Just had an idea for an Illicit Upgrade that adds some real flavor to Scum ships. Please let me know what you think.

Overcharge

3 points

You may change up to two blank attack dice to eyes. If you do so, you must flip a random face-down damage card face-up and resolve it after this attack is complete.

Basically I see this card functioning as an almost mini-APT. The advantage is it can be used over and over again, but once you are damaged this becomes a high risk card.

This is just utterly broken. Let's re-write it to represent what it does a little more accurately:

Overcharge

3 points

Unless you lose your action you always do the maximum possible damage with every attack. If your ship is already almost dead flip a random damage card face up every time you roll a blank, otherwise kill everything with no penalty.

To make this even close to balanced you need to make the penalty relevant at all times, not just once you've taken damage. For example, deal a face up damage card every time you use it. Otherwise you've just given a massive penalty-free damage increase as long as your shields are still up.

What about, "You may add one focus result to your attack dice"? In effect you gain an additional attack die. The penalty could be, "Receive one ion token and one stress token. You cannot trigger this ability if you have a stress token."

iPeregrine,

Whoa now, it was just a quick concept. I was thinking along the same lines as APT; it just slipped my mind about the number of steps required to really set those up. Let me revise it with that in mind:

Overcharge

4 points

You may change up to one blank attack die to an eye. If you do so, you must flip a random face-down damage card face-up and resolve it after this attack is complete.

So yes, if you have a focus you're essentially changing a miss to a hit for free. However, you still run a risk if you're damaged, you must have an unspent focus token, and you're spending no small amount of points for this.

Smashotron,

I'm thinking similar to you, but I think blanket adding a focus is a little much. Adding attack dice is immensely powerful, hence why range 1 shots are so nice. I think modifying dice is preferable.

Peregrine does have a point in that the Z-95 likes this a little too much. Perhaps deal one critical damage rather than flip up a damage card?

The new version is still way too good. Compare this to the accuracy corrector, which uses up a priceless advanced sensors slot, and only gives you two hits out of three or four possible instead of almost guaranteeing maximum damage. Sure, yours has a "drawback", but the drawback only applies once you've lost your shields and started taking damage. While you're at full hull HP the penalty doesn't exist at all and you're free to use it every turn.

TIE Pilot,

Very good point on the Z-95, seeing as how if it has damage it already has one foot in the grave.

iPeregrine,

I do see your point, but this is more expensive and costs you your action to be worth anything. However, I do completely agree that the lack of a drawback on something that increases your damage is not good game design.

With those points, here is the next iteration:

Overcharge

6 points

You may change up to one blank attack die to an eye or a hit to a crit. If you do so, you must flip a random face-down damage card face-up and resolve it after this attack is complete. If you have no face-down damage cards, add an ion-token to the ship.

So to sum up the changes and reasoning:

6 points - reduces the potency of putting it on low cost ships.

Hit to a crit - makes the player always have a choice of what they'd like to do. Also there to justify the points increase.

Add an ion token - there is always a consequence to using this ability, even if you don't have any damage.

Probably too complex with the two different penalties and two different dice modification options, and at 6 points you're getting into "no upgrade is worth that much, no matter how powerful" territory. Here's a better alternative:

Overcharge

X points

When attacking you may change all blank results to {eye} results. If you do, immediately receive one face-up damage card.

Now you've got a powerful ability, but an extremely high cost for using it. This allows the point cost to drop to something more reasonable, and puts an inherent limit on how often you can use it. And it's a nice simple upgrade that doesn't depend on a bunch of different special-case rules.

Normally I do pretty well at avoiding overcomplexity haha. I think I got a little caught up in it. The last one you said I'm actually very happy with, as it still sits at a high risk-high reward upgrade which is what I was going for. When I see it, it strikes me as a 3 point upgrade. I could accept 4 without much convincing though.