I thought of an idea for a short arc/con game, a mixture of dystopia, fighting and psychological vertigo. The idea was thought in regards to my game Juiced Rider, but on further reflection, can work quite well, potentially system-less, or with any system that merely takes the bit about switching memories and ports it over (easiest thing in the world to do).
So, the idea and some background is as follows: In a future-world, there is a war, an alien invasion, rebels fighting against Earth Prime, what have you. People sign on to the army to pilot mecha in order to fight the enemies of Earth (go Voices of a Distant Star!). There are two catches: Interfacing fully with the Mecha requires a drug which has the side effect of your memories mixing with those of others, both other pilots and random memories caught from the collective subconsciousness. The other catch is that if you volunteer to pilot these mecha, you cannot retire until you earn a large sum of money (in the form of bounties, go Area 88) To combat this, some of the people piloting mecha are "Prisoners", who as their sentence are sent and forced to pilot these mecha, being injected this drug.
Since no one has returned from the front yet, or if they have, they are sequestered from the public and media (often by their own choice, perhaps by a semi-martial law restricting the flow of information), and some rumors circulate about many such prisoners being people who have been framed, or committed very low-key crimes (theft? neglect?), one character will be a news-reporter who volunteered in order to find the truth of the matter, and get it back to Earth. Complications are abundant: First, the prisoners will have been there longer, and not all their memories will be their own. The reporter will also have to remain there for a period of time after getting his interviews, and his memories may not be something he could trust after a few missions; is he a reporter or a murderer, is he an innocent, a framed person, or guilty? Would he even retain memory of his mission? Perhaps one of the Prisoners would get his mission, and what are we if not our memories? If a murderer loses the memories that made him a criminal, is he still a murderer? Is an "innocent" person with the memory of a murder he committed not guilty?
After I had the idea, especially the original mission, I thought it reminded me of Philip K. Dick's Lies Inc. which I oddly enough remembered as "Truth Inc.", and on further reflection, the whole game seems very Dick-esque to me, A Scanner Darkly, anyone?
Anyway, I hope this idea will find some house to run it! If anyone does anything with it, please share.
I recall the memory switching bit from your game being really cool. Have you thought of writing it up as a plug-in for use with other game systems? Then, you could outline the situation you're describing above and make it broadly usable. Or take the memory switching and apply it to other situations as well. There's definitely some PKD style wonkiness going on with the inability to tell what is really your memory and what isn't and the effect of that uncertainty on your decision making.
Semi-generic rules on the memory-swap bit. I will first list the most-generic version, and then list things which can be added to your game, as modules that can be added or removed separately.
Core:
Starting off: The group will need a bunch of 3"*5" index cards, or any other form of small cards to write on.
Each character has three memories, write each memory on a separate index card, and put them in front of you.
--At the beginning of the first session, each player writes an additional two memories, which do not belong to any Player Character. Shuffle these, and then remove N-1 memories (Where N=number of players) from the pile, not looking at which ones are removed. This pile, placed face-down is The Collective Subconsciousness. --At the end of each session, remove N-1 memories from the pile, not looking at which ones are removed. This is important, so players will never know when they seek to reclaim one of their lost memories if that is still an option! --At the beginning of each session each player will write a new memory. Remove one such memory randomaly and then shuffle the rest into the pile. Do not let players look at the memories other players introduce.
In case it isn't clear, even when not mentioned, never look at which memories are discarded, and which memories are currently in the pile. These represent memories of other pilots, and memories which leaked from the group-mind. Memories removed either dissipate or find a lodging in other Riders.
Switching: Come up with times when the player will have to switch their memories, such as times which are very stressful, powering up special maneuvers for their mecha, when they need to interface deeper with the mecha and get an overdose of the drug, etc. --When that happens, choose a memory (or if you want that, do it at random) of the player's, then pick a memory at random from the pile and exchange them. Then shuffle the memory pile. --The Exchange is complete, the character may know he's missing something, but not beyond. His new memory is his, featuring him. If his new memory has the person it belonged to remembering how they've murdered someone, then the character will not think, "No, this is not me, I'd never do that!", but rather remember it as if they did do it, which is now a part of their personality make-up, and for them, had always been?
