TITLE: D&D But… Everyone Has Amnesia 2
GM: Luke Westaway
Players: Jane Douglas as “Ms. Blue,” Mike Channel as “Mr. White,” Andy Farrant as “Mr. Brown”
Streaming Service: Oxventure YouTube Channel

Oxventure D&D began in 2017, initially intended as a one-shot subscriber milestone bonus for video game YouTube channel Outside Xbox. But the Oxventurers Guild (DMed by Johnny Chiodini and including the members of sister channel Outside Xtra) continued for seven years, mastering Dungeons & Dragons (and other games) as they went. Once the self-proclaimed “rodeo clowns of D&D,” Oxventure has become a force to be reckoned with in gaming, pairing quick thinking and inventive storytelling with a deceptively strong grip on the rules.

In the years since, Oxventure has expanded into seasons of Blades in the Dark and Deadlands, guested with and hosted guests from series such as High Rollers and Dimension 20, and launched a second, folk horror-themed, D&D campaign: Oxventure Wyrdwood. Between campaigns, they run one-shots of other games and bend the rules of 5e into pretzels with their “D&D But…” episodes. For example, what if your party was a neverending supply of kobolds? What if you used D&D to play Pokémon? And, most recently, what if no one knew who their characters were or what they could do?

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Former Oxtra host Luke Westaway GMs many of these “D&D But…” sessions, creating everything from Pokémon stat blocks to “kobold vending machines” to make the game run smoothly. This is the second “D&D But… Everyone Has Amnesia” installment, and while the first one went well, the second ticks over like clockwork. This isn’t just a one-off novelty; it’s a legitimately workable system. And it’s got three very strong, very different players showing it off.

At the beginning of the session, each player receives a scratch-off character sheet. All they know at the top of the game is their character’s race and the color of outfit they’re wearing (which are used to ID them with Reservoir Dogs-esque pseudonyms). Fields are scratched off when an ability is used. For example, if you make a History check, you scratch off your Intelligence and History modifiers. If someone attacks you, you scratch off your Armor Class. And so on.

This makes things like spellcasting a bit messy, and solving this issue is where Luke’s skills at homebrew really shine. Spell slots and levels are dispensed with entirely. Instead, each character has six abilities (be they spells or class abilities) that are also covered. At any point in the game, they can choose to use one blindly. Once it’s scratched off, it goes off. They can then use it one more time deliberately later on. This keeps things balanced while also encouraging more exploration of the sheet. It also affects how each player approaches the personality of their amnesiac character—sometimes on an oddly meta level that confuses would-be assassins.

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In this session, our “heroes” awaken in a room in an inn. Ms. Blue is a dwarf, Mr. White is a goliath, and Mr. Brown is a human. And that’s all they know. Well, except that Ms. Blue has a bloody nose and the landlord is expecting payment from them. One chaotic fight later, in which Mr. White has manifested a dark portal and Mr. Brown has learned he’s very good at pickpocketing, the three rob the inn’s safe. They discover what appears to be a love letter indicating a meeting at a church this evening, as well as a purse of gold from something that’s recently been pawned.

It all seems to be fantasy Hangover as the crew fights their way into the closed pawn shop to find what they’re missing. Ms. Blue seems to be very intelligent and very good at magic. Additionally, it turns out the letter was for Mr. Brown, and the pawned item was a very interesting ring. A wedding, then? It would seem so, but any progress toward the venue is impeded by assassins who are after Mr. Brown and seem surprised to see the three characters being so chummy.

Throughout these events, though, other bits of information have been bubbling to the surface. The scratch-off sheets aren’t the only ways the characters can learn more about themselves. Occasionally, a scenario will stir a vague memory, offering a character more information about who they are. Ms. Blue recalls studying magic while her father pushed her into the family business. Mr. White remembers being hailed by “the only family he’s ever known” as a “scary bastard.” And Mr. Brown recalls meeting the woman he loves after giving a piano performance. Memories surface chronologically, slowly building up pockets of a story over time. Ms. Blue’s father has a gambling problem; Mr. White breaks an oath; Mr. Brown gains wealth but finds himself wanting more. Combined with the reactions of locals who seem to know Mr. Brown and assassins who seem to know all of them, the threads begin to merge—just enough to paint a picture, not enough to give the whole game away.

