One of the things I’m always mindful of when prepping one-shots is encouraging player roleplay. I don’t mean PCs talking to my NPCs (you can directly influence this as GM), I mean PCs talking to other PCs. There’s several techniques to promote this, but I’m going to talk today about bonds.

What are bonds? They’re questions, or loaded phrases, that link 2 (or more) PCs together at the start of the session. In a one-shot, after everyone has picked their character, they answer the question or tag the bond which whichever of their fellow PCs they want. They give players a chance to customise who their pregen is, ground them in their past and the setting, and set them up to interact with their fellow players. They’re entirely transferable – while lots of PBTA games come with them ready-baked into the playbooks, you can use them in D&D, Traveller, and Call of Cthulhu (which is what really got me thinking about them).

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So how do we make them really pop? Well, I’ve got some ideas.

Hark to the Past

Refer to an event in the PC’s past – possibly something that isn’t implied anywhere else but might hint at depths for the character. “You and X are still forbidden from entering Waterdeep – what did you do that angered the City Watch so much?” – this hints at previous adventures, and grounds the players in the setting. Try and avoid what’s happening now – that’s up to the player, as is how they respond to the past. “You and X used to date” has so much more potential than “You and X are dating.”

Lead to the Future

While you’re avoiding the present, giving the pregens some goals (or even portents) works brilliantly. “You and X are both determined to win the heart of the princess – why are you convinced you’ll win?” Again, point characters at one another. Make the goals long-term, rather than immediate things, again to avoid players feeling constrained by them.

Ground them in the Setting

Include factions, places, and NPCs in your hooks. “You and X argued once during a quest for the Great Gold Wyrm – what was it over?” Refer to factions and places they’ll meet or encounter in the adventure if you can – even if not directly. Finding out an NPC is from a city they’re barred from adds a nice frisson of verisimilitude. Bound these fairly tightly unless you can deal with the players leading development of setting elements – “Of course, the Waterdeep City Guard famously hate all elves.”

Examples

I’m mid-prep for a Down Darker Trails Call of Cthulhu one-shot at the moment, and these are the Bonds for Marlene Walsh, my sharp-witted entertainer:

• (pick a PC and ask them – make sure they consent to this one) when did we notice we were desperately in love – and why haven’t we acted on it yet?
• (pick a PC and ask them) who else has heard the song of the stars on moonlit nights – and when did you spend an evening listening to it together?

I’ve framed these directly as questions here, which I think helps ground them – but it’s just as easy to use the format above. Daggerheart is great at these – the examples for each class are great jumping off points.

For a one-shot of Pirate Borg I’m running this weekend, I’ve formatted them slightly differently – here’s the pair from Marina Silverscale, my mermaid warrior:

• X’s crew once tried to rob your merfolk brethren – why have you forgiven them?
• You can see the goodness in X’s soul even when they can’t. Have you told them?

Have you used bonds in your one-shot sessions? Let me know in the comments.