I am new to this site. Please forgive me if this is too long. I have been working on this in the back of my mind for quite some time and I am looking for feedback. Does it seem workable/fun/interesting? What am I missing? I feel stuck on a number of issues that I detail below.

Griflock is an exciting and fast-paced fantasy adventure game with a high element of group world and mission building. In it the players take the role of dead heroes from across time whose souls are trapped inside a magical prison called the Griflock. The PCs must serve the Griflock and carry out its will. The Griflock passes through many different worlds across time and space waiting to be summoned by individuals of power. It receives missions from these entities and then the captive PCs must carry them out; if they fail to perform satisfactorily, the Griflock will eat their identity away a piece at a time until only a mechanized husk remains; they will succeed by developing their identities and strengths until the time when they can win their freedom. But the Griflock will do anything to keep them captive.

Players begin with a character name and a single memory of the PC’s life before their imprisonment. Memories contain PC background information, Passions, Aversions and Drives. Passions are things they have strong connection to; Aversions are things they fear or hate; and Drives are courses of action they must follow. Each memory grants access to ability trees that give the PCs vast, dynamic powers to interact with and shape the world. As their memories deepen and expand, so too do their powers grow.

Play begins when the Griflock is summoned to a world and given a mission by an entity. The GM lays out the goal, such as to defend a person, kill an enemy, recover lost knowledge, build a highway, or find a missing heir. There is a time limit of (say) one hour of in-game time. In addition, each PC has additional missions that they must perform generated by the Drives in their memories, the number of missions increasing with the number of memories.

For example, the PCs must defend the land from an invading army; they have one hour to do so. At the same time, the PC Alabaster has a Drive mission, based off a memory of a boy who was cast off from his family, wherein Alabaster must create circumstances for a young warrior in the advancing army to win honor in battle, thus saving the boy from the fate of the boy in Alabaster’s memory. At the same time, the PC Vareena has a Drive mission to destroy an ancient relic, and to save a child struck by a mysterious disease, missions based off of her memories.

The more memories the PCs have, the more Drives, and the more missions they must complete at the same time. By completing Griflock missions, they stave off punishment; by completing Drive missions, they gain Will Points that act as bonuses, and that count towards the ultimate goal of escaping from the Griflock. Failure to complete a Griflock mission results in punishment: the PC is stripped of one memory. If the PC loses all their memories, including their name, they become a machine under the Griflock’s complete control. PCs must also take care that their actions do not violate their Passions and Aversions; violation results in Dissonance. Dissonance allows the Griflock to influence PC action, warping it or outright controlling it in some instances, depending on the amount of Dissonance.

PC powers come from their memories, but they also have unlimited access to Machine Powers from the Griflock. The Machine Powers are extremely potent, but the more they are used, the more Dissonance they accumulate. The Griflock will try to use Dissonance to cause PCs to fail if it looks like they are growing too powerful. It will sabotage its own missions to this end. WP may be used to counteract Dissonance. PCs without memories granting access to other powers must rely on Machine Powers to get things done.

The game should create scenarios where it is desirable for the PCs to have their memories stripped as the Drive missions become unmanageable or contradictory. It should be playable both as a flashy effects-driven action game, and give players the opportunity to explore their characters changing memories for some real drama.

Making Drive missions is an opportunity for the players to flesh out the game world, creating NPCs, locations, history and Color to give emotional weight to the proceedings. I am not sure how to legislate this. Maybe players could nominate each other for bonus WPs for deep/cool scenarios. Also, PCs with conflicting Drive missions could add to the drama.

I’m not solid on how PCs should get memories. My original idea was to have the players have the memories on strips of paper or post-its and read them aloud or say how the memory is inspiring them to refill dice-pools or activate certain powers, and then have new memories emerge after a certain amount of these uses, but it seems like it would get tedious and be a lot to keep track of. It would be cool when the Griflock tears up one of the sheets after a mission failure, though.

I am thinking about having the Griflock be completely table driven (that is, have its behavior be decided by rolling on a series of tables).

