How much should Tolerance be raised with one's Patron?

[Majestic]

So one of my PCs has chosen Beorn as his Patron. And we're about to play "Kinstrife and Dark Tidings", where Beorn sets up the adventure for the PCs at the beginning.

When they do that Encounter, how much of a bonus do you think there should be for the group based on this? I'm thinking of adding 1 to the Tolerance because of it.

[zedturtle]

That sounds good. The rules are bit unspecific as to whether a Patron has a relationship with just an individual or the whole company.

As an alternative, I might allow (if you're doing the individual route) to have that character treat every skill used with the Patron as favoured. That would emphasize their relationship while not impacting the overall balance of the Encounter.

[Majestic]

Yeah, the rules are a bit tough on that one. I can see it often being similar to opening a Sanctuary, where the whole Fellowship pitches in. In this case, we were in the land of the Beornings, and most chose to do other things. One player asked to make Beorn a Patron, and he's the only Woodsman in the party (the Beorning hasn't played since the initial game). Being from such a close culture, it seemed reasonable that he could have met Beorn alone (though with the shapechanger's mysteriousness, he's still mostly an unknown to the group).

[Rocmistro]

I can't give you source notes (I don't remember where I read it), but I was under the impression that when a player who shared the same culture as a Patron was socially interacting, that they added their standing rating to the tolerance of the encounter.

Maybe that's only if they were the "party spokesman"?

[beckett]

I can't give you source notes (I don't remember where I read it), but I was under the impression that when a player who shared the same culture as a Patron was socially interacting, that they added their standing rating to the tolerance of the encounter.

Maybe that's only if they were the "party spokesman"?

Page 188 of the Revised book doesn't mention patrons but it does discuss Standing as a modifier for encounters.

Standing Modifier

If at least one companion present at the meeting belongs to the same culture of the encountered party, his status among his folk positively affects the encounter: The highest Standing value among those of any companions belonging to the same cultural group of the encountered party is added to the basic Tolerance rating for the encounter.

In the preceding example, if a companion in the group is an Elf, then his Standing rating (or, if there is more than one Elf in the company, the highest Standing rating among them) can be added as a positive modifier to the basic Tolerance rating of the encounter.

[Majestic]

I can't give you source notes (I don't remember where I read it), but I was under the impression that when a player who shared the same culture as a Patron was socially interacting, that they added their standing rating to the tolerance of the encounter.

Maybe that's only if they were the "party spokesman"?

Tales from Wilderland spells out that you increase the Tolerance by one if a Beorning or Woodman is the party spokesman. Then it tells you to take into account the Standing rating of any Beorning (my character who chose Beorn as a Patron is a Woodsman).

[Falenthal]

As I understand, and answering to the OP, having someone as Patron doesn't increase the Tolerance of an Encounter wiht him. At least by the RAW.

Having a Patron allows for the group (or the companion) to be contacted by him to be given quests or asked for favours, but nothing else.

The way I play it as LM, I try to use the Patrons to give useful information to the hero that selected him, or contact him to give the group a quest, and things like that. In fact, we all know that the NPC would have given the group the mission eitherway, else we wouldn't have a gaming sessión
But I try to make the character with the Patron more important in the story. And also, I would allow for the hero to ask his Patron for some help if it is possible in some way, even if it wasn't included in the adventure.

Think of having a Patron as having a Trait: The hero can invoke it to get some help.

[zedturtle]

Think of having a Patron as having a Trait: The hero can invoke it to get some help.

That's a really good idea. It would allow the character to auto-succeed during Encounters, which would really help with Tolerance. I like it!