PC bonds, unlike NPC bonds, should be developed in the first session with the other players involved. Once everything has been determined, including neighborhoods for each character’s foundation, players should agree on their characters’ relationships with one another. Most of the time, in Invisible Sun, characters already know each other at the start of the game, and thus many have formed powerful bonds.
Most bonds are intended for two characters, but most befit a group of more. Three or more characters could be linked with the close friends bond, for example.
Most characters should have only one PC bond to start the game. It’s possible to develop a bond later in the narrative using the Develop a Bond character arc.
Bonded characters can share character arcs. In other words, two close friends can set out to undo the same wrong, train the same creature, or solve the same mystery.
The two characters are close friends and have been for some time. They are familiar with each other’s homes, general abilities, personalities, and backgrounds.
Benefit: If one friend has a connection with a group or a bond with an NPC, the other gains the benefit of that connection or bond as well. This applies to a maximum of one connection or bond per character.
Drawback: If one friend is gravely imperiled, the other loses one action in fear. The GM determines when this happens.
While not friends, two characters always seem to be crossing paths. They frequently turn up at the same places at the same time. Perhaps there is a reason for all this that will become clear later.
Benefit: At some point in the narrative, fate intervenes. Each character has all their pools refreshed and all Injuries, Wounds, and Anguishes healed, and both succeed on their next action, regardless of what it is (assuming it is not utterly impossible). Both characters must agree as to when this happens and have it fit their background story.
Drawback: Once the characters use the benefit, the bond is basically done.
The characters studied together and thus have known each other for a long time.
Benefit: Each character gains a spell of level 3 or less. It must be the same spell for both PCs.
Drawback: The characters can use the chosen spell only if they are within long range of each other.
The characters have known each other for a long time. They are not only familiar with each other’s homes, they are also very knowledgeable about each other’s general abilities, personalities, families, and backgrounds.
Benefit: Each friend gets a level 1 connection to a group. It must be the same connection for both characters.
Drawback: If one friend is gravely imperiled, the other loses one action in fear. The GM determines when this happens.
Two characters live in the same home. They share at least some significant space, but each probably has personal space as well. They must work out various issues (who pays for what? who does the dishes?).
This bond directly impacts character foundation. For example, if a Connected character with an average house is the housemate of a Mendicant character, the two share an average house, probably owned entirely by the Connected character.
However, if an Established character with a unique house and a Stalwart character with an average house are housemates, they have a single house that is larger than average with some unique aspect. Two housemates that each should have small houses share an average house. Two that should have average houses share a large house. And so on.
Benefit: Shared expenses, as well as combined house “values,” as described above.
Drawback: The lack of an additional house.
The two characters are in love. They share a romantic interest in each other and feel very deeply. A lover can also be a spouse. Spouses can also be housemates, and thus have two bonds.
Benefit: When close, the lovers gain +1 to any action they attempt.
Drawback: If apart for more than one day, each character suffers 1 scourge in to one stat pool. On the second day, they suffer 1 scourge in two stat pools. And so on until they face a −1 penalty on all actions.
The two characters are linked by a deep, magical connection. Magic flows from one character to the other. This is one of the rarest but also the most potent of all bonds. Only two characters can be a part of this bond.
Benefit: The two characters can affect each other with spells and abilities that normally affect only themselves. Further, when the two characters are close, their spells and abilities each gain a +1 level bonus.
Drawback: Anytime one character suffers any kind of damage, both characters suffer that damage, no matter how far apart they are.
The characters are related in some way. They know more about each other than most friends could ever know.
Benefit: The characters each have a new level 1 skill, but it must be the same skill.
Drawback: When one character suffers a Wound, the other suffers 1 point of mental damage.
Two characters share a friendly rivalry. They don’t want to see the other outright fail, but each would like to succeed more than the other. The rivalry may have an overt, specific story reason as well as a general one, such as being rivals for the same romantic partner, rivals for a position in a shared order, and so on.
Benefit: Each time one character succeeds at an action, the other is incentivized and gains +1 to their next action. This applies only if the characters are within long distance of each other and can see each other.
Drawback: If the characters are apart for more than an hour, it takes until the next sunrise to “recharge” the benefit power.
Two characters knew each other in Shadow. It’s possible that they escaped Shadow at the same time, or in the same circumstances.
Benefit: If the characters have the same Shadow skill, it is level 3 instead of level 2.
Drawback: If one PC is pulled back into Shadow, the other suffers a −1 on all actions until the friend returns.
“Soulmate” means something slightly different in the Actuality than it does in Shadow. These are two characters who have revealed their secret soul to each other and found that they share the same one (a slight adjustment to one of the PCs may be necessary for this to work).
Benefit: The characters can exchange or trade Joy and Despair as they wish.
Drawback: If anyone knows the secret soul name of either character, they can use it against one or both.
One character is in a situation where they must watch over and protect another. One might be the parent of the other, a close servant, someone who owes a life debt, or some other guardian.
Benefit: The protected character gains +1 to Dodge actions when the steward character is close.
Drawback: The steward character suffers −1 to Dodge actions when close to the protected character.
One character would like to be closely bonded with the other, possibly romantically but perhaps just in friendship, but the other does not share this feeling. This, then, is a bond that affects only one PC.
Benefit: The character who would like to form a bond gains +1 to all actions when the other is close. The character who is uninterested in the bond, when close to the other, can move a short distance away from the other and it does not count as part of their action.
Drawback: The character who is uninterested in the bond is, as a default, never close. So the character who desires the bond must always move closer to get the bonus.