On a Skill Test, if it is Difficulty 0 and you have a Trait or Asset or both that narratively apply, that would reduce it further, to -1 or -2, does this affect the number of Successes you get?
Personally I would say it bottoms out at D0 once all assets and traits have been applied.
D0 is effectively just walking down the street.
Even if there are railings to hold onto they arenât needed unless there is something making the walk harder.
Trying to gain additional successes (presumably for the Momentum) by reducing TN to negatives feels a little cheesy personally. 
Yup, 0-5 are the only Difficulty levels.
But if you are calculating modifiers you can run above or below for the purpose of figuring out the final difficulty. Just once you have that make sure it is from 0-5.
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Thanks - nice and clear now
I think that if you add a difficulty on a test for 5, it should considered not possible (so the test fails even if you have five â1â).
On the opposite, reducing the difficulty of a test for 0 should make it an automatic win. You want to cut an ennemy with your knife, itâs 2. But if you have a great knife, a skill with blade, and the ennemy is actually knocked out on the ground, you donât test, you just do.
The difference with a test for 0 is mainly that you donât even earn momentum because the task is so trivial it wonât help you later. But as always, itâs up to the GM.
Oops. I thought the purpose of Difficulty 0 skill tests is to HELP them bank Momentum. Seems like I read that in one of the adventures, Harvesters or Wormsign? That there are intentionally some 0 Difficulty tests at the start so they can gain some Momentum to get going.
*Maybe it said that statement in-regards to Difficulty 1 test?
That is correct.
If the GM allows you to roll a D0 test, it is only to generate Momentum.
But the GM might decide that after reducing Difficulties to D0, there is no roll justified anymore, so not even a D0 test to generate Momentum. Things became so trivial, there is nothing to be gained from it.
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Yup, if the test is that trivial, youâd not bother making it. 
Difficulty 0 rolls are used mainly for when the players want to do something that should rightly give them a bonus but its tricky to spell out what that bonus might be.
Best example is at a party. A PC might say âIâll have a general chat to people and get the mood of the room and maybe pick up some gossipâ.
Now they GM has to invent lots of possible rumours or suchlike, many of which might derail the actual adventure and none of which are something the PC really wants. So you can use a D0 test and the momentum gained represents how people reacted to meeting the PC as they took a turn about the room.
Then can then spend the momentum with a clearer narrative reason as the scene progresses.
Buying more dice in an Intrigue might be because they made a new friend who is backing them up.
Reducing a Difficulty might be due to an embarrassing rumour they heard.
Creating a blackmail asset might be due to learning some secrets after meeting a mutual enemy of their target.
All of this being stuff they learned as they took a turn about the room
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Wow. I see. Ok, Andy, that takes another view on it that I hadnât heard or understood.
Iâm hearing you say that Difficulty0âs can be ârewardedâ to a PC, for doing prep that should give them a bonus later. The Successes collected against the Difficulty Zero check, will serve as momentum points they can spend later, and when spending those momentum points the narrative credit can be because they did the prep-work actions.
That is compatible but a little bit different than what I was thinking of giving Difficulty Zero near the start of the session, to start giving them Momentum to play with.
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Yup, they are a tool for the GM to use to cover those âI check it outâ moments from the players.
It might be checking out a party, scouting a battlefield, researching an enemy, reading up on a subject etc.
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If a test has enough negative effects to take it over D5, is it appropriate to start increasing the complication range?
Also, the section in the book regarding the complication range is, imo, frustratingly incomplete. It has taken me a while to âinterpretâ that complication range only increases as a result of a trait, either assigned by the GM to a scene/ location, or, purchased with Threat. Is this interpretation correct? Is there a clarification posted elsewhere on this (that I havenât been able to find)? This seems very important to the Threat economy in the system, so having an example of âhowâ the Complication Range is manipulated would be extremely useful.
The GM can always increase the complication range if the PCs do something risky.
Like most things in Dune the GM can just determine what they think is the correct number, just like Difficulty.
Basically, the Difficulty sets how hard it is to achieve the task.
The complication range represents how dangerous that task might be.
So walking along a plank would be the same difficulty over a 1 foot drop or a 200 foot drop, but the latter would have a higher complication range.
Generally just follow the table on p154 of the Corebook to determine the complication of any action as a basic guide.
Thank you Andy!
My table will see this as unbalanced if the GM applies too many traits or negatives to a scene with respect to the Threat Economy, so, I may have to do a hybrid approach. I would probably assign Neutral traits and maybe one Complication Range increase based on what is going on. From there, spend Threat to increase it further in a dramatic way via Traits.
Unless of course the action by the PC is clearly perilous and foolish, then they may get all the things assigned to the scene by the GM âfree of chargeâ lol.
Thanks for clearing this up!
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The way I tend to think of it is that the GM is setting the baseline, whatever that may be.
Then threat is used to go âyou know what, things just got that little bit harderâ.
So if they are about to cross a flaming chasm, the GM need not spend threat to make it a high difficulty and a high complication.
You want to put in a flaming chasm, you can, and its going to be difficult to cross.
Instead threat is used to say âas you cross, you notice your enemy has started cutting the ropeâŚâ
In most cases players have to give the GM threat, so when they do they are really saying âhurt us with some cool perilous plotâ
Generally I find myself using it to give NPCs better dice pools when they start meeting the major villains, rather than increasing their difficulties.