Since Fellowship points are refreshed at the beginning of each new session, it is possible,in theorie, to recover all Hope points lost during the course of one or many differents advantures, right?

Exemple: 1st adventure Lifstan starting Hope 15. 2 sessions of play.
Total Hope used 4 points.
Fellowship points total 4(for each session).
Total Fellowship points used by Listan to recover Hope lost: 3
Now have 14 Hope. Lets us assume his Focus WAS wounded: no Hope points recoverde here.
Advanture end: Lifstan's Hope: 14

2nd Adventure: Lifstan starting Hope is now 14. Again we assume 2 sessions of play(4 Fellowship points for each of them).
Lifstan now use 3 Hope points during the course of the 2 sessions.
Total Fellowship points used by Lifstan to recover Hope: 4
So Lifstan is now back at 15 Hope points, his starting score.

So it is possible over the course of many adventures to get back Hope lost in a previous adventure. Of course, I assume here everything goes well. Things can go worse, and will surely...

Is my understanding of this part of the rules correct?

It was my understanding of the rules that the Fellowship points are a pool of point that the entire Fellowship can draw from.

So if Lifstan is using all the points up to recover his hope, no one else is.

I'm pretty sure that's the case.

Lifstan does not use all the Fellowship points available for the complete adventure. But thats not the point.

If I understand correctly, a character can recover previous Hope points used in adventure A, during adventure B, if the management of hope points allow it.

Note that an adventure can be divided in 2 or more sessions of play and that Fellowship points are refreshed at the beginning of a new session.

Absolutely. If there are 5 members of a Company, then they begin every session with 5 Fellowship points to use as a pool among them. If a hero gets low on Hope points, he can ask the rest of the Company if he can replenish his Hope by spending Fellowship points. For every point of Fellowship he spends, he regains a point of Hope.

The other ways to regain Hope normally are: if a character's Fellowship focus was unharmed, he can regain one Hope point at the end of a session; during a session, if a hero spends a point of Hope to gain an Attribute bonus to protect his Fellowship focus and succeeds, he can regain the point immediately (as if he never spent it).

So, you can see that Fellowship points are handy, but they are also available to the whole Company and require half the players to vote yes when spending them. Players could spend them without the votes, but they would have to take a Shadow point if they did.

Also, if you have a Beorning with the Twice-Baked Honey Cakes virtue, your entire party will have an extra fellowship point available.

I have also assumed that after an adventure (not a session) the party has a significant time to rest and regain all of their hope during the Fellowship Phase. Shadow points, on the other hand, are much more difficult to get rid of.

This is not so. Hope is very different from similar resources in other games (such as Force Points, Bennies, or Character Points, etc.).

I think you dont recover Hope points during the Fellowship phase.

If you do then there is not much use for the Confidence Mastery.

Holy CARP!

I need to read up on this; I was working under the impression that heroes recover Hope Points between adventures. If that isn't accurate, it seriously changes the dynamic of play...

Can someone with a thorough grasp of the rules confirm or deny this?

In the meantime, where the heck are my books...?

Just read pages 104-107 of the Adventurer's Book. Everything is explained very well. You do not regain Hope as part of a Fellowship phase. There is NO undertaking for that. The best way to regain Hope is through the spending of Fellowship points, and this can be done during every gaming session. Fellowship points replenish at the beginning of every gaming session and depend on the number of player-heroes in the Company.

Knowing this, I encourage players to be careful when spending Hope. If there are four of them, I remind them they have 4 Fellowship points to spend that session and should take advantage of them (because unused Fellowship points do not carry forward to the next session). Then, each of them should remember to defend their Fellowship focus (especially by using the Protect Companion combat task), spending a point of Hope to gain an Attribute bonus if they need to (because if they succeed it will immediately replenish anyway), and if their Fellowship focus goes unharmed the entire session, they can gain a point of Hope back too at the end of the session.

Not that there are many more knowledgable of the rules than JRB, but he's right

Skywalker, when I first joined the forum last August, you were here answering questions. In fact, you answered them so authoritatively I thought you were an employee of Cubicle7. If I recall correctly, Francesco even complimented you for being on top of the questions. YOU have definitely proven to have a firm grasp of the rules.

Anyway, the one part of the rules I still don't have a firm grasp on is the whole process of recovering Endurance, Fatigue from travel, etc. I mean, it seems a bit complicated for some reason. It probably isn't, but it sure would be nice to have a table or streamlined explanation for these things so that I could memorize them easier. Right now, I'm still relying on finding the rules in the rulebooks instead of just knowing what to do. I think I just need more studying time.

Ok...there is rest (catch a breath for 30 min) and prolonged rest (a night's sleep)...there is Wounded and not Wounded...I'll get this memorized!

As per RAW, each character can safely spend 2 Hope on average a session (assuming their fellowship focus doesn't get hurt). After running the Marsh Bell, I'm thinking that's slightly low. Maybe that's because we play for 4–4.5 hours a session, where a group that plays 2 hours a shot ends up with more Hope.

I've been considering either doubling the Fellowship Pool (or refreshing it mid-session) or letting everyone recover 2ish Hope per Fellowship phase.

Doubling the Fellowship Pool seems extreme, but it just raises the average allotted Hope per character from 2 to 3.

Try this. Start with your status...

