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My players rejected the new Hope mechanic right from the start. Although I would have liked to test the new rules, I understand their objections. Hope was always a resource, that was used to get you out of trouble. The player had narrative control over it. Now it is a gamble. That's contra-intuitive to the feeling I get from Tolkiens Middle-earth

To those who will hose-rule Hope spending (AFTER instead of BEFORE):

Will you make other mechanical adjustments?

Seems to me Hope recovery should be lowered if you remove the risk associated with spending it before rolling the dice.

To those who will hose-rule Hope spending (AFTER instead of BEFORE):

Will you make other mechanical adjustments?

Seems to me Hope recovery should be lowered if you remove the risk associated with spending it before rolling the dice.

I don't think an adjustment is required, as you still have the risk of it not helping and there are numerous other abilities that also require hope to be spent. If this was the only use of hope I might agree, but given that it seems to have been turned into a more generic meta-currency I think the increased recovery is still needed.

I guess one could always give the player both options:
- Spend Hope BEFORE rolling the dice to add a d6 per point
- Spend Hope AFTER rolling the dice to re-roll (some/all?) Success dice in the pool.

In my previous TOR campaign we always struggled to find the balance between Hope expenditure and renewal. I think what made it hard for us that in other games that use a meta-currency, it's often a "per adventure" or "per session" allotment, which makes it much easier to gauge how much and when to spend it. Having a big pool of it up-front, while certainly thematic, made it hard for the players to decide at what rate it should be used.

To those who will hose-rule Hope spending (AFTER instead of BEFORE):

Will you make other mechanical adjustments?

Seems to me Hope recovery should be lowered if you remove the risk associated with spending it before rolling the dice.

That's another reason I like the re-roll method (as opposed to additional roll). An extra die is worth, on average, 3.5. If you are re-rolling, subtract the value on the die you are re-rolling from 3.5.

To those who will hose-rule Hope spending (AFTER instead of BEFORE):

Will you make other mechanical adjustments?

Seems to me Hope recovery should be lowered if you remove the risk associated with spending it before rolling the dice.

I'm going to tell my players all the major changes, explain the the pluses and minuses as I see them, and explain that we'll try them and adjust as necessary. I've always taken that approach anyway, so my players are "primed" for it. Many a time I've said something like, "I feel like this isn't working well, so I'm going to change X to Y to try it out. Here's why."

So I don't know exactly what I'll do yet, but there will be changes. And, as you point out, I can't change one thing without changing others to try and maintain balance.

So I don't know exactly what I'll do yet, but there will be changes. And, as you point out, I can't change one thing without changing others to try and maintain balance.

Probably the easiest knob to turn, if Hope is made more powerful, is to make adventures a bit harder.

To those who will hose-rule Hope spending (AFTER instead of BEFORE):

Will you make other mechanical adjustments?

Seems to me Hope recovery should be lowered if you remove the risk associated with spending it before rolling the dice.

I'm going to tell my players all the major changes, explain the the pluses and minuses as I see them, and explain that we'll try them and adjust as necessary. I've always taken that approach anyway, so my players are "primed" for it. Many a time I've said something like, "I feel like this isn't working well, so I'm going to change X to Y to try it out. Here's why."

So I don't know exactly what I'll do yet, but there will be changes. And, as you point out, I can't change one thing without changing others to try and maintain balance.

I don't know if he'd be up for it, but I'd be really interested in Francesco giving us his thoughts on all the changes, design-wise.

p.s. I just noticed I wrote "hose-rule"... bleh.

p.s. I just noticed I wrote "hose-rule"... bleh.

I believe a hose would count as a Useful Item, and give you +1d6 on attempts to interrogate a prisoner using the "Awe" or maybe "Persuade" skill.

So I don't know exactly what I'll do yet, but there will be changes. And, as you point out, I can't change one thing without changing others to try and maintain balance.

Probably the easiest knob to turn, if Hope is made more powerful, is to make adventures a bit harder.

That's most often how I approach these things, yes. "Okay, we can make that rule more in your favour, but be prepared for me to turn up the pressure and surprises."