The best way of playing a split personality? [Archive] - Wizards Community

The best way of playing a split personality? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Radijs
06-26-07, 02:09 PM I know the concept is hardly original but still in a recently starting campaign I play two little girls who share the same body.

In short what happened was the following:
The city where she grew up was conquered by an evil power and her father died defending the city leaving her mother to raise her.
Her mother worried sick about the evil orcs roaming the city kept the little girl inside most of the time literally sheltering her from the world.
But as she grew older Elizabeth (thats her name) became curious and started to sneak out on occasion to creep through the city. Her mother beat her for disobeying her and after a while Elizabeth began to create an imaginary friend Agnenthe who did all the things her mother forbade her.
So when Elizabeth had been out she'd blame Agnenthe and think to herself that it wasn't her being beaten but her imaginary friend for being so bad.
This went from bad to worse and slowly Agnenthe began to exist as a second personality in her mind.

So we've got Elizabeth who is a shy, quiet nice girl who doesn't swear but says things like "poot" instead.
And we've got Agnenthe who is a witch, does what she wants and makes no buts about it!

Agnenthe probably knows of Elizabeth but not likely that its the other way around.
She wears a hat with fake fruit on it. Whenever Agnenthe is in charge she releases a spring in the hat that makes it a pointy hat.

Thats basically it. What would be a good way to choose when and where the diffrent personalities emerge?
warwinner
06-26-07, 03:22 PM Probably When subjected to strong emotional/mental stress or fear/criticism
Seeing as elizabeth can't handle such situations [hence why agnenthe exists]
Alltat
06-26-07, 05:31 PM It seems reasonable that Agnenthe would take over whenever there's danger involved, or when Elizabeth would need something that she cannot get through methods she finds legitimate (the definition of what's 'illegitimate' could range from murder and extortion to telling a lie). Depending on how aware Agnenthe is of 'what' she is, she might be more or less willing to give back control once she's not needed anymore.

This also leaves two interesting 'hooks' for character development. First, that Elizabeth slowly grows more aware of Agnenthe's existence (whether through party members or hard-to-explain consequences of her actions) despite an unhealthy dose of denial. Whether that leads to the two personalities eventually merging or even more madness, only time will tell. Second, Agnenthe could potentially want more and more control/freedom, and be less prone to 'fading' as soon as she's not needed anymore. This too could lead to either result, possibly in combination with the first scenario.
Radijs
06-26-07, 06:44 PM *Takes notes*
Hohoo! this is going to be FUN!
Mugulord
06-29-07, 04:57 AM Yah, MPD is fun every once in a while. My character has just recently lost his MPD during a real good roleplay moment. For My character, there were 3 personalities, and I tried to base things as best I could on what I know of MPD (Multiple personality disorder). There was Mask, the child that never grew up. The Protector (nameless really) that came out whenever Mask couldn't handle the situation. Finally there was Mark, who only got to watch the other two. My trigger was uncommon, magic fear effects mostly. Mask was too childlike to really understand danger, he had a blast no matter how dire the situation was, but if he was forced to feel fear, the protector would snap into control and "Bad Mask" would deal with whatever was the problem in a quick direct route. Only happened twice.

First time, the characters were in the middle of a riot, Mask was trying to subdue it using silence and darkness, then dove off a building using a ring of feather fall to land by an NPC we were supposed to save. A monster of some kind appeared to assassinate the NPC and it had an AOE fear effect. After coming down from the effect, I started unloading all my combat spells, starting with confusion centered on my own feet. Crowd goes even crazier, the other cleric goes nuts, I make my save, but...well I'm all-ready nuts. Anyhow, I go on to kill a bunch of town guard and peasants with summoned creatures and whatever else my PC had handy (at the time I spontaneously wounded) and the next day I had no memory of it what so ever.

The second time, we knew we were about to face off against a fairly tough demon, and just before heading into the test, a mummy that was only there to explain the test hit us with it's fear effect. Mask flubs an easy save and bad mask takes over (end of session) The week between sessions, I set up a neat little role play moment. Our DM allows faith points, where if you die, you basically get a free raise dead because of the gods interest in the party. I asked if I could have the faith point put towards bad mask taking over my corpse and carrying on fighting tooth and nail until the fight was over. He modified the idea to make bad mask an undead with a claw claw bite attack, that kept coming back up to 30 hp until the demon was dead, then when the demon died, the evil part melted away, leaving only normal mask. Upon being raised normally, I had a little expose, talking about why Mask was MPD, and how Mask had died, bad mask had melted away, and now Mark was all that was left.

My character's reason for his illness was that as a child he was caught stealing bread. The guard that caught him used his sword, cutting me across the face similar to the Olidammara mask. Mask was only supposed to spend the night in jail but he was forgotten, beaten, tortured and raped by the other inmates. Olidammara gave mask the power to kill all the inmates and escape. When he first met the party he only talked using lesser telepathic bond, where his voice sounded like a child's. He wore a skin tight studded leather number, and his holy symbol was also the mask he wears to cover his scarred up face. As the campaign wore on, Mask started talking to the PCs, to the point he wouldn't shut up.

