If you're willing to extrapolate backward from SR4, the new BBB has stats for Red Sams and Tir Ghosts, along with many others.

Opposition (ProRtg)_B__A__R__S__C__I__L__W__Ess__Init__CM__Skill
Humanis Goon (0)__3__2__2___4__1__2__1__2__6____4+1_10__Club1/Unarm1
Humanis LT (1)____3__3__3___4__2__3__2__2__6____6+1__10_Pistl2/Unarm2
...
Lone Star(3)______3__4___4__3__3__4__3__3__6____8+1__10_Pistl3/Club3/
________________________________________________________Unarm3
...
Red Sam(5)_______4__5__6__4__3__4__3___4__3.8__10+2_10_Edg3/AssltRif5/
________________________________________________________Unarm4
...
Tir Ghosts(6)______4__6__7__4__5__6__5___6__2.6__13+3__11_AssltRif5/
_________________________________________________________Unarm4


...somebody could figure out how many karma beyond a 400BP character it took to get these skillsets.

I really don't think the "superior" rating was meant to be a perpetually self-adjusting thing. I think it means superior to a normal team of char-gen runners - a tweaked and min-maxed team of char-gen runners might actually be fairly close to that spec ops team (just less well-rounded), while a street-level team of faces, lightly-cybered ex-company men, ex-gangers, etc. might get mercilessly slaughtered if they ever went toe to toe with the big boys.

But the whole point of the rule, in my opinion, was to make it easier for a GM to stat out the opposition on the fly when such situations come up, not to create a rigid, illogical rule that opposition that is marginally better than the PCs will always remain so no matter how much the PCs improve.

Red Sams (if you are not picky about what type of Red Sams) can be found IIRC in First Run.

Aren't all Renraku security technically Red Samurai, anyway?

Ah, First Run. In a book that has "trainee" Red Sams, there is a Cyberzombie and a meet with a AAA mega CEO. Good times for newbies.

Always things you should run into, in your first three or four adventures.

I've always thought of the ratings as a guideline for GMs to make a judgement call as and when situations come up.

For example, in SR3, based on the skill level descriptions, fluff text, etc., I first built a "typical" spec force soldier giving him the stats and skills which would correspond with a RL D-boy, SEAL, etc.. That gave me a rough idea of how much karma it takes to create a spec force soldier. I did the same for some other archetypes/professions, like smugglers, bodyguards, etc.. This gave me a frame of reference for judging if the opposition was superior or what-have-you to the PCs.

As we played on, the PCs improved and got to be as good as spec force units. This did NOT mean that there were no longer any spec force units superior to them in skill and training. It meant that there were far fewer individuals or groups who were superior to them. As I wrote stories for my campaigns, I would take the frame of reference I had done for myself and then ask myself how realistic it would be for the PCs to encounter Inferior/Equal/Superior/etc. opposition at various points in the campaign.

I certainly don't agree that a whole organisation/unit like the Red Samurai should be labelled Superior in general and ALWAYS be better than the PCs no matter how much they improve.

I generally thought the point of the ratings for NPCs was that the people writing adventures and souce books have no idea what we are playing in term of power with there games.

We could be a gritty street campain where all characters have low skills and more mental flaws then you can shake a stick at. Or we could be playing liqued metal trolls. (Well not many of us but we could be)

That been the case writting up the best of the best Renraku has to offer might be so far beyond the players they could never touch them, or so weak the liquid metal troll would eat them all up.

With that in mind its prolly true to say that the ratings should be fixed as there the ratings for your game. Of course there should always be a challenge for your players and it is possible to have better then adverage supeior NPC and also worse.

I would say the ratings were a guide not set in stone. So My answer seems to be there fixed and fluid. Hmmm some help I am....