I apologise if this has already been discussed and I've missed it; but just in case it hasn't:

Say you've been playing with a group, or have already began a game with them - then someone comes along who wants to join in. Should their base Obligation be the same as what the others had, or should it vary?

For example, I am about to run my own online EOTE game (play-by-post), and presently have five players (with a current Group Obligation of 65); I'm also receiving a few requests from others to join when I have an opening, and a sheet from a friend of mine who's keen to join either before the game kicks off, or just after it has.

I don't want to fiddle with Group Obligation if I can help it - the totals everyone has fits with their backgrounds - and so need to figure out what level of Obligation the new players should take on (if they're added at all). Would it also be 10, with the chance to increase it by a further +10? Does this make for a natural limit to the number of players you can reasonably have?

Adding in a new character that pushes the groups Obligation over 100 is a perfect excuse to have something come up and force some resolution of Obligation, so I would just have them make the character with the same amount as the previously built characters.

The rules are pretty mum on this point, making it purely a GM call.

Honestly, I'd suggest having the new players start with a base 5 Obligation if adding them in puts the group total over 5 players, particularly if they're going to be full-time members of the group. It's true they not be able to get as many bells and whistles via extra Obligation as the original group, but them's the breaks.

Alternatively, if the game hasn't started yet, reach out the original players and ask if they'd be okay with reducing the extra Obligation that they took, particularly those that took the full 10, though it looks like on average they only took +5 Obligation each. If that is the case (nobody took more than +5 Obligation), then simply recalculate the starting Obligation based on the total number of original and newly added players.

Or, as another alternative, if one or two players did take the full +10 Obligation (particularly for extra credits), just allow them to keep that +10 and make a one-time exception for those folks that you can't exceed your base Obligation. Consider it a perk for signing up for the game early, where everyone else is at the base 5 for groups of 6+ players.

I'd say you should let them have the same obligation as existing PCs. While this is technically a 'fairness issue', if the existing PCs had the option to take on 10 extra obligation then a new PC should have the same, IMO.

Reasoning behind this is simple. Stats can only be bought in chargen. Those 10 extra XP can frequently make an extra point available, For humans it allows 4 stats to be increased to 3, for non-humans, 3 to 3 and the 1 to 2, allowing the same stat array.

All good points. Thanks for the input, folks!

As it turns out, the new addition isn't keen on taking on more Obligation, anyways - meaning that his joining the group will net an end result of 75 (something that the group can deal with, at least for a while). By the time I'm ready to take on another character (one maximum, or more if the additions are there to replace players who leave the game/move away/etc), the Group Obligation will likely have fluctuated, or even lessened (if they're being prudent).

Ok, I have a similar question (sorry to hijack), I have a group of 5 players but over the past couple of sessions only 3 players have been available. What should I do about the obligation list, as obviously with only 3 players the current session obligation will be quite low.

Should I just keep the base obligation as it is, so based on 5 players?

Or should I adjust the base obligation to account for only the 3 players that are available?

Ok, I have a similar question (sorry to hijack), I have a group of 5 players but over the past couple of sessions only 3 players have been available. What should I do about the obligation list, as obviously with only 3 players the current session obligation will be quite low.

Should I just keep the base obligation as it is, so based on 5 players?

Or should I adjust the base obligation to account for only the 3 players that are available?

I'd say keep it as is, particularly since the campaign's already started. Besides, those two absentee players might decide to start showing up again, so unless they've definitely told you they're out, you'd just have to re-adjust the Obligation total yet again if they do come back into the fold.

However, that doesn't mean you as the GM can't offer the 3 remaining players some lucrative options to quickly buy down their Obligation, or even just offer to reduce the group Obligation instead of just their personal ones.

For a group that fluctuates in player size, I like the idea of a base group obligation that stays constant (at least in relation to the number of players at the table). Say you start of with a group obligation of 40. You have 5 players who take extra obligation as follows:

Player A: +10

Player B: +5

Player C: +5

Player D: +5

Player E: 0

-----------------------

Total: +25

You now have a base group obligation of 40 and 25 additional obligation for a grand total of 65.

At the beginning of the first session, it comes time to roll for obligation. To determine the obligation numbers for each player you have to divide the base group obligation by the number of players, and then add their additional obligation (Yikes, 3rd grade math!). A base obligation of 40 divided by 5 players gives you 8 obligation per player. So the player totals now look like this:

Player A: 8 +10 = 18

Player B: 8 +5 = 13

Player C: 8 +5 = 13

Player D: 8 +5 = 13

Player E: 8 +0 = 8

In the second session, there is a new guy, so you now have 6 players. Oh no! What do we do now? The new player (Player F) creates a character with 5 additional obligation. The base obligation remains 40. When it comes time to make the obligation roll, you just have to do your math as before. 40 divided by 6 is 6.666...

Wait a minute!?! There is a remainder. This is getting way too complicated!

Really, it's not. 6 goes into 40 6 times (6 x 6 = 36), which leaves a remaining 4 obligation (40 - 36 = 4). The GM can do whatever he wants with the remainder, but I recommend giving 4 players an extra obligation. If you do this, You'll have 4 players with 7 base obligation, and 2 players with 6 base obligation:

Player A: 6 +10 = 16

Player B: 6 +5 = 11

Player C: 7 +5 = 12

Player D: 7 +5 = 12

Player E: 7 +0 = 7

Player F: 7 +5 = 12

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Total: 70

Here is why I like this method: A) You can add new players without creating an extreme obligation pool. B) If a group is focused on increasing their obligation pool to deal with seedy, underworld contacts, they will not be as significantly penalized if a couple of players do not show up.

On the negative side, it does involve some additional thinking on the GM's part, but it really is simple math. You can set the base group obligation at whatever you would like to begin the campaign, and it could change as the characters get into or out of trouble; however, with this method, it would not change by adding or removing players from the game.

Ok, I have a similar question (sorry to hijack), I have a group of 5 players but over the past couple of sessions only 3 players have been available. What should I do about the obligation list, as obviously with only 3 players the current session obligation will be quite low.

Should I just keep the base obligation as it is, so based on 5 players?

Or should I adjust the base obligation to account for only the 3 players that are available?

I think I'd adjust the obligation so that it only accounted for the characters who showed up, plus any party obligation.

For example, if you had four players with 10 pts of obligation each and a party obligation of 5 pts, but only two of the four players showed up, I'd go with a total obligation of 25 and roll on that. It'd require the GM to alter the Obligation chart for that session, but that should be easy enough to fix.

So if your full group looked like:

Player 1 1-10

Player 2 11-20

Player 3 21-30

Player 4 31-40

Group 41-45

Then the adjusted table for the smaller crew would look like:

Player 1 1-10

Player 2 11-20

Group 21-25

That way you don't have to worry about rolling an Obligation result for a player that didn't make the session.