Here's an idea I've been mulling around in my head.

Some organization (a Company in the Shadowrun universe, the Government in Dark*Matter or Delta Green, the King(dom) in D&D) gathers together some top operatives that are necessary to complete a mission. However, we the audience know that the organization really just wants the target neutralized and doesn't care if any of the operatives make it back. So, they choose operatives with histories with each other. Just before the mission starts, however, they 'block' that history from the operatives' minds, all the while knowing that the mission itself will break down the mental blocks in the operatives heads'. The best possible scenario is to have the operatives complete their mission, remember what they'd forgotten, and Tear Themselves Apart.

The players would decide on a setting and a mission and create characters. Gameplay would determine when revelations would be made, and either a dice roll or some card draws would help determine what kind of screwed up history the characters share. Gameplay would end when the mission is completed. A winner is determined if there is only one left standing. If more than one is left standing, then they fight to the death. The Game itself has won if all are dead after the mission is complete. Finally, if all die before the mission is complete, a sequel might be played if the players so desire. Fun!

The only other idea I have for now is what the characters would be like. A character would have five Features or Aspects, rated as such:

12 - Ultimate Badass Feature
10 - Badass Feature
8 - Pretty Damn Good Feature
6 - Good Feature
4 - Not so Good Feature

When playing the game, you start with a d12. You have to roll the rating of your Feature or below to succeed.

When a conflict starts, the player determines which Feature they will use to be successful. If they are successful, they take the Feature's rating in [Fallout]. If they fail, and aren't willing to accept the consequences, they have to move up the chart to another Feature. You then roll that Feature's rating in d6s - and for every point over that they succeed, they accumulate that amount of [Fallout].

[Fallout] is this thing that you accumulate which will either lead to Damage or Remembering.

Question: Will always getting [Fallout] no matter what kill participation? What conditions would you set to not get [Fallout]?

Sort of bad timing, pre-Gen Con and all, but briefly...

I like the way it's set up to balance risk and reward, but I want to see more about the penalty end of things.  What happens when you start to remember?  Is it mechanically reinforced?  How do the results of failure enter the story?  Any thoughts on this stuff, Mark?

Good questions.

What happens when you start to remember?  Is it mechanically reinforced?

When you start to Remember, you would get one of three details in one of (# of players) Connections. These details would be a Relationship (Son, ex-Wife, Partner-in-crime, Target), the History (wants to kill me for my inheritance, caught me cheating, got screwed because of my turning State's Evidence, foiled my assassination attempt), the Focus (which character in the game is it). I'd imagine that the more you knew about the Focus, the more of a 'trump' you'd have if you two went face-to-face. For example, if my character knew all three facts about your character, but your character only knew two things about me, I could kill you, even if both of us chose our Ultimate Badass Feature. I guess kind of like Trust in the Mountain Witch? I've only played once, so I never got the feel for how Trust was supposed to work.

How do the results of failure enter the story?

Do you mean like stakes, defining what happens if you fail? Or, do you mean who has narration rights for a failed situation?

Thanks for looking in on me, despite GenCon :)

OK< I understand more clearly and that's even cooler.  So it's like your Mountain Witch dark fate is revealed gradually in play, but the very last thing you learn is *who* it is attached to.

How are these memory bits created?  In advance?  Collaboratively?  On the fly?  By other players?  Round robin, a la carry?

I was thinking that there would be categories revealed through card draws. Everyone would know it was a Family Member, you'd decide which one and narrate what you knew into the audience - not necessarily directly into the fiction. That is, the table would know Family Member, you'd know Son, and the character would have a vague feeling that you could explore and even red herring around.

Your encouragement does me good. Thanks, Jason!

Any idea if, by making Fallout ubiquitous (is that right? I mean to say 'it happens every time'), would it make it not so special?

Crap, that didn't make any sense. The card revealed would show the type of Connection, the player would make an internal choice, and reveal the choice over time. Does that make sense?

I'm thinking now that you'd have your character and two relationships. One would be someone that, based on your imagined history, deserves your hatred and death. The other, based on your imagined history, deserves your love and protection. This would mean that not only would characters start standing up for the others but that the game wouldn't be quite so grim. It would also mean you wouldn't have to have a reason to kill everyone - more than likely, any character would either be directly or indirectly involved in either of your two relationships.