I have a question about the rules for Awe during combat and the loss of Hate by the enemies. I have pasted the section from the AB below.

My question is, does each enemy lose one, two or three Hate points? or as a group do the enemy lose one, two or three Hate points? Should one successful Awe chase off 20 Goblins and/or Orcs (they each only have 1 point of Hate)? If so, what is the limit? Any enemy in the range of sight/sound?

Is there an official answer to this?

How are others playing it?

"On a successful roll, the enemy’s morale has been shaken, and the opponents lose a number of Hate points"..."The number of Hate points lost by the enemy is based on the quality of the success produced by the roll:
- Ordinary success: one Hate point
- Great success: two Hate point
- Extraordinary success: three Hate point
The Loremaster assigns the Hate point loss in any way
he sees fit."

This issue was previously mention in another topic, Intimidating Foes. I believe your question is answered there, unofficially.

I don't think we ever got any kind of official answer explaining the intent or how to correctly use it. I could have missed a topic somewhere in the middle of the Forums though.

I would spread the loss among multiple foes who didn't possess the Craven trait, and subtract the entire amount from each foe who did – but only if those craven foes are not part of a mixed band. A leader without Craven could thus take the brunt of a few attempts at intimidation and keep his troops in line temporarily. Once the leader's Hate is gone, however, all bets are off.

I like that

Thanks Garn. I was sure it had been discussed but didn't find it.

Doesn't give any concrete answers unfortunately. I would really like to know what the designers intent was.

The way I apply this in my campaign and, let me add, the way I interpret the rules is that the effect applies to all Adversaries engaged in the melee. Here, I stress "melee" because I do not necessarily think these rules should translate in a one-to-one relationship to battles and large scale conflicts. There is some adventure-specific rules for battles in WotW and TfW, but I don't read these as TORs official and universal rules for battles and mass combat.

Just my take on the topic though...

Regards,
E

PS. Also, I might say I think Tolkien's own writings support this, especially the battle before the Black Gate in The LotR and the essays in HoMe under Myths Transformed. There Tolkien reflected on Orc freedom and the free will of evil creatures in general.