For conflict resolution, I have ideas for both dice pools and a card-based mechanic, and both are compelling, but I get stuck on pacing. The PCs are very formidible, so it seems ridiculous to have them roll for every little thing, and yet I want even mortal individuals to have meaning/impact in the scope of the game. I have a tendency in my thinking to get real crunchy real fast, but I want the action to be fast, tangible and satisfying. I want the players to feel powerful, to have a concrete set of options that are versatile yet specific, and I want them to feel the grind of the mission time limit and the fingers of the Griflock twisting at their edges. Any ideas?

My apologies on the length of this and my thanks to those who read it and those who respond.

I like all of your ideas. =) Very different, very interesting. I like the concept of dead heroes being harvested for the use of some bizarre alien entity.

About rolling for the Griflock... Are we talking about all of its behavior, or specific quirks of its behavior? Or, is this about rolling for each one of its responses to a particular situation?
I think the GM would lose out on his part of the fun if he wasn't able to insert his own behavioral modes into the thing.

How detailed are you looking to make the memories and the game mechanics overall? I think the memories could be come as generic Titles that offer preset Passions, Aversions, Drives and stat bonuses... but the player gets to decide the actual details of the memory. These could even be acquired randomly. It would be cool to have strangely contradicting memories and having to weave a story that connects them.
You could always use the Will Points to acquire new memories... it would become a resource management aspect, balancing the danger Dissonance versus acquiring new powers/memories.

Perhaps the heroes, or memory vessels, aren't the original heroes...? They are a strange relic that attracts the memories of dead heroes, absorbing them and gaining their knowledge but also acquiring bits and pieces of their personalities. As I mentioned above, this would breed contradictions (inner-conflict) and cool roleplaying moments.

Thank you for the suggestions. And the nice comment. I did a little jig when I read that =) I haven't had anyone to talk to about this, so it's been all in my head.

On the Griflock, I was thinking that it would have certain behavior sets based on PC power levels, WP totals, total memories, number of missions completed/failed, etc., and that while the GM would certainly make the behavior appropriate to the situation, the main course of its action would be mechanical. Partly, this is because after a certain point, when the PC power levels get high enough that they can begin to think about escaping, the Griflock will become the main adversary of the game and throw all its considerable energies into keeping them down. Since the game has a time limit, it just seems that mechanizing it might make things easier to keep track of. Of course, I haven't played it, so I don't really know. I have also thought about having one player control the Griflock, or have the players take turns doing it.

I like your idea of having generic memory titles: such a thing would make it easier to come up with material, and, as you point out, allow for a strange patchwork of memories that might not be from the same person, and conflicting Passions/Aversions. I want the mechanics to scale, depending on how important/interesting the situation is. I am thinking of TSoY's Bringing Down the Pain (a game I've only played once, so my grip on it is slippery) or Trollbabe. My trouble is that in my thinking I tend to fall into a hit-for-hit D&D sort of exchanges, and that is so slow most of the time.

Buying memories is not something I had thought of, and is an idea I will consider. One idea I had was that they would spontaneously generate; I thought of die-pools associated with each memory that would deplete as powers were used and which could be refilled by reading the memory aloud at the table, or saying how that memory inspires the PC to some course of action. After reading a memory a certain number of times, another memory would sprout, or the current one would grow stronger increasing the size of the die-pool. Each memory would be on post-its or some other slip of paper, and when the PC failed a Griflock mission, the GM would rip up one of them, adding some impact to the loss. The other reason I was thinking of this was that by limiting the memory power use, there would be more incentive to use the Machine Powers, which are limitless and effective.
All this seems cool, but it might also be a pain to keep track of it all. Again, I want it to play fast. My original idea was one hour maximum, but with all the world-building that I also want to include, that seems restrictive. Even so, I want it to be greasy smooth once everything is set up.

Any suggestions on how to do that?

Real time limits aren't exactly possible for a lot of different groups. Sure, it will breed focus and tension in every session... but in my experience folks like to drift from the table at random times... for the bathroom or other things, sometimes they are at the table but ignoring the game to tell a story or something... Just socializing for a second before diving back into the game.

If you want to make the Griflock's behavior complex enough to rely on multiple factors each determining a different response... the GM would definitely have to track that, as it seems like a lot of info to consume. I think if you really wanted to have preset behavior types, you would want to make the rule modular so those who just want the GM to roleplay it can do so without breaking the game. He would instead loosely follow role play guidelines provided in the rule book.

