Place
For background on how people in the Fifth World relate to place, see “Place.”
At the start of a tale, you’ll pick a place that you know inside the community’s territory. When you choose to play this place, you take on a responsibility to heed its spirit, to tell its story as it does, through the things that happen there. When our story visits that place, you’ll tell us what we see and hear and smell. You’ll play all the supporting characters there, because the spirit of the place affects them all (though don’t forget to acknowledge their own personhood, recognize their relatable motivations, and let them make their own decisions). The other players will still tell you what their characters say and do, but you can still try to influence them as the place does, with the sorts of things that happen there and the feelings you evoke with your descriptions.
#Bonds
Main characters have bonds to places, reflecting some special relationship. This means that this place has helped mold or shape this person in some fundamental way, such that the character carries some of the place’s spirit with hen wherever hen goes. Characters have access to one bond for each stage of life that they’ve lived (1 for children, 2 for young adults, 3 for mature adults, and 4 for elders).
Your character has such a bond to your place, such that the place’s spirit has deeply shaped hen. The other characters have agency because they bring part of the spirit of one place into contact with the spirit of another, but in your own place, that contrast doesn’t exist within your character. Like the other supporting characters, your character lacks agency in these moments. Hen can say and do things, but they won’t have much impact on the story. They become part of playing the place as a whole. When you play your place, let your character take on more of a secondary role, and focus on playing the place instead. Later on, when you go to other places, your character will carry a bit of your place’s spirit with hen, and when that comes into contact with other places, your character will regain hens agency.