Hey guys.

I'm running a weekly session of Edge of the Empire for a group at my LFGS. It's a much larger group than I should have taken on, but you live and learn.

I do have a player who...he's a nice guy, however he has been a GM for other systems before and tends to know how to 'game the system' as it were.

He plays a Twi'lek Slicer called Kinsa who when she was younger hacked the holonet to give herself a new identity, set herself up as a character called Nexus etc.

Normally during the sessions he is the hardest to get involved because in combat he literally does nothing unless I provide something mechanical for him to do. This is fine because its combat and that's not what the Slicer was built for, it is a support class.

The problem comes to the grandeous nature of some of the solutions he presents sometimes:

We are running through Long Arm of the Hutt and are currently dealing with the meeting of the two dukes. During the first stage of the gathering, he said he wanted to go onto the holonet and place some false information about Teemo that would stop anyone from working with him from now on.

I allowed him to do this with scepticism, but I did make it a...formidable check? (DDDD) which he succeeded.

Another time he wanted to go on there and track the flights of all ships in and out of Mos Shuuta to see where the droid parts shipments went to, which he succeded with threat. I used the threat to say it will take longer to get and access all the information.

Am I allowing my slicer to be too OP?

My one fear is when we get to something like a droid control ship and it reactivates all he'll have to do is say he uses his datapad to remotely shut down the droid ship.

Out of all my players he is the one I really have to bite my tongue to resist saying 'no' to. Everyone else has very reasonable responses and ideas, but his always just seem to stretch the bound of reason and logic and just make things much too easy, but is this a problem with myself or the player?

How can I better keep the Slicer under control?

You are (in my opinion) letting him do things that are simply unrealistic, if not to say impossible.

Let's start with tracking the flights in and out of Mos Shuuta. This is impossible simply because when ships arrive and leave, they list where they've been and where they're going. A pilot can enter absolutely anything into those fields, there is no way for anyone to check up on what he's claiming. If a pilot claims he's going to Ryloth but then jumps to Gamorr instead, no one will ever know. And people who work for criminals are not likely to announce their intended destination. So slicing the starport records will only get your player what you, the GM, thinks he should learn. If you want him to find out where the cargo went, fine. If not, there's no way he's going to learn.

Then there's the part about planting information about Teemo on the holonet. That's like saying you're going to discredit the godfather of the New York mafia families by saying something mean about him in the Youtube comments field. The people who deal with Teemo on a regular basis are extremely unlikely to visit that exact page of the holonet, and even if they did they sure wouldn't make million-credit business decisions based on an anonymous holonet post. And that's not even touching the issue that holonet access is restricted to the Imperial military only; everyone else are stuck with local planetary internet-type networks.

My advice to you is to stop biting your tongue and just tell him "no". The game is suppposed to be fun for everyone, the GM included, and if he's trying to win it instead of play it then you simply have to disallow it. Star Wars is not Independence Day, you can't hack an alien ship with a laptop. For one thing, any military vessel is going to have its control systems on a physically separate network, certainly not some wireless unsecured one.

Regarding the droid control ship, I'd rule that he has to access a secure terminal either on the bridge or in engineering to access that system as it was isolated specifically to prevent such a thing happening.

He could try and access areas of the ship where they're located but that would very likely require a few rounds and will inevitably involve coming under attack.

I would expect multiple checks as you go along as those systems are supposed to have defences against that kind of hack.

Have you thought about designing a nemesis for that character perhaps throw in they've drawn the attention of ISB?

How would that player react if they found out someone is using their old identity to commit crimes?

Black Sun has learned of their exploits and wish to make an offer they can't refuse...

Sooner or later they're going to have to do something before they get targetted first as the easiest mark of the group if every battle they simply go hide, one of the enemies of the other PCs' is going to start using them as the Damsel in Distress to force the rest of the team to comply with their demands...

Have you watched Agents of SHIELD?

This sounds a bit like Skye, have you seen the episodes where they give her a bracelet that prevents her using any computer or mobile phone unless they're agreeable?

Not sure if this might be a bit too much but I would expect any would be adversary would pay attention to what your PCs' do and act accordingly.

