Rules discussion

Oh, and I should be home this evening from our ski trip. Tomorrow is a family day for us, so not really active 'til Monday, likely.

Good points. Regarding (2) and if it works, I think I'd rather give you players a lot of leeway than having the rules get in the way of the game. As a general rule, i'd much rather let things work by default, and correct you if there is a good reason it wont (assuming you don't come up with ridiculous assistances ofc). So, I suggest:

The player that initiates a task declares that he wants assistance, and from who. Then proceeds to roll his dice. The other players then decide if they will assist (may say, "I cannot, captn', busy with this Nausicaan" if they can't/won't). The GM will then resolve the action when everyone has assisted, if applicable. The GM may decide that the assistance can't be done, and come up with a story for it (the commands for assistance were all but lost in the commotion of the battle scene).

How does this sound? It will still be able to generate momentum/threat as normal, but reduces the waiting for others part?

I like it

How does the assist change things?

You potentially get two additional success (from one d20). I'm afraid Dramasailor misunderstood the rules though, you don't get to make a full task, only roll a d20.

I thought it was wrong. My fault for not going back to the rule book.