Purchase physical copies of Bonds Between on our website.

Description

Bonds Between is a card-altering tabletop roleplaying game about everyday dragons in the modern world and the quiet, broken places they call home. Work together with your neighbor to restore your inherited lairs and honor an ancient dragon pact of community, creativity, and collaboration. 

Cut, color, and even burn a deck of cards in the name of dragon magic and journal your dragon’s everyday adventure over the course of a year spent mending your domain. 

Bonds Between is a game for two players, to be played in four to five sessions of 60 minutes or more. 

Bonds Between is a collaboration between Bright Bard Games and Graftbound Press

What you need:

To play Bonds Between you will need the following physical or digital materials:

• A copy of Bonds Between
• A deck of playing cards for each player
• A journal for each player
• Something to write with 
• Craft and collage supplies (Scissors, paper, glue, pens, markers, etc.)

How do I play?

Bonds Between is a two-player (duet) tabletop roleplaying game that sees you wrecking a deck of playing cards as a part of play. 

You'll begin the game by unpacking your stuff, meeting your bonded, detailing your relationship in your respective journals, and altering a few cards to represent your hoard. You'll also inherit a domain facing some kind of problem, be it a magical blight, a mysterious haunting, or a simply unruly crop of ground-planted mint. You can use details from whatever space you're playing in to help inform your dragon's hoard and environment—there's a bit of show and tell or "look at that!" to the game. 

Whatever the problem is, you and your bonded will perform a great work of magic to address the issue. You'll draw a hand of cards, then imbue one of the items your cards represent with draconic magic by altering it. Alterations can range from drawing or writing on cards to cutting, punching, planting, or even burning them. 

In keeping with the Pact, and to better know your neighbor, you'll trade an altered card from your hand, then combine your cards to work one of many spells to address your respective problems. If you play your cards right, you'll change your hoard, your domain, and your relationship forever. If not, you'll have to find a new way to deal with the problem at hand. 

You'll cast a few spells each season to address the threats in your respective lairs. The game takes place over the course of a year, at the end of which your dragon will have a lair made new and a hoard full of storied objects. You'll end the game with a deck of hand-altered cards and a journal containing the story of your bonded dragons. 

Altering Cards: 

If you're interested in seeing how our team tackles card-altering for Bonds Between, check out the launch party video from our crowdfunding campaign! 

We spent a few hours altering cards to help give people an idea of the kind of crafts we're anticipating as part of gameplay. 

What does a game look like?

If you want to see what Bonds Between looks like in action, you can check out this live playthrough Bri and I did on her stream. If the embed doesn't automatically jump to it, an explanation of the game begins at 15:57 and we start off character creation around 29:00. 

This playthrough meanders a bit as we get side barred talking to chat, wondering about magical dragon biology, and telling stories about squirrels while we alter cards. If we're being honest, that's in the spirit of the game.

What People are Saying

I thought Bonds Between was one of the sweetest and kindest feeling games that I’ve played while also being one of the few that has scratched the need to keep my hands busy while playing (there’s essentially a crafting break at the start of each round as you modify new cards).

—Steph from TTRPGkids Review

“I really, really appreciate when there’s an artifact of the game. I find that after I finish a game [...] And this game, in playing it, produces that artifact, produces that relic of the story told.” [...] And you can look at certain cards and remember the usefulness of the card, and it's not just something you made, [...]  but if it was given to you by a friend and they made it, how much more precious is that thing!. It’s so good.”

— Wintry D&D

I love games which have a hands-on or creative element woven intrinsically into the gameplay and Bonds Between does that beautifully with the ritual alteration of cards and the creation of a unique oracle deck which not only provides a physical touchstone for the narrative during gameplay but serves as a treasured memento once the game [...] is over.

— Penny Blake from Glitzy Demon Adventures

Product Specs

• 62 pages of GM-less game instructions
• Includes downloadable 62-page linked PDF
• Made by humans (enchanted by tiny dragons)