Like others have said, difficulty of much of these tasks should be higher, if not outright impossible to do, and even then, what he's trying to do shouldn't have as much of an effect as it should have. Upgrading dice pools with destiny points can increase the chance of Despair - which can help lead people to immediately going to check out who is slicing into their systems. Also, depending on the equipment and what they do, there's the possibility the player has left some sort of trace behind an this can start Obligation to rack up, such as with an Outlaw Tech Data Breaker (which the player may just happen to find).

If possible, try flipping through Wookiepedia or something to see how Holonet and other systems work to get an idea on how difficult things should be.

Most importantly, like copperbell mentioned, opposed checks are a great way to make things difficult. Allows the slicer to constantly try and block out the PC every turn. And if you can turn it into a sort of nemesis slicer like copperbell mentioned, and you're feeling extra mean, you can always give them tons of talents to make things downright impossible (ranks in Defensive Slicing + Improved Defensive Slicing = murder).

My advice to you is to stop biting your tongue and just tell him "no".

This is the only part of your post I disagree with, I think it's a classic "yes, but..." situation, for the other reasons you outlined, except the basic problem is he wants to have too big an impact for the amount of work he's doing, both as the player and the PC. It sounds like he wants to do what would normally take an entire session or two of play in one die roll. If he wants to place false information, as the player he has to describe what that info is, how it's presented, where he's going to put it, and how it's going to get into the brains of his target audience. As the PC he's going to have to make the documents, film the videos, hack various agencies to create an evidence trail, etc. It's a whole mission.

My advice to you is to stop biting your tongue and just tell him "no".

This is the only part of your post I disagree with, I think it's a classic "yes, but..." situation, for the other reasons you outlined, except the basic problem is he wants to have too big an impact for the amount of work he's doing, both as the player and the PC. It sounds like he wants to do what would normally take an entire session or two of play in one die roll. If he wants to place false information, as the player he has to describe what that info is, how it's presented, where he's going to put it, and how it's going to get into the brains of his target audience. As the PC he's going to have to make the documents, film the videos, hack various agencies to create an evidence trail, etc. It's a whole mission.

I agree with this sentiment. Anyone who has actually hacked into a computer will tell you there's not much you can do in 6 seconds. When dealing with the slicer in my game (incidentally she's my wife) I usually have her spend several rounds doing what she is trying to do. At a minimum there are three steps. Access the system, Find the target program/software/files, Perform the slice. Outside of combat I may allow that to all be handled by a single roll but if there are blaster bolts flying then she needs to go through each step.

I agree with the others about introducing a nemesis. Maybe it could be a droid, some semi aware AI (let's call it Master Control) which forms a rivalry with the slicer and the first he finds out about it is being thrown out of a connection abruptly, then over time the AI could start taunting him, denying him access to systems, uploading viruses into his datapad, telling him I know its you patrolling my circuits Kinsa. The one up man ship between the two should give him something to think about, allowing you to look after the others.

Then there's the part about planting information about Teemo on the holonet. That's like saying you're going to discredit the godfather of the New York mafia families by saying something mean about him in the Youtube comments field.

:lol: Ok I'm now having a good morning...

Back to the OP, I think you need some adjustments before you say no.

We are running through Long Arm of the Hutt and are currently dealing with the meeting of the two dukes. During the first stage of the gathering, he said he wanted to go onto the holonet and place some false information about Teemo that would stop anyone from working with him from now on.

I allowed him to do this with scepticism, but I did make it a...formidable check? (DDDD) which he succeeded.

Formidable is the start of the pool, not the final pool.

Formidable difficulty to represent identifying a holofeed the Dukes (or their people... err bugs) would be likely to check. 2 Setback minimum for the system security. Spend a DPoint to upgrade (he's hacking a major site or set of sites on a largely imperial controlled communications network). So Difficulty should be: PPPRBkBk Now Make that check. Succeed? Ok...

Now I'll need an opposed deception check to represent what you actually post (plus 2 setback; one since the Dukes are going to do some checking, and two to represent they are already "in bed" with Teemo so it'll take something really good for them to break it off). So assuming the Duke has a Pool of 3:2 that's PRRBkBk.

Another time he wanted to go on there and track the flights of all ships in and out of Mos Shuuta to see where the droid parts shipments went to, which he succeded with threat. I used the threat to say it will take longer to get and access all the information.

