HappyDaze,

I would and have, as Circle of Defense is an ability the PC has paid for through XP, and it's using Parry/Reflect on two separate individuals, such as might be the case with an autofire attack.

Absol197's notion, which I pretty vehemently disagree with, amounts to either letting the PC use Parry/Reflect multiple times on the same attack, or to gain "phantom ranks" at what is a fairly measly cost.

4) Several talents, like Smooth Talker and Knowledge Specialization, allow you to spend Triumphs on specific kinds of skill checks to add a number of Successes equal to your ranks. The RAW interpretation is that you pick one skill when you get your first rank, and all subsequent ranks apply to that skill as well. My question: would you consider allowing someone to split their ranks in these skills across multiple applicable skills? Perhaps someone might have Knowledge Specialization (Lore) 2 and Knowledge Specialization (Xenology) 2, for example?

Probably not.

The reason being that with only one or two ranks, Knowledge Specialization really isn't all that great. Unless your GM is really lacking in imagination, they can certainly come up with better things for a Triumph than you simply gain one or two extra successes. It's when the PC starts getting three or more ranks that the talent starts paying off, as the PC can spend a Triumph to turn a roll that failed by a small margin into a successful check by converting that Triumph into 3 or more successes.

Oh yes, and I've remembered the final thing I was wanting to discuss:

5) How far can one go with assisting a group member? Now, on this one I'm bit shakier on the RAW, but as I believe it works, you can only apply talents when you're the primary actor (i.e. the person making the roll), not when assisting.

Could a group of three people work together: the one with the high characteristic contribute that; the one with the high skill rank contribute that; and the one with the useful talent make the roll and contribute the talent? This is likely not RAW, but for a group working together (assuming it makes sense in the situation for them to do so), would you permit this?

It's been left vague in the rules because each situation is going to be different. Having a half a dozen folks helping out patching up a starship makes sense. Having half a dozen folks trying to help build a blaster rifle in a work shop is more along the adage of "too many cooks spoils the soup." It's up to the GM to determine how many people trying to help is simply too many.

As for talents, it's been offered by one of the devs (again, Order 66 podcast) that the only time talents should be contributed is when that PC is the one making the roll.