As came up in the recent thread on challenge dice, we GMs probably don't use Setbacks when we should, instead increasing (+D) or upgrading (+C) the dice pool. This makes those talents that remove Setbacks become worthless, despite PCs putting their hard-earned xp into their talent trees.

Environmental effects are common (heat/cold, fog, darkness, rain), but you can make it more interesting.

Let's take, for instance, Street Smarts (removes setback from Streetwise/Underworld checks). The normal difficulty of finding a spice dealer in an average spaceport might be Hard (3D). But let's say there are certain customs (handsignals or passphrases) that the local criminal element use to identify each other (think speak-easies in the Prohibition era). This could add a Setback. Or if you're planning on hosting a Herglic on your ship, and you neglect the fact that his size makes it impossible for him to sit in your standard-size chair. That could also be a Setback.

Someone firing at you or otherwise having stress put on you does not directly impact the task at hand; however, it does increase the probability of failure. Therefore, this is a Setback.

Your thoughts?

Sure those are all fine. Pretty much anything when you think about it. Time constraints are one, "work the lock don't look at the dogs Magnum!" When you are pressed for time that is going to limit your ability to schmooze, nothing about the check is harder per se it's just typically you'd grease the wheels over drinks and small talk and what not, no time for that and it's a setback.

A GM might track a string of failures at a task by a player and when they've had 3 in row add a setback to reflect their confidence being shaken in their own talents.

A player carrying a critical injury, no fun doing anything when you've thrown out your back or your arm was blown off last week and you're still adjusting to a bionic one. For that matter going past your wound threshold, near death experiences shake people up and take time to adjust to.

A society with a very strict set of protocols for all social encounters.

Lots of ideas and ways to use Setback dice.