In the distant future, I may be in a situation where my PCs will have a huge bounty (or something similar) on their heads. The idea here being that they are actively being hunted and pursued by a large group of people, to the point that they would be unable to go pretty much anywhere for fear of being captured or killed. To put it in more meta terms, this would essentially be an adventure unto itself rather than just something that occasionally pokes its head up.

Has anyone done anything similar? How did it go? What did the meat of the adventure look like for you? Has anyone used a written adventure (even if you heavily modified it) as a framework?

NB: I'm intentionally keeping the details of my situation vague because I'm not currently looking for solutions to a problem. I'd just like to hear stories of other GM's experiences or ideas that you've had for things you'd like to run.

I've played in and run games where one (or more up to the entire group) of the PCs has had very large prices on their heads.

Ultimately, and this probably won't be a lot of help to you, it's going to very depending on the make-up of the group. For instance, the outlook of an EotE group of ambiguously amoral fringe-types towards one of their own having a very large price on their head put there by a crime lord is probably going to be different than the outlook of a AoR group whose members all have outstanding Imperial bounties on each of their heads based upon the severity of their transgressions against the Empire. While most EotE groups would (hopefully) stick together and not rat the other PCs out, this is a game where shady characters are a regular staple, and trust is a luxury that few on the fringe can easily afford, but it does come down to the players.

I think it also matters what the source of the bounty is, and what the source's reach and resources are. An Imperial bounty is bad news, given near-infinite resources and long reach. A bounty placed by a low-tier crime lord isn't that harsh to deal with, especially if that crime-lord has limited reach and the price isn't that high; you're not going to attract high-end hunters with postings that are 10K or less unless the hunter just happens to come across you and is already headed in the direction of where they'd have to bring you (or your remains) to collect the bounty.

One thing also that I've found is that the party having a ship at their disposal and being able to simply pick up stakes and leave can play into how much of a threat to the PCs a bounty is. Han Solo for instance was able to go a fair bit with a deathmark on his head (probably placed not long after ANH, so about three years) before he finally decided "Yeah, I need to go square that away," and only that due to a run-in with a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell, in large part due to owning his own ship and steering clear of Tatooine and Hutt Space, but also being chummy with a fairly organized military force, making getting to him a very difficult prospect for most bounty hunters. Fett only pulled it off because Han was locked down in one location and was cut off from any Rebel support.

If you're planning this as an adventure (whether it be to resolve a PC's Bounty Obligation or that the party as a whole have a price on their heads for the length of the adventure), then it might be worth considering suspending the party's access to their ship so that they can't just flee the system and decide "welp, guess we're never going back there again!" I've heard of that happening with PCs taking the Bounty Obligation and then arranging things so that either the price is so small as to not be worth the attention of high-end bounty hunters or the person who issued it is so remote that it's unlikely the player would ever go there (especially if they know the GM is running one of the established adventure paths and isn't likely to deviate from it).

All that being said, I have played in some adventures where the fact of a PC having a large price on their head did work out to make for some very interesting stories, including one rather memorable incident in a Saga Edition campaign (Legacy Era) where a Hutt gangster learned the hard way that you don't want a seriously brassed-off Jedi with the nickname "teenage telekinetic wrecking ball" coming knocking on your palace doors. Or in an old D6 game, a group of PCs pulled one over on Boba Fett when he came to collect the very high price on the Outlaw's head, getting the Mando-wannabe dead to rights. But those depended on the group of players, who had a very strong bond with one another.

Yeah, I don't expect any betrayal amongst the players and the bounty would be on the entire crew. It would be coming from someone with the reach, influence. and power to make life difficult across the galaxy. Again, from a meta perspective, this is meant to be an adventure. I wouldn't railroad them, but pretty much everywhere they go they would have problems so they would feel the need to deal with it. Sure, if this was a pure story and not a game, they could go find some remote world to live out their days (or whatever) but that's boring from a game perspective.

Again, I'm not really looking for solutions to my personal problem (I don't even know if this will happen or what sort of situation the PCs will be at the time), I'd just like to know if/how GMs have run something similar before.

Another way to put it would be how would you run an adventure where the entirety of the Black Sun knows who you are and wants you dead? Or for a non-Star Wars reference, your crew is Jason Bourne after being burned.

My current game is a followup to a session where a couple players accidently killed the family of one of the top executives of Kuat Manufacturing. They also rescued thousands of more people on Kuat at the same time so the exec couldn't really do anything at the time.

They just found out that they each have a 5 million credit bounty on them. There are 5 pcs in the group and they have already been attacked by two bounty hunters (separately) willing to take on all 5 just to get either one or the two with the bounty.

