Personally, I find minions to be one of the most immersion defeating mechanics in the rules. I cringe every time I hear a player say, oh they're minions. The fact that they act together seems silly to me. The targeting of them as a group breaks immersion and makes them into faceless placeholders. I like my players to feel like they are engaging with real people all the time.

As a result, I run rivals a lot, I break the targeting rules so that players can only shoot one at a time, and I try and describe them differently,

Does anyone else feel this way? If so, how do you get around it? Do you use them or lose them?

I think in terms of dramatic casting and mechanical function they are great. However, players need to learn the difference between the craft of storytelling and making a game run to genre convention, and actually taking on the role of a character in a story (or storytelling game). A lot needs to happen on the meta-level for a game to properly simulate the source material / genre that informs it, but calling attention to the fourth wall, and playing with it, and being overly "genre savvy" tends to detract for the stated intent of having things like a minion mechanic in a game at all.

Overall, I like the minion rules.

Granted, I like to think of my game as more "cinematic" than immersive. Ideally, the players would participate by narrating their roll as their character's few seconds on the screen before the camera cuts to another part of the battle. Think of Helm's Deep or Minas Tirith, with Legolas and Gimly each counting off about three of their hits, then the other, and then someone else, and so on. More often, I end up describing that for them because, yes, they tend to still think of it as taking down multiple goons with a single shot. Now that I think of it, I could actually make them call off their scores as minions go down.

I actually came up with a Rival special ability that I haven't had a chance to use yet. "Rank and File" (just came up with the name) lets a Rival blend in with a minion group. The idea being a stormtrooper who is tougher and more skilled than the others, but he just hasn't been officially promoted yet. The Rival takes his turn in the same initiative slot as his unit, but uses his own dice pool for skill checks, and does not contribute to the dice pool calculation for the minion group. So long as the Rival takes the same apparent actions as the unit (ie. moves with the unit, attacks with rifle when they do) he remains indistinct from the unit. Similar to Imperial Valor, this means that any attack on him applies to the minions first. If the Rival does something different, such as throwing a grenade when the unit is firing rifles, or moving out of formation, he can be attacked directly until his next turn.

Note: a Rival can voluntary take Strain, suffered as wounds, to take a second maneuver. If this is something simple, like an Aim maneuver, that doesn't involve a lot of movement, it does not count as breaking formation.

This also provides a use for some stray Advantage. A player can spend 1 Advantage to pinpoint the "elite" in the group and single it out until their next turn, and can inform one other PC per additional Advantage spent.

I view the minion rules as nothing more than simply easing book keeping for the GM, and a way to keep some entry level adversaries as a potential threat as PCs advance. You can run them without using the grouping rule. Nothing says you have to use the rule. If you run 10 storm troopers individually they're pretty dangerous, unless the party has the means to hit ten targets.

Love them. Less dice to roll for more NPC's makes for more flexibility in my encounter design while not an enormous Initiative list.

Edit: if you don't want them, sure don't use them, but if you're faced with a mob of angry protesters rioting in the streets of your Space City of choice then Minions are a heap easier to handle.

Minions, to me, are the extras and bit parts in a cinematic campaign, and therefore are essential to a realistic setup.

But I houseruled, that minion groups are Linked, making multiple hits from a group possible.

Minions, to me, are the extras and bit parts in a cinematic campaign, and therefore are essential to a realistic setup.

But I houseruled, that minion groups are Linked, making multiple hits from a group possible.

Consider that one stolen as my guys advance....

Consider that one stolen as my guys advance....

But, I'm still using it! I could send you a FREE copy instead; well, there's shipping and handling...

Consider that one stolen as my guys advance....

But, I'm still using it! I could send you a FREE copy instead; well, there's shipping and handling...

Sorry, I'm a pirate, arrr. It's stolen.

I don't use minions anymore. I already tested them in Warhammer 3 and did not like it for similar reasons.

I only use Rivals and Nemesis. This has an advantageous side effect, which is the fact I have no big problems with PCs combat monsters, like auto-fire + jury rigged and similar things.

[...] This has an advantageous side effect, which is the fact I have no big problems with PCs combat monsters, like auto-fire + jury rigged and similar things.

