Character Creation: Rememorex

All aboard the nostalgia train!

The Game: Rememorex
The Publisher: Nerdy City Games
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played it but I'm very much the target demo
Books Required: Just the one

Rememorex is a horror-ish kind of game set in the "idealized 80s." I have no idea how easy a concept it is to wrap your head around if you're on the younger side, but as a certified Gen X, Saturday-morning-cartoon-watchin', hose-drinkin' (that sounds dirty), outdoors-playin', Atari 2600-with-the-wood-paneling, dad-smoked-in-the-car so-and-so, it makes perfect sense to me. The 80s were the beginning of the end of the American experiment in a lot of ways (thanks Reagan!) and it's only with the benefit of hindsight that I can see the entrenched homophobia, racism, and sexism clearly, but I was born in 1974, I was just a kid during the 80s. So it's not hard to tap into the feelings of nostalgia and enjoy the horrors of the era (for somewhat black-humor values of "enjoy"). Other games, like Tales from the Loop and other "kids on bikes" style games (including, um, Kids on Bikes) have tapped into it, too. 

Rememorex goes all-in; there's a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style minigame as the book begins, and the example characters are literally Ferris Bueller, Optimus Prime, and B.A. Baracus (not even the thinly veiled analog like Misspent Youth did with Star Wars, this is a brave company). So with all of that in mind, let's make a character.

First thing we do is choose a bracket; adult, teen, or kid. Let's be a kid and lean into my own 80s experience. I'm then asked to pick a type, as described in Breakfast Club: brain, athlete, criminal, basket case, or prince(ss). I suppose if I were leaning into my experience as a kid it'd probably be "basket case," because I was first and last a weird kid in grade school. I don't generally swing with playing oneself in RPGs (feels weird and vaguely masturbatory), so I'll say my character is a brain. 

Ah, but what kind of brain? The next section is "training," and that's not actually a great name for this because it's an adjective that modifies "brain." There's not a codified list; Doogie Howser is listed as "Prodigy Brain" while Indiana Jones is "Action Brain." Let's ride the ragged edge between brain and basket case and say my kid is a "strange brain." He's the kid who knows all about mythology and writes weird short stories and if you pay attention you'll see that a lot of what happens in those stories is taken from TV shows he's seen or books he's read and kind of remixed...but no one ever really pays attention that closely. His teachers get hung up on his penmanship and don't notice to occasional flashes of sci-fi/horror beneath. His name is Harper Raymond Burchett (his parents each named him after their favorite author). 

Anyway, that's type and training. Last thing is talent. Talent is just a thing you can do, and it works kind of like a Fate Aspect. Let's say Harper has a "freaky good memory." Yeah, I've used that kind of thing before, but I find it easy to play. 

So then I prioritize these three things. I think "strange" is least important, but I think "freaky good memory" is probably what Harper sees as his most important trait, so I'll make that primary. 

Now I divide some dice between active and passive uses of these things (8/6/4). I think the memory one is mostly passive; Harper doesn't try to remember what everyone says, he just does. So I'll go active 2/passive 6 there. For training I'll split it evenly (2/2), and for type I'll go active 4/passive 2. 

And then I get three statements: I love that..., I hate that..., and I can count on....

Well, I think for Harper, he loves the support he gets from his folks, who are fiction nerds too, so it's I love that my parents read my stories. However, they might read them, but they don't get them, so I hate that they don't get my references. And finally, I can count on adults never listening to me. 

And normally I'd roll for my connection to other characters, but y'know, just me. I'll say that Harper is small and thin, very much a "last picked at kickball" kind of kid, but he only gets bullied sporadically, usually when the teacher has the kids read papers or stories in front of class and the kids pick on him for knowing what words like "hilarious" and "sequential" mean. 

That'll about do it!