Here is an idea for mechanizing Heat that I think is cool.
Any time you take Heat, you start a clock for consequences. Your “Wanted” level determines the size of the clock.
1: 8 segments. 2: 6 segments. 3: 4 segments. 4: 2 segments.
Each Heat clock gets 1 segment per down time. You can REMOVE segments from the clock using the “Long Term Project” system, and if you get a clock to 0, then it goes away. Doing this is independent of lowering Heat.
What if a clock fills? Then the crew is vulnerable. If the bluecoats don’t hit them, the inspectors might be more surgical in their approach. Or they appear weak and their friends are distant, and an enemy faction makes a move. Don’t define it too much. Let it be nebulous and bad. (Ambiguous is more intimidating and harder to defend against.)
Because clocks are bigger at lower levels of wanted, they don’t fill up fast and they’re easy to clear off. At higher levels of wanted, if you ignore them they fill up fast.
I like it. These scoundrels get away with too much without tangible reprisal.
Don’t crews take heat every downtime these days?
True; maybe a good modifier is this happens when they take 3 or more heat at once.
Also, something happening more with my veteran crew is taking multiple down time sessions between heists sometimes to take care of business, and that wouldn’t generate heat. Only heists.
Though there are exceptions, like when the slide tried to smooth-talk the brittle bureaucrat and she cored his smarmy countenance with a brutal thrust of good old fashioned obstructionism. =) Then sicced the blue coats on him when he started poking around her business.
Connected to this system is the idea that you can run heists to reduce a Heat clock, and substitute the Coin you would have earned for segments reduced on a filling clock. You are then motivated NOT to steal lots of money on the heist, and also NOT to generate Heat of 3+ or you just start another clock. Good motivation for running quiet spy heists that aren’t about theft, but instead manipulating the authorities.
Putting this in would also create an excellent niche roll for a Spider playbook, who could have a special ability to add a force multiplier to efforts to reduce these, and maybe also be able to shut them down.