I have been listening to Dave Larkin's group since someone on here let us know about the audio sessions. I'd like to thank both for letting us hear what other people's games are like.

My question is the way they do their passion checks. It seems wrong to me to allow someone to use their Hospitality passion when they are fighting the Saxons at Mount Badon. Do you restrict what passions can be used at any time? I may be wrong but I can see most other passions being acceptable in a battle but not hospitality. Unless, I guess you invited your neighbour over and he violated the custom of hospitality....

Hospitality should never be used as a passion for battle. There is no connection on how you being hospitable to those who ask for it from you have anything to do with becoming inspired for war. Passions like loyalty lord, Honor, hatred, love heck even pious/love of gods can be used. For they all have good reasons behind them. Loyalty Lord because as a knight you represent him on the field of battle. Honer because it is your duty as a knight to defend your people or maybe you gave an oath to stop this enemy. Hatred is self explanatory so long as the hatred is for the enemy on the field. Love also self-explanatory because you are wanting to return to your love or Amor. Pious/Love of gods could be used for if the enemy are determined by your religion to be enemies or they disparage your faith then your righteous zeal could be called into battle for your god/gods. These are good examples of how passions should be used. About the only time I have ever allowed hospitality to be rolled to inspire was when a player was the host a group came seeking one of his quest and threatened violence against the player and his house if he didn't turn over the quest. I allowed him to role his hospitality to inspire him to defend his quest. That's about the only time it really ever comes into play or when someone violates the rules of hospitality.

I agree with you both.
Hospitality is inappropriate for a battle

Hospitality in a battle? I think not.

IMHO The passion used to get inspired should be appropriate to the situation. And the inspiration should be appropriate to the story. It should be something heroic. Not every situation grants an a roll.

The only reason I can think of for Hospitality to use as inspiration is if you are guest in a house and the host is almost killed by an intruder. But it should only be used if the knight has few hitpoints left and the host will die if he does nothing.

I tend to be a bit stingy with Passions, too. Also, in our campaign, we ave nerfed them to +5 rather than +10 of KAP, since we felt the +10 was too humonguous bonus. It was basically a 'win fight right now', or, if the enemy had it 'lose right now, don't stop to roll your dice'.

There are situations where I would allow Hospitality to be invoked in battle, but they are pretty limited as the passion itself is pretty limited. So I would allow Hospitality if:
The Host is defending the Guest.
The Guest is defending the Host.

Unlike Cornelius, I would allow Hospitality be invoked at the breach of the custom, not waiting until one is badly hurt etc. I would also allow Hospitality to be used in actually Battle, but it would need to be a siege, and the stated cause needs to be Hospitality: for instance, the Host cannot use Hospitality simply because he has a guest under his roof, but the attack must be connected to the guest. Like an army of Saxons demanding the head of the PK, because of some bloodfeud, and the Host refusing to expel the PK out of the castle. Same for the Guest; if they happen to be in the castle when a feuding Baron appears with his army, but the invaders are going to kill everyone anyway, then no Hospitality. But if the Baron would be granting free departure for 'neutrals' and the Guest decides to stay, then Hospitality would apply.

With Loyalty, I tend to be more stringent. There needs to be perceived danger, IMHO. The Lord is unhorsed in the middle of the Saxon Army, and you race to his help. Yep, Loyalty applies. You are fighting in the same battle field as the Lord but things are doing fine, then no, Loyalty wouldn't apply. I wouldn't even allow Loyalty even when on a quest from the Lord. However, I would allow it if you are championing the Lord in a judicial duel or something. Same with Loyalty Group. Otherwise, those pesky PKs will be getting impassioned as soon as they enter combat... :P

Geez, did I really allow that? Chalk it up to rash judgments rendered in the heat of the battle. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe it was justified at the time (either explicitly or in my own head, I don't recall) as being impassioned to fight for one's homeland (since Salisbury had been overrun), but in hindsight I can see how that's stretching Hospitality past its breaking point.

Ah well.