Greetings, fellow adventurers!

I completely understand how players can take care of obligations to reduce to the minimum value of 5 per player.

Let's say after a few sessions all players have taken great strides to pay off a Hutt or wed their droid lover and are now at 5 obligation. How do you introduce more obligation to keep things interesting (if you even can)? I know there's a table in the core rule book covering extra obligation you can take when building your character for more XP or credits, but I'm unclear as to how you would raise it back up.

Thanks in advance, and remember to take your time when plotting hyperspace travel.

There are a ton of ways you can do this. Here are a few examples:

• Bounty: The players' actions get the attention of a local crime boss or evil corporation or government.
• Debt: The players need to buy a really expensive part for the ship, but can't afford it with credits.
• Addiction: A player takes one too many does of a drug.
• Crime: The players do something illegal and someone notices.
• Oath: A player... makes an Oath.

Ok, so it's cool if as a GM I just say they've accumulated more obligation by way of the story? Do I give them anything (XP, credits) or how would you handle it midway through a campaign?

Ok, so it's cool if as a GM I just say they've accumulated more obligation by way of the story? Do I give them anything (XP, credits) or how would you handle it midway through a campaign?

You say things like "breaking into that bank will earn you crime obligation" or "you can't afford that star ship part, but Tom the Hutt will loan you the money at a very reasonable bounty-free rate for some debt obligation." Always let the players know that their action might result in obligation. You don't have to give them anything other than a warning.

You say things like "breaking into that bank will earn you crime obligation" or "you can't afford that star ship part, but Tom the Hutt will loan you the money at a very reasonable bounty-free rate for some debt obligation." Always let the players know that their action might result in obligation. You don't have to give them anything other than a warning.

Awesome, thanks for the help.

Of course "buying off" begining obligation isn't always as simple as dropping off some cash. If they took out an extra 1000 credits? charge them a 15% fee. after a few sessions that might go up as well. Or when crafting an obligation, think of the long term implications. An obligation to ones family isn't going to just go away, or if it does that will result in some very interesting narrative implications. If the narrative requires a specific item/password/bit of info, someone may have it, but ask for a favor instead of the credit.

I'm unclear as to how you would raise it back up.

You could easily take on a new, additional obligation, which would work for all of Jason RR's examples.

Since you are never totally free of obligation, I can imagine fairly organic ways to justify increases for several of the obsessions on p 39 of the Core Rulebook.

Addiction: As long as you have that 5 points hanging around, you still have the craving. Perhaps if you give in and use, your obligation rises.

Bounty: Whoever put a bounty out on you in the first place grows impatient and raises the price on your head in hopes of attracting more competent hunters.

Debt: Haven't made a payment in a while? The juice is running.

I kind of like the idea of the obligations almost having a life of their own. I wouldn't want them increasing completely independent of PC action, but I'm okay with the idea of their growing in response to PC actions and inactions, maybe even without specific warning.

I'm unclear as to how you would raise it back up.

You could easily take on a new, additional obligation, which would work for all of Jason RR's examples.

Since you are never totally free of obligation, I can imagine fairly organic ways to justify increases for several of the obsessions on p 39 of the Core Rulebook.

Addiction: As long as you have that 5 points hanging around, you still have the craving. Perhaps if you give in and use, your obligation rises.

Bounty: Whoever put a bounty out on you in the first place grows impatient and raises the price on your head in hopes of attracting more competent hunters.

Debt: Haven't made a payment in a while? The juice is running.

I kind of like the idea of the obligations almost having a life of their own. I wouldn't want them increasing completely independent of PC action, but I'm okay with the idea of their growing in response to PC actions and inactions, maybe even without specific warning.

The book also points out that, if an Obligation's "number" comes up three times on the pre-session Obligation check and the character takes no steps to address it, the Obligation is increased by 5. This is a good way to trigger the suggestions above.

I have also offered my players the choice of taking on some group obligation in exchange for up to 20xp each, on a 1for1 basis. They did something that could create lots of interesting story opportunities but I want then to choose how much it comes in to play. Lets just say "ding dong the Hutt is dead" (and spell check on my iPad now recognises the word Hutt....cool)

Aside from the initial Obligation, all Obligation is a choice the players make. The GM is not supposed to just say "I increased your obligation by X because of Y". The GM is supposed to put players in tight situations and offer Obligation as a choice to make something incredibly difficult much easier (Taking out a loan is the easiest example) in the short term, but having lasting negative impact via the Obligation.

Aside from the initial Obligation, all Obligation is a choice the players make. The GM is not supposed to just say "I increased your obligation by X because of Y". The GM is supposed to put players in tight situations and offer Obligation as a choice to make something incredibly difficult much easier (Taking out a loan is the easiest example) in the short term, but having lasting negative impact via the Obligation.

