If a party of PCs includes Force-senstive proto-Jedi and a Bounty Hunter... why wouldn't the Bounty Hunter turn them all in to the Empire for a reward? I mean, beyond hand-wavey stuff like "well it would be ~dishonorabu~". Basically, that's what I have happening in a new group and I'm trying to decide how to handle the inevitable intra-party conflict. I would rather NOT have the conflict, but I'm having a hard time telling the player that wants a Bounty Hunter not to be... a bounty hunter, and I'm having a hard time telling the Force-users not to be Force-users. Ideally, I'd like a campaign where people can play whatever they want, but this is a tough one.

Who else is in the group?

The easiest way is to cross check their obligation and motivations to see if you can give them a reason to work together?

For example the bounty hunter gets their help to help his legitimate business, whilst in return he helps cover him from the Empire as long as they aren't stupid!

Are they related to each other?

Adopted?

Maybe they share a nemesis or rival they can't defeat without the others help?

Anything else you can tell us that might help?

Maybe the bounty hunter only goes after one kind of contract and the other PC isn't that. In the case of Survivalist, maybe they don't hunt people at all, maybe they are more the frontier type and their thing is clearing out predators for ranchers or moisture farmers. Maybe they are more of an asset recovery type and all they track down are stolen ships.

Honestly, this feels like something that should have been discussed out-of-character during session 0. The GM should have said something like... "Okay. You're playing a bounty hunter and you are playing (a) Jedi. In this time frame, there is an outstanding bounty on all Jedi. Let's come up with a reason why your bounty hunter character would not turn him (them) in. If it's something that needs to happen "organically" in the game, I can make that happen. But we need to discuss what that thing would be."

If the bounty hunter character cannot provide anything of use, the GM should urge the player to re-think their character. It's not entirely on the GM to keep their players from being jerks to each other. This hobby is a shared experience. It's on everyone to ensure each others good time.

I don't think being a Bounty Hunter automatically means you MUST turn in every wanted person you see in for a few bucks. Greed need not be the sole motivation of the character. This isn't a LG Paladin and CE Blackguard working together in a party. It could be as simple as they have become friends. A greedy car salesman still may have a couple nice cars in his garage he doesn't want to get rid of.

This reminds me of the situation on board Serenity in Firefly. That tension is always there. What if the money is too good?

It comes down to the crew working as a team. Trusting and respecting each other. They understand that they have a good thing going, and work together to make a day's living.

If your bounty hunter player wants to be a jerk and sell the crew out, well... that brings up an entirely new situation.

He's a Bounty Hunter because....

As a young child, perhaps 8 years old, during the waning days of the Clone Wars, bandits/pirates/swoopgang/criminals came to his town/village/clan and took it over. He saw first hand what such criminals will do as the settlement was forced into serving these nefarious dregs of society. Some of his family were directly affected, possibly even killed. Then the Jedi came and brought vengeance.

Nearly two decades later with a burning desire to serve on the good side vs. bad, he couldn't bring himself to serve with the Imperial Army, COMPNOR, or ISB, due to not believing their propaganda. His gut feeling and personal experiences told him the Imperials had destroyed the last vestiges of just order in the Galaxy, the Jedi. He didn't believe the propaganda that the Jedi had betrayed the Republic since he had witnessed their honor first hand. So, he took up freelance work so he could work without constraints or orders. He picks and chooses who he brings justice to. He reads between the lines of bounty notices and goes after only the true criminals, not those labeled thus by an unjust Imperial government. Money is accepted, but his true reward is bringing the scum to justice.

A couple wanted, aspiring Jedi at his side? Yep, those are his kind of people.

I don't view the career/specs as absolutes in regards to how a PC plays their character.

A gambler could just as easily be a daredevil along the lines of Evil Knievel and instead of gambling for money they gamble with their life.

A soldier can be everything from a high tech specops space faring trooper to an alien aboriginal hunter-gatherer.