Yes is good, but you sometimes need to say "Yes... but"

In this case I'd say it's time to introduce the most basic security feature any computer can have.... the air gap. What this means is very very simple. The Mos Shuuta spaceport control system is on it's own private network and not accessible from the outside. There's literally no place where the public info net is plugged into the starport control systems (specifically to prevent the sort of thing your slicers is trying to do) You want that info, you have to get into starport control, or the customs office, then gain access to the computer, then not get caught.

There's a lot a Slicer can do from the back of a Van, but as the GM you need to get him outta that van from time to time. It's for his own good.

My one fear is when we get to something like a droid control ship and it reactivates all he'll have to do is say he uses his datapad to remotely shut down the droid ship.

The droid control ship doesn't exist in a vacuum (metaphorically speaking anyway) use your noodle and the solution will present itself. Who's on board that ship? What do they Do for a living?

Ohhhhh... yesssssssssssss....

So with that your Slicer will now have something more interesting to worry about. He can still slice away at whatever he likes, but if he wants it to have any lasting effect he'll need to either focus on covering his tracks, or find a way to eliminate this threat. Either way, this keeps him fully operational, while taking away his "I Win" button, and that's what "Yes.....but" is all about.

The problem comes to the grandeous nature of some of the solutions he presents sometimes:

We are running through Long Arm of the Hutt and are currently dealing with the meeting of the two dukes. During the first stage of the gathering, he said he wanted to go onto the holonet and place some false information about Teemo that would stop anyone from working with him from now on.

I allowed him to do this with scepticism, but I did make it a...formidable check? (DDDD) which he succeeded.

Another time he wanted to go on there and track the flights of all ships in and out of Mos Shuuta to see where the droid parts shipments went to, which he succeded with threat. I used the threat to say it will take longer to get and access all the information.

Am I allowing my slicer to be too OP?

My one fear is when we get to something like a droid control ship and it reactivates all he'll have to do is say he uses his datapad to remotely shut down the droid ship.

Out of all my players he is the one I really have to bite my tongue to resist saying 'no' to. Everyone else has very reasonable responses and ideas, but his always just seem to stretch the bound of reason and logic and just make things much too easy, but is this a problem with myself or the player?

How can I better keep the Slicer under control?

I think you are being too hard on him.

Your first example (planting false rumors) is a great idea and a creative way to get to the party's objective. It's not going to resolve the encounter by itself, but it certainly is worth a point for them in the negotiation.

The second example isn't very egregious either. You may limit the information based on where they are accessing it – from a random terminal over the holonet info is very limited and probably incomplete (being Tatooine and all), while breaking directly into a spaceport terminal would gain something more substantial.

Your control ship shutdown scenario is a bit much because of the remote part, but it would be doable if he could actually get onto the ship and log directly into the droid control.

What exactly do you want your slicer to do if not these things?

Slicer's are fairly much a dedicated information gathering/computer security spec, though they can be fairly sneaky and mechanically competent little critters. Comes down to brass tacks though, even mine (when I'm not co-GM) hauls out a gun and starts dropping suckers like its cool... in fact I think the bodycount is pretty hideous actually.

In terms of networks and computers, don't forget the really heavy duty ones will have masses of false fronts to keep the script noobs out of their hair and 24-7 monitoring by people just as skilled as the slicer is and often part of a team.

By that, you can add an NPC's ranks of Defensive Slicing to add Black Dice or Improved Def-Slicing and upgrade the difficulty by 2-3 ranks. It probably wouldn't be unreasonable to have a dedicated admin also with Skilled Slicer and let them make checks as maneuvers within the system they control.

If they're starting to get particuarly obnoxious- go up against a minion team of control operators, see how things get when you're bumping up the defence to around 2-3 Red and 2-3 Purple with a handful of Black dice... and if the slicer rolls a Despair or two, or 3-4 threat, then they've locked you out of the network- bam no more trolling the empire, + there's probably a death squad on their way just to 'fix' whoever's mucking around with that access port.

...of course, the counter-team might just be in it for the 'lulz' and have the slicer access something to keep them hanging around in some false front (Discipline check to figure that out the lie) so they can have angry men with guns turn up to do the physical problem solving.

Planting credible false information on the Holonet shouldn't just instantly burn Teemo forever, but it's good thinking on the slicer's part. It's an automatic setback die (or more depending on the degree of success on the slicer's roll) on his social rolls until he manages to exonerate himself.

