I understand that it plays a role in the characters story and motive. Here's what I don't get:

How do you get the Obligation? I know you can choose or roll a d100, but other things confuse me. Table 2-2 mentions team Obligation. Having read it now, it seems that it's dividing team Obligation. But where did the team Obligation come from? If Pash has Favor, then why does the team Obligation only go up to 45, when Favor is at least 65?

Another thing I noticed is, how do you get rid of Obligation in game play? How much do you get rid of each session, and how does it effect the team Obligation when that character has gotten rid of his?

You're looking at it completely wrong. Table 2-1's d100 roll has nothing to do with the the obligation value. The d100 simply randomly determines which obligation type you choose. Here's how to use Table 2-1: First, roll 1d100. Let's say you got 89, Responsibility. Okay. That's your obligation type. From now on, ignore that d100 roll.

Obligation Types do not inherently have a value fixed on them. Favor is not higher in obligation than family. They are all the same. Now, obligations DO have numerical values fixed to them, but these are assigned later in Table 2-2. With that said, you should reread the entire obligation section again to make sense of it.

Yeah, you really need to read the book, its in there.

The jist is this:

You select an obligation type, if you can't or don't want to decide you can roll a die and let fate choose the obligation for you.

Every player character starts with the same individual obligation number, this represents how they got their starting gear, experience, and ship.

At the time of character creation the players may take additional obligation and get a set amount of bonus starting xp, credits, or a mix of both depending on the amount of extra obligation they take. The amount of additional obligation they can take is based on the group size and how screwed the gm is willing to let the players be.

Group obligation is the total of all player obligation. (So if you have a group of three players with 10 on each, they have a total of 30, with player a being 1-10, player b 11-20, and c 21-30) At the start of each session you roll a d100 and compare it to that total to determine if a players obligation activates, causing a debuff to the group. This roll may also "crit" and cause a worse then usual debuff. The gm is also encouraged to weave the obligation into the story of each adventure (so those bounty hunters in act 2 show up because of Steve's obligation:debt activating)

If the players total group obligation is 100, they suffer an additional, and rather nasty debuff.

Players can reduce (be never eliminate)their obligation through either the payment of credits, or through story related actions (so if you've got obligation: family, the gm might allow you to reduce your obligation as a reward for completing an adventure to rescue weird uncle wally from jabba the hutts bounty hunters)

Players can also gain obligation, either voluntarily to gain some kind of in game advantage, or involuntary by doing something really stupid.

Right! Thank you. You're correct, the information is all there but I guess I'm too stupid to make sense of it. I forget that a lot of the game mechanics revolve around the ability to create stories off the top of your head, so this will be challenging for me.

I forget that a lot of the game mechanics revolve around the ability to create stories off the top of your head, so this will be challenging for me.

Actually no, but I can understand why you'd think so.

Obligation doesn't have to be physically represented in every adventure it pops into, it can just be used as a measure of the players obligations stressing the out,they are just so busy thinking about their personal problems they can't give 100%. The physical manifestation of bounty hunters is just the most dramatic example.

Obligation really does two things:

1) it gives the gm something to work with. Even though Clyde's obligation might be the one that triggered, it can be Steve's weird uncle Wally that's the quest giver, and the quest can be about Steve and Wally. Its just a way to add a more personal flavor to things instead of some random guy recruiting the players out of the local cantina.

2) its a resource for the players to use. If the players find themselves in a jam they can't get out of, taking obligation can be a fix. Ship broken on a backwater and the players don't have part? For 10 points of obligation he can "know a guy" that happens to be doing something near by and will probably help. The players need to assault a gun runners warehouse but don't have the credits for heavy blasters? 10 points of debt will get them a light repeating blaster from their patron crimelord. This next con require a medical speeder and EMT uniforms? 5 points of obligation can take care of that.

Got a question of my own to tag onto this discussion. Do you guys make some Obligation acquisition 'invisible' or 'unknown'? I ask this because I am in two minds about warning players about Obligation. Say for example they want to steal an imperial shuttle or loot a stormtroopers corpse for his E11 blaster, should I do one of the following:

A) Warn the player(s) that by stealing the shuttle/blaster they will take on 10 points of the Criminal Obligation.

B) Don't mention it to the player until they definitively decide that they take the shuttle/blaster and then say. "By doing this you have taken on 10 points of Criminal Obligation, please make note of that."

C) Don't ever mention the Obligation they have gained until a consequence of that Obligation turns up. So you roll for Obligation and the Criminal Obligation comes up. Partway through the adventure, a stormtrooper or imperial officer notices the player has an E-11 blaster and attempts to detain the player(s) because of it.

