[solvarn]

How is it decided how many skill points are allocated to Grunts?

[Crash_00]

As far as I can tell its just up to the GM or Dev creating them. Personally, I look at all the skills, decide what the grunt should logically have training in, and then use the ranked system (what each rank level means) to put all these skills at their appropriate level.

[Zilfer]

As far as I can tell its just up to the GM or Dev creating them. Personally, I look at all the skills, decide what the grunt should logically have training in, and then use the ranked system (what each rank level means) to put all these skills at their appropriate level.

Very good Idea.I usually just give them 2-4 dice. Sometimes 6 if i like this grunt. XD

[kirk]

I figure grunts are proto-runners, and as such aren't terribly below the runners' skills. I figure grunts at either 50 or 80 percent depending on who's grunts and other situational modifiers. So if the players' characters run on the 10-15-20 line (10 for minimal, 15 for competent second line, 20 for primary skill), then the grunts are either 5-8-10 or 8-12-16. Named grunts (even if it's "grunt leader") get a couple more dice.

[Zilfer]

I figure grunts are proto-runners, and as such aren't terribly below the runners' skills. I figure grunts at either 50 or 80 percent depending on who's grunts and other situational modifiers. So if the players' characters run on the 10-15-20 line (10 for minimal, 15 for competent second line, 20 for primary skill), then the grunts are either 5-8-10 or 8-12-16. Named grunts (even if it's "grunt leader") get a couple more dice.

Maybe I've been nerfing grunts. xD

[kirk]

I figure grunts are proto-runners, and as such aren't terribly below the runners' skills. I figure grunts at either 50 or 80 percent depending on who's grunts and other situational modifiers. So if the players' characters run on the 10-15-20 line (10 for minimal, 15 for competent second line, 20 for primary skill), then the grunts are either 5-8-10 or 8-12-16. Named grunts (even if it's "grunt leader") get a couple more dice.

Maybe I've been nerfing grunts. xD

heh. Depends on how you want the story to play; and more important whether you want mohawks or mirrorshades in your players.

If the 20 dice player is facing 10 dice foes going pink makes sense. If all of them are tossing 15-16 dice when shooting back at you then maybe using some tactics is a better option.

[Mason]

Yeah, I don't scale the NPCs based on the players, I scale the NPC based on their role and then scale the number of NPCs to the players. If i am sending an elite Red Samurai killsquad vs. my current group for example, I would allocate about 1.5 Red Sams per player, which totals out at 11 Sams to contend with. 2 squads, then, with 2 leaders and 2 mages and each squad starting in different locations on the field, coordinating their attacks. 

YMMV, but I prefer to use the mooks like gangers who aren't very good as plot devices and distractions and the real challenge is the wave after wave of corpsec that keep showing up every 3-4 combat turns while you are deep in the research facility, all of whom use cover and tactics to shoot at the runners without exposing themselves too much while they wait for backup. I wear the runners out and exhaust their ammo before the TOUGH guys show up. =D

[Zilfer]

I figure grunts are proto-runners, and as such aren't terribly below the runners' skills. I figure grunts at either 50 or 80 percent depending on who's grunts and other situational modifiers. So if the players' characters run on the 10-15-20 line (10 for minimal, 15 for competent second line, 20 for primary skill), then the grunts are either 5-8-10 or 8-12-16. Named grunts (even if it's "grunt leader") get a couple more dice.

Maybe I've been nerfing grunts. xD

heh. Depends on how you want the story to play; and more important whether you want mohawks or mirrorshades in your players.

If the 20 dice player is facing 10 dice foes going pink makes sense. If all of them are tossing 15-16 dice when shooting back at you then maybe using some tactics is a better option.

Ah I see.

As to Mason, i've never had a good experience with a situation like that. Meaning more specifically that I as a PC have never been party of a Shadowrun game where it really took place and there was a massive gun shootout like that.

Though if they are fighting through a Corp like that isn't that a BAD thing? <.< I thought you wanted to get in and get out quickly. Are fire fights OK? Mission wise? (again i've been sticking to lower type things like stealing a fansy car from a mansion)

[Mason]

You may find that 400 BP characters who have earned 300+ karma and a couple million yen and have access to the book War! need that kind of action.

[Chaemera]

I've found a very simple system works pretty well for mook skills:

1. Set their "best skills" at Professional Rating +2. If they're really awesome at one of their best skills, give them a Specialty in it.
2. Don't give them more "best skills" than their Professional Rating.
3. Set "good skills" at Professional Rating. Have as many of these as fits the story / mooks.
4. Set their "average skills" at Professional Rating -1 (minimum of 1, of course). Have as many of these as fits the story / mooks.
5. Set their "bad, but still have 'em skills" at Professional Rating -2. Have as many of these as fits the story / mooks.
6. Add specialties for flavor.

How this often ends up working is I'll pick their "best" and "good" skills, then, if another skill comes up during gameplay with the mooks and I think "hey, they'd have that!" I'll toss a few dice at it, using the guidelines for "average" and "bad" skills above.

End result: you have mooks with dice pools that are competitive for their professional rating without exploding all over the PCs.

[Walks Through Walls]

For me it depends on the mook and what their role in the plot is. If it is a group of gangers who aren't supposed to worry the group then I don't give them many or very high skills. If it is the average security guard then I want a couple key skills that are going to allow them to make the players at least pause. As the response teams and high threat teams start rolling in I make them better at their jobs and a higher professional rating.

I also like the idea of an opposing runner team that shows up from time to time, working usually at cross purposes. For my current group I made them about equal to the runners and they have been earning karma as the characters have. The first time they caught the team off guard and mopped the floor with them. The second time (three runs later) they didn't directly get into it, but still pissed off the players.

I like Chaemera's idea and will be borrowing it to work with for future runs.

[Mason]

Heh. When i send a cleaner team after the players, I send a team that by themselves give the runners pause, and then give thme a super special NPC I custom built to be a challenge to the party by himself. The team quickly discovers the best idea is to kill the head guy's backup, and then concentrate their fire on him before he rips out their spines.