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Memory mechanics
Memory Loss
The core of Well's memory loss mechanics are two questions:
- What parts of you are core, and what are learned?
- What changes when you don't have evidence for your beliefs about yourself?
When entering Well, characters remember basic skills (walking, talking, counting) as long as they had those skills in canon. If the character is from a species who has other basic skills, like if they tend to communicate through telepathy, they can also start with that skill.
Mental illnesses can also stick with characters if you choose. If a character has depression, they will still feel depressed, but not have context for that feeling or experience.
General impressions and beliefs of the self can also stay. For example, if your character has a deep-seated belief that they are a bad person, they may still think that, but have no context for why they're a bad person.
Aside from that, they remember the memories that you chose for them to regain in your app. They don't necessarily know anything is wrong, and will most likely be accepting of their situation and location until they can put together the pieces that something is amiss.
How will I keep my character IC without their memories?
You know your character: boil them down to their core parts. Who are they without their memories? What are their core personality traits? If they usually hide their feelings, but are a generally emotional person, they may not remember that they should hide their feelings, and show more emotion than they do in canon. If they are an inherently cruel person who has tempered themself to be palatable to society, that cruelty may come out more. How you play them is up to you.
Try to be true to your character, but since they are without many impactful experiences, your interpretation is yours. Make sure that you're having fun, and that your interpretation isn't impacting other people's ability to have fun in the setting.
How does memory loss manifest in my character?
Memory loss manifests inconsistently across characters, meaning that you can take it in the direction that works best for you and your character. The only limit is that your character can't know specifics about their life or canon without allocating memory points to those memories.
Your character could be a blank slate, with only the memories you allocated to them, or they can have ideas and opinions about how the world works, but simply not know why they think that way. For example, Luke Skywalker might assume that the universe has many planets, many with their own cultures and societies, while Frodo might assume that there is only one world, and on that world there are different types of people who are separated by their own cultures.
Characters can also keep associations and feelings about ideas or institutions. For example, Luke Skywalker might have negative associations with imperialism and empires, but not know why.
What happens when my character tries to remember something they've lost?
If your character tries to put together the pieces and think about something they've lost, they'll experience shortness of breath, intense headache, and, if they don't stop, bleeding from the mouth, eyes, and nose. If they persist beyond that, they may simply tear themselves apart, ending in character death. They will wake back up in the usual character death way in Well, feeling placid and having lost another memory.
What happens when a character is told about something they should or could remember?
If your character is told about something that happened to them by someone, but you haven't allocated memory points to that memory, the character can't remember it themself. If they try, they experience intense headache and nose bleed. However, they can know that someone has told them this, like being told a story about yourself as a child that you don't remember yourself, so they have a memory of the story, but not of the experience itself.
What happens when my character regains a memory?
When you first app to Well, your character starts with the memories you give them in your app. These feel like normal memories that have always been there.
If you regain memories post-app, your character's regain will be triggered by something in their environment. It could be something familiar on a book, a shape of a cloud, or the NPCs pantomiming part of the memory. Feel free to use the NPCs for this. They won't play our the exact memory, but may do a special handshake or gesture, or say a particular word that triggers the memory.
Once the memory is triggered, your character experiences excruciating pain, like a horrible migraine, as they remember for the first time. This last for about a minute before it goes away like the pain was never there.
How can my character remember a relationship and not the experiences related to that relationship?
Choosing to remember a relationship will be accompanied by some less-impactful memories about the other person. Your character may remember their favorite color, or that they used to travel to school together. They won't remember major fights or declarations of feelings, etc. Those major memories will need to regained through a major memory regain.
How do I trade in memory points for memories?
You can trade your memory points in on the memory points page. In your top-level, include your initial application memory points.
Can I change how I want to allocate my memory points after I've submitted them?
No, once submitted, memory points have been used. If you want to remove a memory, you can do that through your character dying in-game.
Will I be able to regain memories beyond the ones in my app?
Yes, memory points will be offered in specific events, generally once per event. You can trade in an event thread for memory point(s) once per event (ie. if you thread a prompt multiple times, you can only get the memory points for one of those times).
Can my character experience a memory in an event prompt without regaining the memory?
Yes, a character can experience a memory without regaining it. They will only remember the experience of the event prompt, and not the memory itself as they initially experienced it.
Does my character have to regain a memory in the event prompt they get the points from?
No, not necessarily. If you don't want to use points to regain a memory in a prompt, you can bank those points for later.
Can my character regain items from home?
No, items can't be regained.
Can my character regain a pet?
No, animals, creatures, or sentient beings can't be regained.
Memory points
Memory points are an OOC mechanic to regain memories or skills. Memory points are available on your application, and will be given out during certain events. You can trade in your memory points on this page for regains.
Memory points are applied to regains. Regains cost between 1 and 3 memory points. Use your best judgement for where your regain falls, with 1 point regaining less consequential memories, and 3 regaining the most consequential.
Memories can be as: minor memories, major memories, relationships, or skills.
Minor memories: 1 point
Minor memories are memories that wouldn't be considered to be turning points in a character's life. Minor memories could be a routine they had, a nice day they had, a low point, etc.
Major memories: 2 points
Major memories are important moments in a character's life: a big breakup, an award, a big battle, meeting someone important. These are moments that define your character, the things that they might mention as things that made them who they are.
Relationships: 2-3 points
If you choose to regain the memories of a relationship, you can choose to have your character remember: the core of the relationship, what it means to them, minor moments relating to the relationship; or who the relationship is with and that that person is important, but not the context about why.
To fully remember a relationship, you would need to put points toward the relationship core, the trappings, and any major moments in the relationship through memory points. This means that your character will most likely never remember the full context of any relationship they had in canon.
Relationship cores
The core of a relationship is all of the feelings, minor moments, and context around a relationship. Choose the core of a relationship if you want your character to feel all the warm fuzzies / angry fuzzies related to someone, without them knowing where to direct those feelings.
Relationship trappings
The trappings of the relationship is the outer trappings: who the person is, their name, your character's relationship to them, without knowing all the context. Choose the trappings of the relationship if you want your character to know someone is important, but not quite know why. They could remember how the interact with the person, but not know why.
Skills: 1-3 points
Skills are things that your character worked to be good at. The cost is dependent on how impactful the skill is, and how good your character is at it. Regaining a skill regains your character's mastery of that skill, up to their canonpoint.
For example: Luke Skywalker could regain his mastery of the Force, up to his mastery level at his canon point. He wouldn't regain any skills he hasn't perfected past that point. If Luke's canonpoint was the end of a New Hope, this would cost 1 point, based on his mastery. If his canonpoint was the end of the series, it would cost 3 points.
Non-magical/powerful skills will top out at 2 points, but powered or supernatural skills may cost 3 if your character is a master at it.
Using points
Create a top-level on this post for your character using this form:
Reply to that comment with this form filled out to use points. Proofs are for proving you participated in an event that offered points as a reward.
Deaths
If your character dies in Well, they lose one memory point and the memory allocated to that point. It's up to you which point they lose. If you only have 2 or 3 point memories, you can choose to make one of those memories foggy, or make a power or skill less potent.
Respond to your character's top level on this post using this form: