An interesting situation in my game. My group worked really hard to become bounty hunters. Along their way they incited the anger of the Mining Guild. The Mining Guild pursued them in vengeance, and my group murdered some of their representatives. I now had the idea for the Mining Guild to put a bounty on their heads.

How would that situation play out for guilded hunters? What would the Bounty Hunters Guild's response be? On the one hand, the Guild does make a point of defending their members in legal issues, and one of the things that drew my players to join was the protection that the Guild offers. On the other hand, the Mining Guild is a fairly ubiquitous organizations, with a lot of capital and sway in galactic politics. Would the BHG see the Mining Guild's call for a bounty on my players as more important than protecting my players?

From a gameplay perspective, I would definitely have the BHG not come to the defense of my players, and in fact send bounty hunters after them. That feels like a fun escalation of events. But I am concerned that my payers might feel cheated if I were to do that, as the Guild promised them safe harbor in pretty much these same situations.

What should I do? Bounties on the heads of my hunters? Or just keep having the Mining Guild send hired guns and thugs?

Bidness is bidness...

Have a legitimate reason why they're kicked out.

For example Boba Fett pays their guild a visit and like Bossk father's guild that he effectively destroyed it gets toppled!

So lets say say they're ambushed by freelancers working for the Mining Guild, narrowly escaping they try to contact their guild but no response.

Getting closer to home they receive a broadcast showing their local guild base in flames due to some unknown attacker... when their own guild starts hunting them they discover they were framed for the attack enter a new nemesis for example Joda Kast a Boba Fett level nemesis hired by the Mining Guild AND the Empire to take down both them and their Guild can your players thwart this villain but will their Guild survive?

Will that help?

Murder is murder. Did they kill in self defence or cold blood, who fired the first shot etc We have a BH in our group, most of the time our weapons are set to stun for that reason. BH's are not killers/murderers, bounty hunters are 'law-enforcement officers' (TBHC pg7 - which makes a great splat until No Disintegrations comes out) they never kill for personal gain.

The players have broken a law, p***** some one off and must now pay the consequences. This isn't D&D where the dungeon bash monsters are there to help the PCs level up and collect gold.

The Mining Guild has enough clout to contact the Bounty Hunters Guild and send someone more 'efficient' to get them in alive for 'questioning'. It's not the sort of thing you could pay off.. eg 'I have the death sentence in 12 systems.' It will stick to the PCs like a bad smell.

This is awesome for guidance: https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars%C2%AE-Bounty-Hunter-Code/dp/1452133212

I can see this making for some dramatic roleplaying. As long as the PCs have followed the code, they should be protected by the Guild. On the other hand, if they violated Guild law--or if a higher-up can be bribed to declare that they broke guild law--then they won't find any such safety. This could lead to a climactic situation in which they gather witnesses and make their case, perhaps to be exonerated, or perhaps to be declared guilty and thus face the consequences. They might need to make all kinds of relevant skill checks, with the usual modifiers for good (or bad) reasoning or roleplaying.

-Nate

I think everyone is forgetting the most important aspect. What is the most fun for your players? It seems like maybe they will be disappointed if the BHG turns on them, so maybe avoid that. But whilst the BHG could officially not sanction a bounty on them, the Mining Guild might still offer a reward. So maybe send them on a job with some other bounty hunters and one of them turns out to be a traitor who has made a private deal with the Mining Guild, but must keep their actions secret from the BHG. So the other low level bounty hunters with them suddenly turn up missing, unconcious or otherwise conveniently out of action leaving the betrayer to make his move on them. Dramatic plot, but no sense that their worked-for goal of the BHG has been denied to them.

From my understanding, there is more than one Bounty Hunters Guild... couldn't the antagonists of the PCs in this case just be another guild that operates under a different code? It might add for further plotlines later on... potentially sparking a bounty hunter war and such.

In the legends, there are multiple bounty hunting guilds, even if theirs is taking their side that doesn't mean the rest of the bh guilds won't send hunters after them. That way your players get the protection they were promised from their organization but you still get to send hunters after them

I might have a higher up in their guild give them a call to let them know that someone's put a bounty on their heads, and while that guild won't be accepting the claim on a member, other guilds will, and individual members of the guild might not be so particular. So they might should get that situation cleared up quite quickly, before their lives become unnecessarily complicated. Also, guild membership isn't guaranteed eternal, especially for those that bear unnecessary complications...

It will depend on circumstance and politics .

On the one hand, business is business. On the other hand, the guilds are going to think twice about provoking one another / starting a guild war. I've seen this kind of thing get out of hand in real life. When I was younger and worked as a police officer a sheriff's deputy pulled over a local department's squad car and wrote the officer a ticket. It turned into a ticket war and escalated to shouting and shoving and fist fights between on-duty, uniformed officers in no time at all. It also turned into embarrassing headlines. In the end, the sheriff and police chief had to call a pow-wow, negotiate a truce, and then lay down the law to their subordinates.

