Money in an AoR Game.

So, with luck, I will be starting a new game with a new group, and this will almost certainly be an AoR game, running through the written adventures by FFG.

My previous game was an Edge game, where the players were out to survive, and their major driving force was getting enough cash to do just that - by buying bigger and better equipment and parts for the ship.

But for a group of PCs working as Rebel Soldiers, where would they get their cash from in order to upgrade their equipment?

I can't see members of the Rebel Alliance 'drawing a paycheck'… surely they are as a whole, idealists, fighting for the Alliance for the greater good?

Sure, the Rebellion will have money, but surely they would provide shelter and sustenance to those who fight for them, and equip them as best they can for the jobs they are being asked to do.

So… how do I deal with this in game? How do I ensure the Players have access to every improving equipment without the players simply saying "Ill take the biggest and best item going, and mod the poodoo out of it… and if that fails, ill just go back to Stores and request another one".

Do I simply restrict what the PCs have access to? How do I keep that fair?

Do I make them spend Duty on it, as if it was cash? (And what exchange rate would I apply to that??).

All the items have a cost value associated with them, but the adventures payout in Duty and XP… not credits.

Any suggestions?

RD

They do what all good insurgents do, steal money and guns.

There are a lot of details about equipment/ships that can be "gifted" to the party when they go up in contribution ranks in the Duty rules. There are also suggestions in those rules about secondary and loaned equipment that's provided for specific missions (think Q from Bond).

Outside of that, you could establish a "bounty" on equipment that's stolen and provided to the cause - 5%? 15%? - or the party could just steal things and keep them for themselves or sell them to others using the existing rules. Keep in mind that "embezzling" from the Rebellion by not declaring and turning over things they've looted during their mission -could- be considered treasonous, depending upon the size of the stick up the butt of their "commander". (Which could be an entire plot in and of itself)

They do what all good insurgents do, steal money and guns.

Star Wars: Rebels shows lots of ways the characters get cash... Lots of stealing, sometimes being paid for smuggling. They don't do a lot of murder hobo killing and looting, but sometimes they do a little of it (well, stun a guy and steal his gear temporarily as a disguise). They've repeated on a number of occasions that they are trying to be like Robin Hood taking from the Empire to help the oppressed. That seems like a good model for an AoR group.

They do what all good insurgents do, steal money and guns.

Star Wars: Rebels shows lots of ways the characters get cash... Lots of stealing, sometimes being paid for smuggling. They don't do a lot of murder hobo killing and looting, but sometimes they do a little of it (well, stun a guy and steal his gear temporarily as a disguise). They've repeated on a number of occasions that they are trying to be like Robin Hood taking from the Empire to help the oppressed. That seems like a good model for an AoR group.

Perhaps, but not an AoR group who are being "sent on missions"... so I can only presume that *I* in my guise as "Rebel Command" will need to "outfit them" at their request... but not sure to how put the limit that cash would have on them.

That is simple. The rebels dont have cash and they dont have fancy toys. If you break your blaster, they wont give you a new one. If you need a blaster rifle, you get an old hand me down from someone important. If you need explosives, you get the expired mining charges that someone stole a decade ago. If they want something special, they need to be special. I believe that is one of the uses of Duty.

Thanks korjik, thats what I was thinking.. use Duty almost as a currency.. the more that they have, the more "good stuff" they can request from the quartermaster... with the caveat that if they can justify a request on mission grounds.. ill grant it, if they return it after....

This game I think will run very differently to my Edge game, where they lived day by day... this one would be more mission by mission... something very different.. and im really looking forward to it!

This is essentially just the same as running Duty as a currency, but it doesn't make the character feel like they're trading away their good standing:

You can award them "credits" for helping the Alliance, but they must be spent to get gear from the quartermaster. So, if they resolve the situation in Chapter I of Onslaught at Arda I, they probably won't go up in Contribution rank... but their commanders might say "ok, you did a good job, and we want you to do more... and, to do more, you're going to need more, so go pick up some equipment at the QM".

Of course, if you have a Quartermaster in your party, they might also be sent out with credits on a long mission to help them replenish gear and such in the field. Just so the QM can use their talents. But don't give them a lot, so that QM really has to haggle or whatever. Or, give them a few thousand credits to pick up supplies for the base, but tell them they can spend half the remainder on themselves... that'll really incentive and reward good Negotiation.

