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Let me first say: I am still very new to Starfinder and both players came to me with this idea.
I am in the process of running my first starfinder game, all my players are new to it too. So, one person wants to be a Bounty Hunter, the other a Criminal, they both came up with the idea that the Bounty Hunter character would be "Parole officer" to the criminal.
Which I think it is a very interesting role/dynamic in a game. However, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around a few details:
- Depending on the crime, why give the criminal a dedicated parole officer instead of letting them serve their time? Maybe the judge/jail is showing leniency towards the criminal. Or said criminal has organized crime ties and was able to get out after they made some deals.
- Now even if he were let out, would the law/parole officer even allow the criminal to be looting treasure/bodies let alone have lethal weapons?
As of right now here are some ideas I had, which would handicap the criminal character, but it would make sense, to me, for in-game lore:
1. Assuming the Bounty Hunter PC does not witness it, the criminal PC can only have non-lethal weapons and not be able to loot bodies.
2. Perhaps the Criminal has a tiny bomb implanted in their head that is synced up to a Dead-man switch within the Bounty Hunter Character. Which would detonate if: The bounty hunter dies, or the Criminal is attempting to flee, and the Bounty Hunter detonates it.
3. Maybe the Criminal is under witness protection and the Bounty Hunter is actually his body guard. But then why would they allow him to go on adventures rather then hold him in a safe house?
What are your thoughts on this? I think it's an interesting story dynamic, but I don't know how that would work in the Star finder lore. I know it would handicap the Criminal character and give the Bounty Hunter character a lot of power (The BH person in question I trust to have this power based on past games) but I don’t want to unfairly treat the Criminal.
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One of my forestry professors had a parolee with him to do a timber survey when they were wandering around canada?. Because of the bears everyone was required to carry a firearm...including the prisoner. So as far as straining credulity... reality is unrealistic ? :)
Guy shot a grizzly bear... cub. Mamma bear followed them for a few days. Because it was the wrong season, the fur he shot the youngling for wasn't even very good.
When I worked in a state park we had a prison work crew, some of whom were qualified to work with chainsaws.
Both of us at some point mused having jobs they gave to people as punishment. Especially when the prisoners had more rights than the workers..
Quote: Depending on the crime, why give the criminal a dedicated parole officer instead of letting them serve their time? Pretty much any other reason you'd parole someone. Jails full, cheaper to have them on parole than incarcerated, good behavior (or at least not getting caught), the criminal turned on someone important, or you really need more people to work on something.
With something like adventuring, you have the possibility of needing more people, not really caring if they die, teach someone a legitimate way to use their skills ala a mentorship/apprentice program, or maybe even a "Scared Straight" program where they toss you into the adventuring life so you WANT to go home and work a 9-5 instead of acting as monster bait.
Quote: 1. Assuming the Bounty Hunter PC does not witness it, the criminal PC can only have non-lethal weapons and not be able to loot bodies. While no lethal weapons sounds like a good idea, starfinders plethora of robots and undead mean a LOT of things are immune to that damage. Unless you're selecting foes very carefully you'd be effectively putting the character out of the fight a good deal of the time.
Abadarcorp manufactures a line of weapons that have selective targeting
Linky and can be programmed not to shoot law enforcement individuals.
Which could be really funny in a dominate person situation.
"I am for his kneecap and.. click. Click. Nothing happens. WTH?"
Gun " Attempting to assault an officer is a parole violation. Your representative has been notified. have a nice day"
Just because the one PC is a criminal does not mean he has ever served time. Maybe he has never been caught or if arrested never been convicted.
So the bounty hunter is determined to prove the criminal is guilty.
However unknown to the bounty hunter the criminal has had a change of heart about the organization they work for (maybe they killed loved ones, or their dog, maybe their spouse left them due to his criminal ways, etc...) and wants to get out.
Of course the only way out is by taking down the criminal organization.
So criminal stays a criminal but is actually providing the evidence that the bounty hunter needs to take down the criminal organization.
The criminal will have to walk a fine line of still appearing to be a criminal but now working to take down the criminal organization.
The bounty hunter will have to walk the fine line between allowing the criminal to maintain his cover (yes criminal you can take out the rival criminals main enforcer but no mister criminal you cannot takeout that judge who is making life miserable for your boss) and protecting the innocent.
A lot you could work with here.
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So what will the other player do when he violates his parole?
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Interesting, never considered that, granted my knowledge on the US law system is limited to Law and Order, thank you for the ideas.
I'll keep the "Linky" in my back pocket and your mentorship/apprentice program gave me an idea. Who better to hunt criminals then a criminal, perhaps the Bounty Hunter is a mentor to the criminal testing/teaching him to join the profession. Or perhaps they work together as a tag-team.
Either way, I do agree limiting him to non-lethal weapons would be a step to far. I just want to make sure it makes sense narratively but not be too harmful to handicap someones fun.
Hawk Kriegsman wrote: Just because the one PC is a criminal does not mean he has ever served time. Maybe he has never been caught or if arrested never been convicted.
So the bounty hunter is determined to prove the criminal is guilty.
However unknown to the bounty hunter the criminal has had a change of heart about the organization they work for (maybe they killed loved ones, or their dog, maybe their spouse left them due to his criminal ways, etc...) and wants to get out.
Of course the only way out is by taking down the criminal organization.
So criminal stays a criminal but is actually providing the evidence that the bounty hunter needs to take down the criminal organization.
The criminal will have to walk a fine line of still appearing to be a criminal but now working to take down the criminal organization.