With bounty hunters, who in many places are the law unto themselves and (in some cases) take extra-legal contracts as well, this could turn into a kidnap-murder war (depending on which guilds and hunters are involved). No one will want to start a war of attrition with another guild. Nor will anyone want to work for a guild that would turn on its own members in good standing. A tacitly understood "hands off" policy in which the guild leaders refuse to take contracts on guilded hunters would also protect guild privilege. This would be a form of professional ethics, not dissimilar from doctor-patient confidentiality. Confidentially isn't always moral, but it is essential if the medical profession is to function.

Of course, money talks! A big enough bounty might make an internecine war worthwhile, especially for a bigger guild who decides to pick off a smaller guild's hunter. And independent hunters who aren't from a known guild? They would enjoy no such protection. They are on their own. Nor would a bounty hunter who committed heinous acts, or who embarrassed their guild in a big way. Throw them to the wolves! And, some powers will have the influence and might to force the issue. A bounty hunter who offends the Empire will likely find their own guild handing them over to Imperial officials (because the guild will want to avoid Imperial repercussions).

Depending on where the guild in question operates, CSA corporate heads or Hutt lords might be able to get the same kind of cooperation in their areas of influence. Yet, organizations with that kind of power also tend to have cadres of their own enforcers they can dispatch to capture or kill an offending bounty hunter. The Black Sun comes to mind. Additionally, there will always be hunters who are willing to take off-book contracts without consulting their guild, or independent operators. The key to avoiding repercussions would be doing it discretely enough not to call attention to yourself (out on the rim that's easier) and not to harm your reputation with your fellow bounty hunters.

A big part of making this decisions is what the hunter did to end up with a bounty on themselves in the first place. Did they just offend the wrong persons or get into debt, or did they commit heinous acts that embarrassed their guild and could lead to being stripped of membership and its attendant privileges? Are they popular and well-connected, or roundly hated and despised? If the latter, fair play! Their own guild would likely be willing to take the bounty, even for less influential parties. If the former, who will want to work with someone, or share a drink, with a backstabbing turncoat? Or work for a guild that turns on its own? Accepting a bounty on another hunter, especially if he's well-known and otherwise in good standing, would be bad for business.

Money is the simplest part of this equation. The complicated part is, what consequences come with that money?

An interesting situation in my game. My group worked really hard to become bounty hunters. Along their way they incited the anger of the Mining Guild. The Mining Guild pursued them in vengeance, and my group murdered some of their representatives . I now had the idea for the Mining Guild to put a bounty on their heads.

Your use of the word "murder" requires additional context. Some guild representatives or sub-contractors who were pursuing the PCs were slain. What objective circumstances made it murder? Certainly the Mining Guild will see it that way. But, will anyone else? Will they PCs argue the Mining Guild didn't have jurisdiction and that only bounty hunters or law enforcement could lawfully seize them without it being kidnapping ? Will the guilds be punctilious and say: "You should have hired us in he first place instead of sending unlicensed amateurs?" A real-politick snub could be in order to protect guild perogatives. And, if the Miners Guild was overstepping, will the PCs argue they were merely defending themselves from kidnappers who were going to take them to an irate client bent on unlawfully murdering / torturing / imprisoning them? Wouldn't their guild ask them what happened before making any decisions?

Are any of them playing a "face" character? (Politico, Diplomat) Or is there just any interest in more social encounters? They worked for the membership, so have the BHG stand up for them. But, the Mining Guild sends an emissary to convince the Bounty Hunters' to withhold their protection. Now, it's not just NPC decision to kick them out. The Miners bring accusations of premeditated, unwarranted murder, so the PCs have to prove that it wasn't. Either it was a sanctioned kill, collateral damage, unintentional. They still may not get out of it completely. Their guild might still require them to make reparations, pay fines, etc., but the PCs will still have the protection of their guild. Of course, that won't stop the Mining Guild from using independent contractors, or some other scheme. But they will still have a measure of security in having a place to call "home."

An interesting situation in my game. My group worked really hard to become bounty hunters. Along their way they incited the anger of the Mining Guild. The Mining Guild pursued them in vengeance, and my group murdered some of their representatives . I now had the idea for the Mining Guild to put a bounty on their heads.

Your use of the word "murder" requires additional context. Some guild representatives or sub-contractors who were pursuing the PCs were slain. What objective circumstances made it murder? Certainly the Mining Guild will see it that way. But, will anyone else? Will they PCs argue the Mining Guild didn't have jurisdiction and that only bounty hunters or law enforcement could lawfully seize them without it being kidnapping ? Will the guilds be punctilious and say: "You should have hired us in he first place instead of sending unlicensed amateurs?" A real-politick snub could be in order to protect guild perogatives. And, if the Miners Guild was overstepping, will the PCs argue they were merely defending themselves from kidnappers who were going to take them to an irate client bent on unlawfully murdering / torturing / imprisoning them? Wouldn't their guild ask them what happened before making any decisions?

This is a fair point to bring up. I should be more specific.

Some Mining Guild enforcers were wandering around a crowded market looking for my players, and one of my players walked up behind them and shot them both in the back of the head in front of like eighty people.

The rest of my group was very unhappy with this.