Define reasonable limits and suitable prerequisites for what the player wants to accomplish, but definitely don't penalize the slicer for thinking like a slicer.

Actually I was thinking of a derelict CSI ship that shut down after the master command was given at the end of Episode III. However the security protocols detect intruders and start up again after it finally recognises there are intruders aboard. Which would be when they are a good distance from their ship. So there would not be anything actively going against it other than the techno unions own cyber security, this must be advanced otherwise the Clone War wouldn't have even become a war.

@Doc and Shade

I'm not trying to penalise him, his ideas are very creative but extremely large and in my opinion beyond the scope of what is possible in that situation. As someone has said before, the Holonet is restricted to military use only, planets restricted to their own local net and he wants to do this all from a simple datapad from a table at Duke Piddocks cantina on Geonosis.

Not only that, planting false evidence on a Hutt crimelord to deter other criminal...I don't think it would make them flinch or they may not even believe what is planted or care.

Also when it comes to finding the routes of the ship, the planets are pretty isolated information wise, so she'd have to go directly to Mos Shuuta spaceport control to get that information and couldn't do it from Geonosis at all. To add to that, there's no gaurentee the information is accurate, someone could have filed a flight plan from Geonosis to Tatooine and then mid flight sent a comm to Bespin to file a new flight plan and no one would know but Bespin control. Tatooine would expect the freighter and it would never arrive.

Personally I like the idea of staggering the checks so its one check to get onto the net, another to access the data, and then a different check to represent how the data is being manipulated. So for the planting of the false information it would be a deception check. Stretching this out would give him more things to do, Triumph and Despair could be used to add more checks or reduce the number of checks or even stop him completely.

I'm not going back on what I let him do, I will find a way to work around it and state to him that I've been doing some research and found that the holonet is restricted and what he did last time shouldn't have happened as it did and such.

I will also start turning the screws, threat or despair could easily be used to bump Obligation up by one or two points as ISB attempt to track down 'Nexus'.

We are running through Long Arm of the Hutt and are currently dealing with the meeting of the two dukes. During the first stage of the gathering, he said he wanted to go onto the holonet and place some false information about Teemo that would stop anyone from working with him from now on.

I allowed him to do this with scepticism, but I did make it a...formidable check? (DDDD) which he succeeded.

How can I better keep the Slicer under control?

Well, for the hacking and framing Teemo, the obvious out would be "Great - you hacked to place the data. Now, roll your Skullduggery to make the info convincing! What, you don't have Skullduggery? Well good - you made Teemo look like he is a hardcore Bronie and has The Village People on his ipod"

But honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. Is it breaking the game? No? Then let him do his schtick if it makes him happy.

planting false evidence on a Hutt crimelord to deter other criminal...I don't think it would make them flinch or they may not even believe what is planted or care.

I think this depends largely on what the slicer chooses to plant. I can think of a few things that would make some other underworld figures in Hutt space give pause before going into business with a crimelord: his kadijic is in poor financial straits, he's informing to the ISB, running a lucrative/dangerous side deal against his kadijic's wishes, or, of course, if the slicer tends toward the more operatic, some really heinous deviant behavior that even career criminals would look askance at.

Put it back in the player's court and see how creative they can be.

I also think getting someone on his trail is a good consequence for major hack jobs like this. Maybe even offer to trade obligation to allow him to pull some of the more grandiose jobs off. "You want every holo and datapad in the city to show this faked video of the Moff beating his wife? Sure, but what's it worth to you?"

...he wants to have too big an impact for the amount of work he's doing, both as the player and the PC. It sounds like he wants to do what would normally take an entire session or two of play in one die roll...

This seems to be the crux of your problem. He thinks he can do a lot more in a single check than is reasonable, and you haven't found a way to disabuse him of this notion yet.

Think about your process for encounters focusing on masters of other fields. In an average combat encounter, the primary fighters will take a half-dozen combat checks each, and although they'll be dealing most of the damage, the rest of the party still has an important role to play in covering their flanks and distracting the enemy.

Since combat is almost universal in Edge campaigns, this is a good guideline for how encounters designed towards other specialties should play out. You don't need to go into structured time, but the primary PC should make several skill checks combined with roleplay, while other players contribute to the periphery of the encounter by keeping a look out, preparing materials, distracting threats, etc.

