Hope Recovery in Fellowship phase?

[GhostWolf69]

This has no doubt been asked a thousand times before but, please refresh my memory.

In the Fellowship Phase.... I'm assuming that Endurance and Wounds are healed if the Player rests for a few weeks/months since the recovery rate doesn't just "stop" during this phase... am I right?

But what about Hope?

Endurance recovery is "x points per day".
But Hope is x points per Session (i.e. Fellowship refresh etc.)

The only way I can see that would "reset" your Hope is to upgrade Wisdom, and pick the Virtue that raises maximum Hope. That one explicitly says it allows you to reset Hope to maximum value.

Am I taking things too literally if I deny my players the "auto hope reset" over the Fellowship Phase? OR is this as intended? (seems a little harsh to me).

Btw Shadow Points is clear, they will stay unless you have a Bout of Madness (and get a permanent one) or Take the Reduce Corruption Undertaking. So no questions there.... maybe I should allow Reduce Corruption to also Reset Hope? It seems to be a fairly common Undertaking anyway and it would make sense thematically as well...

What do you guys think?

/wolf

[Yusei]

Hope is not supposed to reset during the fellowship phase. On the other hand, sometimes events can happen during that phase or during the adventure phase that could warrant a hope gain, at the loremaster's discretion.

[SirKicley]

As Yusei mentioned - Hope does not recover as the other elements do. They are VERY treasured and valued for the PCs. This needs to be emphasized to your players more than once. Both figuratively and literally, once all hope is lost...there is misery.

Hope can return during very special occasions however - usually via some amazing feat being observed, or some part of the story-telling unfolds. Many times only a select number of the heroes would earn it - depending on the importance of the event to that character.

Thinking of the movies - here are scenes that could have restored a "hope point"

The company seeing Rivendell / Lothlorien for the first time.
Gimli meeting Galadriel and receiving strands of her hair.
Sam witnessing the majestic architecture of Moria "That's an eye-opener make no doubt"
Aragorn seeing the Argonath monument
Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn seeing Gandalf the White
Theodan King grasping his sword again after being possessed.
Eowyn seeing her father restored to health
Pippin finding Merry on the field of battle after the attack on Minas Tirith


Etc.


What I have done is learned some things about the player characters that truly motivate them - then if/when something appears in the story that would be inspiring to them that I could award them a Hope point.

Another notion is when they witness a PC being selflessly heroic putting themselves in danger to save another.

One such even happened in Marsh Bell. One character was not resurfacing after swimming through the black pool. My wife's hobbit without concern for herself dove in to save the elf that had dissappeared under the mire. Long moments passed for the others watching from the shore. When she surfaced holding onto the unconscious (but alive) elf, those watching all earned a hope point due to witnessing such heroism and bravery.



Officially hope is restored 1 point if your Fellowship Focus is not hurt during a particular game-day, and you can add any unused hope points from the Fellowship Pool at the end of a game-day to replace those your party has spent; divvied up as the players wish.
Hope this helps.
Robert

[doctheweasel]

I added an Undertaking that restores 1 Hope. It sees occasional use, but is not an obvious go-to choice, which suggests it's hit the sweet spot for balance – especially when compared to the chance to reduce Shadow.

[Throrsgold]

Hope can return during very special occasions however - usually via some amazing feat being observed, or some part of the story-telling unfolds. Many times only a select number of the heroes would earn it - depending on the importance of the event to that character.

I have restored Hope when the heroes drank precious miruvor, when Radagast noticed their flagging spirits and handed the heroes a baby animal and ordered them to "take care of this animal," and when a hero thought lost and dead miraculously returned to the group (he had been knocked off a precipice during a fight and rolled a staggering number of Gandalf's on the multiple Athletic checks while tumbling down the long, steep, rocky slope).

[Rich H]

Page 28 of my Additional Rules PDF has some further rules and examples for Recovering Hope that may be of help:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/795 ... 0Rules.pdf

[Chris Gardiner]

I added an Undertaking that restores 1 Hope. It sees occasional use, but is not an obvious go-to choice, which suggests it's hit the sweet spot for balance – especially when compared to the chance to reduce Shadow.

I really, really like this, especially if the undertaking is linked to certain Sanctuaries, like spending time at Rivendell, or something.

[Rich H]

I really, really like this, especially if the undertaking is linked to certain Sanctuaries, like spending time at Rivendell, or something.

I'd advise caution over this. I adopted a house rule similar to that described and removed it after reading Francesco's thoughts on why he designed Hope as a precious and dwindling resource.

I like your idea about only allowing it within certain Sanctuaries but to be honest the rules I referred to in my earlier post would cover that kind of thing.

[Chris Gardiner]

I'd advise caution over this. I adopted a house rule similar to that described and removed it after reading Francesco's thoughts on why he designed Hope as a precious and dwindling resource.

I like your idea about only allowing it within certain Sanctuaries but to be honest the rules I referred to in my earlier post would cover that kind of thing.

I'm not keen on handing out Hope as an LM - I'd be even more worried about breaking the Hope economy that way. At least if it's one point for an Undertaking there's a limit on its frequency and an opportunity cost.

But I'm not likely to drift from the core rules for a good while, anyway, until I feel I've got a better grasp of them.

[Rich H]

I'm not keen on handing out Hope as an LM - I'd be even more worried about breaking the Hope economy that way. At least if it's one point for an Undertaking there's a limit on its frequency and an opportunity cost.

That's understandable although it does allow for control (through the LM) and fits in with the game world as does having it as an undertaking. The Hope economy is pretty broken anyway when you consider how the Fellowship Hope pool is refreshed, at the end of a game session, which is something I removed as it's such a poor mechanism for refreshing Hope - ie, there's no literary or in-game driver for it occurring and a session is of variable length. I really dislike such artefacts within game system mechanics.