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Home » 3 Y’s – Yule, Year’s End & Why I Run TOR RPG Fellowship Phase (“Downtime”) Differently?

3 Y’s – Yule, Year’s End & Why I Run TOR RPG Fellowship Phase (“Downtime”) Differently?

May the everlasting Darkness doom me if I don’t try my best to make a change! | art by aaloei on Reddit

Year’s End’s (was) upon us…

So, it’s the New Year – well into it, but not even slightly less turbulent one, despite my efforts to change that. Nevertheless, Year’s End – or Yule, as it was called way, way back – is a time of transition and of change. And may the everlasting Darkness doom me if, if I don’t try my best to make that change!
But I’m onto some gameplay-oriented point, so let’s get going, while staying in that Year’s End theme.

What’s Fellowship Phase (Year’s End or Not)?

Fellowship Phase is actually a really great idea by Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, introduced in their wonderful The One Ring RPG. Have I ever talked about this game here? Well, I’m sure I praise it wherever I get to talk about RPGs at all – but I think I haven’t quite got to it on my blog somehow. So let’s fix that!
The One Ring is my absolutely NUMBER ONE of all time! And by that, I mean the edition number ONE. You get the joke, right… ???? But talk about how old I am, praising editions past got to wait for another time.
Anyways, TOR’s Fellowship Phase is a brilliant concept. First, it ties lovely into how the Lord of the Rings is told. The times of action, effort, and danger are interwoven with those of respite, safety, and reflection. That’s also a pretty good way to run an ttRPG campaign.
The Fellowship Phase is kind of a “downtime” when characters upgrade their abilities, gear, heal wounds, and seek out information. It’s also sprinkled over with some very thematic mechanics like “There And Back Again”, “Write a Song”, or “See a Lore-master”. Why’s that important?

Why I like – and profit from – the downtime in RPG?

Well, I don’t have time to recount it all. If you want to, go read the awesome (albeit currently postponed) series by the Angry GM on The Town Mode.
In short, the “downtime” is crucial for both narrative and gameplay. Narratively, it’s key to making the players invested in the world. They got to interact with NPCs, their characters’ backgrounds, and to immerse freely into the setting without the pressure typical for the “adventuring mode”.It’s also a great tool for pacing the game’s story in the long term.
From the gameplay perspective, the “downtime” isn’t really “empty” or “insignificant”. In fact, the length and quality of it affect the party’s ability to prepare and develop before the next adventure strikes them. In TOR, it means they can heal some Shadow Points, train new skill ranks or acquire Virtues and Rewards. That really makes a change if you play it right. And that right aspect takes me to my final point here.

Why I run Fellowship Phase differently?

However enchanted I am by the One Ring – the RPG system, I mean! – I don’t see it as perfect. The closest to perfect, I think, is its first “big” campaign of Darkening of Mirkwood. Closely following are the Oaths of the Riddermark and Laughter of Dragons. Why? Because they assume one or two adventures per in-game year. Right, just one adventure for 12 months. That allows for some Fellowship.
Other campaigns – and especially the 2nd edition’s rules – imply way less time for that. And that’s a shame. Because if the skill or Virtue development takes days, or when the Patrons or information are always readily accessible, the whole feeling of the setting’s reality is hurt. It also makes the player’s choices less impactful. They don’t have to strategize what to do first and what to put at risk of leaving uncompleted.

Let me tell you a Saga…

While thinking of it, I came to the conclusion that one of my beloved campaigns – which I planned to tell you about since starting this blog – is perfect for illustrating what I mean. And how my handling of the TOR Fellowship Phase evolved alongside my understanding of the RPG downtime.
I finally want to share the Sagas of the Northmen with you. It’s really an epic campaign. It tells tons of stories set between the years 1900 and 2000 of Middle-earth’s Third Age, mainly in the Vale of Anduin, where the Northmen tribes settled.

But more on that – next time. Soon, I promise! ????

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