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How many points for the . . . (guards, minions, whatever)?

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Robyn
in Pulp Hero

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comment_41693

Incompetent when facing the heroes, and often assumed to be low in points, these NPC's are the cannon fodder of any pulp game. But are they truly weak, or merely hampered by a bad selection of powers coupled with a truly horrid selection of Disadvantages?

 

I invite you to join me in giving these minions as high a point value as we reasonably can, using only traditional genre behaviors. In a blatant and unforgiveable attempt to cash in on the appeal of the apparently popular "What I've learned playing a . . . " threads, I also ask that you limit your suggestions to no more than one of each per post.

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    comment_1011696

    Re: How many points for the . . . (guards, minions, whatever)?

     

    20 "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise" Change Environment 16" radius, -4 OCV, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (80 Active Points); NCC (-2), Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Not vs Named Protagonists; -1)

     

    This explains why those oh-so-dangerous Stormtroopers couldn't hit a farm boy, a princess, a scruffy smuggler, or a 7½ foot tall Wookie at point blank range even when dozens of them were firing at the heroes.

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    comment_1011876

    Re: How many points for the . . . (guards, minions, whatever)?

     

    20 "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise" Change Environment 16" radius' date=' -4 OCV, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (80 Active Points); NCC (-2), Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Not vs Named Protagonists; -1)[/i']

     

    This explains why those oh-so-dangerous Stormtroopers couldn't hit a farm boy, a princess, a scruffy smuggler, or a 7½ foot tall Wookie at point blank range even when dozens of them were firing at the heroes.

     

    Yeah couldn't be the fact that said troopers were ordered to let them escape, so they could be trailed back to the Rebel base. :rolleyes:

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    comment_1011917

    Re: How many points for the . . . (guards, minions, whatever)?

     

    . . . OK' date=' smartypants, explain the Cloud City scenes . . . :P[/quote']Or the Battle of Endor, where one of the Emperor's self-described "finest" Legions was utterly routed by a few hundred teddy bears armed with stone spears and axes?

     

    Perhaps I should change the writeup to:

     

    "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise" Change Environment 16" radius, -4 OCV, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (80 Active Points); NCC (-2), Limited Power Power (Not vs Named or Cute Protagonists; -1) :winkgrin:

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    comment_1011925

    Re: How many points for the . . . (guards, minions, whatever)?

     

    How about a Physical Limitation that would reduce their accuracy when they are firing at any Important PC/NPC otherwise they can slaughter any unimportant character. For example, let say you are running a French Foreign Legion campaign and the Berbers are attacking. The masses easily hit each others (Berbers and Legionaires dying left and right) but the PCs and any major NPC are alot harder to hit.

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    comment_1012269

    Re: How many points for the . . . (guards, minions, whatever)?

     

    I realise this runs counter to the spirit of the thread, but why not just give the grunts only a few points? That way they can hit each other (or oposing grunts) easily but have problems hitting "named" characters.

     

    Also, it's easier to write up their sheets....

     

    cheers, Mark

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    • Author
    comment_1012477

    Re: How many points for the . . . (guards, minions, whatever)?

     

    I realise this runs counter to the spirit of the thread' date=' but why not just give the grunts only a few points?[/quote']

     

    Because that only explains why they do the right things so poorly. It doesn't explain how they do the wrong things so well.

     

    If the grunts aren't important to your game, then don't put a lot of thought into them. If, on the other hand, you do think about such things, and you want to explain why grunts have never sidestepped genre conventions; in short, why those genre conventions are traditional; it should prove useful to exactly model (instead of approximate) those grunts in the HERO system.

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    comment_1018817

    Re: How many points for the . . . (guards, minions, whatever)?

     

    "Hazardous to Self and Others"
    Teamwork 11- (3 Active Points); Side Effects (Major Side Effects, affects both character and teammates; -3/4); Real Cost 2 pts.

     

    Anytime a mook blows his Teamwork roll he actually gets in his teammates way, impairing their combat ability. You can tone down the Side Effects to Minor if you prefer, or even amp it up to Extreme, although that could be overdoing things. As it is, 30 AP worth of Side Effects can buy you a whole mess of chaos... :D

     

    This even helps explain why the mooks can be effective against other mooks (when they don't need to try and coordinate), but fall apart when they trying to gang up on one or two Heroes. The cost, of course, is completely broken - charging 2 pts for what should realistically be some sort of Diasad. But I like the mechanism.

     

    Reminds me of an old Wormy cartoon (yes, I just carbon-dated myself): "One orge might've caught the dwarf, but four of them didn't have a prayer."

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