I'm finally going to be getting into the GM seat with this system and I'll be running a mixed game from all 3 lines - so I'll have Obligation, Duty and Morality at the table.

I'm trying to find a good balance of the rewards each system offers (each player will have either Obligation or Duty, if a Force User they'll also have Morality).

The narrative stuff is pretty straightforward but the Age core book is pretty light on advice on how to run Duty.

How much Duty to award each player per session?

The GM section says that the point of the rewards of Duty is to provide an occasional big reward to the PCs...but the first several Contribution Ranks offer really lousy rewards.

With Contribution Rank 1 you can get a....blaster pistol or stun grenade? Or a Y-wing if the GM is feeling generous (gear or vehicles with Rarity 4).

Starting with Contribution Rank 3 (Rarity 6 stuff) the PCs have a lot of powerful options but by that point they've had to earn around 250 Duty (200 Duty + whatever they needed after start to get to Rank 1).

So, how much Duty is "typically" awarded per session and what do you do with the first 2 Contribution Ranks where the rewards are lackluster?

I'm finally going to be getting into the GM seat with this system and I'll be running a mixed game from all 3 lines - so I'll have Obligation, Duty and Morality at the table.

Well, straight out of the gate, I wouldnt do all of them. I've tried to balance multiple instances, and even two is kind of a tough balancing act. All three would be a GM headache - so I'd seriously consider streamlining down.

How much Duty to award each player per session?

I have heard it that you want to ding every 4 or so sessions and it really depends on how many players you have We have four characters, so we'll target about 5 for a rebel heavy session, 3 for a lighter, edge-centric session, and then add 3 or 4 depending on if folks actually managed check the box on their indiviual duties.

what do you do with the first 2 Contribution Ranks where the rewards are lackluster?

I recall on an episode of Order 66, that GM Chris said he likes to have about 20-25 points of Duty available in a session. Broken up into several small contributions that would reflect the various duties of the party. And have 1 "bonus" Duty possibility, that is really risky, but could give the party +5-10 on their Duty, above and beyond the 20 or so presented already.

For example, in a session, you could have the following all for the same encounter:

5 Duty for the Slicer to try and get some useful data from the mainframe of the installation they are infiltrating.

5 Duty for the person with Military Superiority, if the party can find a way to steal the wing of fighters from the hangar bay on their way out.

5 Duty for the person with...uh, forget what it's called, Counter Intelligence perhaps? He's the face character, and has an opportunity, while in disguise, to plant false information with the local officers of the Empire, potentially having them redirect fleet forces on a wild goose chase, freeing up pressure elsewhere.

And then, as the "bonus" if they can get down into the bowels of the facility, past massive security, a tough Rival fight, some dangerous platforming puzzles, etc, they can find some really REALLY dangerous item that the Emperor had their for safekeeping, that would have a significant impact on the Imperial plans in that sector. Poof, 5-10 more Duty.

That way, if everyone is able to accomplish their objective, the party can walk out with a decent 15-30 Duty per session, depending on failures and such. Which is a pretty decent window for progression. Of course, it's not guaranteed, they still have to actually succeed, but the opportunity is there.

As to the rewards, I would just roll with it on what you think is fair. If you think the Duty 1 rewards are lame, but you don't want to give them something massive, perhaps they have a one time use card to call in some Rebel support in a pinch. A literal Deus Ex Machina on call if they need it. They've got a major fight ahead of them, and they find themselves pinned down by some AT-ST's? They can call in a bomber strike to soften them up and even the odds. Or perhaps they can get one of the little single purpose droids from some of the supplementary books. They aren't fully sentient like an R2 or a Protocol droid, but they are scouting/recon droids that could help them increase their detection range. Or perhaps a repair droid that hangs out at their base, and just slowly fixes their busted up stuff. An NPC assistant type reward seems highly useful to me, without being unbalanced. If they already have the Base as their group asset, provide some low level, but still useful addition to the base. Like maybe one of the party is a mechanic, and the Rebellion gives him a nice workshop to use, providing him with a boost die, or maybe some automatic Advantage on any mechanics/computers rolls while at the base, due to the quality of the equipment. The possibilities are endless really.

Then with higher Duty rewards, you can start doing things like "here, have a starship" or "have a base of operations" etc.

Or, another option, is ask the players what they would like to get for their reward, and if it doesn't sound over the top, give it to them.

I used a system where I figured out how fast I wanted them "ranking up" in contribution ranks... how often. I divided those by the sessions needed and figured out I wanted to give out each session. So I end up about 10-15 a session. So take your whole campaign in consideration when you do it and how often you'd like them to rank up. I have it happen during big turning points in the campaign.

