While working on a degree in psychology, I've looked at a lot of people with either photographic, true eidetic, or some other extremely impressive memory. Not a single one doesn't have psychological issues (some being what you'd call "savants", others operating somewhere on a range like autism). Examples are many, but I think that pointing to popular media characters like Adrian Monk (Monk) or Shawn Spencer (Psych) are more easily memorable to a wider variety of people and serve as good enough examples; both of them exist on varying degrees of functionality but clearly have some personality issues. Given that having superior retention and recollection is often tied strongly to a sense or two and issues often come with, I thought I'd give a slight reworking of how Photographic Memory is executed. Opinions?
Eidetic Memory
40 Karma (20 BP)
A character with Eidetic Memory rarely forgets any detail he has experienced. The character can instantly recall faces, dates, tastes, or anything else he has seen, heard, smelled, or felt with any natural sense – and, when applicable, often can recall input from implanted sensors with a fair amount of accuracy. When making memory tests, the character gains a -2 threshold modifier to the test. The powerful inability to forget any details throughout life also impacts the character’s mental health; those with true Eidetic memory have one or more psychological maladies like depression, OCD, or phobias which must be taken with this quality (though karma or BP gained from those still counts towards the character). These maladies are, like the power of memory, lasting parts of the character, though with time and effort they can be treated and controlled.
Photographic Memory
20 Karma, 10 BP
A character with Photographic Memory rarely forgets anything he has experienced. The character can instantly recall faces, dates, numbers, or anything else he has seen. When making Memory Tests, the character gains a –1 threshold modifier to the test.
Note that this is now a 'sight' memory quality, before it was somewhat of a catchall.
[Sense] Memory
10 Karma (5 BP) per sense
This character has a particularly strong memory retention and recollection ability tied to a particular sense (sound, smell and taste, touch) and rarely forgets anything he has experienced. The character can instantly recall voices, aromas, tastes, textures, and occasionally other events related to particular sense-memory events like the smell of baking bread causing a recollection of a childhood home, or the smell of blood of the scene of a crime. When making Memory Tests, the character gains a –1 threshold modifier to the test.
