The Gaming Den

I was watching the whole of the G.I. Joe cartoon movie a couple of weeks ago and something really odd struck me about the way the series presents it's main characters.

The Joes only use named characters with mooks as 'defensive' NPCs.

Cobra uses mooks as both aggressive and defensive NPCs; but it also uses its named characters in all sorts of wierd roles.

Like, their genetics scientist Prof. Mindbender (wtf name is that? I didn't even remember him or his name at first; really it's b/c he wasn't made into a disctinct enough character; they should have designed him as always conveying the look of a evil scientist; not a hulking handlbar moustached, monocled part-german in a trenchcoat with openings).

Mindbender is.... an offensive character, wtf?

I could understand Destro, the Baroness or Cobra commander; but the scientist? It seems wierd.

Probably b/c they don't have a lot of named Cobra characters and needed more to keep certain scenes interesting.

While the Joes have only named chars, so they can just pick a few thematic characters and set a scene up (Winter Scene? Frostbite and one of the other 'arctic' joes; a 'big' fight? Gung Ho and Roadblock punching out Cobra mooks).

It also gives me an idea for how to run a campaign and handle using multiple BBeGs + Mooks vs PCs.

BBeGs are always sorta tricky to handle, in my experience. They have to have some serious badassery (if you'll forgive the term), but you've got to find excuses for them not to just rush in and score a TPK in two or three rounds. So walking that line is something, but then there's the burden of creating an interesting character, not just "Korei Deathson, Generic Dark Necromancer, Serial Number 39396-B7904."
Hm. A thread discussing decent BBeG shticks might be worth starting...

The BBEG doesn't need to have serious direct badassery. The Korei Deathson, Generic Dark Necromancer doesn't have to have alot of combat power, his power is the ability to summon hordes of mooks to terrorize the neighborhood. All he really needs is some callsign so you know it's his zombies rather than just generic MM zombies (maybe they're purple), and some way to stall for time when you break into his inner sanctom so he can escape -- like some golems or better undead critters. Depending on level, escape can be as simple as teleport, or as complicated as running down into the catacombs, where you have to chase him while fighting off even more hordes of undead.

GI Joe is a 1E Spycraft game, where PCs and important NPC have PC classes and mooks have NPC classes.

Hell, Dr. Mindbender was even a Scientist with the unlocked potential class feature in Profession (hypnotist). Seriously.

Nowadays G.I. Joe is an Agents of Freedom for M&M. Don't own a copy myself, but I'm guessing G.I. Joe is listed as one of the better-known inspirations for AoF.