Mortal power

[JayTee]

In the game books, and in the series itself, a lot of noise is made about how badass mortals are when they're right and organized. It's implied that one of the biggest advantages for pure mortals is the fact that our organizations are typically on our side when it comes to supernatural threats, and that the others (White Council, Vampire/Fae Courts, etc) are usually pretty preoccupied with infighting and backstabbing.

The problem is, there doesn't seem to be a lot of support for it in the game. High Resources and Contacts skills and relevant aspects can help mimic good social ties, but that doesn't really seem to be unique to mortals.  The +2 refresh is also neat, but that represents the individual mortal's choice, not their social strength.

Am I missing something in the game that supports the idea that mortals are scary when they band together? Or is it generally assumed that Contacts/Resources should take care of that?

[Dr.FunLove]

I also think it's numbers, mobility, and technology as well.

Mundane human organizations aren't strangers to the politicking and backstabbing either. But ultimately, no matter how disparate mundanes are, there are seven billion of them. Sheer numbers with high powered weapons etc.

I also think that we overlook the lone gunman who's sole purpose is to kill <insert supernatural target>. Dead is dead after all and mundanes overall probably have the largest body count.

[UmbraLux]

Am I missing something in the game that supports the idea that mortals are scary when they band together?

Going purely by game mechanics, an organized group of twenty or so humans should find it trivial to set up and use forty or more aspects in a single exchange.  That should scare most individuals enough to work at avoiding organized opposition from the masses. 

[Dr.FunLove]

And it's considerably easier to rustle up 20 plus mundanes then say, 20 plus wizards or 20 plus vampires etc etc.

[JayTee]

Those are all good points, but how does the average player take advantage of all that? it seems infeasible that you could line up 20+ mortals and have them stack aspects and maneuvers for you to tag. What other options are there?

[Mrmdubois]

Short answer is that the average player doesn't.

Mortals are the go to food source for a lot of the supernatural predators.  There is no special thing about any individual mortal that can balance the scale, either in the novels or the game.  The exception is through the exertion of free will which is incredibly subtle and you'll probably never be aware of all the influence you've had.

Now, in the game you get some balancing by gaining two extra Refresh.  Use it wisely for stunts or extra Fate Points, self compel, accept compels for even more Fate Points, and be crafty and resourceful.  Do that and you can probably take on some supernatural nasties yourself, and with a party you can do even better.

[Tsunami]

Like Harry once said in Summer Knight: "... bringing mortal authorities into a conflict is the nuclear assault of the supernatural world."

The average player might use them as a deterrent, or might hide behind them while still in plain sight to his supernatural foes who dare not reveal themselves.
For gaming purposes, the mortal power is more in passively limiting the movements and actions of the supernatural crowd, than in actively bringing forces to bear against them.
Like nuclear weapons are in the real world. Mostly - in the past, and hopefully completely - in the future, and if we're lucky maybe one day not being at all. But i digress...

Anyways, my point is made.
So long

[Wordmaker]

I don't think it's something to find in the mechanics; it's a narrative thing instead. Pure Mortals get their Refresh bonus, and that's a pretty major boost, especially at lower power levels. But there's no way to mechanically represent the fact that there are simply more humans with more guns than there are wizards or vampires.

There's also the matter of succession. If you kill the head vampire of a city, you create a power vacuum and weaker vampires will clash to see who gets to take over, weakening their presence as they fall to infighting and (sometimes literal) back-stabbing.

If you kill the Chief of Police, the system keeps working because that's what mortals are great at: Organisation. Even if you kill the President of the United States, the most singularly powerful man in the country, the government keeps running and the next in line steps up to take his place. Human society, on a large scale, is a pretty well-oiled machine and can survive losing a few pieces.

The books show us that the death of a single high-ranking member of a supernatural faction can lead to immediate instability and even all-out war.

[Taran]

I just think of any stories/movies where supernaturals "come out".  Like X-Men or any alien invasion-type movie.  Suddenly it becomes the "humanity" vs the "freaks".  Countries put aside differences and band together to take out the threat.  That's a pretty scary thing on a wide scale.

[JDK002]

As already stated, there isn't much in the way of mechanical representation.  The best thing I can think of is allow contact aspects that deal with larger organizations to be at a +3 or even +4, or give multiple +2 tags based on how you rolled.  Though this would need to be under very specific situations as to not be abused.

I'll also point out to consider the game rules are meant to simulate the books.  Which are very personal and (mostly) smaller in scale individually.  So providing a group is holding to that design concept, it's not horribly often a large organization is going to bring a large group to bare against the opposition.

[UmbraLux]

Yeah, one mortal isn't much of a threat.  Even in the books, Harry spends a lot of time and effort on protecting his mortal friends. 

To make a pure mortal significant in the game you really need to keep as many fate points as possible (take few or no stunts) and have some good fate point generating aspects.  Then be creative with aspect creation during conflicts.  The mortal won't have the endurance to stay in long conflicts but they will be capable of an alpha strike.

[noclue]

Short answer is that the average player doesn't.

Unless of course, that player is the GM

[Lavecki121]

Pretty sure he isnt the average though....1/3 or 1/5 or more depending on the game