For my groups, an encounter of any kind will usually take 2-5 different skill checks from the lead PCs, roleplay, and some background checks (Coercion, Cool, Knowledge, Vigilance) from the others to modify the circumstances or figure out additional info.

So for the Slicer, say he's hacking into spaceport control for the flight data. This would take some set-up by the other PCs, Charm or Deception to convince the guards, some Skulduggery or Stealth to sneak your slicing tools in. Then he gets to work, with a Computers check to into the system, a Perception check to find what he's looking for, another (much harder) Computers to cover his traces, and finally a Cool to walk out past the guards without drawing suspicion. These should all be opposed by a skill from some NPC. (Yes, even Perception. You think NPCs won't use Skulduggery to cover their tracks?)

That's only the raw data, though, and now the group'll have to go through it to find patterns or discrepancies. Knowledge, Perception, Skulduggery, Streetwise, combined with character backstory connections to the places or groups in question.

Practice justifying Boost and Setback dice (or even Challenge dice without flipping Destiny Points) into as many skill checks as you can. The more comfortable you get with modifying the dice pool to fit the circumstances, the easier it'll be to give the slicer a good challenge, which hopefully will help him appreciate his accomplishments more.

Also, the more different types of skill you can tie into a given encounter, the more options for other PCs to get involved, and the more well-rounded players will tend to build their characters. NEVER let a player use one Skill to the exclusion of all else.

Hope this helps!

From my point of view the first issue is allowing the character access to the Holonet in the first place. The Holonet during this time period has been restricted for military use only. As such it should have the appropriate military level encryption. This is not to say that they PC can't access the Holonet, but it should mean that every time they want to access it they have to break that encryption. And it would most definitely be at least an upgraded twice formidable Computers check. If a Despair is ever rolled then the authorities now have her location. Throw in some setback dice for less than ideal connections (wireless, etc.) and just accessing the Holonet would be more headache than it is worth.

For my games I do include a localized internet that is available on all but the most primitive worlds. These are what provide the majority of news and information for the inhabitants of that planet. News Stations can feel free to broadcast what they want but they are often forced to make redaction if COMPNOR feels they have broadcast any information negative to the Empire. The localized internet would be what slicers in my game during this time period would mostly utilize.

I'm not trying to penalise him, his ideas are very creative but extremely large and in my opinion beyond the scope of what is possible in that situation.

You should have increased the difficulty (possibly to PPPPP or PPPRR) and added Setbacks in that case.

Possible but very difficult. And if he succeeds, let him succeed...but note that he left a trace in editing those files that might come back to bite him. Create a plot there. Don't let his success stymie you, but don't necessarily let success means he gets everything he possibly wants either - i.e. he should not be able to edit the Galactic Wiki and have that info changed everywhere. But putting up a fake local news story that embarrasses Teemo and gives the PCs some advantages in the area would certainly be appropriate.

For my games I do include a localized internet that is available on all but the most primitive worlds. These are what provide the majority of news and information for the inhabitants of that planet. News Stations can feel free to broadcast what they want but they are often forced to make redaction if COMPNOR feels they have broadcast any information negative to the Empire. The localized internet would be what slicers in my game during this time period would mostly utilize.

Yeah, I am playing a Slicer droid in an AoR game and did something like this while we were on a space station. I accessed the local intranet - the public face of which was mostly news, commercials, etc but with underlying layers of, like, docking schedules and assignments. I did well enough to see that some unarmed Imperial transports were in port, leading us to the idea of hijacking them by reprogramming their navicomps (haven't done this yet). But the point being, there was still still for me, as a slicer, to do on the station, without straining some of the credibility of treating HoloNet as internet or whatnot.

So you've said that your typical reaction to your player trying to do these tasks is to just jack up the difficulty. That's not really a good way to resolve "player wants to do thing I don't really want him to do." Also, yes, from the sounds of it, you don't want him to actually do these things. You've taken the advice that a good GM should always say yes to his players, which is good. However, there are lots of things you can do to set up boundaries for your player actions that fit within this.

