30 thoughts on “Is there a roleplaying game that has a narrative structure similar to the 2000 film Memento?”

  1. They only thing I’ve seen that comes close is the flashback mechanic from Blades in the Dark… My players have become enamored of it, and asked to use it during our last game… which we ran in Fate. 

    I think the flashback mechanic works fine in any system, just don’t allow healing or resource recovery in between, to keep things balanced out…

  2. They only thing I’ve seen that comes close is the flashback mechanic from Blades in the Dark… My players have become enamored of it, and asked to use it during our last game… which we ran in Fate. 

    I think the flashback mechanic works fine in any system, just don’t allow healing or resource recovery in between, to keep things balanced out…

  5. Eloy Cintron I am super-intrigued by that flashback mechanic. Actually, it has been ages since we checked in on John Harper, now that I think about it. I need to get some John Harper games back on the calendar.

  6. Eloy Cintron I am super-intrigued by that flashback mechanic. Actually, it has been ages since we checked in on John Harper, now that I think about it. I need to get some John Harper games back on the calendar.

  15. I haven’t done anything with it, but there’s this old RPG called Snowball which was specifically designed to emulate Memento-style play.

    http://www.twistedconfessions.com/snowball.php

    You work backwards, chronologically, and add more details to your character as you do.

    There’s also a Penny For Your Thoughts setup that was inspired by Memento, in that you recover memories in reverse chronological order (I think?).

  16. I haven’t done anything with it, but there’s this old RPG called Snowball which was specifically designed to emulate Memento-style play.

    http://www.twistedconfessions.com/snowball.php

    You work backwards, chronologically, and add more details to your character as you do.

    There’s also a Penny For Your Thoughts setup that was inspired by Memento, in that you recover memories in reverse chronological order (I think?).

  19. The mechanics in Fiasco make it possible to tell a story completely in reverse chronological order (I think they give a few suggestions in the companion).  Still, I don’t think that the mechanics encourage it is so much as allow it.

  20. The mechanics in Fiasco make it possible to tell a story completely in reverse chronological order (I think they give a few suggestions in the companion).  Still, I don’t think that the mechanics encourage it is so much as allow it.

  21. Indeed, the first game that came to mind was Snowball , which was written for the No-Press Anthology like 12 years ago. Very cool concept, I even played a session of it (once) long ago. It was the groundbreaker for this kind of play.

    I didn’t know about Roundstone, above, but that looks pretty kickass too.

  22. Indeed, the first game that came to mind was Snowball , which was written for the No-Press Anthology like 12 years ago. Very cool concept, I even played a session of it (once) long ago. It was the groundbreaker for this kind of play.

    I didn’t know about Roundstone, above, but that looks pretty kickass too.

  23. It’s NOT like “Memento”, but maybe it’s “near enough” for you: Seth Ben-Ezra’s rpg for 2 players “Showdown” start with two enemies in mortal combat, a last fight that can end only with the death of at least one of them. During the fight, there are flashbacks that reveal who these people are and why they are fighting (but these flashback are in chronological order, from their first meeting onward)

  24. It’s NOT like “Memento”, but maybe it’s “near enough” for you: Seth Ben-Ezra’s rpg for 2 players “Showdown” start with two enemies in mortal combat, a last fight that can end only with the death of at least one of them. During the fight, there are flashbacks that reveal who these people are and why they are fighting (but these flashback are in chronological order, from their first meeting onward)

  27. Moreno Roncucci’s and Andy Hauge’s talk of Showdown makes me wonder how hard it’d be to extend One Last Job to work in reverse chronology.  In One Last Job, every time the party hits a roadblock, the players can confabulate a backstory that gives one of the players a boost (usually at some cinematic cost).  I’d think that this mechanic could be exploited to line up flashback scenes. 

    site: http://lookrobot.co.uk/2014/02/12/one-last-job-rpg/

  28. Moreno Roncucci’s and Andy Hauge’s talk of Showdown makes me wonder how hard it’d be to extend One Last Job to work in reverse chronology.  In One Last Job, every time the party hits a roadblock, the players can confabulate a backstory that gives one of the players a boost (usually at some cinematic cost).  I’d think that this mechanic could be exploited to line up flashback scenes. 

    site: http://lookrobot.co.uk/2014/02/12/one-last-job-rpg/

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