So, I’ve been playing around with this idea for the better part of six months or so.

So, I’ve been playing around with this idea for the better part of six months or so.

So, I’ve been playing around with this idea for the better part of six months or so.  

I’ve always wanted to expand the bonds system to cover more than just the bonds between characters.  This is my first “official” draft.  Love to hear your feedback.  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vwpa87x8pwu4zo3/Worldbuilder%20Bonds.pdf?dl=0

5 thoughts on “So, I’ve been playing around with this idea for the better part of six months or so.”

  1. I like this idea a lot (being a world-builderly sort).

    There may be a way to simplify this all into NPC bonds, or at least NPC and faction bonds. The items and places are really not important other than in the context of the people who are related to the place or item, it seems to me. For all sorts of values of people, including that sentient items (and all sorts of other stuff) are people for this purpose. 

    Also it should be clear that coming up with all of the info on NPCs or other stuff that you ask questions about are JUST things to think about, and they don’t NEED to be established until they’re brought up in play. OK, you might want to push if what you’re really all about is world-building, but that clearly goes against the spirit of the game of making things up as you need them. Having ideas about the world is one thing, but having detailed them before we really know what they could do for us in play may be limiting ourselves for no really good reason. 

    For instance, if you say that the NPC to whom your character owes a debt is named Jack, and that he’s a big ugly guy that lives far away, then if the GM needs the NPC to be a woman your character was once in love with who lives in town, you’re out of luck. If you see what I’m saying. 

    General ideas are good to give us material to work with in play, but more detail isn’t always better. 

  3. Cool stuff. I see a bit of 13th Age Icons in here. That might even be a way to represent it, perhaps? Basically instead of having Icons set, or the GM making them up, you effectively let a player assign factions to the game, represented by someone within that organization or group who the character has a specific relationship to, but anyone else in that faction might be fair game to get involved? Maybe you don’t even have the same relationship with each person.

    Like, someone wants to create a particular notable family in the town that serves as the base for your adventures. Say one of the sons of a noble or merchant family is named Edward. The family is named Kescher (just made something up for the sake of argument).

    The PC might take a bond like:

    “EDWARD and I are rivals in love and finance. (Kescher Family)”

    And you get connected to an NPC and some faction they are part of or represent. Any interactions the PC has with members of that faction might interact with that bond some way; if nothing else, it should impact how the PC relates to the faction as a whole. Maybe it’s more of a thing on both sides, though, and what the faction thinks of the PC is colored by it.

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