USH'S STAR WARS GAME- Galactic Survival Guide! (Enemy reference)
Here I shall fill you in with some of the scary wonders you may meet during your careers as Light and Dark Siders!
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MOOKS
As everyone should now be familiar, mooks are the endless legions of relatively poor quality enemies you meet, that highly skilled force users like yourself- not to mention deadly Bounty Hunters like Jango Fett- have no trouble killing in large numbers. Mooks DO present a threat when they keep on coming in large numbers, however, as they will eventually wear you down. It is always useful to have efficient mook fighters in your party- various tricks and powers work well, or specifically, on mooks- Carnival of Carnage being the most obvious.
As listed in the rules, mooks are wounded and killed purely as a function of the Outcome of your attack roll on them- that is, the amount you successfully hit them, by. 5 is the magic number; hit them by five beyond what is needed and they are dead; this can accumulate over multiple hits and powerful weapons (like Lightsabres) reduce the amount you need for a kill; this is called having ‘Mook Killing Power’. Some mooks wear armour that reduce the outcome of successful attacks against them- though not from Lightsabres, which ignore armour…
Many mooks use blaster carbines, as used by stormtroopers and battle droids in the films. The spray fire from these short ranged weapons give these poor quality troops +2 to hit, which basically gives them some chance of hitting you at all…
Mooks tend to have a single fighting value which is used for simulating both Combat and Guns. Some types of Mook may be given a bonus in one of those values, though.
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SUPER-MOOKS
‘Super-mook’ is a category of unnamed opponent that is far more dangerous than general mook, enough to be distinguished from the crowd- maybe a guard captain/sergeant, a Miramar squad leader, or sometimes certain troop types are by default ‘super’. Super-mooks work the same way as mooks, especially with tricks and powers that target them, but are not eliminated by Outcome- instead, they take damage like normal characters (and so have a Strength rating). Once a Super-mook has taken 35 or more damage, it dies at once, Mook Killing Power adds extra damage to hits aginst supermooks- each + of Killing Power is worth 2 extra damage against a supermook. Super-mooks often have special abilities and even low-grade tricks. They have Guns and Combat values just like normal characters.
The threat of super-mooks can be hard to judge. One or two of them are normally little more danger than standard mooks, certainly if you get the drop on them. But in numbers of four or more, they can become very dangerous indeed- if nothing else because they take slightly longer to kill, and their higher combat values put you at far more risk of being hit in the meantime.
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NAMED HEROES/VILLAINS
Normally just referred to as Villains, in SW you may also meet named Hero enemies, if you are a Dark Sider! More likely you will just meet other villains though.
Heroes/Villains are fully created templates just like your own characters. They are often modified versions of all the templates available- including the non-Force versions I briefly mention in the main rules. Sometimes they might be custom designed, not based on any one template at all. They function in exactly the same way as you, with one exception- you get player privilege, meaning you act before them if you are on the same frame.
People built using the same system as you are theoretically your equals and hence very dangerous! Even the non-Force templates, inferior to you because of your force powers, are almost certainly going to wound you badly in a one on one fight, and if you are unlucky or fight unwisely they can beat you- and in fact less combat capable templates like the Acolyte and Orphan should bugger off away from a Bounty Hunter very quickly!
However, remember, these templates are the best. They are VERY rare people indeed, the top amongst a Galaxy of trillions of beings. Hence you don’t just run into a dozen of these people in the street; they tend to be either one-off VERY dangerous enemies in a big fight, or maybe recurring enemies you will meet over the course of many episodes or even campaigns.
Force-using templates, like yourselves, are the default for the ‘most dangerous enemy’ award. They have access to all your skills and powers and normally have to be defeated in a Lightsabre duel. However, it must be noted that we just has a big campaign in which these were the central figures. Whilst future Lightsabre fights against people other than players are far from impossible, the focus on future games will not be on these kinds of people. Certainly for Light Siders, anyway- the Dark Side players may always run into the odd Jedi or three.
The non-force using templates are more likely enemies; as described in the rules, they may be tooled up with devices, and also get to use Fortune points in their defence. Bad guys are more likely to be tooled up, and heroes tend to have more Fortune. As noted, they are, in the final analysis, less dangerous than sabre wielders but they are definitely dangerous enough!
As for non-template based enemies, custom designed by me- well, it is a big Galaxy out there… who knows what you might run into?
Remember, these people always have names, and Mooks never do (unless you really need to talk to a mook, on which case they might get a name like ‘Bill’). If I name someone during the story, you have to immediately start thinking ‘ooooooh…’. If it is a Senator, worry less, but if it is some hard looking guy with a gun, you should be thinking that person is dangerous, and no mook…
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MONSTERS
Monsters are huge scary killer deadly beasts! Like the Rancor, or Nexu, or Reek, and so on. These make good enemies for anyone because there can be no hesitation about having to kill them; because they can be extremely dangerous without the benefit of magical or plot-altering powers, and because they fit the basic storytelling archetype of Knights battling evil monsters!
Monsters have ‘Monster Powers’. Do not confuse these with Alien Tricks. Alien Tricks are for templates, and could theoretically be taken by players if I included them, and are about breaking stat limits, or having natural armour and weaponry, or having a faster brain etc. Monster Powers are about being a twenty foot tall slavering fanged mass killing machine…
Monsters have a single fighting value that applies equally against all attacks. They are normally melee fighters only, of course. Monsters take damage like characters, but how much damage they have to take before they actually die, or even get impaired, is anyone’s guess- depends on the monster!
There are tactics that work better against monsters- hacking off their offensive limbs (called ‘declawing’), targeting weak spots, and using Living Force powers to calm them, but these can be dealt with as and when you meet them.