Help and Unit Actions

[Countercheck]

In the firefight I'm currently having with Paul, I just realized something. I've just been having one of my NPC subordonates help me with unit actions like Observe. How many faceless NPCs can help with unit actions?

Example, I kinda really want to observe his bikers so I can lay down some tasty direct fire. My leader has Observation 4. Each of his five boys have observation 6. I've just been having one of them help him with the roll... but it says on page 481:

"Help for Unit Actions can only come
from other members of the unit, either
with the same skill being tested, a skill
listed in the action description or with
a very relevant wise skill. "

It seems to implicitly suggest that all characters in the unit can help. Which interpretation is correct?

[luke]

"Other members of the unit" is really meant to be other PCs. When the stuff was designed, I envisioned them being used for play groups as units more than one-character-leads-hordes-of-faceless-schmucks.

Anyway, in my world, technically none of the faceless shmucks can help you. Only statted out 2iCs can offer help. I cobbled that knowledge together from years of research.

-L

[Paul B]

A possible solution:

In our game, I've been allowing ONE non-leader character per unit to provide help. This can be a PC, which almost certainly will have crazy-high stats and exponents, or it can be a faceless mook using his default dice. So, for example, an Anvil Lord with a 2D affiliation would have 4D Anvil available to him, yeah? I give the faceless mooks the benefit of the doubt and assume a force of them has everything you could ever ask for at 4D: specifically tactics, command, infiltration, observation, recon, the various shot opportunity skills, and as-yet-unnamed Wises (terrain wise, Anvil-wise, whatever). In other words, I figure a force of 3D or 4D Anvil is worth +1D to any Unit action one may care to take, and 5D Anvil is worth +2D.

That seems fair to me. The only thing it nerfs is the potential of 3 or more PCs or relationships in a single Unit, which I'm kind of okay with -- it's a motivator to break up into smaller units and dole out help dice that way.

p.