Setting up the bad guys

[head58]

I'm going to be running my first game of MHR in a couple weeks and have some dumb questions:

1) how do you determine the level of opposition to make a challenging fight for the heroes? If I have a group of 4 or 5 heroes should I be putting together 4 or 5 major character villains? Any guidelines on fitting in mobs or large scale threats into that equation? I'm guessing this is more an art than a science so I'm asking the folks who have run the game thus far for advice and what has worked well in this area.

2) any tips on keeping solo/boss-level baddies standing against entire groups? Like the iconic "Magneto alone against all the X-Men" sort of thing. Is one villain with sufficiently high dice in his/pool capable of holding his/her own?

2a) I've seen write ups of some big time villains like Galactus and Darkseid done like large scale threats with multiple dice in their affiliations. Where's the line on that? Should someone like Dr Doom or Ultron have multiple dice in Solo? And if so, are they still especially affected by area attacks (wouldn't seem to make sense to me)?

Thanks in advance. I'm trying to get my brain around the system.

Chris

[MidnightBlue]

2) any tips on keeping solo/boss-level baddies standing against entire groups? Like the iconic "Magneto alone against all the X-Men" sort of thing. Is one villain with sufficiently high dice in his/pool capable of holding his/her own?

Chris

Save the big villain for the end, when you've built up the doom pool for added effect.

That should help build the tension of the story to its conclusion, allow for the heroes to have possibly suffered some damage (which your big-bad can also use in his dice pools) and then have the big guns of the Doom Pool to support your stand-alone villain.

[EldritchFire]

I'm going to be running my first game of MHR in a couple weeks and have some dumb questions:

1) how do you determine the level of opposition to make a challenging fight for the heroes? If I have a group of 4 or 5 heroes should I be putting together 4 or 5 major character villains? Any guidelines on fitting in mobs or large scale threats into that equation? I'm guessing this is more an art than a science so I'm asking the folks who have run the game thus far for advice and what has worked well in this area.

If you have more actors on one side, that side is more likely to come out on top. So if you want an easy conflict, go with only 2 or 3 villains. If you want it to be challenging but not over their head, 4-5. More than the heroes makes 'em more likely to gather up quite a bit of stress and possibly a trauma or two.

As for mobs/large-scale threats, they count as 1 actor, since they only get one action, but since they have multiple dice to stress out, they can lead to more prolonged conflicts. Unless the heroes have area effect.

2) any tips on keeping solo/boss-level baddies standing against entire groups? Like the iconic "Magneto alone against all the X-Men" sort of thing. Is one villain with sufficiently high dice in his/pool capable of holding his/her own?

Don't have them face the heroes until the doom pool is nice and fat! Use those doom dice like there's no tomorrow! That's what they're for!

2a) I've seen write ups of some big time villains like Galactus and Darkseid done like large scale threats with multiple dice in their affiliations. Where's the line on that? Should someone like Dr Doom or Ultron have multiple dice in Solo? And if so, are they still especially affected by area attacks (wouldn't seem to make sense to me)?

My line is this: Do you want them to stand alone? If yes, make 'em a large scale threat! Sure, they're susceptible to area attacks, but the fact that each die needs to be stressed out by itself helps their staying power. Also, give 'em a SFX that allows them to reduce/relieve their stress!

Thanks in advance. I'm trying to get my brain around the system.

Chris

No worries, hope that helps!

-EF

[Manchine]

It also depends on your characters levels. I started off slowly getting them use to it (and me). So that way I could see what was to much for them. I think I got a good idea. A normal fight would include 3 Characters even to them with 3 guys that are just cannon fodder. =)

[Spatula]

It is possible for one villain to take on several heroes at once - especially if the villain has the Counterattack SFX. But even without that, when rolling reactions you can spend any die from the doom pool to keep your effect die, if you win the roll. So every attack from the players is a chance for the villain to hit back.

But as the others have said, you'll want a nice fat doom pool first. With the doom pool, you can win those reaction rolls and use the effect dice against the heroes.

Imagine, for example, Magneto vs the X-Men. Each hero attacks him, and each time, he turns their attack against them, or blocks the attack in such a way as to hurt them or take them out of the fight. Colossus charges him - Magneto picks him up and throws him through the wall. Wolverine leaps at him - Magneto stops him and turns his own claws against him. Cyclops tries to blast him - Magneto rips up the metal floor to block the ruby energy, and then wraps that metal around Cyclops' head. etc.

The Invulnerable SFX can also go a long way to keeping your villain safe.

[Mailer33]

Will you be running breakout? If so, I have some specific advice for that.

I personally wouldn't make villains like Doom and Magnet into large scale threats. Save that for stuff like dinosaurs or Cthulhu.