Death of a companion

[Corvo]

During last session, one of the heroes died. I'm wondering how does this affect the heroes.

In the rules it's stated that an hero get 3 shadow point if his focus die. Yet I found no rule about the other members of the fellowship.
I'm inclined to give 1 shadow point to every hero (at least): he was a lifelong friend, someone they grew up along.

Ideas? Opinion? Rules I missed?

[Mim]

I'm personally not comfortable with the 3 Shadow Points. IMHO, however, page 37 of TfW summarizes it well:

'The first crossing requires passing an Athletics test. Failure means the adventurer falls into the depths and perishes, unless he is roped to other companions (if a hero is lost this way, then all his companions must pass a Corruption test or gain one Shadow point for the distressful experience - see Anguish at page 57 of the Loremaster’s Guide).

[Rich H]

During last session, one of the heroes died. I'm wondering how does this affect the heroes.

In the rules it's stated that an hero get 3 shadow point if his focus die. Yet I found no rule about the other members of the fellowship.
I'm inclined to give 1 shadow point to every hero (at least): he was a lifelong friend, someone they grew up along.

Ideas? Opinion? Rules I missed?

I'm personally fine with the focus PC getting 3 temporary shadow points for losing their focus as this is a person that means an awful lot to them emotionally. Losing them should cause terrible anguish and stay with them for years on end (even if the shadow points are healed). I'd even make such a loss the focus and driver for other elements within my campaign.

I think the Corruption Test for the others is a better idea than just awarding them 1 shadow point without any check but you could make the TN higher than usual on account that they are all close friends.

[Corvo]

I'm personally not comfortable with the 3 Shadow Points. IMHO, however, page 37 of TfW summarizes it well:
(...)
if a hero is lost this way, then all his companions must pass a Corruption test or gain one Shadow point for the distressful experience - see Anguish at page 57 of the Loremaster’s Guide).

@Mim
Thank you for the TfW precedent. What do you mean with "not comfortable"?

@Rich
I'm fine with 3 points for the focus loss.
About the others... I have not yet set my mind: a corruption roll isn't different from spending a day near the Marsh Bell ruins. Imo such loss should have some consequence on the other heroes. Lifelong friend, he died holding off the enemies to save his companions. And shedding a Shadow point during the Fellowship fase isn't that difficult. Then again, automatic shadow is only for misdeeds usually, while anguish ask for a corruption roll
As I said, I have yet to set my mind

[Mim]

@Corvo, Rich has a good point & you should probably go with that.

Concerning 'comfortable,' it's just my personal style & how I tweak the rules. I tend to be a bit tough as a LM & challenge players, so I compensate in other ways, such as hesitating with Shadow Points because of the severe effects. That said, however, they are an integral part of the game & adequately reflect Middle-earth

[Yusei]

I don't personnally find the effects of shadow points to be severe. They are very easy to get rid of. In the beginning, my players were afraid of them, and made every effort to avoid gaining one, but then they noticed that, with two rolls in a sanctuary, they usually lost 2 or 3 of them in one fellowship phase.

Which means they could get over the death of a friend in one fellowship phase. I don't consider that severe. When one of my players lost his NPC fiancee, I contemplated giving him a permanent shadow point, but didn't do it. He later told me that he thought about triggering a bout of madness himself, because it seemed to be the thing to do.

I should add that we have played through the Marsh Bell, Words of the Wise, TfW and a few homemade adventures, and so far we've only had one bout of madness, from a dwarf. Nowadays, they all have 4 or 5 in Wisdom, so they rarely fail Corruption tests. In a way, I think Shadow Points fail to account for the corruption growing over time. With my next group, I will try to slow the rate at which they can get rid of SPs.

[Rich H]

@Rich
... a corruption roll isn't different from spending a day near the Marsh Bell ruins. Imo such loss should have some consequence on the other heroes. Lifelong friend, he died holding off the enemies to save his companions. And shedding a Shadow point during the Fellowship fase isn't that difficult. Then again, automatic shadow is only for misdeeds usually, while anguish ask for a corruption roll
As I said, I have yet to set my mind

I did say increase the TN. So if you do that it's therefore *not* the same as a corruption test from travelling.