CONCEPT
Honorbound is about a band of thrill-seeking heroes with enigmatic backstories who have come together under the covenant of brotherhood.
Lots of inspiration is drawn from the Three Musketeers, Firefly, and the writings of Charles Dickens shot into space. I just watched season 1 of the Arcane show on Netflix which has a lot of the same esthetics. Personal narratives end up interweaving with present sagas which are ultimately shaped by the players.
AIM
As a group of free-‘lancers’ you travel from planet to planet chasing down contracts too dangerous or shady for the regular populous to handle in order to earn refuge from the empty howling void of space.
The aim for you, the players, is to not only fulfill the contract but to explore your own dramatic personal saga, explore your species culture, and have fun!
TONE
The tone of Honorbound is bright, adventurous, chivalric romance, and heroic with an eye towards redemption arcs. The central theme of working together to overcome insurmountable odds by staying true to ‘all for one’.
It is common and even encouraged to delve into personal strife when narratively appropriate as play will quickly return to more swashbuckling. There is no triumph for Athos without the tragedy of Lady D’Winter.
SETTING
Honorbound is set in a far future star system populated by dozens if not hundreds of alien species which the players also play.
Historically the characters are three generations removed from a chain reaction of events:
- The rise and departure of the AI Prophets who took with them technologies they felt sentient beings could not safely monitor like interstellar travel, AI enslavement, and time crystal technologies.
- The end of the Company Wars which had imprisoned billions of lives for profit. Leading to a utopian confederacy called the Grand Alliance. Areas that did not join the alliance are called Free City States.
- The discovery of a pliable and mysterious force dubbed Essence. Those who know how to tap into it are capable of wondrous feats like seeing the future, limited telepathy, and even communing with those left behind by the AI Prophets who call themselves the Oracles.
With advanced technologies getting destroyed the system is in a new renaissance age of species created arts, social norms, and romance.
Join Will and Jerod as they navigate the hurdles of building a ttrpg from scratch.
Be dazzled by an Actual Playtest!
We got interviewed by our friends over at A Pint of Cthulhu AND treated them to a playthrough!