So one of the crew’s in my session got a wanted level, but it seems as though all the consequences and heat and stuff are basically the same. What interesting things can I do to really make the crew feel a wanted level? Do I start a clock for a bluecoat investigation? Is it arrest on sight? Do scores become harder to achieve? Are contacts harder to access?
I just don’t know how to play it cos atm it seems like the same old same old.
Yes on the Contacts – their contacts might not want to work with them. Some might try and turn them in. If another pc has a Bluecoat contact/enemy, maybe they lean on that pc. In limited circumstances, they might even be able to use that to their advantage (bragging, etc).
Rules wise, you have some solution already: the entanglement table results are the same character, but in addition to adding the Wanted level to the Heat to determine the entanglement column, there is also a heightened severity of response: “The higher your wanted level, the more serious the response when law enforcement takes action against you.” (p.18) The heat/wanted and entanglements systems seem to cover the increasing stakes of being wanted just fine for me most of the time: being Wanted factors in as a major disadvantage on fortune rolls for how well Bluecoat investigations are going (p.12), plus it also should factor in to the position to do things involving or sidestepping the authorities; but it all depends, this could also apply when there are negotiations in which this fact of being wanted is important.
It depends a lot on the tone of your game when it will be appropriate for you to bring these fiction-driven things like clocks and such to bear. I do some or all of those things you described, but only as the fiction calls for it – and I establish that as they get entanglements in response to how they handle them. I described several earning of Wanted levels on-screen with growing case files, more bluecoats assigned, etc. and only started a clock to represent that when one of the PCs finished an operation in which her bluecoat rival crossed paths with her.