Forced Hope Claiming

[Majestic]

Also, Hope should really be spent in combat a lot. Ideally, players will want to spend Hope to transform failed rolls with Tengwars into Great or Extraordinary successes. Hobbits should want to spend Hope to transform hits into Piercing Blows.

My players have realized that it's often wiser to wait on spending Hope in combat, doing so only when there are Tengwars showing, to really maximize the benefit.

So why for Hobbits (specifically) to turn misses into Piercing Blows? Because their damage (even with an Extraordinary success) doesn't really add up to much?

[Morgoth]

So why for Hobbits (specifically) to turn misses into Piercing Blows? Because their damage (even with an Extraordinary success) doesn't really add up to much?

I think he's talking about Hobbits with King's Blades.

[Majestic]

Ah! That makes sense. Our Hobbit doesn't have that yet. Thanks, Morgoth! (not going to lie, it feels strange saying that )

[Murcushio]

Either way, I must say that none of the characters is at maximum Hope. They all have lost some and, as I said before, the current 4 adventures have been more or less easy. From now on, things will get a bit more complicated.

... do your players know they can, and should be, tapping the Fellowship pool at the end of a session?

Because "none of the characters is at maximum Hope" doesn't seem to mesh with your earlier statements that they've never emptied the Fellowship pool unless they're not entirely clear on the mechanics involved. If a session ends with everybody not at maximum Hope and points remaining in the Fellowship pool, that pool should be drained dry to top people off since it refills again next session and is use-it-or-lose-it.

[Falenthal]

Either way, I must say that none of the characters is at maximum Hope. They all have lost some and, as I said before, the current 4 adventures have been more or less easy. From now on, things will get a bit more complicated.

... do your players know they can, and should be, tapping the Fellowship pool at the end of a session?

Because "none of the characters is at maximum Hope" doesn't seem to mesh with your earlier statements that they've never emptied the Fellowship pool unless they're not entirely clear on the mechanics involved. If a session ends with everybody not at maximum Hope and points remaining in the Fellowship pool, that pool should be drained dry to top people off since it refills again next session and is use-it-or-lose-it.

Yes, they know, and they distribute the remaining FP points at the end of every session. Only that there aren't enough left to fill everyone's Hope back to the maximum.
In other words, we have 4 players (4 Fellowship Pool points). During the adventure everyone spends 2 points from their personal Hope. At the end of the adventure, they agree to recover one point each from the FP. That makes everyone 1 point less than their initial Hope.

Of course, it's not so symmetric in real life: sometimes they take the points from the FP, sometimes they do from their own Hope. As a way of roleplaying, they take points from the FP only if the action benefits the whole group. They did come up with this idea, and it's fine for me.

[Glorelendil]

I think people are confused because you initially wrote:

In fact, I think that in 4 adventures, the FP has never been depleted.

...suggesting that there are points left over in the Fellowship Pool after each session.

[Falenthal]

My mistake.

I meant that, at the end of nearly every Adventure Phase, there were still FP points unused to distribute among the heroes before the Fellowship Phase.

I must say that, up to now, every adventure has lasted one full session.

[PST]

Has any player ever actually DONE this?

The RAW says you can take hope points from the fellowship pool without consent of the fellowship, but gain 1 shadow for every point so taken.

Has that rule ever been used or enforced?

Last session. Player A just missed a role and said he was spending hope and wanted to take it from the fellowship pool. Player B said no (because she didn't think he needed the success for the group) Player A took the point anyways, I gave him a Shadow Point. Discussing it afterwards it worked out because he was wanting to succeed for himself when the group had already done well with their introduction. I'd not expected the rule to come up but it was a pretty perfect way of it happening, succeeding because he wanted to, not because he needed to.

(Possibly relevant house rule: In my game they can replenish a point right away, or share them out at the end of the session. The Dunedain can only replenish right away and at a 2 for 1 (he drains 2 points from the pool to replace the one point he spent), this replacing the rule that Dunedain cannot use the Fellowship pool at all. So far he's used it twice, and is generally far more loathe than the others to spend points).

[Robin Smallburrow]

Falenthal

This situation is as it should be- the design of TOR ( and I think the designers also have said this) intends for characters to have dwindling Hope as they become more experienced - their Current Hope should NEVER get back to its starting level.

Robin S.

[Falenthal]

Falenthal

This situation is as it should be- the design of TOR ( and I think the designers also have said this) intends for characters to have dwindling Hope as they become more experienced - their Current Hope should NEVER get back to its starting level.

Robin S.

Right, and I like it a lot. For now, I think the Hope/Shadow mechanic is working well for us.
I just had this doubt about our Fellowship Pool not getting empty during the adventure phase.