By the end, things come into focus: the wedding was never a wedding, the memory loss was never intended to be for everyone, and it’s not quite as strange as others may think for these three to be palling around together. The session ends with name and class reveals, though canny viewers may get enough hints throughout to make guesses of their own.

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As previously discussed, Luke is a stellar GM. He already showed this with Blades in the Dark, and it’s been a joy to watch his journey from guest Oxventure DM to confident storyteller. Like Johnny and the others in the group who GM regularly, Luke is a big believer in the Rule of Cool: if the choice is between “hunt for a ruling in the PHB” and “let the player do this brilliantly ridiculous thing they’ve just figured out,” the latter will win out. Luke is also magnificent with character voices and has several at the ready. If Andy calls out for a street urchin, that street urchin will be there. With a knife, but he’ll be there.

Every player at the Oxventure table has their own playing style, and long-time viewers will be accustomed to that. Each player has a character tailor-made for their strengths. Jane, who has an affinity for both powerful and helpful characters, ends up with a pretty handy spellcaster. Mike, infamous for weirdly effective brute force in both tabletop and video games, has a character who enables that. And Andy, who is impulsive on the surface but deceptively adept at making the system work for him, gets a class that lets him play to both.

Oxventure has never been afraid to derail—they’re famous for it, really—but they have “yes, and” in their blood. Even if things go slightly astray, they come back in quickly. An urchin Mr. Brown summons as a joke becomes a recurring character. Mike’s meta declaration that he’s going to scratch off a spell and God only knows what will happen turns into Mr. White using his amnesia as a threat. There’s a reason this group holds together as well as it does. Yes, it’s an actual play. Yes, they’re here for our entertainment. But it feels like your friends at the table who aren’t afraid to blast off an in-joke or mess with the GM. Heightened production values haven’t changed that, either. Now it’s that strong camaraderie, but also with good music and cool lighting effects.

The best thing about this game, though, is the story. With Jane, Mike, and Andy taking control of these lost characters, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that Luke wrote and entire short story with stakes and character development and drama. He made characters that suit each of his fellow Oxventurers down to the ground, letting them lean into every little bit of info they glean. As with the first “Everyone Has Amnesia” game, the amnesia is a part of the story. The twist at the end is absolute genius, and everything hangs together.

Highlights

Pretty much every blind casting of a spell was brilliant. Mr. Brown attempting to pick a lock, likely sure from previous skill checks that he was a Rogue, resulted in a Stinking Cloud. Mr. White’s ability to Summon Undead introduced Bonesly, a Home Depot-sized skeleton in a purple bow tie. Ms. Blue learned her lesson when trying to help an injured Mr. White, loading up her previously revealed Counterspell while cautiously scratching off something that had an equal chance of healing or killing him. The peak move, however, was Mr. Brown setting off Slow right as an enemy cast Magic Missile, moving the enemy in front of his own Magic Missiles, and dropping Slow. (By the book? Probably not. Cool? Absolutely.)

Final Score (5 out of 5 stars)

This session had the advantage of being the second outing for this particular homebrew. With the mechanics in hand, Luke could focus on the story—and it was a hell of a story. Penning something so tightly written that still allows for character choice is the kind of gaming experience that the amnesia mechanic is made for, and Luke took full advantage of it here.

All the players were on fire. It isn’t easy to start a session with literally nothing, but characterizations emerged over the course of the session and developed with each new bit of background dropped. While there was some hesitation early on, the motivation to keep scratching off spells and damn the consequences kicked in quickly. Everyone was both willing and able to play whatever hand they were dealt, no matter how unhelpful or illogical the random spell was.

Any tabletop game can be salvageable if your group is good enough, and even the best game will fall apart if the group isn’t united. Fortunately, this session has strength of group and strength of homebrew, making it a delight to watch and a great stopgap as we await season 2 of Oxventure Deadlands.

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Image Source: Oxventure

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