I'm finally starting an AoR game, and I'm plotting out ideas for what that party can start doing. The game will take place around their base of operations, and early on will focus on resource acquisitions and better establishing themselves. In addition to missions from Rebel Command, the team may try and get some speeders, rearm themselves, establish some intelligence networks, and expand their base and recruitment.

Outside of their Rank, looting, and simply giving them things, I was pondering ideas for different ways to go about these tasks. In EoE, players can be offered additional or new Obligations as an easy route for solving their problems, but I didn't see anything like this in AoR on my first read through.

Is there a way for players to take a hit to their Duty, in a similar manner to taking more Obligation? This would represent pressing the Alliance for more resources, intelligence, recruits, and support, instead of finding solutions to those problems themselves. What I was hoping to do was dangle three kinds of choices. The team can take the hard way and play through the choice, they can potentially follow and underworld element or other factor, such as taking a loan or calling in a favor, or they can requisition assistance from the Alliance. Each choice would have its risks or consequences, but the choice would be theirs.

Thoughts?

I don't see why not...

From a narrative perspective the duty cap/reset/reward is supposed to represent your characters ability to get things done in a way that gets positive notice from higher HQ. Expending duty to get a leg up or fix a problem could just as easily translate out to a "Well he gets things done, but he can't really do it alone and is always using up additional resources more capable operatives would be able to do without... surely there's someone else better suited for promotion..."

I don't have the book on me ATM, but I think the trick is to always ensure that the cashing out benefits for your duty always total out to something less then you'd get from the reward point.

Is there a way for players to take a hit to their Duty, in a similar manner to taking more Obligation?

Interesting concept that could have good role playing oppertunities. I agree that I don't see why not. Although, I wouldn't let them drop a contribution rank.

You could fluff it that by diverting rebel supplies from others that can use it, that it actually ends up slowing down their progression towards a promotion. (Read: gaining next contribution rank.) Senior offices take notice of those who demand more gear and supplies than others and react unfavorable. Perhaps even diverted supplies to the PCs could result in other Rebel missions going poorly or failing.

Don't forget that the players do get more stuff when they top out their Duty and gain a contribution rank. You'll want to be careful to balance what stuff they gain when they reduce Duty as opposed to the stuff they get when they hit 100 Duty.

But, like James said, making Duty more fluid could also be an option. I would, however, limit it to a deduction to gained Duty, rather than removing it from existing Duty (which has already been earned). For instance, say you have Resource Acquisition as a Duty and you just "liberated" a shipment of weapons from an Imperial base. The GM is going to reward you with 5 Duty, but you say "How about I take only 4 Duty and keep some of the guns for myself?"

I believe this is actually how they do it in the Arda 1 adventure. There is a side quest to go find some weapons. I'm AFB, but I think the players get 2 Duty for each gun they find and turn in to the Rebels. So, either the players keep the guns or they can cash them in for Duty.

Yeah, I was definitely going with earned Duty rather than affecting their Rank. Although for reductions, I was thinking more along the lines of a character with Intelligence or Counter Intelligence calling in for intell rather than finding it themselves, or maybe Combat Victory calling in for support troops to aid with an attack. As with taking more Obligation, the point is to take the sort of counter productive "easy win" rather than figuring it out yourselves. So instead of soothing through an open and risking injury, you call in for a strike or for extra that extra recon you weren't able to get yourselves.

That hope here was to play this off of Obligation so that the team can accomplish the same thing but through seedier or more complicated methods without having to draw on Alliance resources. Do they contact the already stretched but clean Alliance (Duty), do they work with the locals and bring the problems that come with them (Obligation), or do they do it with elbow grease and old fashion gusto (rolls and roleplaying), with all the risks and rewards that come with it?