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I'm running Darkening of Mirkwood and we're about 10 years in at the moment. There are currently 4 players, including a High Elf. Three of them have Valour 4+ and one is Favoured by the Grey Wizard, which adds 2 to their Eye Awareness. They only have four items of Famous Wargear between them, but this gives them a starting Eye Awareness of 12. With the adjustments from the Hunt Modifiers table on page 172, they have to be very careful not to be over the Hunt Threshold as soon as they step into Dark Lands (e.g. most of Mirkwood).

My players have started trying to take active measures to increase the Hunt Threshold, for instance by trying to be discreet, travelling under false names, etc. But some of them have become quite famous in the region by now, so this often just balances out other penalties. They are also much more cautious about rolling - the Eye Awareness rules have encouraged them to think carefully about who is the best person to make any roll.

But Revelation Episodes have become much more common than when I first introduced the Eye Awareness rules. I usually look at the examples on page 173 and try to choose one that best fits the Company's current situation. It's worth noting that a Revelation Episode doesn't always mean they are ambushed by an Orc Warband or similar - some of the examples, like "Out of the Frying Pan...", "Lathspell" and "A Weariness of the Heart" just make rolls more difficult for a while. This actually helps to provide a challenge for experienced Player-heroes who usually pass most of their Skill rolls.

I haven't had the situation where the Company's starting Eye Awareness is already over the Hunt Threshold (yet), but I wouldn't trigger a Revelation Episode until the first trigger that would raise Eye Awareness (e.g. rolling an Eye, or Shadow gain, etc.).

I'm running Darkening of Mirkwood and we're about 10 years in at the moment. There are currently 4 players, including a High Elf. Three of them have Valour 4+ and one is Favoured by the Grey Wizard, which adds 2 to their Eye Awareness. They only have four items of Famous Wargear between them, but this gives them a starting Eye Awareness of 12. With the adjustments from the Hunt Modifiers table on page 172, they have to be very careful not to be over the Hunt Threshold as soon as they step into Dark Lands (e.g. most of Mirkwood).

My players have started trying to take active measures to increase the Hunt Threshold, for instance by trying to be discreet, travelling under false names, etc. But some of them have become quite famous in the region by now, so this often just balances out other penalties. They are also much more cautious about rolling - the Eye Awareness rules have encouraged them to think carefully about who is the best person to make any roll.

But Revelation Episodes have become much more common than when I first introduced the Eye Awareness rules. I usually look at the examples on page 173 and try to choose one that best fits the Company's current situation. It's worth noting that a Revelation Episode doesn't always mean they are ambushed by an Orc Warband or similar - some of the examples, like "Out of the Frying Pan...", "Lathspell" and "A Weariness of the Heart" just make rolls more difficult for a while. This actually helps to provide a challenge for experienced Player-heroes who usually pass most of their Skill rolls.

I haven't had the situation where the Company's starting Eye Awareness is already over the Hunt Threshold (yet), but I wouldn't trigger a Revelation Episode until the first trigger that would raise Eye Awareness (e.g. rolling an Eye, or Shadow gain, etc.).