Question about Fellowship focus

[Ghorin]

Hello,

I have a question concerning the Fellowship Focus for which I don't have the same reading the english and the french version of the core book :

- English version (original) : I understand that a player-hero may choose a 1 and only one companion of his choice as his fellowship focus ==> it's not possible for a player-hero to have 2 or more fellowhip focus at the same time.

- French version (translation) : I understand that a player-hero may have more than one felloship focus at the same time.

What is your understanding on your side ? Thanks in advance

[Glorelendil]

Un et un seulement.

If my one term of French in 32 years ago is serving me correctly.

[Ghorin]

Un et un seulement.

If my one term of French in 32 years ago is serving me correctly.

I confirm that your translation in french is very fine, your 1 term of french 32 years ago is not yet lost !!!



But apart of that "english to french" translation, how are you playing that rule in your own sessions ?

[Stormcrow]

It seems clear to me that a player-hero can have zero or one Fellowship focuses, but no more. The rules don't actually specify the "no more" part, but I have no doubt this is the case.

[Ghorin]

In fact this is what i feel strange : why wouldn't it be possible for a player-hero to have more than 1 fellowship-focus. As said another player in our french TOR forum : after several years of adventures, it seems that strong relation-ships could have grown between up-to-all the companions of the group. Like in real life with close-friends where every person would be impacted by a health issue of any of his close-friends. Or does it mean that the fellowship-focus is for "more than close friends" ?

[Stormcrow]

I think it might just be the case that having multiple Fellowship focuses would let Hope and Shadow gains get out of control. Suppose you've got eight companions. If you could take all of them as Fellowship focuses, you could potentially gain 8 points of Hope at the end of a session, or 8 or more points of Shadow. The game tries to reflect a slow defeat as depicted by Tolkien, not anything that quick.

As to what the focus really represents, I think it's more than just close friends. It's your closest friend or dearest mentor. It's the warrior you most admire. It's the family member you feel obliged to protect above anyone else. That you can only have one is probably a game-convention for simplicity, and doesn't mean you can't also be very close to anyone else.

If the Loremaster chooses, he might consider seeing a close-friend-but-not-Fellowship-focus get Wounded or killed as a source of anguish, calling for a Corruption test. The difference here is that the Wounding of a Fellowship focus is not a test; it's an automatic Shadow point.

And the Fellowship pool itself represents your ability to regain Hope from your friends-but-not-Fellowship-focus, so they're not chopped liver either.

[Ghorin]

Thank you Stormcrow for your answer, it's an explanation that make sense. I had already thought about the risk of unbalance hope/shadow with the possibility of having several fellowship-focus but still it was a "system rule reason" and i was missing some "real-life" reason.

Now i'm convinced : One player-hero may have at maximum 1 fellowship-focus, no more.

[Glorelendil]

Thank you Stormcrow for your answer, it's an explanation that make sense. I had already thought about the risk of unbalance hope/shadow with the possibility of having several fellowship-focus but still it was a "system rule reason" and i was missing some "real-life" reason.

Now i'm convinced : One player-hero may have at maximum 1 fellowship-focus, no more.

That said, in the "House Rules" sub-forum one of the suggestions (ok, mine...) for tweaking Rangers, which some posters feel are overly penalized regarding Hope, might be that Rangers could have multiple FF's. It would fit with the fiction, and would give them an opportunity to use Hope more frequently, but with an emphasis on protecting others.

[Ghorin]

Hi Glorelendil,

I have a dunedan in the player-heros and so far i dont see the need for a house-rule for hope for that culture. But we start playing TOR only a few months ago and we are still "young" users of the raw ruleset. But maybe some day i'll think back of this thread and of your remark. Thanks