How many adventures/fellowship phases?

[Stormcrow]

As for being put on the spot, try this: instead of going to each player one at a time and demanding to know what his character does during the Fellowship phase, have all the players brainstorm interesting things that each character can do. Make it a group effort. Once the player has some good ideas dangling before him, he can pick and choose the ones he wants.

Take your time in the Fellowship phase. It shouldn't feel like an obligatory pause for paperwork between the real game; it should feel like the players are getting to author their own little corner of Middle-earth. Think of it as a sub-game within the overall game.

[bveld]

Stormcrow, I also want to echo the others: what a great summary of the fellowship phase! I saved it for myself for future reference and sent it to my player to read. Thank you!

[Stormcrow]

My pleasure.

[HunterGreen]

I'm sure if I pushed I could get them doing Fellowship phases with this group of characters, but I've nagged them a fair bit about it already and I think it'd be better to leave a bit of breathing room, and then take advantage of the "fresh start" that's not far off anyway, to make it a new thing. If I pester them too much about it now it might take on a negative tone. If I do it as part of the new campaign, it'll be more of a positive thing, and they'll soon discover that it's actually a lot of fun, without having to get there through feeling like I'm nagging.

[Mim]

I concur with the other comments Stormcrow, thank you! I've also saved your response for my reference.

[Rich H]

I have been unable to get my players to really come up with fellowship phases -- at best, they come up with a sentence about how they came to do the undertaking.

There's nothing wrong with using Fellowship Phases to do that, spend those APs and XPs and do other 'mechanical' things. It's a perfectly legitimate way of playing the game. As part of that you can also asked questions about what else they are doing - visiting friends, looking after their family, dealing with other responsibilities that their Status or other things that have happened previously would suggest. That kind of steer can come from the LM as much as the players taking proactive control. Players taking narrative control in this game is a bit overstated by many of us. It really isn't necessary to enjoy the game or play it 'properly'; TORs flexible enough to approach it in many different ways so don't get too disappointed if your players just want to 'spend points and decide on undertakings' during time between adventures. It really is no big deal.

[Majestic]

I very much agree with what Rich posted. While it's very much appropriate to have the players directing the activities of their characters, in a more general sense it is the LM's job to "herd cats" (if necessary) and keep the game session on track. Nothing at all wrong with a little steering or encouraging or whatever is needed to keep things directed, focused, and fun.