Nope, it's not the players being blackmailed... They took up bounty hunting on Nar Shaddaa for some time, getting into the good graces of a given crime lord, and I eventually tossed them a bigger bounty. Having just beaten Watch_Dogs, I had the idea that there was a slicer who rarely, if ever, surfaced in public, but had blackmail on a lot of big names around town.

When the finally managed to hunt him down, I intended to have threaten to delete his data and commit suicide if they didn't make a deal with him, since the bounty was only if he was alive (he was bluffing). He'd scrub their records (remove some obligation), and pay them half of the bounty to walk away.

Instead, one of the players made a glorious (read triple triumph) shot with a tranquilizer rifle (they'd been big game hunting with it before) and dropped said slicer in one shot. So much for my plans. Now is where it gets hazy and difficult to continue.

A) One of the players has Sense, with the upgrade for reading surface thoughts, and is convinced that, given enough time, he'll be able to get ANY info out of the slicer. Including the blackmail, so that they don't even have to decrypt his files (he is a legendary slicer, after all, and the best player pool for Computers is GGY). I'm trying to figure out how to handle this now, so that Sense isn't established as the ultimate Force power. Any suggestions on how to handle Sense?

B) They players are getting more powerful, and since they're supposing that they'll get all of the slicer's dirt on everyone, they'll be able to blackmail their way into power, or even just expose all the dirt, wait for people to shoot each other, and try to fill up the ensuing power vacuum. Supposing they do get the files, how would you make an interesting adventure out of blackmailing a crime lord or two?

Also, as food for thought, they have 98 Obligation currently, so we agreed to roll twice on the chart, and the player with Sense, both of his obligations came up. One being his Force Sensitivity (something he is unaware of), and the other being his past as an ISB internal security agent.

Thanks!

EDIT: Just so it's known, I have three excellent players who don't get mad or complain, so long as I'm fair and don't fudge the dice. I can throw most anything at them without fear that they'll throw a fit because I'm putting a wrench (or five) in their plans.

For Nemeses you can definitely make Sense an opposed check. Give the target a good Discipline or Cool. I do have a problem with the thought-reading, but others had some good ideas how to handle it. Here's a thread that discusses it:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/128460-adjudicating-the-force-sense/

Note that even if the players think they're getting all the info, there can easily be other info that they never thought to ask about. Some of this might play into the second part.

For the blackmailing, when it comes down to it, people will often handle the change in hands, or the actual exposure differently. It could be that the original blackmailer has other information that the PCs won't have and perhaps don't know to ask about that is needed to corroborate the first info. Some people will get desperate at the change in hands, feeling that the information is less secure than they'd been led to believe. Some might decide that they have to initiate actions against the party immediately; others might decide they have to come clean, and therefore rob the PCs of the opportunity. Basically, blackmail only works so long as the targets are reasonably sure the information isn't going to eventually come out anyway. If that assurance disappears, all bets are off.

If the blackmail targets are crime lords, I would expect them to pretend to play ball while initiating some serious action and sending in a "we're not playing around" crew.

As a general note, I'd definitely let the players milk some goodies from the situation, but I wouldn't let it go overboard. The galaxy is huge, and no matter how big the PCs get, "there's always a bigger fish".

A) One of the players has Sense, with the upgrade for reading surface thoughts, and is convinced that, given enough time, he'll be able to get ANY info out of the slicer. Including the blackmail, so that they don't even have to decrypt his files (he is a legendary slicer, after all, and the best player pool for Computers is GGY). I'm trying to figure out how to handle this now, so that Sense isn't established as the ultimate Force power. Any suggestions on how to handle Sense?

The slicer remembers only a few points about a few people. He doesn't remember every holocapture, video, transaction record and so forth for everyone on his list. All the magical mind reading powers in the universe won't help you if the information just plain isn't there.

Amazing how the simplest solutions are often the best... To decrypt said data, they'll most likely try to have him do it, and if they put him on a computer terminal, he can try turning the tables.

Great post Zev. Thanks for posting. The thing I like the most about EotE right now is how the dice can really dictate the story flow. We often find ourselves trying to figure out what to do next when that Triumph or Despair comes up in a key situation.

To answer your questions:

A) Our group of players aren't read-up on Force powers and we don't use them right now. We're learning as we go. But, I would say, "Where does it say that Sense works like a "Truth Serum"? Couldn't the hacker just LIE? It is surface thoughts, right? Couldn't he just 'think' about anything and let them read that? I mean, even a few lies mixed in with the truthful ones they glean from his mind through hours of observation would ruin the whole effort. (I wouldn't tell the group that he's lying. Just let them take action and figure it out later on when things implode.That could be FUN! ) I can imagine a PC whose thoughts are being read while being interrogated would most certainly say that they're thinking about a pink elephant at the moment. Is it too much to say that they think about that treasure vault hidden behind an oil painting of Darth Vader in the Mayor's house and send the group on a wild-goose chase?

B-1) I'd like to think that there are some Crime Lords who'd just as likely go into a homicidal rage and kill anyone associated with the files. You can't blackmail anyone if you're dead. What sort of bad things can you say about a Crime Lord anyways? Blackmail Jabba the Hutt? Over WHAT??? Over slavery? Spice? A crime Lord won't step down because you said something bad about something he doesn't deny doing. I think that 'blackmail' might apply more to political figures. And if a political figure is ousted, a new one takes his place.

B-2) Crime Lords, Series 1, abdicated their positions. Crime Lords, Series 2, (free from any "dirt" on them) take their place as time goes on. The vacuum is filled.

B-3) Maybe the Crime Lord who posted the bounty comes hunting for them. The PC's probably didn't cover their tracks so well when tracking this slicer down.

