[Mantis]

The only thing is the IPs kind of mess things up. You have to imagine these guys are as fast as the fastest PC as the GM limited them all to 2 IPs. The baddies had 1 more set of actions than the PCs so that could have been the difference. Against characters without that limitation, yeah no problem. Really, even with the limit, the PCs should have planned that better. A spirit could have popped into the car to let them know someone was in there. Even a watcher. Or a drone with UWB radar. Not bringing their A game did them in as much as anything else. Hopefully they learned a lesson.

[Shadowjack]

That must have been a blast

[Ragmon]

The only thing is the IPs kind of mess things up. You have to imagine these guys are as fast as the fastest PC as the GM limited them all to 2 IPs. The baddies had 1 more set of actions than the PCs so that could have been the difference. Against characters without that limitation, yeah no problem. Really, even with the limit, the PCs should have planned that better. A spirit could have popped into the car to let them know someone was in there. Even a watcher. Or a drone with UWB radar. Not bringing their A game did them in as much as anything else. Hopefully they learned a lesson.

Well the IP was not much of a factor, the Mobsters failed on there attacks, the only factor was that the mobsters didn't get the -1 Dice on there defense for being attacked multiple times from the same source, since they could act on the second init pass. The elf had only 1 init pass, and the troll would have had 3, I think. The problem I see now was that I gave the mobsters too high of a defense....maybe.
They checked the car with the spirit, they knew there were 2 guys in there.
I hope they learned too.

[nightslasthero]

Player 1: Troll biowared combat monster. Mellee guy.
Player 2: Elf, cyber + mage (3 magic), utility spells only. BUT insane Archery skill.

Any mage should not... should not.... have cyber ware. (with really really rare exceptions where the player knows exactly what they are doing and why and with story reasons)

And for the rest I think the character sheets would be required to get a feel of the characters, but I'm going to guess it was just bad character design/choices. I'd really have expected the Troll to come out ahead, but of course the mage seems set up to fail which can bring the troll down.

[Mason]

Player 1: Troll biowared combat monster. Mellee guy.
Player 2: Elf, cyber + mage (3 magic), utility spells only. BUT insane Archery skill.

Any mage should not... should not.... have cyber ware. (with really really rare exceptions where the player knows exactly what they are doing and why and with story reasons)

And for the rest I think the character sheets would be required to get a feel of the characters, but I'm going to guess it was just bad character design/choices. I'd really have expected the Troll to come out ahead, but of course the mage seems set up to fail which can bring the troll down.

Unless it isn't a true mage. There isn't anything wrong with a character with minor magical abilities and some cyber. The difficulty arises when you compare it to the street sam build.

[RHat]

Player 1: Troll biowared combat monster. Mellee guy.
Player 2: Elf, cyber + mage (3 magic), utility spells only. BUT insane Archery skill.

Any mage should not... should not.... have cyber ware. (with really really rare exceptions where the player knows exactly what they are doing and why and with story reasons)

And for the rest I think the character sheets would be required to get a feel of the characters, but I'm going to guess it was just bad character design/choices. I'd really have expected the Troll to come out ahead, but of course the mage seems set up to fail which can bring the troll down.

Unless it isn't a true mage. There isn't anything wrong with a character with minor magical abilities and some cyber. The difficulty arises when you compare it to the street sam build.

It's exceedingly difficult to make such a thing functional, however.  For the most part, new players should consider magic and augs mutually exclusive so they don't screw themselves over.

[Reaver]

Without question, IPs are a runner's best friend! They are what allow a small team of skilled "professionals" to take on squads of security members, military forces, and all the assorted creepy-crawlies of SR.

The biggest mistake you made from what I see was giving mooks 2 IPs when you put a hard cap of 2 IPs on the runners. If you are going to do that, then practically everyone else should be limited to 1 IP... Except maybe über baddies and bosses... (IP ware is expensive for corps to be throwing it around on average Joe security forces... Especially when the average Joe security guard deals with nothing more threatening then an angry wage-slave pissed off cause of a glitch in the scanner means he gets a pat down, instead of just walking through the scanner on the way to his office.)

Also, the players own choices and builds worked against them all the here. The troll SHOULD have used his most deadly attack.... To make up for the Mage NOT using his bow.

And as for the Mage..... Well, 'crippled at creation' would be a good term for this character (ESP for someone new to the game!!) no combat spells, a low magic rating, and NOT using a preferred weapon??? Yea... Good luck