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Deadmanwalking wrote:Do other groups not do something like this?

Nah, I don't refresh the Fellowship pool at the end of each session so don't do it; such a thing in my game happens at key narrative junctures/achievements within the story instead. Players therefore can recognise the potential of this occurring and use Hope from the FP but I really don't like the idea of taking points from the pool just before it refreshes, I think it's a pretty goofy mechanic and one of the few bad things in the RAW.

I use poker chips White and red for Endurance (Red is wearied level), and Blue for hope, green for fellowship.

So, if Marty has 19 End, and 12 Enc, he gets 7 white and 12 red; if he gets fatigue, he swaps white for red. Makes it almost a non-issue to track. Compulsive chip-fiddlers, however, can become really noisy.

Rich H wrote:

Deadmanwalking wrote:Do other groups not do something like this?

Nah, I don't refresh the Fellowship pool at the end of each session so don't do it; such a thing in my game happens at key narrative junctures/achievements within the story instead. Players therefore can recognise the potential of this occurring and use Hope from the FP but I really don't like the idea of taking points from the pool just before it refreshes, I think it's a pretty goofy mechanic and one of the few bad things in the RAW.

Nice idea: just because five minutes before ending playing session you can have some discussion like 'and, err, I take two point from the fellowship pool...' .

Terisonen wrote:Nice idea: just because five minutes before ending playing session you can have some discussion like 'and, err, I take two point from the fellowship pool...' .

Yep. We all found that really broke our immersion. I'm not particularly sure it's what the RAW really want you to do either, but there's nothing saying you can't.

I really handle Hope differently in my campaign... Like I say, the Fellowship pool refreshes at key narrative points in an adventure rather than at the end of a session and I use some 'inspiration' rules for an occassional point of personal Hope getting restored depending on things happening in the game - I do think that's already referred to and used within official published adventures so I've just adopted some explicit rules on how to use it.

At first I wasn't getting the issue, but after thinking about it, I see that the problem is in the rule about what constitutes a session. Sessions can be shorter or longer periods of play, but represent the actual gathering of players on a particular day. The refreshing of the Fellowship pool occurs at the beginning of every gaming session.

The way I've always done it is to redefine 'session.' I count a session as a complete Adventuring phase followed by a Fellowship phase, no matter how many times we've actually gathered together. So, the Fellowship pool does not get refreshed until the Fellowship phase ends, no matter how many times we get together. In fact, there could be days when more than one adventure is played and the Fellowship pool needs to be refreshed.

So, for me: 1 Adventure = 1 Session (no matter how many actual gatherings it takes)

The only exception to this would be if a particular Adventuring phase represented a long period of time, lasting more than a season (more than 3 months) perhaps. This would likely be an adventure with 7 or more parts or more than 2 major journeys, for example. Then, I would consider a refresh halfway through at an appropriate moment.

Just out of interest how do you both give out Hope from a Fellowship Focus? Is it one at the end of each 'gathering' or is it at the end of each 'session' as you describe it. ie only one back each Adventuring Phase?

gazery wrote:Just out of interest how do you both give out Hope from a Fellowship Focus? Is it one at the end of each 'gathering' or is it at the end of each 'session' as you describe it. ie only one back each Adventuring Phase?

I give it per Adventuring phase, which is how I define a 'session.'

jamesrbrown wrote:At first I wasn't getting the issue, but after thinking about it, I see that the problem is in the rule about what constitutes a session. Sessions can be shorter or longer periods of play, but represent the actual gathering of players on a particular day. The refreshing of the Fellowship pool occurs at the beginning of every gaming session.

And the issue with that is that players can, in my opinion, artificially game the system because they know when the end of a session is approaching and just divide up the remaining points in the Fellowship pool between them as they know it will be refreshing at the start of the next one. It also ruined our immersion.

In addition gaming groups that have shorter sessions get more refreshes yet because their game sessions are shorter face a lesser number of challenges that those gaming groups that play in larger sessions. Adventures are therefore mechanically easier if you play shorter sessions as you have access to a higher number of Hope resource points due to your Fellowship pool refreshing more. That's very... odd.

The LM advice in the revised rules that we worked on goes some way to providing guidance on this but I think a wholesale change would have been better in moving such refreshes to key points in an adventure rather than at the beginning of a session. Or even just have the Fellowship pool available once per adventure (ie, never refreshes) like you suggest below.

jamesrbrown wrote:The way I've always done it is to redefine 'session.' I count a session as a complete Adventuring phase followed by a Fellowship phase, no matter how many times we've actually gathered together. So, the Fellowship pool does not get refreshed until the Fellowship phase ends, no matter how many times we get together. In fact, there could be days when more than one adventure is played and the Fellowship pool needs to be refreshed.

So, for me: 1 Adventure = 1 Session (no matter how many actual gatherings it takes)

The only exception to this would be if a particular Adventuring phase represented a long period of time, lasting more than a season (more than 3 months) perhaps. This would likely be an adventure with 7 or more parts or more than 2 major journeys, for example. Then, I would consider a refresh halfway through at an appropriate moment.

I've done something similar. In my house rules I work (loosely) to the following regarding the number of refreshes to the Fellowship pool and the challenge/difficulty of the adventure.

Short/easy adventure: 0 refreshes
Medium/medium adventure: 1 refresh
Long/hard adventure: 2 refreshes

Obviously measuring the length and difficulty of an adventure is something of an art rather than a science but it works for me. When reading the adventure I then put each FP refresh at a strong narrative point or achievement within the adventure's structure.

gazery wrote:Just out of interest how do you both give out Hope from a Fellowship Focus? Is it one at the end of each 'gathering' or is it at the end of each 'session' as you describe it. ie only one back each Adventuring Phase?

I just do that once per adventure.

I may have to limit how often I allow refreshes and Fellowship Focus points in my game. They did happen too often anyway, as we play online and so a session of play doesn't always get very far. Perhaps I'll start by limiting it to every other session of play and see how it goes from there. It does seem like it will be a real killer for the Ranger in my party, as they already struggle for Hope. I suppose the Dwarf might suffer too, with only 8 Hope?