OK, the answer is Bushido, the Tyr printing of which came out in mid-1979. It calls its mooks "Extras", and they can have character classes and levels if the GM wishes, but they're strictly one-hit-and-they're-gone dudes.

Dammit Warthur! You beat me to it

I learned that Bushido had the "Extra" system when reading a review of Feng Shui on a French magazine. Apparently the guy doing the review was a old timer who had played Bushido and made the point that the venerable game already had that idea years before.

The more things change...

Wow.  I actually played that game too, but I was 12!  I remember we played it for a few sessions before I actually realized that the GM was using the D&D initiative system and had completely ignored all the rules on counting down to your turn.  That game was kind of cool, though.  I'd love to scan the rules again.  I wonder how it holds up.

FGU used 'extras' in all their games after Aftermath I think, Bushido, Daredevils, Flashing Blades etc etc ...

I posted that ages ago on a thread round 4e but hey ...nobody listens to me :-)

Quote from: walkerpWow.  I actually played that game too, but I was 12!  I remember we played it for a few sessions before I actually realized that the GM was using the D&D initiative system and had completely ignored all the rules on counting down to your turn.  That game was kind of cool, though.  I'd love to scan the rules again.  I wonder how it holds up.

Bushido is excellent. To my mind, the authors have a keen idea of where to stick to historical accuracy, and where to deviate from it in the name of having a fun, gameable situation. You can tell that it started out as a homebrewed OD&D game that drew inspiration from samurai movies instead of Lord of the Rings, picked up some bits of Runequest along the way, and ended up being houseruled to the point that it became a distinct system.

The honour system is particularly good at prompting genre-appropriate gaming; in fact, the rules are carefully balanced to set up a situation that I haven't seen many other games - aside from Pendragon - where genre-appropriate IC behaviour and min-maxing the system are entirely compatible, because the best way to min-max the system is to behave precisely as a samurai or ninja or yakuza or whatever should...

Quote from: jibbajibbaFGU used 'extras' in all their games after Aftermath I think, Bushido, Daredevils, Flashing Blades etc etc ...

I posted that ages ago on a thread round 4e but hey ...nobody listens to me :-)

I think it originated in Bushido, since the terminology is in-keeping with the samurai movies which Bushido was clearly based on...