Got a question of my own to tag onto this discussion. Do you guys make some Obligation acquisition 'invisible' or 'unknown'? I ask this because I am in two minds about warning players about Obligation. Say for example they want to steal an imperial shuttle or loot a stormtroopers corpse for his E11 blaster, should I do one of the following:

A) Warn the player(s) that by stealing the shuttle/blaster they will take on 10 points of the Criminal Obligation.

B) Don't mention it to the player until they definitively decide that they take the shuttle/blaster and then say. "By doing this you have taken on 10 points of Criminal Obligation, please make note of that."

C) Don't ever mention the Obligation they have gained until a consequence of that Obligation turns up. So you roll for Obligation and the Criminal Obligation comes up. Partway through the adventure, a stormtrooper or imperial officer notices the player has an E-11 blaster and attempts to detain the player(s) because of it.

That depends on your players. If this is their first rodeo, ease up. If you want to go hardcore about it, first, make sure they choose more than one source of obligation when they roll their character, but just split the obligation value into two (so they've got like a 5 and a 5 instead of a 10 for instance). Then, do your C option. At the start of the game, you can just tell a player "an obligation of yours has come up", but don't tell them which, so it could be one of their two, or the new criminal obligation. You sort of have to tell the player at the start of the session, because he needs to take his strain penalty at the start as well, although I suppose you could just have the strain penalty surprise him, but that would be pretty harsh.

I understand that it plays a role in the characters story and motive. Here's what I don't get:

How do you get the Obligation? I know you can choose or roll a d100, but other things confuse me. Table 2-2 mentions team Obligation. Having read it now, it seems that it's dividing team Obligation. But where did the team Obligation come from? If Pash has Favor, then why does the team Obligation only go up to 45, when Favor is at least 65?

Another thing I noticed is, how do you get rid of Obligation in game play? How much do you get rid of each session, and how does it effect the team Obligation when that character has gotten rid of his?

I treat obligation as the characters primary debt. I use the obligation mechanic as a tool to police the characters if they perform acts that are inhumane or when they purposely go against the goals of their assignment. This keeps the players from being too evil..

One way I describe the difference between Obligation and Motivation to my players is with an example: Obligation is an external force that affects the characters from without. Motivation is an internal force that drives them.

A Family Obligation could be a deadbeat brother who shows up at your door with gangsters on his tail needing your help. You're now implicated by the gangsters and one way or another you have to deal with it.

A Family Motivation could be a brother whose side you fly to when you learn that he's in trouble with gangsters. You'll help him out because he's important to you, regardless of how hard it is.

If it's a Family Obligation with a value of 5, it might represent a brother who shows up at your door trying to borrow 500 credits to pay off a loan shark.

If it's a Family Obligation with a value of 15, it might represent your brother who shows up at the door with the gangsters literally standing right behind him with heavy blaster rifles.

It represents Han Solo's debt to Jabba the Hutt, which keeps interfering with his life from the moment we first meet him in A New Hope until Jabba is dead in Return of the Jedi. It makes it harder for the Rebels to find a secret base while he's around, it makes it dangerous for people to be his friends.

You put together a chart before the game starts with the Obligations of each character, then you roll on that chart to see whether they come up for that session.

Got a question of my own to tag onto this discussion. Do you guys make some Obligation acquisition 'invisible' or 'unknown'? I ask this because I am in two minds about warning players about Obligation. Say for example they want to steal an imperial shuttle or loot a stormtroopers corpse for his E11 blaster, should I do one of the following:

A) Warn the player(s) that by stealing the shuttle/blaster they will take on 10 points of the Criminal Obligation.

B) Don't mention it to the player until they definitively decide that they take the shuttle/blaster and then say. "By doing this you have taken on 10 points of Criminal Obligation, please make note of that."

C) Don't ever mention the Obligation they have gained until a consequence of that Obligation turns up. So you roll for Obligation and the Criminal Obligation comes up. Partway through the adventure, a stormtrooper or imperial officer notices the player has an E-11 blaster and attempts to detain the player(s) because of it.

This hasn't come up yet in our new campaign, but I plan to deal with it by being upfront with the players before it happens. I would choose (A), warning the players that the action they're about to take will gain them some benefit but also increase their Obligation.

Got a question of my own to tag onto this discussion. Do you guys make some Obligation acquisition 'invisible' or 'unknown'?

Secret obligation damages the obligation as a resource mechanic and the function of stress its supposed to represent. Once you start having players with Duty an Destiny instead of obligation you'll see why obligation needs to be something the player can manage, monitor, and control. Its almost like asking if you should keep the number of credits on hand a secret...

And you don't need obligation:criminal to have the empire on your butt, the obligation just means that deep down it bothers you. Luke Skywalker was a wanted man, but he never lost any sleep over it.