1) Consider why the player wants to do something

Is the player trying to do something cool? Is he trying to be the one to "win" the encounter? Is he trying to end the encounter early so it doesn't have to play out? Keep that latter one in mind. Your slicer player is, by what you've said, pretty strongly disincentivized from seeing the group get into combat. Depending on what your player is trying to get, you can base your reaction on it. If the player wants to do something cool, you offer them cool options. If he is trying to be the one to "win" the encounter, give him enough things to do that allow other players to participate and "win" in their respective fields (e.g. this may be when you start breaking hacking down while allowing other players to act and react; let the slicer be the "overwatch" for the team directing their actions based on information he gets from his rolls during the encounter). If the player is trying to avoid the encounter entirely, you can talk with him about that, and ask what cool thing he would like his character to do during encounters, then give him that opportunity.

2) "Yes, but" and "No, but"

"Yes, but" lets you scale what the player is doing. Yes, he can hack the system, but he'll have to get in close range to the target. No, he can't smear a crime lord's name just on the holonet, but he can make sure that more pressure is getting put on him. Yes, he can smear the crime lord's name, but he's going to need some evidence of that crime first.

The key thing to follow up the "buts" with is to then give the player something he CAN roll for immediately. "You need to get close to the target, so why not roll to look up how close that is, and any other info you can find on that system's weaknesses." "No you can't instantly smear his name, but roll to find out if he's gotten into any trouble lately with the Imperials." "You need some evidence of a crime, so why not look up some recent crimes or dealings you can pin on him."

With players like this, a lot of times if you give them the "Yes, but" or "No, but," they'll just shut down and harumph that you're not letting them play their character. This is normal behavior. They made that character with the plan to hack things. They're playing this game with the cool dice. Give them a roll to make, immediately. If you get stuck thinking of something, throw it out to the player by asking him to give details of how he'd do it, or ask the other players what he'd need before he could do that, then just apply the answer to the skill the player wants to use, or ask him to apply his skill to an interim step. Keep him in the game, and he will still be rolling and being useful, but won't be making sweeping changes based on 1 roll.

Also, make sure these interim steps are interesting. I don't like "roll to break the system. Roll to find the drive in the system. Roll to disable the security." because a lot of those steps don't really have interesting outcomes, or at least don't have different outcomes. Make sure that each time you're rolling dice that your outcome will either bring interesting new information into the game, or will risk a new consequence. That same thing should apply to any skill check. If a player is climbing a hill that you NEED him to get up, there should really only be one roll, with failure meaning the loss of time or bodily injury. If you want the player rolling climb several times, it should be because he needs to rescue another player, or because suddenly monsters swoop in, or what have you, not to just do the same thing over and over.

I hope all of this rambling is helpful. Summing it up, give your player intermediate steps using the same skill roll, but make sure that those steps are interesting and accomplishing something cool in and of themselves. Remember that you should never roll unless the outcome is in question or could be interesting.

My advice to you is to stop biting your tongue and just tell him "no".

This is the only part of your post I disagree with, I think it's a classic "yes, but..." situation, for the other reasons you outlined, except the basic problem is he wants to have too big an impact for the amount of work he's doing, both as the player and the PC. It sounds like he wants to do what would normally take an entire session or two of play in one die roll. If he wants to place false information, as the player he has to describe what that info is, how it's presented, where he's going to put it, and how it's going to get into the brains of his target audience. As the PC he's going to have to make the documents, film the videos, hack various agencies to create an evidence trail, etc. It's a whole mission.

Definitely agree with this sentiment, as I've found it to be a too frequent occurrence among the other DM's in my group. Sometimes you need to take a step back before saying yes, no, or yes, but... and think about what the player is trying to do and how much sense that makes.

For the spaceport example, well, as others have pointed out, there are some flaws in his plan, including the fact that the information is probably only accessible locally at a space traffic office, and that the information is subject to misrepresentation by the pilots of the ships berthing and departing. Why would such a system be open to public access? Had this come up in a d20 Modern game where our hacker was constantly turning off the lights, or hacking into the security cameras in a building we were infiltrating remotely...and you see this sort of nonsense in movies all the time.

As for dealing with Teemo via some planted information on the Holonet, well, it would have to be pretty spectacular to have the effect he's seeking, like video footage that no one can prove is doctored revealing Teemo doing something that will piss everyone off (informing on his partners/rivals to an Imperial investigation unit, or embezzling from his fellows, or murdering someone he wasn't supposed to...), and that's going to be very hard to do, and time consuming.

