FORUM

Yep, there's nothing in the book about that.

Quick answer: If the helper beats the Doom with a relevant roll, then he lowers the Doom by one for the person he was helping.

Long answer: I prefer to adjudicate it on the spot because help in one situation can be wildly different from help in another. Opening a door - two people yanking doubles your effectiveness. Painting a portrait - not so much with the doubling. I mean, the second guy could probably contribute a little by advising on palette, symbolism, historical allusion, fashion iconography, touring nobles' homes to spot trends, but it's not like being the second guy in tugging on a stuck door. In the end, for the painting try, I'd probably use the above to justify something like a +1 Quality added every other week as the painting was being crafted.

But if I had to pick one rule to rule them all, I'd go with the quick answer above. It's close to the Islanders' shtick, but in my opinion it doesn't infringe because the Islander can lower Doom at will, without the need to roll, at range, and without any relevant knowledge or skill.

Also, in combat you can't help using this rule. If a combat style lets you help, by shielding your companion or raising his Mood or disarming or un-balancing your opponent, then the combat style already says that.

And in social scenes, helping doesn't come up in the classic sense, that is, the "I roll Diplomacy to help Mr. FaceMan SilverSmile convince the lich that we're phylactery polishers. Oo, I made it, so now Mr. FaceMan gets a +2 on his roll." In SK, both faux polishers would just roll their own attacks. If they damage the lich, then the lich loses Mood, and the lich has to choose (well, the GM determines) between taking the Mood damage or acquiescing.

Oh, and if it's an opposed roll, my quick answer becomes "The helper rolls his relevant die against the Doom, and a success means he increases his beneficiary's die size by one."

In both quick answers, I would also use diminishing returns. You get the first bonus (Doom - 1 or die size increase) for the first helper. Then you need two successful helpers for the second bonus, three for the next, etc. And feel free to cap it after any point (just as some tasks, of course, may not benefit at all from being helped).

Edit: And how were the games? :) Good, I hope!