Re: VnV GM Tips and Advice
Just to chime in:
GENERALLY, I think it's much better to not have villains have much Height Agi or extra Init. If they do, suddenly all the regular INIT heroes are super slow -- which is how it feels anyway in PBP.
Worst is when a player has a Height Agi / Height Speed character & they don't post often enough. Can hang the whole game.
As I stated in other thread (as Oscillator), combos are key. In one game, 2 villains worked our heroes brutally -- but neither was particularly great, but together they worked well (Shroud (ranged shooter with teleport) and Red Sledgehammer (tank)). I thought it was a great fight, but we were unable to hit the shooter -- while the tank was laying our heavies out and taking a lot of hits too.
As for the killing shot --> maybe it's bad of me to say, but if a player drops out of a game I'm GM'ing, that hero is probably gonna get killed pretty quick. Makes baddies worse, motivates heroes, I don't wanna NPC them most of the time, etc etc. Not all will get killed, of course -- some get sucked down a time-vortex and return 50 years older with new costumes and names, etc. HA HA HA
Onto 'special attacks' for NPC villains -- I think it's fine, but their regular attacks should be regular, and maybe 1 out of 20 could be 'special'. But that one special could be their first attack...?