A choice the players make in what sense? If the player characters make the choice to rob a bank without masks on, does that "come with" the choice to pick up a few points of the Criminal obligation? Or must the players choose to rob the bank and choose to pick up the Criminal obligation as well?

Aside from the initial Obligation, all Obligation is a choice the players make. The GM is not supposed to just say "I increased your obligation by X because of Y". The GM is supposed to put players in tight situations and offer Obligation as a choice to make something incredibly difficult much easier (Taking out a loan is the easiest example) in the short term, but having lasting negative impact via the Obligation.

A choice the players make in what sense? If the player characters make the choice to rob a bank without masks on, does that "come with" the choice to pick up a few points of the Criminal obligation? Or must the players choose to rob the bank and choose to pick up the Criminal obligation as well?

It depends on how you want to run the table. You should probably warn your players that there are consequences, but if they do actions that very obviously with a little thought would draw undesirable attention repeatedly, then letting them ignore the consequences is ridiculous.

Any character action is a choice. Some choices come with obligations.

Sure, a player can choose to take obligation (a loan or debt for instance) in order to acquire something.

But obligation can be gained in other ways too. If the players are shooting up nursery schools for kicks and giggles, they are going to anger some people and likely get a bounty obligation or two placed on them. They made the choice to do the crime, now they have to pay the consequences.

I know the book says that players shouldn't have obligation forced upon them, but placing a bounty on them for actions they performed is not forcing it. The wording in the book is a little odd. The book was referring to a GM simply giving someone 10 obligation towards a pet that the player doesn't agree with. The player didn't build their character around a pet, the character never had and doesn't want a pet, but the GM forces a 10 point obligation for loyalty to a pet to force some bizarre plot hook for an adventure they wrote. That kind of GM deus ex machina kills the narrative and enjoyment for the affected player.

And, don't totally give up on forcing obligation. As I was replying to another thread, a great idea came to me about obligations being unjustly placed upon the players as an adventure hook. Suddenly bounty hunters start showing up left and right and the players are constantly under pressure. It seems they've gained some obligation but don't know why! Now they have to either live with it (annoying, challenging, and potentially deadly) or investigate how they gained this obligation, who's really at fault, and what can they do about it. Perhaps some corrupt Imp planetary govenor is trying to cover up his incompetance by blaming you for his troubles....or maybe a group of scheming thugs realized that wherever you go, trouble follows, so they follow too and pull some heists everywhere you go. They then spread rumors that you are the guilty party and you take the heat while they get rich.

From my (limited) experience as a player - Obligation is a really good way of tracking what's important to the party right now. But it has to be interesting, and the player has to want to reduce it down to zero, which means then you need a different Obligation to keep the cycle going.

If the character in question has gained a new obligation already - either by taking on favours to resolve the original obligation, or as a consequence of unrelated actions - then it's all cool. This also encourages the taking on of new obligation to resolve old obligation - as you have to have at least obligation already, which is actually pretty cool.

For example, my character has a Bounty obligation, currently at 18. he's an escaped slave, and lupex (who is my GM, and is evil) has made it so that my character has a slave tattoo on his cheek (currently being covered up with makeup) and a malfunctioning tracking device implant (which might start working again if my obligation comes up).

I like this obligation because it's in my face - literally - and demands that I do something about it. An NPC (Maru from Long Arm of the Hutt) has offered me an opportunity to fix my problem - but it's going to cost me 10,000 credits that I don't have right now and I could very well end up owing her a favour after. So that's a real opportunity for me to convert Obligation.

However, let's say that I successfully resolve all my remaining obligations (nah, not gonna happen, but lets pretend it does.) Mechanically, I need a 5 point Obligation stick. I would suggest putting a blank 5-point obligation against the character, and defining exactly what it is when it gets activated. So when it gets rolled, my evil GM gets to stick me that session with 5 points worth of bull that I really didn't see coming.

I keep reminding my players that everything is a choice, in fact this has has become a kind of mantra at the table recently. This is also a really useful thing to remind players when the goons come knocking because they stole that old ladies speeder.

Obligation isn't there for a GM to be evil to the players ( and I don't know where my reputation comes form?) but it is a way to help create interesting stories and issues for the characters to resolve.

If we have a look at our own real lives I am sure that we have all made choices that have had unexpected consequences that we have had to resolve. For me the Family obligation has lasted over 20 years and will probably continue even when I pay a chunk off by helping my son move out.

Your reputation for being evil is completely fabricated and is my revenge on you for not giving us enough XP

(Seriously, lupex is an awesome GM. I'm still laughing over the "to do" list he sent me after I hacked Teemo's records.)

Your reputation for being evil is completely fabricated and is my revenge on you for not giving us enough XP

I told you how to get more XP, you just have to tell me how much you neeeeeeed!

