I'm looking for way my players can affect their obligation scores and what I can throw into the game when their number comes up. Increasing or decreasing their score should be a voluntary option. I want this to be sort of a spotlight thing specific to each character, but regular means will still be available; a criminal can still increase their score by doing illicit things, even when that character's Obligation isn't a concern that session.

Criminal: Player isn't allowed in the Core Worlds. We haven't gone into why, but the Empire would love to have this player in their custody.

• When triggered: If the setting allows and the player isn't on a core world, stormtroopers will show up in the session and make it tough for the character to do things.
• Increasing OB: I'd say attacking stormtroopers would increase Obligation, but what I really need is another option since I expect that the player will never voluntarily choose to attack the Empire and if I put the player in a position where they have to attack, then it isn't an option.
• Decreasing OB: Uhh... yeah, I don't know. Bribing an official?

Obsession: Player wanted to have an obsession about finding secrets, but that's really more of a motivation. I'm going to suggest the player has an obsession about one, specific secret.

• When triggered: Something pertaining to the secret reveals itself, like a clue, or a lead.
• Increasing OB: Choosing to ignore the lead, or not following up on the secret.
• Decreasing OB: Making headway toward the secret, finding another piece of the puzzle.

Oath: Player is force-sensitive and has a sense of honor. Player hasn't gone into anymore detail.

• When triggered: Pff... Give them some sort of moral dilemma??
• Increasing OB: Uhh, choosing to break their sense of honor??? I can't see how that's a choice, really.
• Deceasing OB: Maintaining that sense of honor???? Early on, the party came across a dead Jedi and I gave the player a drop in Obligation because the player took the time to carry the body and bury the Jedi, which delayed the party during an adventure.

Betrayal: The player hasn't decided what exactly happened, but the player is the betrayer. I made the player part of a gang before joining the group.

• When triggered: similar to the criminal, they player's old gang shows up. I've decided that I'll roll a d10 and use that to determine if the gang is a group of minions or if a rival sows up also.
• Increasing OB: Umm, maybe killing the rival?
• Decreasing OB: I was thinking killing all the minions would reduce Obligation some because after a while, it's just not worth sending people to get this player.

So that's everything I have so far. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I get where you are coming from, but I don't think it'll work in the fly the way you think it will. Instead of rolling at the begining of the session have you considered rolling the obligation check at the end of a session and applying it to the following session? That way you have time to tailor it to the adventure at hand instead of trying to shoehorn it in.

I'm looking for way my players can affect their obligation scores and what I can throw into the game when their number comes up. Increasing or decreasing their score should be a voluntary option. I want this to be sort of a spotlight thing specific to each character, but regular means will still be available; a criminal can still increase their score by doing illicit things, even when that character's Obligation isn't a concern that session.

Criminal: Player isn't allowed in the Core Worlds. We haven't gone into why, but the Empire would love to have this player in their custody.

• When triggered: If the setting allows and the player isn't on a core world, stormtroopers will show up in the session and make it tough for the character to do things.
• Increasing OB: I'd say attacking stormtroopers would increase Obligation, but what I really need is another option since I expect that the player will never voluntarily choose to attack the Empire and if I put the player in a position where they have to attack, then it isn't an option.
• Decreasing OB: Uhh... yeah, I don't know. Bribing an official?

Obsession: Player wanted to have an obsession about finding secrets, but that's really more of a motivation. I'm going to suggest the player has an obsession about one, specific secret.

• When triggered: Something pertaining to the secret reveals itself, like a clue, or a lead.
• Increasing OB: Choosing to ignore the lead, or not following up on the secret.
• Decreasing OB: Making headway toward the secret, finding another piece of the puzzle.

Oath: Player is force-sensitive and has a sense of honor. Player hasn't gone into anymore detail.

• When triggered: Pff... Give them some sort of moral dilemma??
• Increasing OB: Uhh, choosing to break their sense of honor??? I can't see how that's a choice, really.
• Deceasing OB: Maintaining that sense of honor???? Early on, the party came across a dead Jedi and I gave the player a drop in Obligation because the player took the time to carry the body and bury the Jedi, which delayed the party during an adventure.

Betrayal: The player hasn't decided what exactly happened, but the player is the betrayer. I made the player part of a gang before joining the group.

• When triggered: similar to the criminal, they player's old gang shows up. I've decided that I'll roll a d10 and use that to determine if the gang is a group of minions or if a rival sows up also.
• Increasing OB: Umm, maybe killing the rival?
• Decreasing OB: I was thinking killing all the minions would reduce Obligation some because after a while, it's just not worth sending people to get this player.

