Fria Ligans forum

In the coarse of the session that I did I had my players gain a lot of shadow over that one session. Is this normal? And is there a way to have my players get rid of shadow points besides madness or shadow scar? I ask because I don’t know if gaining a lot of shadow points is common within an adventure.

Rate of Shadow gain depends a lot on what foes they're facing. Whatever the cause, what your player-heroes will want is HARDEN WILL on page 137:

In game terms, Player-heroes whose accumulated Shadow does not yet match their maximum Hope score may choose to remove all their current Shadow, replacing it with a single Shadow Scar.

This can be done as needed, and there is no firm ruling (yet) on how long it takes to "tap into their innermost reserves of spiritual energy to harden their determination, before it’s too late." As an LM, I would probably err on the side of generosity and make it a secondary action, but I could see an argument for making it a primary action or something only done out of combat.

Quick thoughts on Shadow...

- Think of things in the context of the company's shadow reduction capacity. They can removes 1-3 Shadow per adventure (except for Elves!).
- As your Valour & Wisdom improve you'll be able to pass Dread & Wisdom tests better, both due to having a higher dice pool on these tests but also frequently due to Virtues that support these tests directly or allow Inspiration on them. Starting heroes are near guaranteed to fail Shadow tests, even when spending hope, so might take a Shadow Scar or two or have a bout of Madness or two. That said, sometimes experienced heroes take on tougher tasks, exposing themselves to more Shadow!
- Different types of adventure offer different Shadow risks. An adventure with lots of Undead will often be Shadow heavy, while delivering a key message from Rivendell to the Grey Havens probably isn't, and an investigation focused scenario in Bree may similarly have little/no Shadow.
- Make sure you're using the Errata: the example Star of the Mist adventure is still pretty Shadow heavy for an intro adventure, but much lower now that Undead have Thing of Terror rather than Strike Fear.
- Note the example event in Chapter 8 "The World" that removes Shadow - that's a great template for all of us to similarly reduce Shadow in appropriate circumstances.