Many criminals exist without the Criminal Obligation, not everyone with a bounty on them has the Bounty Obligation, not everyone with family has the Family Obligation, etc.

Obligation is for character-relevant lingering commitments.

Team obligation is the sum of all the players obligations added together. They are separated, per character I.E. 1-20 is guy 1, 21-30 is gal 2, etc... but they all add together.

How they get obligation, well starting obligation is back story. Who are you indebted to and why. They give you the bare bones of it. the player comes up with how that all fits his character. For instance, a hutt could have his sister working as a dancer above his wampa pit. If the character fails to fulfill his contract, well BAM the wampa is fed. This is to explain why a Dr., an otherwise non-adventurous type, or a person whose morals would normally conflict with those of a criminal organizations, have come to work with assassins, hackers, and other ne'er-do-wells.

Obligation should be a revolving door. The characters actions, in game, should lead to obligation, or negate from it. You're doing a job for Jabba. Get it done and he knocks off 5 points. Fail to do it, or steal the loot you find while doing it, and he adds 5 (or more) points. Keep in mind that these "contracts" are being written by underworld bosses, they are never in the players favor. It's like using a wish in D&D, there is never a more important time to mind your Ps and Qs, literally.

In addition, especially early in the game when the characters don't have much to start with, obligation can be as simple as "we need fuel for the ship".... "ok, I'll fill it for you, but you owe me" In situations like this, I highly encourage you to stick with the obligation, otherwise you end up giving a lot away, that should be earned. This stands for added obligation at character start too. Anything they are taking on for a favor, be it physical, or adventure related.

The obligation roll is for you, the GM, to have a basis for an "on the fly" adventure run-off. If you roll the bounty hunters obligation, and you have them going to an IMP prison to free someone, put a contract on one of the guards they are going to run into. It can be as easy, or difficult, as you (the GM), choose. I usually don't stray too far from the adventure with mine, as my characters like to get in a bit too much detail with things, which leads to a side adventure becoming a mini-campaign all it's own. That's fine too, but I tend to like getting one thing done before branching into the next.

In most cases, you don't even have to use obligation, other then where I pointed out that you should. If you're not comfortable with it, or you wish to concentrate on other things for the time being, put it on the back burner for a rainy day. Hutts, etc.. can call in their favors when ever they dam well please.

The exception being when a group gets up over 100. Once they've accumulated 100 obligation, it's impossible to roll percentile and not hit an obligation. To represent this it's impossible to spend xp. meaning you can't level, or increase skills, talents, or anything. Too many people are coming after you for too many things. Your mind is preoccupied, or you're physically running for your life.

Fixed the obligation cap IAW HD- post #16

I'm pretty sure that >100 thing is for the group total, not per character, so in big groups it can get there pretty fast.

I'm pretty sure that >100 thing is for the group total, not per character, so in big groups it can get there pretty fast

I'm pretty sure you're right. In fact. I know you are. When I started running, my group was 8, and I had to tweak the obligation rules as they all took the extra obligation. As I wanted them to get a "feel" for the game itself, and not that of a party beset by bounty hunters I had to change the rules to individual, and I capped it at 40. Truth be told, it didn't do much, as once a player had people coming after him, it isn't like the rest of the group is far behind.

It has since broken down to smaller groups, but I haven't really been using obligation much as they are all more rebellion types so they have been slowly converting to duty.

I'll fix it above. Thanks.

Yes, dealing with reducing or eliminating Obligations that aren't specific debts to outside sources, such as Obsession or Addiction, in my opinion is handled by giving the characters adventures or experiences that focus on those obligations.

During these adventures the character might have cathartic experiences that might 'satisfy' their obsession, or otherwise shift stuff around in their brains so the Obligation isn't a problem anymore in the future.

I'm not sure that I personally would have encouraged a player to be a "giant monster holovid obsessive", but if you really work that into your game, it could involve the player convincing the party to break into the set of a giant monster movie, or maybe the stars of one those films enlists the player to perform some dangerous mission. Then, when that dangerous encounter is over, perhaps the character has gotten more perspective on things and doesn't feel so obsessed anymore.

I'm not sure that I personally would have encouraged a player to be a "giant monster holovid obsessive", but if you really work that into your game, it could involve the player convincing the party to break into the set of a giant monster movie, or maybe the stars of one those films enlists the player to perform some dangerous mission. Then, when that dangerous encounter is over, perhaps the character has gotten more perspective on things and doesn't feel so obsessed anymore.

She is going to set up holovid night on the ship. As a slicer, she's always on the lookout for getting free access to recordings and new material. If you wanted to throw the worst at her, have the team accidently crash on a planet where a well-meaning scientist assigned to clone the Zillo beast has actually succeeded...

Love that idea! Sounds like your campaign is a bit wacky