Modules: Memory Beads: If you use any form of player currency, of the form of "Fate Dice" or whatever, I suggest that whenever a player wishes to spend one, they have to come up with a memory (not one of the Big Memories, but a small memory of the character) and how it fuels them to do more in this situation. Losing Memories: Rather than merely switching memories, some actions may require the character to lose a memory. Take one of their memories and put it in the memory pile, or alternately, tear it up. Regardless, they do not get a new memory, but will proceed with one Memory less, the capacity of their mind having been reduced. Should the character lose its last memory, give it an Epilogue. Anchor Memory: Give each character an Anchor Memory. This memory cannot be swapped, and if you use the Losing Memories Module, it will be the last one lost. This memory could be either the reason the character had volunteered for this mission, or some other pivotal moment in the character's life, that defines them. Morality: Characters start with 3 Morality traits, each being something the character will do or not do, something they will uphold... if they can, this is a war. Should the character lose a memory and gain another one, the player may decide to switch a morality trait to a more fitting one, though this is not mandatory. --Sub-module: Should a character have to contradict a Morality trait (perhaps if several times), they may replace it for another. The stress of this could result in a memory-swap.
True Core: Well, the true Core is a lot simpler... just take three memories per player, come up with a pile of memories not belonging to the players' characters, come up with when they switch them, and you're good to go.
So Luke has a thread where he points to a thread on the Forge, asking about why have it a war in space, amongst other things, and it got me thinking, regarding JRRM. This could be relevant as these are settings to put the module into, but it could also be used to "Hack" the original game.
First, I ascribe to the "Issue makes for Science-Fiction" school, so even if you change the colour from sci-fi space-war to a fantasy setting, to me it'd still be Sci-Fi at its core. The space is a metaphor/tool of distance and loneliness. The characters are removed from society, and it's basically a one-way trip with very little information before you make the choice. And more importantly, you are now separated, both from most of humanity, whom you are defending (you're defending those you now are losing your relations to, I'm now reminded of Scalzi's Old Man's War with the Ghost Brigade troops), and from those who gave you your memories.
It could easily be changed into fantasy colour: You are summoners, your "Mecha" are demons, and you lose consciousness in order for the demon to manifest in this world, with the strain of the summoning and release taking their toll on your psyche. This could be taken another step, being made into a high-school/academy style of place (anime style), and this also adds into the cast more characters (even if only NPCs) who are staff and actually care for you, rather than just other pilots and staff who only care to keep you fit for one more round of fighting. This also opens the characters up to being able to interact with fellow humans more, including people they care for, and actually able to form new memories! that matter! And change their Morality outside of combat.
This could be taken to varying degrees of comedy, with some rule-changing and mostly advice. You can deepen the tragedy of the pilots' fate by having a scene or two, or even an episode where the scenes (there are no free scenes in the original game) are not poignant and introspective, but light-hearted and even comic, just to contrast with what usually happens, and even have all that is golden be tarnished later. You can on the other hand make it much more comic. In a more light-hearted setting, I'd make memory switches rarer, or their effects more light-hearted, or conversly, for a comic backdrop to a poignant game, have the memory switches be rarer (perhaps by making actual combat something that occurs say, every two sessions), and then have a lot more scenes that explore the profound change brought by such changes. Perhaps adding more scenes, or enabling a measure of free-scenes.
Here's an example that could go either way: Have Bob kiss Gwen, and form a memory of it. Then Bob's memory ends up in Mike's memory, who of course goes up to Gwen and kisses her again, because as far as he's considered, he's the one who's kissed her before. This could be played for laughs, or (and) to explore the measure of relationships, and how can you form a relationship when you can't retain your memories of what built it and of the other person, and when you know some of your memories of someone may not be yours?
After all, if we are nothing more than the sum of our memories, is it not us that now love person X, regardless of had we actually generated those memories?
Also, after reading the Game Chef bits again, a couple of points: The lack of information about "The War" is on purpose. It could be that they are fighting a civil war, actually attacking another culture/race, defending their world. Could be that what they were told and what's really happenning is different. They could also be sent to quash union strikes on asteroid belts!
Part of it is, that who said the pilots actually see/know what happens outside? The information they get through their machines could be altered/rigged, without a clear visual link to outside.
Regarding "Heart Scenes", which aren't here, because they're part of Juiced Rider itself, I'll want to clarify that piece again: It's not possible for such a scene not to be important to the character it's built for, or for that issue to not matter to it, it's designed according to the character's Moral Code, so the character has to decide if to uphold the moral code or not, and the character if not the player will care for it.