Total Recall – if you can explain what a word means.

“Ooh, what’s that film name… it’s on the tip of my tongue!”
“Stick it out then, let’s have a look!”

I’ve had a mixed relationship with memory recently. As I get older, my recall isn’t what it used to be. But there are still times when I know something — I have the metadata for it — I just can’t pull the actual word to the surface. It’s infuriating and deliciously tantalising at the same time.

And then I remembered my roleplaying moments.
“It’s a shame I can’t just roll a Recall Knowledge check right now.”

But I realised something: when I explain the fragments of what I do remember to someone nearby, they often enjoy guessing the missing word — and I enjoy watching them try. It becomes a tiny social puzzle.

If you add a bit of roleplaying flair, that gets even more interesting. It’s one thing for me to try and explain “Empathy.” But imagine a lowly goblin who’s only just encountered the concept!

So I wondered how to recreate this sensation inside a roleplaying game — a way to make recall a bit more interactive and characterful.

That’s where the idea came from:
take a concept word, break it into letters, turn those letters into new clue-words, and get the party to piece it back together. It’s the memory game, but in reverse.

It’s not for everyone, and it doesn’t have to take long. But when a group leans into it — the roleplay, the guessing, the back-and-forth — it can be a genuinely fun moment.

And when the players finally decipher the concept word, you can paint the perfect epiphany montage as the GM:

“You share scattered fragments of your trained past, each detail clarifying the next. The pieces assemble in your mind until finally, the full memory snaps into place — clear as day.”