Editing RPG System Symmetries (section)

===NPC vs PC===
Systems should have no mechanical differences between a player character and a non-player character. For the purposes of this discussion, it's only important that NPCs ''could'' be dealt with the same way as PCs. Extra rules to speed up one-vs-group combat, for example, wouldn't count against it.

This symmetry is purposely broken in some games to create a cinematic mood. Effectively the system provides rules to limit resources to some NPC's, typically called "mooks" and give an easier opponent for PC's to interact with.