Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Manypro 12-15-04, 12:52 PM	Hi, I wanted to make the PCs start off in an Inn with their memory being erased. So they have to find out why/how and who did it to them. I am kind of stuck on the "why" part. As it is done by a very powerful NPC who could've just killed them. What reasons could be there to make PCs forget instead of just killing them? It doesn't make sense that a wizard who could've just killed them when they got in the way erased their memories instead.
EatFlan 12-15-04, 01:03 PM	B/c... luuuuke i ammm yoooour faaaaaaather...
xann 12-15-04, 01:09 PM	oooooh i got it, there Zents ment to infiltrate a orginization maybe the Harpers. very Total Recall
olshanski_home 12-15-04, 01:12 PM	Depending on where you want to go: The PCs were exploring the ruins of some place that had a powerful magnetic/technological effect... or perhaps the BBEG has a custom spell that wipes memory. In any case, the adventurers were well aware of the potential to have thier memory wiped, and tried to take precautions to prevent it. Since the players at one point knew they were up against an opponent that had the ability to mess with people's brains, so the PCs purchased a contingency spell that would teleport them to safety if they became victim of the spell effect. This means that the players must believe that the Inn is a safe place for them. Perhaps they came here very often... or perhaps, the PCs were afraid that they couldn't return to a well-known place, since they might be pursued, so they set up the contingency to take them to a far away inn that they perhaps only visited once in thier lifetime. It would be interesting to have some effects like from the movie "Memento"... in which one of the players has a tatoo that gives instructions or some cryptic hint. Perhaps there is a note or two located in the players backpack that might help them or even a lingering effect like a magic mouth in a scroll that people might discover in a week or two when they carefully go through all of thier belongings. It sounds like a good idea, but better if the players are starting at a higher level... If the players are already 4th level, you might even consider giving them some extra equipment and perhaps give them a free level at the same time that you wipe thier memories... just so that the players know that things have happened since they last knew their characters... perhaps they are all a year older or something as well.
Manypro 12-15-04, 01:20 PM	I wanted to start the group off at lvl 5 or 6. The clue in the backpack or tattoo idea is very nice, it would help them in their quest. The problem is that the BBEG used "programmed amnesia" from complete arcane to erase their memories. The casting of this spell takes 10 minutes or so, so the only logical explanation is that they were prisoners of the BBEG when this happened and if they were why wouldn't the BBEG just kill them.
ThatDarnCat 12-15-04, 01:57 PM	I wanted to start the group off at lvl 5 or 6. The clue in the backpack or tattoo idea is very nice, it would help them in their quest. The problem is that the BBEG used "programmed amnesia" from complete arcane to erase their memories. The casting of this spell takes 10 minutes or so, so the only logical explanation is that they were prisoners of the BBEG when this happened and if they were why wouldn't the BBEG just kill them.So you don't know where to go after the PCs memories are wiped... Off the top of my head I would have the PCs greeted by somefur who appears to know them. This would be an agent of the BBEG. His job is to give them false information and misslead them. "Hey, see that guy, he's your enemy. He killed your bf/gf/fiancee/husband/wife/child by 'add gruesome death here'. You should kill him before he realizes you're not dead..." This can make the characters the bad guys... Then they have to figure out what is wrong and why some people call them different names and such. No, I'm not inherently evil...
Manypro 12-15-04, 02:01 PM	Very good idea. I already wanted to approach them with a rogue who would attack them but this is even better.
ThatDarnCat 12-15-04, 02:18 PM	Damn annoying internet.
CrippleMrOnion 12-15-04, 02:23 PM	You have virtually infinite reasons. As I'm at work, I'm going to throw only 2 at you. The TRULY EPIC* campaign: Your PCs are relatively weak, but they possess within them the reincarnated (in the traditional sense, not the spell) souls of very powerful warriors. In the past, the warriors defeated a great evil of some sort. The great evil is reincarnated, as well, to create a matrix-type source of repetition and control. The great evil (i.e. the BBEG) has been around a while and has finally identified the vessels of the warriors (your PCs). As he learns who they are, though, he finds them metaphorically knocking on his door, because they've learned who he is, too. If he kills them, the spirits may have been reincarnated in more powerful forms that he can't handle, but since the PCs are wimps at this point, he captures them and erases their memory, to set them back many years and buy himself some time. The not-so-epic campaign: The amnesia is a red herring. They should do a series of adventures together before they find someone else with a similar tattoo. A recurring badguy (with high speed or some other means of escape) and a series of ever-increasingly difficult assassination attempts should annoy them from time to time. In the end, though, they find out that they were targeted because they were villians and the people attacking them were paid to dispose of them. The amnesia was a side effect of a poison a previous assassin used, not a mystical, magical reason at all. Now, they have a chance to right the wrongs they've committed and, thus, get the price from their heads removed. * Epic in the poetic sense, not the game sense.
olshanski_home 12-15-04, 02:25 PM	Why didn't the BBEG kill them? 1) Because he wanted to sacrifice them to his god... he needed them docile. 2) Because only a follower of [insert good diety] could open a locked chamber. 3) Because the party members were acquantences of a king, and similar to "Manchurian Candidate" the BBEG wanted to reprogram one or more party members to be unwitting assassins... (The king is well protected from shapechangers, illusions, and whatnot, only an authentic person could get close enough.. thus the PCs). 4) The BBEG didn't have them as prisoners, but rather it was a trapped room that the party fell into... the spell was automatically triggered. 5) Because the BBEG was once a close companion/relative of one or more characters, and familial bond prevented him from killing the characters. You don't have to stick with a spell as written in a book. Part of the DM's job is to know when to bend the rules.
