Basic Action Super Heroes!

I mentioned this in passing in a thread before, but never really discussed it...

One thing I've toyed with in my games is to have the lesser members of super villain teams be varied in HITS. Similar to minions in a way...
I played several sessions with "normal" villain teams (of 5-6 members) with villains of the "henchmen" style (but still technically super villains) under the leader of the villain team...

Now... in many comic super stories a hero team battles a super villain that generally has a bunch of minions. But SOMETIMES the team battles a team of full super villains (with or without more minions).

That said ... it was my experience that even a average team of lower powered super villains (each having 100 Hits) vs. the normal 4-5 PC hero team takes a LONG time to "slog" through the battle.

So...
What I did was toy with having these lesser "henchmen" style (but still technically super villains) under the leader of the villain team have LESS "hits" than 100. Making up the "gap" difference between traditional minion rules (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 hits each) and the full 100 Hits of a normal character.


My questions.

Do you think this is appropriate? Necessary?

When building a villain character or a minion - HOW do I determine what "level" of Hits the character has?
and
Is or should there be a "point buy value" or a level-tie that goes with the point value of the character build... to list as examples. Or some/any other way to determine HOW to assign the level of HITS to a villain.

Maybe even having a short chart (like the minion rating chart on BASH! UE p.68) showing traditional level ratings for types of these lesser super villains that might make up a team of super villains. And notes on WHAT this lesser value of total Hits might mean for the character as a team member. To aid Narrators in the villain builds.


thoughts?
-kev-

I have been doing this occasionally. I've used 60 and 75 hit "villains". I haven't really tried to assign a point cost (or, rather, Disadvantage or point discount) for it, since I only care about the point cost of my villains in a very general sense.

However, the Age disadvantage reduces a hero or villain to 80 hits. So that sets an "economy" of -20 hits is 1 disadvantage, and if you use the optional rule for buying advantages/disadvantages, that also means 1 point. So you could say that an 80 hit villain gets 1 point back, and a 60 hit villain gets 2 points back, etc.

I'm not sure that really expresses the value of 20 hits when used in that context, but it's the only thing close to RAW that I can think of.

Lindharin wrote: However, the Age disadvantage reduces a hero or villain to 80 hits. So that sets an "economy" of -20 hits is 1 disadvantage, and if you use the optional rule for buying advantages/disadvantages, that also means 1 point. So you could say that an 80 hit villain gets 1 point back, and a 60 hit villain gets 2 points back, etc.

I'm not sure that really expresses the value of 20 hits when used in that context, but it's the only thing close to RAW that I can think of.

OH!
Great point of reference. I'd not thought of it that way!

This. I think would make a GREAT new "abstract" Disadvantage for villains OR heroes alike! Having a DISAD option to take it multiple times to lower a villain's or your own PC hero's "Hits" seems like great idea.

Has anyone thought through or playtested that kind of thing more? I've not Narrated/Played enough with "minions" (at their lower levels of Hits) to know the "BIG" difference in a Minion at 50 Hits compared to 40, 30, 20 or 10.
Ultimately to "know" if your idea would work for a fair and good DISAD of leveling.

Neat idea though, using a rule in place for context!
-kev-

If you're looking at adding Hits you could just create an Intensive Training power like...

Stalwart (1-5 pts)
Each point spent in Stalwart increases a character's Hits by 10.

Like others I know I don't tend to worry about this much for villains but if a player wanted to do something like this for their character then this is how I'd set it up.

Hits are below a certain amount For mooks they lose point cost (-1 per 10 under 60)