Pardners

For the Once Upon a Time in Tombstone freeform larp, we created a mechanic for non-romantic relationships. We called it Pardners, and this is how it worked.

Pardners

Butch and Sundance. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. The Lone Ranger and Tonto. They’re more than friends – they stick with you through thick and thin. They’re people you can rely on. We call them Pardners.

Pardners help each other out and come to each other’s aid in times of hardship. A Pardner won’t let you down. A Pardner will help you achieve your objectives, as you will help them achieve theirs.

Everyone has at least one Pardner ability card. You can’t use your own Pardner ability – you must exchange it with someone else. You’re now Pardners!

It’s up to you whom you choose as your Pardner, but we recommend waiting for a suitably dramatic moment before offering to become Pardners with someone. Perhaps they have intervened in a fight to help you, loaned you a poker stake, or even just bought you a whisky.

A Pardnership may be broken at any time – just return the Pardner ability and ask for your own back. It must be returned immediately. However, you should only break a Pardnership with good reason, and don’t be surprised if your ex-Pardner holds a grudge.

If you break a Pardnership, you must give your ex-Pardner a reason why. Then, act out the breaking of the pardnership – preferably in front of other people.

Romance between two Pardners automatically supersedes, and breaks, the Pardnership. Return each other’s Pardner ability cards.

Pardner abilities

Each character then had a special ability that they gave to their Pardner. Some examples:

Bill Cobb's Pardner: Bill Cobb's reputation extends to his friends. Whoever has this ability may not be arrested for any reason, provided Bill Cobb is still Sheriff.

Jessica Drummond's Pardner: Jessica Drummond's pardner may use this card instead of tearing up or checking off one of his/her abilities.

Johnny Ringo’s Pardner: Play at the start of combat. If Johnny Ringo is in the gunfight, add +1 to your Accuracy. If Johnny is not present, subtract 1 from all your opponents' Speeds (they need to watch their backs...)

Kit Shelleen’s Pardner: When competing against somebody with a cut of the cards, one use of this ability will make your 'cut' exactly one rank higher than theirs. You cannot use this ability to beat an Ace.

About Once Upon a Time in Tombstone

Once Upon a Time in Tombstone is a weekend-long freeform for 60+ players. It’s based on various Westerns, including Tombstone (of course), Silverado, The Big Country, Maverick, Pale Rider, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and many, many more.

I co-wrote Once Upon a Time in Tombstone, along with Heidi Kaye, Tony Mitton, AJ Smith and Paul Snow. 

I’ve written about it here.