My duty progression is probably a little slower than most. I award duty per mission. Which is often two or three sessions. Generally +5 or so for objective completion and +2 for any instances of fulfilling duty.

I don't mind that too much. Especially since the Quartermaster is plannkng on picking up Propagandist pretty soon.

As for rewards, for their first contribution rank my group nabbed:

Quartermaster: an envoy droid from Desperate Allies

Demolitionist: an enhanced reflexes cybernetics package from Lords of Nal Hutta

Gadgeteer: An astromech droid (since they weren't planning on using a starfighter anyways, I decided to make it a Q7 from Stay on Target, just for fun)

Hotshot: A Shockrider crash suit from Stay on Target

I might have fudged the rarity up by one or so, but I also don't feel like that's dramatically unbalanced the game. Keep in mind the PCs could also get weapon and starship attachments as part of their contributions.

GM discretion really is king here though. I'm happy to treat speeder bikes or one-man starfighters as "gear" rather than a group vehicle, for example, or allow players to take a vehicle that is rare because it is no longer actively manufactured, rather than because it is powerful and expensive.

I was thinking of doing something similar but splitting the difference. Allow characters from any system to play what they want. The system though is everyone has duty but only one or the other from the other two systems Morality or Obligation. Only exception is Force users would be required to have Morality regardless of system. The only catch is how I reward those who are only using AoR characters? Or does that seem fair still especially if I only allow them to benefit from one system (like raising Obligation or lowering Morality).

Duty is a reward mechanism, not unlike XP.

Obligation is meant to be used to give the GM “hooks” that can be used to make the game more interesting, through the introduction of plot twists or other things that happen during a game session. It typically is only given at the time of character generation, and usually remains relatively constant over time. It is possible to retire or reduce Obligation, through in-game activities, or you could trade one obligation for another. But you typically wouldn’t gain or alter obligation without discussion and agreement between the player(s) and the GM.

Morality is a measure of where you are on the scale of light-to-dark with The Force, and can have impacts on the game session through giving you more Destiny points of one type or another, or allowing the PCs to increase their Strain Threshold, or controlling what aspects of what powers you might have available to you, etc….

None of these mechanisms overlap. However, if there were some characters in the game that could only benefit from Duty and they don’t have either Obligations or Morality, then I might be inclined to give them an extra Duty bonus. Perhaps an extra full share, or maybe only a extra partial share. Or maybe just a flat additional few points.

In any event, this bonus Duty might represent their ability to focus a bit more on benefiting the Rebel Alliance, as opposed to the occasional Obligation that crops up for some of their team mates, or the fact that Force users may be spending a certain amount of mental effort on things related to their Morality and less time to benefitting the Alliance.

So here's a topic for you - okay, given that this is story driven game and that we're in service to the narrative, what sort of limits do you put on duty rewards.

Like, for example - I wanted to cash in our latest duty level up on an x-wing. No, she's not a pilot (beyond a couple of yellow dice in the skill), although I might pick up the BA Baracus tree from the AoR Ace book here someday soon. So at the start of the game, as we were hammering out starting game details, I announced my desire. And the entire table to the last man went "No, they're not going to just give you an x-wing".

Unfortunately my only defense was "But X-Wings are cool" and that the game mechanics to back up my desire. I couldn't actually justify it in the narrative other than "I want it."

The Duty award has to make sense for you and the group.

If you don’t have a pilot in the group, then yeah — they’re not going to give you an X-Wing.

If you do have a pilot in the group, then they might still not give you an X-Wing. You’d have to figure out how to justify that from a Narrative perspective — how does an X-Wing help them get their job done better/faster/easier/etc…?

Couldn't the Alliance give your tech a beater X-Wing for you to repair and fix-up? Within the context of the story, they could have already written it off as totaled, but maybe your character feels otherwise.

That's an angle I mentioned - that they don't have to give me a top of the line fighter, but I think it got lost in the shuffle. Hell, a totaled ship that she brings back from the dead would probably be preferable, from a character point of view. I'll have to peruse that angle again when we next meet.

Couldn't the Alliance give your tech a beater X-Wing for you to repair and fix-up? Within the context of the story, they could have already written it off as totaled, but maybe your character feels otherwise.

Now THAT makes sense!

Quartermaster: Wow, I never thought that Blue 5 would ever be able to fly again.

QM: Wait — what kind of engines did you say you put in there? Those can’t fit!

QM: Wait — Where did you move the droid socket?

QM: Wait — A shield generator? How the heck did you fit that?