I'll try to answer, though if I get something wrong, LM, let me know.<br/><br/>The game of Mouse Guard follows two phases per "session" (Something of a meaningless term on a forum, but the concept is in the rules.)  In the first phase, the GM decides the plot- he sets up a few obstacles, introduces twists, and so on.  It's LM's world in that phase, and we're living in it.  (This is the most like a conventional RPG.)<br/><br/>The second phase is the "Player" phase.  In this phase, we decide what happens.  It's partly a time to recover, partly a time to build up our resources, and partly a time to accomplish our goals for the mission or just get some personal goals.  To accomplish these goals- and to set a limit on what we can do- we have to accomplish all of this by means of making a skill check.  Each player starts the session with one check.  You can get more checks in the GM phase by using your traits against you. (Like I did, when I used my Loner trait to fail my weather check, rather than taking a tiebreaker.)<br/><br/>Checks in the Player Phase can do a lot:<br/>1) Get rid of a condition<br/>2) Buy stuff<br/>3) Attempt to accomplish a goal.<br/>4) Get into a fight<br/>5) Give it away so someone else can do something!<br/><br/>In other words, getting more checks is generally a good thing, unless you really need to have a success on the roll.<br/><br/>Hopefully this is less, not more, confusing! :)<br/><br/>(LM, are we allowed to know the actions in round 3- that is, would we know them normally, or do I know the Raven's next action because of a quirk in how the forum medium has to work?  Also, should we use/talk about mechanics as a way to make a decision like this, or is that too artificial?)<br/>