Other rules explanations

[koblih123]

Hi, I again need to know some more about the rules.

1) I play with group of 2 PC ( I know that it's not best but..) and if we have ENCOUNTER they actually most of time can't fail due to tolerance. Am I understand it right if I say, that if the tolerance is for examplesat as 3, you need to fail 3 rolls to fail the ENCOUNTER ??

2) If PC succeed in ambush, are they holding an initiative?? Because they start to attack and that's considered that the NPC holding it ?

3) I couldn't find how many times you are allowed to fail in prolonged actions to fail completely. Can you bring the light to it pls ?

4)That's the main question.
We've done the adventuring phase which was about 5 days long (just a task from beorning, without planed journey (no fatigue roll) and now they returned to him with task completed) and said
they want to manage some thing in town and etc.
Therefor should I set the Fellowship phase for them ?? And they are near the Beorn's house (It's not their sanctuary) and they can just go home (Group: beorning, hobbit) to beornings land and to the Shire or go to some sanctuary they have.
Do this sanctuary has to be quite near the place they are now or not ?
And than, they want to go to some place they don't have as sanctuary... and so my question is, can they go where they want and start some adventuring phases here ?? or Do I have to do some adventure to bring them there ??

Thx very much for all explanations, answers and suggestions.

[Glorelendil]

1) I play with group of 2 PC ( I know that it's not best but..) and if we have ENCOUNTER they actually most of time can't fail due to tolerance. Am I understand it right if I say, that if the tolerance is for examplesat as 3, you need to fail 3 rolls to fail the ENCOUNTER ??

Yes, but there are two ways of interpreting that failure:
"Low Stakes Version": Exceeding Tolerance simply means that no more successes may be accumulated: the person may be bored, busy, has all the information he wants, or simply has made up his mind and is happy to keep talking, but you're not going to influence him anymore. However, the heroes still "keep" the successes they've rolled so far. In these encounters the heroes may as well keep rolling until they fail.

"High Stakes Version": Exceeding tolerance triggers a negative reaction. The person might fly into a rage, or think poorly of the heroes from then on, or not give them an important piece of advice, or even attack them. In this outcome it doesn't necessarily mean they heroes have lost their accumulated successes, but it might. In these encounters the heroes have to gamble a little bit once they get close to Tolerance (if the LM even tells them what the number is!) because one bad roll too many could turn victory in failure.

2) If PC succeed in ambush, are they holding an initiative?? Because they start to attack and that's considered that the NPC holding it ?

As mentioned in the other thread, succeeding in an Ambush gives you an opening Volley and you win initiative.

3) I couldn't find how many times you are allowed to fail in prolonged actions to fail completely. Can you bring the light to it pls ?

I can't help you here; I'd like some insight on prolonged actions as well.

If you just let them keep rolling until they get all the successes one penalty for bad rolls might be increasing Eye Awareness, but only if you have the Rivendell supplement and are using the Eye of Mordor rules found therein.

4)That's the main question.
We've done the adventuring phase which was about 5 days long (just a task from beorning, without planed journey (no fatigue roll) and now they returned to him with task completed) and said
they want to manage some thing in town and etc.
Therefor should I set the Fellowship phase for them ?? And they are near the Beorn's house (It's not their sanctuary) and they can just go home (Group: beorning, hobbit) to beornings land and to the Shire or go to some sanctuary they have.
Do this sanctuary has to be quite near the place they are now or not ?
And than, they want to go to some place they don't have as sanctuary... and so my question is, can they go where they want and start some adventuring phases here ?? or Do I have to do some adventure to bring them there ??

Thx very much for all explanations, answers and suggestions.

Technically, yes to all of the above. But it sounds like your "adventure" would be more appropriate as a first scene in a bigger adventure. Adventure Phases in TOR are meant to take weeks or months, and Fellowship Phases should represent significant breaks in between.

