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Relecs
Hey Dumpshock

I've recently been working on a game (as some of you may have noticed due to my recent surge of activity) and today I began planning some grunts. I began by planning a basic turf ganger (as opposed to the go, matrix, or wiz variety) and I realized that the metatypes don't balance to well. I tried to take the build points out of the attributes equal to the race points but when it comes down to it the troll ganger is a lot more deadly than any others, any thoughts?

-Relecs
Jhaiisiin
That's normal. A troll ganger will stereotypically be strong and tough, but not smart or charismatic. And really, that's as it should be for your average street-troll who fell in with the wrong crowd.

Is it stereotyping? Big time. But it's also very likely how it'll be.

Just roll with it. Your teams should be able to handle some lightly to moderately armed and armored gangers. If they have trouble, just reduce the number of opponents, or leave the Trolls for "boss" fights.
Whipstitch
If you keep their gear reined in it shouldn't be so bad. A high Body attribute is attractive to anyone, but half the appeal is the way it lets you stack armor, and not everyone will have the interest or know-how to bother gearing up like a Street Samurai every morning. A Body 7 troll or ganger with racing leathers or an armor vest is a tough cookie, but he won't really be beating a Body 4 Elf Samurai's soak pool if the professional is going with a full-on Armored Vest/Jacket and FFBA setup. The Strength score is less of a worry, overall. It's a good complementary attribute but doesn't really help their dicepool size any, while the troll reach bonus tends to be mitigated by their low Agility softcap. So it hurts if they connect, but proficient hand-to-hand runners should be able to prevent your average ganger from doing so. What I'd be most careful about is the number of gangers you use. The "friends in melee" and the "have defended against a previous attack" modifiers can be a lot more dangerous than a point of Strength or Body here and there.
Mäx
QUOTE (Relecs @ Oct 21 2010, 07:26 AM) *
I've recently been working on a game (as some of you may have noticed due to my recent surge of activity) and today I began planning some grunts. I began by planning a basic turf ganger (as opposed to the go, matrix, or wiz variety) and I realized that the metatypes don't balance to well. I tried to take the build points out of the attributes equal to the race points but when it comes down to it the troll ganger is a lot more deadly than any others, any thoughts?

If your talking about melee, then thats how it should be, big Troll ganger hitting you is supposed to hurt much more then the elf pretty boy hitting you.
And on the other hand, thel elf pretty boy armed with an SMG is gonna be more deadly then the troll.
Aku
So, how do you guys generally "make" you're metahuman grunts? do you just add the difference of the meta max stat and human stat and call it a day? obviously, a lot of people dont want to go through the bother of completely making a character as a grunt, but the core book, at least, doesnt have a wide range of grunts.
Jhaiisiin
Yeah, that's basically it. Adding the racial bonuses in is a super fast way to do it.
Whipstitch
It gets easier to adlib unexpected encounters once your table has developed its own style and you've got a firm grasp of what the "average professional" dice pool range is in your game. Your game may feature dice pool sizes that are a die or two larger or smaller than mine does, but as long as you're fairly consistent with how tough various flavors of opposition are your players aren't likely to really cry foul. Gear and specializations also gives you quite a bit of wiggle room too, particularly with firearms. Your average corp kiddy weekender who learned everything he knows about his Warhawk from the trid may be rolling 5-6 dice. But some Zoner who has smartlink shades and grew up plinking devil rats with his treasured Predator? You could be looking at someone with 9 or 10 dice after the link and a specialization. My players have sorta learned that even low end opposition may be 3 or 4 dice better than what "3 is average" would lead you to believe. I personally like it that way, but YMMV.
Relecs
Thanks for all the advice on this, I think I've got a general idea of what is and isn't okay. I helped a few of my players tweak their characters as none of them are quite as creation savvy as I am and I hope I can create a deadly and yet survivable environment. Look for me in my newest thread...Types of enemies?

-Relecs
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