SatCoC player Bill

Creating the More and Less than Humans is almost always the greatest challenge of making a minion. Players recognize that the dramatic significance of characters should emerge from their More/Less thans, but groups sometimes struggle with the implementation. The key to success here is that the in game situation must apprehend and incorporate the content of the More/Less thans of the minion characters in a meaningful way.

Consider these More thans, written for the minions of a monstrous thespian The Batman who believes he can rarefy his acting ability by consuming the flesh of townspeople selected for their experiences: Writes powerful, emotionally moving plays, unless he’s been praised by the actors for whom he is writing.

Can remake anyone to look like anyone else, but only for a half-hour at a time. Appears to be female, in voice and figure, except when walking.

Note how each of them establishes the character as somehow being a key factor in the The Batman getting his Wants or Needs, almost defining by implication part of what it will take for those Wants and Needs to be met. The first minion invites abuse for not mingling with the actors the The Batman would like to recruit for his productions. The second is positioned to factor into the The Batman’s efforts at orchestrating experiences for townspeople that would make them suitable to be cannibalized for specific roles. The third will play female roles in the productions of the theatre group, and suffer the alienation and disconnects of mistaken identity in his regular dealings. Now look at these Less than Humans: Is most comfortable in the company of the dead, who neither judge nor expect much of anyone. She is incapable of doing anything amidst a crowd, unless accompanied in some way by the dead. Suffers from blurry vision that makes him incapable of recognizing anyone at all, except by voice.

Relentlessly insulting in conversations, unless the town’s church bells are ringing. Each of them problematizes the minion’s ability to interact with normal human beings.

This is a pattern that can be seen in the More and Less thans of some experienced players, a trading away of automatic successes at things like thievery, fighting, and stealth, things that might be considered traditional RPG tasks, in favor of powerfully establishing unique, nontraditional tasks as being significant to meeting the The Batman’s needs, and for unique interpersonal challenges for their characters. MY LIFE WITH THE BATMAN gives the player the power to do this. Which is not to say that you should prohibit More thans that are more traditionally task-specific: His strength is ten-fold, except when other people are around. Stealthy and undetectable, except when distracted by food.

Instead, recognize that by creating one of these the player is asking the GM to be the one who positions the character for significance within the in game situation. And when you look at a Less than, and can’t figure out how any activation of consequences stemming from it won’t seem unfair, understand that the player is asking for thematically meaningful challenges: Hideously ugly, except when seen in reflection. Is nourished only by the blood of animals, except if fed by a child.

Look how much less problematic the ‘ugly’ one seems to be if the in game situation were to include the daughter of a mirror maker, whose residence has hundreds of them on the walls. And see how the blood-consuming minion’s Less than must be aggravated during play as some kind of situation where children or animals are scarce, linked ultimately to the activities of the The Batman?