We’ve already talked a good bit about intelligent items, so what do you say we take this one in another direction? A sentient sword might have a habit of imposing its will on your character, but they aren’t the only sort of creature with that power.

Let me tell you about my buddy Dewayne. Like me, he was the son of a British MP. We were best mates at school, and we always had each other’s backs through thick and thin. Now that the pair of us were being shipped off to the countryside on account of the Blitz, we would have a whole new roster of younger kids to terrorize. A little pocket money extortion, some light intimidation, and the occasional teaching of lessons to smart mouths were all within our purview. So before the cults, the terror, the string of horrible murders, and the Byakhee themselves entered the picture, we knew exactly who we were.

“Dude… What if you were a Crabbe and Goyle type while I did the Malfoy thing?”

“Hell yeah!”

And so it was. The problem is that my dim-witted cohort was played by a brilliant actor. I found myself struggling to stick with a snotty posh accent while my partner was nailing “dim-witted tough guy.” In consequence, I found myself slowly transforming from Draco Malfoy into Barry the Baptist. Not exactly what I was going for.

My adventures in Cthulhu meets Narnia meets Hot Fuzz were a lot of fun, but it was also a learning experience. An extremely strong personality has a way of distorting the rest of the campaign around it, which leads me to my question of the day. Have you ever met a fellow PC whose force of personality changed your own? Or, if this admittedly esoteric topic is outside your experience, hit me back with this: What is the strongest character personality you’ve ever encountered in a game? Let’s hear it in the comments!

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