I have a whole slew of bounty hunters prepared to throw at them from incompetent to quite experienced. Part of their scheming now is how to convince the guy to withdraw the bounty.

Interesting. Please keep me updated on how it goes.

Our player characters are... three Jedi survivors and Padme Amidala. Yep. They have problems.

In addition to dodging Inquisitors, they have had two massive bounties put out on them. The first was by Prince Xixor and the Black Sun because they unraveled one of his plans and forced him to temporarily retreat to Falleen to avoid the Emperor's ire. The second was a side-bounty put out by Palpatine, who upon learning Padme was alive, decided she needed to be snuffed out before Vader realizes she's alive. He decided he didn't know who among the inquisitors were totally loyal to him rather than Vader. The players managed to cut a deal with Xixor to undermine some of Vader's machinations and got that bounty called off, but Palpy's bounty has become a real problem.

I decided I want to run Jewell of Yavin so our next arc will involve a Hutt realizing who Padme is and holding her hostage to force the players to steal the Jewell from underneath the nose of his rival Kaltho... who is one of the players contacts! Fear not, the Padme player has already signed off on all this. The players will have to steal the Jewell and figure out where Padme is being held in the cloud city in order to mount a rescue or make an exchange. The Emperor's bounty hunters will be zeroing in and, unbeknownst to everyone, this Hutt will have cagily reached out to Vader's agents about having something of of vital importance to share / trade. Vader isn't sure what this Hutt has that is so important, but he's decided to arrive and punish him in person if he is (as seems likely) wasting his time. Its going to turn into a royal mess.

My philosophy of game-mastering is "heap more trouble on the heroes" and its time for the jig to be up. The player characters have grown enough that its time for two campaign goals to happen: a battle royal between the Jedi and Vader and GALACTIC CIVIL WAR. Its now 11 years after Order 66 and the Emperor does not have a firm grip on the whole of the Galaxy (yet). The goal is to have the galaxy balkanize and uncomfortable alliances form as 1) Vader launches his own insurrection, 2) the emperor retreats (at least at first) to the deep core, 3) several nascent alliance words declare a new republic, 4) several former separatist worlds declare their own commonwealth while others take sides or declare themselves neutral, 5) tarkin (who is somewhat cut off way out there in the arkanis sector) starts putting together a faction of imperial loyalists, and 6) many more dodgy Imperial governors play for time - which sows chaos in many sectors.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

That also sounds super cool! Let us know how it goes.

One thing to consider leaning into is the curious lore bit about bounty-hunter operating licenses ... and how there's different circles where bounties would get posted.

The Empire relied on these hunters a fair bit to free up their own resources (not everyone on the Imp Bounty Board was wanted directly by the Empire). So if the offended party in question had connections, they could post an open contract on the "legitimate" board ... which would result in a larger number of people finding out. That could help making the issue unavoidable.

Not a really a bounty per se but to justify the ship I had my twi'lek's Obligation as an arranged marriage dowry/gift... he pretty much shirked that responsibility just so the GM had more RP'ing/BountyHunter storytelling opportunities. I reckon that if we'd continued his way of life he'd have been stunned and hauled off back to Ryloth eventually

In short, YES!

One of my players started with a pretty hefty bounty obligation with an interesting back story as well. The Twi'lek was a former assassin for Durga the Hutt and decided to 'retire.' Durga wasn't ready to accept the Twi'lek's resignation so a Bounty was issued.

This Twi'lek also had a reputation AND distinguishing marks (distinctive tattoos on their leku) so this obligation came up often.

I didn't actually throw that many high level bounty hunters after this mark. The party tended to move a lot and kept a low profile, so they were able to avoid most of the Bounty Hunters.

However, Durga's crew and members of the Black Sun kept popping up and having 'discussions' with this Twi'lek. Most of these encounters seemed innocuous enough . . . but there was always an underlying threat. Usually the Black Sun agent would point out, "Don't you have a $ 1,000,000 bounty on your head?" A lot of Durga's crew would follow up with, "I'm not doing business with you AND if you know what's good for you, you'll leave town. Quick."

On the plus side, the Twi'lek was able to discuss the bounty with Durga, pay off the penalty, and walk away on . . . 'agreeable' terms.

However, the same Twi'lek also killed a handful of Inquisitors using force talents AND a lightsabre and is now being hunted by the Empire . . .

And to put the cherry on top of the sundae, the same Twi'lek helped a rival Hutt steal an entire shipment of Spice from Durga's network and left enough breadcrumbs that EVERY HUTT knows who did it.

And to make matters EVEN worse, this Twi'lek JUST assassinated a Falleen Black Sun Lieutenant who was supervising another 'spice' network in another system!

