Old Toby

[barefoottourguide]

I'm working on a scenario where Dodias Brandybuck tries to ford the river a the Old Ford, resulting in it tipping over and his wares being washed down river. The heroes are expected to rescue him. Should the prolonged action for the rescue be successful, they'll be awarded a pouch of Old Toby.
I was thinking of giving it a mechanical benefit. The pouch lasts for multiple uses of course, but during one of its uses, while the PC's resting, he receives a point of Hope from the pipe weed, as it calms and soothes him.
Is this too much? It seems to fit the motif.
Garrett

[Falenthal]

Recovering Hope should be scarce.
I think that "blowing away your sorrows" (a.k.a. reduce 1 point of Shadow) is more in line.

Just my opinion.

Also, I think another one of its benefits could be to raise the Tolerance of an Encounter by 1.

[Fenton Hardy]

How about reducing one point of fatigue? Fatigue is emotional and psychological as well as physical and I can see pipe smoking as a dangerous form of meditation.

[robert_pat]

Personally, I'd lean more towards regaining Hope or Fatigue than removing Shadow. Relaxing with intoxicating substances like good pipe-weed or ale can certainly lift the spirits, but it can't wipe away your troubles. I can attest to that from my personal experience of Finals Week. A good ale will make my night a little better, but I'll still have a gut-load of dread in the morning.

And raising Tolerance would only be applicable with characters who smoke, who are few and far between given that it's a distinctly "Hobbit" habit.

[Wbweather]

If seeing Beorn's stead for the first time give the companions a point of hope, then I think it reasonable that a hobbit (or a character with the smoking trait) in particular might gain hope from a bowl of Old Toby.

[Falenthal]

I don't think there's a problem with Old Toby per se, but Hope is supposed to be a diminishing resource.

The moment the players can recover Hope with Old Toby, by visiting Beorn's House with the corpse in Dark Tidings, Visiting the King's Stone (p.60 HotW), doing the There and Back Again Undertaking (Rivendell), increasing the Fellowship Pool with Twice-Baked Honey Cakes, increasing it even more by having Hobbits as characters,... then you end up having lots of tiny ways of recovering Hope which, all added up, makes spending Hope an easier choice for players. And the Shadow vs. Hope mechanic something that will appear in your games even more seldom.

I'd add more options to recover Hope to your game only if you feel your players are having a hard time keeping away from their 2nd or 3rd Flaw. Otherwise, they'll lose the fun of this part of the game.

[shipwreck]

I agree that Hope should be a very scarce commodity. We bumped into a similar situation with my Ranger character this week. He was rolling terribly and spent way more Hope than he should and wanted to invoke his Smoking trait to rest and get some back. I wouldn't let him do that (he wound up acquiring Confidence to reset his Hope pool) but I did let him rest as if in a 'safe place' so he reduced his Fatigue in addition to regaining Endurance.

Can't recall if I made him roll for it or just gave it to him...

[Wbweather]

I thought we were talking about a special batch of Old Toby. I think if a player could get a point of hope back every time they smoked their pipe, that would be way to much. I was thinking more along the lines of Merry and Pippin finding pipe-weed in the ruins of Isengard. I could see potentially giving a single point of hope for something like that, but I agree. Hope should be a very scarce resource that is not regained lightly.

[Falenthal]

I thought we were talking about a special batch of Old Toby.

I think so, too.

Let me explain a bit further: I understand (and share!) the reasoning behing letting the first smoke of Old Toby regain 1 Hope point. It wouldn't crash the game, for sure. I'd just be careful not to abuse this "one time recovery". 1 point could also be recovered the first time a Dorwinion wine bottle is drinked, or the recovered halls of Erebor are beholded, or the joint woodwork of elves and lake-towners in the new Esgaroth are visited, etc.

[Rich H]

I personally prefer the idea of reducing Fatigue but can see the option to allow for Hope gain. Reducing Shadow doesn't make a lot of sense from my perspective so I wouldn't go that route.

In my campaign I use 'Points of Inspiration' as a house rule to regaining Hope as I don't refresh the Fellowship Poo at the end of each sessions and I like Hope gain (as well as loss) to interact more with the narrative. I could see smoking a pipe in certain conditions as aiding such Hope recovery.