So Bonds, my group started before I learned about Flags from The Gauntlet.

So Bonds, my group started before I learned about Flags from The Gauntlet.

So Bonds, my group started before I learned about Flags from The Gauntlet. I discussed Flags with the group Saturday 7/8 and next campaign we want to try them. But the party is about 6th level and nearly finished with the story. We are stuck with them but are trying to make the best of the tools at hand. I have a gaming guilty pleasure. I get enjoyment out of farming xp. Sorry, but I love leveling and getting kewl powerz and new toys to play with. As a fan of my characters I want my players to feel awesome. So after session one I made my players rewrite their bonds. I had them rewrite them like BITs in Burning Wheel and let them farm xp like Artha. So each Bond needed two parts, a belief and and actionable task goal or interaction. Example Avon is a babe in the woods, I will teach him to survive. Each session the Ranger actively tries to teach Avon something survival related mark xp. This way every session each player is motivated to interact with every other player in a way that reinforces the trope that defines their relationship. The bond doesn’t go away until it no longer makes sense in the fiction. After a while Avon prooves to the Ranger that his magic is so powerful and vetsitile he can survive. So at the end of session gain xp and write a new bond defining their relationship as tje Ranger now sees it. Some of my players love begging for xp and trying to justify their gameplay to squeeze that last xp out. But some feel shy or uncomfortable with that and that’s when being a fan of the characters is needed. I don’t accept “I don’t think I did any of these” as an answer. I really enjoy making them read their Bonds out loud and then myself and the party points out all the awesome things their character did. How they were a badass and deserves that xp. Week after week the session ends with everyone feeling like part of the team and an amazing badass in theirown way. I hope flags gives us those same feels in the future.

28 thoughts on “So Bonds, my group started before I learned about Flags from The Gauntlet.”

  7. Nice, there’s a lot of good ideas in that. I still don’t think a bond needs to be rewritten each time it’s addressed. My people have many ways and I can show Edward something new each session. When it feels stale or no longer relevant then change it. My $0.02

  8. Nice, there’s a lot of good ideas in that. I still don’t think a bond needs to be rewritten each time it’s addressed. My people have many ways and I can show Edward something new each session. When it feels stale or no longer relevant then change it. My $0.02

  11. What you’ve got is much better than Flags IMO.

    Flags are a great solution to the problem Rob Donoghue meant to address with them, a cast of characters that is constantly changing. Bonds that you create in the first session end up being meaningless because those characters are gone. Completely redoing bonds every time the group lineup changes is horribly unwieldy. Flags let you avoid this issue.

    However, flags don’t create that sense of connectivity that Bonds do. They don’t weave all those little stories that happen in character generation when Fighter states Ranger owes her his life, or the Rogue ends up being the person the Paladin picks as a trustworthy battle companion.

    If you’re group doesn’t have a constantly changing cast of characters, Bonds are a much better option, especially with the changes you and +Devin White have made. The addition of the Triggers really makes them much more usable. You still have the story detail, but get a definite action to take.

    If you still want to try out Flags, you could also consider adding them along side Bonds. Do bonds as usual then have everyone create a flag.

  12. What you’ve got is much better than Flags IMO.

    Flags are a great solution to the problem Rob Donoghue meant to address with them, a cast of characters that is constantly changing. Bonds that you create in the first session end up being meaningless because those characters are gone. Completely redoing bonds every time the group lineup changes is horribly unwieldy. Flags let you avoid this issue.

    However, flags don’t create that sense of connectivity that Bonds do. They don’t weave all those little stories that happen in character generation when Fighter states Ranger owes her his life, or the Rogue ends up being the person the Paladin picks as a trustworthy battle companion.

    If you’re group doesn’t have a constantly changing cast of characters, Bonds are a much better option, especially with the changes you and +Devin White have made. The addition of the Triggers really makes them much more usable. You still have the story detail, but get a definite action to take.

    If you still want to try out Flags, you could also consider adding them along side Bonds. Do bonds as usual then have everyone create a flag.

  13. Hey Marcolo DelMare​,

    I think what John Alexander​ stated is spot on. Flags are great as goal posts for you to aim where your story can go, regardless of party make up. Jason Cordova​ stated that you can use flags in a ‘writers’ room’ style to have players work with you to frame up a scene before hand to hit some finer points in PC personally. Eg ‘Hey guys, my fighter has a flag that says he hates to see others be oppressed, how can we use that in the next time we go into town?’

    Bonds can be used the same way as well. Eg ‘Hey guys, I have a bond with the ranger that says he owns me his life. How can we use that during the boss fight?’

    Lastly, the one I would have you consider changing mechanically with bonds is this. Instead of giving xp once a bond has concluded, give xp if the players can justify that they moved the bond along (for better or for worse). Bonds will work like flags in that way and will allow players to make bonds more of a proactive obligation, rather than a reactive after thought.