Durga is not pleased. Oh no. Not at all . . .

$ 2,000,000 Bounty? Is that enough this time?

So I expect the 'complications' to become more . . . aggressive going forward.

21 minutes ago, Mark Caliber said:

$ 2,000,000 Bounty? Is that enough this time?

Probably 3 $2,000,000 bounties, one for each offended party.

Also, *facepalm* what was that character thinking (unless they weren't thinking at all, which has the same result)?

2 hours ago, ExpandingUniverse said:

Not a really a bounty per se but to justify the ship I had my twi'lek's Obligation as an arranged marriage dowry/gift... he pretty much shirked that responsibility just so the GM had more RP'ing/BountyHunter storytelling opportunities. I reckon that if we'd continued his way of life he'd have been stunned and hauled off back to Ryloth eventually

Never mind Bounty Hunters, the jilted bride herself could come after him, like Carrie Fisher's Blues Brothers character.

3 hours ago, Stethemessiah said:

Never mind Bounty Hunters, the jilted bride herself could come after him, like Carrie Fisher's Blues Brothers character.

Hire some heavies loaded for bear and lead them yourself. I like it.

11 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Also, *facepalm* what was that character thinking (unless they weren't thinking at all, which has the same result)?

"Have you heard of the Kobiashi Maru? We'll you're looking at the only PC's is Star Fleet history who decided to ram their ship into one of the Klingon Cruisers! No set of recruits has failed this test so fast . . . "

But to be fair to the players, they're being messed with by a devious GM.

I read somewhere in my past that some of the best dilemmas that players can face are moral dilemmas with unclear benefits. Think "the lesser of two evils."

The reality of this situation (and why Queyta has become such an interesting location for our group) is that the PC's got themselves into the middle of a spice turf war. Seems the party was sent to Queyta to pick up some e-rats, but the Alliance didn't have enough credits to purchase the quantity needed . . .

But a local businessman "concerned" with outsiders selling spice to the local kids offered to cover the difference if the PC's ran off the degenerates. What could go wrong? Right?

Well, the PC's were highly successful in assassinating the suspects . . . including a Faleen. Yep, they all had Black Sun emblems. (I thought it was pretty obvious for the PC with the Black Sun background).

Fast Forward to a return trip to Queyta and it looks like the off worlders have returned for vengeance and had kidnapped a family member (Grand daughter) of the local 'businessman' as a way to leverage for control of the local spice market. (Yep the businessman was trying to carve into Black Sun's territory). The PC's were hired to rescue the granddaughter but then THAT PC's backstory kicked in, when they met up with their past BFF, who was leading the Black Sun retribution op.

Suddenly the PC's turned on their employer and the Businessman wound up dead. (The Granddaughter was released and is . . . fine)?

I have to insert that it was at about this point that the Durga Meeting happened and the PC made "peace."

Fast forward to a THIRD trip to Queyta (as the Rebel Alliance is beginning to run low on E-Rats again) and their E-Rat vendor has taken a leave of absence as he's still grieving over the unexpected death of his friend (the 'Businessman') and his son is in rehab after ODing on a bad batch of Booster Blue (shipped in from off world elements). On top of that, the local constables are being killed and intimidated by Black Sun agents, from investigating Black Sun's divers crimes.

The price of E-Rats have gone through the roof and their contact WONT deal with them until his friend and son is avenged!

The players actually came up with some interesting alternatives to seal a deal (including stealing trade secrets for the competition) but also decided to help their former Vendor. (I think they took pity on the former vendor)?

But in retrospect, yeah the PC's literally (indirectly) stole trade secrets from their vendor, that PC let their BFF die to Black Sun Bounty Hunters, and THEN went in and wiped out the local Black Sun Lieutenant, in spite of the fact that they found a way to get their E-Rats from the competition.

Yep. PC's can make some funny decisions from time to time. Still don't know what that player is 'thinking' (let alone their character) but it's about to get even rougher.

But don't be too hard on the Players. Their GM is pretty nasty too.

On 11/1/2019 at 7:40 PM, Stethemessiah said:

Never mind Bounty Hunters, the jilted bride herself could come after him, like Carrie Fisher's Blues Brothers character.