I hope Rogue 1 touches on the whole aspect of how they did business and supported themselves. It doesn't need to be a central thing, just a mention. It would be a good topic for a Netflix show to incorporate into a series on the Rebellion though.

Another option is to give them a kind of internal "Credit voucher" before each mission based on their current duty level, mission requirements, and story effects. Basically they get a pile of cash that they can use to "buy " things from the base/ships quartermaster before going on a mission. After a prep period all those credits are considered "spent" and the only raw cash they have is what they've personally accumulated or credits issued to them because they'll actually need money for the mission itself.

That way you can give them a chance to buy things on a regular basis, but you can control their purchasing power.

How you want to run it is up to you, but I'd recommend you (at least at first) issue them essentials, and have them buy additional gear. So like if they are going to a cold weather planet they can be issued cold weather clothing, but must buy multi-optic sights.

You could of course make them "buy" everything, but then you'll run a risk of the player buying a shiny item over an actual mission essential. You can't eat a disruptor rifle.... Though perhaps your group is smart enough to do things like remember to buy food before going on a week long recon op in deep jungle instead of a suits of powered armor...

@Ghostofman.

Thats exactly what I was trying to work out.. you just explained the idea in my head perfectly.. thank you!

I as thinking.. Current Duty x 10/20/30?

Or a sliding scale, so it doesnt get out of hand....

So Duty under 25, its Duty x 30

Between 25 and 75 x 20

and over 75 x10 ? So as not to let them get too much cash?

I'd make it a mission by mission thing based on their rep, where they are going and what they are expected to do once they get there.

That way you can also kinda play with things based on what the players want in general and/vs. what they want for the mission specifically.

So like...lets say the mission requires the players to scale a cliff at some point, and fight in a fairly open area at another, and the players know it from the briefing. Do they "buy" climbing gear for everyone? Or do they buy a Scope for the sharpshooter and freeclimb it or work some plan to acquire climbing gear along the way?

Likewise if you KNOW that Jim really wants a DH-17 carbine you can give them a requisition voucher that'll cover it and still leave a few credits for mission goods.

While we're talking, sort out the Encumbrance rules too, especially if your players will be moving cross country. It works in the system just fine, but you gotta notice some little features and make sure your players know how they work. Some encumbrance threshold increasing items are more useful in certain situations and to certain people than others. The new modular rebel backpack is a great example of something that needs to be thought over a little more carefully than it first appears....

EDIT: Bonus thought.... A despair on the Negotiation check with the quartermaster will allow him to recall an item previous checked out! XD

Awesome stuff Ghostofman... but can you elaborate on the Encumbrace point?

How would i track rep? there isnt a mechanic for that is there? or would I tie that into Duty?

I'd make it a mission by mission thing based on their rep, where they are going and what they are expected to do once they get there.

That way you can also kinda play with things based on what the players want in general and/vs. what they want for the mission specifically.

So like...lets say the mission requires the players to scale a cliff at some point, and fight in a fairly open area at another, and the players know it from the briefing. Do they "buy" climbing gear for everyone? Or do they buy a Scope for the sharpshooter and freeclimb it or work some plan to acquire climbing gear along the way?

Likewise if you KNOW that Jim really wants a DH-17 carbine you can give them a requisition voucher that'll cover it and still leave a few credits for mission goods.

While we're talking, sort out the Encumbrance rules too, especially if your players will be moving cross country. It works in the system just fine, but you gotta notice some little features and make sure your players know how they work. Some encumbrance threshold increasing items are more useful in certain situations and to certain people than others. The new modular rebel backpack is a great example of something that needs to be thought over a little more carefully than it first appears....

EDIT: Bonus thought.... A despair on the Negotiation check with the quartermaster will allow him to recall an item previous checked out! XD

While I like the idea, I'd expect that all non-consumed equipment issued -for- the mission would need to be returned to the Quartermaster once the mission is complete anyway. A lot of it would be mission-specific (e.g. Cold-weather gear for a mission on Hoth, vacuum-sealed armor for a mission in an Asteroid Field, high-tech communication equipment for a mission to set up a listening post, etc.) and might simply stay with the facility the PCs are establishing or rotating to rather than being returned to the QM. Actually -keeping- gear should be, in my mind, done organically -- looted weapons, purchased/crafted armor and gear... There are certainly arguments to be made for something more than issue gear to be able to be drawn from the QM as the party advances in Contribution Rank, but I'd suggest groups just starting out should be considered to be low-priority from the perspective of the "military infrastructure" of the Rebellion. They'll be issued sufficient equipment to get the job done, but there won't be any frills or bonuses until they're "blooded".

