After having actually played the game now:

How much Glory does a PC get for beating an NPC in a simple roll?  1?  1, plus another 1 + NPC's cost if they were the highest?  1 plus a bonus for the effective strife cost of my die pool?  Whatever the NPC's cost was?

Does this change if they keep doing it?  (Since the NPC is already 'in play' for those future rolls.)
(Ok, I try to annoy the NPC.  I try to pick his pocket.  I try to pick his nose.  I try to sneak past him.  I try to sneak past him the other way.)

(Simple Contests, pg 37: "If you win a simple contest...you earn one point of glory.  In addition, if your character gets the highest result on your side of the contest... you get extra Glory...equal to the ammount of Strife the Antagonist spent on the contest, plus one."  This seems to interact oddly with NPCs- a cheap way to gain lots of double digit glory!)

What do you recommend I do if the heroes want to split up?

Is there any reason my NPCs shouldn't drop their Heal down to d4 to boost another stat up to d8?  (It can't be used in nonviolent combats, and none of the enemy abilities are based on it.  The only purpose it serves is getting rid of wounds in Refreshment scenes.)

Hey Willow,

Glad you got a chance to play. And thanks for the questions.

-- For a simple roll, the PC gets 1 for winning, plus the extra Glory for being the highest rolling hero. Look up the dice the NPC rolled on the Strife/Glory Rewards chart on page 117. So, if the NPC rolls 2d8, the highest rolling hero would get an extra 3 Glory.

-- The bit about getting extra Glory equal to Strife spent does not apply when you're using stats from an NPC.

-- If there are multiple rolls against the NPC, you get the Glory each time, yes. Remember, though: The GM says when a roll happens. The players can only request challenges. You always have the option to just say yes and let them do stuff without rolling. You can also set the parameters of the conflict. It's perfectly okay for you to say, "If you fail this roll, you don't sneak in. Period." Also check out the bit about trying again, on page 39.

-- The heroes aren't allowed to split up. Seriously, I don't allow it, ever, at least as far as the mechanics are concerned. If they want to say that they split up to go do different things, that's fine, but everyone still gets the chance to participate in every challenge, no matter where they are in time and space. If they can manage a way to make that work with their narrations of actions, then go for it.

-- Sure, NPCs can dump Heal down to d4. However, Heal most certainly can be used for non-combat battles (any abilities from the Craft or Sport groups are okay), so a clever player might take advantage of that weakness.