Short-term Memory as resolution system

[Russell Collins]

Sorry, I should add that I'll be away shortly. If I can leech a wireless connection I'll keep up with the thread. If not, well keep the critiques coming. I already see a few ways I could tighten up the mechanics, just from providing the example.

Thanks!

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

Hi Russell,

I imagine the GM will have these tests pregenerated to prevent them from remembering in the wrong order? Does the GM spend time prepping them or do you intend to have cards or something? If the GM preps them this will add to their creation time, if you create them a more avid player of your game may have a much stronger advantage. (They've come across the cards enough to breed familiarity, or worse case scenario... read them purposely.) If they are created spontaneously then they will add to handling time quite a bit as you have to wait for the GM to come up with a list everytime you have a challenge.

Do you have a way to weigh these tests? Your example uses two tests that are obvious to me which is supposed to be more difficult, but what is unclear to me is how the GM knows what to use. For instance:

"1, 5, 8, 2, 9, 3. Pencil up." Is this an easy test, or medium?

"Apple, nonsense, crater, repose, mouse, snare, edge, protein." Is this a challenging test, or nigh-impossible?

If your rules explain all this you don't need to answer other than saying, "yes." I just wanted to point it out in case it was a blind spot, as if it's not fairly clear what test should be used when, and whether a given test is the right strength, then you can have GM favoritism, and/or punishments.

[Kevin Allen Jr]

Russ, i like this mechanic a lot, but i don't think it's enough. Somehow the first time i read this, i imagined a bunch of differant mental tests, none of them very fair, but varied and complicated. Like something where you're guessing Zenner cards. Or answering Turing questions, or solving mensa puzzles.

Yes, mental grouping and quick remembering problems are easy for some people and harder to others. But others differant tests are going to be easier. I like the feel of this a lot, the test atmosphere. beaurocracy in gaming has a long and respectable history, it would be nice to see a game that really messes with peoples heads like this.

[Kevin Allen Jr]

I just hit post and then i had another idea. As they go through the game and things get more stressful, not only do the tests get harder, they should get more unfair. HAve you played Eternal Darkness? Suddenly giving people very long lists of numbers to remember, or lists of words that aren't words, or are difficult to pronounce. Or asking to write the list in reverse order, or alphabetical order. Suddenly difficult got mindshattering.

Fuck fairness. This isn't about fairness, its about stress.

[Russell Collins]

Thank you all for your continued input in my absence.

Clyde, in the rules sketch I've written up there are some sample sequences for the GM to read off. If they run out they could try reading them backwards from the middle or make up their own sequences.

Kevin, I think it would be interesting to look into other forms of tests. Perhaps dependant on the situation the player is facing. I don't want to tune them to specific players so that Player 1 is good at sequences so he always gets those while 2 has good luck with Zenner cards. They should all face the same type of challenge so that one player has a good day and another has a bad day that then swap tomorrow.

Though this game is intended as one-shot one night games, if the players choose to play again and again, it may actually serve as a training to improve short-term memory. If I were going to market this, another audience has opened up.