Villainous Boosts

[Dustland]

Ok, this idea came to me from playing a video game and from past experiences GMing games. Have you ever had a climactic battle laid out, the master villain and his most trusted henchmen ready to do battle, an epic slugfest ready to be unleashed...

Then all the players team up, focus all their attacks on the master villain and knock him out in one or two rounds, leaving the rest of the encounter for the players to clean up henchmen at their leisure?

How about a Villainous Advantage:


Villainous Tactician:
As long as the villain has one or more mooks and/or henchmen still in the fight, the villain gains 2D for all defense rolls. This can be a result of the Villain using his underlings to shield him from attacks or being able to coordinate with them to effectively defend himself (by drawing fire, providing covering fire, etc).

I have some reservations about this Advantage because all I'm trying to do is guide player's tactics. Granted, it is to hopefully give a more "epic" feel to a climatic, final battle rather than to railroad them. What are your thoughts?

I don't really care to complicate things, but maybe a die bonus based on the total ratings of mooks/henchmen remaining?

[Dragonfly]

Hi Dustland!

This Advantage is interesting. In theory, I don't have a problem with it. BASH UE does similar things with Advantages to enforce genre accuracy.

In practice, I probably wouldn't end up using it myself. Not because it's a bad idea, but just because my particular group tends to groan at that sort of thing. They DO feel railroaded by stuff like this, even though I don't quite feel it is railroading.

One thing I really like about it is how it makes the fight more organic, and it gives potential second tier heroes something very useful to do in a big, climactic battle. If a 30D hero takes on a 30D master villain with hordes of mooks, the 30D villain will have an advantage. If the 30D hero's 20D teammates focus on taking out the mooks, not only are they doing what they are built to do, but they are also indicrectly making it easier for the 30D hero to succeed in his struggle.

I'll have to playtest it to see how I feel about it, but in theory I think it's a nice addition.

Cheers!

Dragonfly

[novaexpress]

This could work.
IIRC, this is also how mooks are used in Spirit of the Century. They add a bonus to the main villain's defense rolls.
I think 2D is fair.

[honestiago]

I like the idea. I also think there should be an "Exit Strategy" addie (for those recurring baddies). I would require competency to use Exit, however.

Speaking of, a Leadership power would be nice, one that would allow you to assign dice to teammates at the expense of an attack (plus, you'd have to be first on your team to go, so they'd all have to wait for you). Apes Cap's tactical ability with the Avengers.

[Dustland]

Already wrote one into Supers at War :) I think I allowed it in our fantasy game. Honestly though I prefer the Aid Another action, if for nothing else the player who is helping out still gets to roll dice.