Untested Idea for Bonds as “Shared Stories”
I have a lot of drop-ins and irregulars in my DW game which makes Bonds kind of unworkable. My idea to replace them is as follows:
A Bond is a relationship with another character based on a memorable event you both shared in play. When a new memorable event happens, you can replace it and mark experience. You can also add new ones at that time. All playbooks can have 3 Bonds, except the Bard who can have 5.
During character creation, these can be defined similarly to the Fate Phase Trio – go around the table and discuss one event you shared with someone else. When you introduce a new character, an existing character can volunteer to have a Bond with them.
This isn’t too much of a change in normal Bonds, it just recontextualizes them a bit to be more based on things that happen in play and are less about relationships.
I have the same issue – but I have the opposite experience with Bonds. They tie the group together.
Before each session starts we erase bonds for players not present and choose new bonds. We make sure players have at least 2 assigned to one person to push the importance of Aid / Interfere. Then a world building discussion begins as we try to discover why the players have a history together.
Last session we discovered that the Barbarian had participated in a raid on the Cleric’s monastery. The player simply came up with this idea to explain the bond and now we have a great reason to return to the Cleric’s home and explore these character’s issues with each other. I can also introduce the raiders as NPCs to explore more story threads.
The fact that people drop in and out doesn’t invalidate the bonds. It makes new players enter the situation as old friends who have arrived to save the day. The players have solid reasons to chat and help one another because of the established history.
As I posted earlier, I have everyone write their bonds on index cards, a different index card for each character they have a bond with. At the start of a new session, they take the cards for the players in that session. They can also write one new bond, if they have an available slot.