I'm trying to find some official ruling if you can add progress tokens if you have to change the quest card in the middle of questing if smaug gets 6 tokens put on him. I've been lucky in resolving 4b immediately by playing this way.

Here's how I've been playing it..

1. quest,
2. successful
3. smaug hits 6 progress
4. stage 4b
5. burgle attempt
6. resolve questing
7. if enough - complete 4b, switch to 2b

or

1. quest,
2. staging (treachery etc) puts progress on smaug, hitting 6.
3. stage 4b
4. burgle attempt
5. complete staging
6. resolve questing
7. if enough - complete 4b , switch to 2b

or

1. quest,
2. successful (add to smaug - still under 6)
3. burgle attempt
4. success, optionally go to 3b
5. resolve questing
6. add progress tokens as normal to 3b

15 hours ago, player3944183 said:

I'm trying to find some official ruling if you can add progress tokens if you have to change the quest card in the middle of questing if smaug gets 6 tokens put on him.  

Yes you change quest before placing the progress (the "determine if questing successfully" and "placing progress tokens" are two separate steps).

15 hours ago, player3944183 said:

Here's how I've been playing it..

1. quest,
2. successful
3. smaug hits 6 progress
4. stage 4b
5. burgle attempt
6. resolve questing
7. if enough - complete 4b, switch to 2b 

or

1. quest,
2. staging (treachery etc) puts progress on smaug, hitting 6.
3. stage 4b
4. burgle attempt
5. complete staging
6. resolve questing
7. if enough - complete 4b , switch to 2b

Just one detail, since you switched to Stage 4b you cannot make the burgle attemp, since it was Stage 2b (that is not in play at that moment) that instructed you to do so). For the rest it seems correct to me.

15 hours ago, player3944183 said:

or

1. quest,
2. successful (add to smaug - still under 6)
3. burgle attempt
4. success, optionally go to 3b
5. resolve questing
6. add progress tokens as normal to 3b

This is correct.

deleted..

32 minutes ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Yes you change quest before placing the progress (the "determine if questing successfully" and "placing progress tokens" are two separate steps).

Just one detail, since you switched to Stage 4b you cannot make the burgle attemp, since it was Stage 2b (that is not in play at that moment) that instructed you to do so). For the rest it seems correct to me.

This is correct.

Thanks for confirming this for me - and pointing out the burgle mistake.