Help and expending checks

Torchbearer An Adventurer's Essentials
1

Hi everyone. New to the forum, new to torchbearer.

I really like it!

Here’s my question:

Is expending a check a requirement to help another character?
or
Is expending a check just used to record a pass or failure?
or
anything else?

Thank you in advance.

PS: Funny thing forum won’t let me use the tag “help”

2

Welcome KD. Checks are not required to help. They are spent to make a test during Camp or if you want to record a pass/fail when you are helping.

3

Thank you!

4

Hi, KoboDaishi!

In addition, don’t forget the following (easy to miss when playing a completely different system like Torchbearer):

  1. To help, the players must actually describe what their characters are doing, not simply state “I help using my ‘X’ skill.” (p. 66)

  2. As a follow-up to the above, it’s sometimes (perhaps often?) a good idea to not let the helpers over-describe. It can slow the pace of the game a bit, especially during really “crunchy” bits, such as during Conflicts.

  3. Don’t forget the You Reap What You Sow rule (p. 66) – everyone who donates a die of help for a test is bound by the results of the roll.

  4. Help Checks (p. 23) might be what you were thinking of. If you choose to spend a check when you help another character (assuming you have checks to burn), you get to mark a Pass or Fail for the test, as if you were the one making the roll. You are not required to spend this check – only if you want to leech off your companions’ successes and failures. And, of course, all other rules for Help still apply.

5

Thank you. I find your answer very useful.