A bounty hunter at its core is someone who goes and gets something for someone for money under dangerous circumstances. If you need a 'good' bounty hunter idea there are a number of private security services in the world that offer emergency extraction services to clients traveling abroad in sketchy countries. The character idea need not be completely literal.

Wow, everything has been great advice.

Honestly, this feels like something that should have been discussed out-of-character during session 0. The GM should have said something like... "Okay. You're playing a bounty hunter and you are playing (a) Jedi. In this time frame, there is an outstanding bounty on all Jedi. Let's come up with a reason why your bounty hunter character would not turn him (them) in. If it's something that needs to happen "organically" in the game, I can make that happen. But we need to discuss what that thing would be."

If the bounty hunter character cannot provide anything of use, the GM should urge the player to re-think their character. It's not entirely on the GM to keep their players from being jerks to each other. This hobby is a shared experience. It's on everyone to ensure each others good time.

I haven't had Session 0 yet, so this is exactly what I'm going to do, as well as a lot of the other things mentioned.

Look at Han Solo in TFA. He had been on a bounty mission hunting Rathtars. There's another idea, tracking and capturing exotic prey for high end clients.

He's a Bounty Hunter because....

As a young child, perhaps 8 years old, during the waning days of the Clone Wars, bandits/pirates/swoopgang/criminals came to his town/village/clan and took it over. He saw first hand what such criminals will do as the settlement was forced into serving these nefarious dregs of society. Some of his family were directly affected, possibly even killed. Then the Jedi came and brought vengeance.

Nearly two decades later with a burning desire to serve on the good side vs. bad, he couldn't bring himself to serve with the Imperial Army, COMPNOR, or ISB, due to not believing their propaganda. His gut feeling and personal experiences told him the Imperials had destroyed the last vestiges of just order in the Galaxy, the Jedi. He didn't believe the propaganda that the Jedi had betrayed the Republic since he had witnessed their honor first hand. So, he took up freelance work so he could work without constraints or orders. He picks and chooses who he brings justice to. He reads between the lines of bounty notices and goes after only the true criminals, not those labeled thus by an unjust Imperial government. Money is accepted, but his true reward is bringing the scum to justice.

A couple wanted, aspiring Jedi at his side? Yep, those are his kind of people.

That is a character I want in a game I run or play in. Not even half a page and you know everything you need to. I wish more of my players could flush their characters so well.

Actually, just a dumb obvious point:

Until the Jedi reveals himself to the Empire and is identified, the Jedi won't have a bounty on himself (unless it's in the form of obligation, but I'm guessing he' got Morality). He'll just be some guy...

I mean, the Imperial "Bounty on all Jedi" has to have some reasonable limits, otherwise you could just kill anyone, toss a brown robe on em and be all "Yeah, total Jedi... that'll be 25,000 credits!"

So unless the Jedi goes around introducing himself to everyone as a Jedi and showing off his lightsaber to everyone he can... he's a nobody, and no bounty. By the time he does get revealed as a Jedi, the Bounty Hunter will likely already make the bounty board posting under "known associates."

Mostly its about the BH motivations. Just like Han could have turned in Obi-wan and Luke to the Imperials. He had to know that Obi-wan was a Jedi, he just saw the lightsaber. And he knew they were both desperate to avoid the Imperials, enough to pay almost double his smuggling rate to avoid the Imperials. If I were him, and money was my motivation, why not turn them over? Because it wasn't about the money.

But as mentioned above, not every bounty has to be collected.

Paranoia!

A free lance bounty hunter should think twice of dealing with the likes of the Inquisitorius. They might...

have further questions,

feel the need of tying up loose ends,

just consider "altering the deal" in any way.

Personally, I wouldn't take the risk.

I heartily agree with kaosoe- this confusion seems like it could have been prevented with a definitive Game Zero with party collaboration.

No sense crying over spilled blue milk, though...

