If a player wants to haggle an NPC to lower the Resource check of a service in the players turn. The player will need two checks. One for the haggle and then another for the resource. After that then the GM describes what happens due to a Pass or fail.
If you should have four players at your table, and a team captain, he does not always have to sit out and organize the actions in a conflict. You take turns: Three Patrol mice go in the first round, then three in the second. Everyone gets a turn before the cycle starts again.
Mice that are helping in a roll do not get a pass or a fail, only the mouse making the roll gets a pass or fail. You help because you want to, not because it is to your benefit.
For a PC mouse trying to monitor/track another mouse, I use Scout Vs Nature (mouse: hiding) even in cases like overhearing whispers or watching for sneaky sneaky bandits. In case the mouse is not trying to hide, avoid detection, etc. then I use Scout factored for the situation.
Slaying an animal 2 levels higher than you on the natural order scale is not possible unless you use the Black Axe of legend or have a large military force or pull off an amazing Scientist roll to trap or kill an animal. Rules for this can be found on Pages 221-222.
If a player gets disarmed in a conflict, they can only retrieve that weapon after the conflict is over. If they have a secondary weapon (which is very rare!) they may use it on the next set of actions. I am toying with the idea of having a house rule that a mouse may play a maneuver action and if they win by 3 then instead of disarming the enemy, they may retrieve their weapon. Again that is a house rule that the players and I are talking about putting into play.
Nature may only be used as a base when deciding disposition if the conflict is within mouse nature.
Ken’s response to a post I have made on the forum earlier:
You may continue to use a trait against as often as it fits. Do take care that it doesn’t become silly or trivial, but using a trait against is rare enough (from my experience) that I never want to squash the idea. (to date, I’ve never said a trait cannot be a detriment; however, I think I’ve disallowed it being a benefit once or twice)
As for playing out volleys of action, I can’t say much about the reasons, but three actions against three actions is a pretty full volley; I’ve not found that conflict ever keep a fast pace even among a group strongly accustomed to them.
Emphasize heavily to players that no one is sitting still or sitting out. While one player may be rolling the dice, on behalf of their PC mouse taking an action, others should be readily offering Helper dice, (possibly gear), and in any other sense participating in the cacophony of a conflict. Even NPC mice might be joining in with assistance. The individual action is not like golf or tennis! The whole team would be involved, but only one rolls the dice–just as in a test.
The basic pattern is that the whole team participates in the action itself–if its an Attack, everyone is contributing to the assault; if it is a Maneuver, everyone is contributing to the movement. Thus, the set number of Helpers per volley seems arbitrary.
So, shifting the response, there is the instruction on pg 103 that in Helping an action, up to 2 team members may pass a Helper die on the roll. This is a question best left to the sagacity of Luke and Thor. My take is that this relates to the new multi-team rules/guidance. In 1e, a large team might get broken down into smaller pieces and everyone could help; in 2e, that is not the pattern. In this case, a large team (such as 4-6 mice in a patrol, plus an NPC support, plus whatever else) could amass quite a pile of dice in each action of a volley. In order to prevent too large a dice pool trivializing the challenge, the instruction now includes this restriction of Helpers. I think this also relates to the cacophony of conflicts in this way: not everything you do is really all that helpful, and with so many facets of a conflict, sometimes you just can’t help the primary action at the moment.
I’d say that a change to ignore that rule would permit too large a dice pool, a bit more time spent gathering Helpers, and less risk/challenge.
Aside: for the multi-team rules/guidance, that is found on pg 116.
A big thank you to Luke, Ken, Skinny Ghost aka Adam Koebel, and of course David Petersen himself. I am loving this game and the comics that inspired it. I have tweeted questions and asked here in the forum and they have been nothing but patient and helpful as I find my way as a GM for this great system.
-Neil