So that's everything I have so far. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Criminal Stormtroopers or an Imperial officer confront or capture the player and/or his allies, and have them offer him a choice: help with something, or suffer consequences. Maybe they want to utilize his connections, or his skills, to gain some information, recover some item, infiltrate an organization, find someone, kill someone, or destroy something. Maybe something like undermining a local resistance group. If he agrees, and performs the task, Obligation is reduced and the heat on him is lessened (maybe he gets a free pass the next time he runs into Imperial "entanglements," or is given some limited access to the Core Worlds again, or the Imperials do him some favor...maybe muscling out a competitor, or bestowing some gift upon him, or credits), but if he fights with them, refuses, or somehow betrays them, Obligation is increased, which may mean they imprison or torture one of his friends/allies, or the heat gets turned up and a bounty is taken out on him. Or they could start making it more difficult for him to do business, or impound his ship.

Alternatively, or in addition, some other person or group could seek this character's help with the same thing as the Imperials, but to different ends. It doesn't matter who is approached by first--whether Imperials that waylay him after a meeting with a customer/friend/contact/whatever, or someone approaches him saying, "I know the Imperials want you to do X, but I'll offer you <prize Y> to do it for me." Now they have a choice between maybe making some credits, or doing something good (helping some wookie escapees get off-planet instead of capturing and delivering them into the hands of the Imperials that they had been enslaved to, for example) instead of dealing with Obligation.

Obsession Hmm...have the process of obtaining the lead or secret be in direct conflict with whatever the goals are for the rest of the group at the moment--maybe everyone signs onto some job looking for a big score, while he backs a backroom deal to instead gain some important lead in place of their agreed-upon reward; he reduces Obligation by increasing tension within the party, or he has to choose between doing something he doesn't want to (maybe the only way to obtain the information is by killing someone, or stealing something).

I think it's important for you to figure out what this secret is, and why he needs to uncover it. Having it simply be some nebulous thing isn;t going to be helpful from a story perspective. Is he doing this for himself? Someone else? Why? What's so important about it? Why is it secret? What risk is there in uncovering the truth here? Who wants it kept secret, or does it somehow protect itself? Is it dangerous in and of itself, or only to some people?

Oath If it is a Jedi-like oath, put him in situations where adhering to that oath is difficult or even detrimental in some ways. Maybe it means knocking aside his ally's blaster just before his friend would have killed some surrendered enemy of there, thereby allowing him to escape (preservation of life), but that means this foe is going to still be out there somewhere. Or, if they use the Force, put them in a situation where they need to make that Force power check, and may have to use the dark side pips to succeed (some object is falling and will kill someone unless they succeed on a Move check...maybe they roll well, and maybe they find they are forced to use those black dots). Maybe the group enters into a deal with a loathsome character who asks them to accomplish some vile task, and he is faced with the decision of having to complete this task, or do the right thing. Going back to the earlier wookie example, maybe the Empire wants these escaped wookies captured and returned to them, while this character feels that they should be free and strives to do that. In this case, you've got competing Obligations...decreasing one would result in increasing the other.

In the game in which I'm playing a Jedi Initiate, my Obligation came up as a heated discussion between myself some Empire-sympathizing party members who have bought into all of the Imperial propaganda about the Jedi trying to overthrow the Republic and generally being bad guys, where I was trying to explain to them how wrong their views were, and trying to show them some of the enlightenment that I felt within the Force...without revealing that I am a Jedi.

Betrayal For decreasing this Obligation, the person he betrayed could come after him, and they could somehow end up in a situation where the player has the chance to help or save the person they betrayed in some way...maybe not enough to erase the old enmity, but enough to buy a reprieve ("I'll let you live this time, but only because you saved my little girl."). For increasing it, the player may betray them again. Maybe two different parties approach the player to retrieve some item for them--one of the parties is the one betrayed. They need the player's help to recover this item for some reason (something important to them), but the other party is offering some significant reward...credits, or a new ship, an important favor, etc...and the player realizes that his "old buddy" could be helpful to have along, but then turns the item over to the opposing faction, enacting another betrayal.

I think it's important to have a clearer idea of what has lead to some of these obligations.

I get where you are coming from, but I don't think it'll work in the fly the way you think it will. Instead of rolling at the begining of the session have you considered rolling the obligation check at the end of a session and applying it to the following session? That way you have time to tailor it to the adventure at hand instead of trying to shoehorn it in.

This is a valid approach.

