Offering Titles and Patrons

[Falenthal]

I'll make it quick:

What, in your opinion as LM, deserves offering the players the chances to Receive Title (p.199 Revised Core) and gain a Patron?

Could you use examples of official adventures?

For example, in Dark Tidings we are told that, if in the Encounter with Beorn the company gets a result of 7+ successes, then he will be open to be taken as a Patron.

Do you have other examples of what has qualified in your games?

Fighting at The Crossing of the Celduin probably qualifies to Receive Title among the Bardings.
Word of the Wise would qualify to Receive Title among the Woodmen?

[Majestic]

One of our PCs became a Thain of the Beornings after helping out Beorn with "Kinstrife & Dark Tidings", too.

[SirGamingScotsman]

Any of the official adventures could lead to those rewards if the players went above and beyond, or did really well in an Encounter with the right person.

In general if the party have done a lot of adventures in a particular region, and have been recognised by the leader there, that would qualify for Titles and Patrons. Maybe a potential Patron asks the party to undertake a particularly dangerous, or personal, mission with the end resulting in them gaining the Patron as well as other rewards.

Most recently my group was asked by Thranduil to capture the Steed of the Moon, as one of the party is an Elf and had been rising up within Mirkwood Elf society. After bringing the Steed back successfully, as well as his herd, they were able to open Thranduil's Hall as a Sanctuary, get Thranduil as Patron if they want, and he also owes them a 'favour' that they can collect on in the future.

They also have Beorn and Radagast as Partrons although they sort of inherited them from previous characters, two of my players having retired old characters and made new ones. But I did have the group complete a couple of tasks for their Patrons as a means of them proving their worth in order to retain the Sanctuaries and Patrons.

Also asking your players if they want to gain a Title, perhaps doing something during a Fellowship Phase to get them noticed by the right people, and then having them asked to do some sort of quest, or perhaps the player has some ideas of what they want to do in order to gain those rewards.

There is plenty of time in between adventures, if you are running the Darkening of Mirkwood campaign, to make your own adventures or ask your players what they want to do, that can lead to reasons for them to gain specific rewards.

For example, my Rivendel Elf player wants go to Lothlorien after discovering a cursed item to see if anyone there has ideas on how to remove the curse or safely destroy the item. I had no real plans to introduce that area to my campaign but now I have reasons to come up with additional adventures, and perhaps have Lothlorien as a potential Sanctuary, and even have Galadriel or Celeborn as Patrons.

[PaulButler]

Our Wild Hobbit spent an inordinate amount of Fellowship phases helping to build Black Tarn Hall during Darkening of Mirkwood, and ultimately settled there. (He's got a small fishing hut on the lake.)
He was rewarded with a Hero of the Woodmen title once Black Tarn was fully settled.

[Falenthal]

Very interesting experiences. Thanks for sharing!

I have the idea that Sanctuaries can be opened very freely, if the company has had the chance to spend some adventuring time in a given location. For example, after Dark Tidings, Beorn's House could be selected for Open Sanctuary the next Fellowship phase.

But Patrons seem to me not so easy to gain. In the same adventure, Beorn could only be gained as a Patron if the Encounter went really well AND the performance during the Adventuring phase was also positive. There's a difference between knowing Beorn, being his friend, and having him as a Patron.

I think that, personally, my doubts with Patrons come from the fact that I mostly use published adventures. Patrons, from what I understand, are people that call on the company as trusted fellows when they need someone to take care of a problem or delicate situation. It might be escorting an embassy from Dorwinion to Dale on behalf of King Bard, or spy or recent movements in a supposedly abandoned stronghold of South Mirkwood instructed by Radagast.
But published adventures already have a "prescripted" person that charges the heroes with the mission. If the company have Glóin as a Patron, but the playing group is running Darkening of Mirkwood, most adventures won't have anything to do with errands from the dwarven embassador.

Also, my personal concept is that a group shouldn't have too many Patrons. I might be wrong, but it seems that a Patron is something else that just a known person or even a friend. Patrons have their own agendas, and they make the fellowship part of them. Radagast will encourage tasks that are related to gathering information on Dol Guldur and the Enemy movements. Beorn might only want help with the Viglunds and keeping his territories safe from wargs and goblins. Etc. But if the players have lots of Patrons, it seems to lose the effect of the company being part of some bigger plan that simply "take the best offer of adventure from whoever it comes from".

I don't have a clear idea of how hard it shoud be to Receive a Title, too.
Merry and Pippin received one Title each (Rohan Esquire and Guard of the Citadel). Also Frodo was declared Elf-friend.
But could we say that the player heroe's should be able to get more than one or two Receive Titles in all their career. Once again, doesn't it become lame if one hero has a shared status among 3 or 4 cultures?

[Indur Dawndeath]

You can have the players. Chose a primary Patron, if they have multiple. The other patrons can be dormant until the player has time to follow his or her agenda again.
The same could be done for "receive title". You have 3-4 titles, but you have to select where your interest lie.
You could have the players chose at years end or during a fellowship phase, and the selection would last all year.

In my game we use the Patron rule described above. They can only have benefits from one patron.

Cheers

[Angelalex242]

My high elf currently has Patronage from both Radagast and Elrond, but has not yet received the friend of Elrond title nor opened Rivendell as a sanctuary. This is because my High Elf has 'enemy of Sauron' and is currently on the away team actively fighting the Enemy. He may acquire more Patrons from those swords pointed at Sauron as time goes. Eventually, it is my hope he gains Gandalf as a Patron. Once he steps in and claims you, you know you're on the front lines up to and through the War of the Ring. He's the most successful anti Sauron guy for a reason. And while having the Red Ring of Fire Narya helps, it isn't all of it.

[Otaku-sempai]

I think that, personally, my doubts with Patrons come from the fact that I mostly use published adventures. Patrons, from what I understand, are people that call on the company as trusted fellows when they need someone to take care of a problem or delicate situation. It might be escorting an embassy from Dorwinion to Dale on behalf of King Bard, or spy or recent movements in a supposedly abandoned stronghold of South Mirkwood instructed by Radagast.
But published adventures already have a "prescripted" person that charges the heroes with the mission. If the company have Glóin as a Patron, but the playing group is running Darkening of Mirkwood, most adventures won't have anything to do with errands from the dwarven embassador.

Also, my personal concept is that a group shouldn't have too many Patrons. I might be wrong, but it seems that a Patron is something else that just a known person or even a friend. Patrons have their own agendas, and they make the fellowship part of them. Radagast will encourage tasks that are related to gathering information on Dol Guldur and the Enemy movements. Beorn might only want help with the Viglunds and keeping his territories safe from wargs and goblins. Etc. But if the players have lots of Patrons, it seems to lose the effect of the company being part of some bigger plan that simply "take the best offer of adventure from whoever it comes from".

Well, another advantage of having a Patron is having access to resources beyond what one might normally have available even in a Sanctuary, such as: Elrond's personal library; ancient archives of the North Kingdoms kept by Círdan at the Grey Havens; personal instruction from Saruman the White; etc.