As GMs do you actually stat everything or just benchmark dice pools?

Most of the time, explicit stat. i didn't answer the poll because I don't do it because I "owe it to the players", I do it because I like the 'realism' of knowing all of the dice I roll follow the rules, and often in Shadowrun the devil is in the details. Just assuming you can get another 4 dice isn't always as easy as finding an actual way.

If I need something on short notice, I'll just use NPC's or stats from previous adventures, or from the book.

I just do it according to how challenging I feel it should be. Some punk ganger from the barrens is going to have less dice than a so so shadowrunner. So on, and so forth. I just put the dice pool to about the level of the threat and then fudge a die up or down as needed. The previously mentioned barrens ganger is going to have a dicepool of say 4-5. Then I may fudge it up or down a bit to make the total range be 3-6. The shadowrunner will probably be starting at say a 7, then bump up or down for various things and have an extra initiative pass.

Then I file away how the team fared against the threats so I can know what is not a threat, was is about right, and what is a bit much.

I picked the second option, although the truth is somewhere in between option one and option two. I'm not afraid to fudge to keep the game going if people pick a fight somewhere I didn't expect them to, but for the most part I do like to jot down what people will carry, I just happen to use templates to do so. For example, a low budget but dangerous security force that worries more about cost effective brute force than PR will probably break out the armored jackets and Sandler TMPs equipped with foregrips if shadowrunners come calling, since that's 2 points of recoil compensation and a laser sight for 400 nuyen. That'd give them a shooting dicepool of around 8-13 depending on my whims, since that much is rather easy to justify (3 or 4 agility, 2 to 4 skill, definite 2 for specialization, 1 for laser sight, 2 for Home Ground in case of more experienced senior personnel). Meanwhile the guard stationed at the entry desk behind armored glass only gets an armored vest or jumpsuit and carries a Defiance EX Shocker, since he's not going to do anything but hit the panic button and take cover unless he's escorting out a vagrant or gets caught in a really messy situation. I generally worry more about gear than I do about dicepools, since anything below double digits is usually pretty easy to fudge and justify, so who cares that much about the details? I really only get into real detail when dealing with prime runners and elite troops.

Definitely just try to keep track of a few dicepools and fudge from there. I'm more interested in the story and my player's enjoyment, so if they are having fun, I try to keep that going, regardless of how I roll.

Every 5-10 sessions, I take a look at my player's dicepools just to get a feel for where they are at. I then adjust the opposition appropriately to keep a certain level of difficulty at the table. Again, my players like that.

It depends on the NPC. For random Yakuza thugs, Mafia thugs, gangbangers, security guards, etc, I mostly just wing it. For team leaders, more important solo NPCs, named character opposition, or serious trouble, I write it all up as much as I would for any PC I'm making.

I have a list of NPC grunts, when I use them I just add or substract 1 from the DP for variety...
This means that after a while, grunt who were a challenge will become easy, but they're still there...
None of them were built with BP costs, I don't even know how much any of them would cost...
For unique NPCs, I usually have some dice while designing and do some averaging and rolling to see if it's what I like...
No BPs are ever harmed during the making of my NPCs...

So, you list all an NPC's contacts, karma available, karma spent, extra SINs, all equipment s/he has but is not carrying, address, etc.? For team leaders and named character opposition? That seems a bit of overkill to me. That is all stuff I would expect my players to have on hand, so either I'm expecting too much detail on their character sheets or you spend a lot of time creating character opposition sheets...

Second option here. I jot down the stats/dice pools that are going to be important for the situation at hand, and the gear they carry. From there it's just winging it.

But i will go the extra mile for big, important NPCs, contacts, and prime runners.

Critias has no life!

Apparently...

I do all the options - if I'm statting out, say, a chinese grunt and the entire campagin is going to be based in china, the grunt might get a very detailed treatment. (possibly the most detailed work up in the game, out of anyone)

But in the same game the players randomly decide to go to london, and then on the way antagonize a British police officer who was just there as scenery, I'll totally 100% wing it.

Big Bad Evil Guys tend to get a halfway house treatment, with a mix of key dicepools and gear, but if say.. he gets thrown out of a plane inside a tank while disarming a nuclear weapon and wearing a jetpack, I'll wing the relevant skill pools.

Pretty much, yes. If I bother to give an NPC a name, the odds are good they started out as a character building exercise or a piece of short fiction of mine. That being the case, they generally have quite a bit more detail and attention and background than the average PC in the average game.


Hey! I don't have to take that crap from YOU, Mister Almost Twenty Three Thousand Posts.

Yeah, but I have no life either.