Howdy,

I've finally gotten my gaming group hooked on FS, but have a couple questions about the GMC stat blocks listed in the books.

EG.
p129 Ancient Henchman
"B6 C1 M4 R6
Intimidation 8, Martial Arts 8"

I'm wondering wether the action value required to take a mook out of the fight (outcome 5+) would be 13+ or 19+? 13+ seems a little too easy with most character types having an action value that high. 19+ seems a little too steep though, often requiring a roll with a positive open 6.

What it comes down to is the way GMCs are listed, is that their skill level or action value?

All help and suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Neil.

Where it says "Martial Arts 8", that is the total AV, not the skill bonus. So, the result needed to drop the mook would be 13, and not 19.

In my experience, AV 8 mooks tend to be a good average. They are somewhat easy to take down on their own, but they aren't meant to be the real challenge. Also, even though just about any character can drop a single AV 8 mook, in larger numbers (say between four and eight per character depending on their mook munching capabilities) they can occupy characters for a sequence or two. And since named villains are the main antagonists anyway, mooks oughtn't be more than an opening act. Below are the AV guidelines I use for mooks:

7 (12+ to drop) - street gangs, rent-a-cops, budget henchmen, zombies, ogres
8 (13+ to drop) - cops, mob legbreakers, soldiers, martial artists
9 (14+ to drop) - SWAT officers, special forces types, ninjas

Anything higher than that is usually a named character.

Dan

New to FS, itching for a fight, and appreciate your suggestions for the three tiers of Mooks. I'll use this as soon as I can get a game going!

Chuck

some of the sourcebooks give mooks with AV 10, (generally the creme de la creme of mookage). In general you want to watch the AVs of your characters and adjust accordingly. If you have all non-combat specialists, then AV 8 actually makes mooks almost a credible threat. If they're AV 18 schtick-laden beasts then you might want to skew things in the underdog's favour.

AV 8 may seem low, but give them solid cover to shoot from behind and suddenly you need a 19 to hit just one...

I generally pitch it so a mook encounter scores around two hits on the party. Enough to make it a non-trivial battle, but not enough to wear them out before the named opposition.

As long as we're talkin' mooks...

Another way to make them last a wee bit longer without really being "tougher" is to require more than one hit to take them out. If they have a Guns score of 7, and therefore require only a 12 to take out, you may indeed find that your PCs are mowing them down more quickly than you anticipated.

While it's always easy to throw more mooks into the fray, I find that sometimes when I make Advanced Mooks that need to be hit *twice* before they're permanently out, not only does it give them more playability, but the players get all excited because they think they've stumbled onto something new...

"Hey! I hit him for and Outcome of seven, but he's still standing! And the GM didn't ask for damage? What's goin' on??"