Stormtrooper effect: Encyclopedia II - Stormtrooper effect - Manifestations

Stormtrooper effect - Manifestations

The Stormtrooper effect may manifest in several different forms.

• Cannon fodder are extremely poor combatants who, regardless of their supposed training or weapons, cannot inflict harm upon the protagonists.
• Cannon fodder are extremely easy to defeat despite any armor or protective cover, each one typically requiring only a single shot or blow to defeat. This is used in the official Star Wars D20 RPG, and the Mutants and Masterminds RPG, where Stormtroopers and other thugs do not possess 'Vitality Points', which mimics the 'character shield'.
• When an important character is injured, the wound is usually trivial and not life-threatening.
  • Even if an important character's wound is severe, it only enhances the dramatic effect of the scene and is rarely incapacitating. If it is incapacitating, they can still get CPR and survive.
• Cannon fodder can accomplish something against comparable numbers of other cannon fodder, to establish they are good, but not against the overwhelmingly smaller numbers of main characters. This has given rise to the notion that when protagonists are present, the fodders' combat skills degrade. An example would be the death of Luke's family. (Precise shots, imitation of Tusken Raiders...)

Stormtrooper effect - Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship

Critical observers sometimes make jokes, like: "The Nazis in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade must all have studied at the Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship." -- meaning, of course, that they were inexplicably poor shots.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Manifestations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki