I don't recall coming across anything in the base book that dealt with how fast credits should be accquired. I realize that this system is more flexible and is encouraging different groups to play their own style however some GM's may be at a loss without some rough guidelines so I would suggest including one line in the book maybe bundled in with accquiring xp about a normal, slow, and fast rate of accquiring credits.

In our games it has ussually been around 2500 a player (from various sources, bounties, selling items, rewards) with occasionally a little more if they go out of their way to earn it. That may seem like a lot but when you have ship repairs, and fuel to pay for along with saving for new weapons and gear I think it has been pretty reasonable.

That really all depends on the GM and the style of campaign. Unlike D&D where money/gear really change the strength of the party, it has less of an effect on this system. So, really, money then becomes a good motivator to keep them looking for work (bounties, cargo hauls, etc…), like Han Solo at the beginning of the first movie. Those with debt are wanting to reduce their obligation. Those that are wanted might want some spare cash to get a bounty cleared up. So, some weeks they might not get any money as they spend it scrounging for parts or some such. So, XP and money really don't go hand in hand.

AFrede said:

I'd have to agree; credits in of themselves are a great motivator (see Han's money problems from Episode IV to the begining of Episode VI). I've played in dozens of RPGs where they said that money wasn't suppose to be important, but it kept becoming a hassle to deal with. We (the players) never had enough money to buy anything significant, but our enemies (NPCs of the GM) always had the means to acquire anything relevant to the plot that week.

Having credits lets players save for something that they really want. If you have a Force Exile with no idea how to craft a lightsaber, he might just very well start saving up every credit he comes across to get to that 50,000 mark and buy one. That's may an adventure right there.

While "each GM should use their own discretion" sounds good, I've always found an actual guideline to be better. Regardless of weather or not you agree with the rules, having a yard (meter) stick is always useful.

Sign--

It's ultimately going to depend on the campaign.

Although it's for a different system (Saga Edition), the Scum & Villainy sourcebook has a lot of suggestions on the sorts of jobs that most Edge of the Empire groups are going to find out on the fringe, along with a suggested rate of pay and what sort of challenges the job might entail. Some work might be needed to convert these to EotE's system given the lack of Challenge Level, but it'd be a decent starting point if nothing else.

If you've got PCs that are interested in being bouny hunters and you can track it down, the Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters by WEG also has some good suggestions on pricing bounties, as well as the various other headaches that come with being a bounty hunter, particularly in eras where the Empire is running the show.

It would be real nice to know how to convert windfalls of cash into reduced debt obligation…

Yeah. Credit to obligation conversion has been an issue that one session the players really impressed with taking on a serious bounty hunter mission, and succeeding without shedding too much blood - good negotiation rolls though (they got lots of cash in the end - even managing to double-cross someone). First off they wanted to reduce obligation further… not too interested in winging that the second session I ran, I decided to encourage them to spend it on themselves, perhaps even on ship modifications.

There is no hard and fast formula that would work here I think. Although looking at the Tramp Freighters book and the loan sharks rules for borrowing money, and leaping from there to the ship obligation for instance, a tentative value of the ship (at least the used value in some of the older sources) pluss interest per month and payback plan, one could come to some sort of idea of what each obligation points is worth in credits. Although I do not think this is a good way of doing it. Obligation implies more than just monetary debt in my opinion. I mean, 70,000 credits could be worth as much as 20 obligation points (if not more) in certain circumstances, but a lot less in others - like 1 point or 0. Various obligations have various solutions - some are social, action oriented (as in certain things has to be done, money has nothing to do with the matter), others are based in other solutions. I mean, its in the obligation text - not the beginning but in the GM section I think - taking on obligation for a certain device for instance (new shield generator or quad lasers or whatever), could be as little as 5 obligation if the person/organisation they are inquiring has these things readily available and appreciate the group's status and work - whereas an unfamiliar benefactor might require 15 points of obligation. Its vague, intentionally so I believe, because it should be fluid and less risky of exploiting hard written rules - its more down to good GM judgement and ruling. Which I can appreciate.

I'd say a rough guideline for credits to obligation would be just reversing the cash you can get for obligation as a starting character.

I think it's mentioned in the Beta book that Obligation is not JUST a measure of how much you owe, but rather the intensity of the problem. I mean you could have a guy you owe only 100 credits to but will hunt you to the end of the galaxy at rediculous expense to have your head, or you could borrow a space ship from an airhead who barely recognizes the ship is gone. A direct money to obligation conversion isn't the point, I don't think.

I think that, as a GM, you could possibly determine the cash value for each obligation and then when a player pays off a certain amount figure out the math and deduct it by percentage, but that's just a shot in the dark.

If you're just looking for a quick and easy system, the character creation guidelines allow you to pick up an extra 1,000 cr for +5 Obligation. Why not just say 1 Obligation is about 200 credits?

CStevenRoss said:

Because they aren't really priced like that. You're forgetting about the obligation the party has that "pays" for the ship and their initial funds, etc…