I have NEVER before ventured into this realm of self promotion, so I appreciate any and all interactions and advice from this community. Bonds began as a way for me to introduce my girlfriend to TTRPGs. I had collected a handful of systems at the time, but none seemed 'beginner friendly' in the way that I needed - let me explain. (The link is below the text, thank you!)
My girlfriend, like I'm sure many other partners, isn't looking to pick up this as a hobby. Regardless, she sees my passion for this hobby, hears me talk endlessly about big character moments, storylines and fun experiences and genuinely wants to understand what the heck I'm talking about. I wanted to make her feel like even with 0 experience, she was just as capable as anyone to hop into a TTRPG system and help tell a cool story! The hope was that she would 'accidentally' learn what the pillars of TTRPGs are, create a complex character with both resolved and unresolved issues, and a world that existed only at the table with us, something we could talk about for weeks to come. Thus, Bonds was created.
Bonds is meant to tell a classic hero's tale, a young lad leaves their city for the first time and embarks on a great adventure, becoming stronger and wiser with each passing day. Any DM can think up a cool setting/story to give to their player, but with this kind of very personal approach, I wanted to instead give the player the tools and opportunity to have a hand in all parts of the story. Here, the GM is instead referred to as the Weaver; the player provides the material, and the GM uses that material to weave together the story.
It is not flashy, the art and design is self generated from someone very lacking in visual art skills (me!), but I hope that the heart and passion behind the game will translate into your home games.
