I have decades of GMing experience with 100+ players coming and going over that time (darn Adulting!). One of the things I have found problematic with this pattern of player longevity (or lack of it, rather) is getting player buy-in to the idea of the party as a Heroic Unit. You know what I mean; players who end up only caring about their own characters, murder-hobos, turn-coats and the like. So many times when building a new group, the intent is good, but for one reason or another, the group begins to in-fight, either passively or aggressively. Players sometimes just stop caring about the story because their PC isn't the focus at the moment, taking this as free-reign to mess with the game. Not every group is like this, but even those groups tend not to last as Real Life often takes precedence.

(Yes, I understand that some of you have amazing groups, but that's not my experience.)

Now, one of the tools I've used with fairly good success is a Session Zero Relationship Map. Having sat down with the players and generated plot hooks, connections between the PCs, connections to NPCs, locations and more gives the party a great starting place as a unit. However, as the sessions go on, the Relationship Map can easily get out-dated or become totally unwieldy as more and more items and relationships are added to it. Also, historical relationships often disintegrate as players forget what was created during that Session Zero. It doesn't take long, actually, depending on frequency of play, speed of play, and player drop-in/drop-out for the Map to become incoherent. Reviewing the Map every so many sessions can help keep the decay away, but it still takes up a lot of prep-time to keep it up-to-date. And the sheer number of interconnected items on these Maps can render them nigh-unreadable.

As I'm getting ready to start yet another group in another new city, I've been wondering how to work with the Relationship Map this time. And then I've suddenly been reminded about the Fellowship Focus mechanic in The One Ring RPG where each player chooses one other hero to care about in the party, with mechanical benefits and penalties surrounding the focus' health and survival. Marrying this concept with the Obligation mechanic from Edge of the Empire, I've got the beginning of an idea...

- Replace "Obligation" with "Fellowship Focus"

- PC's must have at least 1 Focus with another party member (but never more than 1 with the same party member)

- PC's may buy Focus to non-party members (NPCs, Locations, etc.)

- Roll d100 as per Obligation at the beginning of every session.

I'll need to write this up in more detail, but thought I'd share the germ of this idea here and get some thoughts from the community.

Okay, here's my first pass at this. The idea is to give some mechanical weight to inter-party relationships. By opening this up to NPC and other setting relationships, it becomes a tool for the GM to see what parts of the setting have gotten the players' attentions. Also, by using the same sort of mechanic as Obligation, it provides a beginning-of-session reminder to the entire table about the nature of their relationships. Untested, but hopefully useful;

FELLOWSHIP
Fellowship plays a vital role in defining a Player Character. Defined simply, Fellowship represents the bonds a Player Character has. These bonds may be anything that ties a Player Character to someone or something else (a feeling of responsibility for a friend's well-being, the duty he feels to help his family, or a favor owed to someone else). A character's actions can often be guided by his Fellowship.

WHAT IS FELLOWSHIP?
Each Player Character starts with at least one Fellowship Focus. A player must select their character's initial Fellowship Focus from among the rest of the characters in the adventuring party. Each Fellowship Focus consists of two parts:
• A proper noun and a narrative description: This does not have any rules effect, but is intended to offer
an explanation that allows the player to work the Focus into their character's story.
• A numeric value: This is the Focus' size, and determines the mechanical effects of a Focus.

STARTING FELLOWSHIP
Each character begins play with one moderate Focus as determined by Table 2-1: Focus Values. In addition, players may choose to add additional Fellowship Focus. Players may split their initial Focus between more than one character.

TABLE 2-1: FOCUS VALUES

FELLOWSHIP IN PLAY
Before each session, the GM rolls percentile dice and compares the results to the group's current Fellowship (the table discussed in "Assembling the Group's Fellowship").

FELLOWSHIP CHECK RESULTS
If the roll is greater than the party's total Fellowship, then their bonds are not affecting them - at least for now.

If the roll is equal to or less than the group's total Fellowship, something related to their bonds may introduce complications during the upcoming session:

- First, rolling equal to or lower than the group's Fellowship means that all characters reduce their strain threshold by 1 for the remainder of the session. In addition, the GM can determine exactly whose Focus was triggered by comparing the results of his roll to the chart. This Player Character reduces his strain threshold by 2 (instead of 1) for the remainder of the session.
- Finally, if the GM triggered a Focus and the roll was doubles (an"11" or a"44" for example), the effects of triggering that Focus also double. All characters reduce their strain threshold by 2 for the remainder of the session, and the Player Character whose Focus triggered reduces his strain threshold by 4.

These mechanical effects represent either internal or external pressure on the Player Characters as a result of their bond.

CHANGING FELLOWSHIP

Throughout the course of play, Fellowships can (and should) change. At the end of any session, a player may change the balance of their Focus, remove a Focus or add a Focus depending on the narrative of the completed session. A player's character must always have at least one other player's character in their Focus list.

