Players are expected to know and use the rules. There’s actually a chapter towards the end of the book about the roles of the GM and of the other players.
Gold Revised, 552, seems to imply more that the players should know a rule exists and tell the team they’ll use the rule. But not exactly rules mastery (though that’ll save lots of time)? Considering their characters, my friends will easily play with the BITs and involve each other’s charas.
From what I’m gathering at 552 GR, I’ll have to get the players to at least know the existence of the rules we’re using (I like @DaveHiggins’ reminder) when we’re starting out - /let them know their options/. But it doesn’t necessitate they need to know exactly how those rules work. (Though that would speed things up.) Let them know that they can call for advantages, disadvantages, FoRKs, helping die, and beginner’s luck, but they might not know how many die to roll if they invoke them.
That’s my interpretation of the official BW so far. Let me know if I misunderstood anything!
I guess I’ll make them reference a flowchart like this. Make them know what “Ability” and “FoRKs” mean.