The bounty hunter will have to walk the fine line between allowing the criminal to maintain his cover (yes criminal you can take out the rival criminals main enforcer but no mister criminal you cannot takeout that judge who is making life miserable for your boss) and protecting the innocent.
A lot you could work with here.
I agree, a person with a criminal background doesn't mean they served time. I brought it up cause the player for the criminal came to me with the idea they had served time.
Makes sense to me, it will hinge on what the Bounty Hunter and Criminal player come with me for there backstory. Which I'll try to workshop with and see if we can make any compromises for everyones sake.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
One idea might be to have the criminal character's parole nearing its end. Then a couple of levels into the campaign you can have an important character moment where the two characters are free to go their separate ways but choose not to.
Ixal wrote: So what will the other player do when he violates his parole? If we are going with the Criminal PC being out of Jail, and the Bounty Hunter is his parole officer: Have a bounty placed on the criminals head which other Bounty Hunters might join in to take his head. Which I'd only trigger if he did multiple instances of chaotic-stupid-evil stuff like: Killing a NPC unprovoked in broad daylight in town, caught stealing, punching children and so on.
Santobon wrote: Ixal wrote: So what will the other player do when he violates his parole? If we are going with the Criminal PC being out of Jail, and the Bounty Hunter is his parole officer: Have a bounty placed on the criminals head which other Bounty Hunters might join in to take his head. Which I'd only trigger if he did multiple instances of chaotic-stupid-evil stuff like: Killing a NPC unprovoked in broad daylight in town, caught stealing, punching children and so on.
So its not really a parole then as other PCs likely will face the same consequences when doing multiple chaotic stupid things and get caught...
Ixal wrote:
So its not really a parole then as other PCs likely will face the same consequences when doing multiple chaotic stupid things and get caught...
" Alright everyone, just like we practiced. 1..2...3 "He did it!" "
BigNorseWolf wrote: Ixal wrote:
So its not really a parole then as other PCs likely will face the same consequences when doing multiple chaotic stupid things and get caught...
" Alright everyone, just like we practiced. 1..2...3 "He did it!" " I mean that's up to the party and any witness. Now, I'm not one to punish the whole party for the dumb/out-of-character actions of one player, but if the party helps him, then that's a different story.
We shall see, the "criminal" player in question 99% of the time creates an Edge-lord character and doesn't make the best choices. So I wanted to cover my bases.
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"Alright, Spike MacBestShooterInTheGalaxy, we finally got our hands on you... you have one choice: go to the slammer, or start working for us."
Watched The Man from U.N.C.L.E. recently, it's the background of the main character. And of a lot of characters from other movies and books as well...
Santobon wrote:
I mean that's up to the party and any witness. Now, I'm not one to punish the whole party for the dumb/out-of-character actions of one player, but if the party helps him, then that's a different story.
We shall see, the "criminal" player in question 99% of the time creates an Edge-lord character and doesn't make the best choices. So I wanted to cover my bases. The problem is that this can create some big intra party conflict.
There are basically 4 ways this can go.
1. It serves as a backstory, but the character never does anything bad and thus won't come up. But considering how most adventurers behave this would be rare.
2. The termy of the parole are so weak that the character is basically allowed to do everything he wants, so it doesn't matter.
3. The player of the parole officer wants to play a corrupt one who turns a blind eye to the parole violations. The danger is if the player feels forced to do so in order to keep the party intact.
4. The player of the parole officer wants to play honest and wants to persecute the criminal PC which creates instant party conflict and likely fractures the group.
A lot of these issues ultimately boil down to "Talk with your players, and have them create PCs that will mesh as a group". If one or more players want to play character concepts, with ensuing character actions, such that it would disrupt the game? The solution is to say "No, make something else".
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Happy new year, so for the most part my arrangement with “Criminal” and the Bounty Hunter Worked well, up to a point.
I spoke with the criminal about the following points:
- Stressed they did not have to be a caught criminal, perhaps they willing rat on their former company. They still wanted to be a caught criminal who cut a deal with the Stewards
- I worked shopped the Criminals and Bounty Hunters backstories, both of which had no knowledge of each other’s.
o The Bounty Hunter: An escaped android on Akiton, enslaved by a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a company owned by the Aspis Consortium.
o And the Criminal, human soldier Guard, who as you guessed it; work as a guard for the same subsidiary that enslaved the bounty hunter. They were caught for some petty crime and instead offered up more information to the Stewards on his employment.
o Stewards grant the criminal immunity and put them in witness protection while the trial is still pending.
o All the while, the criminal got: his face changed vi va magic/technology, got his true name removed from his mind, and had a special chip implanted in his brain that would record and alert the Bounty Hunter of any crimes made. Whom would have to report them to the Bounty Hunters handler. A representative of the Stewards who handles Bounties.
o I was fairly liberal with how often the chip “alerted of criminal” activity. The only time the had the chip triggered was when the person rolled a Nat 1 and hit a friendly, the chip stating “Third 3rd degree Assault.” Other wise the criminal character played it off very well, acting as the voice of reason.
- To the Bounty Hunters knowledge: The criminal was just on parole
- Now, I know you might ask “Why on earth would you put a witness to the very corporation that enslaved the player who has to keep tabs on them?”
- A. For drama should the two ever find out,
- B. If you were to ever hide a stick, what better place than with a dog?
Unfortunately, the juicy drama of them of the two finding out would never see the light of day because the Criminal character died. He was playing his level 3 soldier in the spirit of Leroy Jenkins, thinking; having a 18 EAC and 20 KAC made him untouchable.
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