Burdens and Bonds
Overview
Burdens and Bonds are long-running character hooks.
Conditions describe active pressure in the moment. Burdens describe ongoing liabilities, duties, debts, vulnerabilities, or unresolved trouble. Bonds describe relationships, loyalties, claims, patrons, communities, routes, or institutions that can provide aid and demand attention.
Burdens and Bonds should keep characters tied to the world. They are not generic flaws or bonuses. A good Burden or Bond points toward people, places, laws, obligations, or histories that can enter play.
Burdens
Burdens are ongoing liabilities that can complicate action.
A Burden may be a debt, oath-duty, public suspicion, dependent kin obligation, injury history, faction entanglement, legal vulnerability, unstable magical exposure, dangerous secret, or unresolved promise.
When a Burden matters, it may remove 1 die, restrict permission, create a required cost, worsen position, or give the Storyteller a concrete consequence to bring into the scene.
Burdens should not punish every action. They matter when the current scene touches their source, obligation, social audience, legal authority, physical limitation, or unresolved risk.
Bonds
Bonds are ties that can support the character and pull them into obligation.
A Bond may connect a character to a person, kin group, route, shrine, house, patrol, guild, settlement, office, lineage, mentor, rival, oath partner, or patron.
When a Bond helps, it may add 1 die, grant permission, provide shelter, create an introduction, justify assistance, open a recovery path, or establish why someone will listen.
When a Bond is threatened or called upon, it may demand action, create time pressure, expose the character to faction risk, or force a choice between safety and loyalty.
Using Burdens and Bonds
Burdens and Bonds enter play through the fiction.
| Element | Helps By | Pressures By |
|---|---|---|
Burden |
Rarely helps directly, but can justify knowledge, leverage, or grim experience. |
Removing dice, limiting permission, worsening position, creating obligations, or giving the Storyteller specific consequences. |
Bond |
Adding dice, granting permission, providing aid, opening recovery, or creating social access. |
Being threatened, asking for aid, demanding loyalty, creating divided obligations, or exposing the character to faction trouble. |
A Burden or Bond should usually affect a roll only once. If several hooks apply, choose the one that most clearly matters or let one add pressure while another offers help.
Do not use Burdens and Bonds as hidden traps. Put their demands in the open when they shape position, consequence, or available help.
Creating Burdens and Bonds
Write Burdens and Bonds as short, specific statements.
Good examples:
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Debt to the Floodkeeper House of Namar -
Oath-bound to return a lost route token -
Trusted by the western ferry shrines -
Kinship bond with an Ironspine hold-sister
Weak examples:
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Bad luck -
Has friends -
Wanted -
Family
The weak examples can become useful if made specific: wanted by whom, trusted by which community, bound to what family duty, or unlucky because of what visible history.
Sample Burdens
| Burden | Use in Play |
|---|---|
|
A court, house, guild, or witness body can demand payment, service, testimony, or public answer. |
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The character has sworn to act, refrain, guard, return, witness, or carry something under recognized terms. |
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Local people, guards, rivals, or officials treat the character’s presence and claims as suspect. |
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Someone relies on the character for support, safety, standing, or return. |
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Past magical, environmental, or metaphysical contact can flare under related pressure. |
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A group expects loyalty, payment, silence, service, or betrayal of a rival. |
Sample Bonds
| Bond | Use in Play |
|---|---|
|
Provides shelter, witness, travel news, or safe passage where the route is recognized. |
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Grants ritual access, local credibility, or recovery help under shrine custom. |
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Provides tools, letters, funds, legal pressure, or introductions, but may demand service. |
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Can assist, testify, or share risk when the oath’s terms are relevant. |
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Opens doors, reduces suspicion, or provides aid in a known community. |
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Provides training, judgment, warnings, or access to specialized knowledge. |
Future Use
Character creation should eventually decide how many starting Burdens and Bonds a character begins with.
Later faction, travel, recovery, social conflict, and advancement rules should use Burdens and Bonds as durable hooks rather than inventing separate relationship meters for every subsystem.