Obligation

What is Obligation?

An Obligation may be a large outstanding debt, the PC being blackmailed for services, owing a crime boss "favors," having a price on his head, or being locked into a binding contract.
Obligation represents an outside pressure pushing you to commit certain actions or require you to give them a cut of your rewards.

How is Obligation Gained?

Obligation is generally gained either in character creation or through getting certain favors from others. (Think of the Godfather)
Obligation can also be used as a resource, you may ask for certain items or for certain aid from some entity and the price for doing so may be gaining Obligation towards that entity.  There are different kinds of Obligation and the DM generally chooses what type it will be.

Obligation Checks

At the start of a session a D100 will be rolled to see if an obligation will be a factor in that session. 
If player 1 has 10 obligation and player 2 has 5 obligation then a d100 roll of 1-10 would activate player 1's obligation, a roll of 11-15 would trigger player 2's obligation.
Any Roll above 15 would trigger no Obligation.
The player with the most obligation  to least obligation determines the order of the obligation numbers in the roll. For example if player 2 gained 20 obligation and now had 25 obligation then dice rolls between 1-25 would trigger player 2's obligation and rolls of 26-35 would trigger player 1's obligation since he had 10 obligation which is less than 25.

When Obligation Activates

When a player's Obligation is activated it will cause that player's strain threshold to be lowered by 2 for that session to represent stress and discomfort from the situation.  The Entire Party will also have their strain threshold lowered by 1 for that session.
If the number rolled is a double like 11,22,33, etc. Then the Obligation's impact is larger resulting in the player whose obligation activated to have their strain threshold lowered by 4 and the entire party's threshold lowered by 2.
This will also cause a narrative event to occur this session or next where the Obligation becomes part of the story.  For example if you have a large debt, maybe bounty hunters are sent to collect from you. Things similar to that. 

Lowering Obligation

When you commit acts or provide payment toward whatever your obligation is it will lower your total obligation amount.  The amount is generally determined by the GM.
Some characters may be able to reduce their Obligation to 0 while others may not (for example if your obligation is part of your character like in the case of HK where is obligation is built into his character's programming.  His obligation could never go lower than 5 unless he had a special action performed to alter his character's programming. 

Movie Examples

Han owning money to Jabba would be a debt Obligation where he needs to pay it off. When the DM rolled his obligation number it resulted in Boba Fett taking Han to Jabba as a prize.
In the Solo movie when Han's love interest wouldn't leave the crime lord because she owned him she had an obligation to that crime lord.
Similarly when Chewie pledged a life debt to Han, Chewie gained and Obligation to Han. 
If could be said any Imperial officer has an Obligation to the Empire that if they don't fulfill will end in their execution.
Similarly it could be said that Clones in the Clone wars have an Obligation to the Republic