Time To Think about Oath

[Rich H]

Without over thinking this, I'd just make it a trait that the character adopts for the duration of the oath.

Some of the solutions above look interesting but I think need to be simplified as appear over-complicated at first glance.

[Falenthal]

I think that vowing an Oath should be an important decission in the game, not to be taken lightly, and therefore should have some (not a lot, though) details.

I'll try to summarize the draft of rules I described, probably too mixed with reasonings and alternate options in the above post:

1) The player writes down the exact details of what he is promising ("pursue with vengeance and hatred to the ends of the World Vala, Demon, Elf or Man as yet unborn, or any creature, great or small, good or evil, that time should bring forth unto the end of days, whoso should hold or take or keep a Silmaril from their possession").
Player and LM will decide how many extra Hope points the hero will get depending on the importance of the Oath.
Tops, a hero can get the sum of his Valour and Wisdom scores in Hope points.

2) Explain in flavour and calculate in game terms what will happen should he break the Oath. In game terms, that means how many Shadow points he will gain. That will simply be double the Hope points he has gained. ("and let them keep it in faith unbroken, lest the Shadow fall upon them and they become accursed").

3) To use the extra Hope points, the hero must first explain how spending this Hope point will help fulfill his Oath. If the LM agrees, the Hope point can be spent.

4) Gain one automatic Shadow point for each year (Year's End Fellowship phase) that the Oath is not fulfilled.

This would be the basics of my Oath-rules. Other addendums, like swearing an Oath as a Fellowship, not an individual, or the effect of swearing in a sacred place (Elendil's tomb, Stone of Erech,...) could be taken into account, but I don't know how.

[Finrod Felagund]

Agreed the rules need to be simple. I like Falenthal's solution, but think the loss of shadow should be triple the Hope points gained. Oath-breaking is serious!

Rules aside, it also occurs to me that this (whether the Adventurer or an associated NPC makes an Oath and the consequences of that) could also form the basis of a fine adventure cycle.

[Terisonen]

Fulfill a Oath could be a life-time achievement.

[Robin Smallburrow]

I think it should be a Flaw and treated as per other Shadow Weaknesses, because oaths act as restrictions/modifiers of character's behaviour ( and even to the point of a character rolling Feat die twice and taking the worst result , as per other Flaws):

Vow: you have taken some sort of oath which puts restrictions on your actions, such as loyalty to a Lord, vow of poverty etc. Anytime you attempt an action contrary to this oath, you must roll the Feat die twice and take the worst result, gain 1 Shadow point on a Failure.

Or something similar- IIRC this has been done before but I don't have access to the old forum at present

Robin S.

[Glorelendil]

I like the idea that swearing an Oath (with significant mechanical effects) is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. And that it comes with both benefits and costs/risks.

Could be a good thing to include with a Gondor supplement.

[Yepesnopes]

In my opinion, oaths don't have to be ruled, they don't need to have mechanical effects. I think it is something better left to be handled between players and GMs, as something to drive the character, a motivation, something dramatic to shape a campaign, not something to get a +1 / -1 in anything.