The Culprit by Memory

You have signed up to man one of the towers that watch the endless open sky at the edge of the world. The sky is, according to the city, dangerous. Your orders are to signal back to them if anything emerges from the boiling, endless clouds. You will be paid badly, and given bed and board, which is actually a significant improvement in your material circumstances. The city back home is not doing well. 

There are, apparently, bonuses for good behaviour (whatever that means), and successful forewarning of anything abnormal in the sky. You can see the cloud banks already in your mind's eye, in all of their various moods - boiling with storms, calm, wall-like and unmoving in the hot air, drifting slowly, heavy with the charge of lightning, glowing in the sunset. 

You are told that the tower will be stocked with provisions, and you have the books and other materials that you bring with you. You have also been provided with two small orange plastic bottles, one with 50 white pills labelled 'to sleep - take one before bed', the other with 50 yellow pills labelled 'for boredom - one at a time only'. Finally, you have been issued a 9mm automatic, two magazines (capacity 15), and a box of 50 rounds, 'for emergencies'. 

Your tour lasts for two months: 60 days and 60 nights. You will be escorted to your post by military helicopter.

Character Creation

1. Roll 3d6 down the line. These are the usual six stats. You know what STR, CON, and DEX are. INT is spatial and abstract reasoning, memory, logic, and rhetoric, WIS is grounded-ness, self control, self-knowledge and self-love, and empathy, CHAR is the capacity for vivid ideation; the invention of concepts and images without precedent, and the ease with which you can express these to yourself and others. 
2. Give yourself a job (you recently lost it) and a hobby. You gain these as skills - you can expect to pass checks related to them (or to be given the chance to roll checks where others would not be able to). You also get a single +2 to one stat of your choice that pertains to either your job or hobby. 
3. You have one minute irl to gather gear for the tour (as in you, in your irl abode, right now). Time yourself. This is your equipment - make a list of every item. The helicopter won't accept loose shit in boxes, it will all need to be in a backpack or travel case of some kind. Things to bear in mind when you do this: you are expecting to be in the same four or five rooms for two months; you already have a pistol with 50 rounds; the enemy you are most likely to encounter will be boredom; you have no phone signal or internet (you do have power, heating, and running water). 
4. Give yourself a name! There are no levels or classes in The Culprit by Memory. There are many ways you might change over time.

Your derived stats and the rules for resolution are as usual for a Phlox server pbp long form game. Most resolution will be rolling to match 10, with difficulty increments of 2, up to 16 for very difficult tasks. The modifiers are printed below for reference. 

• 3-5 (-2)
• 6-8 (-1)
• 9-11 (0)
• 12-14 (+1)
• 15-17 (+2)
• 18 (+3)

You have 6 HP + your CON mod.

Your 9mm pistol does 2d6 damage, and without proficiency it fires at -1 to hit, takes twenty seconds (2 combat rounds) to reload under stress, and forces you to save INT or DEX (your choice) on a critical miss to avoid shooting yourself.

Roll to hit and your 2d6 damage at the same time. Whether or not you hit, you spend ammunition equal to the lower of the two damage rolls. 

If you get LONELY, -1 to WIS checks per LONELY. You can heal it by talking to and feeling understood by others, or by pursuing your own interests in ways that you find personally fulfilling.

If you become DISSOCIATIVE, -1 to INT checks per DISSOCIATIVE. You can heal it by attending to daily needs, creating an environment that is predictable, spending time in the sun, and exercising. 

You can always decide to take a point of DISSOCIATIVE in place of a point of DAMAGE or LONELY. 

If you have DAMAGE, -1 to CHAR checks per DAMAGE. Healing from DAMAGE is significantly more difficult. At the very least it takes time, care (from yourself or from others), and a safe environment to recover in. When you take a point of DAMAGE, mark down what caused it. 

Every point of LONELY, DISSOCIATIVE, and DAMAGE gives an additive -1 to all attempts to heal from any of the others. You may find other modifiers to these attempts, positive and negative, in play. 

You start with 1 point in either LONELY or DISSOCIATIVE, and 1 point of DAMAGE. Include a source of DAMAGE next to it in brackets, or leave this unspecified.

Too much of any of these three stats is fatal, in various horrible ways. Your objective is to survive your year's deployment with 0 points in all of them. 

If your character dies, you're outta the game! Your tower will be taken over by someone else. Elfgame permadeath.

DREAMS

You might find yourself dreaming (you might not). At any time, you can wake up by testing INT. If you fail, whatever scene is playing out concludes before you can test again. 

Inside the dream, your:

• STR = your CHAR
• CON = your WIS
• DEX = your INT

You can will into being a number of objects equal to your CHAR modifier - they can be whatever you want. If your CHAR modifier is negative, you lose the use of that many limbs. If you have DAMAGE, you also find yourself with an item that represents this DAMAGE in some way. The item is functional, but also cursed - it will seek to harm you. 

You can declare that you ignore a number of hits equal to your WIS modifier. If your WIS modifier is negative, you take a proportional + to all damage inside the dream.

You can vanish out of existence a number of things equal to your INT modifier. If your INT modifier is negative, you must roll that many dice and choose the lowest when you test INT to wake up from this dream. 

If you would die, or become trapped or tortured, in a dream, you immediately test to wake up. On a success you do so, with heart racing and horrible images in your mind. On a failure, you are unable to extract yourself in time to avoid the sensation of being killed or mutilated. You take 1 DISSOCIATIVE (if death) or 1 DAMAGE (if torture) on waking. 

Turner, Clouds at Sunset, c.1823-1830