Year's End Clarification

[michaelcurtis]

Greetings, all.

I'm about to complete the 1st adventure in a new TOR campaign and I need to confirm I'll be handling the Year's End portion of it correctly. This is the second TOR campaign I've run, but it's been a few years and we had multiple Adventuring Phases per year in the last one.

If I understand the Year's End correctly, if you're using the one adventure per game year model, a typical adventure would be X number of sessions of Adventure phase followed by a single Fellowship phase and then a Year's End which would be considered part of the previous Fellowship phase. A Year's End is not in and of itself its own Fellowship Phase. This would mean the difference between allowing one or two Fellowship undertakings per game year.

Somehow, I got it into my head that the Year's End was its own separate Fellowship Phase. I think I came to that conclusion from reading TDOM where certain undertakings as described as occurring during a Year's End Fellowship phase (such as "Receive Title (War-leader)" which says "he must spend the Year's End Fellowship phase in Woodmen-town..."). In retrospect, I'm guessing that this would mean in a campaign where multiple adventure phases took place, only during the last Fellowship phase of the game year (and therefore the one with the Year's End as part of it) would a player be allowed to take an undertaking that states Year's End in the description.

Have I got this right or am I utterly off the mark. The next game session will see our first Fellowship phase and I want to confirm before we sit down at the table again. Thanks!

As an aside, anyone have any tips on making the Year's End a little more pertinent for the characters at the start of a campaign when their Standing is too low for them to interact or intervene during a Year's End?

[Otaku-sempai]

I think you've got it right. There are some undertakings that are meant to take place only during a year's-end Fellowship phase. Those are undertakings that require more than a handful of weeks to accomplish. Also, an extra undertaking is generally permitted at year's end due to its length (generally all or most of the winter).

[michaelcurtis]

Also, an extra undertaking is generally permitted at year's end due to its length (generally all or most of the winter).

Ah, I think that also contributed or was the part that got me thinking that the Year's End was it's own Fellowship phase. Your comment had me looking back at the rules and I see what you're referring to on p. 197 about "A longer Fellowship phase, like for example one reserved for a year's end) might allow for up to two undertakings instead." Thanks.

For people using the one adventure per year model, do most of you allow for two undertakings each year?

[Rich H]

For people using the one adventure per year model, do most of you allow for two undertakings each year?

Generally, if you were running one adventure per year then your Fellowship Phase would be at year end so that would give you two undertakings - so 'yes' to your question.

[michaelcurtis]

Thank you, Rich. That's what I needed to hear.

[Stormcrow]

Note that getting two undertakings at year's end or in longer fellowship phases is an optional rule. In the first edition of the game, people complained that they thought longer fellowship phases ought to allow more undertakings, so the option was added to the second edition.

Personally, I think this misses the point of the fellowship phase. It's not a mandated downtime in which you cram in all the adventuring training you can. The fellowship phase represents your real life, the one you engage in when not going off on mad adventures. Undertakings are simply side-benefits that an adventurous person happens to engage in that relates in some way to their adventures. The player-heroes are not murder-hobos stocking up for their next raid.

[Rich H]

The player-heroes are not murder-hobos stocking up for their next raid.

Mine are.

[jamesrbrown]

The player-heroes are not murder-hobos stocking up for their next raid.

Mine are.

Ha! I think my players too are eager to hunt Orcs and Trolls! Spiders and Wolves on the other hand...they try to avoid them for some reason. Maybe it's because they've had one too many close calls, and in one particular instance, the entire company perished in the Mountains of Mirkwood when ambushed by Wolves.

[Glorelendil]

The player-heroes are not murder-hobos stocking up for their next raid.

Which would explain why their world is on the verge of being taken over by an evil demigod.

As they say, "Those who beat their swords into plowshares are destined to plow for those who do not."

Personally I think it's worth dabbling into a little sorcery and maybe torturing a prisoner or two, if that's what it takes to keep honest people safe.

[Rich H]

Which would explain why their world is on the verge of being taken over by an evil demigod.

As they say, "Those who beat their swords into plowshares are destined to plow for those who do not."

Personally I think it's worth dabbling into a little sorcery and maybe torturing a prisoner or two, if that's what it takes to keep honest people safe.

Mine are.

Ha! I think my players too are eager to hunt Orcs and Trolls! Spiders and Wolves on the other hand...they try to avoid them for some reason. Maybe it's because they've had one too many close calls, and in one particular instance, the entire company perished in the Mountains of Mirkwood when ambushed by Wolves.

My players' characters are certainly heroes, recognised for their accompishments in the lands of others (ie, places not of their home culture) as well as their own homes. They've literally saved people and villages from destruction, slain creatures terrorising innocents and halted the advance of invading armies among other things. Their names are sung and praised in their own lands and those of others, whether they spend their Treasure on Standing or not. The rules allow for that flexibility so I often use it and have expanded it to develop some house rules regarding Renown to allow for a little more granularity and recording the status of PCs and attitudes towards them within the different cultures. Looking back, I thought I was deviating considerably with such rules but seeing how the adventures and other material published since then now provide bonuses to Tolerance and Standing specifically (beyond just spending Treasure) I now think they are just a natural progression of how the rules have been enhanced within those supplements through things like new Undertakings and achievement during adventures.