I'm wondering what more experienced GMs do about NPC generation: Do you go through the usual chargen/advancement process? Just wing it? Or somewhere in between?

There is no point in going through a complicated char-gen process for an NPC, especially considering that NPCs can range from sub par gangers and office workers, to things like great dragons or immortal elves. An NPC should have stats that make sense for the NPC to have, period. A GM has enough to do without making more work for himself.

Points are a lousy way to set "power level", at any rate, because for the same 400 BP, you can make characters of wildly varying effectiveness.

I give NPCs the stats and equipment I can justify with myself and their percieved power/professional level. No need to break my pretty little head over complicated generation rules.

Agree with above posters, BPs for NPCs is a waste of time. That said, a GM should not go overboard with NPCs and rather give appropriate stats according to what's common and not. Sure, you can find a low-level wage slave with an attribute of 6 or a street Shaman with spellcasting 7, but these should be exceedingly rare and not used unless the situation calls for it or to suprise the players.

I do often think through the stats of NPCs though, especially templates that can be used for generic NPCs. Since they are generic, the stats should be neither too low nor too high but be very close to average for the group. The examples in the book are good to base other generic NPCs on, even though their equipment is hastily done.

I like to keep track of BPs as a general guideline, but don't really use them to limit myself.

I am more concerned with DP than BP.

I voted the 3rd option, but i guess play it between 3 and 4. I try to ballpark it for what im looking for(ie, a bunch of lower powered mooks, more prime), and try to somewhat stay within my limits, but im pretty flexible when it comes to that. If i can get the mooks what they need in 200 BP then im fine with that. Gear i tend not to worry too much about, just whatever fits that ballpark figure and makes sense.

Agreeing with two previous posters. There's too much to do already to start adding karma advancing every NPC. I do have a pretty good "eye" for difficulty level anyway so I always manage to keep my runners near their edge. Sometimes I push them a little beyond that, but, hey, they are a resourceful lot. Plus, some anxiety is good to keep them thrilled.

Cheers!

Max

Very loose: I stat NPCs on the fly.

Me too.

Ditto. It's the only way to go, as far as I'm concerned. I stat most of my npcs more or less on the fly while keeping various dicepool and equipment cost ranges in mind. For example, Armor Vest/Jacket depending on metatype, a firearm that costs no more than 500 nuyen (Whether it's a shotgun or heavy pistol depends on alert status) and a stun baton and shooting/melee dicepools of 8-10 depending on whether they have Home Turf or not sounds good to me for a fairly standard corp grunt.

My thoughts as well. I have a firm grasp of what DPs I can achieve within the rules and I try to stay conscious of where my player's DPs are at. So, I might through down a couple DPs for an NPC (ranged, melee, defense, soak) and a couple details, if needed (spells, special equipment, etc) and go from there. If the players strip down the gear on a bunch of mooks, I'll just look up some reasonable gear and give it to them. Most of the time, they don't care about what the gear is, its simply how much nuyen they may be able to get...