Minions in SWSE?

[Evil_Dead_Jedi]

I know it may defeat the purpose of non-heroic levels and the condition track chart, but does anyone use 4e-style minions in Star Wars Sage Edition?

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I am using minions in the modified SWSE game that I've been running. Basically all characters without heroic levels are minions. And I'm planning on not using any characters with mixed heroic and nonheroic levels. Though, I suppose that if a situation comes up that would be easier to handle using mixed levels, I'd be flexible on that.

I haven't used any minion beasts yet. But I imagine that if I come upon an instance where there needs to be a horde of critters, that I will do so.

Its working out pretty well. The heroes can plow through a ton of stormtroopers on a good day, but those stormtroopers can still put a hurt on them if they are not careful.

 

[El Mahdi]

I would think that using minions with SAGA would probably be a very good fit. It would especially work well with stormtroopers. Minions are meant to give a "cinematic" feel to combats, which is exactly what Star Wars is meant to be. I even use minions in my houseruled 3.5 game. If they work there, they should definitely work for SWSE. (Interestingly, I'm sitting here watching "A New Hope" right now. The capture of Liea's ship at the beginning, with the assault by stormtroopers, would be a perfect thing to model with minions in a game.)

 

[pawsplay]

Honestly, a nonheroic goes down in a hit or two anyway.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Honestly, a nonheroic goes down in a hit or two anyway.

That is usually true, but minionizing them reduces the paperwork (by a small amount) for almost no work at all.

 

[Evil_Dead_Jedi]

That is usually true, but minionizing them reduces the paperwork (by a small amount) for almost no work at all.

This was my main concern for the most part. Just keeping the game going faster. Technically I haven't played SWSE yet, but I have been itching to play. And Scum & Villainy is making the itch worse. The whole cantina scene from A New Hope just oozes color and flavor.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Just having the mook-types be straight-class Non-Heroics works well enough, given the damage output of most weapons and most PCs. Given that a Non-Heroic only gets 1d4 hit points per level, even a high level Non-Heroic is in real danger of getting pasted the first time they get hit, especially if they're part of a level-appropriate encounter against a group of PCs. It's not unheard of for combat-focused PCs in SWSE to be able to pump out 30+ points of damage on an attack (there's a Feeorin Gladiator in one game I'm in that has a minimum damage of 26 with his default attack), so most Non-Heroics are going to fold like a house of cards. Heck, the ubiquitous stormtrooper is only a Non-Heroic 4 with 10 hit points; the average damage of a blaster pistol in the hands of a 1st level character will drop him outright.

 

[masshysteria]

That is usually true, but minionizing them reduces the paperwork (by a small amount) for almost no work at all.

Agree. But I'm wondering what we're minimizing? Hit point tracking, sure. But what about damage? Are you--anybody--using fixed damage? Can minions still have critical hits? What about talents of feats? How about taking if further and using a fixed initiative score? Really remove all the paper work except a simplified creation and attack rolls.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I sometimes use fixed initiative for minion types (actually, I use staggered initiative, with groups going at 5+mod, 10+mod, 15+mod, and (rarely) 20+mod).

I don't know if I would want to standardize damage for minions (they're all mostly rolling a flat 3d6 or 3d8, anyway, so there's not too much that can be reduced, there) because that might make them a little too bland. Although I might try it out for one or two combats, to see how it works out.