Prisoners of Memory is a game about the price of immortality, and making difficult decisions with limited information. Characters will question everything about their lives as they regain access to forgotten memories.
In a world where medical science has advanced to the point of granting physical immortality with a single procedure available to all, but where understanding of the brain lags behind, memory is precious. It’s been hundreds of years since immortality became available to everyone, and hundreds of years since the discovery that the human mind can’t handle hundreds of years of memory. As a consequence, old memories begin to fade. Eventually, you can only remember the past ten years or so. Humanity has adapted. Society has adapted. But have you?
You are someone who lives in this society, going about your life as usual, when you receive a very old-looking letter in the mail, containing an invitation, a key, and coordinates. When the time comes you travel to that location and find an isolated cabin, and 5 strangers. Or at least they look like strangers to you… All six of you got an invitation. And based on what you discover inside the cabin, it seems that your past selves had something to hide.
Prisoners of Memory is a LARP for exactly 6 players. Characters are pre-written. There is about 2.5 pages of reading per player during game. Runtime is approximately 90 minutes, not counting filling out casting questionnaires.
Prisoners of Memory is a game I co-wrote for Peaky Midwest 2021, which was run online. I was on a team with Elisa Ford and Azalea Weisblat. It was written over the course of three days, and may or may not be expanded and run again in the future. The world of the game is inspired by my short visual novel, We Met Once, Perhaps in a Dream.
It was written for online play, but has also been adapted for in-person play. It has run at Camp Nerdly 2023, twice at Intercon V, and is on the schedule for Dice Bubble 2024.