The PCs being relics/manikins/memory vessels really appeals to me for some reason as well. I would definitely play a game where the depth of my character is discovered during the game through its mechanics (sort of like 3:16's Strengths/Weaknesses game mechanic!).

I know what you are referring to as I just read The Shadow of Yesterday for the first time yesterday. I think a "Zoom" feature could be a useful tool in maximizing the time spent on important events... Zoom in for more details on important events, zoom out when the details can be fuzzy and the outcome is the only important part. As a side note, "Bringing Down the Pain" is a silly way to name that feature, in my opinion.

You mentioned that characters pursue Drives because they are required to... I think making it a requirement "just because" will make the effort put towards them feel tacked on. It makes sense in the Time Limit sense but I have to admit, I am thoroughly against time limits (in video games as well, grrr). Instead, you could use Drives as a way to refill some of the character's Memory Resource (the intangible thing you tap to activate y'r kewl powers). In addition to refilling the Memory Resource, fulfilling Drives gives the character an Xp bonus (like Keys in TSoY). Xp is used to buy a randomized Memory. The cost of Memories begins to increase exponentially as the character amasses Memories in order to slow progress as adventuring goes on.

What if a player is content with his amnesia?
MacLeod made a good point:

I think making it a requirement "just because" will make the effort put towards them feel tacked on....Instead, you could use Drives as a way to refill some of the character's Memory Resource (the intangible thing you tap to activate y'r kewl powers). In addition to refilling the Memory Resource, fulfilling Drives gives the character an Xp bonus (like Keys in TSoY). Xp is used to buy a randomized Memory. The cost of Memories begins to increase exponentially as the character amasses Memories in order to slow progress as adventuring goes on.

I think allowing players to become buddies with the Griflock* would shift some of the focus away from the more meaningful part of the game premise. I admit that this would breed a narrow focus but some games thrive on such a thing.

To avoid shifting focus... players could be encouraged to create incomplete memories or memories that leave a mystery behind... Remembering how to swing a sword, exorcise demons and shoot hoop is fine, but at the "end" of the memory, the character recalls his master falling to some sort terrible fate. But what exactly? So the character begins to scavenge the depths in order to figure out what happened and why.

*I also don't think it is likely that players would stay friends with the Griflock for too long. Its a paranoid entity that is so intent on keeping its captured heroes that it will actually botch its own missions just for the right to strip them of their memory. This could mean that the Griflock is doing some horrible things... like allowing a city to be overrun by demons who impregnate women with wolverine-ape hybrid demons whom end up bursting free from the innocent women in a terrifying display of violence and pain!!! You'd have to have some kind of sick, heartless hero to be capable of allowing a being to do that without violent recourse. Of course, I'm also assuming that post-imprisonment memories are immune to the Griflock's memory wipe.
I'm imagining the campaign ending with a vicious boss fight... proceeded by the Griflock warping in his other hero minions in an effort to squash the PC-born rebellion.

I haven't gone into the fiction to explain why, but the Griflock is not your friend. However one thing I hope to do is to set things up so that it will be fun enough that people can just enjoy playing missions without worrying about the larger scope of the game if they want to. That would be a freeplay mode, to borrow a videogame term.

I recognize that the one hour play time limit is not really feasible; it was my original idea, but the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to play it. There should be an in-game time limit, to keep the pacing up and to make managing the missions a challenge, but mostly I just want the game to play smoothly.

I had some thoughts about memories that may answer some of your comments. Memories arise automatically after certain conditions, i.e. using powers a certain amount, but they come as fragments, indistinct impressions that provide access to minor powers from an ability tree, or with a very small dice-pool. The Drive missions these create are wholly optional with no penalty for ignoring them, however, by completing a Drive mission or by spending WP, the memory can be developed by the player, or it can be discarded for a small price (?). Dice-pools grow and powers open up, but Passions and Aversions become strict and Drive missions take on weight. The first level is an Integrated memory, made up of details and small episodes of the hero's life. This can be further enhanced to become an Embodied memory, with the highest levels of the ability tree opening up. Of course other memories will continue to emerge. Only (say) three memories can Embodied at one time or else the oldest ones start to Fade, be subsumed by the new ones. Memories can also be Tainted by Dissonance from failing Drive missions, or by breaking codes of conduct laid out in the Passions and Aversions. It is possible to clean Tainted memories, but in some cases it will be preferrable to let the Griflock eat them.

Did I answer your concerns? Any thoughts?

Sounds good to me so far.

If the memories arise automatically... will the conditions be the same each time? Or, will there be several types of conditions that can trigger such an event? Lots of differing conditions might make it easy for a player to setup a scene where he scores several memories at once. I think that would be a bad thing.
You mention that Memories have to be developed (like a big Skill tree) but only a few can reach the Embodied status. Does this mean that they exist in two different forms, not-embodied and embodied? Or, will there be steps in between?
How about a limit on other memories as well? You could turn it into a pyramid, rank each "step" of the Memory from 3 to 1. One 3, two 2s and three 1s. All Memories gained after that are Fluff. However, the player could select one of his 1's and opt to replace it with the new memory. But he can only make this choice before the memory is chosen randomly... so he might end up with the same one, or one that he still doesn't want. =D
How does the Taint work? Lowers the abilities associated with that memory, cause Aversions and Drives to become worse...?

I also wouldn't mind knowing what sort of dice rolling mechanic you are going to use. Hopefully nothing to do with Fudge dice. My soul cries out for those things to be expunged from this world.

I have no constructive feedback, but I think your ideas are really cool, Imizaru. Just wanted to let you know.

I'd like to know more about it. Do you have a blog or another site where you are keeping info or progress about the game?

Mjbauer, thank you for letting me know: it's a real boost to my confidence. Unfortunately I don't have any other presence on the web right now. It's something I have thought about, but I haven't made any effort towards it yet. When I get things solid enough to draft out, I will put something together.

MacLeod, I think your right that the memory arisal conditions should be pretty limited. I will consider this closely. A large part of the fun I am envisioning will be developing the memories and learning to use their concomitant powers, and getting too much too soon would dampen that. The memories develop from Fragments to Integrated to Embodied, with increasing power levels and requirements from the missions, Passions and Aversions. The pyramid structure you suggest is similar to what I am thinking, though I am not sure of the numbers, yet.
Tainted memories come when several Drive missions have been failed and/or when Passions and Aversions have been disregarded, broken, etc. and it's when enough Dissonance has infected the memory that the Griflock can influence or control powers associated with that memory. Severe Taint could make a PC have to battle for control of their actions, or, one interesting possibility would have the Griflock try to rewrite the memory while the PC tries to hold on to it, perhaps like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I don't know how I would do that, but the thought just came to me. Could be cool.

Still working on the dice mechanic. Fudge dice are sweet, but they melt and leave the table all sticky, attract ants, rot your teeth, etc.