ASSEMBLING THE GROUP'S FELLOWSHIP

Once each player in the group has picked their character's Focus, the GM assembles all of the Focuses into a single table. The table should have four columns. The first is the column that contains each Focus' value. The second column details the bond. The third column records the character to
whom each Focus belongs..The fourth column should be used to label the rows based on the Focus Value in a manner that assists in rolling a d100.

FELLOWSHIP CAP

With extended play, Fellowship can easily top 100, which makes any Focus above 100 impossible to roll on a single d100. Here is one method to handle with this;

Begin a new table with each player's character's Fellowship ranked based on their percentage of the total Focus. Include an extra Fellowship at 5% to leave some uncertainty. Then each player's character would have its own sub-table to roll on.

You can continue to proceed in this fashion, creating fractal tables if the number of bonds continues to grow.

FELLOWSHIP REWARDS

At the end of a session where your character's Focus has been triggered, gain an extra 5 XP (if the result was doubles, gain an extra 10 XP).

UPDATE: Fixed the wording. Hopefully it's more obvious as to the costs (Strain) and rewards (XP).

FELLOWSHIP
Fellowship is represented by the Bonds a Player Character has with the people(s) in the setting. These Bonds may be anything that ties a Player Character to a person or a group (a feeling of responsibility for a friend's well-being, the duty they feels to help their family, or a favor owed to someone else). Bond are often built around something one character admires about another. A character's actions can often be guided by their Bonds.

BONDS
Each Player Character starts with one Moderate Bond with another Player Character (see table 1-1 Bond Values). Each Bond consists of three parts:
1. A proper noun (character's or group's name)

2. A narrative description of the Bond. This does not have any rules effect, but is intended to offer an explanation that allows the player to work the Bond into their character's story.

3. A numeric value: This represents the weight of the Bond and determines it's in-game effects.

Players may choose to begin play with more than one Bond or split their initial Bond Value between multiple Player Characters.

TABLE 1-1: FOCUS VALUES

Bond Value	Strength of Bond
5	weak
10	moderate
15	strong
20	extreme

FELLOWSHIP IN PLAY
Before each session, the GM rolls percentile dice, compares the results to the group's current Fellowship (the table discussed in "Assembling the Group's Fellowship") and interprets the results as detailed below.
FELLOWSHIP CHECK RESULTS
If the Fellowship roll is greater than the party's total Fellowship, then their bonds are not affecting them - at least for now. There are no in-game effects for this session.

If the roll is equal to or less than the group's total Fellowship, something related to their bonds may introduce complications during the upcoming session:

• First, rolling equal to or lower than the group's Fellowship means that all player characters reduce their Strain Threshold by 1 for the duration of the session. In addition, the GM can determine exactly whose Bond was triggered by comparing the results of the roll to the chart. This Player Character reduces their Strain Threshold by 2 (instead of 1) for the duration of the session.

• Finally, if the GM triggered a Bond and the roll was doubles (an"11" or a"44" for example), the effects of triggering that Bond also double. All Player Characters reduce their strain threshold by 2 for the remainder of the session, and the Player Character whose Bond was triggered reduces his strain threshold by 4.

These mechanical effects represent either internal or external pressure on the Player Characters as a result of their Bond. The Bond may even take center stage in the upcoming session.

REWARDS

Regardless, the Player Character whose Bond was triggered during the session gains 5 XP (10 XP if the roll was doubles) at the end of the session if they were able to work the triggered Bond into at least one scene during the session the Bond was triggered for and Resolve the Bond.

When a Bond is Resolved, it is removed from the Player Character's Bond List. The player may replace the Bond at the end of the following session.

CHANGING FELLOWSHIP

Throughout the course of play, Bonds can (and should) change. At the end of any session, a player may change the balance of their Player Character's Bond or remove a Bond that no longer applies or matters. A new Bond can only be added at the end of a session following a session where a Bond was triggered and Resolved. Bonds should grow organically out of the narrative of the completed session. A player's character must always have at least one other player's character in their Bonds list.

ASSEMBLING THE GROUP'S FELLOWSHIP

Once each player in the group has picked their character's Bonds, the GM assembles all of the Bonds into a single table. The table should have four columns. The first is the column that contains each Bonds' value. The second column details the bond. The third column records the character to
whom each Bond belongs. The fourth column should be used to label the rows based on the Bond Value in a manner that assists in rolling a d100.

FELLOWSHIP CAP

With extended play, Fellowship can easily top 100, which makes any Bond above 100 impossible to roll on a single d100. Here is one method to handle this;

Begin a new table with each player's character's Bonds ranked based on their percentage of the total Fellowship. Include an extra Fellowship at 5% to leave some uncertainty. Then each player's character would have its own sub-table to roll on.

You can continue to proceed in this fashion, creating fractal tables if the number of bonds continues to grow.