The goal of this mechanic is to incentivise action rather than reaction from the players towards the setting as well as promote roleplaying between players. At the beginning or end of each session, you announce three objectives that your character wants to accomplish during the play session (“Conan wants to befriend the dwarves”, “Esmeralda wants to defeat the evil litch”, “Kitara wants to gain the trust of Delina”). At the end of the session we see together if those goals were accomplished or if you worked towards them.
If your goal concerned a major event in the world, an NPC or a party member, you get 1 Bond Point (BP) if you succeeded or failed after a genuine attempt. If you worked towards it you get 0,5 BP.
If your goal concerns an element of the world, something that concerns only your character, you get 0,5 BP if you succeeded or failed after a genuine attempt. If you worked towards it, you also get 0,5 BP.
With these bond points you can accomplish certain feats of strength and magic.
Make up a sentence that establishes your relationship (bond) with members of your party or an important NPC who tags along with the party. The details of what exactly each of these bonds entail will be solved at the table with everybody. Examples are as follow:
- ____ is often the butt of my jokes.
- ____ Trusted me with a secret.
- ____ Does not trust me, and for good reason
- ____ is in constant danger, I will keep them safe.
- The spirits spoke to me of a great danger that follows ____
- ___ owes me their life, whether they admit it or not.
- ___ is soft but I will make them hard like me.
- I will teach ___ the true meaning of sacrifice.
- ___ has stood by me in battle and can be trusted completely
- I respect the beliefs of ___ . I hope they will someday see the true way.
- ____ Has my back when things go wrong.
- I want to discover a secret of the Library of the Mages
- I want to be acknowledged by the villagers as a trustworthy individual.
Note these down on your character sheet. You can have up to 3 bonds on your sheet. The bonds needn’t be about different people.
We will read out loud the bonds that players have. Each time the table feels that a bond has evolved you gain a bond point (for example: ”___ does not trust me” changes because you made a significant thing to change that attitude during roleplay or a combat situation).
Bond points can be banked. Bond points can “buy” you special abilities.
| Amount of bond points spent | Ability |
| 1 | Get another round of combat or a +5 on an ability check/saving throw/attack roll or damage. |
| 2 | Use an ability available to your character or that of one of your allies (even if depleted). |
| 4 | Use a higher level ability of your character or that of one of your allies (discuss with DM about what ability makes most sense narratively). |
| 6 | Put on the DM hat with your buddies. The players decide together what happens. The DM will step in if it completely breaks the universe… You can’t murder a god. You could however make something incredible happen. Example: Players : “The thief didn’t slip away with the McGuffin! Something happens to them and we catch up” DM: “Okay, The thief is caught by Team Rocket who is also attempting to get the artifact for their own needs and the party happens to get to the thief at the same time than them” Players: “Oh no, but Team Rocket is missing the big fighter guy and the mage guy this time around..that’ll make combat easier” DM: “Okay, roll initiative!” |
This system is subject to change as we play.