Hope

Hope is a hero’s reserve of spiritual fortitude and positivity. A hopeful character can keep going when physically stronger heroes have already succumbed to despair.

During play, players can spend Hope to gain a Hope bonus on any die roll, or to trigger the effects of certain Cultural Virtues.

Player-heroes whose Hope score is reduced to zero are spiritually drained — it is impossible for them to find the energy required to push themselves beyond their limits.

Miserable

In the course of the game, Player-heroes face threats capable of shaking their determination and will to fight. As a consequence, they accumulate Shadow points.

Heroes become Miserable when their Shadow score matches or overcomes their current Hope.

When this happens, check the Miserable box on the character sheet. A Player-hero remains Miserable until their Hope rating surpasses their Shadow score again, either because they regain Hope, or because they find a way to get rid of Shadow (see The Shadow, Chapter 8).

Recovering Hope

Recovering Hope points indicates that the Player-heroes are reaffirming their lost sense of confidence. There are three main ways to recover Hope:

Spend Fellowship: During the Adventuring Phase, whenever the Company is resting, the Player-heroes may spend any number of Fellowship points to distribute an equal number of Hope points among the Player-heroes (all players must agree on the distribution).

Taking a Break from Adventuring: During the Fellowship Phase, all Player-heroes recover a number of Hope points equal to their HEART score, and they recover them all at Yule (see Fellowship Phases, Chapter 7).

Resting: Finally, Player-heroes who are down to zero Hope recover a single point of Hope once they take a Prolonged Rest.