Despair - A Hope hack for One-Shot games

[skywalker]

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?

[Rich H]

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.

[skywalker]

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.

[Rich H]

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.

?

[skywalker]

Yep.

[Rich H]

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

[Stormcrow]

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

[Rich H]

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.

[Stormcrow]

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.

[Rich H]

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.