Rules Confusion Arriving out of Play

[Mavis]

I was running a simple scenario for some players - non of who had played Agon before - and we ran into a couple of odd situations.

1) Advantage Dice - once you gained advantage dice you keep them (if relevent) unless taken away from you.  But it says that an advantage dice can only be used once per contest or battle.  Does that mean once per an exchange (round) in a battle? So it's not allowed to use it for attack and defence in the same round - but I could use it for attack in one exchange and then defence in the next?

2) If you use an oath to get somebody to provide a helping skill - does that impare the skill used?
2a) Is it possible to use an oath to get somebody to provide a helping skill that is the same as the one your using?  So for example I'm attacking with a spear - can I borrow somebody else spear skill to use on top of my own?  Or would I have to use a different skill such as cunning?

3) Can you move level with and past opponents on the positioning grid?

4) Does the antagonist need to state when a weapon changes - if it's not obvious?  An example would be a sorcer who has a melle attack and a ranged attack which are both spells - would the antagonist need to let the players know the mage was using a different spell?

5) NPC or minion powers - can these be used multible times in a battle (but only once in an exchange) or once per a battle?  So swift for example?

Not sure the game went down very well with the players - they kept looking at me like I'd gone mad.  One of them said if felt like a board game pretending to be an RPG - which might have been me focusing on the rules a lot....  runningit again this weekend for different people.

[Paolo D.]

Ok, I'll try to give you some answers:

1) I'm not sure, but it should be "once per Battle". However, now John enforce the using of the Alternate Advantages from the Agon wiki, as it was a semiofficial rule.
The rule is here: Alternate Advantages; John said more about it here on Storygames and here on The Forge.

2) When you spend an Oath to call for an Helping Die, the other hero must give you a die (and impairs the ability, as it was a Creative Ability) but he can choose freely from which ability (as long as he can explain how it happens in the fiction).
However, you can discuss it: "Ok dude, I'll delete another Oaths if you help me with that d8+2 in Insight. What do you think?" "Two would be better" "Ok that's it".

3) Uhm, I'm not sure I understood what you mean (and my english is poor, so no surprise...). Can you explain more in details?

4) I'm not sure of the answer, but... Yes I think... Also because it's obvious at the table when the Antagonist do it and pick up other dice for the NPC... In other words, "there's no secret", so why dont' explain it in the fiction? ;-)

5) When a power can be used only once per Battle, it's specified in the manual (for example "Fear" if I remember right), otherwise it can be used once per Exchange.

Don't get frustated with the "boardgame-not-rpg" thing. In my experience, it's a reaction very common when someone encounter indie rpgs for the first time. It's a matter of getting familiar with thems. :-)
And don't worry about the rules, it's normal to go mad the first time with a new game. I suggest to let the heroes read the manual after playing for the first time, so they can help you with the rules and you will be no more the only one how knows everything. ;-)

I hope I was of some help. If you have other questions, don't be afraid to ask. ;-)