Vharuck 12-15-04, 02:31 PM	So you don't know where to go after the PCs memories are wiped... Off the top of my head I would have the PCs greeted by somefur who appears to know them. This would be an agent of the BBEG. His job is to give them false information and misslead them. "Hey, see that guy, he's your enemy. He killed your bf/gf/fiancee/husband/wife/child by 'add gruesome death here'. You should kill him before he realizes you're not dead..." This can make the characters the bad guys... Then they have to figure out what is wrong and why some people call them different names and such. No, I'm not inherently evil... Memento, anyone?
eudas 12-15-04, 02:32 PM	Hi, I wanted to make the PCs start off in an Inn with their memory being erased. So they have to find out why/how and who did it to them. I am kind of stuck on the "why" part. As it is done by a very powerful NPC who could've just killed them. What reasons could be there to make PCs forget instead of just killing them? It doesn't make sense that a wizard who could've just killed them when they got in the way erased their memories instead. See also: Curse of the Azure Bonds. eudas
Magnus029 12-15-04, 02:36 PM	See also: Curse of the Azure Bonds. eudas Now that was a good game for the time.
Gamebird 12-15-04, 02:42 PM	I like the idea of them having previously been evil. That's awesome. Other Idea #1: Or we could borrow from the Book of Job. An evil god challenges a good god, saying "I'll bet you X that your followers there wouldn't be such good guys if you took their memories away, and all the formative experiences that made them decent folk." The good god says, "You're on!" and wipes the memories out for the party while they're sitting around eating dinner one evening. The good and evil god then throw challenges and moral dilemmas at the characters to see if they'll change alignment and so on from however they were previously. Note that this course of action will probably make them see the "good" god in a less than good light. Other Idea #2: The PCs previously knew valuable information that the BBEG desperately wanted. One of their member, or their mentor/sponsor/sensei/whatever, wanted to keep the BBEG from knowing and so used scrolls of the spell to wipe their memory. Maybe they agreed to this, maybe they didn't. (If they agreed, then they'd leave clues for themselves about who the enemy was and whether to trust the mentor if they see him later.) Then he put them in an obvious place - the inn - and ran off to hide. He is now the only one with the information the BBEG wants, though the BBEG doesn't know that. The BBEG will start chasing the PCs, only to find out they know nothing. Then maybe the BBEG will try to con the PCs into helping him find the person who did this all to them, the one person who is missing from their party... Other Idea #3: The PCs have just returned from a heroic quest, where they stowed their treasure in X location until they were healed enough to go back for it. Unknown to them, while in the dungeon they picked up a spore or parasite that devours memories. Since they were all so hurt, they took to bedrest and the parasite put them into a long, deep sleep. At the end, when their memories were all gone, the parasite dropped off and went on its way. They woke up sans memories and not knowing where their treasure was, or even that there was treasure. One of them has a map of the dungeon and another map that gives directions to where they hid the loot (though the map wouldn't say "Loot buried here", just "Under the rock"). They can go back to the dungeon (and maybe get reinfected - that would lead to some *very* humorous iterative adventures!), or get their loot... but when they get to where they buried the loot, they find it's been dug up and stolen by someone else.
Ropeltaja 12-15-04, 03:14 PM	I wanted to make the PCs start off in an Inn with their memory being erased. *sighs* How original...
ThatDarnCat 12-15-04, 03:24 PM	*sighs* How original...There are only 7 basic stories in the world so nothing is original. The originality comes in how you use one of those stories. I'm willing to bet that I can find a literary work with the same basic story for anything you think is original. So unless you are going to contribute to the thread, keep your muzzle shut. As to the Memento allusion, I never saw the movie.
Manypro 12-15-04, 03:39 PM	*sighs* How original... Well I wanted to let the party start in an adventure instead of let them find one by asking various townspeople for quests which is what happens 99% of the time here.
