Given that rewards are basically 'stuff' (as opposed to Virtues being innate abilities)
what stops someone stealing other player character's rewards?
On a more innocent scale, how about if a Character died, and willed his elvish longbow to his long time friend?

Should the GM allow this?
Can the GM even stop this?

I wonder if one solution is to say to the PC receiving the item, "Ok, keep it, but that counts as your next reward early".
I'm not a fan of 'No, he must be buried with everything', or 'it must all return to his family' (who he hasn't seen for several years).

However, it might lead to interesting adventure possibilities if any 'stolen' reward actually gains some form of curse.
For instance, the person with the Elvish longbow has to keep explaining himself to elves who assume he killed an elf to get it.

This does leave me to wonder if perhaps Shadow points might be able to generate cursed rewards. You get a groovy item for a shadow point, but is it worth the trouble of the curse?

Along those lines, what's to keep a character from saying "I don't really want this Giant Killing Spear any more. You'll get more use out of it. You take it."

In the one-shot I ran, I explained to the player "That's a priceless heirloom of your family. Giving it away would be like removing an arm." I'm not sure how well that excuse would work in a longer game.

I had been thinking about posting a thread related to this topic. Why can't characters from gain access to cultural rewards from other cultures? Is there any reason why a dwarf couldn't get a King's Blade? Some of the cultural rewards are likely to be unusable by others (say Hobbit or Dwarf armor), but most of the weapons are likely to be useful?

What about granting cultural rewards based either on the culture of the character, or the culture where the Fellowship phase is taking place? Maybe characters spending the Fellowship Phase with King Tharanduil could be granted Woodland Bows, Ashen Spears or the leaf-shaped buckler? Or perhaps those spending time with the Woodmen could be granted a bearded axe?

Would this be likely to unbalance the game? I don't really think so. Characters would still need to have increased their valor to gain the reward, and there is still (currently) a cap of Valor at 6. If someone wanted to spend one of their 6 rewards gaining a cultural item from another culture and it makes sense in the story, I don't see a reason to prevent it.

What do you all think?

Considering Frodo was walking around with an Elvish blade, Dwarven armor, and the Light of Earendil, I can't think of a real good in-universe reason why they shouldn't be able to get rewards from other cultures. It would require exceptional in-game/roleplaying/story rational for me to consider it, though. Something more than just "I spent my experience points while in Rivendel."

One way to handle it is to say "sure you can take up your comrade's treasured heirloom that they pressed into your hands with dying breath..."

BUT

You are playing catch up with earned rewards and next earned reward is slotted to this, until you "pay it off" as if you had "got it fair and square under rules" you are up 1 Shadow feeling guilty over benefiting from your friend's death, increased anger at their death. You already get some Shadow if a friend dies, now you have increased survivor guilt.

Overall, the balance the system, players should be "willing" items to NPC's (perhaps replacement characters who take them as legit advances) and thus taking the item is theft with accompanying Shadow and also story implications.

Where an item is not an heirloom of story significance, a GM should also be liberal with narrating how as the hero suffered that last wound, his sword broke parrying the blow that killed him etc. etc. - to the extent the events of death can "clean up" these legacy problems let them do so.

If item outside cultural field, and you don't have legimate (mechanical proper route) to having owned it, consider that likely is a source of friction with members of that culture (another -1 on Encounter tolerance, even worse potential outcomes).

Consider what happens if Frodo dies and Merry takes his mithril coat and then meets some dwarfs - what are you doing with an heirloom of our race...... (some very sketchy story about took it from a friend who got it from an uncle, who looted it....). That's not ending well.

I have sort of a related question that I would like to ask.

Why is "because it would unbalance the game" not an acceptable response?

I mean, fundamentally, an RPG is just "the imagination game" with a set of agreed upon rules to guide the story and add fun. If someone has an idea that's just straight up unfair in some fundamental way, and doing this unfair thing would probably make things less fun for everyone else (especially the GM, who's got the hardest job), why is it not okay to just say "because its against the rules and would break the game"?

Why does it need any more justification?

I'm not trying to be a smartmouth or anything, I'm actually honestly asking, because I've seen this sort of thinking in other systems, and I'm trying to understand.

I get trying to "break the game engine" and "testing the limits of the system", I do it all the time, it's my way of figuring out how the system works. But it's not something I'd do during play, because using broken stuff is unfair to everyone not using it, and because it's really hard to manage that sort of thing as a GM.

@BobChuck - I agree that "because it would unbalance the game" is a completely acceptable answer. I am just missing the "how it would unbalance the game" piece. I don't see it, personally.

What exactly is broken about having a character spend a limited resource (Reward) picking up an item outside of his cultural norm? I am thinking ahead to how the entire fellowship picks up very Elvish gifts from Lady Galadriel after the Fellowship phase before the next journey. Elvish cloaks, knives, rope were given to everyone. You could argue that the daggers were a non-cultural reward, but I would consider the cloaks to definitely be a cultural reward. They provided extensive benefits to the Hobbits throughout the rest of the story, but not a Shire-based benefit.

Now - I understand the desire to balance the cultures and make them desirable to play. Part of the balance between the cultures may lie in the rewards. I can understand that - but how much? Is it really unbalancing to given a non-Beorning a Giantkilling Spear, or a Bearded Axe to a non-Woodman? I really don't see how mechanically how these rewards might combine with cultural rewards to make a character unbalanced enough to affect gameplay.

But I may not be seeing the horrible exploits. I'd love to hear what they are. What really would be unbalancing here?

As this game can span multiple generations I think there is going to be a power creep in the game. Characters trained by previous characters are going to start off with a measure of their predecessor skills, why not their items as well. Theoretically this will create more powerful items and abilities in the hands of the players as they move closer to the War of the Ring. This could thematically represent the powers of the west preparing the free people for the confrontation to come.

As for cross cultural rewards if it fits the story and tolerance, racial, and cultural animosity is over come then why not? I agree it should be more involved than simply spending XP there. Maybe a new Patron is needed. All that is up the Loremaster, but i dont see it as a huge issue.

Another device to curtail cross cultural or inter character sharing is that maybe the items just don’t work as well unless attuned to a character of a particular race, or for whom it was intended. Gimli's cloak from Lorien may not work on another dwarf, perhaps not as well anyway. Gimli's legitimate heir however may be able to use it with equal ability. Let’s look at Merry from the previous post. Merry is a kinsman of Frodo, if Frodo died and Merry took the coat he could be seen as a legitimate successor, especially if Merry continued the quest. Continuity and legitimacy are reoccurring themes with Tolkien and can be represented in the rules as well with a little creativity. Some items some characters are “meant” to have and this can be brought out in game terms in multiple ways.

Besides the Loremaster doesn’t have to explain the why just the results. =)