Okay, just....I understand how a player uses it and how it is basically a reflection of deals made, debts owed. But from the other side of the screen, I hate the rolling to activate it, the associated strain penalties. On top of that, using it to hook future parts of story into it, well I already plan most of that into most games I run. SO other then the starting benefits charaters can get with it, I just dont see what it adds to the game.

I guess I just see obligation as un finished, or only partially implamented into the system. It feels like both a mechanic that is far more technical then anything else in the game, but also not specific enough to use besides super broad brushstrokes. But Like i said, when GMing i try to work old deals and other things that obligation is suppose to reflect into the story with plot hoooks from the get go. Any advice?

How you've used it? How PLayers have made surprise uses of it? any insights into the mechanic that i'm just not seeing.

Trying rolling the Obligation trigger at the end of a session. Then you can plan it more thoroughly and the PC has to dwell on it until your next session.

In a broader sense I think it's there for 2 reasons:

1. To help players who don't get into the "background" of their characters to create a richer experience. If all your players come to you with a 5000 word background and are messaging you between sessions to update you on the current status of their PC's families then you can probably ignore Obligation except during Character Creation.

2. It's a Resource for PC's, they should be gaining and losing it regularly, especially "Group Obligation" which is a single 5-25 Obligation that when triggered affects the entire party, such as a Bounty for stealing a Hutts ship. But when they want things 1 way to get it should be a new obligation. For this reason I really like to encourage the PC's beginning Ob to be non permanent, save those for Motivations.

I cant believe the i missed the group part of obligation. I gave them blanket obligation and extra credits at the start, becuase i thought 500 was to small for the immediate backstory i gave the group obligation. The all managed to piss off a Rotta the hutt, and have been tasked with stealing the unstealable Jewel f Yavin. Running the group through module of the same name.

The idea comes from the Colonist source book Far Horizons. In that it's used for the acquisition of a group owned business/ranch and also for upgrades to said business. But lots of people have taken that idea and applied it to other scenarios.

I was wondering if anyone ran a group session discussing their obligations, how their motivation relates to that and more importantly list any important npcs the player involves in their background?

Now if they don't want to do that especially that last bit I see no reason to add details to your game that does involve their obligation and let them decide which one is more important to them!

After all if they ask afterwards whose obligation was rolled you can explain whose obligation turned up first in game and it wouldn't be your fault that player ignored it and followed the next one that turned up after all!

I'd only roll it if say it was the first session or they'd completed that part whether successfully or not and they wanted to continue playing and even then only use it if I hadn't planned on the next part.

Haven't seen much on the Far Horizons establish a business stuff barring the Order 66 episodes on that subject though.

Also a triggered obligation doesn't mean an entire encounter for that session, it could be a bad dream leaving them stressed out, or a holomessage from Family they miss.

mmmhhh got similar doubt about Duties

ok that's more a "personal motivation turning into plot hook" and that's a good things if done as an organic/not-fixed part of the adventure, line on Perlemian Haul (or many other published adventure, but i suppose everyone who got AoR read Perlemian Haul too)

but for most part is just a simple "roll the dice to maybe get an extra boost to your stats" and "if you do this side quest you get a little personal gain"

(also: if one fulfill his duty, what's the gain? how much it will increase?)

so i ninja this topic to ask for this too

Oh second that point about Duty!

It would be nice to have examples of that when it gets reset or spent.

I don't use Obligation after chargen, I like to decide when to weave in the past, not rely on a die roll.

Oh second that point about Duty!

It would be nice to have examples of that when it gets reset or spent.

It gets reset once everyone in the party reaches 100, and the group as a whole then gains 1 Contribution Rank. The Contribution Rank can then be "spent" to get better gear, a new ship, whatever the GM feels is appropriate. The group's Contribution Rank shouldn't go down, though.

It gets reset once everyone in the party reaches 100, and the group as a whole then gains 1 Contribution Rank. The Contribution Rank can then be "spent" to get better gear, a new ship, whatever the GM feels is appropriate. The group's Contribution Rank shouldn't go down, though.

Everyone should need to go 100? or the total sum of everyone's duty need to be 100?

also: how much did duty increase if fullfilled? it would lower if unfulfilled?

Duty is not designed to go down due to failure, and a group reaches the next "Contribution Rank" when the total party Duty is equal to 100 or more. When it does they gain more and more impressive rewards. Also when they reach the new rank everyone's Duty is set to 0 (although this could be seen as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 ETC to help track it)

Ok...

but, how much does increse when fulfilled?

i mean: if a specific duty is triggered during a session/adventure, and PC will fulfill, his duty increase... ok... but how much? 1 point? 10 points? 7.53 points?

Stick to increments of 5, it's just easier. Increase of between 0 and 20 depending on how important the session was to the PC and the rebellion. The same event may increase multiple PC's duty at the same time as well. So a normal session may see an increase of 20+ for the entire party.

But just as XP rate is set by the GM so is Duty. If you want PC's to get equipment faster then give them more duty.

Okay, just....I understand how a player uses it and how it is basically a reflection of deals made, debts owed. But from the other side of the screen, I hate the rolling to activate it, the associated strain penalties. On top of that, using it to hook future parts of story into it, well I already plan most of that into most games I run. SO other then the starting benefits charaters can get with it, I just dont see what it adds to the game.

I guess I just see obligation as un finished, or only partially implamented into the system. It feels like both a mechanic that is far more technical then anything else in the game, but also not specific enough to use besides super broad brushstrokes. But Like i said, when GMing i try to work old deals and other things that obligation is suppose to reflect into the story with plot hoooks from the get go. Any advice?

How you've used it? How PLayers have made surprise uses of it? any insights into the mechanic that i'm just not seeing.

Obligation exists to remind players that they have in-game goals. But triggering an Obligation at the beginning of an adventure doesn't mean the Obligation must come into play during said adventure. The associated strain penalty - which is pretty minor - serves as a reminder that the character has something hanging over her that she needs to address. However the player absolutely must have an opportunity to address it at some point during the campaign. That's where the GM needs to craft something, or a series of somethings, that directly involve the Obligation.

EotE doesn't work as a game system if the GM comes into it with an entire campaign pre-planned. GMs need to first work with their players to get a handle on Obligations, then weave relevant adventures into the campaign down the road. Speaking for myself, I'll come into a campaign with an intro adventure and a concluding adventure in mind and then, after character generation, work to weave stories that both meet PC Obligation needs and serve as good connecting tissue for the overall story.

The players in my current campaign have both individual Obligations and a group Obligation (money owed to a crime boss for the purchase of a starship). Since, statistically, the group Obligation came up more often, it served as a good motivator for me as the GM to develop adventures around it and for the players to take jobs from said criminal in order to deal with it.

I introduced a Dark Jedi patron at an early point in the campaign but I had no idea what else I was going to do with the character after the PCs double-crossed her. I realized she would be a good foil for one player's Philanderer Obligation and had her reveal, during a combat encounter during a later adventure when the two parties were reunited, that said Philanderer had, years ago, loved her and left her and it had hurt her. The "woman scorned" trope was corny but it was thematically appropriate. After the Dark Jedi was defeated, I told the player that his character had learned an important lesson and that his Philanderer Obligation was dealt with.