[UA] Re: Clockworks and Memories (ramble)

[M Shanmugasundaram]

> > > I prefer the idea of a clockworker who spent all his memories on
> > > something _huge_.  He wakes up with total amnesia, including not
> > > remembering what he was building (perhaps he was working with
> > [snip]
> > Can you get your memories back?
> > can you break/magickize/use a clockwork to retrive the memories you
> > 'invested' in it in the first place?
> > Joe Murphy (Broin)
> > broin at notzen.com
> 
> I got a rather disturbing idea with this post. If a mechanomancer records
> dutifully whatever happens to him, and then sacrifices the memories
> of these
> events for constructs, can he still re-acquire the knowledge of what
> happened to him through his written accounts?
> 
> I'm trying to distinguish the concept of memories and knowledge here.
> It smells like the worst case of gouda cheese, but at the same time,
> I'm not sure how I'd handle it. Any ideas?
> 
> Antonio Rodriguez
> 

It's actually pretty straightforward, from my POV. 
Caveat A: I've never run the game, and I've never played. 
Insufficient local interest at the moment. 
Caveat B: I tend to ramble.

>From a metagame perspective, you're trying to sneak through the narrow
alley of of magickal paradox with a Mack truck. 

>From a player perspective, the player would be able to say, "Wow, I have
this cool clockwork, plus I know everything that I was supposed to sacrifice."
The player doesn't have to struggle with modifying their original character
concept/psych makeup. 

>From a GM perspective, the player can never use those memories to create
another clockwork, but you don't have to police what the player does
or doesn't remember. 

>From a gaming perspective, I believe this shortchanges the intent of
the concept of magickal paradox in UA, which is, "You're screwed, no
matter what." Remember :) to roleplay your memory loss.  

I don't believe a loss of personal memory, which includes feelings, sights,
sounds, smells, and tastes of moments, can be fixed with a simple accumulation
of book knowledge. Experience and data are two different things. Knowing
something is true isn't the same as remembering/feeling that it is. Call
it a lack of faith. 

Perhaps an Artist or Chronicler could write a manuscript that evoked
feelings similar to original experiences sacrificed by a mechanomancer.
But even then, they'd need a frame of reference, critical portions of
which would also have been sacrificed by the mechanomancer. 

That subjective viewpoint notwithstanding, imagine that you've woken
up with a mild headache, and an apparent autobiographical manuscript
next to you. It tells of all these fantastic things you've done, and
all these things that are supposed to be true, but that you don't remember.


How messed up would you be to believe things that you can't remember
just because you wrote them down? How do you know they aren't just wishful
meanderings or fictions, such as one might write in a diary? 
How messed up would you become if you found out that the manuscript was
true? A strange woman approaches you and it turns out you know all about
her only because of some manuscripts you wrote before a blackout? How
creepy is that? How much more poignant would the loss of memories you
neglected to detail be? 

What if someone substituted your manusript for some other writings while
you were blacked out? When would you know what to believe, and what not
to believe? Would you rather live your life from now forwards rather
than chase the past you gave to your work? 

And here's a thought experiment: 
Suppose you sacrifice your knowledge and memory of Mechanomancy to create
a clockwork. (What a magnificent clockwork it would be!)
It's simply not feasible to assume that you would be able to relearn
Mechnomancy just by reading a treatise prior to your blackout. More likely
that you would discard the treatise as fictional ramblings, rather than
jeopardize what's left of your sanity. 

The bottom line is this: once you've sacrificed a memory, you'll NEVER
be the same again. 

A fleshworker sacrifices her body; she can get her hand reattached after
she uses her big charge, but it'll never be as good as it used to be.
A boozehound can do fantastic things, if he's willing to sacrifice his
mental coherence; but those brain cells he killed with alcohol --they're
dead, dead, dead, and they ain't coming back. 

Cheers

Merwin
roke at onebox.com - email
(650) 503-3097 x1214 - voicemail/fax

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