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Creating Balanced Enemies

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Wed, 2010-08-11 23:30

thatoneguy thatoneguy's picture

Creating Balanced Enemies

Greetings all, I'm creating a campaign for my gaming group but I'm a definate newcoming to GMing (and I've never played a game of Eclipse Phase (EP) before). The story is coming together but I'm having a problem; how do I create balanced enemies? By that I mean, what stats should I give rank and file enemies so that they'll present a challenge without being as poweful as the people playing the game? I'd like to create 4 classes of enemies: - something relatively weak that poses a danger if they gang up on the players, similiar to zombies - police/soldier type enemies that work in squads - Nova crabs (I have a chase scene through a sewer) - small combat bots I plan to give my boss enemies enhanced player stats (generate them from 1500 or so CP).

Thu, 2010-08-12 00:05

MysterFord MysterFord's picture

Re: Creating Balanced Enemies

I've yet to play EP, so I can't comment directly. That said, in my GMing experience, there are two factors at play here: First, know your players and their characters. If your group loves combat, and all their morphs are tricked out for combat, then you need pretty tough "zombies" and it just gets nastier from there. If they're all like my wife, who loves to play hacker-types with no/very little physical combat skill, the challenge level may need to be notched down. If the group is mixed bag (which is most likely) then a good smattering of challenges should do. Now, the other factor is on the GM side: don't set the stats you make up in stone. If you think you've got a good challenge scene going, and then suddenly the PCs are walking all over your nova crabs, you've got choices. You can give it to them as is, an easy victory. Those are nice every now and again. Or you could bump up some the stats on the nova crabs. Don't tell the players, just watch them enjoy the harder challenge. If you go too far in that direction, and see that the PCs aren't even scratching the crabs, adjust again. While it may fly in the face of some GM philosophies, I believe in on-the-fly, real-time GMing. I prepare ahead of time and all that, but when the rubber meets the road, no plan survives first contact with the PCs. Being flexible, knowing what your players and their characters want, and doing your best to make sure that everyone (including you) is having fun; that is what being a GM is about. So, now that you've gotten lots of touchy-feely advise, how about I answer your question. Balance, if you have to have it, is largely a mathematical construction in some way, shape, or form. Using CP from character creation is as good a way as any. So, if you want the mooks to be .25 the strength of a PC, build using 250 CP, etc. Or be a cheater and use the NPC Files that came out last week. Gives a good jumping off point for a lot of this sort of thing.

Thu, 2010-08-12 00:11

ssfsx17

Re: Creating Balanced Enemies

I wouldn't worry about "balanced" encounters in Eclipse Phase too much - it's just not that kind of setting. Instead, I would try to ensure that it is at least possible to run away, then come back and grab everyone's cortical stacks, if things go south.

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Thu, 2010-08-12 00:59

cenrae

Re: Creating Balanced Enemies

I agree with what MysterFord said. I have also come up with a quick guide for generating my NPCs. Two tables one for Aptitudes and the other for Skills Cenrae's Grunt NPC System Total Aptitude Points w/o Morph bonuses Child average 20 points Adult average 55 points Transhuman average 90 points Enhanced average 125 points Superhuman average 160 points Posthuman average 195 points And Average Skill Ranks Rookie/Green Exp 15 to 30 pts Average/Regular Exp 30 to 50 pts Experienced/Veteran Exp 50 to 70 pts Elite Exp 70+ pts Then I adjust in the game as needed.

Thu, 2010-08-12 06:43

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: Creating Balanced Enemies

My experience is that a smarter enemy is far more dangerous than one built with more points. PCs have the overwhelming advantage that they have one brain per character, while NPCs at best get to share the brain of the GM. So planning ahead can make enemies potentially much more dangerous. For example, enemies who actually keep behind cover and lure the PCs into a clear killing zone will do very well. Sending out gnats and specks ahead, having someone set up a distraction or hack a bit of equipment, or just focusing all attacks on a key character also works well. The PCs see in the visual spectrum? Turn off the lights. They are hacking the system? Why not put in a honeypot that will distract them? They are using lasers? Turn on the sprinkler system! But the most interesting kind of attacks are the ones that come through a completely unexpected dimension. In one sf game we ended up circumventing the dungeon crawl into the Evil Corporation's sub-basement lab by doing a leveraged hostile takeover - as chairman of the board my character just asked to see what his new acquisition did in Lab Omega, and took the executive elevator down there. Similarly, a smart enemy might have media coverage (and supporters!) so any attack will look (or be) criminal and bring in all the civil authorities. And innocent bystanders the PCs might not want to hurt. Of course, this kind of thing is tricky to come up with on the fly. I try to think through a bunch of possibilities for each group of enemies they could use, and then use them if it looks things would be too easy. Similarly it is easy to have one of the enemies "slip up" if things look too hard. One of the nice things about EP is that it is OK to kill morphs. The characters will come back from backup, slightly annoyed. So it is not that problematic if the enemies end up too deadly or smart - there will be a return match.

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Thu, 2010-08-12 09:53

Thunderwave Thunderwave's picture

Re: Creating Balanced Enemies

MysterFord wrote:
While it may fly in the face of some GM philosophies, I believe in on-the-fly, real-time GMing. I prepare ahead of time and all that, but when the rubber meets the road, no plan survives first contact with the PCs. Being flexible, knowing what your players and their characters want, and doing your best to make sure that everyone (including you) is having fun; that is what being a GM is about.

+ 1,000,000 This is something I tell every new GM. It's something that took me years to figure out on my own, as there where no other GMs where I was at the time and I was only a teenager at the time. Once you get the hang of that and eyeballing your PCs and getting a feel for what they can handle, you'll be good to go.

Arenamontanus wrote:
My experience is that a smarter enemy is far more dangerous than one built with more points. PCs have the overwhelming advantage that they have one brain per character, while NPCs at best get to share the brain of the GM. So planning ahead can make enemies potentially much more dangerous. For example, enemies who actually keep behind cover and lure the PCs into a clear killing zone will do very well. Sending out gnats and specks ahead, having someone set up a distraction or hack a bit of equipment, or just focusing all attacks on a key character also works well. The PCs see in the visual spectrum? Turn off the lights. They are hacking the system? Why not put in a honeypot that will distract them? They are using lasers? Turn on the sprinkler system!

Also note that the "one mind" of the NPCs can be a massive advantage. You don't need to table talk with yourself to set up a plan like the Players do. >.> And stats aren't always the key. Like he said, use the environment to the NPC's advantage. I don't know about you, but if I was going into armed conflict with someone, I'm going to fight to win and if I know the fight is coming to me, I'll make sure it's on my "home turf" so I can have every advantage I can.