There are times when someone may be attempting to help you perform an action, or when you perform some kind of action to prepare you for another, such as studying a manual before attempting to operate a machine, or checking your knowledge of pressure points before attempting a strike. This could also be done against you, for example, one person using a spell against another person's spell to counter it. These types of actions use a different scale than a Difficulty Rating. Rather than being a plus or minus one bonus or penalty per rank, Assisting and Detracting rolls work on the following scale:
| Success Rank of Assisting / Detracting Roll | Bonus / Penalty to Following Roll |
|---|---|
| Critical Failure | -3 |
| Failure | -2 |
| Poor | -1 |
| Fair | 0 |
| Good | +1 |
| Excellent | +2 |
| Exceptional | continue adding +1 to previous rank |
The initial roll's success rate will assist (or detract from) the following roll based on this chart. For example, Bruce is in a martial arts tournament, and before attacking his foe he waits and scopes him out for an opening. He makes a Good-ranked Focus roll. Checking the chart above, we see that a Good is worth 1 rank of bonus, so when he makes his attack roll, he can add 1 rank to its success. If Bruce had gotten a Poor, this would mean his bumble actually detracted from his attack (for example, he misjudged something and attacked a spot that was more protected than he thought it was). A good GM should always give the opposition a chance to counter this with an Assisting roll of his own.