I think seeing Jedi-as-bounties is short sighted, especially since no PCs are actually Jedi at this stage of their careers. This option alone might be a matter of legal semantics- "I'm not a Jedi, so I offer no bounty. I suppose you could try to traffic with Inquisitors and more Imperials, but be prepared for their wrath when they uncover my training, and blame you." From the films, Solo used a lightsaber to help save Skywalker, but Han Solo was no Jedi.

At our comic book shop, players have a group that may interest you. Other bounty hunters (no capitalization of career, but their motivations) joined together WITH a Force-user to track MORE Jedi/Force-users. Characters include an Executioner, Warden, Armorer, with a Shadow and someone with a lightsaber technique (I cannot recall which specialization). The 'bounty hunters' track possible Jedi/Force-users as a show of force, but secretly want to learn more about their own powers. For them, it's much easier to walk around in public asking about Jedi and Force-users as they flaunt their bounty hunting licenses, instead of skulking about the same fact-finding through (just) subterfuge. These bounty hunters also use a lot of non-lethal measures, because their quarry needs to be kept alive, and any show of force against their potential ally seems legitimate for the bounty expected. Weapons include sonic and projectile slug throwers- neither of which can be blocked by their targets with lightsabers. It's a unique group, and shows how bounty hunters and force-users can work cooperatively on a shared goal.

I hope this helps!

I actually just ran a session 0 yesterday and 2 of my players created Jedi characters and my other player created a bounty hunter and the bounty hunters obligation was favor an he made where a Jedi saved his life so he is on friendly terms with my 2 player characters and he harbors them. That's how my group dealt with it

Plenty of useful answers already, but just to put my two cents:

My PCs have a similar setup: An Archaeologist/Force Exile and a Gadgeteer Bounty Hunter (+ an Ace Hot Shot).

During session zero they all settled on picking Religion as their Motivation.

The Force Exile is only just discovering his affinity and wants to learn more about the force.

The Bounty Hunter who is also a Mandalorian craves the days of legend and is convinced that the appearance of the this Force Wielder after the Republics fall is of great significance and wants to see it all come to fruition, as such he is like a guardian to the Force Exile, even staking his Imperial Hunter priviliges.

The Ace Hot Shot on the other hand is pretty much a fanatic and convinced that he himself is also a great force wielder (even though he isn't and doesn't plan on picking any force trees or talents. )

So basically they work together because of shared interest and equally believe that fate brought them together.

Together they scour the galaxy in search of Jedi (or Sith) artifacts and ruins and everything else force related.

We've only been in it for ~4-5 sessions now, but it's all starting to take shape, and it's great fun!

So yeah, these kind of potential inner party conflicts should be discussed beforehand. Maybe even make it into a story arc for your campaign, where the characters in question work out their differences, become dependant on each other, and in the end become great friends through shared adversary. Of course this would require Out Of Character cooperation, but in my experience there is nothing that can't be fixed by just talking to your players.

Have fun and good luck with everything!

Mostly its about the BH motivations. Just like Han could have turned in Obi-wan and Luke to the Imperials. He had to know that Obi-wan was a Jedi, he just saw the lightsaber. And he knew they were both desperate to avoid the Imperials, enough to pay almost double his smuggling rate to avoid the Imperials. If I were him, and money was my motivation, why not turn them over? Because it wasn't about the money.

But as mentioned above, not every bounty has to be collected.

Given Obi-Wan talked to Chewie who then took him to speak to Han its very likely Chewie vouched for Obi-Wan, didn't stop Han charging extra though!

I mean, the Imperial "Bounty on all Jedi" has to have some reasonable limits, otherwise you could just kill anyone, toss a brown robe on em and be all "Yeah, total Jedi... that'll be 25,000 credits!"

On the other hand, how about that idea for a bad guy? A Bounty Hunter who specializes in bringing in Jedi and makin' da paper. . . but the guy just picks a likely schlubb, frames him in a quickie witch hunt and turns him over. A real Jedi will probably take offense to that kind of action and have to deliver some justice.