Not Wounded

• Rest for half an hour after a battle to recover Heart number of Endurance Points.
• A prolonged rest restores 2+Heart Endurance Points

Untreated Wound

• Wound must be treated or healed within 12 hours or hero will die
• Healing roll TN 14 once per day to mark Wound as Treated.
• A prolonged rest restores 1 Endurance Point

Treated Wound

• A prolonged rest restores 2 Endurance Points

Weary

• After a prolonged rest, if Endurance above Fatigue, hero is no longer Weary.

Prolonged rests have several effects, most of which are shown above. Here they are, together:

• Unwounded characters recover 2+Heart Endurance Points
• Characters with Untreated Wounds recover 1 Endurance Point
• Characters with Treated Wounds recover 2 Endurance Points
• If gear was discarded before resting, adjust Fatigue
• If Endurance above Fatigue, character is no longer Weary

The only thing to add to that list would be:

Prolonged rests at journey's end has the following effect:

•remove 1 Fatigue gained from Journeying per prolonged rest.

While the community here in the forums in its entirety is something I could only dream about, you two must have been sent from the Uttermost West to help us sort things out. Many, many thanks!

Francesco

JRB, thanks f the confirmation. I searched the rules myself, last night, and came to that conclusion. I presume my error involved mixing hope up with fellowship, at some point.
Well, THIS should be fun to explain to the players...

You're right it is extreme to double the pool. I reccomend against it. When I first started playing I was under the misconception that HOPE restored each Fellowship Phase but learned that a while back that it doesn't. This completely changed the paramaters of the game - which at first seemed too much a cake-walk for the players since they never failed at anything cuz there was a surplus of Hope Points.

After the change - I noticed the shift - the resource management of it and it made for a far more enjoyable game.

They (hope points) are truly important but also due to the limited supply are indicative of how special a roll must be in order to justify using one. You're right it seems low - but consider that as the Heroes earn advancement points and experience points, their success rates will continue to improve needing less and less of them.

I suggest teach them early on the importance of managing that resource and use them sparingly but when it's important.

IF you still feel that they're blowing through them and you wish to aid them along, Heroes can earn a point of Hope when they see something truly inspirational.

Perhaps a player hero does something extraordinary to save another player heroes life and the fellowship all witnesses this.

Perhaps visiting Rivendell. Remember the awe Sam has when he sees an Olyphant, or when he sees the elves on their march to Valinor. or the Halls of Moria.

Or Aragorn when he sees the kings statues on the river "Long have I wished to look upon the kings of old."


These are ideas that you can put into a game where the fellowship or one or more characters of it are awed by a sight or experience. Knowing the goals, aspirations and fascinations of the various characters in a group can help you narrate certain things like this. Each one of my players has a brief history written and i use these to generate ideas for what to introduce to the game that would interest them specifically. Sometimes these great desires of their will earn a restoration of Hope. The Hope Points are just an abstract measure of the true feeling hope that the hero feels within himself.

Great thoughts and advice SirKicley!

forgottenking, I'm sure it will go fine. Tell your players that some of them may actually have a chance to play a hero falling to Corruption!

Francesco, you are so kind!

Stormcrow and Skywalker, thanks for the helps on Endurance recovery memorization. I will master the RAW!

Just thinking out loud here to help myself (and anyone else reading). There are two classes of Wounded: the dying and the injured.

A dying hero is one with a Wound and zero Endurance (unconscious). If he is not successfully treated (one-time chance within 12 hours), he dies. If he is successfully treated, he can start recovering 2 Endurance points per prolonged rest until he reaches his maximum Endurance (which means he is no longer Wounded).

An injured hero is one with a Wound but has Endurance points remaining. If he is unsuccessfully treated, he can still gain 1 point of Endurance after each prolonged rest. He can be treated once per day. Upon successful treatment, he can start recovering 2 Endurance per prolonged rest (instead of 1) until he reaches maximum Endurance and therefore, no longer Wounded.

Recovery is much easier and quicker for heroes that are not Wounded. Moral of the story - don't get Wounded!

This

I think that hope points lose much of their importance if they can be spent freely without consequence. "Miserable" should remain both undesirable and very real for those who spend hope carelessly.

That being said, I think that hope could rejuvenate more quickly to reflect some group's style of play. Not all roleplayers enjoy that degree of tactical decision where you have a choice between taking a hit now and potentially taking a worst hit later.

Allowing 1 or 2 hope point to replenish as a fellowship undertaking wouldn't be game breaking IMO, nor would the ad-hoc reward of a hope point when a player accomplishes an action that truly enhances the game experience for whole group, live out its character goals, ambitions and dreams and go out of the ordinary to fight the shadow.

I intend to be a bit more liberal than the rules as written when I get my campaign going, following the saying that "hope can be found along the way and within the smallest of things" while staying withing the spirit of Tolkien's Middle-Earth.

My own opinion is that having Hope almost exclusively recover due to Fellowship related stuff is good as it emphasises the Fellowship, which is a central tenet of the RPG and Tolkien's work.

Very true, but it isn't the only tenet of Tolkien's work.

The healing powers of sanctuaries and safe-places such as Bombadil's house, Rivendell, Lothlorien and even the Shire were also important. You could argue that these already have their influence on the hope - shadow relationship, but I don't think that other options necessarily go against the spirit of the game.

After listening to some fine thoughts on the matter, I think this is the answer.

Thanks everyone. We'll see how Don't Leave the Path turns out.