Rules
Bonds
Who matters, what you owe, how far you will go, and what the relationship can withstand.
A Bond measures how strongly a relationship moves you. Record its subject, rating, and a description of the attachment or commitment. Affection, loyalty, obligation, rivalry, and devotion describe different kinds of Bonds; a high rating measures their weight, not simply how friendly they are.
Bonds are directional. Your loyalty to someone does not establish their loyalty to you. Characters, Houses, and Factions can each hold Bonds. A collective Bond represents the House's or Faction's commitment, rather than identical feelings in every member.
Identity influences how you act and your chance of success. Bonds influence how far you will go, what success can achieve, and what failure costs.
Relationships in action
Effect, Commitment & Consequences
A relevant Bond affects the result and stakes of an action; it does not grant an Advantage Die. Explain why the relationship matters. Before rolling the action, the player and GM agree how the Bond changes the possible effect, commitment, or consequences.
- Potency
- A success can accomplish more, reach further, or secure a more meaningful outcome because of the relationship.
- Commitment
- The relationship affects what someone will risk, offer, endure, or sacrifice.
- Consequences
- Success or failure can create a promise, expose an obligation, strain trust, or change the relationship's meaning.
One eligible Identity and one relevant Bond can support the same action in different ways. Use the Identity invocation rules for an Advantage Die; use the Bond to establish effect and stakes. Multiple Bonds do not supply a collection of bonus dice.
Social Influence
Bonds are the primary basis for social influence. An appeal draws on the relationship held by the person or organization being influenced. Your affection for someone does not make them easier to command; their affection, loyalty, or obligation toward you may give your appeal weight.
A trusted friend's help might include accepting political danger or expecting a promise in return. A successful appeal must fit the relationship and the request's stakes. If the commitment itself is uncertain, test the recipient's relevant Bond, with their player rolling. A success requires a response that meaningfully honors the relationship; the player chooses how. It need not mean obeying the request exactly.
Commitments under pressure
When to Test a Bond
A player or the GM may request a Bond test when the relationship's hold is uncertain. The player responsible for the Character, House, or Faction always makes its roll. State the commitment being tested and what honoring or setting it aside would mean.
- A costly appeal: “For everything we have been through, hide me from the Queen.”
- Acting against the Bond: Talyne considers abandoning Seren to complete a mission.
- Competing commitments: serving the Queen would endanger the House. Identify which commitment this test resolves; do not assume the larger Bond automatically wins.
- A shock to the relationship: a trusted patron's betrayal puts an existing obligation under pressure.
No test is needed merely because someone cares. If Talyne willingly rescues Seren and her commitment is not in doubt, test the dangerous rescue and let the Bond shape its effect and stakes. Do not add a Bond roll solely to activate potency or generate development marks.
Resolving the Test
Roll 1d20 against the Bond rating. A Bond is a single rating, not an opposed Identity pair: there is no automatic second test. On a direct test, an exact match to the rating is a critical success. If any die rolled for the test shows its highest face (20 on a d20 or 4 on a d4), the result is a critical failure.
| Bond result | Decision & relationship | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Critical success · exactly the rating | The commitment holds especially strongly. The player expresses it through exceptional commitment and a fitting effect or consequence. | ✓✓ |
| Success · under the rating | The Bond holds. The decision must meaningfully honor it; the player decides how. | ✓ |
| Failure · over the rating, except 20 | The player may set the Bond aside for this decision. Its rating does not immediately decrease. | × |
| Critical failure · highest face rolled | A fitting relationship crisis or complication occurs. It does not automatically turn affection into hatred or loyalty into hostility. | ×× |
A highest-face result takes precedence if it also matches the rating. These Bond-test results do not determine whether the separate action succeeds.
Two questions, sixteen combinations
Action & Bond Outcome Chart
Read the action result down the left and the Bond result across the top. The action answers “Did you accomplish it?” The Bond answers “What happened to the relationship?” Use both only when both questions genuinely need testing.
The Bond result governs the commitment. The action result describes the action subsequently attempted in light of that commitment. An action failure does not automatically weaken a Bond; an action success does not automatically strengthen it.
Scroll the chart sideways to compare all four Bond results.
| Action result | Critical Bond success | Bond success | Bond failure | Critical Bond failure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical action success | Exceptional achievement; commitment deepens. Double critical success: +1 Bond immediately when the action meaningfully fulfills it. | Exceptional achievement that honors the Bond. | Exceptional achievement despite setting the Bond aside. | Exceptional achievement with a relationship crisis. |
| Action success | Achieve the goal; the Bond makes the result especially meaningful or potent. | Achieve the goal while honoring the relationship. | Achieve the goal, but leave an obligation or attachment unfulfilled. | Achieve the goal at a serious relationship cost. |
| Action failure | Miss the goal, but demonstrate extraordinary commitment. | Miss the goal despite remaining true to the relationship. | Miss the goal and fail to uphold the relationship. | Miss the goal and trigger a relationship crisis. |
| Critical action failure | Disaster tests the relationship, but commitment holds exceptionally firm. | Disaster occurs; loyalty survives it. | Disaster leaves the relationship strained. | Disaster and a relationship crisis become entangled. Double critical failure: −1 Bond immediately. |
Each cell describes how to interpret the fiction, not an additional universal numerical modifier. Establish the concrete stakes for the scene. Use the double-critical rule for immediate rating changes; otherwise record marks from the Bond result.
One track, two kinds of mark
Seasonal Bond Development
Each Bond has one development track. Record ✓ for a successful Bond test or × for a failed Bond test. Critical success records ✓✓; critical failure records ××. Add spaces as needed; the printed track is not a limit. Do not use separate success and failure boxes.
Seren Dall · Affection 12
Illustrative marks, not a change to Talyne's recorded history:
Marks follow the Bond test, not the action roll. Missing a rescue while refusing to abandon someone can strengthen commitment; accomplishing a goal while setting the relationship aside can strain it.
- Cancel ✓ and × one-for-one. Only one kind of mark can remain.
- If ✓ remain: roll 1d20, adding +1 for each remaining ✓ after the first. If the total is greater than the current Bond rating, increase it by 1.
- If × remain: roll 1d20, adding +1 for each remaining × after the first. If the total is greater than 20 − the current Bond rating, decrease the Bond by 1.
- If no marks remain: make no development roll; the rating stays unchanged. A development roll that does not exceed its target also leaves the rating unchanged.
- Clear the marks after seasonal resolution and update the relationship's description where events warrant it.
A Bond can change rating at most once per season, by 1 in either direction. The same procedure applies to Character, House, and Faction Bonds. A decrease weakens the existing relationship; its nature changes only when the events support that change.
Development rolls are not Bond or action tests. Exactly matching the target has no critical effect, and a natural 20 is not a critical failure. Compare the total to the development target normally.
A decisive moment
Immediate Changes for Double Criticals
- Critical action success + critical Bond success: increase the Bond by 1 immediately, provided the action meaningfully fulfills the Bond.
- Critical action failure + critical Bond failure: decrease the Bond by 1 immediately and apply a fitting relationship crisis.
The immediate change replaces the marks from that Bond test and uses the Bond's one rating change for the season. Record that the seasonal change has been used. Existing marks cannot produce another change or reverse it at season's end; clear the track then without making a development roll.
If the Bond has already changed rating this season, resolve the critical fiction but make no further rating change. Other result combinations use the ordinary ✓/× marks. A double critical success that does not meaningfully fulfill the Bond gives the normal critical Bond marks rather than an automatic increase.