So this topic tangentially came up in the "it's not that bad" topic, but the question bugs me now:

Would you consider upgrading or adding setback dice to skill checks from talents? If you do, how so? For example: "It's not that bad", Hard Headed, Field Commander, Inspiring Rhetoric or any other similar talents.

It's interesting, that I haven't even thought about it until now, but interested in other GMs' opinion

Maybe it gets answered in the next Order 66 podcast! (Pretty please! @GM Chris )

You definitely can do. Most characters with those sort of talents will have ways to remove setbacks anyway (or reduce/downgrade difficulty) - or should get them!

I don't know if the difficulty needs to be upgraded but you could upgrade it once per Critical ranking but I think that may also cause more issues. People aren't going to use It's not that bad on easy level crits (unless it is near the end of the session) so they are primarily going to use it 3-4 rank crits and if you have to roll 4 Red on the check, what are you going to do if they succeed and get a despair? You ignore that crit but have to reroll on the crit chart.

Setbacks can be added for encounter confusion, distance, etc. Anything that may interfere with the medic and the person receiving the crit

Oh totally. I never had it used against me when I was using Bad Motivator , but I would have fully supported the idea of turning a purple into a red if I was using it on a Boss or some black dice if the situation called for it (and the GM was able to come up with enough reasons for the blacks to overcome my 5 or 6 Black-Be-Gone talents).

Setback dice are for any and all situational or environmental effects that can make doing a thing harder, so you most certainly be throwing a setback or two on them! But like @Darzil said, most characters with talent-modifying skill checks will also have talents that reduce the number of setbacks on the check. So if they can reduce two, give 'em two or three just to showcase how badâss their character is!

As for upgrading, that's a bit trickier. If you flip a Dark side Destiny Point then yeah, that's exactly what they're for. But just upgrading willy nilly? I would be very careful about doing that. Upgrades are usually only called for in very specific circumstances where a talent, ability or Destiny point says to do so.

You should always be throwing setback dice at your players (so long as it's reasonable [your definition of reasonable, of course]).

57 minutes ago, Concise Locket said:

You should always be throwing setback dice at your players (so long as it's reasonable [your definition of reasonable, of course]).

I keep it that way, especially to keep them honest about the setback removing talents. But somehow so far, I haven't considered altering the difficulty of talent-set checks

27 minutes ago, Rimsen said:

But somehow so far, I haven't considered altering the difficulty of talent-set checks

I wouldn't alter the difficulty, by that I mean "increase or decrease". If the Talent says it's a Hard check (PPP), then the dice pool always starts there. However, upgrading and downgrading (if the latter can apply) are still on the table.

Yep, I definitely apply 'Nobody's Fool' to Scathing Tirade checks. And environmental Setbacks get tossed in no matter what, though as @Darzil said, those are very likely getting tossed back. And players loooooove being able to do that.

I seem to be in the minority on this one, but this is one area of FFG Star Wars that I don't alter.

I leave the difficulty for talent check at the difficulty indicated and I don't alter it at all.

1 hour ago, Mark Caliber said:

I seem to be in the minority on this one, but this is one area of FFG Star Wars that I don't alter.

I leave the difficulty for talent check at the difficulty indicated and I don't alter it at all.

I don't alter the number of purple dices for the difficulty. But I don't mind flipping a DP to upgrade one die not to make the die roll more difficult but to have a chance for a Despair and a more interesting result. Otherwise if there's reasons to add one or more black / blue dice I do it. Both upgrading dice from purple / green to red / yellow and adding black / blue dice are tools to fine tune dice rolls without changing their basic difficulty.

Yes, apply negative modifications to the checks if they would apply. The difficulty given on the talent is in prime conditions, so if conditions aren't prime then adjust accordingly. As you would do for any other role.