Is 3 players enough

[bigsteveuk]

Hi Guys,

I am hopefully running TOR next year, but real life has impacted on one of my players and he may have stop coming regularly as he will be working a night-shift.

This will leave me with 3 players, is that a suitable number or is that to few to hit the sweet spot?

Regards,

Steve

[Otaku-sempai]

You can probably get by with three Heroes, but you might want to consider letting at least one of your players have two PCs if he/she is comfortable with doing so.

[Stormcrow]

Frodo, Sam, Gollum; Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli—all had adventures with only three.

[Glorelendil]

Frodo, Sam, Gollum; Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli—all had adventures with only three.

Mo, Curly, and Larry

[doctheweasel]

Frodo, Sam, Gollum; Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli—all had adventures with only three.

Mo, Curly, and Larry

Mo: Who's the guide?

Larry: I'm the scout. He's the guide. (points to Curly)

Curly: I'm the scout. He's the guide. (points to Mo)

Mo: I'm the scout, you morons. (double slap)

[Mim]

I never thought I'd see a reference to the Stooges on here but as a fellow fan, I have to admit that you just gave me a nice belly laugh

Concerning the original question, however, Stormcrow hits it well. I've also run games for many years and believe that 3-4 players is optimal: not too many or too few (depending on how you run your games).

[MasterSmithwise]

I've been running with 3. It's a good group. They have to choose which travel roll to fill wisely as they'll auto-fail whichever role isn't covered. This adds interesting gameplay though.

[Falenthal]

they'll auto-fail whichever role isn't covered.

Remember that other roles can spend a point of Hope to face the Hazard directed at an empty role.
Just to give them options.

On the topic, I'm not sure if the rule implies that this Hope expenditure can't be made if the role is covered.
For example, a group knows they're going to face a big battle at the end of the journey (they might be traveling to the battle!), so they want to avoid getting Weary at all cost.
A Hazard is triggered that affects the Hunter and that has "Weary" as an effect. They have a character covering the Hunter role, but he only has 2 skill points. The group doesn't want to risk it and another hero, with also 2 skill points in Hunting, decides he'll use a Hope point to have a chance to overcome the Hazard, too.

Would that be possible according to RAW?
I know I would allow it (spending a Hope point is a high cost), by the way.

[Artaxastra]

I've been running with three players for more than a year. It works fine. Two of them are very experienced players, however, and have at various points been running two characters at a time in the same party.

[Otaku-sempai]

I've been running with 3. It's a good group. They have to choose which travel roll to fill wisely as they'll auto-fail whichever role isn't covered. This adds interesting gameplay though.

I know of no reason why one person cannot take on two (or more) travel roles.