The rules say that if a fellowship focus is not wounded OR otherwise unharmed they gain one hope per episode. What does the otherwise unharmed entail? Do that mean no endurance loss at all? Only from combat? What about picking up shadow points? Poison? etc...

I think this one's pretty much down to how harsh or lenient you want to be as the LM.

Personally... I think I'd certainly consider just Endurance loss as being unharmed as Endurance in this game is representative of just general scrapes, bruises, and vigour and not really anything to be worried about until it runs out (or leads to being Wearied). On the other side of the coin, Wounds (also Poisoned) or Bouts of Madness suffered by a character's fellowship focus would mean they have been harmed and the PC in question would therefore gain a point of temporary Shadow if their Fellowship Focus suffered any of these states.

If the Fellowship Focus was unconsciousness (ie, reached zero Endurance), I wouldn't allow the PC to regain Hope but I also wouldn't apply the shadow point as they technically aren't Wounded.

So the grey area are conditions such as Wearied and Miserable. Its a tough one, but as LM I'd give myself wiggle room and say that these conditions depend on the context that they occur in. For instance, if a character was Wearied in combat then I'd probably go with stating that qualifies as being harmed (and therefore the PC in question can't regain a point of Hope), but if they were Wearied due to travel I would generally still allow the other character to gain a point of Hope.

This exact question came up a very long time ago on the forum and I would agree with Rich H. My general rule is Wounded or Knocked Out = harmed. But, I like the way Rich explained how a Loremaster must judge each situation and decide what "harmed" means.

It's also unclear to me if someone is (say) wounded but recovers during the session. Do they count as having been wounded, or is it their state at the time of the Fellowship Phase that counts?

Hope is recovered using the fellowship pool at the end of a session, not during the fellowship phase. If a fellowship focus was wounded during the session, then the penalty applies.

Thanks for your responses.

Can't remember the rules at the moment and haven't got them with me so I can't check how this works, so my apologies if it doesn't make sense

Hope recovered using the fellowship pool? But it could be empty by then, in fact aren't people likely to use the fellowship pool first rather then their own Hope?

And if they were wounded but recover during the session, how does that count for Fellowship Focus?

Hope isn't recovered during the fellowship phase. The characters spend hope, which can then be recovered using points from the fellowship pool, by mutual agreement of the company. If they use fellowship pool points they are effectively using a point of hope and then immediately replenishing it using the pool point. In our group, we tend to dish out the fellowship pool at the end of a session rather than doing it bit by bit, but either is valid.

If they have a fellowship focus, then the character can regain an additional point for the session if the focus remains unharmed during the session. If, during the session, the focus becomes wounded or goes unconscious then they can't claim that point - even if the end of session state is that the focus is okay. It's the trauma of seeing the focus harmed that triggers the loss of hope and gain of shadow. (AB pg. 106)

You're asking about regaining Hope if your personal Fellowship Focus is unharmed so it's a 1 point Hope bonus that you get to your own character's personal Hope rather than the Fellowship Pool. The Fellowship Pool and the Fellowship Phase are pretty meaningless in this instance so ignore them.

If they've (your Fellowship Focus) been Wounded then you would actually receive a point of temporary Shadow, as I said in my first post in this thread, you therefore wouldn't receive of point of Hope at the end of the session as at some point during the adventure they had been Wounded.

Personally, I house rule these applications of Hope and Shadow gains as the event transpires/occurs within the adventure, I don't like leaving such things until the end of the session as it's missing out on potentially quite dramatic reactions to events and strong narrative elements. My way of working also solves the issue/confusion you've got here as to what happens if you're Wounded but then recover before the session's end.

As a note, in general I really dislike these end of session bonuses/applications as they are very artificial, can mean different things for different gaming groups (ie, session length can vary), and don't exist within the game world. They also miss out on significant RPing elements - ie, the narrative impact of seeing someone Wounded in battle and the potential to there-and-then fall into a Bout of Madness, etc. I think they're the one really poor element of the RAW for TOR. Its why I've house-ruled them out of my game and replace them with immediate effects (for shadow gain/hope gain) and opportunities of inspiration (for Fellowship Pool refreshes).

That's not strictly correct as the two never occur at the same time...

There is no loss of Hope just a gain in Shadow, if the Focus is Wounded.

There is no extra point of Hope handed out (ie, gained) if the Focus is harmed in any way - and my initial post explores what harmed means as it covers more than being Wounded. If they are only harmed (ie, not Wounded or other conditions considered to be Wounded) then they don't gain a Shadow point.

If the Focus is unharmed (and therefore unwounded as well) then you get/gain a point of Hope back. Again, my initial post in this thread explores what unharmed means (ie, everything that doesn't equate to being harmed or Wounded).

Should have probably put hope bonus to be clear. More typing on mobile device. I too tend to apply the shadow penalty when the wound occurs, rather than end of session. In the raw though, the penalty applies at session end.

Yeah, I thought you meant that but was just clarifying really on behalf of those still learning the rules as they (a gain or loss in Hope) can be significantly different in how they are applied and what could happen as a result.

I run my games pretty much the way Rich H stated above.

The players in my games use their own Hope first mostly during the sessions as they seem to consider the Fellowship Pool more powerful because of the capability of replenishing their own supply at session's end. They usually don't hit "the Pool" until their own total gets to 1 to 2 points.

Rules as written. Pretty clear to me.

On closer examination, I think its a bit more than just using the RAW as that *never* defines what 'otherwise harmed' means so every LM has to make this decision for themselves with regards to it in the way it's been discussed in the above posts. Because of this missing definition, the rules aren't clear as they [a] haven't defined everything that gets used and/or [b] in such an absence they haven't pointed out that such a state needs to be established by each LM. That's not necessarily a problem as it allows every LM to build their own definition of what harmed is to suit their game but it should have been highlighted in the book to guide LMs that needed or wanted guidance. Things do get missed though, no book is perfect, so it's good that we can chew over ideas here.

"Otherwise harmed" should mean "have something sufficiently bad happen to his focus that the character is shocked and dismayed."