We have our second 'real' game tomorrow with everyone still psyched. Yay! And a friend coming to the UK in October from the US to guest-star in the game!

However, I'm still not happy with Obligation as it stands in the rules. To the degree that I'm presently ignoring the mechanics and just using it as a story hook. The players like the concept, but hate the mechanics of it.

My main issue with Obligation is that it seems to really be two different things. One, debts or favours owed to a third party, and two, internal motivations. I feel that quite a few of the 'Obligations' really belong in the 'Motivation' section.

This confused aspect becomes apparent when they start talking about how Obligation affects your standing with the underworld and legitimate NPCs. Which seems cool, until it immediately starts falling down when they admit that some Obligations have this effect, and other's don't.

It feels contradictory and ill-fitting to me. It almost feels as if you're 'supposed' to owe debts to a Hutt or something, then they chucked in these motivational ones when they didn't really fit the concept.

And how are 'motivational obligations' reduced then?

It doesn't help that the four core PCs ALL have motivational obligations.

BeeDee, our *cough* 'protocol' droid has Responsibility to uphold droid rights.

Cynn, our ship's captain also has Responsibility as den-mother to the Mynocks, a bunch of orphans at the starport.

Chakk, the wookiee, is Dutybound as a captain in the wookiee equivalent of the Marines, and his life debt to the smuggler is kind of getting in the way of his responsibilities to his people.

Jenova has Family obligation, as she's a runaway from a noble family who is developing latent Force powers. She is concerned for the safety of her Senator dad and flighty best friend.

This is all great for me when I'm using it as story threads, but I'm not sure how these 'motivational obligations' can be reduced.

Let's take an example - a smuggler has debt to a Hutt, and completes a mission in which part of his reward is reducing his obligation a bit. We can see his patron is therefore reducing his debt to the big slug.

But how does a patron reduce the obligation of the PCs mentioned above? He pays for therapy so they just care a lot less about the downtrodden droids, stowaway brats, inconvenient next-of-kin or oppressed walking rugs? So BeeDee says: 'Wow, to think I used to care about those stupid droids! Now I hardly give a ****!'

Or is does this 'reducing obligation' take the form of, say, extra protection or something? Jen does a mission for a crimelord, who sends some hired guns to keep an eye on her dad or her friend. Cynn does a favour for the Spaceport and they hire an official to look after the kids a bit, so she worries about them less when she's shadowrunning?

Thoughts?

Obligation is something that your tied too emotionally either willfully or against your will. So when your obligation triggers, your stressed out about it. When someone else's triggers, there stress makes you think about what your responsible for and causes you to be a little frazzled as well. So yes, I'd say its perfectly acceptable if you're rewarding your players with a 5 reduction in obligation that it takes on that sort of bent you mentioned with regards to the Hutt providing armed guards.

So for your captains situation, maybe her reduction is there's X number of the little scamps and someone finds a home for 3 of them thus reducing the burden on her mind and giving her less mouths to feed, quite literally. If she ever reduces it to zero, she's found a place for the Mynocks to grow up and be cared for and she should feel good about herself for it.

Your droid who promotes droid rights, someone starts a political campaign in a system you frequent, maybe the one he's from, championing the cause and pushing the envelope, thus giving him peace of mind... or processor I guess. If somehow he gains more obligation, the campaign backfires and the situation is made progressively worse.

They are story hooks yes and the mechanic presents itself as a means of showing what weighs on the character's mind and drives him to distraction. He owes 50,000 credits to Jabba the Hutt. Ya he owes 50,000 credits, that's not what weighs him down mentally, its the fact that Jabba could call the loan due partially or in full at any time.

So with that example Jabba sends an enforcer out to get a partial payment. You blow him off/run/shoot him when he does and this ups the obligation with jabba, not the amount, and the next time it triggers you hear at the cantina you frequent that a guy came in asking about you and they said he was named something Fett saying you owe someone serious some money.

I actually think Strain is an awesome mechanic in game, not many games model mental stress accurately. In a game world we're oppression is everywhere and you're living on the fringe of society it is not all cupcakes and roses and obligation is a reminder of that.

The patron for whatever job you're on wouldn't necessarily have to pay down a PC's debt directly. It could be as simple as the group getting 5000 creds from a job and deciding to hire security for Jen's family or the little Mynocks.

