Dilemmas

Overview

Dilemmas are authored decision points where Hawks is faced with a choice and the whole roster weighs in. They appear on the HoloTable alongside Operations and Tactical Missions, and unlike most of what sits there, their payout is measured in Bonds rather than resources.

All thirteen are free. Every other entry on the HoloTable costs Intel, and a dilemma costs none, which makes it the one thing there that is never a resource decision. What it costs is agreement. Some carry a Credit, Intel, or Influence reward as well, but that is the smaller half of what a dilemma does.

The squad is ideologically mixed by design: a clone trooper, an Umbaran who fought the Republic, a Mandalorian, a Jedi Padawan, a noblewoman, and a crook. They will not agree, and a dilemma is the mechanism that makes the disagreement cost something.

How a Dilemma Resolves

Every Operator on the roster holds a position on every option. Picking one resolves all of those positions at once, in three separate movements:

The second and third rows are the part that is easy to miss. A dilemma does not only move Hawks’ standing with the squad; it moves the squad’s standing with itself. Operators who voted together are drawn together, and operators who voted against each other are pushed apart, whichever way Hawks decides. Because Bonds are what generate Focus Points and unlock Cross Training, a run of divisive choices is a progression cost as well as a narrative one.

The Opinion Scale

Positions are not a simple for-or-against. Each Operator sits at one of four levels on each option:

Strongly For, For, Against, Strongly Against.

The same Operator can hold different strengths on different options within one dilemma, so a choice is rarely a clean split. In Witness Protection below, Trick is Strongly Against three of the four options and Strongly For the fourth.

Personality Decides How Custom Operators Vote

Named story Operators vote from their own history: Trick as a clone trooper, Luco Bronc as an Umbaran who defended his homeworld against the Republic, Tel-Rea Vokoss as a Jedi Padawan.

Custom Operators vote by their Personality, the trait chosen at character creation. It is not a flavour setting: it is the input that decides where that Operator lands on every dilemma for the rest of the campaign, and so how their Bonds develop.

Personality types recorded in dilemma opinion lists are Bruiser, Firebrand, Gunny, Maverick, Mentor, Natural, Professional, Rake, Rogue, Specialist, and Wildcard.

They vote in recognisable blocs. Gunny and Bruiser back force and pressure. Professional and Specialist back the businesslike option. Rake and Rogue back the profitable one. Firebrand and Mentor back the principled one. A roster built from one end of that range will agree with itself often, which keeps Bonds rising, and will agree with the story Operators less often.

The Dilemmas

Thirteen dilemmas are named in the game’s Bond category:

Changeling Vengeance, Dianoga, Imperial Informant, Millicreep Requisition, People Skills, Refueling, Relief Ship, Risky Business, Rumors, Shore Leave, Team Building, The Brothers Bep, and Witness Protection.

Dilemmas are time-limited in the same way Operations are: one left unaddressed until its window closes is gone for that playthrough. They are 13 of the campaign’s 155 Operations; the other 142 are listed under Operations.

Worked Examples

Risky Business

A businessman proposes setting up operations near the Den in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Investigating reveals the businessman is running an illegal rathtar breeding operation. Kabb Uppercut is Strongly For extortion and Jae Mordant Strongly Against it; Tel-Rea Vokoss is Strongly Against simply agreeing.

Witness Protection

An associate director in the Trade Federation has fled Cato Neimoidia after a failed coup against Viceroy Nute Gunray, and turns up on the Ring of Kafrene.

This one shows the structure clearly. There is no option the whole roster can live with: the choice that satisfies Trick is the one Luco Bronc is Strongly Against, and the reverse holds for every other option. The reward scales with how badly the defector is treated, from 25 Intel up to 1,000 Credits.

Relationship to Permadeath

Dilemmas add a second axis of permanent loss alongside Permadeath. Where permadeath risks characters to combat, dilemmas risk relationships to narrative choices. The narrative lead confirmed there are authored moments where player choices can drive a character away from Zero Company entirely, which is a way to lose an Operator that has nothing to do with a mission going badly.

References

If information is missing, it has not yet been confirmed. Corrections are welcome.