The crew had 6 Heat, then picked up 3 more.

The crew had 6 Heat, then picked up 3 more.

The crew had 6 Heat, then picked up 3 more. I filled up the 9-segment Heat track & cleared it, giving them +1 Wanted level (bringing them to 2). The walls are closing in on them.. or so it would seem!

I then rolled Entanglements, and realized they were back on the easiest-going list of Entanglements again. They really dodged a bullet by the reset coming after they gained 9 but before entanglements are rolled. Their roll would have been Arrest, but instead the entanglement they got from the 0-3 list was Cooperation (which didn’t apply to them, and so they avoided entanglements altogether).

Did I do this as intended (my reading says “yes”)? ie: Did they just get lucky and stave off their eventual consequences, or.. was I supposed to roll their entanglement from the 6+ list, THEN reset?

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Additional thoughts: I hoped that maybe the Wanted level affects the severity of the outcomes, so that if the same entanglement comes up at Wanted level 1 and 2, then it is harder to deal with at Wanted level 2. Seems the Wanted level on its own is meant to only affect law enforcement response though.

Follow up question: is it being too hard on them to think that all entanglements should carry higher pressure than usual at higher Wanted levels?

6 thoughts on “The crew had 6 Heat, then picked up 3 more.”

  1. Similar thing happened with my group, and we went with it as you describe. TBH we haven’t really delved into what Wanted level could potentially mean yet. They were at Wanted 1 but the Spider went to jail, so it reset. I’d say if you think it needs more bite, then give it more bite. Maybe add the Wanted level to any listed bribe amounts.

    Also, remember that the entanglements can also be things you yourself devise. If you’ve got a good idea for one, forget the chart.

  2. You handled the entanglement correctly. It also seems to me that Wanted Level only refers to law enforcement.

    Follow up answer: Talk to your group! There’s nothing wrong with asking the players if they’d like to have more pressure applied to them than the rules seem to indicate. If anyone doesn’t consent, don’t do it. When in doubt, the answer usually lies in the fact that the game is a conversation.

  3. The rules reference on p.31 gives a very specific order of resolution post-score: 1. Payoff, 2. Heat, 3. Entanglements, 4. Downtime. So I think it’s correct to adjust heat first, then roll entanglements based on the new heat.

  4. I think Wanted is more general, just as Heat is more general. It’s the overall atmosphere of people wanting to do the crew harm, and finding opportunity to do so. If it was just the law, then it would be a factional issue, as the law is reduced to a set of factions in the game.

    It’s okay not to nail the crew at every opportunity. They are scoundrels. As it said in that one Batman movie. That’s the great thing about the mob; they give you lots of second chances. (To catch them misbehaving.) =)

  5. all great ways to see it. It just caught me off guard and my first impulse was “ignore that roll!”, but then I considered how scores are like betting on the Entanglements roulette.

    And they won that time.

    With this little tweak of heightening all Entanglements when Wanted is up, they can hit soft and early, or late and REALLY hard, which I think I really like.

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