This is a thought in progress as I try to find out what I want these memories to be, both mechanically and narrativistically. (I should mention that what I know of theory has been absorbed through hours of podcasts and not any real concentrated study, so forgive me if I mess up terminology.)
Memories arise through as yet undecided conditions, and new ones will come whenever those conditions are met, however incongruent they may seem. The player may choose to invest in those memories or not.
New memories are called Fragments. They come with an archetype. A rough initial list of these is: Warrior, Revolutionary, Healer, Preserver, Leader, Reformer, Innovator, Visionary, Connector, Explorer, Teacher, Prophet. I don't actually know what some of these mean to the game yet, but some are obvious. They may come with an approximate age: Infant, Child, Adolescent, Adult, Middle-Age, Elder, Ancient; this is about the age in life where the memory came from. It comes with a Passion and an Aversion (no lists yet), but they are very roughly defined, such as Passion: poetry; Passion: growing things; Passion: the sword; Aversion: weakness; Aversion: hypocrisy. Now the player looks at this and decides what this means by injecting content. Fragments are impressions, sensations, facts, feelings, and deja vu. They are seeds upon which the player can begin to build a background and personality. They provide some rudimentary powers from one ability tree or another. Drive missions derived from fragments are non-binding and mostly give the player the chance to add detail to the game world and explore what they are interested in with their PC.
By investing WP in their memory, it becomes Integrated. Integrated memories are portraits of a character, a relationship, an event, a scene, knowledge, or a summary of a stretch of life. This makes the Drive missions become partially binding: PCs must explore the missions and try to unravel them; negative consequences will only come if the mission is ignored or dealt with flippantly (determined via table consensus). Players define the Passions and Aversions more clearly. Think of them as somewhat like Burning Wheel's beliefs and instincts. Passion: poetry becomes, Passion: a verse makes joys deeper and sorrows softer. Aversion: weakness becomes Aversion: I will never submit (or "Bugs must be crushed!"). Or something, anything the player likes; the point is they should suggest a course of action or conduct, and reflect the emerging personality and the culture the memory came from. Integrates give access to greater powers and resources.
By fulfilling a number of Drive missions and investing more WP, an Integrate becomes Embodied. Embodied memories are narratives (and may be played out if it feels appropriate); they give context and identity, purpose and goal; morality, ethics, virtue and culture. Drive missions are fully binding, and failure brings Dissonance; that is, failure should mean something to the PC at this point. Passions and Aversions should be fleshed out and specific, and they must be observed. Embodied memories give strong powers.
Multiple memories can be developed, and they may be complimentary or contradictory, which can lead to problems with conflicting Passions/Aversions, but it could also provide juicy opportunities to roleplay. The PCs could end up having severe multiple personality disorders. I haven't decided on numbers for anything yet, but MacLeod's suggestion above is probably about right.

Now all this sounds cool to me, but it raises a lot of questions about how PC goals and purposes are going to impact the play. Can anyone forsee any problems or potentials for coolness?

BTW, I mentioned morality and ethics and virtue, but I am not proscribing any particular ideas here. Heroes usually believe in something strongly. The content is all up to the player, so if you want a memory from a culture that celebrates bloodshed and says "no flesh must be spared," then by all means enjoy, if that's what your table likes. I get tired of that, personally; but it may be interesting to explore how that sort of memory would interact with something totally oblique, like "find the light in the meekest eyes." For example.

Pretty solid foundation for a game methinks. =) The Memories mechanic sounds like it will end up very fun.

The only problem I foresee is when players end up becoming merely an audience to the Drives of PCs they aren't in control of. I've no problem with being apart of an audience in theory but based on how long it takes for a PC to complete a Drive... it may end up being cumbersome. I suppose this depends on the frequency of Drives... does each PC have to pursue his Drives every time he steps outside of the Griflock, or would it alternate between players? If it alternated, it would give the GM an easy way of weaving the Drive into the mission.

I can't help but imagine this as "the life and times of Final Fantasy summons", although your PCs will get a lot more airtime. I always thought it was strange how these things popped up to do someone's bidding and then went back into the bag afterwards. I've tried to get that feeling right since.

Encouraging character consistency with in game rewards is often good, and in this game it's very tightly implemented. I like that.

On another angle, the griflock should have an incentive not to just hose the PCs: Why does it need to keep them with memory? Perhaps because when you use machine powers, you draw from a central store that is filled by missions. In other words, the griflock wants you around because he needs the power of your old identity to supplement it's own power, but however important they are to it, they are more important to you.

As to memories, I notice they have two uses at the moment; as ways to get powers and as willpower sources. If you allow people to write their own, then there will be a temptation to memories that provide easy drives, impressive powers, and weak other conditions. Perhaps you can balance drive severity vs willpower payoff, depending on how much mathematical leeway you have. In other words following harder drives gives you more willpower.

Next you could make powers dependent on personality quirks, but I'd avoid that, because unlike the other suggestion you can't use something approaching risk adjusted payoff to set it (more risky means times reward by risk ratio giving the same reward). Actually, going off on risk adjusted rewards, that is a good reason not to add a negative to failure; without one you can just use the above calculation to extrapolate from a few balanced examples: "It's twice as likely to fail as that example, so I'll give it twice as many points."

