Let’s kick off some activity here with a question:
How much crunch do you, personally, like in your games?
Ultra Lite? Lite? Basic Set? Every book you can get your hands on?
Light on combat, heavy on skills? Vice-versa? Light overall with some aspects way more fleshed-out? Heavy overall with some aspects way more simplified? Are there specific mechanics you like to take full advantage of? Mechanics you like to gloss over?
No wrong answers, let’s just get some discussion going
I find I tend to get sucked into the minutiae of the rules, and then get frustrated by the length of time things take. So, I typically stick to rules-light until something dramatically important happens, where more details can add to the story and it’s worth going more slo-mo for the action. Similar to the idea of using mooks for the most part, but the lieutenants and the boss get full combat options.
This seems like the most pragmatic approach. Personally, in my upcoming game, I’m planning to basically go with my gut while allowing my players to challenge my rulings at any time. If they do, they can reference a specific mechanic they think should be used, and I’ll either agree or counter.
That way, things keep moving most of the time, but players don’t feel like they suffered some crucial irreversible consequence because of flippant or inconsistent rulings. I think putting the burden of finding the rule primarily on the player also prevents overzealous challenges from bogging the game down.