Year's End Fellowship Phase

[Baldrick0712]

Re-reading the rules I have found something I had not really taken into account before, namely the difference between a "Short" Fellowship Phase and a "Year's End" Fellowship Phase. Until now I had assumed that the Fellowship Phase was always at the end of the year and there was thus only ever one Fellowship Phase per year. Now it appears that there could be several, for instance a Short Fellowship Phase in the summer between two adventures (is Adventure therefore synonymous with Adventuring Phase?) and a Year's End Fellowship Phase in the winter.

It seems that a "Short" Fellowship Phase represents maybe a stopover of a couple of weeks, and as such only entitles the character to a single Undertaking, whilst a "Year's End" Fellowship Phase represents spending the whole winter at the chosen location and allows a character to do two Undertakings.

This has got me thinking about Standing Upkeep. According to the rules, spending the Fellowship Phase at a Sanctuary away from home costs the character 1 point of Standing unless they pay a Standing Upkeep cost in Treasure Points equal to their current Standing. Does this only apply to the Year's End Fellowship Phase?

It would seem to me that it would have to be only during the "Year's End" Fellowship Phase as otherwise the cost for being away from home would depend on the number of Fellowship Phases in the year. Is this what you think also?

I would also be interested to know of any other differences between "Short" and "Year's End" Fellowship Phases you are aware of, or have house ruled, and if you consider Adventure to be identical to Adventuring Phase?

[Dunkelbrink]

Hi Baldrick,

You're right, there can be several Fellowship phases during a year, but only one Year's end. It all depends on the pace you Loremaster prefers and how long the adventures are. And yes - an Adventure phase and an adventure are essentially the same, and the Adventure phase lasts as long as the adventure.

Standing upkeep is only paid during Year's End, see page 193 and 200 in the Revised rules. "When a companion passes a Year's End Fellowship phase away from home".

[Baldrick0712]

Thanks for those page references - I am surprised I missed the specific line about it having to be a Year's End Fellowship Phase but I am rather skimming the rules at the moment to make a kind of rules summary for myself.

Thanks also for confirming my growing suspicion that I had not understood Adventure Phases correctly. Until now I thought each Year consisted of one Adventure Phase and then one Fellowship Phase, but that the Adventure Phase could consist of several different adventures. I now see that an Adventure should generally be followed by a Fellowship Phase, even if it is not the Year's End one, thus making Adventures and Adventure Phases more or less synonymous with each other.

If I ever finish this rules summary (well, more of a guide to how to play the game really) I may post it up here for others to use, and your input has been helpful in this regard.

Thanks again.

[Stormcrow]

The rules generally suppose that the player-heroes don't spend all their time wandering around looking for adventures, but that they have important lives at home. The adventuring phase really just lasts however long it takes to have an adventure, and the rest of the year your character gets on with life in a fellowship phase. One might even say that the fellowship phase doesn't necessarily take up all the character's time away from adventures, but that kind of distinction doesn't really do anything for us.

It's when you're going on a particularly long adventure with long breaks between stages that the idea of multiple adventuring phases per year comes up. If you're going all the way from Hobbiton to the Lonely Mountain, you're probably going to need significant breaks on the way, and not just to remove Fatigue Points. Those are fellowship phases. Still, when the adventure is finally over, there's still the Year's End fellowship phase.

But the rules don't lock you into this format. If you really want to be a professional adventurer, or if your Loremaster really wants to increase the frequency that adventures occur, there's no reason this can't happen. The Year's End fellowship phase simply becomes the slightly longer winter phase of rest, in which Standings are checked and what's been happening in the world gets related.

[Majestic]

Thanks also for confirming my growing suspicion that I had not understood Adventure Phases correctly. Until now I thought each Year consisted of one Adventure Phase and then one Fellowship Phase, but that the Adventure Phase could consist of several different adventures. I now see that an Adventure should generally be followed by a Fellowship Phase, even if it is not the Year's End one, thus making Adventures and Adventure Phases more or less synonymous with each other.

Most of the time that's true, but not always. Page 192 (Revised) does say "A Fellowship phase marks the conclusion of the current Adventuring phase".

One thing that really helped me understand the proper pacing is the C7 published works. Most of "Tales from Wilderland" has good stopping points after each individual adventure/chapter (for a Fellowship Phase), and the Fellowship usually needs that time to catch their breath, heal their bodies, get rid of Shadow, etc. But the final adventure "The Watch on the Heath", takes place right on the heels of a major battle, and even specifically says "This adventure takes place shortly after The Crossings of Celduin. There is no time for a Fellowship Phase between the two quests."

So there might be a time you as a LM decide to roll right from one adventure to the next, though most of the time you will allow the party to take a Fellowship Phase following each Adventuring Phase.

I wouldn't do this very often, as it could easily result in a TPK, but just wanted to point out that it can be used occasionally.