Mob or a bunch of Specialty Characters

[conquistadorcarlos]

Say that Cap, Hawkeye, and Black Widow are facing down Batroc the Leaper, Blizzard, MODOK, and a bunch of AIM Agents.

Do I use a "Mob" of AIM Agents or just 4-5 Specialty Characters "Science Expert d8" ? If the answer is a Mob, in what situation would I use specialty characters. Where is this threshold?

Thanks.

[Grimmshade]

Say that Cap, Hawkeye, and Black Widow are facing down Batroc the Leaper, Blizzard, MODOK, and a bunch of AIM Agents.

Do I use a "Mob" of AIM Agents or just 4-5 Specialty Characters "Science Expert d8" ? If the answer is a Mob, in what situation would I use specialty characters. Where is this threshold?

Thanks.

I only use Specialty characters for a group of 3 or so. Otherwise it becomes a bit unwieldy. Four or more characters can be represented by a 2d mob.
Sometimes I use a 1d mob for 2 or 3 characters if they dont mean a lot to the story.

[pksullivan]

Specialty characters should be good at a thing. Not necessarily great or even super, but good. They should also be individuals.

Mobs are just that - big groups of foes. They scale quickly. I don't have the exact numbers handy but a 5D6 mob is somewhere between a few dozen and a hundred people while 2D6 are up to a half dozen or so. They are mooks. Minions. Disposable. No one of them is particularly special but they have the power of large numbers on their side.

So ask yourself what the story demands. Do you want the heroes to face a couple of guys who are good at what they do but not superhero caliber or do you want them to wade through the unwashed criminal masses?

[figurefour]

Consider this as a guideline.

Does it matter which AIM agent the hero punches? If so, they are specialty characters. If not, they're a mob.

"4 AIM Agents" sounds like a mob to me. "The AIM chief scientist, his assistant, and two bodyguards" sounds like specialty characters.

The first example is a bunch of indistinguishable minions. The second example is four individual characters.

[alai]

fig4's rubric sounds about right to me. Of course, they might also be distinguished tactically as well as by role or stats.

I'm tempted to also say that a further consideration is that if one of the heroes has the area attack SFX, and if you want complete clarity about how that'll work... make them individual speciality characters, not a mob.

[Dunlaing]

I'd do it based on what I wanted out of the fight. If I want the villains to have a lot of individual turns but not be very effective, I'd go with specialty characters. If I want the villains to only get one turn per action order and be slightly more effective, I'll go with mobs. I'd err on the side of using mobs just for the speedier handling time and less annoyance to the players.
If it matters which one he hero takes out, just give them a cool Limit.

Limit: We're not just a mob! When removing an affiliation die, the hero gets to choose whether to shut down Plasma Cannon, Teleport, or Combat Expert in exchange for adding a d6 to the Doom Pool.

[alai]

Major Magritte/Python points for the "We are not a mob" mob, Dunlaing!