i need to write something for my dm to get the hang of my character and his husband's dynamic, primarily for roleplay purposes and secondarily for backstory shenanigans. any ideas for what kind of scenarios could make personalities clash/compliment?
Hello! Sorry for not replying sooner but I've been looking forward to replying to this one for the past couple of days. I will say I might have gotten carried away with this so if I didn't seem to correctly answer your question or might have missed something, please let me know!
So for this I'm going to assume that your characters husband is alive — although I will include things for death as well just because — but scenarios that make personalities clash and/or compliment is interesting.
So depending on how you play your character…
What are some examples of personalities that compliment or are similar:
passionate/dreamer
passionate/hard worker
feels everything or can be seen as emotional/reads into emotions constantly to feel comfort
inquisitive and always looking to be seen as clever/always speaks in riddles
Some examples of personalities that can clash or differ:
sunny/gloomy
loud/quiet
laid back and lazy/hard working determined
cold/overly emotional
over communicates/mis communicates or speaks purposefully in riddles
So first we will break down what sort of personalities there can be and some of these can be mixed and matched with other, of course these are only a few there are plenty more.
But specific scenarios that would emphasize how they clash or compliment are where the personality is tested or made impractical. That's when its stressed and either the best or worst parts are put on display the most and it can either harmonize with another personality that also excels or can cause some discord since they are so different or are different enough it causes tension and friction.
Some scenarios with an example from above is when a character is locked in an escape room and the pairing is "inquisitive and always looking to be seen as clever/always speaks in riddles" so the characters are constantly checking after one another, asking for the others input, seeing how each puzzle could be solved and ways to get out. Those help boost one another, close enough to understand a plan but different enough to see different ways to accomplish said plan.
The alternative could be true for that exact scenario if a pairing is "straightforward/overly complicates and speaks in riddles", one person may try to go for the obvious solution and the other is looking too deeply into one specific thing. This can cause tension because they both believe they are right and refuse to ask the other for help.
Now that isn't to say that personalities that are different won't work well together. In a stressful environment where a plan is not working or say the group is being surrounded by enemies, having two characters who are similar might actually be the worst thing. Say a character that is constantly driving themself and a character that is always in charge or leading might overthink and get overwhelmed by trying to think of a plan for every single character, making sure everyone is safe, making sure no one gets hurt, etc etc. In those cases two personalities that normally compliment would instead end up overwhelmed and unable to help the other.
But for a duo where one is seen as more laid back and the other being determined and the one to take charge is helpful since the laid back character will most likely take a few more moments so breath, be relaxed enough to point out a way to escape that the other might have overlooked — fun fact, the more panicked and eager you are to try and finish a task the more mistakes you make and obvious solutions are the easiest to overlook.
So scenarios with stress, complications, or where the party/pair is having to think and plan with missing information brings out the strongest personality traits and can lead to friction or harmony.
Let me know if I missed anything!
Oh and below is part of the drafting and thinking stage of me trying to figure out how to respond to your ask btw:
