Mutual Dependencies (Characters)

If characters are dependent on other characters to succeed, then players will come to trust those characters who don’t let them down. Bonds will be formed, and (if these are reinforced often enough) communities will arise. All members of an adventuring party should depend on one another to some degree, but there are plenty of other ways to promote mutual dependencies. Simple economic need is a favorite: Miners need blacksmiths to buy their iron, and blacksmiths need miners to provide the raw materials they need. This can be extended in different directions, for example temples may need worshippers to cause deities to give their priests powers, and worshippers may need those priests to cure diseases, purify water, and vaporize undead.

There’s a danger of going too far and forcing players to maintain such a web of contacts that they never get anything done. If you need to source 50 components to make a cart, you’re not going to make any carts.

Remember that the idea is to promote dependencies, not to enforce them. Some people like being independent, and will resent being made to rely on others. If blacksmiths want to dig their own iron ore, it should be possible for them to do so.

The dependencies here are gameplay ones. It’s possible to create social dependencies, but these always seem “forced;” besides, socializers will group together anyway without prompting. The exception is when the dependencies are between community newbies and community oldbies. For example, suppose characters lose status for living in a dirty city, but lose even more status if they sweep the streets clean. Newbies, who have no status, can clean the streets without losing status, for the benefit of the community. It’s therefore in the interests of oldbies to attract newbies to their city, so they don’t lose status. The oldbies depend on the newbies (which is the reverse of the normal state of affairs).

Coupled with the idea of dependencies, find ways to allow players to do each other favors. Player A may not depend on player B to achieve some goal, but player B can make it a lot easier for player A by helping in some trivial way. Acts of kindness are the currency of friendships.