The other is to either have ways each one can be brought up in game, or just simply do what the book says: if it can't be brought up, then it's a concern of the party member(s) in question.

With the options you have, you may be too limiting on the group by having an "always on" situation.

If it helps, here's what has happened so far with my group:

The one with criminal has only come up once. As it didn't make sense for the session it occurred, he spend the session being worried that he would be noticed by the next patrol he'd run into. . .or that he would get caught when flying through a backwater.

When it doesn't come up on a roll, the player is always careful around anyone that could possibly know of his record. He's always watching to make sure that he doesn't do anything too overt to get arrested. . .again.

The player isn't certain how he wants to get out of it just yet, but so far he's enjoying the notoriety.

The guy with blackmail has also only had to deal with his obligation coming up once. Again, they were around a backwater with no signs of any "intelligent" life nearby, so there was nothing that really came up. He spent the session being worried that he would get a "call" regarding a "favor" that would be owed. . .

When this one doesn't come up, he's always waiting for that call or that meeting when the blackmail will crop up over his head. He's always on the lookout for anyone that may know that secret, and he's always, ALWAYS careful to ensure that no one really knows that he's done to cause it.

His goal is to eventually remove anything relating to this blackmail, whether it is evidence or "personal testimony."

One player has an addiction on the feeling of throwing a party and the joy others have (he's a Zelton). When it rolled up, he was jonesing for a party. The first chance he had, he went into a bar and started up a party. Simple as that.

When it doesn't come up, he's usually commenting on wanting a party and plotting the next one. The player has NO interest in reducing the obligation, so he doesn't plan on doing any sort of rehab.

The mechanic has an obsession with droids. Every chance she has, she's trying to steal a droid, even when it DOESN'T come up on a roll. When it does, though, she takes EVERY risk possible to take any droid that catches her eye, even if it is in a battlefield or a rich lord's manor.

Reductions occur when she has "enough" droids to keep her busy for a while. After the last session when she "recovered" two functional droids, a bunch of parts, and two heavily damaged droids to rebuild, she's getting a few points taken off.

The last one has an oath to the brotherhood he used to belong to. When it came up, he took every risk, even if it included getting himself arrested and the party ship impounded, to help those he believes belong to the same group.

When it doesn't come up, he's always looking for a chance to act on it, as it is a deep-seated belief of his.

Essentially, Obligations can be mechanical-only, but they are a GREAT roleplaying tool. I find your approach to be too restrictive for my tastes, but it might work best for your group.

Just my two credits into the mix here.

Criminal:

For triggered, how about getting picked up by local authorities? Having his face show up during a holovid broadcast of "The Empire's Most Wanted" in the corner of the cantina during a tense negotiation? Getting noticed at spaceport customs? Negotiations going sour when the other side realizes who they are and says "You're too hot to touch"?

As far as increasing the obligation, the obvious one would be: commit another crime. Either repeating the same thing that got him nicked in the first place or another all new crime against the state.

For decreasing, how about chasing down the one-armed man to help prove his innocence? Or, if not innocent, framing someone for the job? Working with the Empire in a "You do this for us and we'll commute some of your sentence" like the A-Team did in season 5? Borrowing a page from Lupin the 3rd and stealing all his records - no record = clean slate.

Obsession

This one sounds pretty good. Tough to come up with specifics without knowing more about the details.

Oath:

Oh this one could be fun. Here, try this game idea: community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/96708-a-memorable-journey-need-ideas/#entry954508

Beyond that, yeah - go to town with problems that are running directly counter to the group's goals. They need to deal with this Hutt, he wants to try and buy that Hutt's slave. Someone slandering his name? He starts a bar fight that gets the attention of the local authorities (oh no! Criminal is now on the authorities radar! "Thanks a lot, idiot"). He refuses to move a cargo that runs counter to his honor - but the crew have already accepted the job and have been paid, and Black Sun doesn't do Backsies!

Betrayal:

My GM did this to me. The group goes to great effort to save someone's kid brother, that someone was vital to the organization they were in at the time. We spend weeks game time (and several sessions) extracting this kid brother, get back to the home base, tell our boss "Here we go! We got him!" - only to find out that the vital person we were doing this for was the person who had betrayed my character years ago (and caused him endless torment as a result). The group dynamic after that was. . . interesting, as everyone stopped my psychotically murderous gunman from doing something dumb and suicidal.

Brilliant, brilliant devious game from the GM - that one was quite the memorable one. And that's something that could easily be adapted to other circumstances.

I should be able to use most of this. Thanks a lot. :-)