no starting company - no in-lieu-cards?

[Shapeshifter]

You may assign up to 2 non-unique minor items to your starting characters (i.e., 2 items, not 2 to each character). These items must come from cards that you have not already committed to your play deck.

Given the case I have no characters in my starting company then I may not play any minor items. But...may I play permanent events on my non-existing starting company that are playable in lieu of a minor item, like e.g. Rumors of Rings?

[Bandobras Took]

You start the game with the card "in lieu of playing a minor item." Essentially, if you start the game with the card, you lose the capacity to play one of your allowed minor items. Whether you could actually play the minor item is irrelevant.

For example, if all my Orcs and Trolls bounce during the draft, I could not assign the minor item Goblin Plumb. But that does not mean I cannot start the game with two minor items, just that I don't have a valid character to assign the minor item to.

In the same way, if you have no characters after the draft, you still can assign two minor items, you will just lack valid characters to assign them to.

Edit: To further clarify, any such card that requires a character or company would not be playable, but since Whispers/Rumours don't require such by their text, they are playable.

[Konrad Klar]

A little support...

If I cannot make an action X, I cannot make an action in lieu of X.
If I cannot face AA, I cannot make a bulgrary attempt.
So if I cannot play a minor item I cannot play a card in lieu of minor item.

But Open to the Summons is illogical.

Playable on a minion company. One agent minion may be played with target company at a Darkhaven [V]-place this card with the agent. -1 to his mind to a minimum of 1. This card may be played with a starting company in lieu of a minor item. When played as such, reveal it when starting companies are determined as if it were a character. Cannot be duplicated on a given character.

*

However CRF says:

For starting companies, minor items come into play after characters, so they cannot
affect a character's mind for the purpose of playing him.

So because it is played in lieu of minor item it should be played after determining starting companies, but at the same time it must be played when starting companies are being determined**.

Long story short:
If rules and/or cards cannot be read literally, then follow the Bandobras Took.


*)

Card Erratum: Replace "minion company" with "company." Does not allow you to
start with a character that says he cannot be in the starting company.

**) ICE apparently does not like a word "being". ICE prefer to say "is played" in lieu of "is being played". Because errata to the Open to the Summons forbids playing a character that says he cannot be in the starting company, it can be assumed that also "are determined" was used in lieu of "are being determined".