Anyhow, when my character died, I switched a few things around. CG instead of CN, positive instead of negative energy focus, that kinda thing. The biggest problem I'm having is figuring out what kind of personality Mark should have now that he's normal. Oh and for more role play fun I confessed to the town guard, months later, as a sane person, to what "Bad Mask" did to all the peasants back in the riot. The DM had actually forgotten about it at the time and was really surprised, along with the rest of the party. MPD is one of those plot points that should be brought up very sparingly, but it can be SOOOO much fun when it works.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Radijs 06-26-07, 02:09 PM	I know the concept is hardly original but still in a recently starting campaign I play two little girls who share the same body. In short what happened was the following: The city where she grew up was conquered by an evil power and her father died defending the city leaving her mother to raise her. Her mother worried sick about the evil orcs roaming the city kept the little girl inside most of the time literally sheltering her from the world. But as she grew older Elizabeth (thats her name) became curious and started to sneak out on occasion to creep through the city. Her mother beat her for disobeying her and after a while Elizabeth began to create an imaginary friend Agnenthe who did all the things her mother forbade her. So when Elizabeth had been out she'd blame Agnenthe and think to herself that it wasn't her being beaten but her imaginary friend for being so bad. This went from bad to worse and slowly Agnenthe began to exist as a second personality in her mind. So we've got Elizabeth who is a shy, quiet nice girl who doesn't swear but says things like "poot" instead. And we've got Agnenthe who is a witch, does what she wants and makes no buts about it! Agnenthe probably knows of Elizabeth but not likely that its the other way around. She wears a hat with fake fruit on it. Whenever Agnenthe is in charge she releases a spring in the hat that makes it a pointy hat. Thats basically it. What would be a good way to choose when and where the diffrent personalities emerge?
warwinner 06-26-07, 03:22 PM	Probably When subjected to strong emotional/mental stress or fear/criticism Seeing as elizabeth can't handle such situations [hence why agnenthe exists]
Alltat 06-26-07, 05:31 PM	It seems reasonable that Agnenthe would take over whenever there's danger involved, or when Elizabeth would need something that she cannot get through methods she finds legitimate (the definition of what's 'illegitimate' could range from murder and extortion to telling a lie). Depending on how aware Agnenthe is of 'what' she is, she might be more or less willing to give back control once she's not needed anymore. This also leaves two interesting 'hooks' for character development. First, that Elizabeth slowly grows more aware of Agnenthe's existence (whether through party members or hard-to-explain consequences of her actions) despite an unhealthy dose of denial. Whether that leads to the two personalities eventually merging or even more madness, only time will tell. Second, Agnenthe could potentially want more and more control/freedom, and be less prone to 'fading' as soon as she's not needed anymore. This too could lead to either result, possibly in combination with the first scenario.
Radijs 06-26-07, 06:44 PM	Takes notes Hohoo! this is going to be FUN!
Mugulord 06-29-07, 04:57 AM	Yah, MPD is fun every once in a while. My character has just recently lost his MPD during a real good roleplay moment. For My character, there were 3 personalities, and I tried to base things as best I could on what I know of MPD (Multiple personality disorder). There was Mask, the child that never grew up. The Protector (nameless really) that came out whenever Mask couldn't handle the situation. Finally there was Mark, who only got to watch the other two. My trigger was uncommon, magic fear effects mostly. Mask was too childlike to really understand danger, he had a blast no matter how dire the situation was, but if he was forced to feel fear, the protector would snap into control and "Bad Mask" would deal with whatever was the problem in a quick direct route. Only happened twice. First time, the characters were in the middle of a riot, Mask was trying to subdue it using silence and darkness, then dove off a building using a ring of feather fall to land by an NPC we were supposed to save. A monster of some kind appeared to assassinate the NPC and it had an AOE fear effect. After coming down from the effect, I started unloading all my combat spells, starting with confusion centered on my own feet. Crowd goes even crazier, the other cleric goes nuts, I make my save, but...well I'm all-ready nuts. Anyhow, I go on to kill a bunch of town guard and peasants with summoned creatures and whatever else my PC had handy (at the time I spontaneously wounded) and the next day I had no memory of it what so ever. The second time, we knew we were about to face off against a fairly tough demon, and just before heading into the test, a mummy that was only there to explain the test hit us with it's fear effect. Mask flubs an easy save and bad mask takes over (end of session) The week between sessions, I set up a neat little role play moment. Our DM allows faith points, where if you die, you basically get a free raise dead because of the gods interest in the party. I asked if I could have the faith point put towards bad mask taking over my corpse and carrying on fighting tooth and nail until the fight was over. He modified the idea to make bad mask an undead with a claw claw bite attack, that kept coming back up to 30 hp until the demon was dead, then when the demon died, the evil part melted away, leaving only normal mask. Upon being raised normally, I had a little expose, talking about why Mask was MPD, and how Mask had died, bad mask had melted away, and now Mark was all that was left. My character's reason for his illness was that as a child he was caught stealing bread. The guard that caught him used his sword, cutting me across the face similar to the Olidammara mask. Mask was only supposed to spend the night in jail but he was forgotten, beaten, tortured and raped by the other inmates. Olidammara gave mask the power to kill all the inmates and escape. When he first met the party he only talked using lesser telepathic bond, where his voice sounded like a child's. He wore a skin tight studded leather number, and his holy symbol was also the mask he wears to cover his scarred up face. As the campaign wore on, Mask started talking to the PCs, to the point he wouldn't shut up. Anyhow, when my character died, I switched a few things around. CG instead of CN, positive instead of negative energy focus, that kinda thing. The biggest problem I'm having is figuring out what kind of personality Mark should have now that he's normal. Oh and for more role play fun I confessed to the town guard, months later, as a sane person, to what "Bad Mask" did to all the peasants back in the riot. The DM had actually forgotten about it at the time and was really surprised, along with the rest of the party. MPD is one of those plot points that should be brought up very sparingly, but it can be SOOOO much fun when it works.