I award between 5 and 10 XP per session, with Obligation and Motivation plays earning an additional 2. The maximum I give out per session is 14 XP and the session tends to be 2 hours, sometimes 2 and a half hour long.

Physical security on the terminal, when its accessed (attempted hacked) droids come out of the walls (think 343 Guilty Spark).

Ion the character/room. The Ion will knock out her Int bonus for the remainder of the scene, putting her at 5/4, throw some reds in there (distraught over the knock out). Greens are actually more potent then reds but no chance of despair, just a higher chance of failures. The Ion will also do a number to whatever she is trying to access (computer, door, etc...), and maybe she has to locate a second device because that one is knocked out.

ICE- old shadowrun mechanic for computer hacking. I've successfully transported it into Star Wars for the same reason (my Mon Cal tech is a nightmare to challenge). You can find out more about it on the web (wikkis). Damage taken in system holds over to damage in real life. Use stun damage for the character, but zap the poop outta her.

The problem with the droids and ionizations and gimmicks like that? It's a bandaid, a cure for the symptom not the disease. You cant use them all the time without looking like you're gunning for the player ("I just hacked that ATM and now 40 Killbots are flooding out the front door. Again.")

Seriously, take your concerns to the player. Tell them that having such a disproportionate skill to the rest of the team (assuming that the gunman doesn't have something similar) is throwing the game out of whack and making it hard to tell good stories. See if they'd be willing to redistribute some of the points in a more balanced manner. Tell them that yes, greatness and fame for the character IS coming, but not quite yet.

Besides, any chump can have a handful of dice. The real fun comes when you start getting stuff off the talent trees. That's where the meat of the character is. . . .

Assuming the other PCs are min/maxed I tend to just play it as is. As someone mentioned earlier, constant success is boring, so I tend to let it just play out. I have a similar issue with my players in that they will not have their characters perform tasks that they are not trained in (have 0 ranks in). I get it, but it makes for boring games. So I often force them into situations to use those skills.

This echoes what lots of people are saying but here's how I see it.

Character creation and xp expenditure reflect the player's choices about how their character interacts with the world. By bulldozing every resource into slicing the player is saying very clearly- "I want to play the best possible slicer that a person can be- this character can't complete a sentence without offending people, couldn't hit the broadside of an AT-AT with a thermal detonator and can barely lift his own clothes when he stands- but nothing connected to the Holonet is safe."

When you react to that valid choice by saying- "okay but... Haha now you face the slicing might of Baron Byte and his firewall actuated insta-killbots!" you basically completely devalue that expenditure of resources- it's just Dragonball Z at that point. Don't do that- it's frustrating and it sucks. Think about like the player characters are heroes in a story- accept that this character has the power of the plot in terms of slicing; Just like Batman always wins, this character will always slice.

Now tell stories around that.

I missed something...

Why is her pool only 4Y2G?

With characteristics limited at 6 and skills at 5, I would expect a 5Y1G pool...

This echoes what lots of people are saying but here's how I see it.

Character creation and xp expenditure reflect the player's choices about how their character interacts with the world. By bulldozing every resource into slicing the player is saying very clearly- "I want to play the best possible slicer that a person can be- this character can't complete a sentence without offending people, couldn't hit the broadside of an AT-AT with a thermal detonator and can barely lift his own clothes when he stands- but nothing connected to the Holonet is safe."

When you react to that valid choice by saying- "okay but... Haha now you face the slicing might of Baron Byte and his firewall actuated insta-killbots!" you basically completely devalue that expenditure of resources- it's just Dragonball Z at that point. Don't do that- it's frustrating and it sucks. Think about like the player characters are heroes in a story- accept that this character has the power of the plot in terms of slicing; Just like Batman always wins, this character will always slice.

Now tell stories around that.

But remember systems in Star wars are not interconnected. so if you want to hack the corporate database? You have to get into the corp and get a an appropriate terminal there.

But remember systems in Star wars are not interconnected. so if you want to hack the corporate database? You have to get into the corp and get a an appropriate terminal there.

This is a point worth coming back to. *Getting to* the terminal is the real challenge, while the slicing itself is more or less a cakewalk.

As awesome as a dice pool like that is, as a player, I keep coming back to: after a certain point, only the most ludicrously challenging tasks would be likely to result in failure. I suppose that's why, when building characters, I tend to focus most on removing setbacks and getting to about 3 ranks in skills. With the 20xp it takes to bring one skill to rank 4, the player can bring 1 skill to rank 2 and another to rank 1. So rather than taking 1 skill from 3->5, a player can bring 2 other skills to rank 2 and one of them to rank 3, significantly diversifying their ability to effect things.

Also, keep in mind that, as an int-based skill, the max dice pool is 5Y2G with cybernetics -- though again, I don't see the point to going above 3Y4G...

1 thing that has been said in previous posts, is that Min/Max players (Like my PC) have advantages in the Max of their skills...In my PCs case Piloting & soon Gunslinging...BUT when it comes to social issues, my PC SUCKS!!! I cannot intimidate/negotiate/amputate/charm anyone to save my life. And believe me it has almost cost me my life (Just ask the Hutt I pissed off in JoY w/ not 1 but 2 Despairs rolled)

So while it may not be a challenge to beat them at computers, I am sure that maybe her stealth or other social skills will be lacking, and maybe getting to said computers where she does shine will be complicated by having to get there by talking her way there or buying something along the way etc. There are all kinds of things that the GM can put in narratively that can delay or even hinder her to doing anything techie because socially she cannot figure it out. Just ask any NERD about social situations!

Success is boring. My slicer astromech has Intellect 5 and Computers 3, and I find that I succeed on most checks...but not all. I quickly reached a level of skill I am happy with and branched off to other avenues...like gadgeteer.