Recover Endurance DURING a Journey?

[bluejay]

Not at all Stormcrow, my point is that walking through Dark Lands is supposed to be sapping to the body and spirit. In game terms at worst you'll be gaining 3 fatigue points every 3 days (in Winter, failing every Travel roll) but provided you don't have an untreated Wound you'll be gaining at least 1 Endurance point per day.

Sure of course these are all just abstractions but it does feel strange that the character could be slogging through a bleak depressing wasteland eating travel rations, drinking limited water and sleeping in the wild ... possibly even gaining Fatigue and Shadow yet somehow ending up more determined and physically prepared to fight.

[adamspecial]

Recovering from these things mostly require just time, not a commitment to lie in place.

And yet, you recover a lot of endurance at the end of a combat with just half an hour of rest; AND, resting in a safe place/sanctuary still restores more endurance than resting during a journey. So probably his disconnect actually comes from the fact that you recover faster from those things when committing yourself to lie in a specific place, just as you would if they were in fact injuries, while on the other hand, recovery time varies wildly depending on when and where you are in that moment.

Still, I believe that precisely calculating how much endurance every companion has recovered so far when an hazard episode pops up, is a pain in the butt. My group, this journey they're making from the long marshes to the edges of mirkwood inside the east blight (the first leg to get to Rosghobel), it's 10 days and they produced 3 hazards, with each companion having their own recovery specifics (some are wounded, some not, some have lost a lot of endurance, some have gained a lot of fatigue, etc.). We will have to stop by and calculate every single companion's endurance (a five men company) four times before they can start the second leg of this journey (and we will HAVE to calculate this, because they could still be weary and/or wounded when rolling to avoid the hazard).

Yeah, now I'm just complaining , but I just dislike this rule and I can't see a way to get around it without punishing the companions.

[bluejay]

Well I was just being glib. Believe me, in addition to having run this game for over 3 years I have examined the rules many, many times so I know most of the quirks.

Nevertheless from a gaming point of view I think that healing with travelling is useful because there are few ways to restore Endurance in the game.

[Scrollreader]

3 Hazards already? Ouch. And nobody passed the task rolls to avoid them? That is one of the best uses of hope, IME. Even if it means I don't get to use half of the cool hazards i have planned for my PCs.

[Rich H]

3 Hazards already? Ouch. And nobody passed the task rolls to avoid them? That is one of the best uses of hope, IME. Even if it means I don't get to use half of the cool hazards i have planned for my PCs.

Hazards aren't avoided by spending Hope, they still have to be faced so an LM can still use the ones he has planned as long as someone rolls an EYE on one or more of their travel tests. Even if the players beat the TN of the Hazard you'll still for the most part be able to describe what they faced and overcame.

[Rich H]

Not at all Stormcrow, my point is that walking through Dark Lands is supposed to be sapping to the body and spirit. In game terms at worst you'll be gaining 3 fatigue points every 3 days (in Winter, failing every Travel roll) but provided you don't have an untreated Wound you'll be gaining at least 1 Endurance point per day.

The Loremaster is perfectly within his or her right to specify tavelling through particularly dark and terrible lands does not allow for the usual healing of Endurance. It's something I'd certainly employ as well as numerous other rulings.

[bluejay]

Yeah of course and I think that's the thing with the RAW ... they are fairly generic in application and allow you that flexibility.

[Scrollreader]

Rich: Of course you are correct. I was referring more specifically to his situation, with multiple wounded characters, with the 'avoidance'. And I do still describe them (Evil Butterflies was a player favorite), but it still feels a bit ... wasted, when a hunting roll (or whatever) cancels the negative effects. It's nice for players to show off character competence, and helps define niches. I like the mechanic, overall. It's just a bit frustrating when you're working on custom hazards, and they're dealt with or worse, no eyes appear.

Back on topic: I agree endurance recovery is a little fiddly, but tracking it has resulted several times in a player shaking off weariness after a fight before another important roll, which might not have been the case if you made it less granular.
In the vast galaxy of RPGs, though, it is a very minor amount of detail compared to many or most games. We don't track ammo, or the weight of rope, or how many torches someone has. I don't mind a bit of extra work, especially when it is to the players' benefit. And it encourages flavorful and useful (when using RAW) virtues like Elvish Dreams, which is also nice.

[zedturtle]

3 Hazards already? Ouch. And nobody passed the task rolls to avoid them? That is one of the best uses of hope, IME. Even if it means I don't get to use half of the cool hazards i have planned for my PCs.

Hazards aren't avoided by spending Hope, they still have to be faced so an LM can still use the ones he has planned as long as someone rolls an EYE on one or more of their travel tests. Even if the players beat the TN of the Hazard you'll still for the most part be able to describe what they faced and overcame.

I think what Scrollreader meant was that the bad effect of the Hazard can be bypassed by making the appropriate skill test. Of course, that's not completely avoiding the Hazard, just that you got out of the situation without mechanical penalties. I'd still do some appropriate narration.

[adamspecial]

we have yet to see if they avoid them: we just rolled fatigue tests and closed the session, the next one to be started by resolving hazards. Then again, to verify if they avoid them, we have to see the precise status of the involved characters (two hazards will be "all companions", one despair and one fatigue; the third hazard is a wound for the hunter).