"The Last Thing You Won't Remember" - A opening vignette

She said I wouldn't remember this, but I need to try anyway.

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

I can't remember how this all started anymore.  Did I take some sort of drug?  Am I doing some freaky Eastern meditation thing?  Maybe this is due to some miracle of science?  My prayers being answered?

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

Do I even pray?  Maybe I don't.  I guess it doesn't matter how I can do this, as long as it works.

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

She said I have to keep that in mind.  She said that my unconscious self will find anchors?...attachments?...actors?...some a-word to pin me to that point in time.  But I have to forget.  If I remember anything about what happened after...

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

She...who?  My head feels funny, like it's having a boxing match with itself in my skull.  It's really hurting now!

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

If I stop repeating that, I'm lost.  How do I know that?  I...

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

I must keep the virus from spreading to my daughter.

Is this real?

Changes to Know Thyself's theme

Know Thyself is a role-playing game about a person who has had a horrible event happen in their past, and has somehow found a way to go back to this event and try to change their life for the better.  In order to go back in time, a person must become a complete Amnesiac, remembering nothing about their life before or after this event.  That's the easy part.  The difficult part is that you'll have to overcome your own subconscious to change your life -- if you change everything, that means you'll be changing yourself, and your subconscious will not take that lying down.

The battle over your mind and fate takes place in a personal hell not unlike a vicious fever dream or nightmare.  As you fight against yourself, you'll periodically get snapshots of your life causing you to remember things about who you are.  The more you remember about things that happened after the event you're trying to change, the harder it will be for you to actually change that event.  Your subconscious knows this, and will fight you to remember more about what happened afterward this event.

In the end, you'll confront that event, armed with the memories you've regained while fighting your mind.  Even then, your subconscious will still not go quietly into that dark night.  If you can beat it and control what happens in that moment in time, you'll get the second chance you always wanted.  But if your subconscious wins, the hell you've created will only dominate your life -- if your sanity survives.

Mechanics Changes

Memory Tokens:  I'm planning on removing Memory Tokens from the card.  Instead of reading the Memory Tokens off of the Chorus member's card, you follow this rule for how many tokens you get:

• If the winner wins by a tie or by one rank, the Amnesiac takes two Memory Tokens -- Drive if they've won or Pain if they've lost.  This happens because the Amnesiac and his subconscious essentially is more in-sync, so the win or loss is stronger.
  
• Otherwise, the Amnesiac gains one token of the appropriate type -- Drive if they've won or Pain if they've lost.

(This idea came from showing the game to Rob Donoghue & Fred Hicks at GenCon, and then further conversing with Rob.  I intend to replace that part of the card with something else that could be usable in future games.)

Card elements:  I'm going to make it so that the elements on the cards are more generic -- instead of "blind sailor," I might do "blind person" or "sailor," and let the play group fill in the details.  I think that will go a long way to promoting longevity of the deck and allow for other interesting customizations, like combining Tone with Character to further define character.