Back when my current campain was new, I ran through Long Arm of the Hutt as a slimy bounty hunter. And another PC was a jedi in hiding. By the end of Long Arm, the Jedi had rather thourally blown his cover, and my bounty hunter had credit symbols in his eyes.

The next session, I showed up with a different bounty hunter character. The other one had presumably been convinced to go the other way and not collect on the PC. For now. The new one was more flexible.

I also rebuilt the old character as a nemisis, Trax's new right hand man, and passed it to the GM.

Looks like it was already handled in session 0. A thought I had, in case it comes up again: The bounty on Jedi is posted by the Empire. Maybe the bounty hunter is also wanted by the Empire, or belongs to a guild that flat out refuses to take Imperial contracts.

I think some people miss the point sometimes with careers and such and what this game, and all RPGs for that matter, is about, at least IMO. I tell all my players in all the games I run that their background ends the moment they enter the game. Regardless of what career, class, whatever they were at their creation they have now become heroes in a new chapter in their character's story. Luke ceased being a farm boy when he chose to leave Tatooine with Ben. Han and Chewie ceased to be just another smuggler when they took Luke and Ben to Alderaan. Leia ceased to be a senator and secret rebel. Basically as soon as they appeared on screen their lives changed, their pasts became just that - their pasts and all the choices they made after that may have been influenced by those pasts but wasn't ruled by it. So a generic bounty hunter might turn in a generic Jedi but a Player Character isn't a generic anything they are a star in the story and it's a cop out act like a background character.

Unless you're a completely legit Bounty Hunter (and how many EotE PCs does that describe?), turning people in to the authorities, particularly people you're somehow affiliated with or expected to be loyal to, might not be a healthy pastime. The underworld is not noted for it's love of narcs, snitches or informants.

So why does everyone assume that it is the Bounty Hunter's imperative to not turn in the so called Jedi? I ask because I view it as the Force Users responsibility to maintain their cover, put another way if a PC were playing an Imperial Spy would it still be on a Party member to not turn them into a Crime boss for a reward. I would embrace the incoming PvP because it lets the characters grow while resolving the issue. Also the pay for a force sensitive is extremely good and since I mes with players that commit crime on a regular basis ie Smugglers and Thugs type characters. I wouldn't **** over a Bounty Hunter on this since it seems to me that in universe the Empire does honor its bounties.

So why does everyone assume that it is the Bounty Hunter's imperative to not turn in the so called Jedi? I ask because I view it as the Force Users responsibility to maintain their cover, put another way if a PC were playing an Imperial Spy would it still be on a Party member to not turn them into a Crime boss for a reward. I would embrace the incoming PvP because it lets the characters grow while resolving the issue. Also the pay for a force sensitive is extremely good and since I mes with players that commit crime on a regular basis ie Smugglers and Thugs type characters. I wouldn't **** over a Bounty Hunter on this since it seems to me that in universe the Empire does honor its bounties.

The same imperative that compels people not to make Lawful Stupid Paladin-types in a party made up completely of criminals, or vicious elf-hating orcs in a party full of pointy ears. Because this is (for the most part) a cooperative game, and dicking over the other players is annoying. Far from 'resolving the issue', it makes it a hell of a lot worse as the party devolves into infighting.

And because, as previously stated, it's impractical in-universe. The Empire is arbitrary at best, and has a habit of altering the deal . Sure, Vader dealt pretty fairly with Fett, but that doesn't mean whatever bureaucrat or intelligence agent or whatever won't decide to dispose of you because you know too much, or you're too expensive, or just because ' we don't need their scum '*. It also really doesn't do good things for your rep - the Imperials think you're scum because they're Imperials and don't like Bounty Hunters, the Rebels think you're scum because you turned an innocent person over to the Imperials, and the underworld thinks you're scum because you narced on one of your own.

*Incidentally, I am shocked, shocked that I can't find a youtube clip of that line. Edit: But Yarn does, go Yarn!