I see how the values are gotte, but im missing what to do. Do we roll or nust use the number to set it?

It depends. At the start of any Conflict Encounter all participating characters have a choice:

Recover 3 Strife

or

Roll a TN 1 Assessment check.

If they make the assessment check they add any bonus success to their Focus value if they where prepared for the conflict. If they where unprepared such as being ambushed then they add the bonus success to their Vigilance.

So essentially the player chooses if they try and add to their initiative number as well as getting some useful information, or recovering Strife. Since Outbursts are so deadly in Duels in particular the opinion to recover Strife is going to be very tempting.

The skill used for the Assessment check is based on the type of Encounter.

Another related question - how do you break ties in initiative? If three participants - 2 PCs and one adversary - all get a starting initiative of 4 - one by vigilance 2 with 2 successes, and two by vigilance 3 with one success - what is the next thing used to determine order of acting?

It looks like it depends on the type of conflict. For intrigues, it's whoever has the highest focus. For skirmishes, it's the character with the lowest honor.

On p163 it suggests for Skirmishes that the character with the lower Honour would go first in a tie. Otherwise somewhere else in the book, perhaps chapter 1 but I can't find it, it suggests Roshambo for ties between PC's.

It seems a side bar in the first part of the conflict chapter would be good. I'm thinking different types of conflict would require different ways of resolution of ties.

8 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

On p163 it suggests for Skirmishes that the character with the lower Honour would go first in a tie.

Thanks, missed that.

We did it right, then. It was a PC versus a trio of shadowlands goblins, so I figured that whatever the Tiebreaker mechanic (rings, honour, skills, you name it) the goblin would probably have lost.

The Goblins would probably go first, it's *lowest* honor that wins the tie.

11 hours ago, Hood281 said:

The Goblins would probably go first, it's *lowest* honor that wins the tie.

I still think it is bad design, and made a thread about why and how this should be fixed here:

I agree. In 7th Sea 2nd edition, Villains win ties over Heroes (literally that is the tiebreaker, it's not a stat comparison, just Villains go first if there's a tie). I get it, at least conceptually, but the vast majority of games with such systems favor the PCs. Easy enough to house rule it. There's a ton of things you could use instead of lowest Honor. You could (as you suggested) flip it and go Highest honor first, that seems solid. Or you could have a stance order, or a ring, or any number of other options.

Just Ro-Sham-Bo it!

10 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

Just Ro-Sham-Bo it!

Actually get rid of all mechanics, and just use Ro-Sham-Bo for everything .

lets rename the game legend of the three hand stances.

The five rings: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock