Something like that, yes. Consider my example above to Victor for how that disagreement could break the game. If you’re playing mnemonic chess, and you and your opponent come to a disagreement regarding board position, the game is probably just broken. You can’t continue because board state matters so much to play.

Thomas

Yeah, what you said. I probably should have been clearer. To be clear now (too late!): Low-permanency mediums introduce risk whenever history is important to the game.

So, say you’re playing mnemonic chess (that is, not on a board, no pieces, just in your head). You’re using a low-permanency medium. If you, or your opponent, get confused about the current state of the board, you’re in trouble. Note the way in which most board games include components that have higher permanency than memory: boards, pawns, cards, state-trackers, etc.

Roleplaying is particularly problematic because what we tend to care about most is fictional content, and that’s tracked almost entirely through memory. Character stats and such are on character sheets, but not who said what when.

Thomas

(Chess is not a very good example, by the way. It is very, very common to write down all moves as they occur when playing chess. ;) )