I don't consider minions serious resistance in combat (well not at 500 XP anymore); they're more like speed bumps. Of course, my heavy will mow down a group or two with auto-fire, but it will use up one action: Job well done, send in the reinforcements!

I don't use minions anymore. I already tested them in Warhammer 3 and did not like it for similar reasons.

I only use Rivals and Nemesis. This has an advantageous side effect, which is the fact I have no big problems with PCs combat monsters, like auto-fire + jury rigged and similar things.

I'm interested if you tried throwing big minion groups at the PC's. Groups of 10+ without skill training. Or have you used the Squad&Squadron rules to provide meat shields to Nemesis.

The Book of Asur was fantastic by the way.

An 8-man squad of stormtroopers acting as one minion group is fairly nasty. Sure, they only target one person per turn, but they do it well.

Consider that one stolen as my guys advance....

But, I'm still using it! I could send you a FREE copy instead; well, there's shipping and handling...

Sorry, I'm a pirate, arrr. It's stolen.

This is by far the best conversation on this board in a long time.

Consider that one stolen as my guys advance....

But, I'm still using it! I could send you a FREE copy instead; well, there's shipping and handling...

Sorry, I'm a pirate, arrr. It's stolen.

This is by far the best conversation on this board in a long time.

Thanks, arrr, now gimmee your wallet..........

For me minions are one of the best part of this system. The combat is so cinematic and quick, exactly how I like it, and it's mostly because of the minions rules.

MInion rules are great, I love them. It evokes the fast-phased and cinematic feel of the movies.

Also, per RAW, you can use minions as individuals, you don't have to use them as a group if you don't want to.

I hate them. Dispicable Me was a mediocre movie, but now, those goofy yellow creatures have taken over the internet.

I hate them. Dispicable Me was a mediocre movie, but now, those goofy yellow creatures have taken over the internet.

I hate them. Dispicable Me was a mediocre movie, but now, those goofy yellow creatures have taken over the internet.

https://media.giphy.com/media/13mfGIwrAqiM8/giphy.gif

You're a terrible person.

I hate them. Dispicable Me was a mediocre movie, but now, those goofy yellow creatures have taken over the internet.

https://media.giphy.com/media/13mfGIwrAqiM8/giphy.gif

You're a terrible person.

Muhahahahahahaha

They make my life easier so I love them.

They make my life easier so I love them.

Name (almost) checks out.

As things have been so far, I've tossed in a few groups of minions into combat so that there's a couple actions against the players every round. For instance, the first combat in my campaign uses the stats for antiquated battle droids but I gave them blaster pistols and separated them into 4 groups of 2 and didn't use group skills. Some of my players nearly took full wounds in that combat. It has certainly made combat pretty fierce and challenging for them.

Most recently one play group had a very side-stepping session in which I was forced to resolve a player's entire obligation in 1 session due to him leaving the group. There were a lot of stormtroopers involved, no group skills were used and I gave them Blaster Pistols instead of Rifles. I believe one player is down to 1 wound left and 1 or 2 others have less than half their wounds left. That session was meant to feel pretty epic and it was their first encounter with the Empire yet. Because of the overwhelming odds and it being the Empire, I had them roll a fear check and all but 1 player failed the check. Made for a tough encounter.

For reference it was 4 minion groups: 4 imperial officers (just used the generic rules, 8 wounds, all characteristics at 2), 3 groups of 5 stormtroopers with blaster pistols instead of rifles and a Rival character inside the ship in the middle of the docking bay. No group skills used and the Imperial Officers were mostly doing other things during the combat besides just attacking (they often missed too). The Troopers hit only a few times and nearly took some players out of the combat.

I find that I may need to reduce the number of minion groups in combat because someone nearly takes a crit every time. Then again, that makes combat seem scary and they might consider avoiding it here and there which could lead to some interesting role-playing situations.

I think the problem here is what i like to call D&D syndrome

PCs and GM alike seem to have trouble understanding that a game turn in EotE is not a set amount of time.

Gamers are so use to the idea of the ## second game turn and #-# shots per round.

Where in EotE a round is what it needs to be and, each roll of the dices is a hail of blaster bolts not just one or two.

Minions work because they are the stormtrooper, Jabba's guard, rebel troopers, etc.

They provide a challenge when in groups but will not overwhelm the PC's with 10-15 shots to get the one lucky critical to take them down.