I didn’t see a discussion of this below. In my game, we now have a new Gothi and the Rites has raised some questions. What are the options actually supposed to do? By my reading, I concluded that you can do four different things with bonds.
1. Look at a character’s heart (get an answer to a question).
2. Give a character -1 or +1 for their roll.
3. For the Matriarch, lower the price of a bargain (Driving a Hard Bargain).
4. For the Monster, give grave harm to the bonded character you’re fighting with (Accursed).
So for the Rites, the options are:
– Get silver (obvious)
– Give the Gods a bond with you. I assume this is played by the MC. Since it’s no use for them to look at your heart, and they are not Matriarch nor Monster, they can give +1 or -1 to your roll. Technically I guess there’s no restriction to which roll it is or to whether they should pick bonus or malus, but it would make sense that Gods give the +1 to a roll related to what the Rite was about (did they ask help to something?), or the -1 if the gothi acts in a way the Gods disapprove of. It would seem not fair that Loki gets to be mischievous and give -1 just because he wants to (unless that was somehow relevant to the story).
– Gain a bond with the Gods. Since the NPCs don’t roll, it’s no use giving them +1/-1, and I would really want to avoid a physically manifested God combating a Monster who could give them grave harm by this. The main purpose of this option seems to be to give the gothi an answer from the Gods to a question – although in principle it could also be possible for a Matriarch to bargain with the Gods and have a discount!
Is my analysis correct? Am I missing something?
The Tempt Fate seems to work in a similar way, basically giving the Norns a +1/-1 to your roll. But how is this supposed to be restricted? Can the Norns just intervene in any roll the MC feels like, or should it be restricted to wyrd rolls only, or Tempt Fate rolls only? “At any time” seems to suggest there is no restriction, but again, it would feel odd to sabotage some random roll just for the heck of it (unless there was a clear rule that the next roll you take would be affected). Sure, the MC should make a call based on the narrative, but what I like about the moves in PbtA games is that they give clear rules how to use them, lessening the MC’s burden to decide the details of the PCs’ fate in a specific situation. Making the MC responsible for both bonus/malus choice and picking the roll to intervene adds to that burden.