[Rockopolis]

How do I balance enemies to my group?  Is this something you're supposed to pick up after you've played a while?
Critters or Augmented Animals, for example; how many and which kind are a 'fair' challenge?  Or do I throw in what seems like the correct amount and fudge the dice either way?

[Dakka]

Just go with your gut.  One grunt per PC plus a Lieutenant seems about fair.  If things start going south you can lay off the group Edge, generally PCs will find a way to win. 

The second toughest challenges my team (Samurai, Gun Fu, Mage, Rigger, Troll) ever faced were a 10 man SWAT unit using EX-E Ingram White Knights and Ares Alphas with gas grenades plus Milspec armor.  They had 1 mage.  Our troll took FOURTY TWO bullets to the chest and came out with only stun damage, no serious injury.  When the mage died and 6 of the 10 were toast the last 4 fled.  Fight took place in a shipping yard, so there was cover enough to hide behind and try to avoid machine gun fire while the troll advanced down the middle.

The toughest challenge my team ever faced (we had lost the rigger, so just Samurai, Gun Fu, Mage, Troll) was two squadrons of elite Renraku Red Samurai.  Each was an 800 BP prime runner.  There were 2 each of Mages, Sneaky strikers, Heavy Weapons, and Leaders.  EACH came with at least 4 Edge and wasn't shy about using it.  They came at us from 2 directions and our mission objective was in a crashed vehicle about 2 blocks towards squad A.  Oh yea, they also had a Cyberzombie with 11.95 essence of 'ware.  It was a scheduled meet to exchange packages, but Renraku was chasing our target.  We set up early so Gun Fu and Mage were in a sniper position and lucky enough Gun Fu had a 8P rifle with -7AP APDS ammo which meant any net hits got 16P minimum which broke their Milspec armor (barely).  Our mage was able to channel some counterspelling of their mages casting and used a force 11 stunball to thin their ranks.  They were too spread out for that to be the end of it tho, and Mage eventually went down.  Gun Fu had to first aid him so he wouldn't bleed out.  Eventually we got the package and made a get away.

Both of these challenges seemed a bit ridiculous on paper.  Outnumbered 2 to 1 by heavily armed and armored foes.  I remember thinking early in the fights we were so going to die. 'Runners usually find a way.

[Charybdis]

How do I balance enemies to my group?  Is this something you're supposed to pick up after you've played a while?
Critters or Augmented Animals, for example; how many and which kind are a 'fair' challenge?  Or do I throw in what seems like the correct amount and fudge the dice either way?

There's no simple measure of this, as Shadowrun can mess with you with one lucky dice roll or some good terrain, positioning and tactics.

I have a couple of little comparisons I run through to help me be fair though
- Who has the better Weaponry?
- Who has the most combatants?
- Who has Magical support?
- Who has better armour?
- Who has the most favourable terrain?
- Who has the LEAST limitations (capture only, must save VIP, must get physical device etc)

Score 1 point for each of these answers, and tally up the results.
Anything at 3:3 is about fair
Anything at 4:2 is a good advantage
Anything at 5:1 is a MASSIVE advantage
Anything at 6:0 should be a certain victory

Note: I know there are more variables than this, and there are some terrain and limitations that in themselves give an amazing situational advantage.

But like I said, this is a good guideline.  From here, have a few more thoughts about the specific situation at hand:
- Are there any Aces-up-the-sleeve that either side can pull?
- Are there any backup troops on hand?
- Do you have equipment that will specifically work/be nullified by either group? (ie one PC's Reaction is just too high for any grunt to hit)
- Are there any special actions that will be particularly useful here (Stealth, Suppressive Fire, Concealment, Traps...)
etc etc

Shadowrun can swing either way for any fight very quickly, so this is really a judgement call for every encounter. Hopefully the above will help

[Tagz]

It takes some time to learn how to balance it out and even once you've done it a while you'll sometimes be thrown a wammie by an unexpectedly effective (or ineffective) combo or tactic.

But the quick and dirty way is this: backup.

Send in a small group.  If they get turned to swiss cheese send in another group of the same guys, only this time a couple more.  Lots of ways to make this happen in game: last man standing radios for help, biomonitors on the guards alert others, etc.

But really, unlike lots of other systems SR really makes tactics a powerful thing.  A group that takes cover, coordinates their efforts (shoot the mage first, etc), falls back to superior positioning, etc, can be more dangerous equipped with holdouts then go-gangers who stand out in the open with LMGs.

[Loki]

Also know your players. If you've players who can come with bizarre yet effective tactics on the fly you can throw more at them.

[CanRay]

Of course, if you come up with the weird and wonderful...

I once had a lawn stand up and start beating on the group's safehouse in LA.

[aimlessfreak]

Of course, if you come up with the weird and wonderful...

I once had a lawn stand up and start beating on the group's safehouse in LA.

Earth spirit?

[CanRay]

Plant Spirit, actually.

