I built my first character last night, and in order to get his characteristics to a decent place, I took out some extra obligation, so now it totals 40 obligation. Is this too much for a starting character?

Is there a rule, or is it just kind of at the discretion of the GM/players?

I understand the consequences of having this much obligation. I'm just wondering if I'm going to break anything mechanically by having so much right off the bat.

It's hard to say how much Obligation is too much without knowing how many other people are in the group and what their levels of Obligation are, but the expected group minimum Obligation is 40 points... so unless you're in a group of two characters, in which case you're only adding 20 obligation, you're probably way too far out there. Right now, in 40% of game sessions you will have your strain threshold reduced by 2 (and the rest of the party's strain thresholds reduced by 1).

A group Obligation over 60 is probably the higher end of what most groups would want to deal with, so you really need to talk with the rest of your group and your GM.

When we play Hero system, we're pretty generous with the disadvantages (and a bunch that we dont even get paid for), Four of us at 20 obligation means we're in a constant state of stress! (:

We might have to dial back a mite here. . .

I built my first character last night, and in order to get his characteristics to a decent place, I took out some extra obligation, so now it totals 40 obligation. Is this too much for a starting character?

Is there a rule, or is it just kind of at the discretion of the GM/players?

I understand the consequences of having this much obligation. I'm just wondering if I'm going to break anything mechanically by having so much right off the bat.

There's actually no way you should have 40 Obligation to start with according to the rules. Even if your group includes just 2 people, that's a Magnitude of 20 each. The maximum you can tack on is +10, which would give you a Magnitude of 30.

A group of 4 players (for example) start with an Obligation of 10 each.

You can only ever add +5 or +10 to your Obligation at character creation, unless I've really missed something (which happens).

When we play Hero system, we're pretty generous with the disadvantages (and a bunch that we dont even get paid for), Four of us at 20 obligation means we're in a constant state of stress! (:

We might have to dial back a mite here. . .

The thing to consider for Obligation, and why you really should get your GM to approve you using a lot, is that it has an effect on the story. If the GM is totally fine with every session being about the problems all of the Obligation you've built up causing, then take as much as he'll let you. If your GM wants to get through a storyline that doesn't necessarily involve your backgrounds constantly getting brought up, then he should probably limit you more.

I was under the impression you could take up to 20 Obligation, using 10 for more experience and 10 for more funds.

I built my first character last night, and in order to get his characteristics to a decent place, I took out some extra obligation, so now it totals 40 obligation. Is this too much for a starting character?

Is there a rule, or is it just kind of at the discretion of the GM/players?

I understand the consequences of having this much obligation. I'm just wondering if I'm going to break anything mechanically by having so much right off the bat.

There's actually no way you should have 40 Obligation to start with according to the rules. Even if your group includes just 2 people, that's a Magnitude of 20 each. The maximum you can tack on is +10, which would give you a Magnitude of 30.

A group of 4 players (for example) start with an Obligation of 10 each.

You can only ever add +5 or +10 to your Obligation at character creation, unless I've really missed something (which happens).

Depending on how you read the obligation information, you cannot more than doubble your starting obligation, and each of the 4 entries can be taken once, so you could in theory, take an additional 20 off the bat.

but that would be in a 2 player game.

Thanks, Sinosaur. The group will be 4 PC's, so my base obligation was 10, and then I took another 30 in order to boost a characteristic to 3. I tied it into the group's starting ship, essentially taking on the debt as a personal one.

Thanks, Sinosaur. The group will be 4 PC's, so my base obligation was 10, and then I took another 30 in order to boost a characteristic to 3. I tied it into the group's starting ship, essentially taking on the debt as a personal one.

Apparently your maximum additional Obligation is 10 according to the rules. And I'm also fairly certain you can't get more than 10 experience from obligation.

Gotcha. I'll have to take a look at that then.

Thanks for being totally awesome, everyone. As my first step into this community, this could not have been a better experience. You all rock!

If you look at pg 30 in the book it states how much additional obligation you can take.

"Player Characters cannot gain more additional Obligation than their original starting value."

So in a 4 player game you can add an extra 10 points.

When the party's total Obligation is over 100, that's when you've got too much Obligation

Honestly, I prefer to avoid taking more than +5 Obligation with the characters I've built. Partly as I want to cut down on the chances of my PC's Obligation coming up (or worse, coming up doubles), but also as I'd like to keep as far under the 100 Obligation mark as possible, given the players can't spend their Adventure XP if the group Obligation is over 100.

Another reason is that most of the characters I've created have been for the Heroes on Demand column over at the GSA, and since I have no clue what the group size would be, I need to be sure to keep that rules tidbit on page 30 about not being able to take additional Obligation in excess of their starting value. Since the starting value doesn't go below a 5, then by restricting myself to only +5 Obligation when doing those HoD builds means they're perfectly legal for any EotE game and can be dropped in without any fuss (well, could be prior to the core rulebook being released; may need to go back and re-check several of them to see if any skill changes need to be made).

My group of four started with 70 obligation. I don't just see obligation as good versus bad. It's adventure hooks, plot twists, complications to spice up a story etc. It's a valuable resource.

My group of four started with 70 obligation. I don't just see obligation as good versus bad. It's adventure hooks, plot twists, complications to spice up a story etc. It's a valuable resource.

True, but at least from my angle, there's some concern when you've got a party of 5 (starting group Obligation of 50), and everyone else is taking +10 Obligation, putting you one bad deal away from that 100 XP benchmark, especially if you're playing a character that wants to try and stay on the straight and narrow rather than rubbing elbows with the sordid side of society.

My group of four started with 70 obligation. I don't just see obligation as good versus bad. It's adventure hooks, plot twists, complications to spice up a story etc. It's a valuable resource.

True, but at least from my angle, there's some concern when you've got a party of 5 (starting group Obligation of 50), and everyone else is taking +10 Obligation, putting you one bad deal away from that 100 XP benchmark, especially if you're playing a character that wants to try and stay on the straight and narrow rather than rubbing elbows with the sordid side of society.

Yep then you've fallen in with a bunch of scoundrels and that's another role playing hook... awesome :-)

The stress from Obligation isn't the real pain - the real pain is being unable to spend XP. Tho' being stressed from triggered Ob isn't all that fun, either, when it's truly constant.

Growth of the characters is normally pretty steady, and that's generally a good thing. But if the group is starting with a total group obligation of 100+, it will be a constant chain-yanking until they get it down.

And don't forget the social stigma, either. A group with total Obligations over 100 is pretty well unable to deal with officialdom, and even the common folk are scared of them.