No surprise that I agree with Josh's notes about this as we play together.
I'll add something, however: I don't see HQ as a game that "gets out of the
way" of narration. I mean, the text says that it should in some ways, and I
find that it does get out of the way when it shouldn't be there certrainly.
But that doesn't mean that it shouldn't inject itself at some point. Indeed
it does, and I think that the injection of system at those points is not an
"interruption" but why I, for one, use the system. If I wanted a game that
just stayed out of the way, I'd just play freeform. And I don't want just a
resolution system that works quickly or dramatically; I can make one of
those up in ten seconds flat.
Augmenting is just one of many features of the system as written for me that
interject themselves into play when it's cool for them to appear that help
guide play along, and are fun in and of themselves.
Mike