Simple Folk

[zedturtle]

Hate to be the one to throw a spanner in the works here, but I was under the impression that the Fellowship Focus rules were designed by the game designers exactly to duplicate the Sam/Frodo dynamic from the books and Sam's ability to 'spiritually soak bad stuff from Frodo' - if Rocmistro thinks this is inadequate for his character, then he should modify the Fellowship Focus rules accordingly - perhaps his character can take on more than one Fellowship Focus if he wants his character to be a 'spiritual soak' for the Fellowship??

Robin S.

I think my earlier allusions to Sam were mistaken, now that I understand what Rocmistro was really going for... as he said, Frodo after the Scouring of the Shire is a better model than Sam in Mordor.

[Blubbo Baggins]

What if the ability was to take 1 Shadow, and all players in gain one less Shadow if they fail the test? Not sure this is better than your idea Zed, but thought I'd throw it out... this way for a simple Corruption test it is strong, but for a test that will cause 2 or more Shadow it has less of an effect.

[zedturtle]

What if the ability was to take 1 Shadow, and all players in gain one less Shadow if they fail the test? Not sure this is better than your idea Zed, but thought I'd throw it out... this way for a simple Corruption test it is strong, but for a test that will cause 2 or more Shadow it has less of an effect.

Yeah, I had thought about that, but I was a bit worried about the impact of such a rule.

[Angelalex242]

...High Elves would LOVE that rule. With such a support, their primary weakness can be more or less neutralized.

[Wbweather]

I think that the penalty for reducing shadow has to be fairly severe to keep it from being overused. There doesn't seem to be any real downside to using this as often as possible the way you describe it.

[zedturtle]

I think that the penalty for reducing shadow has to be fairly severe to keep it from being overused. There doesn't seem to be any real downside to using this as often as possible the way you describe it.

Do you mean my idea?

In a way, just the fact that you can only use on some rolls (Corruption Tests that are in range of the Attribute Bonus) is a limiter.

[Rich H]

In a way, just the fact that you can only use on some rolls (Corruption Tests that are in range of the Attribute Bonus) is a limiter.

It seems powerful in my opinion. Instead of the companion spending a point of Hope to succeed at a Corruption Test the character in question can simply absorb it, but will only incur one point of Shadow; whatever the actual failed result would have produced for the other character. And then, during a Fellowship Phase they can reduce their Shadow by one, automatically, plus whatever else they do.

Would another option be to allow any companion spending a Fellowship Phase with the character and who makes a Heal Corruption test (including the actual character) to apply a free Attribute Bonus to their roll or is it something you want to be in-play during an Adventuring Phase?

[zedturtle]

In a way, just the fact that you can only use on some rolls (Corruption Tests that are in range of the Attribute Bonus) is a limiter.

It seems powerful in my opinion. Instead of the companion spending a point of Hope to succeed at a Corruption Test the character in question can simply absorb it, but will only incur one point of Shadow; whatever the actual failed result would have produced for the other character. And then, during a Fellowship Phase they can reduce their Shadow by one, automatically, plus whatever else they do.

Would another option be to allow any companion spending a Fellowship Phase with the character and who makes a Heal Corruption test (including the actual character) to apply a free Attribute Bonus to their roll or is it something you want to be in-play during an Adventuring Phase?

Hmm... Rules-As-Written, you can either get 1 Shadow Point from a Corruption Test, or 2 points (with a possible third point that the original character would be forced to take). So maybe just make so that the 'sin eater' hero has to take on the consequences of the failed roll in order to allow the original hero to succeed?

And, yeah, I think both Roc and I want the hero to be actively doing something during the Adventuring Phase.

[Rocmistro]

Zed I should note that the ability should probably not be able to kick-in if the Shadow point is awarded as the result of a misdeed. That goes against the spirit of what I had intended. (Although all of the shadow-sucking should be voluntary anway, and, my character at least, would not voluntarily do it for someone who acted on a misdeed.)

[zedturtle]

That's the beauty of the Corruption Test requirement -- Misdeeds award direct Shadow with no Corruption Test, therefore you couldn't take on the Shadow even if you wanted to.