Hi everyone new to the site and a new GM, have run several games with a few groups and finally found my peeps. Anyways I have a player that wants to build a droid that has a dual personality matrix. We talked about the logistics of it and how he would pick which personality would play for each session by using the force die. That being said is there anything I need to take into consideration when allowing him to play as the character? Has anyone ever run a game or played as a character with this sort of setup? Any help is appreciated.

If you keep it to one personality per session, it sounds pretty straightforward- basically like switching between two characters. I would add a secondary trigger, maybe if the PC reaches its Strain or Wound threshold (or some fraction thereof), the switch is forced?

edit to add: you could allow a discipline check to avoid the switch, maybe, if the PC wishes to actively resist it.

Set the ground rules early, and don't bend. A dual personality character is one that is VERY easy to min/max to an incredible degree. Are we just talking personality, or entire career/class build?

Lets say you make a character that is very combat oriented, but then make an alternate personality that is skilled at medicine, computers, crafting, and other non-combat skills. That player rolls the die and gets the non-combat character build, and then you end up in a heavy combat area of the adventure. That player may beg and plead, even come up with decent reasons to allow you to let them switch. To be a fun GM, you allow them, and now you've set a precedent. This player will start switching back and forth at will, gaining the best benefits for every situation.

Even if they don't switch back and forth at will, what is the end result of this combo? A player that can craft amazing gear and upgrade it with mods, but then in other adventures he gets to use that stuff with his combat character making him way more effective in combat.

I'd be worried about that multi-personality character overshadowing others. If one of the personalities mimics another in the party, a single player might be overshadowed when this character mimics his/her character. The character who's role it is to repair the ship, and talk to NPCs may seem useless when the mechanic protocol droid replaces the murder bot.

How will you handle experience? Do both personalities gain xp at the same rate as the rest of the party? Do they split it (seems the most fair for other players, but would eventually leave the split character behind in xp)? Does only the personality playing that session get the experience (this could lead to a gross imbalance due to luck).

What are the personalities and how will they focus? A melee focused combat character swapping with a ranged combat focused character isn't a bid deal as they both kind of fit the same spot in the party.

Also, keep in mind that the force die isn't balanced. 7 sides with black, 5 sides with white. You'd need at least 2 dice and go for total white vs total black. No mater how many you use, you could get no result and have to roll again.

My first question is why do they want to play a character with multiple and dissociative identities?

Were I the GM I would actively dissuade them from pursuing this character. Primarily, because I know several people with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder; formerly and commonly known as multiple personality disorder), and frankly, it's pretty insulting when people want to use their disability as a gimmick; and even more insulting when their disability is used as a means to min/max.

However, if the player is insistent that they want to play this character, then make it entirely narrative. Anything more would just be unfair.

I might be the only one, but It sounded the droid wants to have 2 personality, not 2 interchangable characters...

Same stats, skills but different motivations, roleplay. Am I misreading something?

Yeah, DID is one of those red-flag requests to me. I get that you can do some interesting RPing with it, and that's fine if done tastefully. But typically, it's more a justification for a player to act like a D-bag and then announce "Oh, well that was one of my personalities, so you can't hold that against me! I was just playing my character."

As a newbie GM, with anew group, I'd really recommend you play things straight and normal, at least for now. If the guy is a rock solid RPer that can do amazing things with a character, then you can have that option open in the next campaign.

A lot of answers to your first question OP, so I'll throw in an answer to your second.

The game I'm running currently has a player character with two personalities (and before anyone jumps down my throat - this is an experienced player who's taking the concept seriously) though they are a biological being and not a droid, so it's not exactly the same. In this case the only thing that mechanically changes between personalities is their Motivations, and their Morality stats. It's probably the best way to handle it, because having different stats on each personality would be a nightmare to bookkeep and very open to exploitation.

The way we decide which personality is in control each session is that each 'side' of the character (the concept is based on Jekyll/Hyde so there are very binary 'good and 'bad' sides) is represented by one of the character's skills: Discipline for one, Coercion for the other. At the start of a session, after force dice are rolled but before the pool is modified based on Paragon/DSFU status, the player rolls an opposed check of Discipline vs Coercion with both the positive and negative dice being determined by the character's skills. In effect, the character is rolling against themselves. We also added a couple of additional wrinkles for the fun of it: whichever personality they ended up as in the previous session counts as the 'player' side and contributes the positive dice, while the other personality opposes the check and adds the negative dice. (This determination also affects talents and such.) Boost or Setback dice are also added to the roll based on the way the destiny point pool has been rolled out.

So far it's been a really interesting experiment to develop the mechanics for, and the player in question is enjoying it immensely.

There is actually a species in Star Wars of which every member has multiple personalities. They're called Thakwaash .

On 4/8/2019 at 11:53 PM, Panda_m0n1um said:

Anyways I have a player that wants to build a droid that has a dual personality matrix. ...

I'm leaning towards Ghostofman's opinion on this. Dual personalities may work well in other genres like Vampire or Call of Cthulhu but when people ask for it in more strait forward settings like Star Wars I'd be a bit wary. In any case you don't need to actually do anything special, FFG Star Wars is a narrative RPG so the Player can build a normal PC and just role play it. You can come up with triggers with him like any time he rolls a Despair, though it should be an additional effect not a normal one because a Despair needs to be something bad, and switching his narration isn't bad. What you absolutely should avoid is him being able to swap between character builds. If the two of you were long time RPG buddies and you knew what kind of player he is then go for it but that doesn't seem to be the case so again, tell him next time, maybe.

Have fun.

I want to echo the advice that two personalities doesn't mean 2 characters. However, If you really want to provide a mechanical benefit, this tip might work. Setback/Boost: consider to add one set back or boost when the personality in play is doing something out of character. Avoid rolls like Range Light or initiative skills. And if you apply a boost, take note and remember to apply a setback for the skill with a disadvantage for this personality.