I can definitely see how the underworld mechanics might not obviously work for your particular group, as they don't seem to be the "scum and villainy" types, but here's a few ideas that might steer them in that direction (if that's what they're looking for):

Maybe BeeDee would consider affiliating with a Droid Rights group. It lends specificity to her obligation, rather than a general motivation and provides someone to call her up when her obligation triggers. This group would be, at the very least, a bunch of rabble-rousers, and at worst, outright terrorists. This known affiliation would then affect interactions with various lawful and lawless groups across the galaxy.

Chakk might be in a similar boat. His people are probably engaged in anti-slavery activities, which would be inherently anti-empire. And if he's an officer among their ranks, that might impact others' perception of him.

Cynn might be struggling to keep the Mynocks away from local criminals, who are always looking to hire little eyes and ears at the spaceport. Perhaps she's even made a devil's bargain with some of these criminals to keep them away. Now she's a known affiliate to these local crimelords.

And as far as Jen's dad and friend, maybe they somehow get entangled with the criminal element in some way or other, and Jen feels compelled to try and get them out.

I think, like you mentioned, the intent is to use obligation to drag the characters into the criminal underworld. Some of these choices take a little extra effort than the straightforward Criminal/Bounty/Debt ones, but I think these unconventional ones are also more dramatic.

That all makes a lot more sense.

Thank you, it was something I was having difficulty getting my head around.

I'll make some suggestions for when we hit the table tomorrow, maybe see how the random roll works out.

I think, like you mentioned, the intent is to use obligation to drag the characters into the criminal underworld. Some of these choices take a little extra effort than the straightforward Criminal/Bounty/Debt ones, but I think these unconventional ones are also more dramatic.

Those suggestions are all awesome. Wish I could 'like' it twice!

The characters are likeable scoundrels (except Chakk, he's a pretty serious guy) rather than heroes or criminals. Jen couldn't care less about the Jedi, thinks her Force powers are awesome, and loves the thrill of living life on the edge after her restrictive upbringing. She's also a decent human being, but still a thrill-seeker.

As you say, they may well get dragged into shady situations regardless, and using their Obligations seems a good way to do that.

Reducing obligation doesn't have to be tied to credits either. I think the mynock adoption scheme that messy laid out is a great example of how one can reduce obligation without literally "paying it off". It could also be tied to the ideas of "life catching up to you" and "paying it forward".

For example, your Wookiee character might feel like his obligation has been too high for a while, it's come up twice and he really isn't feeling the two strain reduction he has going on all the time. Maybe this strain is a result of him hearing of unsuccessful battles against the Imperials back on Kashyyyk. He knows that he could help, but can't and that is nagging on him.

As a result, he chooses to find a way to help from afar. Allow the crew a chance to run guns into Kashyyyk to support the Wookiees. Maybe he gets the chance to return and help in a pivotal mission. Perhaps he learns some valuable information that he can forward to his comrades. All of these would lower his obligation. On the other hand, he may run into a slaver carrying Wookiees and, for some reason, be unable to help because it would require sacrificing some other benefit to him or the party. This would raise his obligation, reflecting the guilt and increased mental anguish he suffers because he neglected his duty, but as a result he received the chance at better credits, equipment, or experience.

Regardless, his "Dutybound" obligation is never going away. Actually, per the rules every character must always maintain a minimum obligation of 5, I believe. But by forcing your characters to make sacrifices, either moral or monetary, to achieve their goals, you keep the pressure on and the story moving.

My main issue with Obligation is that it seems to really be two different things. One, debts or favours owed to a third party, and two, internal motivations. I feel that quite a few of the 'Obligations' really belong in the 'Motivation' section.

The main convention of obligations which separates them from other mechanical aspects of the game is that they are inherently a purely narrative system outside of the minor effect of strain. As such its just part of the GM's toolset to create more vibrant narratives, while also filling out backgrounds for the characters to ensure they fit into the theme of Edge of the Empire.

The word obligation however is a definitive term, its intention as is its definition and description in the book is all about debt and regardless of which obligation you select, the narrative for that backdrop should be debt.

Responsibility for example is about a connection to some aspect of their life that takes precedence. This however is a debt that must be paid and as a GM when this obligation comes up you must create a scenario in which it feels like a debt.

I agree with you that its tougher on the GM with some of these obligations that are less definitively related to debt like say being a criminal or having a bounty... or an actual economic debt. But as long as you view it through the "debt" goggles if you will, weaving the narrative is just a matter of working it out in your head. In essence its a kind of internal railroading of the story so that your characters end up where you want them to, but its justified as the players earn benefits from taking on obligations.