They had just extracted Goofy from DisneyLand, and found out why they call it "The Magic Kingdom".  The Mouseketeers having a group trained in SWAT, wielding SMGs and driving Jaguar Sports Cars with LMGs mounted in them also surprised the group.

[Charybdis]

Plant Spirit, actually.

They had just extracted Goofy from DisneyLand, and found out why they call it "The Magic Kingdom".  The Mouseketeers having a group trained in SWAT, wielding SMGs and driving Jaguar Sports Cars with LMGs mounted in them also surprised the group.

Well, now we know why Disney land is so damned expensive. They're training paramilitary groups!

[CanRay]

Actually, according to rumor, DisneyLand and DisneyWorld are designed with extensive bomb shelters in them, as they were built during the Cold War.  Their security is also extensive, yet discrete.

By Shadowrun time, I can easily see them having SWAT teams and magicians summoning swarms of Watcher Spirits to keep a watchout.  Even their Special Effects Magicians with Magic of 1 or 2 can summon those easily.

The people in the suits are still heavily abused, however.

[Charybdis]

Actually, according to rumor, DisneyLand and DisneyWorld are designed with extensive bomb shelters in them, as they were built during the Cold War.  Their security is also extensive, yet discrete.

I'd believe it. Walt was a bit of a mad hatter. Brilliant...but crazy

By Shadowrun time, I can easily see them having SWAT teams and magicians summoning swarms of Watcher Spirits to keep a watchout.  Even their Special Effects Magicians with Magic of 1 or 2 can summon those easily.

Any magician (even Shadowrun special effects guys) can be upgraded in short order to make Runners' lives difficult.
Actually stage magicians especially.... Have you seen the Drain on a Trid Phantasm spell? 

[James McMurray]

I've been thinking about this same question as I get ramped up for our new campaign. I tend to look at these things mathematically. for example:

Look at each PC's reaction. This will be his baseline defense against most physical attacks and helps determine the appropriate accuracy for the NPCs. Since expected results from a die roll are Pool / 3, an average foe should have an accuracy equal to the average reaction in the group * 3. If it's a melee foe they should have skill at least equal to the average of the group. This means that on average they can expect 0 net hits. Weaker foes should have fewer base dice, while stronger foes should have more.

You can do the same with damage ratings and soak, willpower + counterspelling for many spells, and the NPCs' defensive pools.

One thing to keep in mind is action advantage. If there are a lot of enemies in the fight the numbers should reflect that, because more dice rolls means more defensive penalties for multiple attacks combined with more chances to roll really high.

I'm still working out the kinks for Shadowrun, but this system has worked well for me in other dice pool games like Exalted and Scion.

[Dakka]

Your math is way WAY off.  If I have a reaction of 5 dice and you have an accuracy of 15 dice you are VIRTUALLY GUARENTEED to hit every time.  Remember, the defending character also rolls his reaction and gets an expected result of reaction/3 in hits.  If you want bad guys that generally miss then their agility plus whatever weapon skill should be equal to the highest reaction in the group, or even just Agility = Reaction and let the weapon skill carry them over.  That way both sides are rolling roughly the same amount of dice and the results are 50/50.

[James McMurray]

Yeah, sorry. That's a holdover from before I changed the thrust of that paragraph from damage to accuracy.

Here's what I've got so far, where the bolded values are the averages of that stat for the PCs.

Weak foe:
Reaction = physical attack accuracy - 3
Ballistic Soak = (physical damage * 3) - 3
Physical Attack = reaction - 3
Impact Damage = (impact soak / 3) - 1
Ballistic Damage = (ballistic soak / 3) - 1

Average foe:
As weak Foe but without the minuses.

Superior Foe:
As average foe +3 reaction, +3 ballistic soak, +6 accuracy, +2 damage.

[Man Who Walks At Night]

Also, keep in mind, its perfectly OK that each encounter is not balanced, its not supposed to, its not a movie scripted to have a specific outcome of each fight.

My runners often have a bunch of encounters during the run where they easily demolish the foes, if every encounter was an even match, few people would survive the shadowrunning business. 4 generations (editions) of shadowrun has taught me that its the stupid runners who die, not those without enough firepower or reaction, and I implement that in my campaigns, as long as my players play it smart and safe, they can usually survive without being blown up, but combat is not the main focus of my campaigns, in fact, we sometimes have entire sessions (10+ hours) without combat, or with minimal combat.

But really, just go with the flow, backup is one solution, but keep in mind combat in SR is really fast, 30 seconds - 1 minute and its often over, backup is usually not THAT fast, except spirits - they are always good for backup - Don't make combat the determining factor between a successful run and a failure, use it as one of many obstacles needed to overcome to succeed, as long as you stick to that, you don't need to worry about balance too much and will soon learn to judge what is good opposition against your players.

Oh, and of course, changing stats of enemies on the fly, fudging with the dice etc all works as well, if you have a group of players who accept that kind of thing from their gamemaster, my players trust me to be fair and to do whatever is needed to keep the game fun and challenging.