Encumbrance: Just little stuff that makes a big difference. Like how you can put anything that would reasonably fit in a duffel bag, but the in game effect will be the duffel contains all those times, but it only increases your encumbrance threshold but 2 points. So you can have 10 enc with of junk in there, and one maneuver and you've shed all of it simply by dropping the duffel.

So if you've got a combat patrol going out for a five day mission, they will need to be loaded with everything they need for five days. Not just the usual guns and ammo, but also tents, thermal cloaks, food, water, entrenching tools, long range comms, and so on. Tack on any special environment items and mission equipment and it's gonna add up. In that situation the players (and the GM, so he can plan) needs to work out how much they can carry before it affects the ability to perform the job (x2 their enc usually), and how to carry it so when the shooting starts they can shed the excess quickly. Of course this also means the players will need to learn that they'll have to start a lot of missions loaded to the gills.

That's where things like the Rebel pack can make you need to think, because it might mount something you don't want to shed. So it might be great for shorter day patrols, or a single specialist, but probably not the whole group.

You'll also need to lay down the law on load bearing stacking, whatever that law may be. Can you stack load bearing gear, with a utility belt, with a field vest? You'll need to make that kind of call early both for planning and the sake of your players. Remember in the long haul these items are worth double thier enc bonus.

Of course as a GM you'll have to make this stuff matter. Skipping a tent might mean 3 more grenades, but it will have to be in exchange for an increase on the nightly Resilience check to see if you slept well enough to slice the security system the next morning. You may also have to leverage some of the vague parts of the system to really make the gear work properly. Like allowing a standard tent to hold three people, but the tauntaun pup tent to hold only two while also reducing the difficulty of the check in extreme cold.

Rep: Yes rep is a function of Duty. As their duty goes up, so can rank, command opportunity, and reputation. The core book gives options and examples, but it's gotta match the campaign. A spec ops team leader isn't going to get command of his own MC80 star cruiser, but he will get access to better gear, command of more soldiers, and the opportunity to make serious decisions about bigger or more complex operations. Oh course the risk and price of failure will go up as well.

I'd make it a mission by mission thing based on their rep, where they are going and what they are expected to do once they get there.

That way you can also kinda play with things based on what the players want in general and/vs. what they want for the mission specifically.

So like...lets say the mission requires the players to scale a cliff at some point, and fight in a fairly open area at another, and the players know it from the briefing. Do they "buy" climbing gear for everyone? Or do they buy a Scope for the sharpshooter and freeclimb it or work some plan to acquire climbing gear along the way?

Likewise if you KNOW that Jim really wants a DH-17 carbine you can give them a requisition voucher that'll cover it and still leave a few credits for mission goods.

While we're talking, sort out the Encumbrance rules too, especially if your players will be moving cross country. It works in the system just fine, but you gotta notice some little features and make sure your players know how they work. Some encumbrance threshold increasing items are more useful in certain situations and to certain people than others. The new modular rebel backpack is a great example of something that needs to be thought over a little more carefully than it first appears....

EDIT: Bonus thought.... A despair on the Negotiation check with the quartermaster will allow him to recall an item previous checked out! XD

While I like the idea, I'd expect that all non-consumed equipment issued -for- the mission would need to be returned to the Quartermaster once the mission is complete anyway. A lot of it would be mission-specific (e.g. Cold-weather gear for a mission on Hoth, vacuum-sealed armor for a mission in an Asteroid Field, high-tech communication equipment for a mission to set up a listening post, etc.) and might simply stay with the facility the PCs are establishing or rotating to rather than being returned to the QM. Actually -keeping- gear should be, in my mind, done organically -- looted weapons, purchased/crafted armor and gear... There are certainly arguments to be made for something more than issue gear to be able to be drawn from the QM as the party advances in Contribution Rank, but I'd suggest groups just starting out should be considered to be low-priority from the perspective of the "military infrastructure" of the Rebellion. They'll be issued sufficient equipment to get the job done, but there won't be any frills or bonuses until they're "blooded".

Totally agree with this.

