2-player DW and Bonds

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2-player DW and Bonds
« on: May 11, 2012, 07:02:40 PM »
We're going to be starting up a DW game soon with only two players (and one dm). Are there any issues we should be aware of with only having two players regarding bonds?

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sage

  • 549
Re: 2-player DW and Bonds
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2012, 07:10:50 PM »
There's lots of options for extending Bonds to NPCs, even organizations or places. If you opt for that just let the players (Ben and Amy, I'm guessing? Or Owen and Paige?) fill in any name they want, establishing NPCs or whatever. If they establish stuff, make sure to situate it on the World map.

The simplest thing is to just let those Bonds be fictional and count for the purposes of resolving: when the bond's resolved, mark XP and get a new bond.

If you want you can go beyond that and make custom moves. Stuff like:

For each bond you have with the mage's guild you can get one protective spell cast on you when you have time and safety in a place with a guild presence.

Each bond you have with Hawk subtracts 1 coin from the cost of anything bought in Greybark.

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noofy

  • 777
Re: 2-player DW and Bonds
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2012, 10:46:31 PM »
That advice needs to go in the rulebook Sage, its gold.

I like to think of this process like the setup in Fiasco, except that instead of putting the characters / locations / things on index cards, you are putting them on the world map. Such a vital part of chargen in my mind.  Plus you end up with an awesome in game artefact!

Dan, I've been running a two player game on and off for over a year and we have had bonds with NPC's and organisations since we started. This has been a HUGE source of xp and advancement as the 'Moves snowball' just seems to feed off resolving or complicating player bonds and in turn advancing the characters and thus introducing more moves to antagonise the players with on a miss! (Plus a never-ending supply of story threads to investigate) I love this emergent property of the Dungeon World Bonds system in the reward cycle.