My feeling is, anything that doesn't obviously only include performing one type of action for a given task should include multiple checks, and often from different skills. You've got a Computers check to hack into the Holonet at all, a Streetwise or Knowledge: Underworld check to figure out what sort of information would have the desired effect, then either another Streetwise or Knowledge check to figure out a likely spot to stick the faked info, or a Computers check to trace systems access and usage by the targeted party(ies)--this is basically looking up their browser history--a Deception check to work up the material to be entered into the net, and another Computers check to ensure that it isn't traceable (and that the forgery isn't noticeable).

All of those would probably receive at least one Setback die, and more likely 2-4 of them, along with at least one upgraded difficulty on a lot of those checks via Destiny points: Despair on the initial hacking would lead to his intrusion becoming known and having some martial presence descend upon his position (and if he gets Threat besides, I'd probably say that the slicer isn't aware of this until the guns are pointed at him); Despair on the information check could lead to putting Teemo in a good light (if the check also fails), or could obviously point a finger back at the hacker due to the information used being known to only a small number of people who can realize where the leak occurred; and on the browsing check turn up irrelevant results or alert someone to his snooping...I think you get the idea.

Even if you want to make it not too hard to do, because you think it should be something the player should be able to accomplish (rewarding a good idea), it should take time, and you should probably include extra things for the player, and the party, to do to lessen the difficulty on these checks or earn Boost dice.

Finally, in the event of ultimately succeeding, I'd probably make the result a bonus on any checks the players make when dealing with their target in regards to Teemo (downgrade the difficulty of Charm and Negotiation, remove Setbacks, etc...), and on checks made in an attempt to supplant Teemo, or offer their services, but a Despair during this step would make anyone they deal with suspicious of their convenient timing. A triumph would probably result in the plan working perfectly, Teemo being ostracized (or worse), and the folks they're looking to deal with left with a power vacuum that needs filling.

All of this could take a whole game session, or several.

Two suggestions to make things like this a little easier on you: speak to the player running the Slicer about this, and encourage the group as a whole to weigh in with suggestions for Boost and Setback dice on checks, and why. It takes a little pressure off you by getting multiple people involved in assessing situations, and can help keep players engaged when their characters are otherwise out of the action (if one guy is taking up 20 minutes of game time slicing a computer, the other players could be offering suggestions on why it would be harder or easier, or what risks may be involved).

Joker Two really nailed it!

You're abstracting too much. He's wanting big things, but you're asking for a single roll. That's boring for him, and hard on you. See, the combat guys get intricate mini-games where they pull off cool narrative flourishes and get the drama of rolling dice, but when it's the slicer's turn to step into the spotlight, he gets one abstracted roll, ha ha. That's why he keeps slicing into everything; he's looking for his combat type drama.

Don't say no to his big ideas. Just give him the three steps he needs to accomplish for that big thing to happen. Present them almost as mini-games, side missions. Bonus good feelings if at least one of these steps brings in the other characters in supporting roles, so he can be the star (and none of them grow bored).

Break things into smaller parts. It's an easy way to limit his scope without him realizing it. And he'll have more fun failing in part than succeeding an abstracted roll in full.

So you've said that your typical reaction to your player trying to do these tasks is to just jack up the difficulty. That's not really a good way to resolve "player wants to do thing I don't really want him to do."

Well, the things the player wants to do are difficult things to do that should require punching through government encryption and altering files on a bigger scale than just on one piece of hardware. It should be appropriately difficult to do them, without looking at difficulty as an adversarial thing.

They made that character with the plan to hack things.

My only comment here is it's extremely important for the GM to set the setting for the character. Slicing in Star Wars is not intended to be like hacking IRL (where someone from China can hack a secure server in the US) or playing a decker in previous editions of Shadowrun (where, in the current ed, you just can't hack things from home very easily, which is a mechanic intentionally put in place to be non-simulationist to encourage the hacker to go on-site instead of sitting safely in the van).

But of course we come at it from these perspectives because they're the perspectives we know, and it's on the GM to explain how our perspectives may not fit the game setting.

Joker Two really nailed it!