Items like grenades, thermal detonators, data scramblers, repeating blasters and so on should be returned after each mission (if you get a credit on the next mission or not is the GM's call) and rebought before you go out again. Items like packs, tents, cold weather gear, basic weapons, long range comms and such would still be "Alliance property" but I wouldn't make you turn it in until I had a reason "You're going to Tatooine for the next six month... why do you need 5 parkas?" No sense checking out the same comm set and blaster rifle over and over. Though if you let something sit under your cot for three missions straight it might not be there when you get back.

Truly personal gear should be crafted, bought, stolen, looted, or designated with a Duty rank.

And yeah, a starter character will probably be drawing little more than the bear essentials. So get hopping on those Duty ranks.

All the credits needed are on page 4.

It all depends on what part of the alliance your players are in/with.

• Main Force ( Idealists for the cause): receive basically no money and will either be rich to begin with (former royalty for example) or be dirt poor and jump on any chance to make a few bucks while out on mission (former moisture farmer for example).
• Main Force ( Soldiers , Privateers ): will probably receive meager but regular pay, and maybe a bonus for liberating/acquiring equipment, depending on your campaign and the nature of your Players. (I don't because mine would turn collecting storm trooper armor into a full time job)
• Rebel Cell ( Guerillas , Scouts , Spys ): There are 2 options in my opinion.
  1 . Either they are completely cut off from the main force and will receive next to nothing as not to compromise their mission,
  2. OR they receive everything the rebellion can part with, including credits.
  1.+2 .: In both cases there may be a rebel contact man/woman/alien/droid/... they have to contact, set up a secure meeting and convince him or her or it of the benefit of their request (for example, that it is worth it for the rebellion to give the players 250.000 credits to bribe a high ranking customs official so they can take that new fancy ship in the local impound lot).

In all the above cases there is room for missions that aim at increasing rebel funds (cell and main force), like attacking a hutt mining post that is threatening the economy of an allied world or simply stealing from the imperials.

Of give them a homestead, a base or something the like that gives them regular income, like a gas station for example

Now on duty and Credits in my current campaign :

Because they started rather low in the Alliance structure I made them start with a cargo hold full of supplies for the Alliance, for which they were payed rather a lot (I think 20.000). I didn't want to starve them like I did in the Edge Game we played before, and knew they were going to bribe a lot of people.

Also, the rebel force they are a part of is made up of regular soldiers and pilots as well as some idealists as well as former pirates who were convinced to join the cause by General Arkhan Bremtu, who they originally captured and wanted ransom for instead. So the general structure is rather lax and communal.

Weapons Equipment :

So, when dealing with the Alliance they - in general - do not have to pay for repairs, food or weapons, but there isn't that much to go around. They are free to grease the wheels if the quartermaster or arms master or ship master in question is up for something like that - dear ol' Almiston, the Gran QM isn't - or if their fame reaches him he will eventually part with better equipment.

"I need a better gun"

"You and half the rebellion son. What do you want me to do about it?"

"Come, on I'm sure you have some special things put aside..."

"...for accomplished soldiers who I know are capable enough to bring them back."

Equipment they need (tents, cold weather clothing, occasionally heavy weapons/explosives) will be provided; nobody who values your existence (like the alliance generally does) sends you to Hoth without proper winter clothing.

Fancy stuff can be bought through the QM or on their own, but the QM will most likely have better connections or can at least point them into the direction where they can buy stuff like that. "if you are looking for cybernetics, there is a shadowport in the Demannu System where I heard..."

On Duty :

In my current AoR game I am using Duty differently (I don't like the I-think-about-how-many-people-i-killed-and-have-more-health from the rulebook), with a sort of chart where the players get like "star stickers" in the different Duty categories, and unlocking different things when certain points are reached. I use it more as a visualisation of their contributions to the cause and as a cause and effect tool than some sort of skill tree, and for that reason it is a lot more plot related than rulewise. It's a simple chart with all the different duties on one side and 30 boxes in three lines next to them.

For example, how they reached the first "Duty Rank" in Intelligence:

• When they downloaded the flight data from a imperial refuelling station they were tasked to destroy they gained their first point ( Intelligence raised to 1 ). Which gave me a great opportunity, because among the flight records a freighter M226 was mentioned.
• When they gave the data to the Alliance Command and ( Intelligence raised to 3, because the Party Analyst put a lot of effort into helping the Alliance use the data ), the were tasked to find out more because M226 was officially lost a year ago in an asteroid field but was connected to rumors of a secret imperial convoy, the "Parlemian Trade Haul".
• I used the "Masquerade" supplement from the old RPG (for which they first needed to establish contact with the host and find/fabricate) and because they played their cards right they learned about the route of the Parlemian Trade Haul ( Intelligence raised to 10, first "reward" unlocked, they can now attempt the mission Parlemian Trade Haul. )

They also received points in other Duties, like among others Political Support and Tech Procurement along their careerd

So technically, by the book, they would be Duty rank 2 with about 70 group duty going onto duty rank 3 rather soonish.

