OK, so I think I have deciphered why they list environmental conditions with Challenge dice notation. It's in reference to the box in the corner of page 21.

A short drop is Easy (1d) so the character spends a manoeuvre to drop down and you make a dice pool, <P>, add any Misfortune (for crits, say.. or maybe there're rocks below), any Fortune the character summons up and maybe an Expertise dice if the character is trained in Athletics.

Banes cause Fatigue, Misses cause wounds and Chaos Stars cause crits, as shown in the box.

Running in thigh-deep water could cause extra fatigue, so roll a similar pool and only look for Banes.

Getting struck by lightning would start with <PPPP> (it's listed under Daunting.)

Everyone agree with this interpretation?

Mordenthral said:

Yes, but i think it is applied in an either/or concept.

So firstly, if you read the info for each difficulty level on page 21/22 but ignore the dice notation, then that is guidance on how environmental effects may in general affect a PC.

e.g.

Average complications might make some actions impossible or cause them to recharge more slowly, add multiple misfortune dice, inflict 1 fatigue, or force a character to choose between an action and a manoeuvre on his turn. Examples: heavy rain, a fall about the height of a man, deep but still water, rushing thigh high water.

Average in that sense is just a general description and doesn't neccessarily mean <PP> has to be applied anywhere...

So as a GM we could decide that heavy rain adds 2 to rolls, or moving through deep water causes 1 fatigue per turn.

Then you could instead apply the results of the table on 21 when an environmental effect directly damages a pc rather than just hinders him/her, and that is when the dice notation come in.

A average (2d) complication is a drop about the height of a man...

So a fall from the height of a man, which is directly damaging would have <PP> rolled, perhaps with a if there were some nasty looking rocks at the bottom, add into the pool add [W] [Y] as appropriate (acrobatics speciality perhaps?), and then use the table on 21 to intepret the damage from the fall.

I think they have tried to combine the descriptions of both directly damaging and indirectly hindering environmental effects into one section, and that's where the confusion lies.

What I am less clear about is whether the challenge dice roll should have characteristic and stance dice included in the pool (those dice aren't mentioned), adding them probably makes the chance of damage far less likely, so probably not.

Getting hit by lightning <PPPP> should probably do a fair amount of damage, and adding stance and characteristic dice for, say, toughness, could well mean only a couple of wounds, if at all....