Q1: Does Helping contribute to advancement or only if a Check is spent?
The rules say, “There are three instances when you spend checks: in camp, as you enter town, and when you’re helping each other.”
That third part, “and when you’re helping each other,” is that referring to the Camping Phase, or can you spend a Check during the Adventure Phase to earn advancement?
Q2: Does Acting on Instincts (and triggering a test, I assume) in Town and Camping earn advancement?
Q3: If a Twist occurs as a result of a failed test, does the Twist represent a new problem and Turn during the Adventuring Phase?
For example, a failed Scout Test produces the Twist of a Wandering Monster. Turn 1 is the Scout Test, and Turn 2 is the potential conflict with the wandering monster?
Q4: If a party member describes their actions and doesn’t receive Help or the party otherwise doesn’t contribute, does that consume a Turn for the entire party? One test, one turn?
Look about three paragraphs below that sentence (Help Checks, page 23). If you help someone and spend a check, you gain an advancement for the skill you helped with. It will be a pass or a fail based on the outcome of the roll.
Yes. You earn an advancement whenever you roll the dice, unless the obstacle of the test is zero. (see Obstacle 0 Tests, page 104).
Any time you roll the dice, it advances the turn clock with just three exceptions: casting spells, invoking prayers and using an instinct (see Spells, Prayers and Instincts, page 60).
There’s only two other pesky exceptions: 1. If the GM requires the players to make a test (e.g., the characters have triggered a trap and they all inhale a lungful of poison, requiring them all to make Health tests), it only counts as one turn, even though everyone rolls the dice separately (see GM-imposed Tests and Turns, page 60), and 2. Conflicts. Even though you roll the dice a number of times, conflicts count as a single turn. See the third paragraph, Conflicts, page 67.
Turns are only consumed by rolls of the dice (aside from the exceptions noted above). If you roll the dice, a turn passes. If you don’t roll the dice, no turn passes.
Gosh I appreciate the quick response. I still am unclear: if a helping dice is provided during the adventure phase, town phase, not involving checks, does the helper (who is sharing the risk) earn advancement or just the player rolling the actual test? Sorry for being so dense - I’m probably overthinking it.
If not, then the only mechanical incentive for lending a helping die (besides it being good form and a cooperative game) is the team Player rewards at end of session, etc …
Helpers don’t earn advancement unless they spend a check.
The incentive for offering a helping die outside of earning tests is that your buddy will be more likely to succeed. That’s usually good for everyone in the party. If they’re trying to do something that you don’t care about, and you don’t have a check to spend, then maybe you don’t want to help. Your call. But also note that while non-helpers don’t risk conditions, a twist could easily turn out to be an obstacle for all the PCs to deal with, whether they helped or not.
I have a noobie question.
If one of my players is an Alchemist and he wishes to throw together something mundane, such as ink or whatever, does that need a roll? As I understand the rulebook, I should only impose tests on my players when something of significance is at hand. Can the players do minor things “between turns”?
As the GM, it is your prerogative to decide what constitutes a Good Idea (page 117). That can certainly encompass distilling ink. However, try not to gloss over every task this way or you’ll rob the players of a chance for a lower obstacle test.
