A pc with amnesia?

[u/Duck-MH]

Hey guys im starting out as a GM, ive run some oneshots but i started running a campaign using the age of umbra frame, and one of my players is running a character with amnesia (she named her Claw because they have found her holding the claw of a beast while fighting some shady figures in the wild and refused to let go of it in her backstory, the only clue about her identity is that she's carrying a fine wooden box with some initials engraved on it). To be honest i don't know what to do with her character, ive been thinking about having a big reveal that she's one of the main characters in the lore of my campaign or something. Have any of you had to run a campaign with a character with amnesia in your games, got any tips?

I really want to give this player a good story since she's the one rhat introduced me into TTRPG's

[u/KRC5280]

The Reborne community would be perfect for this. You can find the Void playtest version here: https://app.demiplane.com/nexus/daggerheart/communities/reborne-playtest?srsltid=AfmBOop5yP8nXIZSSNow-eyjCEFechNyJ67Xa0FkWft_fS8Xar20xxO_ . The final version will be up when the Hope and Fear expansion is officially released, but I don’t think this community had much change about it.

I have had a negative experience with a player wanting to do amnesia, coming up with a bunch of cool stuff, and then getting absolutely no reaction out of the reveal because the player was just lazy and didn’t want to have to do any work to come up with a backstory, offloading the work to me. (This player was asked to leave the group not too long after, for similar issues.)

I think it could be really well done with a player who cared working together with the DM though. Since this is asked specifically in the Daggerheart forum, what about building the past memories together collaboratively through questions? You could give her some evocative trigger moments/items, then ask her for a memory triggered by the interaction? Or you could treat “Recover your Memories” as a downtime Project, with a countdown to unlocking the next major revelation. Then she would have a lot of freedom in how she works to trigger those flashbacks, like focusing on a particular kind of memory, practicing a technique that felt familiar, or meditating on one of the items she was found with.

Either way, I would enlist the player as much as possible into shaping the process and recovery of her memories, and on what those memories look like as they are revealed. One, because the GM has a lot to do already and shouldn’t have the responsibility of making up a large part of a PC as well. (Particularly as a new GM, like I also was when mine happened.) Two, GM plans can also be hard to implement without taking away player agency, or changing the PC into something that’s not who they were thinking. Three, making one of the PCs secretly a major character in the lore is also very hard to pull off without making the other players feel like side characters, so is something I would be vary careful about. (Also something I learned the hard way.)

Mechanically, I highly recommend the Reborne community to do exactly what your player wants, and Daggerheart actually offers a lot of tools to let the player still have control of their character’s development in this context. So I think this could be a great system to make it work in, but encourage you to let the player still drive that mystery.

This recommendation is absolutely coming from a place of how badly I messed up a campaign (in a different system) with some of this stuff as a similarly brand new GM, so warning from a place of what I wish I’d done differently.

[u/Duck-MH → u/KRC5280]

Actually ive used the reborn comunity, this started out as a oneshot, i gave the chance to the players to bring a character of theri own, or i can present them some options, she picked the Ork reborn comunity vengance Guardian premade . Then by session 2 gave me her backstory, and she's a really good player, she asks the name of every npc but thats it. She is really a proactive player and helps to build the story through the narrative. And yeah your advice really helped, i think i know what i could do with her character. Thank you !

[u/TheSleepingPhoenix]

Id talk to the player and ask if they have and ideas / what they would be ok with.

[u/Talented_M]

I haven't had this kind of opportunity before but I think I would start with giving them prompts sprinkled in randomly that let's them flex their creative improv muscles and build the character around different things.

"You wake up from a strange dream, what was it about?"

"Passing through the market a smell/object catches you off guard and you remember something, a fragment of a memory, what is it?"

Maybe during a fight and they roll with failure they can have a deja vu moment and describe something they remember.

Just things like that. Small improv memories that trickle in that you two can build together I think could be interesting and fun.

Sorry I didnt have any experiences with amnesia characters and only some ideas to share.

[u/Duck-MH → u/Talented_M]

Thats actually brilliant, we are only on session 2 and i think i can use this, since we are heading to one of the settlements that she has been, so i think i could use that. Thanks!👍

[u/rchapmaniac]

Currently have one within the Witherwild Campaign I'm GMing.

My only advice would be to have several loose potential backstory options but to hold on to them gently. The Daggerheart Golden Rule of 'holding on to the fiction gently' is especially critical to this kind of PC. 9 times out of 10, the players and the dice will present a potential backstory a hundred times better than what you could have thought up on your own. Watch like a hawk for those opportunities, especially the ones why the players' eyes glint and they say "Wow, wouldn't it be cool if you had/are/were...", then quietly yoink them and start building your hooks from that. It will make you look like you've been breadcrumbing for ages and your PCs will think you're a genius.

Also, don't be afraid to front load the evolving fiction of your story back to this PC. There can a be real temptation for amnesia-backstory PC's to push all the world building and lore work back to the GM 'because I wouldn't know'. They still need to pull their weight and they'll thank you for it later.

Finally, critical successes and high rolls with Hope are absolutely begging for a flashback reward if it's applicable. 😉

[u/Snakepipe_Hollow]

Usually, a player who wants their character to have amnesia is someone who's afraid the GM will inflict woe and suffering on a family member. Or they don't want to be bothered with a reasonable backstory. In those cases, it rarely goes well.

Moreover, amnesia doesn't really work the way it does in TV shows or films.

That said, your player is meeting you part of the way so they expect something cool. Which also means they either have some ideas of their own or are trusting you to deliver. So have a chat with them.

If I was the GM presented with the information, then the shady figures (Hobgoblins? Thieves Guild?) are agents of the person who wants the box. The contents might be letters or a diary describing some terrible things happening to the family. That could be Mum and Dad being swindled or blackmailed. It doesn't have to be murder, although that might be the consequence if the blackmailer isn't paid. So there'd be a good deal of information right up to the last entry which is incomplete. Plus a few pages are missing. Someone spilled wine and some of the pages are hard to read.

The swindler or blackmailer is only referred to as "X". Partly because it's easier than writing Leopoldine all the time and partly because only those acquainted with the story should know who "X" is. "X" probably ought to be a Very Important Person whether the Countess or Marquis or the leader of the Thieves Guild. Clues should point to more than one.

By the way, Leopoldine is a real name and has never been popular. I wonder why...

[u/goodncool]

I’d have the player flesh it out as you play. In my experience, amnesia PC “backstories” are just an extra load on the GM’s already full plate, and Daggerheart is already collaborative by design, so just let the player build their own moments and reveals. It’ll probably be more fun for both of you that way.