Ropeltaja 12-15-04, 03:39 PM	unless you are going to contribute to the thread, keep your muzzle shut.:weep: You're a mean person... Oh well... maybe the BBEG is in love with one of the party members and did something stupid. Then he erased their memory so that he could start from the beginning with the one he loves. :P
Ayers 12-15-04, 03:48 PM	Maybe the PC's where sent to assassinate/capture/gather information from the BBEG, and they where simply to important to kill, or he didn't want to bring attention to himself yet. Maybe he's been massing an army, or perfecting his secret doom weapon or something of the like, and can't afford to bring too much attention to himself. Perhaps the PC's where killed, but are part of some great tapestry of events that has not yet taken place, and where not yet meant to die. So a demi-god or minor god brought them back to life to ensure that they play their part for good or evil. However, none of the other gods would assist him in bringing them back so he mesed up and the PC's have no memories of their former lives (no one's perfect, eh?). Maybe the PC's did something so unspeakably evil in life that no afterlife will accept them until they have fixed their wrongs. But as suggested above, an evil god and a good god got together and made a bet. To make it fair, the PC's have their memories wiped clean, and they are given a chance for redemption, however if they fail, they will be given an eternal torture of some sort.
Ropeltaja 12-15-04, 04:55 PM	Well I wanted to let the party start in an adventure instead of let them find one by asking various townspeople for quests which is what happens 99% of the time here. That's a good thing. I've just been in too many "characters lose their memory and..." campaigns, but if DMed correctly it actually could be quite interesting plot(though a bit overused in my opinion). *yawns* Bed time...
strontium 12-15-04, 05:25 PM	Why didnt the bbeg kill them..... He was planning to but an agent of good/love struck henchwoman defied her master and whisked them away at the last second :D
Ayers 12-15-04, 05:30 PM	Why didnt the bbeg kill them..... He was planning to but an agent of good/love struck henchwoman defied her master and whisked them away at the last second :D Hmm... a good idea, but why would she take away their memories?
ThatDarnCat 12-15-04, 06:03 PM	Hmm... a good idea, but why would she take away their memories?Purrhaps she gave them a slow acting poison, but repented and gave them the antidote before it could kill them. The side-affect of the drug is memory loss, that way you don't remember how it is that you are dying...
Kainy 12-15-04, 06:21 PM	Previously being evil could be interesting, but the BBEG could now pretend to be someone who's trying to help them, and send them on a number of innocent quests, and the party can then discover what's happening, but now that they're higher-level, they have a chance to break a cycle that's been going on for they-don't-know-how-long. Or, if you want the campaign to be shorter, you can have them get enervated back to where they started, and then have the same spell cast on them... :P
Judging Eagle 12-15-04, 11:00 PM	An other tack for this idea would be that each of them were leaders of competing parties of adventurers after a relic/artifact/item of power/etc. in location X. When all four parties faced off at the central chamber (maybe there were 4 different entrances, one for each of the 4 main alignment types? (LG, CG, LE, CE, divide the other alignments as they are done in the DD minis game)) they all triggered a (final) powerful memory erasure/teleport trap that only teleported the 'leaders' of each party (the PCs) to a 'safe' location. Then have the PCs 'original' parties trying to free them from their 'captors' (as they would see the other 4 PCs that is with their 'leader'). With the PCs being chased by 4 different groups of all different alignments it could be pretty interesting until the players realize that they were opponents long ago and now trust each other implicitly.
H-D 12-15-04, 11:33 PM	The "Four party leaders" idea has got to be one of the most original ideas that I have ever read about here in the Boards. (My apologies if you had come up with a similar idea in the past and have posted it elsewhere... I must have missed that thread). =) Not that this is my campaign, but that kind of idea allows for so much in the way of party interaction and "mistaken identities" that it is amazing. You get to have the "leaders" working together on the tasks that the party decides to take on (so you have the players moving the campaign along, rather than it moving them) and at the same time you have 12 NPCs (or so) who have vested interests in the party in ways that seem much more plausible and "real" than many others could. Good stuff. :D H-D
Judging Eagle 01-04-05, 11:00 AM	Nope, I sort of came up with the idea just here and now. I'm actually fairly new to these forums. >_> My own reasoning for the 4 leaders was something along the lines of this: 4 people, all in the same place, that were 'placed' there; maybe the artifact itself had a contingency to tele/mind-wipe the first X number of people to the one place they've been to the most in the last X amount of time (in this case the same inn). However why would all the members of the -SAME- party all rush and reach for the item at the same time? I think that's what makes it all really odd for me, they were all grabbing the same item, but unless a party is suddenly about to come apart at the seams you'd never see more than one party member rush to grab an item/tackle a spell caster/etc. Most likely they were all members of opposing parties racing across the floor of the last room to grab the item and run back to their respective parties, in this case a contingency that they didn't know about made them all disappear. the part about the 'old' parties of each PC looking for their former party members/leaders is just an extension of the fact that each was a member of a pervious party. The only problem would be to decide 'why' each of the PCs was the party member of choice to grab the item? Gear/spells/abilites that make you move faster are probably ideal so monks, barbs, wizards/sorcerers (Expeditious Assault/Retreat), druids (wildshaped into a really fast moving strong animal), Clerics (prefferably with a domain that allows them way to move faster), rogues with tons of dex and Imp Init (Hello 27 init at lvl 1! ... a lot of the PCs in the group I DM has Imp Init) boots of striding/springing would help as well or the wizard could have a flying carpet or the boots of levitation/pitcher of endless water combo used as a jetpack.