You're abstracting too much. He's wanting big things, but you're asking for a single roll. That's boring for him, and hard on you. See, the combat guys get intricate mini-games where they pull off cool narrative flourishes and get the drama of rolling dice, but when it's the slicer's turn to step into the spotlight, he gets one abstracted roll, ha ha. That's why he keeps slicing into everything; he's looking for his combat type drama.

Don't say no to his big ideas. Just give him the three steps he needs to accomplish for that big thing to happen. Present them almost as mini-games, side missions. Bonus good feelings if at least one of these steps brings in the other characters in supporting roles, so he can be the star (and none of them grow bored).

Break things into smaller parts. It's an easy way to limit his scope without him realizing it. And he'll have more fun failing in part than succeeding an abstracted roll in full.

I'd make sure that they are separate tasks rather than just three rolls to accomplish one thing.

Alternatively, I'd just have him perform the tasks and then make one roll at the end. Rolling dice just to roll dice doesn't make the game more exciting, especially when two successful rolls are invalidated by a third failure.

The other benefit of creating multiple steps is that you can involve the other characters. If you want to post slanderous material on the Hutt, the Politico can use his high Deception to word it right, while the Scoundrel can use Streetwise to decide on what rumor would be more relevant.

On the other end, be aware of the number of hoops you are making the player jump through in relation to the scope of the results. If he has to do four things to do what the social character could do in one roll, then you are probably asking too much. If he is giving a bonus to another character, then make it one roll. Three+ steps should have a solid impact on the narrative.

Right, they aren't just three different rolls. They're tasks, ideas, missions. If the GM gets defensive, sure, they'll sense it and resent it. But when I smile and act like, "awesome, you've just done something so cool, check it out..." they become story-rich moments that allow them the chance to be clever, brave, etc. I should say that I only really do this when they ask for something as if they were summarizing a chapter in a story, like, "I want to discredit a Hutt, can I roll Computers?" And I'd do the same thing to a social-based character.

It's interesting...in my games, dice are important. They're moments of pure drama and risk. Rolling is an act that tethers a player and a character (character wants to succeed and player is rolling the dice trying to help them); I believe that you're never so aligned with your character than at the moment you're reaching out and connecting with the dice. And rolling is a tactile ritual (my group is reverent about it, they love the sound, everything). Edge of the Empire is awesome in this capacity. We can't get enough.

The above posters have some awesome feedback for breaking the slicer's efforts up into key tasks rather than using a simple roll resolution. Think about the example you gave of discrediting Teemo. A simple roll is like posting a cruddy review on a couple of sites. It takes a campaign of false information from multiple credible sources to discredit someone, particularly an entrenched crime lord. It's not the sort of thing one does in a few minutes or even an afternoon.

I think two other key points to account for are time frame and active opposition.

Our GM has sped up things like people wanting to make multiple Negotiation rolls to find equipment they like by having each roll reflect 3-4 hours of looking (now that I think about it, one hour per purple die as a base timeframe would probably work well when people are splitting up and taking care of multiple tasks simultaneously). It's like researching a price for an item on the internet and then going out and shopping around in modern standards. When our party face is babysitting several of us looking for rare equipment and docking fees are piling up, it makes downtime move along and also helps insure we only bring along our expert for rare or expensive purchases.

Slicing should be similar; short tasks that can be measured in rounds should be things like hacking doors open. I've found in most games that having the kinds of tasks you're describing occur in a realistic time frame helps players think of their actions as an overall plan to be coordinated than a series of rounds and also helps rein in the "gogogogo" mentality that you find at a lot of tables.

As far as opposition goes, Slicers are pretty much the final word in their arena. There are multiple social spec trees, multiple combat spec trees, but really Slicers have the lock on making computers sit up and do tricks. This means that any kind of meaningful data isn't just going to be protected by passive systems; there are going to be administrators or even teams of slicers monitoring security for a crime lord or an Imperial outpost. A lot of the rolls you're describing should be opposed rolls - complete with opposing Slicer talents if the objective is important enough. That change alone would also make the rolls you're describing a *lot* less cut and dry, and open up all sorts of other options, like being traced back to their slicing location and having an ISB hit squad sent out ASAP on a Despair roll. That sort of thing *also* encourages things like planning, security, and thinking ahead - making the preparation for an important slice a party activity and not just a solo gig.