hey there,

can anyone give a run down on how an adversary is presented in the rules? is everything you need to run one displayed in its listing? i've always been put off by references to feats/talents that are elsewhere in the rule book.

thanks

Regarding your specific question about talents, adversaries with talents have a brief description of the talent in their entry.

Generally, adversaries are fairly easy to run straight out of the book. You should not have to look up much, if anything, when you run them. They are typically presented as follows:

• Name [a rating of either minion, henchman, or nemesis]
• A short description of the adversary
• Characteristics
• Skills
• Talents - with a brief description
• Abilities - with a brief description
• Equipment - with a brief description

Minions are adversaries that the PCs can mow through quickly, they only have skills when acting in groups and a single critical wound can finish one off. Henchmen provide slightly more challenge and may have skills, but are still not quite the level of a PC and any strain they suffer is converted to wounds. Finally, nemesis NPCs are basically the same as PCs and follow almost all the same rules with regard to Critical Injury, strain, etc.

I like the distinction between the three, and the different handling of damage/skills. Definitely helps to make it feel more like the films, where the heroes gun down about four stormtroopers in a single encounter.