Now back to powers. I do like the idea of refining memories with willpower, and possibly increasing the power of abilities in the same way. I'm not sure how to set powers that are both appropriate to the memories and governed by the willpower system. I'd prefer ideally if the willpower was spent to bring clarity to the old memories, rather than to suddenly remember you can do incredible things! So perhaps the question is how to make powers more valuable without making them simply more epic.

On time, I like the idea of one session = one mission = one day, particularly if you summarise frequently.

JoyWriter wrote:
As to memories, I notice they have two uses at the moment; as ways to get powers and as willpower sources. If you allow people to write their own, then there will be a temptation to memories that provide easy drives, impressive powers, and weak other conditions.

Right now I'm working on the order of play, alregly in response to MacLeod's comment

The only problem I foresee is when players end up becoming merely an audience to the Drives of PCs they aren't in control of. I've no problem with being apart of an audience in theory but based on how long it takes for a PC to complete a Drive... it may end up being cumbersome.

the griflock should have an incentive not to just hose the PCs

Imizaru, I've been watching this thread with interest and I really like some of the ideas that are cropping up both for the setting and system.

Two games that might be a positive influence are Paranoia and In a Wicked Age. The former talks a great deal about how to play mad, omnipotent supercomputers, and how players might avoid, influence or otherwise cajole such an entity. The latter may give you some insight into mission generation and conflicts-of-intent.

My only comment is that you might find it easier to loose the party mechanic. This isn't a dungeon crawl, it's a scenario filled with characters possessing different desires and memories - such relics of gaming should, perhaps, come under review.

It could be more entertaining for each player-character to be plucked from his cell/eternal slumber by Griflock, informed of their mission and 'beamed' to that location (or near abouts). Griflock's sanity, it seems, waivers and so all the players could be given a single mission wherein they must join up and achieve that goal, contrary objectives that inspire alliances both shaky and firm, or out-and-out conflicting objectives for PvP fun.

Recurring fellow 'Heroes' also sent on mission could act as advisors, saviours or foils - depending on the mission at hand. A further dynamic is that PCs who were bitter enemies in the previous mission may now be forced into uneasy partnership to achieve their goal and not get 'punished' by the machine.

My apologies, my post’s been a stream of consciousness but I hope it offers some food for thought.

Here are the Memory Archetypes with some description. Each time a memory is gained, players roll to see what archetype it comes from. There is quite a bit of overlap among them, but I think each one has its own distinctive flavor. I want to keep the number small, because these are just shells for players to fill out. Please tell what you think of these, if they are too redundant, or if there are any others you can suggest.

Warrior - possesses great skill and valor on the battlefield; conquers nations and defends kingdoms from attack; these are generals and duelists

Revolutionary - overturns the old ways, challenges the status quo, takes on impossible odds and creates strength through uniting masses

Healer - strives to end suffering and disease, brings health and harmony to the individual and the community

Preserver - defends and maintains the old order, protects against distortion and misinterpretation and corruption

Outlaw - works outside of established structures; brings hope to the downtrodden; champions the common people in ways that others cannot

Builder - creates new forms, structures and communities, nurtures them to maturity, generates resources for others to use

Explorer - treks into the unknown, discovers new vistas, lives on own terms; survives, adventures, wanders, and guides

Prodigy - possesses exceptional skills that are an example to others of what can be done, of what limits are real or only imaginary

Visionary - sees the true nature of things and leads through that vision; creates movements, inspires religions

Connector - brings together people and ideas into powerful combinations; bridges the gaps between nations and races

Teacher - instructs and guides, initiates others into the ways of knowledge and power; helps others to find their potentials and pushes them to excell

Idealist - observes and criticizes the shortcomings of society; strives to lead others to live up to their own ideals

That's 12, and quite enough, I think, but there could be fewer if people think some of them could be collapsed together. I might be missing some really good ones outright, so I'd like to know what you think.

M. Burrell - Thank you for your thoughts. I will consider the games you mention. I have IAWA, but have yet to play it; I will reread the mission building sections again and look for inspiration. Paranoia is an interesting idea - I hadn't thought of that at all. I will seee if I can find it somewhere.

As to your comment on parties, individual tables may choose to cooperate in parties or not as they wish. I think players should work together to flesh out the world and the missions into creations that everyone can enjoy, but their PCs are not required to work together and may in fact battle each other outright, based on their emergent personalities.

