Loving these rules, this is all really amazing stuff. Bought this the moment I heard it existed. After reading the rules, I had a few clarification questions:
- When you act as instructor, you can still advance by spending XP. Does the quality level of the instructor matter for what level of action rating you can advance to? If so, can a PC gain higher action ratings when they train themselves (since their quality level would be equal to their current action ratings)?
- Does "toughing it out" last for as long as you have the injury, or only for that scene? If it does, is 2-3 stress an equivalent cost to the penalties of having an incapacitating injury?
- Since the hospital lets you recover all your Harm for 2-3 coin and possible heat, is it ever worth it to acquire a Physicker (extra downtime action to Acquire or have a contact for, spending Coin to get a decent quality level, and only clears one injury at a time)
- Does heat reduction occur before you determine wanted levels / entanglements? As it stands, a standard job I could see for my crew would inflict 2 (standard job) + 1 (crew Tier) + 2 (witnesses) + 2 (typical amount of Heat complications) + 2 (at war, or open mayhem, usually one of the two) + 1 (fencing goods) = an immediate wanted level every score, assuming they don't execute perfect operations. If the goal is to push them toward prison time and wanted levels, that's cool, but it feels like heat reduction isn't very meaningful if it won't affect the fallout of a score (and no longer determines the severity of entanglements).
- On a related note, if they reduce heat before determining payout / entanglements, do they earn Rep for the heat they reduced?
I also thought I'd share my own home rules about faction status. I felt that faction status changed too quickly in my games, so I turned status into progress clocks (neutral: 2-step, +1/-1: 4-step, +2/-2: 6-step, +3/-3: 8-step). Factions are quick to judge and slow to change their minds, so the higher-status clocks get bigger. Completing a score adds 1/2/3/4 steps depending on the severity of incursion or utility you caused the faction. Filling the clock adds +1 status, reducing it while it's empty adds -1 status (and makes a new clock that many steps away from full).
Thanks for making an awesome game!