Can you chain beginner's luck linked tests?

In order to use a linked test, must you have a relevant skill opened? If not, then is it possible to jockey for multiple beginner’s luck tests in linked sequence?

A character, untrained in the ways of the senechal, is asked to manage an estate. Character prepares to roll the root of Estate Management as a beginner’s luck test. The player describes his character sitting by candlelight, crunching numbers, transcribing information from previous ledgers, and trying to see if he can find any loopholes in the local customs and legislation that he could use to compensate for his lack of expertise.

The player is jockeying for several linked tests - accounting, writing, local customs-wise and rule of law. The character has none of these skills opened. Can the character use such fictional positioning to start learning all these skills in a single, glorious swoop?

Every failure should matter, and not just to give +1 Ob.

I’m not sure that’s how linked tests work though. Also while I appreciate the input, the quesiton of whether you can actually link tests with unopened skills, remain.

You can. The GM is supposed to call for tests for any skill, according to the situation in the game, that is, according to task, intent, and the fictional circumstances. For the GM, it doesn’t really matter if a PC has the skills in question.

What GreedyAlgorithm means is this: The player says what he wants to do in the fiction, and the GM determines whether it is worth a test, which skill gets tested, and what happens in case of failure. If the player just wants to rack up some tests for advancement or just wants a +1D, that’s not enough. All tests need to matter in the fiction; there needs to be an interesting conflict and something that can go wrong in an interesting way. So all tests also need to have a failure result, as per the basic rules for testing abilities. “You fail the first linked test, so you get -1D” is not enough, neither is “I want +1D, I’ll just test some other thing first”.

Yep, each test requires its own intent.