Fellowship Phase Timing

[Hobbesworth]

I just wanted to chime to give a HUGE thanks to the people who made this game happen. I've been running D&D games for years, both in published and my own made up settings and always felt that they were missing something. I'd always work to have recurring themes in my campaigns, but it never worked out as good in practice as I wanted it to in my head.

The One Ring however exudes so much theme just from the mechanics that every session naturally feels like a continuation of the past adventures, particularly due to the journey rules--the road goes ever on and on. In my last session we ran the first adventure from "Tales from the Wilderland" and took some additional time to journey to Woodland Hall afterwards, and wow did it ever feel like we had been on an epic journey (of course we had some hazards along the way that helped out, plus that adventure is just all kinds of good).

This brings me to my main question--we have now completed 'The Marsh Bell' and "Don't Leave the Path', and built up a decent number of advancement points along the way--to the point where it was becoming pretty rare that we would get any more in the second half of "Don't Leave the Path". We wanted to take a Fellowship phase in order to put our advancement points into our pool and spend them to increase our common skills--and to sing away the shadow we picked up in Mirkwood--but it's not super clear to me if this requires that we spend an entire season resting. The Adventurer's Guide p. 168 says "On average, a Fellowship phase marking the passing of a year should represent a pause from adventuring lasting for approximately an entire season." It also says that "A Fellowship phase lasts from a week to a full season of game time, depending on the Loremaster's structuring of the game." So we started adventuring in spring, and I believe we've spent around 3 months on the road. So is it possible to spend a month long Fellowship Phase, and pick up again with the next adventure in Tales from Wilderland around midsummer? Or do we need to rest essentially three seasons so that our Fellowship phase properly marks the passing of the year?

I understand that as Loremaster I can run it however I like, but I was hoping that someone could help me out and maybe clarify what they see as the intention behind the timing of the Fellowship phase, and let me know if taking a month off in the summer would break that intention. I've looked through the resources here:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9

and I don't see Fellowship phase mentioned.

Again biggest of props to the developers for making this game happen--discovering and playing this game has been a dream come true for me!

[Angelalex242]

Fellowship Phases need NOT last an entire season.

In the Fellowship of the Ring, the stays at Rivendell and Lothlorien both count as Fellowship Phases, and they definitely weren't at either one for longer then a couple days.

Then again, those are super sanctuaries maintained by one of the 3 Elven Rings, so maybe they don't need to last so long in such places.

[Rich H]

Fellowship Phases need NOT last an entire season.

That's true but I'd suggest it still needs to be a fairly significant amount of time, perhaps at least a month, otherwise it's just a short stay somewhere to rest a little with no real time to Heal Corruption, etc. So, I'd restrict what could be accomplished during Fellowship Phases depending on their duration; from 2 to 3 months you get the full benefits/options but anything less and I'd reduce them gradually as the duration shrank.

In the Fellowship of the Ring, the stays at Rivendell and Lothlorien both count as Fellowship Phases, and they definitely weren't at either one for longer then a couple days.

That's not correct; the Fellowship were at Rivendell for just over 2 months and at Lorien for about 1 month.

[Woodclaw]

Fellowship Phases need NOT last an entire season.

That's true but I'd suggest it still needs to be a fairly significant amount of time, perhaps at least a month, otherwise it's just a short stay somewhere to rest a little with no real time to Heal Corruption, etc. So, I'd restrict what could be accomplished during Fellowship Phases depending on their duration; from 2 to 3 months you get the full benefits/options but anything less and I'd reduce them gradually as the duration shrank.

I think that the length of the Fellowship pahse should proportioned to the length of the adventure.

In the Fellowship of the Ring, the stays at Rivendell and Lothlorien both count as Fellowship Phases, and they definitely weren't at either one for longer then a couple days.

That's not correct; the Fellowship were at Rivendell for just over 2 months and at Lorien for about 1 month.

This is rather common mistake.

“Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.” (J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit)

[Rich H]

“Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.” (J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit)

That's a nice quote and certainly one that our tabloid press have taken to heart with regard to news.

[Woodclaw]

“Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.” (J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit)

That's a nice quote and certainly one that our tabloid press have taken to heart with regard to news.

I think we can all thank citizen Hearst for that.

[beckett]

The AB states:

On average, a Fellowship phase marking the passing of a year should represent a pause from adventuring lasting for approximately an entire season.

Three months are enough for any companion to return home from any location in Wilderland and leave him some time to be among his family and folk.

But then also this:

A Fellowship phase lasts from a week to one full season of game time, depending on the Loremaster’s structuring of the game.

So I would go with Rich's suggestion. This is actually how my group has played it.

...it still needs to be a fairly significant amount of time, perhaps at least a month, otherwise it's just a short stay somewhere to rest a little with no real time to Heal Corruption, etc. So, I'd restrict what could be accomplished during Fellowship Phases depending on their duration; from 2 to 3 months you get the full benefits/options but anything less and I'd reduce them gradually as the duration shrank.

[Hermes Serpent]

That quote from the AB refers to two different types of Fellowship Phase. There the End of Year Fellowship Phase and a normal Fellowship Phase.

AB p169
"When a companion passes a year’s end Fellowship phase
away from home (see Year’s End below), he must reduce
his Standing rating by one point, unless he spends a
number of Treasure points equal to his current Standing
rating.
This upkeep cost represents what a hero does to ensure
that his efforts in taking care of his own folk are widely
recognised. Heroes with no Standing don’t need to
maintain it."
Years' End is on P174 AB and tells the LM to update the heroes with events from the Tale of Years that they did not participate in and so on.

So EoY Fellowship Phase 3 months/entire Winter season, ordinary Fellowship Phase - two weeks or more depending on how the LM sees the various Undertakings progressing.

[beckett]

That quote from the AB refers to two different types of Fellowship Phase. There the End of Year Fellowship Phase and a normal Fellowship Phase.

AB p169
"When a companion passes a year’s end Fellowship phase
away from home (see Year’s End below), he must reduce
his Standing rating by one point, unless he spends a
number of Treasure points equal to his current Standing
rating.
This upkeep cost represents what a hero does to ensure
that his efforts in taking care of his own folk are widely
recognised. Heroes with no Standing don’t need to
maintain it."
Years' End is on P174 AB and tells the LM to update the heroes with events from the Tale of Years that they did not participate in and so on.

So EoY Fellowship Phase 3 months/entire Winter season, ordinary Fellowship Phase - two weeks or more depending on how the LM sees the various Undertakings progressing.

Hi Hermes,

Both quotes from my post come from page 168 of the AB and the first quote does state that "a Fellowship phase marking the passing of a year should represent a pause from adventuring lasting for approximately an entire season." So I think we're agreeing here. I just pointed out the differences in time length as noted in the AB and that Rich's suggestion was a good.

[Stormcrow]

The book advises the loremaster to set the length of the fellowship phase according to how he wants to structure the campaign. Do you want each adventure to be relatively independent of each other? Have one adventuring phase a year, followed by the Year's End fellowship phase. Are your players on an epic quest with brief pauses to recover? Make each fellowship phase short, say a few weeks at most. Are your players errant adventurers looking for trouble whenever they can? Make each fellowship phase about a season long, so they can go on several adventures every year.

Decide the shape of your campaign, then structure the fellowship phase according to that vision.