The part about being able to go home, regardless of distance, without using Journey rules is supposed to represent the fiction, not the rules. That is, by definition you are not having an adventure, you are just going home, so you don't need to make all the Journey rolls. Think of Bilbo returning to the Shire after the Erebor Quest: the Wilderland was still dangerous, but the story was over. Or the 4 Hobbits returning to the Shire at the end of LOTR: they thought their adventure was over (spoiler: it wasn't), but the journey back to the Shire wasn't part of the story so it wasn't really described.

If it makes you feel better as the LM, definitely feel free to embellish some details about those sorts of Fellowship Phases travels. Or, better yet, ask your players to describe how the Journey goes, because remember: the Fellowship Phase is when they get to tell the story.

Hope that helps.

[zedturtle]

1) I play with group of 2 PC ( I know that it's not best but..) and if we have ENCOUNTER they actually most of time can't fail due to tolerance. Am I understand it right if I say, that if the tolerance is, for example, is at 3, you need to fail 3 rolls to fail the ENCOUNTER ??

Yes, you need to fail three rolls. Of course, with only two characters they will still need to make introductions and ask questions. Like Glorelendil referenced, you may want to determine ahead of time what failures represent... a character that is pressed for time might answer only three or four questions, despite success or failure.

3) I couldn't find how many times you are allowed to fail in prolonged actions to fail completely. Can you bring the light to it pls ?

Page 150 in the Revised Rulebook is your friend. The idea (again) is you have to determine before the prolonged contest begins what a failure means. If it is simply a delay, then heroes can keep going as long as they like (and I would say that unless there is some sort of external time limit, then simply narrate their eventual success instead). If a failure represents moderate consequences, then something about the contest should change on each failure (heroes lose Endurance, or gain Fatigue, or the TN goes up a step). If failure is catastrophic, then the prolonged action should stop (fail) on the first failure, probably with terrible consequences for the failing character.

And than, they want to go to some place they don't have as sanctuary... and so my question is, can they go where they want and start some adventuring phases here ?? or Do I have to do some adventure to bring them there ??

In these sorts of circumstances, I strongly recommend using the expected narrative control and timing expectations of the system to your advantage. Something to the effect of "After your adventure in the land of the Beornings, you part ways and [the Hobbit] returns westward to the Shire. But it comes to pass that in the Spring of the next year, wanderlust has again gripped him and he finds himself in Wilderland again, along with his friend [the Beorning]."

Or you could do something else, where you have a mini-Fellowship Phase and then launch back into a larger adventure.

[Stormcrow]

Note that an encounter is not usually a win/lose situation. It's a situation in which you collect information, influence, prestige, and the like. Exceeding Tolerance—and Francesco tells me you actually have to roll MORE failures than the Tolerance number—doesn't mean the encounter has failed; it means the encounter is over whether you want it to be or not, and you cannot collect anymore information, influence, prestige, or whatever. Exceeding Tolerance MAY involve a bad reaction on the part of the Loremaster characters involved, but this is up to the Loremaster, and is not baked into the rules. It may just mean the Loremaster characters are no longer interested in talking to the player-heroes.

An encounter is also over when the players decide they're done getting what they want or need out of it. This is not a "success"; it's just time to move on.

[zedturtle]

Oops, you're right of course. So in the example given, it would be fail four rolls, not three. I think all other advice stands, though.

[koblih123]

Thx especially for encounter explenation and for others too.
And with the long adventuring phase, they maybe can have some rest break, but no fellowship phase like, they do what they need right now and than start journeying till fellowship ??

[Majestic]

It's important, too, to make sure you do what makes narrative (story) sense, rather than trying to fit your story into a dogmatic structure imposed by the rules.

So do what makes sense for your characters. If they adventured and it only took them a week, it's probably unlikely that the Hobbit will dash back off to the Shire.

As LM you can allow short (mini) Fellowship Phases in-between adventures; the company doesn't have to "break up" each and every time. The times when they all (or most of them might) return home is better reflected when the company has had an arduous period of travel and/or adventures, where they yearn to return to hearth and home. After short adventures, it will often make sense for the company to continue on to the next challenge. It's entirely up to the LM as to whether or not there is enough of a "break" to reflect a Fellowship Phase. I tend to let my players accomplish one Undertaking during a shorter Fellowship Phase, and often allow two during a longer one.