Now that you know how to generally run the game and have a basic idea of how to play as the Overlord themselves, the next thing you need to know is the various kinds of challenges that you can throw at the fellowship. You have a large variety of tools at your fingertips, which you can find in Chapter 7. This section will tell you how to use those tools.
Enemies and obstacles in Fellowship work similarly to the fellowship's Companions, but they will act a bit more freely. They have several stats, and each of their stats gives them access to a Threat. So long as they have that stat, they pose the listed Threat to the fellowship.
Unlike Companions, which damage themselves when they do something to prevent them from doing everything, the only thing stopping a threat from continuing to be a problem is the fellowship. When an enemy's stat becomes
damaged, they lose the threat attached to it.
The simple way to think of this is, when the fellowship deals damage to something, they are actually taking away its abilities to stop them. "Damage" in Fellowship is not necessarily violence and bloodshed, but rather, it is the strength, skill, tact, or plan that you use to neutralize a problem. This is why the 10+ result to Finish Them lets you “destroy them, with whatever that means.” These are not necessarily by lethal means, as there are many many ways to keep someone from wanting to hurt you or stop you anymore.
Often, they will not need to go all the way through and damage everything a threat can do to get past it. It is in the fellowship's best interests to neutralize their enemies quickly and efficiently and get past them, because they don't have the time or the resources to waste on every single thing that gets in their way.
For example, let's say the fellowship must fight a wild Varg that got onto the path. A Varg looks like this:
Varg: These massive wolves are large enough for a full grown ogre to ride, and surly enough to make an ogre think twice about doing it.
Cruel Beast: A Varg is wild and malicious, and cannot be tamed
easily. Anyone trying to ride it must Pay a Price.
Go For The Jugular: A Varg that gets up on top of somebody
instantly deals damage to them.
These stats include their Name and a Description first. The Description will always be in italics, and has no rules associated with it. Below that, in Bold,
are the Varg’s stats: Cruel Beast and Go For The Jugular. They will keep those stats whether they are a Companion or an enemy. The descriptions after the stats are the Varg’s Threats. These Threats only apply while this enemy is under the Overlord’s control, and are additional moves or abilities the enemy will use to threaten, hinder, or harm the fellowship, or to protect themselves.
In addition to the threats listed on the Varg's stat block, it always has all of your Cuts as well. You can use the Varg to Separate Them or Put Someone On
The Spot or any of the other Cuts you'd like to use. Even if they damage its
ability to Go For The Jugular, if it is a particularly tenacious Varg or the fellowship continues to fight it, it can keep using your Cuts until they defeat it, escape from it, or befriend it.
An enemy that has had all of its stats damaged is destroyed. The fellowship doesn't need to get a 10+ on Finish Them for every enemy they come across to defeat it entirely. An enemy that has been destroyed cannot use your Cuts, and is no longer willing or able to stop the fellowship.
If you were attentive, you may have noticed that the Varg's stats are the same as the ones listed in the Orc's Companions option in Chapter 3. That is because:
Every enemy is able to be recruited by the fellowship if they sit down andForge a Bondwith it.
When an enemy becomes a Companion, they lose the threats attached to their stats, and keep just the stats. When working with the fellowship, they follow the Companion rules instead of the enemy rules.
Non-violence is assumed within several core rules of the game. The fellowship only has one Move for actually harming and destroying enemies. Everything else is for dealing with them in other ways.
When something is in their way, they can always Get Away from it. When someone is preventing them from doing something important, one of the fellowship can always try to Keep Them Busy. You always have the option to try to Talk Sense instead of violence.
The fellowship is perfectly capable of fighting when they must, but it is important to encourage them to try other options as well. Not everything must be to the death.
There is one type of enemy that cannot be recruited and cannot be reasoned with: Barriers. A barrier is a threat that is simply in the way, and they are usually forces of nature, obstacles in the path, or magical interference. They are otherwise interacted with and engaged in the exact same ways that any other enemy would be.