C) (Obligation) Maybe the ISB was THIS close to finding the slicer themselves! ISB saw the whole thing of them capturing the guy and confront the group, giving THEM an ultimatum! Maybe the ISB had a tracker/bug on the slicer and track him down to the group. One of the ISB can be a force-sensitive character who uses it for the ISB. Could he possibly detect the other force-sensitive?

Already some great thematic posts here. For game mechanics: if you are playing RAW, with just a few more points of obligation, the group will no longer be able to spend any of the XP since they exceeded 100. I think trying to blackmail a bunch of crime lords would actually increase obligation as they quietly put bounties on their heads. Afterall, how did they get this contract in the first place? The only way the PCs should be able to reduce their obligation is to turn over the acquisition.

I'll never understand why players always want to try to pull the double-cross with super powerful gangsters. Maybe you just need to send in the uber-squad of all nemeses, defeat the PCs, strip them of all their gear, and then make them beg for their lives. I understand that nobody would like to play in a game like that, but that's how this would go down in real life or any plausible alternate reality.

Maybe the slicer has had an allergic reaction to the tranquilizer drug and dies from anaphylactic shock...no pay day for you, oh, and the guy who gave you the bounty is still upset.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Not sure if the players were itching to be done with the game (they said they were enjoying it) or just willing to live with their decisions, but they got in way over their heads.

They had picked up a human replica droid by the name of Rachael, while they were retrieving crime lord's runaway wife for him, and thought the HRD to be the maid. They figured she wouldn't be missed. She was, in fact, a replica of their daughter. The ex-ISB player had narrated a pair of Triumphs in interacting with her as her falling madly in love (or at least being severely confused by her programming with regards to him) with him. This was very important. I showed them all her stat block, including the fact that she was very susceptible to people's suggestions, calling it the naivete of a droid with emotional programming, and designed to be fairly obedient.

We started with the slicer going into shock due to the tranquilizer (which was previously used on something much bigger and less humanoid), but they managed to get back to the ship (and medical supplies) and save his life. I played Sense pretty loosely, as the players just wanted to locate his data, which was in his hideout, and then coerce him into decrypting it for them. When they left Rachael to watch the slicer and went to download the data, the slicer made a few checks against her to explain that the files they were trying to get would ruin her father. She immediately took the ship and flew the slicer straight to the crime lord.

The players, however, managed a PPRR (slicer's Computer's skill) check to decrypt the data, but scored 4 Threat, so I ruled that the hard drive had security measures that started a reformatting process, deleting lots of data. They managed to copy some to a datapad before the thing went dead, including:

-Evidence that the crime lord had been delegated some side jobs from Black Sun and skimmed off some profits (the only blackmail I could imagine would hold sway over him)

-Notes on the slicer's narrow escape from the ISB, who is closing in on him

The latter made the ex-ISB player quite uncomfortable, but they decided to go straight to the crime lord and claim they retrieved the data to protect him, having no idea why Rachael stole the ship in the first place. Upon their arrival, he started berating them for "kidnapping" his daughter, nearly killing a bounty wanted alive only, and such. Then one player got indignant, and backed up his indignity with a thermal detonator.

The explosion damaged the building and nearly killed the crime lord, but they hit him with stim and Medicine to revive him and show him the files just as Rachael appeared. She promptly pulled a disrupter pistol and started firing on her now ex-love interest to protect her father. They managed to subdue her with stun shots.

His bodyguard - a Dashade soldier with a penchant for killing Jedi who escaped the purge (present to call out the Force-Sensitive player's subconscious manipulation of the Force) - showed up next (with backup en route) and lit up the room with a light repeating blaster. Everyone scattered for cover, but they managed to take him down. Barely. Just in time for his backup, consisting of a lot of criminal empire cronies here to protect their boss.

All the gunfire turned up a few Despairs that meant the gun-bunny (the guy who threw the detonator) was running out of ammo for most of his guns. As another group of cronies came up the elevator, one Gand player charged in with a vibro-sword and started hacking, as well as sending the elevator back down with him in it, by accident. He was promptly surrounded at the bottom.

The two remaining players up top - the gun-bunny who got them into the mess and the ex-ISB agent - got a momentary break from the fighting and started arguing (in character, all smiles IRL) about how everything went so poorly. The latter took his vibro-sword and ran the gun-bunny through - whose dying remark was "I probably had that coming" - then prepared to hold the crime lord hostage in a desperate bid to get ANYTHING out of the situation. He didn't. Rachael came to (a player suggested it to up the tension) just as the remaining cronies appeared, Gand in tow, and she put a gun to her ex's back, starting up a good old standoff that confused us all.

The net result was that the ex-ISB agent, getting two upgrades on difficulty to be shot from Sense, killed the crime lord and Rachael, ran for a very large window to jump out into the Nar-Shaddaa speeder lanes, and took a critical that maimed one of his arms in the process. He scored a Triumph in jumping out the window, and thus lived. He then narrated how his character scraped by for a few years, then had a random obligation catch up with him and put an end to his miserable life.

TL;DR One player died, another got captured, and one escaped by the grace of a Triumph, and we called it a great ending to the game.

Smiles all around, despite the game coming to an end, so thank you all for the advice / suggestions. All of our Edge games seem to end with the party building up way too much obligation, and turning on each other in the middle of the ensuing madness, only to narrate dramatic, if tragic, ends to their lives. And somehow they all love it... Maybe I have the best players ever. Or maybe we're all mad.

We're going to take a break to do some homebrew anime / Matrix thing, but after that, they have expressed interest in a morality-heavy Force and Destiny game, with one even wanting to play a hardcore pacifist. We'll see how that goes, I guess.