Jedi Counseling 99

By Gary M. Sarli

In "Jedi Counseling," Gary M. Sarli answers your rules questions about the Star Wars Miniatures Gameand the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. If you have a question for the counselor, send it in through the link at the end of this column, and check back here for the official answer.

To mark the release of the Bounty Hunters set for Star Wars Miniatures, this installment is dedicated to RPG and Minis questions about your favorite kind of scum.

Star Wars Roleplaying Game Questions

Q: How does a character become a bounty hunter? (I mean the actual job of tracking down wanted fugitives, not the prestige class.) Can anyone be a bounty hunter? Are all members of the bounty hunter prestige class automatically "bounty hunters" in the Star Wars galaxy? Do you have to be a member of the bounty hunter prestige class to work as a bounty hunter?

A: In theory, anyone can be a bounty hunter. A character does not need levels in the bounty hunter prestige class to work as a bounty hunter. Conversely, not all characters with levels in the bounty hunter prestige class actually work as bounty hunters.

First, let's look at the case of legally recognized bounty hunters in the Star Wars galaxy. In the time of the Empire, someone wanting to work as a bounty hunter must apply for Imperial Peace-Keeping Certification (IPKC), colloquially known as the "bounty hunter's license." To get the license for one year, the character has to file an application at the local Imperial Enforcement Office, pass a background check (primarily looking for any outstanding warrants for the character's arrest), and pay a fee of 500 credits. Similar regulations exist in other eras, and the cost and procedures involved are usually comparable.

Of course, the Gamemaster will decide if there are any warrants for the character's arrest based on the events of the campaign (and the evidence available against a particular character). If you use the sympathy rules from the Hero's Guide, the Gamemaster might use this rule of thumb: If your sympathy score for the current Galactic government is greater than the sum of your sympathy scores for all opposed factions, you'll probably pass the background check.

Once the character has the IPKC, he still has to pay fees to act as a bounty hunter and receive payment for capturing fugitives.

Target Permit: For each target he intends to pursue, he must obtain a Target Permit (usually around 1% of the target's bounty, averaging about 100 credits). This is nonrefundable, even if he gives up the chase or another bounty hunter gets to the target first.

Capture Permit: If the bounty hunter captures a target without getting a Target Permit first, he can file for a Capture Permit when he turns the fugitive over to law enforcement authorities. However, Capture Permits cost a flat 25% of the total bounty, a steep price for not filing the paperwork ahead of time.

System and Sector Permits: A legal bounty hunter needs permits to work in a particular system or sector. A System Permit allows him to act lawfully within a particular star system, and they generally range from 50 to 500 credits per month. But not all systems issue such permits, in which case the bounty hunter must get a Sector Permit (or Oversector Permit, applicable to an entire region in the Rebellion Era) to lawfully capture targets anywhere in a given sector. This can cost 1,000 to 10,000 credits per month, depending on the population and prestige of the sector. Also, some sectors (and even entire regions) don't issue these permits at all, essentially making bounty hunting illegal within their borders unless a particular planet issues System Permits. For example, bounty hunters aren't particularly welcome in the Core Worlds during much of Galactic history (and thus Sector Permits are rarely issued), but they're more likely to be tolerated with System Permits on Corellia than on Coruscant.

Altogether, these fees can make it expensive to work as a bounty hunter -- or at least a legal bounty hunter. Thus, many bounty hunters work illegal bounties as well, such as those posted by crimelords or other influential individuals who want to avoid the embarrassment of filing an official (and public) bounty with the government. In theory, these bounties can be collected by anyone, but the potential bounty hunter should realize that working with unsavory employers sometimes leads to unsavory results.

Now, how does the bounty hunter prestige class fit into all this? As a general rule, assume that any character who becomes a 1st-level bounty hunter automatically qualifies for a bounty hunter's license for one year at no charge. It's assumed that the character has saved for the license or has earned enough favors for the initial fee to be waived.

However, a character isn't required to get a bounty hunter's license if, for example, he doesn't want the authorities to know his whereabouts. Similarly, some characters with levels in the bounty hunter prestige class might not be "bounty hunters" in the conventional sense. For example, a police detective might be a member of the bounty hunter prestige class only because its class features fit his job, not because he works independently from traditional law enforcement.

Q: How much do bounties pay?

A: Above all, and I can't emphasize this point enough, a bounty pays no more and no less than the Gamemaster wants it to pay. The GM should never allow guidelines to interfere with his campaign by making the PCs too rich (or too poor).

However, for GMs who do want a guideline, the bounty on a particular character is probably around this amount:

(target's character level*) x (target's Reputation bonus**) x 500 credits***

* Levels in a nonheroic class (diplomat, expert, or thug) only count as half a level for purposes of this calculation, and a commoner should be treated as having half a level.

** If you're using the sympathy rules from the Hero's Guide, use this formula to determine the Reputation score:

(Reputation bonus – sympathy score with posting faction + highest sympathy score with a faction opposed to the posting faction)

For example, let's say a character with a Reputation bonus of 6, Imperial sympathy +2, Rebel sympathy +5, and Hutt sympathy +3 goes after a bounty posted by the Empire. He'd have an effective Reputation score of 9 for purposes of this calculation (6 – 2 + 5 = 9).

