Hey everyone.

What are some techniques that people use to create NPCs for runs? Do you use the 400 BP system like with PCs? Do you just randomly shotgun Attributes and Skills together and hope that it works in the game?

I'm trying to come up with stats for NPCs in my first run as GM, but building characters from scratch seems a little daunting to me. I also don't want to just randomly assign numbers into Attributes and Skills for fear that I'll underpower the NPCs to the point of removing the challenge, or overpowering them to the point of frustration.

Any advice you kind folks can give me?

Build points are not a good method to balance NPCs. One, it takes way too long, and two, build points aren't a good indication of power level.

What you need to pay more attention to is dice pools. Look at how many dice the sample NPCs are tossing for their specialty, and extrapolate a bit from there. Give NPCs rough stats, and only put down what is relevant for that encounter.

For example, you are making a street samurai who is supposed to be tough, if not quite as good as the PCs. Maybe he rolls 14 dice with his main weapon, 12 dice with his secondary weapons, and about 6-8 dice for tertiary skills. So give him physical Attributes at base 4, mental Attributes at base 3, then, for example, cybereyes with smartlink and some vision mods, muscle replacement: 2, wired reflexes: 2, and dermal sheath: 2. To get those dice pools, he has pistols: 4 with a specialization in semi-automatics, edged weapons of 4 with a specialization in knives, and automatics with a specialization in submachine guns. For gear, he has an Ares Predator IV, and Ingram Smartgun X, and a survival knife, and for armor, an armor jacket.

NPCs should kind of make sense for what their role is, whether that is more powerful than the PCs, or less powerful. It depends on how they are encountered, too. If this guy shows up and points a gun at the hacker, the hacker had probably better call for help, but not give this guy a reason to shoot him (assuming this NPC is not stupid, and doesn't have wireless running for his guns and cyberware). If this guy faces off against the group's sammie, the PC is likely to win, but with some effort (or be at a disadvantage, if the PC is more of a generalist build). If the group's mage overcasts manabolt at this guy from inside a parked car with one-way tinted windows parked across the street, this NPC will likely topple with his brains running out his ears.

For more general advice, I would start NPCs off erring on the side of weakness first. A few easy kills won't mess up the group too bad, but getting wiped out by a too-powerful NPC will. Although you should tell the group that if the enemy is too powerful for them, and they are losing, they can run away.

Keep in mind, for confrontations that you have planned, the PCs should have superior dice pools. Giving the NPC the same dice pool basically means that 50% of the time, the PCs will die! So they should have an edge, unless it is, for example, a situation where they shouldn't be rushing in (if they are meeting with a Yakuza obabun, they will be facing superior opposition, and will be likely to die if they start something and then don't run when it becomes apparent they are outgunned).

Also, don't balance every single NPC to the characters. Jobs they are hired for, enemies that you design for them, sure. But the mall guard shouldn't have pistols: 6 just so he can be a challenge, nor should the Aztech Leopard Guards be toned down to make it a "fair fight" if the PCs decide out of the blue to take them on.

Hope this helps.