Just wondering. They would be helpful guidelines. The adventures included in the Corebooks, the ones in the GM kits, and all the different published adventures. The ones that have bounties in them, how many credits are they for?

Mask of the Pirate Queen's initial offering on the bounty is an amount equal to the number of players * 10000 credits. So, 4 players would be told the bounty is 40000 credits. It can increase at certain points in the adventure.

The adventure in the CRB has Bandin Dobah's bounty set at 5000 (alive) or 3000 (dead) from Thakba the Hutt. Or 10000 credits (that has a huge amount of hassle in getting the full payout) from the Imperial garrison on Kessel for Dobah, dead or alive.

Long arm of the Hutt (continuation of the beginner game) has it set at 50,000 credits

Thanks! Btw. Who do you "deliver" bounties to when your done? Who do you report to? The ones who contracted the bounty or the bountyhunter guild?

Thanks! Btw. Who do you "deliver" bounties to when your done? Who do you report to? The ones who contracted the bounty or the bountyhunter guild?

Now you're just getting fluffy. This part is entirely up to you and your storytelling.

"No disintegrations" probably means that someone wants the captured individual, well... alive... probably to do horrible things to them, or to test a piece of hardware, or to make a wall decoration from them.

Dead probably would only require proof of the deed. Typically you'd need to prove that you'd completed the bounty to someone in order to get paid.

I'm of the opinion that live capture bounties make for more interesting encounters.

Thanks! Btw. Who do you "deliver" bounties to when your done? Who do you report to? The ones who contracted the bounty or the bountyhunter guild?

Now you're just getting fluffy. This part is entirely up to you and your storytelling.

"No disintegrations" probably means that someone wants the captured individual, well... alive... probably to do horrible things to them, or to test a piece of hardware, or to make a wall decoration from them.

Dead probably would only require proof of the deed. Typically you'd need to prove that you'd completed the bounty to someone in order to get paid.

I'm of the opinion that live capture bounties make for more interesting encounters.

Of course this is fluffy and up to the gm(or bountyhunter player), but inspiration and input is nice! And in Star Wars you need a bountyhunter licence and you can belong to a guild, THE guild, be independent or work for the Empire, either as a ISB agent or contracted by ISB, so I guess there are lots of rules or "guidelines" on how to do this.

Thanks! Btw. Who do you "deliver" bounties to when your done? Who do you report to? The ones who contracted the bounty or the bountyhunter guild?

I would run a bounty hunter's guild strictly as middlemen/go-betweens. They set customers up with bounty hunters (and vice versa), take care of legal matters for you, possibly negotiate the reward, and take their percentage, but don't get involved with holding or delivering the targets. Depending on where you're operating, they may even operate escrow accounts to hold the bounty while the job is out and then pay you themselves once the customer confirms delivery/death. Maintaining an office and legal team is one thing, but they probably don't have to have to go to the extra expense and risk of operating temporary lockups, particularly if not every bounty is considered legitimate by local standards.

I have Licensed Imperial Peacekeepers, Guilded House Hunters (using Legends fluff to flesh out the "Houses"), and Independent hunters in my game.

If you are anything but Imperially Licensed, handing in a bounty on an Imperial world, to an Imperial Officer, you'll get a "Licensing Fee" and "Fines for Unlicensed Hunting" tacked on to your payout.

The first time this happens, the license fee and fines typically exceed the posted, completed bounty.

Additionally, in my fluff, The Guild Houses hate the Empire, and will frequently interfere with licensed hunters on-contract.

I have to say that the concept of a bounty paying out per PC is silly. As a GM guideline, it's fine, but no bounty poster ever said, "$100 to every jackass who shows up when Black Bart is brought into custody." If the adventure calls for 2000 Credits per PC, and you have 5 PCs, just say it's 10k and call it a day.[/size]

Now then. As far as who's paying the bounty and the kinds of conditions the target can be in, there's going to be some variation. Most bounties will probably be posted by local law enforcement. Some schmuck kills a guy on Bespin and skips the planet, the local cops aren't going to be able to do much about it. Even if they had detectives to spare hunting the guy down, they don't have the authority to do so. So the Bespin Police Chief posts a bounty. "Wanted on Suspicion of Murder: Uptown Johnny. 2000 Credits to be paid to any licensed bounty hunter upon live delivery to Detective Stanley Wojciehowicz. Possibly armed and dangerous, to be delivered alive and unharmed."

