Hello there all.

It's great to see so many Shadowrun fans so active on this board. I admit I was more prone to lurking myself but a #$%#$ problem slows down my game.

I'm wondering if anybody has developed a system for creating different grunts at the differeint professional ratings in Shadowrun 4th edition? The core book does not seem to have such a system, and it is soomethig I could really use?

Any advice from this board would be appreciated. Thanks!

ntsh

3's across the board for attributes, 4's in their really important attribute, and combat skills of 2-3 (maybe with one at 4)? If by "grunt" you do mean just "generic enemy combatant," they shouldn't be too tough to whip up.

Pick stats. Set some to two, the rest to 3, and a couple related to their job to four. Most people are not average across the board.

For skills, stick with two for most, go for three and 4 for ones related to job. Knowledge skills should be mostly worthless to shadowrunning and a dumping point for excess BP.

For equipment: For a simple grunt, reduce the allowed availability to 10 or 8. Most people are not going to have the really, really good stuff.

Now, for advancing beyond the shadowrunner: Use the standard rules, then give bonus karma and use it to advance. Also, raise the availability cap to 14 or 16.

I use the example grunts in SR4 as template. Works pretty well.

Exactly. For just nameless, faceless, plot-unimportant NPCs of the "mow them down in combat" variety -- which is what I assume is meant by "grunts" -- this is certainly enough to get the job done, IMO. Spend BPs and work up full-on character sheets for NPCs that need that kind of attention for some reason; the guys who are just supposed to put the pressure on, sling some lead, scare the players a little, and then die? Screw that, man. Not every Stormtrooper in Star Wars has a full character sheet, y'know?

For my part, I either use the grunts in the book, or just assign a "Grunt Rating" and assume that everything applicable is that rating. Incidentally, I've never used such a Rating any higher than 3.

For my own use, I made a sheet with the stats for six semi-generic squads that could be on stand-by, and be called up by security if the runners ever do something dumb (or roll something dumb). I found it quite useful, so I put it on my Shadowrun Resources page, under "Standby Squads."