to forget, even though the players won’t?
Or do I avoid RP at first and instead use unsettling narrative time-skips—moments that feel wrong and disjointed?
For example: a character suddenly slurs the last few words of a sentence they don’t remember starting, or realizes they’ve been standing in the same place for several moments without any memory of how they got there.
I once played under a DM who handled something similar beautifully with a False Hydra. We kept finding random arrows after fights, strange signs that didn’t make sense—until we eventually learned the hydra had killed a ranger who’d been traveling with us the whole time. The DM had planted evidence of a party member we never remembered, and the reveal was devastating in the best way.
That’s the feeling I want to capture: unease, loss, slow realization, and narrative horror—not confusion for confusion’s sake.
Any ideas on structure, pacing, or techniques to pull this off cleanly and effectively would be hugely appreciated.
To help highlight the unease idea toward the beginning of the campaign, I might suggest giving players a subtle hint that their character's memories are fallible. maybe the second time they open their satchel they discover a note they have no recollection of writing to themselves warning them of future toils. maybe the fighter's sword is freshly, inexplicably bloodstained, or maybe the wizard is missing a couple of spell slots.
Having fun? I would hope so. Lets see how much fun you're having after the lich starts dipping into it's 1/day spell slots.
Yes I'm aware my username is completely awful, just do your best to ignore it.
I would start by messing with your players at the start to let the fear build up, but eventually you're going to have to trust them to RP not knowing things that the players know. A good table will be able to handle it.
No, definitely not. If the players know what's going on then the players will not experience any horror or tension, instead it will become a silly "isn't it hilarious that my character doesn't know this thing we all know" situation.
I'd swap the orientation. Because it's relatively impossible to unknow something, asking player characters to do it is likely to be unsatisfying. NPCs on the other hand, can easily act as odd as you want them to. Have an NPC with a faulty memory, let the PCs interact with them, and then give them the line, "if it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone!" A significant glance at the PCs should be enough to suggest that maybe more is afoot than anyone knows about...
I Really Like this Approach!
If you want to get the same feeling as when your DM ran the False Hydra, go with the second option. The disjointed feeling sounds like what you want to go for.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"