I've talked about giving your players more cool stuff to do with their Hero Points, but what about you? What's in it for you, the GM? Well, I have a fun new mechanic that will make your monsters scarier and your encounters more of a threat: Villain Points! What are Villain Points? Well, they work very similar to Hero Points, granting rerolls or other possible abilities, but it's something that you, the GM, use to enhance your monsters and villains.
Let me explain how they work. At any time, a given enemy in combat has 1 Villain Point. As the GM, you can use a Villain Point at any time a PC could use a Hero Point. A Villain Point provides any of the same abilities that a Hero Point can, save for Heroic Recovery. That one is meant for the players and your monsters should still probably go down when they hit 0 HP. If a creature is a solo challenge or is meant to be a particular notable villain, that creature instead has 3 Villain Points. That's it!
Villain Points are going to make your enemies tougher, though. Even a single reroll every once for each monster will make them deadlier. Keep that in mind! If you want a tougher, deadlier game, go for it! Alternatively, if you want to lessen the impact of Villain Points, I recommend using them exclusively for your boss monsters. You could also make sure that the PCs are earning more Hero Points to help mitigate the impact of Villain Points.
Let me know what you think about the Villain Point system, what adjustments you would make to what I've presented, and whether you've used it in your games!
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