forums.cubicle7.co.uk
archive

Despite liking the Hope mechanic in long term games, I find that it doesn't work that well for one-shots, which I have found myself running a number of.

My current thought is to change the Hope mechanic as follows:

- the Fellowship still gets a pool of Fellowship points that act as cost free Hope.
- a PC can spend Hope outside of that pool (it has run out or the Fellowship doesn't agree to using the pool) but risks becoming Miserable.
- in this case, the LM makes a roll (a Despair roll) with a value of the PC's Shadow score against a TN equal to the PCs Hope score.
- if the LM fails, the PC's Hope reduces by the result of the Despair roll (reducing the TN for future Despair rolls).
- if the LM succeeds, the PC becomes Miserable and the PC's Hope refreshes.
- when Miserable, any Sauron's Eye brings on a Bout of Madness like normal, and the PC's Shadow refreshes.
- if the PC gets a second Miserable result, the PC is Spent. They cannot use Hope and flee from sources of danger and stress.

Thoughts?

Personally, assuming I'm understanding it right, I'd get rid of the last element:

- if the PC gets a second Miserable result, the PC is Spent. They cannot use Hope and flee from sources of danger and stress.

... As I think Bouts of Madness when Miserable are enough.

Without the last element, the use of Hope becomes much easier once Miserable. As such, I think a back stop (the same that is in TOR when you hit 0 Hope) seemed sensible. It's harsh, yes. But if you have pushed your luck once, pushing it twice hits hard.

skywalker wrote:Without the last element, the use of Hope becomes much easier once Miserable. As such, I think a back stop (the same that is in TOR when you hit 0 Hope) seemed sensible. It's harsh, yes. But if you have pushed your luck once, pushing it twice hits hard.

So is this what you meant to say:

- if the PC gets another Miserable result (while already currently Miserable), the PC is Spent. They cannot use Hope and flee from sources of danger and stress.

?

Yep.

Yeah, that's more understandable then. Makes sense.

Why not just start the game where each character has a severely reduced amount of Hope?

Stormcrow wrote:Why not just start the game where each character has a severely reduced amount of Hope?

By how much? ... I thought that could be a solution but even reducing it by half would still mean lots of Hope to burn through for a one-shot. I think Skywalker's proposal demonstrates the Hope/Shadow/Miserable dynamic every time a personal Hope point is spent which is a pretty key concept to it, assuming I'm understanding it correctly.

Each player should have only a few points, so that if they get spend-happy they risk becoming Miserable, but if they're careful they don't.

While showcasing Hope and Shadow is interesting, becoming Miserable isn't something that should be happening a lot to a careful character. If every use of Hope risks Misery, that makes the game seem like a real downer! The goal should be to let the player experience hoarding Hope, not being Miserable.

I can understand Skywalker's motivation though. Guess it depends on what he wants to focus the one-shot on. I'd personally just reduce a character's Hope to their Heart Rating for such purposes.