So that's the legit bounty right there. Alive and unharmed is important. Dead or Alive is going to be reserved for only the most depraved killers, already convicted and sentenced to death. Even then, a live bounty should pay more than a dead one. Gotta have that appearance of legitimate justice and all. For suspects and such, a dead bounty should pay nothing. As for "unharmed," there's some leeway. If he's got a black eye and some bruises, that comes with the territory. If he's missing an arm and the Trandoshan Bounty Hunter is nibbling on a leftover finger as he brings him in, that might be trouble.

But of course, not every bounty should be on the up-and-up. Bounty Hunters are generally skilled practitioners of violence that don't get along in polite society. They're good at finding people, and they tend to travel all over the galaxy, where every sector and planet has it's own laws and rules. The difference between a bounty and a kidnapping probably gets a little blurry at times, and when you've spent three lean months trying to track down a juicy lead before another hunter, you're probably not inclined to break out the reading glasses. In my upcoming game, a nobleman will be hiring the Bounty Hunter to nab his wayward son from the group of vagabonds he's fallen in with. The group of vagabonds, of course, is an Alliance cell, and the nobleman wants to get his son out before the hideout is raided by the Empire. Not only would the son be executed, but the rest of the family would be in great danger. Now that's not exactly the type of bounty you would announce at the Post Office, but there's a fair amount of credits to be made.

Small note about the Mask bounty, it is not advertised as a 10,000cr per person reward. I get the feeling some have gotten the wrong impression due to an abridged recounting of what is actually in the book. When discussing the bounty, the book specifically says the public announcement for the job (and the initial contact made with the PCs) is vague and only says it's "quite lucrative". The 10,000cr each is a specific offer only made to the party when they first meet up with the person hiring them.

I think a good rule of thumb is to just decide to yourself, how much you want each player to have and like, The Grand Falloon said, make the it one lump sum. So if you wanted each player to have $4,000, assuming four players, just set the bounty at $16,000.

I have to say that the concept of a bounty paying out per PC is silly. As a GM guideline, it's fine..

I think it is intended as GM guideline and I agree it is the only thing that would make sense, at least for an open bounty that anyone can take. Maybe the exception is if the crew is specifically hired for the job.

This is probably worth reading as a basic primer for folk wanting to understand legitimate licensed bounty hunting.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/bounty-hunting.htm

Working for Crime Lords is going to be different, with payment set by the boss for what they feel a person is worth to them. $50k for Solo alive was a supposed to be a pretty big price.

Dead-or-Alive "bounties" for fringe areas out on the Rim might rarely exist where local law enforcement is out-manned and outgunned and private contractors are allowed to pick up the slack/take the risks for monetary gain.

As for being an extra-legal hitman or assassin for hire, it's a completely different kettle of fish, usually paying an order of magnitude more because murder is illegal.

Just chipping in to agree with what the others have said.

The Wanted poster hanging on the wall doesn't expressly say "Reward: 10,000 per person involved in the capture". The point is that the GM looks at the party composition, does the math in their head, and then tells their particular table of 5 players "The sign says they're offering 50,000." If your table has more or less players, adjust accordingly.

There’s a book “The Bounty Hunters Code” which might also be of use in this discussion. It’s all Legends, of course, but I think it could still help the GM, and they could pick and choose what parts they want to keep.

Best bounty so far:

My players had acquired enough of a bounty collectively to be a common issue for them. It meant they failed three jobs, and now we're faced with needing a long, lucky, impossible streak to buy down obligation so they can spend XP. How to resolve almost 60 points of bounty? Turn themselves in.

They found some corpses and a destroyed droid, an actor, some fake bounty credentials for the actor, and a new junk ship. They put the bodies on their old ship and blew it up, then had the actor turn in the bounties for them. Actor took half the payout and let the party go on their way.

Worked off their obligation, got a worse ship, and some cash.