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A question came up in one of my PbP games about changing Fellowship Focus.

I'm wondering if anyone has any insight about how and when a player can switch his Fellowship Focus, if at all. I had thought at one point I read some text in the rulebook indicating it could be changed pretty much at any time, though now I don't see anything supporting that.

I can't imagine it can NEVER be changed, as in the case of character death, retirement, "sitting one out", etc.

Anyone have any thoughts on this (preferably something substantiated by rules?)

I think that would occur if the relationship changed in some way; one character did something that the other found against their moral compass or at odds with one of their traits/specialities and that altered the relationship. Also should one member of a company choose not to adventure further but settle down and raise a family or build up a holding then another relationship might be formed either with another member of the original company or perhaps fresh adventurer.

Like so many other things, the fellowship focus exists to help you emulate Tolkien's world, not to prescribe it for you. If it makes sense for your character to have a new focus, by all means change it.

I probably would only allow a change during a fellowship phase.

The same question came up in our group, and we agreed that changing focus was something a character could do during a Fellowship Phase.

Stormcrow wrote:Like so many other things, the fellowship focus exists to help you emulate Tolkien's world, not to prescribe it for you. If it makes sense for your character to have a new focus, by all means change it.

I probably would only allow a change during a fellowship phase.

No doubt, Stormcrow, but it's a dynamic that different people have different opinions on, and without any structured rules to back them up, it's difficult to know who has the "correcter" interpretation.

For example, I think the narrative of Lord of the Rings could be argued that:
-all Fellowship members had Frodo as their Fellowship Focus up to the Battle of Amon Hen.
-Aragorn had Merry and/or Pippin as his Fellowship Focus afterwards.
-Gandalf the White changed his Fellowship Focus to Aragorn for a short time afterwards.
-Gandalf had Pippin as his fellowship focus from Rohan to the Siege of Pelenor and then Aragorn again up to the Black Gate.
-Aragorn had Gandalf as his fellowship focus upto departing Meduseld, and then Eowyn or Theoden up through Helm's Deep. He then had Theoden up to the Paths of the Dead, then no one until Pelenor, and then back to Gandalf through Black Gate.
-Legolas and Gimli were each other's fellowship focus from Helm's Deep to Black Gate.
-Merry had Eowyn up until slaying the Witch king, then switched to Pippin after they reunited.
-Pippin had Gandalf until slaying the Witch King, then switched to Merry after they reunited.
-Sam had Frodo as his focus for the whole story
-Frodo probably had Gandalf as his fellowship focus up to the Balrog, and then Sam up to Emyn Muil at which point he switched to Gollum.

Granted, this is all VERY subjective, and arguable, but i think the point here is that all the major players shifted their "focus" for caring at different times depending on who was with them and the needs of both the story and the mission.

Rocmistro wrote:No doubt, Stormcrow, but it's a dynamic that different people have different opinions on,

Hence my "if it makes sense."

and without any structured rules to back them up, it's difficult to know who has the "correcter" interpretation.

I don't think there's meant to be such a thing. The rules tell you enough to get you going; you're expected to use them as needed to support your game. That's what's "correct."

Da Rules wrote:It can be any other player-hero, even one that has already been chosen by somebody else as his focus. The bond doesn’t have to be mutual: a hero who has been chosen by another hero as his focus is free to choose any other character as his own.

Hmmm. Alright... it's surely not a mutual thing and probably doesn't need a scene (though having IC scenes/justification would be something I'd like to see). But it doesn't feel right for it to change all the time. The block of time that the mechanics use is the session; so the absolute minimum of time that must pass before you change FFs is the session (otherwise it becomes "Who isn't wounded? Bob! Bob is everyone's FF now!"). I would personally say the Adventuring Phase is a better block of time, since it isn't bound up into playstyle and would make narrative sense... "I never realized how important that damn hobbit was to me until we almost lost her." kind of stuff.

As others have said, there's no hard and fast rules... I think it's one of those things that LMs have to decide for themselves. Allowing changes more easily will produce a different feel than making it more difficult.

Rocmistro wrote:No doubt, Stormcrow, but it's a dynamic that different people have different opinions on, and without any structured rules to back them up, it's difficult to know who has the "correcter" interpretation.

As long as you're consistent with how you rule it in your game, Rocco, and your ruling makes sense from a character motivation and dramatic perspective then that's the 'correct' interpretation.

The problem with written rules is that they can't always adequately cover all the various permutations of something and if they leave something out they often become more problematic than not writing anything at all (with regard tot he subject in question).

In respect of changing Fellowship Focus I don't think I'd even limit it to only being able to change during a Fellowship Phase; if it was appropriate to change it halfway through an adventure, due to something important and/or dramatic occurring to those involved, then so be it.

trystero wrote:The same question came up in our group, and we agreed that changing focus was something a character could do during a Fellowship Phase.

Same here.