*** Illegal bounties usually pay less because crimelords don't have as much money as Galactic governments; as such, their bounties are generally about half this amount. (Of course, illegal bounties don't require all the licenses and fees described earlier.) If the result of this calculation is less than 500 credits, that character is almost certainly not significant enough to warrant the posting of a bounty. In any event, few bounty hunters would waste their time for such a small reward.

This is a rough guideline, and circumstances can change things quite a bit. For example, Luke Skywalker had a bounty on his head for hundreds of thousands of credits despite being of a relatively low level. Of course, a prospective bounty hunter would certainly earn that money. He'd not only have to capture Luke, but also overcome dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of Rebels who stand in his way!

Star Wars Miniatures Questions

Q: Given that the Mandalorian faction has finally shown up in the Bounty Hunters set, I can't help but wonder why Boba Fett and Jango Fett aren't retroactively considered to be "Mandalorians" (much in the way that all Clone Troopers from Clone Strike were retroactively given Order 66). Shouldn't the fact that Boba and Jango Fett are described as Mandalorian in numerous Expanded Universe sources require that they be given Mandalorian status? Wouldn't it break continuity to do otherwise?

A: It is absolutely true that Boba and Jango Fett are closely linked to the Mandalorian tradition. This was described in detail in the article "The History of the Mandalorians" in Star Wars Insider #80 (March/April 2005). In fact, the word "Mandalorian" was first used in reference to Boba Fett's armor. As such, I can understand how this might be confusing.

However, in the Star Wars Miniatures Game, the term "Mandalorian" is used to refer to a particular faction from a very specific time in galactic history. The Mandalorians in the Bounty Hunters set hail from the ranks of the Mandalorian Crusaders and Neo-Crusaders during the Old Sith Wars, a series of conflicts that includes the Great Sith War, the Cleansing of the Nine Houses, the Mandalorian Wars, and the War of the Star Forge. All of these conflicts occurred thousands of years before the events portrayed in the Star Wars trilogies, and as such they're almost a "prehistory" of how the Star Wars universe came to be. In the following millennia, Mandalorians were most often mercenaries (including a few bounty hunters), at least until the Mandalorian Civil War between the True Mandalorians under Jaster Mareel and the Death Watchmen led by Vizsla.

That being the case, the Mandalorian faction, as depicted in the Star Wars Miniatures Game, has little in common with post-Mandalorian Civil War notables such as Boba and Jango Fett. Despite being a part of the same lineage and cultural heritage, the gulf of time between them is simply too vast. Thus, Boba and Jango Fett are not members of the Mandalorian faction for the same reason that Darth Vader is not a member of the Sith faction. Although he is indeed a Sith, he has no real connection to the ancient Sith of a nigh-forgotten age.

Q: When Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter uses Flamethrower 20, does Twin Attack apply?

A: No. Twin Attack applies only if the character makes an actual, literal attack -- that is, when you roll a d20, add the character's Attack bonus, compare to the target's Defense, and apply Damage on a hit.

Q: Does Penetration 10 apply when the Droid Starfighter in Walking Mode uses its Missiles 40?

A: No, for the same reason described above. Penetration notes that it applies only on the character's actual attacks, not just any offensive ability (even if it replaces attacks).

Q: Is Boushh supposed to count as Princess Leia for purposes of the Unique special ability? Unless I'm completely mistaken, this is Leia's disguise when she infiltrates Jabba's palace, right?

A: No, Boushh does not count as Princess Leia for any purpose. Princess Leia did indeed disguise herself as the Ubese bounty hunter when she brought Chewbacca to Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi. However, the real Boushh was a bounty hunter for quite some time before that, and this miniature is meant to represent him, not Leia.

Boushh took many contracts from the Black Sun crime syndicate during the Galactic Civil War, but he was ultimately caught trying to swindle the syndicate out of money. Prince Xizor's bodyguard/assassin droid, Guri, made short work of Boushh, but his fate was not widely known. Xizor kept Boushh's equipment in case it proved useful one day. Eventually, he gave it to Princess Leia to use as a disguise so she could get through Imperial security checkpoints and meet Xizor at his palace on Coruscant. (Leia, being such a high-profile member of the Rebel Alliance, almost certainly would have been recognized and detained, but "Boushh" could pass through without a second glance.) When Leia escaped from Xizor's palace, as described in Shadows of the Empire, she kept the Boushh disguise and later used it during her attempt to rescue Han Solo.

Of course, some future set might contain a "Leia in Boushh Disguise" figure, but such a hypothetical miniature would be completely separate from the Boushh miniature in Bounty Hunters.

About the Author

Gary M. Sarli is a freelance writer and editor whose credits include Ultimate Adversaries (Star Wars), Monster Manual III, Races of the Wild, and Heroes of Battle (Dungeons & Dragons). He also moderates on the Wizards.COMmunity message boards as WizO the Hutt, cheerfully feeding Code of Conduct violators to the Sarlacc. Gary still works as a staff member for SWRPGNetwork, three-time ENnie Award winner in the Best Fan Website category and host of the Star Wars RPG Frequently Asked Questions.