Fellowship Rating: is it possible to increase?

[Vlue]

Reading the rules, I find difficult to determine if is it possible or not to increase the total of Fellowship Points (FP) of a party. The AB at page 81 says:

The number of points available to a company of heroes at the beginning of the game is equal to the number of heroes in the group.

Does "at the beginning" means that the FP may increase during the adventure? Or it concerns the eventuality that there is an Hobbit in the party (+ 1 Fellowship Rating)?

In addition, in the supplement Tales from Wilderland at p. 45 there's a box that says (translation from Italian):

[...]add one point to the Fellowship pool.

I don't understand if it indicates an increase of the total Fellowship rating o a simple recovering of one FP.

Any suggestions?


P.S.: I'm an Italian player/writer and my english is a little rusty, so I'm sorry for eventual grammar mistakes!

[Hermes Serpent]

The phrasing of the section on the Fellowship rating in the AB indicates that the Pool starts with one for each hero and is decremented when one point is used by a hero to recover Hope and replenished at the beginning of each game session.

I believe that only Hobbits and Beornings with Honey-cakes can increase the one point per hero of the Fellowship Pool.

The phrasing of Honey cakes is "Raise your company’s Fellowship rating by one point."

Hobbit-sense says "Each Hobbit character in the group increases the company’s Fellowship rating by one point."

The wording in Tales is "add one point to the Fellowship pool." That wording isn't as clear as the phrases in the Adventurers Book but the implication is that because of the boost from being in Beorn's House the Pool has one point added to it but I really think it's a LM call if the wording should be read as increase the pool or add one to the pool as a mini-refresh.

[Vlue]

The wording in Tales is "add one point to the Fellowship pool." That wording isn't as clear as the phrases in the Adventurers Book but the implication is that because of the boost from being in Beorn's House the Pool has one point added to it but I really think it's a LM call if the wording should be read as increase the pool or add one to the pool as a mini-refresh.

My wording is a direct translation from Italian. The English version of the sentence is the same?

[Hermes Serpent]

Where the wording is in quotation marks I copied it directly from the English book. If your translation is the same as the English from the book then your English language ability is way better than my Italian.

My comment about the clarity of the English sentence that ends "add one point to the Fellowship pool." was because I could read it either as increase the Fellowship Pool or put one back into the Fellowship Pool. English is sometimes too rich a language for the comprehension of even native speakers .

Mind you I think that section was probably written by an Irishman and and an Italian and edited by an Italian and a Briton so the lack of clarity is understandable

[Mytholder]

Actually, it's an Italian addition.

I'd read it as "add one point to your Fellowship pool, even if this brings you above your normal maximum".

[Hermes Serpent]

I could read it as that, but is it meant as a permanent addition to the pool or a temporary addition that doesn't carry over after the refresh, that's really the question being asked. If the phrasing used had been the same as the rule book phrase for the Honey cakes and Hobbit-sense there wouldn't be any question.

I think that it's really up to the LM how he want's to deal with it and that depends upon his players and their use of those points.

[Mordjinn]

Kind of related to the original question, is it possible to change the Fellowship Focus between adventures?

[Hermes Serpent]

I'd insist that there is a good reason to change your Fellowship Focus. A hero leaving the company, dying or falling to Shadow something like that relating to the role play rather than something mechanical. If you have a decent background reason for choosing your focus why would you change it?

[Mytholder]

I could read it as that, but is it meant as a permanent addition to the pool or a temporary addition that doesn't carry over after the refresh, that's really the question being asked. If the phrasing used had been the same as the rule book phrase for the Honey cakes and Hobbit-sense there wouldn't be any question.

I think that it's really up to the LM how he want's to deal with it and that depends upon his players and their use of those points.

I'd say it's just for the adventure. It's a temporary boon.

[Hermes Serpent]

Thanks forthe semi-official response Gar. It's nice that you continue to frequent these boards after your change of position.