As a part of the minority you retain your dignity by remembering your people’s history and culture. But can you manage to do that while also adopting and complying with the strict rules of the society you live in?
Keywords: Memory – Identity – Social drama
The game is set in an alternate version of the 19th century, recognizable but a dark mirror. A new priestess of Alfather, the god of the Majority, comes to the provincial town of Bulwark, and life starts to get more difficult for the Minority. Not only are they met with demands and humiliations, they must also struggle to hold on to who they are, as opposed to the Majority’s view of them. Does the prejudice get under their skin? And can they maintain friendships with Majority members? It is up to the players.
The Gates of Remembrance is a mnemotechnic exercise that the Minority use to store their tradition. The players actually learn the exercise, and outcomes in the game are decided by the ability of the players to remember. The PLAYER CHARACTERS will be crushed by demands and stereotypes unless the PLAYERS dig deep into their minds. You don’t have to be a memory master to play – bad outcomes make for good stories too.
Long Description
The Gates of Remembrance
In the eyes of the Majority, the Minority are greedy drunkards – ridiculous and unworthy; everything that the Majority can agree that they themselves are not. In their own eyes, the Minority (they call themselves the Folk) in their exile are the guardians of a proud tradition and hopes of prosperity. The Gates of Remembrance is a mnemotechnic exercise that the Folk use to keep their traditions. When the Majority take out their contempt on the Folk, the Gates become a fortress against loss of dignity and identity. The main characters of the game are four members of the Folk in the town of Bulwark who are tasked with guarding the tradition in the coming generation. The game takes place in an alternate version of the early 19th century.
The Gates of Remembrance is about identity, both for individuals and for groups, and it is about trying to get coexistence to work, maintaining human connections across group boundaries. It is drama about dealing with demands both reasonable and unreasonable, and it is about the consequences of failing. The unusual thing about the game is that in the meat of the game, the challenge scenes, the outcomes are decided by the actual ability of players to remember, and by what they choose to make of their successes and failures. This demand that they perform puts a pressure on the players that is a hint of the pressures that the player characters face – plot concerns and dramatic choices are relevant, but the hard basis is the ability of the players to answer questions. Both success and failure, coexistence and resistance, have interesting and dramatic consequences, so it will still be a good story if people can't remember, but it will be a different story from the one that would grow from remembrance.