Author: Chris Whetstone

Last week I made a post about using the “Novel / Guest Star” character creation process from Spirit of the Century as a way to generate Bonds instead of using the stock fill-in-the-blank Bonds, and I wanted to update everyone on how it went – it was great!

Comparing it to games I’ve run with stock Bonds, the PCs felt more developed in terms of their personalities and their goals in the game, and the relationships between the characters were more nuanced than I usually see in a first session. I really got the sense that the characters knew each other and had a shared history – it felt more like a second session than a first. The Bonds that everyone wrote came with a lot of buy-in from everyone involved, so they really shone in play.

Also, the stories they came up with for this process were chock full of stuff for me to incorporate into the game. I had a ton of possible fronts, dangers, locations, and NPCs to tap into before character creation was even finished.

Disclaimer: I played with writers, so it wasn’t hard for them to come up with and write out their adventure descriptions, but even then it took a little while to complete the process. If you’re pressed for time, or playing with players who have a harder time coming up with stuff on the spot, I would probably stick with the standard Bonds.

For reference, here again is the “Novel / Guest Star” character creation phase, adapted for Dungeon World:

1) Take an index card and write down the “title” of your character’s first true adventure – if your character were the star of a series of adventure stories, this is the title of the first in the series. Write a sentence or two on the back that describes what happened in that adventure. No need to get into detail, no need to even tell us how it ends. Think of it like an abbreviated back cover blurb. Leave space!

2) Pass the card to another player and someone will pass their card to you. Read the title and blurb, and think of how your character can make a “guest appearance” in that adventure. Does your character complicate the situation, or help to solve it, or both? Write in a sentence (or two, at most) about how your character gets involved in the adventure. Then, on your character sheet, write a Bond with that character that relates to your involvement in their adventure.

4) Repeat step 2, but make sure you end up with a card that isn’t your own and is different from the one you just had.

I have a game starting in a couple of days and we’re using the Inverse World setting. We’re leaning towards a kind of pulpy, high-flying adventure feel and I am thinking about shaking up the Bonds process a little by adapting / borrowing / stealing the “Novel / Guest Star” phase of Spirit of the Century character creation (also known as the Phase Trio in Fate Core):

1) Take an index card and write down the “title” of your character’s first true adventure – if your character were the star of a series of adventure stories, this is the title of the first in the series. Write a sentence or two on the back that describes what happened in that adventure. No need to get into detail, no need to even tell us how it ends. Think of it like an abbreviated back cover blurb. Leave space!

2) Pass the card to another player and someone will pass their card to you. Read the title and blurb, and think of how your character can make a “guest appearance” in that adventure. Does your character complicate the situation, or help to solve it, or both? Write in a sentence (or two, at most) about how your character gets involved in the adventure. Then, on your character sheet, write a Bond with that character that relates to your involvement in their adventure.

4) Repeat step 2, but make sure you end up with a card that isn’t your own and is different from the one you just had.

Each character will end up with two Bonds and a shared history with the other characters at the table. Plus, I get all kinds of interesting hooks to work with. I have no idea how this will pan out, but I think it could be interesting!

Feel free to share your stories of doing something different with Bonds.

Here’s my little Dungeon World story:

A mind flayer has taken our druid captive and is slowly backing out of the room with the poor druid’s head wrapped in his tentacles. The villain has coerced our paladin into swearing an oath to allow him to escape. My ranger, Jonah, has an arrow drawn and ready but my target is almost entirely concealed by the druid’s body. The shot is possible but it’s going to be very hard (Defy Danger to avoid hitting the druid, then I have to get a 10 or higher on the Called Shot or else I hit them both. It’s also a dilemma because the druid is a player’s second character – the first one died in a previous session – and I didn’t want to be responsible for making him roll a third).

Jonah takes his time, he lets himself breath, and he takes the shot (nailed the Defy Danger roll with an 11). The arrow flies straight and true, missing the druid entirely and burying itself in the eye socket of the mind flayer (10 on the Called Shot roll, followed by an 8 on damage – the best result I could have rolled). The bad guy dies almost instantly, our druid is saved. Jonah is a big damn hero.

When he leveled up shortly after, I picked “God Amidst the Wastes” for my new move. My ranger took a shot that was so miraculous and perfect that it gave him faith.

I love this game.

I have approached my mailbox every day this week with anticipation, but no dice. I hope my books haven’t been lost in the mail 🙁

Couldn’t find a better place to do this, so here’s as good as any: I caught a typo in the Class Compendium that was just sent out to backers.

Page 20, under Mysteries of the Deep: When you sail without a map or revel in a port roll. No matter the roll you receive information on an opportunity… – There’s no stat specified to roll.