  14. Hey Marcolo DelMare​,

    I think what John Alexander​ stated is spot on. Flags are great as goal posts for you to aim where your story can go, regardless of party make up. Jason Cordova​ stated that you can use flags in a ‘writers’ room’ style to have players work with you to frame up a scene before hand to hit some finer points in PC personally. Eg ‘Hey guys, my fighter has a flag that says he hates to see others be oppressed, how can we use that in the next time we go into town?’

    Bonds can be used the same way as well. Eg ‘Hey guys, I have a bond with the ranger that says he owns me his life. How can we use that during the boss fight?’

    Lastly, the one I would have you consider changing mechanically with bonds is this. Instead of giving xp once a bond has concluded, give xp if the players can justify that they moved the bond along (for better or for worse). Bonds will work like flags in that way and will allow players to make bonds more of a proactive obligation, rather than a reactive after thought.

  15. That being said, it sounds like you are already doing a great job making bonds work for you. Each character sheet has that one blank spot under bonds. You can just put a flag there and continue to do both.

  16. That being said, it sounds like you are already doing a great job making bonds work for you. Each character sheet has that one blank spot under bonds. You can just put a flag there and continue to do both.

  17. Andrew Huffaker, Marcolo DelMare says he already is giving xp for triggering the bond, not for resolving it, which I agree is a big step to making bonds much more usable.

    Essentially they are outbound flags, as opposed to inbound. While the inbound option is nice, and seems especially nice after playing with bonds the standard way, where they never seem to resolve and give xp, outbound is so much better in general.

    You have ownership over them. They are on YOUR sheet and thus are easier to track. They allow you to have different relationships with each character at the table, instead of being a one trick pony (Hi, I’m Gullible, everyone is going to lie to me). Also, badly written Bonds effect you, which will spur you to correct them. Badly written flags don’t, and it requires the other players to jump in and suggest you rewrite them so they can be triggered more easily. And this can be really subjective. The rogue might find your gullibility the best thing ever, and can always trigger it, while the Paladin might have a damned hard time coming up with reasons to lie.

    Again, not saying Flags are awful, they are a great tool to fix a common problem, but if you don’t have that problem, I don’t see what they are going to bring to your table.

  18. Andrew Huffaker, Marcolo DelMare says he already is giving xp for triggering the bond, not for resolving it, which I agree is a big step to making bonds much more usable.

    Essentially they are outbound flags, as opposed to inbound. While the inbound option is nice, and seems especially nice after playing with bonds the standard way, where they never seem to resolve and give xp, outbound is so much better in general.

    You have ownership over them. They are on YOUR sheet and thus are easier to track. They allow you to have different relationships with each character at the table, instead of being a one trick pony (Hi, I’m Gullible, everyone is going to lie to me). Also, badly written Bonds effect you, which will spur you to correct them. Badly written flags don’t, and it requires the other players to jump in and suggest you rewrite them so they can be triggered more easily. And this can be really subjective. The rogue might find your gullibility the best thing ever, and can always trigger it, while the Paladin might have a damned hard time coming up with reasons to lie.

    Again, not saying Flags are awful, they are a great tool to fix a common problem, but if you don’t have that problem, I don’t see what they are going to bring to your table.

  19. I’ll jump on the “having both” train. I suppose it is the group that I play with, who are never really begging for EXP to begin with, but having both as a tool for narrative expansion in moments has proven to be a fun expansion for our group.

  20. I’ll jump on the “having both” train. I suppose it is the group that I play with, who are never really begging for EXP to begin with, but having both as a tool for narrative expansion in moments has proven to be a fun expansion for our group.

  25. We have had all 3. They were great to give flexibility, but not all of them were triggered at the end of the session. They were good to have the explicit conversations of ‘how can we use X coming up?’ but definitely felt like book keeping at times.

  26. We have had all 3. They were great to give flexibility, but not all of them were triggered at the end of the session. They were good to have the explicit conversations of ‘how can we use X coming up?’ but definitely felt like book keeping at times.

  27. In the future I will offer an alignment option as well. I’ve been thinking about Mouseguard and the “What do I fight for?” belief. A player may write an overarching belief or goal that explains her motivation for adventuring. “I will find the MacGuffin, beat the Big Bad and reclaim my father’s crown”. Each session she pushes (hard) towards that goal mark xp. As far as the Paldin detect evil move, that’s mostly to find monsters. But I can see giving NPCs, magic items and players tags like “Evil”, “Holy”, “Infernal”, “Chaotic” if needed.

  28. In the future I will offer an alignment option as well. I’ve been thinking about Mouseguard and the “What do I fight for?” belief. A player may write an overarching belief or goal that explains her motivation for adventuring. “I will find the MacGuffin, beat the Big Bad and reclaim my father’s crown”. Each session she pushes (hard) towards that goal mark xp. As far as the Paldin detect evil move, that’s mostly to find monsters. But I can see giving NPCs, magic items and players tags like “Evil”, “Holy”, “Infernal”, “Chaotic” if needed.

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