Some material on Passions, Aversions and Drives.

Passions are things that are attractive to the PC, interesting, or important. They are intended to help set definitions to the PC, showing their personality, habits, mannerisms and appearance. (PC appearance changes as memories change or develop; PCs without memories look like bio-mechanical dolls or androids - see the work of Tsutomu Nihei - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Nihei - unfortunately I can't find any good pictures even after image searching. Read his manga Blame! and you'll see what I mean) Passions include art of all kinds, aesthietics, sensory input, certain places or personalities, behaviors, colors, ideas, philosophies, patterns, etc. As long as they have relevance to the content of the memory, pretty much anything is ok by me.

Aversions are things the PC holds in contempt, fear or disgust. They imply a restriction on PC action, things the PC will not do, and as the memory gets stronger, things the PC will not permit others to do. These include things like Apathy, Cruelty, Waste, Weakness, Heresy, Injustice, Arrognace, Hypocrisy, Lies, Greed, Compromise, Inflexibility, Tyranny, Laxity, Rudeness, Suffering in others, Ignorance. The potential list is very long. For these to have meaning, they have to have a context. Players must consider their PC Aversions as they develop the memories, because they reflect the culture the hero comes from.

Drives are things the PC must do because of their strong belief. They have a code of honor, a creed, principles that define who they are. The verbs I used in describing the Archetypes above are a beginning. These are closely bound to Aversions, but they are required action or response for the PC, and as the memory gets stronger, they will encourage others to follow their examples.

Example: Fragment: Warrior archetype, with a passion for steeds (horses, elephants, dragons, slugs, et al), Aversions to Waste and Cowardice, and a Drive to thwart betrayal; Inegrated memory reveals that the PC was a great hunter in a tribe of nomadic horsemen, able to run with horses by merging with them or transforming into a centaur. The tribe relied on a herd of horses that was under threat from fast predators that lurked in the grass and the entire hunting team was required to coordinate to bring one of them down - cowardice in one could bring the death of many. Resources were finite on the steppe, and so every scrap of material was necessary to survive. The PC mistrusted times of bounty, because the tribe would forget how bad the harsh times could be, thus the PC abhors waste or inefficiency. The PC was related to the tribe"s leader, but there was a split in the tribe and a growing threat of sedition, which could threaten everyone's survival.
At the Embodied memory level, this memory would be fleshed out, narrated and played out to even greater detail and the exact kinds of betrayal, waste and cowardice would be developed.

Further memories, even of a different archetype could be from this same hero, or they could be from an entirely different one (which could be very confusing to roleplay, or a lot of fun).

Reactions? Thoughts? Missing pieces?

I feel stuck. I may not actually be, but it feels like there are a number of issues that are tied together, at least in the way I'm thinking about things. So here goes in explaining things.

The issues are mechanical, conflict resolution, but involve pacing and the way abilities work. The thing is that I want things to be as elegant as possible. I really love DRYH, for example, and the way the dice work in that game. I want something that approaches that level of sleekness.

PCs have stats. For now they are Body, Mind, Heart, Spirit. Each stat has a pool of dice, adjusted by current memory archetypes. A memory comes with Passions, Aversions and a Drive and each of these have dice. Passion dice are perhaps like DitV's relationship dice. They may be tapped when relevant to an action. Aversion dice may only be tapped when responding to conditions involving the Aversion, and Drive dice may only be tapped for actions directly related to pursuing a Drive mission. The memory grants an additional pool of dice for abilities. As the memory grows from fragment to integrated to embodied, the number and size of these ability dice also grow.

Action events scale, based on the importance of the event. The player can state a preference and the GM (if there is one) can adjust, a la Trollbabe. Simple events require only a show of dice. For example, Alabaster wants to enter a cave seal by a large boulder. The rock is gigantic and the GM says it needs 3 Body. Alabaster's player takes three dice from the Body pool and puts them forward: Alabaster moves the boulder. No need to roll, only to ritualistically show that he has the resources to complete the action. 2nd and 3rd tier events are less clear. I imagine them being somewhat like DitV's bidding system, where contested actions are met with dice from appropriate ability pools, put up die for die, but I'm confused on how to handle escalation. I have a sense of how I want the scenes to play out, but I'm not sure of the ways to get that.

