Starting up a new Scum and Villainy game soon. One of my players wants to play a Manufactured Mystic that uses The Way to “see the matrix” when he hacks into things so I created an alternate starting ability for him. I would love some feedback. Is this too strong? Too weak? Overlap too much with another ability?
Ghost in the Machine
When you push yourself on a HACK action, you may make a fortune ATTUNE roll. On a 1-3, the visions granted by The Way are too cloudy to decipher and grant you no additional effects. On a 4-5, The Way guides your mind and highlights appropriate exploits; you gain potency on this HACK. On a 6, you become one with the machine; you gain potency on this HACK and the stress cost is refunded. On a critical, you gain potency, the stress cost is refunded and you clear 1 stress.
I might simplify it a bit to
Ghost in the Machine: When you use the Way to set-up an action to interact with computer networks, you also gain potency in addition to the effect of the set-up.
Cool ability. Sounds techno-magical and tangentially related to technomancers in Runners. What I don’t like is that it’s powerful, but has a rider to hack and attune, making it very niche for a player to take, and less useful on its own accord (read as: fairly weak in general, but OP mechanically due to possible stress recovery).
Since the player seems to want this to be a way to gather information in an exciting way, but flexibility seems to also be important: be literal and give some assured benefit plus the option to go further with it, rather than a set of outcomes (bad practice in general). Something more like this might serve you better:
“You can *Attune* to spot and intercept nearby signals. Touch a device or mark 1 stress to open your mind in this way, plus 1 additional stress to extend the effects (more devices, signal alterations, etc).”
You might further explain in the detail text below the ability just how this affects the character’s other senses, and the kinds of alterations that make sense for a charge of stress. I would continue the approach as well of being very literal again, saying something like “With additional stress, this ability’s effects can be extended to allow you to speak with machines through nearby signals like you would a normal person, or intercept many signals at once.”
Appreciate the input guys!