I have two players who have 15 Criminal obligation, I have been trying to work all my players Obligations into my story and give them a chance to reduce their Obligations.

But I am having trouble thinking of good ways to reduce the Criminal Obligation besides having them surve time in an Imperial Prison or doing work for the Empire to make up for their crimes.

Anyone else have any good ideas that I might be able to work into my story?

Currently my players have 85 Obligation so want to get that down so that they can take on new ones without having to worry about breaking 100.

MjDailey said:

They're quietly approached by sector rangers and asked to use their criminal knowledge and 'credentials' to go undercover and help take down a Hutt lord/crime ring/slavers/any other criminal organization. Basically, the 'Mod Squad '.

Or they could trade information about other criminal activities for immunity.

They're blackmailed by somone who knows where they are, but can also make the charges against them disappear (may have a new kind of obligation). Maybe a Hutt lord with connections that can make the warrants go away needs a crew to make a particularly hazardous smuggling run.

Or they could blackmail an official to get the charges dropped.

A bounty hunter trying to capture them alive gets into trouble. Offers to tell the law enforcement agency looking for the PCs that they are dead in exchange for helping the BH out of a jam.

Or otherwise fake their deaths and beat feet out of the sector.

Just a few ideas.

-WJL

Thanks! Those are great ideas.

Lethal hit on a couple I'd use. I've had a character concept in mind where he's got a criminal obligation. He'd be wanted for crimes against the Empire and I've thought about this very question.

Being sentenced and send to a prison planet might open up a new realm of adventures. Servitude to the Empire was something I thought about, too. The prospect of being a double agent is enticing. That could work off obligation and still be an adventure cource.

Another idea is to have the players do something "goodie-goodie". You know like during a smuggling run which will certainly raise their criminal obligation, they find out what they are delivering will wipe out a colony or species and they can then decide to not deliver it, destroy it, or something that "reverses" the crimial obligation two fold. Then by telling the to be victims that they decided to help instead, they become heroes in the process.

i.e. the smuggling will generate 15 criminal oblig. If they ditch the cargo, it will reduce their crimial by 30 cause they are now heroes in the eye of the victims and news travels fast in this sector, opening up the story line if you want.

think the Firefly train robbing episode, or better yet, Han comes back to help blow up the Deathstar instead of taking his money and runnning…again…

I think generally the idea is that ditching cargo and such will increase obligation. Thinking back to Firefly, the crew of Serenity did the right thing by delivering the cargo to the rightful recipients. However, Mal greatly increased his Obligation to Adlai Niska (taking a job, then deliberately botching it? You owe that guy now). Sure enough, he rolled doubles next time that obligation came up, and bad things happened.

Such a thing could be an exchange of obligation, depending on circumstances, but in the example you've suggested, I think I would just increase obligation, but give the group a safe harbor of sympathetic fans.

farseer said:

I think I'd only apply that criminal obligation if/when the PCs get caught smuggling by the authorities.

But having thought about this a little more, I think the criminal obligation is a great source of story telling. If you need ideas on how to use it, you just need to go watch any of the umpteen bazillion crime dramas in the media (books, movies, TV, etc) and pay attention to howt he criminals weasel out of trouble.

Hell, thinking about it that way "Breaking Bad" comes to mind. To reduce your criminal obligationm you could 'just' hire the nastiest, slimiest lawyer/barrister(?) you could find. Your own personal Saul Goodman to get your @$$ out of trouble. Now that would be a great NPC…

In trouble?

Better Call Saul!

-WJL

The Grand Falloon said:

Great analogy!

LethalDose said:

MjDailey said:

I think a part of this depends on why that PC has the Criminal Obligation.

Do they have a Criminal history? Are they deeply tied to a Criminal organization, either actively or in the past?

If it's a case of criminal history, the PC could opt to perform certain acts that go counter to their criminal past. To use a recent media example, Black Widow of the Avengers film working for SHIELD due to having "a lot of red in her ledger." So maybe instead of serving time in prison, the PC could be doing more altruistic work to help the sorts of people they once preyed upon. Obviously this shouldn't be too easy, and should require a major event to warrent a reduction in their Obligation, but it is an option to keep in mind.

If the Obligation is tied to an organization, perhaps the PC takes actions that directly harm the organization or seriously derail some of their bigger schemes, again as a way of "balancing the books," even if only on a personal level. Consider the show Leverage, featuring a bunch of crooks who do crime for (mostly) heroic/noble reasons.

Or, perhaps the PC is "attached" to an organization that's not directly tied to the Empire as a kind of "work-release" program. If you're running a heroic game where the PCs are agents of good, perhaps this organization is a front for the local Rebel Alliance faction.

Just spitballing a couple ideas.

aramis said:

Awww, why you gotta be like that? S'all good, man.