I was looking at the holoweener stats in sr4a, and thinking it could be tweeked alittle bit, to provide more challenge without increasing the actual "points" invested in it. Like 1500 in hand razors being re-invested into something usefull. dumping the close combat skill group for one or two skills with specializations. changing the gear or drugs to maybe get a hit on a runner, or surprise them,or challenge them a little more.

I'd suggest using tactics instead of changing the stats. Standard "L" ambush, or giving the Halloweenies the high ground, or some such. Just a thought.

sure, tactics are a big part of it. but that usually only buys them a round. all they can do is fire a heavy pistol and scratch somebody for 2p. you can throw a large number in cood cover or droping from the cielings, but they also have no stealth and no dodge. also, I can't picture a military tactition in their ranks either. but maybe if they had a homemade grenade full of nausea gas, it woulld give the runners pause

Or, a few stolen high-grade freeze foam grenades. Or a splash grenade with DMSO and narcoject...

All good ideas, but it might be a more memorable encounter if it kept to the Halloweener's theme. Not suggesting you go comic book gadget here, I doubt anything in the Green Goblin or Joker's arsenal is going to make sense in Shadowrun, but those boys are pyros.

Play it in a couple scenes, maybe as before or after action between serious runs. Let the PCs crush some HWs in a standard gang brawl as the first scene, then have the HWs hit them in retaliation in a second. Drive-by attacks are probably a good idea here, just to let the PCs know they're targetted. The objective of these little skirmishes is to either have the PCs hurting the HWs so bad that they have to make an example of the PCs, or have the HWs hurting the PCs enough that the PCs will decide to take them on.

Once the ball is in play, the HWs are going to try and arrange to have the PCs locked in a burning building, while they wait outside with automatic weapons to pick off anyone who escapes. This can either be accomplished by having the HWs using incendiary weapons on the building the PCs are in, perhaps chaining the doors shut ahead of time, or suckering the PCs into a building the HWs have prepared as a firetrap.

The point of all this running around is to get the PCs into a position where they are facing a lethal threat that they weren't expecting. Smoke will do Stun damage, fire will do Physical, and the building is filling with both. They have only seconds to find a way out of the building before they're cooked. The burning building can hurt the PCs more then anything else the HWs could assemble, and as the Joker pointed out, it's cheap.

That's a pretty good idea...

*Wanders off thinking evil GM thoughts*

Actually a lot of US gangs today are sending members with clean records into the military to get the training and bring it back to the gang. Not to mention that having a few fellow gang members driving supply trucks and inventorying weapons doesn't hurt their cause.

I'd also like to add that I used to know an OG CRIP who could kick most of your asses at chess and liked to quote Machiavelli. In prison you have a lot of free time.


But back OT, I can't picture those arson crazy weenies doing much more than chucking molotovs and spraying lead. Try making a couple of sub lieutenants that have better gear than your average grunt but worse stats than an actual lieutenant, that way you can throw a squad of 3 grunts 2 subs and one Lt at the group instead of just 5 grunts and an Lt. Actually, I really like that idea... *scribbles furiously*

On a side note, what do you call an officer who uses potty humor? a LOO tenant!

Hmm...couple good ideas there. You could have a leader (or an ambitious Lieutenant who can take the reigns after the PCs bump off the boss for them) who was genuinely smart, but insane. The Joker is the obvious example here, but he doesn't actually have any real form of insanity, which makes him hard to write for, beyond 'giggling killer'. I would suggest paranoid schizophrenia, which in broad and wildly inaccurate terms is a combination of believing they are being watched and conspired against combined with a complete inability to tell what's real from what they're only imagining. Here's my take on it:

The Big Man is a figure of legend to the Halloweeners. Most only ever hear of him - he spends most of his time in a chair, staring at a dead Trid set. He will sometimes sit there for days without eating or sleeping, with his disciples watching eagerly for his latest plan or revelation. When those come, they are ambitious and incisive, and completely without remorse for damage or lives lost. He's a hero to the Halloweeners.

The Big Man wasn't always a crimelord, of course. He used to be Edward Biggs, a professor of history at the University of Washington. Nobody's quite sure what caused Biggs ' breakdown, but four years ago he was found screaming in his office. His psych evaluation reports that he suffers from a belief that authority figures are hosts to Insect Spirits; he admitted that for weeks prior to his breakdown he had seen wasps entering and leaving the Dean's body during staff meetings. He eventually began to see signs of infestation in security staff and even students. He believes that the Insect Spirits have taken control of the highest levels of the Megacorps, and are spreading the infestation down through the ranks. When the therapist confronted him with evidence that he was mistaken, he became convinced that the therapist was 'one of Them'. He escaped from the hospital the next day.

When next we hear about Biggs, he is leading a squad of Halloweeners in the infamous June 14 arson/bombings at the MCT building. The multi-stage attack killed 23 people, and is one of the most grisly acts of terrorism in Seattle in recent memory. Further attacks by his group follow a similar pattern - complex plans that deliver maximum death and destruction. He is reported to be dedicated to wiping out the infestation - he believes he is fighting for the future of metahumanity, and that the victims of his crimes were monsters. He draws inspiration from classic military history and the greatest criminals of the past, and is devastatingly effective.