The Big Bad and surviving round 1

[luminos]

Put his minions in groups, bump up their skills by one or two to represent the size of the group, and you'll have both a better paced fight, but a closer one as well. 

If it ever comes down to a fight between just the group and the vampire, expect them to waste him in about 2-3 rounds without too much trouble, so make sure you can swarm the minions at them to make it into a real fight. At their refresh, you might need a minor god to take them on when they are all together.

[wolff96]

And then when/if he survives round 1, he might note that yeah, the PCs are going to kick his ass.  Then he runs, and it turns into a fight AND a chase, and above all an opportunity to wreck MORE of the guy's mansion and the surrounding countryside!

I would seriously consider having the senior RCV have a very well-disguised minion standing in for him during the first contact.  Make *sure* the PCs get all the right opportunities to see through the disguise -- do NOT make it a foregone conclusion.  If they do see through it, they'll be looking for the man behind the curtain (and congratulating themselves on seeing through the disguise).  If they don't, then the poor-sap of a minion gets whacked in round one.  I would use the minion as the mouthpiece as well: Deliver the threats through him, though since the PCs already know, it won't have the desired effect from the master's point of view.

When the PCs obliterate the minion -- or realize that it's a fake -- go with the quoted post above.  Regardless of how it happens, a chase scene is going to be more interesting than a straight-up slug-fest. 

He's a very old RCV.  Such predators don't get a chance to GET old unless they're smarter than most of the people hunting them down.  He has his escape routes planned, he's got minions to slow down pursuit, and he (thinks) he has all the right alliances in place to stop people in the first place.

I would even consider tossing in a stunt -- something like "Blindly Loyal Minions" that he can invoke with a Fate Point to transfer a hit to a minion in the same zone.  Mainly becuase I love the image of some senior Vamp dragging a luckless minion in front of a really nasty spell, letting the minion get incinerated to save his own hide... 

[eberg]

I've just run a fight with a big bad in their lair being assaulted by the PCs. My big bad (a Hecatean Hag) not only survived the first round, but got away with 'nary a consequence. The key, I found, was in the minions. I had a handful of cultists whose only purpose was keeping them away from their mistress while she finished her ceremony (half of them providing Blocks, half attacking) and a bunch of spirit hounds to keep the PCs attention. Also, as has been noted, in Aspects on the zones and scene. The Aspects HARVEST MOON and AUTUMN EQUINOX made for some powerful magic getting thrown around. In the end, I had two PCs taken out and the remaining two happily accepting a concession from the Hag after her ritual failed, allowing her to escape.

As a side note, if you are worried about over-use of Aspects per exchange, you could institute Diaspora's context system, where you can only invoke one aspect per context per roll. So, one personal Aspect, one scene Aspect, one zone Aspect, one Aspect on the target, etc.

[tymire]

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I mean come on if you make the guy the Red Baron, you at least have plan it where his minions slow the party down long enough so he can get into his plane and have at least one flyby exchange, even if the players knock him out of the sky he should still be a threat as with his toughness he should survive it (if any red court could actually fly/glide he could).

You would just be wasting a perfect opportunity otherwise.  Come on can you just imagine the player’s faces when they hear the roar of an engine, after finding a couple medals and pictures in his house if they didn’t know who he was before….

Nevermind the fact that a machine gun (weapon 4) that could hit multiple zones is seriously dangerous when he starts tagging aspects and that’s discounting anything else he could have on it (there are so many wonderful things you could put in a crop duster, unless want to go with simple napalm bombs or nerve gas).

*Shrug* would also be great to let him get away and come back to help the pc’s later against the actually big bad…  As he would have known someone sold him out.  Most intelligent wouldn't go after the pawns (the pcs) as much as the guy behind the attacks.