I don't know, sometimes, the story leads to obligations. In my last game session, the PCs slew a group of 10 Stormtroopers (with the help of a super Assassin-droid) who were there to destroy the said droid, but they stayed to try to loot the room, while the droid, just left even saying "I wouldn't stay here, if I were you". They started searching the room. Unfortunately, more troops were on the way, and caught them. From their point of view, they just killed 10 Stormtroopers. Even though they left, there was still officers to identify them. Thus, they now have another obligation of 10 each as Criminals.

I don't think they should always be warned if their actions are requiring obligation, they should earn it, as long as it's common sense.

The way I see it:

You, as the GM, placing bounties on the heads of your players without asking them is totally fine. It's part of the story you are creating.

You, as the GM, placing bounties on the heads of your players, and increasing their obligation by 10, without asking them is not fine. The obligation increase should have been stated as a result of whatever action they wanted to take, allowing the players to determine if it is worth the cost/risk to their characters.

You, as the GM, placing bounties on the heads of your players, and increasing their obligation by 10, without asking them is not fine.

So the line you're drawing is whether the characters' Obligation score changes to reflect the changing circumstances, not whether the circumstances themselves change?

On the one hand putting bounties on their heads with no corresponding change in Obligation score helps keep them below 100, which is to the players' benefit. On the other hand, to the degree that Obligation reflects your street cred when dealing in the galactic underground ("I have the death sentence on twelve systems!"), then not tying it into the players' Obligation scores may not be to their benefit.

From another angle, tying the new bounty into the Obligation scores offers some "guidance" on how often it causes the players serious problems. Twenty points of Bounty obligation will, on average, rear its head about one session in five. A new bounty not tied to obligation, I suppose,just comes up as often as the GM wants it to, which may end up being more often than one session in five.

You, as the GM, placing bounties on the heads of your players, and increasing their obligation by 10, without asking them is not fine.

So the line you're drawing is whether the characters' Obligation score changes to reflect the changing circumstances, not whether the circumstances themselves change?

Exactly.

Obligation, in my opinion, is a player resource in terms of managing it's magnitude.

It's a GM/Player resource in that the GM can grant unusual requests for players, or allow for crazy actions, in a semi-balanced manner that could otherwise be game-breaking.

It's a GM resource in terms of the story arc and holding players to their initial Obligations in their back-story as well as any other Obligations they choose to incur.

Obligation is at it's best when you give players choices:

GM: "So Jabba the Hutt called in that personal favor you owed him after he had his best mechanics trick out your starship. He wants you to break into a vault owned by the Galactic Banking Clan and steal some credit tabs."

PC1: "Won't we get noticed?"

GM: "Jabba doesn't care if you get noticed, as long as you don't get caught. It's likely though if you do get spotted you'll end up with 10-20 criminal obligation."

PC2: "Well we could refuse, or ask him to pick another task?"

GM: "You could, but Jabba might take that personally. Do you want to go tell him that?"

PC3: "Yeah that doesn't seem safe while we're still on Tatoonie. What if we took the task, got very far away from Tatooine and just 'forgot' about the job?"

GM: "That's possible also, but you'd know that Jabba would feel betrayed and that would likely be betrayal or bounty obligation as a result."

PC1: "I have a bad feeling about this..."

Obligation is at it's best when you give players choices:

GM: "So Jabba the Hutt called in that personal favor you owed him after he had his best mechanics trick out your starship. He wants you to break into a vault owned by the Galactic Banking Clan and steal some credit tabs."

PC1: "Won't we get noticed?"

GM: "Jabba doesn't care if you get noticed, as long as you don't get caught. It's likely though if you do get spotted you'll end up with 10-20 criminal obligation."

PC2: "Well we could refuse, or ask him to pick another task?"

GM: "You could, but Jabba might take that personally. Do you want to go tell him that?"

PC3: "Yeah that doesn't seem safe while we're still on Tatoonie. What if we took the task, got very far away from Tatooine and just 'forgot' about the job?"

GM: "That's possible also, but you'd know that Jabba would feel betrayed and that would likely be betrayal or bounty obligation as a result."

PC1: "I have a bad feeling about this..."

A key part of that is the fact that the players Chose to have Jabba trick out their ship knowing full well he was going to call in a favor. Giving the players choices in what type of obligation resulted from the calling on of that favor just makes it even better.

I had a group with players obligated to two different hutts...

One was on a crime obligation - he's a "Made Man" in Sinasu's crime family.

The other had a "betrayal" obligation - he and I came to an agreement that he was a planted spy into Sinasu's organization, when Teemo learned his buddy was a major member of Sinasu's organization.

A third player was in debt to Sinasu - his working with the first PC was to pay back by doing additional side jobs. He was the ship's pilot.

Eventually, the betrayal changed to bounty, when he betrayed Teemo instead.

The Pilot defected to become the hidden apprentice of a Sith apprentice. His lifespan isn't expected to be all that long... he'd paid off his debt, so we converted the obligation from Debt to Sith...