Let's say Alabaster is sent to kill the king. He has no particular problem with that, but there are bodyguards in the way. None of them alone can even register against him, so the GM counts them in squads. One squad has a Body pool of 2d4; there are 3 squads. Alabaster has 5d8 Body and assorted abilities he can call on. One squad attacks, so he must meet them with enough dice to match their highest possible score, in this case 1d8. If he bests their roll, Alabaster's player can say how he repels their attack. If he loses, he can escalate, but he loses the escalation dice from his pools until he can recharge later. They can escalate if they have additional resources.. Because they are the elite king's guards, they have the ability, Concerted Attack/Defense. If they attack in concert, he must put forth 3d8 to meet their combined total.

Alabaster is met by the king's young daughter. She stands in his path and commands him, "Begone!" She has no Body stat to speak of, but her Spirit is very high, 2d12. Alabaster does not have enough Spirit to meet her total, and so he must withdraw and find another way to get to the king.

These NPCs initiated the events so they set the terms of the conflict. If Alabaster initiated, he could set the conflict values. Basically, the PCs will win if they have the dice to cover escalations, but it will drain their pools. They have unlimited access to Machine Dice from the Griflock, but these have some limitations, for example, the Griflock cannot interact with Heart - it is oblivious to emotion. For the sake of conflicts, it has an infinite pool. Also Machine Dice have a separate cost in Dissonance.

This is all fine as far as it goes, but it feels awfully incomplete to me. I am trying to understand the ability systems and how Will Points will fit in.

Any ideas will be met with gratitude.

I know this is a bit old but... to help you better, I'd need a more in-depth look at what mechanics you have in mind already. From what I read, it sounds like a solid foundation at least.

These "memory archetypes" you're talking about seem like character classes.  I'm not sure what they add to the game.

Memories are a core aspect of the game. The game mechanics are designed to get you involved in the Memories beyond writing them. I don't think they actually resemble classes though, at least not the traditional D&D style.

At least that is what I gather from the previous posts.

Is your game about moving boulders and beating up mooks?

One of the reasons Don't Rest Your Head's die mechanic is so compelling and sleek is because it ONLY addresses the premise. It doesn't do anything else. It's about staying awake and going crazy. Every application is focused into that context.

If you want to be as sleek as Don't Rest Your Head or as deep as Dogs in the Vineyard, then you need to turn around and put forth a strong premise and focus your mechanics on it.

"Kinda runnin' around doin' stuff at different times and places" isn't a strong premise.

If the game is about remembering past lives and using them to fuel current deeds, why aren't the mechanics focused on that? Why are memories masked by four really bland stats? If you're stealing from Dogs, look at the game holistically and understand what you're taking and why it works in Dogs (and not in your game).

Thank you very much for the comments.

Is your game about moving boulders and beating up mooks?

If the game is about remembering past lives and using them to fuel current deeds, why aren't the mechanics focused on that?

Why are memories masked by four really bland stats?

What;s so powerful about Dogs (or one of the many things) is that the traits that you bid evoke the history and issues of your character.  You're not just rolling "Gunfighting", you're rolling "I never saw a man I couldn't shoot" or "My daddy taught me to shoot" or "I hate guns".

Here's a way forward with your game: Keep your stats.  They're fine, and what you call them is pretty irrelevant.  Instead of "memory archetypes", just have the players write down what their character remembers.  Like "I remember fighting in a war" or "I remember beating a man to death" or "I remember holding my wife in my arms".  Assign those traits dice, and let them roll them in conflicts, where they're relevant.  Let them risk those things.  I think that's an elegant way of tying memories to character effectiveness in a simple and evocative way.  Maybe your character wants to forget some things, but will fight to the death to retain others.  It also lets you add to the story of your character as you add new traits.

Much better, Im!

I wasn't say that stats are bad, btw. I was saying that you should make your stats descriptive of your game.

Also, I'd definitely make players pick memories for a mission. Recalling/changing in the middle of the mission should be a problem -- should be a resource or a test.

Good luck!
-L