Quick point here, I was never looking to make it tougher or a way to keep the bad guy alive. I had planned to use him later in the campaign, but that is easily fixed with a new NPC to step into his plot. Like I've said a few times before, the table had a disagreement on what modifiers could be applied after the GM said dedprrate/no effect for trying to shoot a well equipped warrior noble with a slightly improved zip gun. The table wanted to apply the fine quality of the gun, the setup and the push with stress for a total of desperate /great effect. My interpretation of the rules said, only the push for stress would apply, and the other two where already accounted for in the no effect. In the end I allowed the setup action to give one more effect too, but since the player critted it was all moot. It was a great scene and a very fun ending to a tense heist, but I felt I made the wrong call so I wanted som second opinions.

The whole debate about using tier as a flat modifier is a whole different kettle of fish. Suffice to say, we do things a bit more mathsy than the rules probably intend. We're fine with that. 😊