Fellowship Phase undertaking - Raise Standing

[Streicher]

Hello everybody,

my group and I are struggling a bit with the Raise Standing undertaking. We have played through "Marsh-Bell", Don't leave the path", one self-written travel adventure, and the first adventure of "Darkening of Mirkwood". People have an average of 5-7 treasure points now - and no chance to take Raise Standing yet (Standing 1 costs 12 treasure). I see that the "Darking" adventures will not provide much treasure in the near future either ...

Is the undertaking only meant to be taken later in the campaign? Still, people need to be able to pay for standing upkeep as well with their limited resources, so there should be some basic income per adventure to make this work ...

How do you handle this in your group?
I tend to create little heroic undertakings for the fellowship phases that generate standing points.

Looking forward to your feedback.
Cheers,


Streicher

[zedturtle]

I know that there are some of us (myself, Rich) that tend to run very low-money games, and have adjusted the cost for various things accordingly. I'm also trying to get a handle on the tricky balance between "doing what needs to be done because it's the right thing to do" and "doing what needs to be fine because that's the best way to support my family and community".

[Otaku-sempai]

As an alternative to purchasing Standing, what about a grateful local authority figure rewarding them with an upgrade in Standing (or rewarding them with just enough treasure to raise Standing conventionally).

[Blubbo Baggins]

I think that the costs for raising Standing were not originally play-tested much. Well, that's judging because I have no idea. However, 12 Treasure takes a decent time to get (2-3 adventures usually), and having a Standing go from 0-1 doesn't really change much for the PCs (you're still looked at fairly skeptically). But if you look at the costs of Standing and how much it goes up, it does seem high compared to the amount of Treasure typically earned. It does make sense to house rule it based on the particular game.

[Earendil]

It took several adventures for most of my players to have enough treasure to raise their standing to 1. One had enough to raise his standing to 2, because I'm using the magic items rules from Rivendell and he'd found a Precious item worth 40 treasure points. Some of them had gained treasure using the Undertaking "Visit the Market at Trader's Isle" in Heart of the Wild and getting the "Good Bargains" result.

But it's very variable. Some adventures have the possibility for the group to find 80 or even 100 treasure (if they can transport it!) which would be 20 or 25 each for my 4 players. Others provide none at all.

I definitely agree that it's fine to adjust the amounts if you want. I've introduced a house rule that raising standing doesn't count as an Undertaking, because the advantages of it aren't that great and players were reluctant to do that instead of one of the many other options.

[Stormcrow]

Eh. Give out more treasure. The published adventures weren't written with the rules for standing in mind, so don't use them as a baseline for how much you're supposed to give out. Besides, finding treasure is fun!

[Majestic]

I've used the formula from the books and over time some of my adventurers have racked up quite a bit of treasure (that's incorporating Rivendell as well). Some of my PCs have used this Undertaking, and one PC (a Woodman) got his Standing so high that it elevated him to the highest person of renown among all the Woodmen! (he then represented them on the Council of the North!) The Undertaking 'Drumming Up Support' did help to get him so high.

This question does raise another issue (which I should probably start another thread for): some of the Undertakings are pretty underwhelming. To take an Undertaking that gives you a Trait for a single Adventuring Phase is usually pretty inconsequential and likely insignificant. Even worse is a character who already has said Trait (so they can now succeed automatically AND get an Advancement Point with a single Trait Invocation!)

[Rich H]

I know that there are some of us (myself, Rich) that tend to run very low-money games, and have adjusted the cost for various things accordingly.

... Yep. I personally find having to put loads of treasure in order to provide players with the resource to raise Standing to be something I simply don't want to do. I've therefore reduced the amounts but also use some Renown house rules as well that allow 'standing' to be increased both in a PCs own culture and others.

[Earendil]

The published adventures weren't written with the rules for standing in mind

Really? Can I ask if you have a source for that? Because I'd certainly have thought that the writers of the scenarios (at least from TfW onward) would have been aware of the rules of the game, including the rules for standing.

But in general I agree that there's no problem reducing the cost for increasing standing if you want (or, like I did, making it not use up an Undertaking). I've also adapted Rich's rules on Renown for my own use, since it seemed odd that, for example, saving a whole Beorning village (Stonyford) from destruction wouldn't gain the heroes any standing with the Beorning people...

[Stormcrow]

The published adventures weren't written with the rules for standing in mind

Really? Can I ask if you have a source for that? Because I'd certainly have thought that the writers of the scenarios (at least from TfW onward) would have been aware of the rules of the game, including the rules for standing.

Aware of the rules? Sure. Made an effort to exemplify the rules for standing as intended by Francesco? I doubt it.

I'm pretty sure the published adventures are how later writers interpret the rules, not an expression of the rules by the original designers.

In other words, published adventures are not rules, and you should not try to extrapolate the meanings of the rules from them.