This week we have seen the rules for minions and swarms. I'm farily fond of the later, but the former still leaves me with some doubts.Thing is, the purpose of minions in movies is to either threaten supporting cast and/ or to make the heroes shine. For instance, stormtroopers are not a particular threat to Luke & the gang, but they manage to destroy (although temporary) C3P0. Same thing goes for orcs and uruk-hai in LotR. Aragorn fight them of by the dozen, but Merry and Pippin are captured by them.
Problem is that you don't "shine" in an RPG the same way a hero does in a movie. Most of the time, using minions that don't threaten the character just results in a couple of pointless die rolls. This is called "waste of time" and not "letting the heroes shine".
So, my suggestion is to go with the same principle as with investigations some time ago: If you want the character to easily fight of these minions: Let him! Just narrate it and move on to the bigger battles. If you wan't it to mean something just make a small damage roll and remove some resources. Then, spend time on the important battles.
The swarms, however, seems mighty cool. They look like a real threat, and convey the feeling I get from movies like the Mummy (the scarabs) or the small dinosaurs in Jurassic Park II.
One of the sample swarms has knock prone as a special effect. I like this a lot, it simulates what you see in the movies in many occcasions. Someone is run down by a swarm of something, trips and is then engulfed completely by the swarm. Very Nice!
And on another note: Today it's exactly two weeks until the release!
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