Items like grenades , thermal detonators, data scramblers, repeating blasters and so on should be returned after each mission (if you get a credit on the next mission or not is the GM's call) and rebought before you go out again.

Returning a grenade seems a tad...complicated

@derroehre

I'm interest in more details on how you run and track your duty. That sounds good

How do you allow your PCs to customise gear with mods and attachments? Who makes the rolls?

Depends. One PC could do it himself, but they have met and (partially) befriended Saska Teft who would probably be okay with doing if for the group if her time permits it. In our campaign she is part of the same rebel "division" as the group.

To be honest, since my group is made up of lazy space slugs they haven't modded anything IIRC. I don't think anybody has even read through the attachments, and I'm pretty sure one player hasn't even read through the whole rulebook So, I'm definitly not going to go through the effort of going over all the mods and attachments and explain how modding and attachments work (again).

They have access to all the books, supplements and sourcebooks, those I have scans of even via a group dropbox with a readme file I keep up to date and I even put oggdudes amazing chargen's save files into the dropbox so (no I will not share that folder, sorry. It's mostly stuff you find in this forum anyway) If they want some shiny new stuff that makes the murderspacehobos probably more murdery they at least have to read it themselves

On Duty:

Originally I wanted to keep the campaign mission-based, because I thought it would enable playing with a rotating reserve bank of additional players and characters. Reason for that is that there are more people who would like to play, but I prefer playing with no more than 4 players. My first campaign failed because of too many players and the resulting downtimes and unbalance as well as it being impossible to find a date for 7 people (it was a not regular every other week thing where we now have a (almost) weekly thing).

So I started with separating all the Different Duties onto seperate sheets and wrote down several mission ideas that would fit for each duties. Some of those were rather stupidly formulated like Intelligence: "why does that new ship do more boom than before" implicating a spy mission that involves new ship armament.

And the list I described in my last post is basically an excel sheet with the all the duties in the left column with each having 3 lines next to them seperated into ten Squares.

No when the group returns after a mission and is debriefed, afterwards I pull out the sheet I put on a clipboard and I fill in the squares with short descriptions of why it is awarded. That way they find out that, continuing my spy mission exampe,

• They gained 2 points in intelligence for getting video feed from the new weapon fired
• Another 1 point in tech procurement because they stole a datapad with specifications of the weapon
• and 1 point in support for holding a rousing speech after the fleet was attacked with the new weapon and many lives lost.
• Additionally: if they would have destroyed the prototype they'd receive points in space superiority, and If they'd managed to steal the new ship those would have been a lot of points.

And I will announce when they have improved their fame in the rebellion enough for it to matter. At the moment, they have gained some leeway with the quartermaster, got an astromech droid repaired for free, are on a first name basis with their commander and are in a good enough standing that they can borrow a squadron for support if they give the squad leader a good enough reason.

sorry for the ramble, movie distracted me in the middle of posting (The movie Anaconda albeit terrible (entertaining) would make for a pretty cool edge adventure. Big game hunter looking for a huge nasty, everything going wrong....migh fall under a political support mission...)

Items like grenades , thermal detonators, data scramblers, repeating blasters and so on should be returned after each mission (if you get a credit on the next mission or not is the GM's call) and rebought before you go out again.

Returning a grenade seems a tad...complicated

What do ya mean ya didn't "have time" to pick up all the bits and glue em back together?

I of course meant unused ones... Though if you passed the mechanics check to put a grenade back together I'm pretty sure an impressive Duty reward would be in order....

Items like grenades , thermal detonators, data scramblers, repeating blasters and so on should be returned after each mission (if you get a credit on the next mission or not is the GM's call) and rebought before you go out again.

Returning a grenade seems a tad...complicated

What do ya mean ya didn't "have time" to pick up all the bits and glue em back together?

I of course meant unused ones... Though if you passed the mechanics check to put a grenade back together I'm pretty sure an impressive Duty reward would be in order....

What do you mean using a plasma welder to weld the shell over the explosives is bad idea? have some faith... I know what I am doing..