In the responsibility scenario, lets use the books example.. responsibility to care for Orphans. How do you turn that into a debt? One might create a scenario where Orphans where captured by slave traders and are sold off to a local crime lord that uses them for his operation, an operation the players have been hired to stop (aka the adventure your currently on). Suddenly part of the adventure includes rescuing the Orphans which causes strain and offers an opportunity to pay off the debt by successfully rescuing them. If they fail to do it, they fail their responsibility and that debt my morph into a new narrative. Later for example the Orphans take over the criminal empire of their former employer and create an even worse situation. Now the debt is stopping the Orphans from building a new slave trade, perhaps one worse then before. You keep harassing them with those Orphans until they deal with it.

One thing to keep in mind too is that players with obligations are not obligated by to pay them back in the strictest sense. Another words they can ignore their obligations and simply deal with them when they come up. This is why part of the reason is to constantly set players up for the necessity to gain more obligations. You want to put them in situations where they gain tempting benefits by taking on more obligations, but as they do, their score rises and the effects become more frequent and more severe until they reach a boiling point and stop advancing all together. Players under pressure and temptation like that will always work towards eliminating obligations so that they can make room for new ones that help them in their endeavors.

This ties into Edge of Empires theme of "keep them wanting" which is why, (I think have I said this on a number of occasions now), this is a game where no matter what the players try to do, it should be an adventure not a transaction. Think about Episode 1 where Skywalker and Jinn need to a new warp core thingie..: they walk into a shop, they have plenty of Republic credits and the shop keep has the part... was it an easy transaction? Of course not, it took half the movie to resolve a series of scenes including negotiations, meeting NPC's, getting involved in a pod race...

Make everything an adventure and when the players need something that you don't want to make an adventure, make it an obligation instead.

Obligation also provides a type of status for the group. Like if it gets too low, the underworld doesn't trust them/hasn't heard of them, thus making it harder, or even impossible, to get the black market items, or ship upgrades, or bounties, etc... they so desperately want.

On the reverse side, if obligation gets too high, the players become a target. Rivals, their own bosses, and even cops, are actively pursuing them. They are hot, or made, or whatever, giving you, the GM, a great story arc. Something happens that kicks in the fight or flight response, muting everything (leveling) unrelated to the stimulus. I think of it like working for the Sopranos, and you just got Tony’s undivided attention.

You don't even have to use obligation as intended, there are a number of ways to rename/rework it to something that’s a better fit for your story arc. One of my campaigns I have going is really just using EtoE as a shell for a star wars homesteading game. It has nothing to do with gangsters, hutts, etc… and everything to do with establishing a colony on a new world. Obligation was reworked into resources for survival. They can become woefully deficient, or massively abundant. The campaign concept was built around Terra Nova, without the dinosaurs. The ship that brought them there is kaput, no one knows where they are, etc… In other words they are not going anywhere any time soon.

Obligation does a number of good things, like “encouraging” the players to take some dangerous jobs, ones they wouldn't ordinarily consider, due to safety risks. The ones where all the good adventures, and retold stories, take place. It rids one’s game of procrastination, as once the players see what happens with an extreme end of the spectrum, players actually try, very hard, to mitigate that from happening again.

In truth the core book doesn't do the best job of explaining the intent of it. I would encourage you to read a few of the adventures; the Black Sun freebie was a great source, and look at how obligation brings a story to life, how it makes the world more an entity unto itself. That's where I was hooked, I didn’t care for it at first, but mostly because I just saw it as more clunk. Once I understood how it worked on a world level, it connected things for me. Reading it in action provided a much better topography to the intent.

Or is does this 'reducing obligation' take the form of, say, extra protection or something? Jen does a mission for a crimelord, who sends some hired guns to keep an eye on her dad or her friend. Cynn does a favour for the Spaceport and they hire an official to look after the kids a bit, so she worries about them less when she's shadowrunning?

Yeah, I would go with situational reduction in the obligation. Like, for example, the droid manages to set up a safe haven for his fellow automata and establishes an underground railroad to the Droid Freeport - I would take some serious obligation off for that one. Will he ever bring droid rights to the universe? Probably not - but every little bit helps.

Same thing with the orphans - a stable environment, a cash flow to provide for education and necessities, a responsible guardian would take a bite out of that Obligation.

I dont have anything for the Wook (would need more details on his situation), but as far as the Princess on the run - perhaps making good with the family back home somehow? If she can ever come to terms with whatever caused her to run away, I'd cancel out some of that Obligation.