If they have broken Imperial law and become criminals then they may end up losing their IPKC licenses which could cause issues with working with their guild depending on what their guild's position is with the Empire, but otherwise I see no problem with the Mining Guild putting out a bounty on them via another Bounty Hunting Guild, as there are multiple ones after all and not all of them are 'legit' (IPKC-optional is a term used by FFG themselves after all).

Regarding the current situation, if it was just one person and the rest of the party was not happy with their action then you could consider that any official law enforcement response would be on that particular character rather than the whole group. Police may want to ask his or her known associates for information but if 80 people saw him do it they also saw that the others didn't do it. The Mining Guild naturally might want the whole group taken down and put out bounties on the lot of them but as Vondy said guilds are probably not that keen on starting wars between each other. It depends a lot on what kind of planet it was (Imperial planet, in which case the guy is probably wanted by Imperial law enforcers now), and the response of the official law enforcement. The guild may not want such a person on their books for causing incidents like this, so they may cut him loose unless the other players convince them that they can keep him in line and he is worth the possible blow-back from this mess.

Also sounds like a great way to dump a ton of group Obligation on them. Gotta pay off those bribes and legal fees somehow.

Some Mining Guild enforcers were wandering around a crowded market looking for my players, and one of my players walked up behind them and shot them both in the back of the head in front of like eighty people.

Yeah, I would definitely call that outright murder in my game. Whether or not that would result in a high bounty being placed on the head of the perpetrator would be a decision I would consider, based on the organizations involved, how disposable they are inclined towards their enforcers, etc….

The rest of my group was very unhappy with this.

As GM, I would have been pretty unhappy, too. So, IMO, this conversation is definitely going down the right path.

An interesting situation in my game. My group worked really hard to become bounty hunters. Along their way they incited the anger of the Mining Guild. The Mining Guild pursued them in vengeance, and my group murdered some of their representatives . I now had the idea for the Mining Guild to put a bounty on their heads.

Your use of the word "murder" requires additional context. Some guild representatives or sub-contractors who were pursuing the PCs were slain. What objective circumstances made it murder? Certainly the Mining Guild will see it that way. But, will anyone else? Will they PCs argue the Mining Guild didn't have jurisdiction and that only bounty hunters or law enforcement could lawfully seize them without it being kidnapping ? Will the guilds be punctilious and say: "You should have hired us in he first place instead of sending unlicensed amateurs?" A real-politick snub could be in order to protect guild perogatives. And, if the Miners Guild was overstepping, will the PCs argue they were merely defending themselves from kidnappers who were going to take them to an irate client bent on unlawfully murdering / torturing / imprisoning them? Wouldn't their guild ask them what happened before making any decisions?

This is a fair point to bring up. I should be more specific.

Some Mining Guild enforcers were wandering around a crowded market looking for my players, and one of my players walked up behind them and shot them both in the back of the head in front of like eighty people.

The rest of my group was very unhappy with this.

Ok, so the character who shot them would definately have a bounty for murder on his head (multiple murders, really). Doesn't matter if he's part of the BH guild or not, they'll just drop him like a hot rock and put that bounty on him.

The other players, though, would probably not be handled the same way.

If they're also part of the BHG, they would most likely be contacted by them (somehow, if possible) and be asked to show their innocence by apprehending the player character that murdered the victims and bring him back.

If they fail to do so, they would be considered accomplices and also get bounties on their heads.

Not for as much, but still, bounties.

And since it's multiple murders with plenty of witnesses, you could assume that a trial has already been held and the bounty is "dead or alive".

At least on the guy who pulled the trigger.

Of course, this also gives your group a VERY harsh way to show the player who did this that they do not approve of such actions, by letting them essentially hand him over to the authorities.

But that could create some hard friction within the group.

As for ways out of this?

I don't really see any.

I doubt the mining guild will accept payment as some sort of penance. And even if the BHG should opt to try and help the player out legally, they would most likely not get him off scott free, and several years of imprisonment would ensue, effectively killing the character.

Sometimes you just have to make the players face the consequences of their actions, and this time it's not only bounties on their heads, but the expulsion from the bounty hunters guild and their bounty hunting licenses (and thus any legal bounty hunting business in the future).

Oh, and their weapons licenses too, most likely. And ships.

That and it's worth taking inspiration from movies on how to handle being hunted.

The Jason Borne first movie for example; he was largely responsive to people hunting them down, and he didn't necessarily kill them either. There are a lot of stun weapons available (and even people wielding vibroblades can just chose to use brawl to suppress his targets) so there is plenty of scope for being a bad ass while not necessarily breaking the law (those guys were trying to kidnap us and stalked us in the market place, i used force to detain them before this situation got out of hand)

That and theres the option of two wrongs making a right; these guild representatives clearly hired those guys with the intent of murdering/capturing the party, recovering evidence of such a transcript might be enough to make them withdraw the bounty for being in the wrong.

However, I would administor some punishment; ranging from guild rejection to his part of the bounty being cut (debt obligation, paying off the family of those killed) to just act as a slap on the wrist to be more creative.