Explorer Obligations

Random Obligation Generator

Recommended default starting obligation (based on party size)

  • 2 Players: 20 Obligation
  • 3 Players: 15 Obligation
  • 4 Players: 10 Obligation
  • 5 Players: 10 Obligation
  • 6+ Players: 5 Obligation
Click button below to generate a random obligation
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Addiction

This is often thought of in terms of a substance of some kind or a compulsion to act in a destructive manor (as with gambling). For example, the Trader may have an addiction to "the Deal," always needing to make arrangements and work the numbers. A Big-Game Hunter may be addicted to "the Hunt," never happy unless he's on the ground, weapon in hand, on the trail of something. Drivers are often adrenaline junkies, addicted to speed and performance from their machines. Obsession is another way to portray some of these concepts.

Betrayal

As an Obligation, Betrayal tends to work in the direction of the character having betrayed someone and having to either avoid the consequences for it or having to somehow pay for his sin (Motivation works better for a character who has been betrayed). An Explorer may have taken up the career to travel far away from those he betrayed. Alternatively, he may have double-crossed on a deal of some kind or tried to get away with selling important information to one too many sources. Fringers, Traders. Scouts, and Archaeologists are especially prone to the latter.

Blackmail

An ancient custom that seems never to lose its power to make people act against their will. For an Explorer, there are many interesting and creative ways it may apply. A Trader may have a history of skimmed profits to hide. An Archaeologist may have once plagiarized someone's findings for a presentation to secure funding. A Big-Game Hunter may have once killed someone on a hunt, never knowing someone else recorded the incident. A Driver may have fudged the data on a particular machine he was hired to test, only to have a number of deaths result from his faulty information. Such incidents can weigh heavily on the mind and heart of a being.

Bounty

A Bounty on one's head is a powerful agitator for driving action. Many of the infractions described under Blackmail could well result in a Bounty being offered for an Explorer. Other circumstances for which a Bounty might be placed on an Explorer include the following: a Fringer being in the wrong place at the wrong time; a Trader failing in just the wrong delivery to just the wrong official; an Archaeologist trespassing across the wrong lands; a Driver swiping the wrong hot swoop; and so on.

Criminal

This usually means the character is in the employ of, or seriously indebted to, a crime lord or illicit organization of some kind. Explorers working in the Rim often discover their best—and sometimes only - opportunities to employ their skills are by working with one or more criminal groups. Unfortunately, this usually places them in trouble with whatever law-enforcement officials there are in the area, their only protection being those same criminal contacts. Such relationships can become vicious circles that are impossible to break. Consider the Scout who is wanted for too many trips to interdicted planets or the Driver who only avoids incarceration for grand theft because of the influence his criminal employer has with local security forces.

Debt

A Trader may well be up to his eyeballs in debt thanks to too many failed shipments, while an Archaeologist may have risked everything on a find he still can't track down. A Big-Game Hunter may have a great kit for the hunt, but he borrowed to the hilt to get it. and a Driver may have the hottest speeder in the quadrant yet owe thousands of credits to the local sharks for all the mods he's made.

Family

Ties of kinship can exert an incredible pull on most beings, perhaps even serving as the main reason someone chooses the life of an Explorer—to get away from domineering parents or other powerful relatives. There are times, however, when an Explorer may be doing what he does for his family and not despite them. Perhaps a Fringer sees wandering the Rim as a way to return his family to some kind of prominence after a terrible fall. Maybe the lifelong search of an Archaeologist revolves around the ancient homelands of his people. Meanwhile, a Big-Game Hunter may follow in his father's footsteps, determined to exceed the old man's accomplishments.

Favor

Some say that favors are what truly drives the galaxy; many will happily provide enormous assets and support, all for the simple price to be named later, often at the worst times. A Scout in the middle of a vital mission for some local rebels is suddenly called on to deliver the location of their base. An Archaeologist in the midst of celebrating his greatest discovery ever is informed that he now must bury that discovery and never speak of it again. A Driver, about to race against the best in the sector, is coerced into losing the race to "clear the books."

Fervor

The character is possessed of a powerful drive to act based on religious or spiritual beliefs. As an Obligation, Fervor means that he cannot resist acting in accordance with his beliefs and teachings. He may even have those who support him in some way (thus explaining the resources he potentially attains due to the Obligation), further exhorting him to follow "the Way" they all revere. Consider the Archaeologist who seeks temples dedicated to a lost god or the Big-Game Hunter who truly believes that it is his divine destiny to eradicate "monsters" throughout the galaxy.

Obsession

Similar to Addiction in some ways, at least at the psychological level—it's easy to see how many Explorers are driven by an Obsession of some kind to push far out into the Rim in pursuit of an all-consuming goal. Consider the Trader who can never acquire enough wealth or the Scout who must categorize every planet in a given sector. What of the Big-Game Hunter, determined to once and for all take out a creature believed long extinct or even mythical? A Driver obsessed with going ever faster may truly bring himself to untold ruin—even death—for his Obsession.

Sponsorship

This represents a legitimate faction that has placed a great deal of resources in the hands of a character (or a team) for some established purpose. For many Explorers, it is the most common Obligation they will incur. It could be a mercantile consortium that sponsors a Trader in order to open up trade with a new planet or civilization or an Imperial agency sponsoring a Scout to investigate a newly discovered star and its planets. Archaeologists are frequently sponsored by academies or other scholastically minded organizations for their expeditions, and Big-Game Hunters may well be sponsored by a conservation group to thin a particular population of beasts...or sponsored by less savory firms to completely eradicate a particular life-form.