Nice thought.... tbh I sat down with the GM and we 'statted out' this fiancee.... High Maintenance (HM), Psycho B**** (PB), Daddy's Little Princess (DLP) Drama Queen..(DQ)

We theorized that the HM, DLP would hire goons to save breaking a nail/into a sweat... the DQ would hire goons and come along to twist her stiletto heel into his calf muscles while he was down and the PB would do it herself... it would have been all decided on roll complete with green, yellow, purple and red dice 😃

Oh, well, you should hear the tales of Tobin F. In Stryder. He's basically the wanted guy, so in mostly particular order:

1) The first bounty was after we tried (empathies on tried) to blackmail the ISB with footage of death star destroying Alderaan. Yeah, literally the only warning my friend was going to try this was "I got this guys." Yeah, that became sinomious with bad ideas, which is super cool with star wars. XD
2a) Stole the Jewel of Yavin and Kaltho's money on Bespin.
2b) Robbed Kalthos's Mega Vault in his mega skyscraper and stole the Jewel of Yavin a *third* time, in order to lure out a Bounty Hunter Nemesis by getting a huge bounty/name for self. Literally only got out of that situation by faking my own death as a reward for saving the planet later that day.
3) Won the Gran Nopa against said Hutt, after having a bet to release a rival character be enslaved to him should he be successful. Not only did he beat the Hutt, but he humiliated him by having his champion taken as a slave (Torani was released from servitude immediately afterwards, it was just the only way I thought to save another character in a game overruled by gigantic slugs with control over our lives.). The main consequence was that the Hutt knew my character was alive.
4) Assassinated the King of Zygeria, turned out his home was actually an ancient Sith Vessel which made that job super complicated. Bounty was assigned by his son, who became King (exactly as planned) but threw a huge bounty on me to try and have me silenced (not planned, but not unexpected.)
5) "Killed Xizor." I was present, but Vader was doing all the choking. I just claimed it was the case to make a super strong case for an event later on.
6) Killed a Grand Moff on Kamino, sending him to the bottom of the ocean with a well hidden bomb taking out the structural support, he basically sunk right to the bottom of the ocean.
7) Was personally branded by the Emperor as his slave after peeking into the future on Endor; not strictly a bounty, but while he rolled well enough to break the shroud of darkness the despair meant that the Emperor personally had noticed my conflicted character and had sent several inquisitors/Vader to get him, but not before momentary trapping his spirit in one spot on the death star's bridge and *touching his mind*. That one meeting with the Emperor was probably the only time that my character had encountered true evil.
8 ) Personally angered the Bothans by covering for my apprentice whom had stolen the Bothan data crystal containing all their agents; after failing to turn that information into anything productive as another one of my party had destroyed it (which as one might know, doesn't stop a paranoid spynet work at all) ended up losing a lot of friends to their assassins.

9) Upstaged the entire Grand, Grand, Gran Nopla by holding an auction for the Olderaan Crest right in the middle of their epic, 37 team tournament with the presumption he was going to win. Ended up being on everyone's kill list, but because of Hutt Greed I was able to slip away where the blackmail information. Needless to say, my college was able to set a hyper reactor on one of the largest ships to blow in the middle of this civil conflict, which ended up wiping out practically their entire leadership structure, baring one or two hutts. The remainder, after discovering my character had faked his death for a 6th time, decided to assign the largest bounty imaginable to bring this bastard in.
10) Angered Crimson Dawn by stealing back off them a party member who had greatly wronged that crime lord in the past. That party member rewarded my character by betraying him and bringing back the Nightmother. That session was really awkward.

Needless to say, my group doesn't deal with credits very often, but my character is pretty much hated by most criminal syndicates who see him as a huge wild card. It got so hetic that recently my character has had skin implants installed so that he can change his voice and skin colour at will, becoming the Rodian only known as the Charmelion. It was a bit useless as pretty much everyone knew exactly who he was anyway; but that was usally after the felony was committed. XD

Needless to say, there have probably been millions worth of credits invested in finding and hunting down this man. Surprisingly though, his relationship with many bounty hunters is surprisingly cordial as Tobin is a light side paragon. With the exception of IG-88 and Dengar, he sees most of them as guys who are just doing a necessary job and tries to avoid killing them. There's been one guy that's been on his tale several times and each time they inevitabily end up working together. Last time the guy tracked him all the way to Jakku with 4-Lom and Zuckuss. Ended up teaming up with us because we had literally saved Gand from the Empire a couple of months back. Kinda like the spontaious comradery, even if those folks will inevitability kill me some day.

i'm curious as to how high a bounty this originally was that lead to the question here

21 hours ago, Xombie79 said:

i'm curious as to how high a bounty this originally was that lead to the question here

For the purpose of this discussion, infinity credits. In other words, imagine what the largest possible bounty could be and use that as a baseline. Or, another way to look at it is that the money is irrelevant. The point is that the bounty cannot be ignored or avoided.

1 hour ago, ddbrown30 said:

imagine what the largest possible bounty could be and use that as a baseline.

I don't think that works so well. I can imagine quite a lot!