smallbird games

Hold Together

a roleplaying game plugin for healing scenes. originally written for Cure Light Wounds Jam.

Maybe you’ve finally established safety in your dungeon delve or on the battlefield; maybe you and your cohort are crouched in the temporary shelter of an alleyway or abandoned building to rest and see to injuries. You can patch up each others’ injuries, but some things linger—the aftereffects of violence done, violence received, and violence witnessed.

Each time someone makes a roll or a check to see to minor wounds during a time of rest, choose one from the appropriate list, and establish something new about either the character or the world.

The players (and if present for the game, the GM) should discuss amongst themselves ideas for how to establish the ideas chosen and weave them into the story in a satisfying way. If, for example, the player of the cleric wants to have her character resent the warrior for recklessness, but the player of the warrior isn’t sure about that kind of tension, they might decide that the cleric establishing a protective bond might be an appropriate substitution.

If during the most recent combat, the character ​enacted more harm than they received​, establish:

  1. Humanity: Name a neutral relation that cared for a fallen or injured enemy, and place them in the world.
  2. Agency: Name a cause or organization that a fallen or injured enemy fought for, and a sympathetic ideal of theirs.
  3. Guilt: A sense-memory of battle or the aftermath that the character doesn’t wish to repeat experiencing, or a part of the events the character feels was a mistake.

If during the most recent combat, the character ​enacted less harm than they received​, establish:

  1. Fear: A type of weapon, a circumstance, an indicator or danger. (Not a type of people, species, or race.) (UNLESS you've discussed boundaries at your table and people are open to having your character unpacking that in game.)
  2. Scars: A wound that’s left its mark and brings back memories, though it may not hinder them.
  3. Safety: An object, ritual, or procedure that makes a character feel protected.

If during the most recent combat, the character ​stayed largely out of harm’s way and did no or minimal harm themselves​, establish:

  1. Bonds: Something about another player character that makes the character feel protective, fond, or worried for them.
  2. Anxieties: Awareness of their current deficiencies in ability to protect others—paralyzing, motivating, and/or festering.
  3. Resentment: A festering grievance, whether at the forces arrayed against them or against others for perceived mistakes or recklessness.

Whenever one of the established ideas influences the direction of violence in the game—whether by leading to it, averting it, or coming up in the midst of combat—place a tally mark next to it. When there are three tally marks, tension begins to boil over, and at the next rest scene, the characters must discuss it, though they may also elect to do so at any rest scene regardless of the number of tally marks.

If the discussion is productive and emotionally cathartic, the players (or the GM) may elect to erase a number of marks from its track—usually one. If the number of marks is reduced to zero, the player(s) may elect to remove it from play. Regardless, though, it ceases to be an emotional hindrance to the characters.