Short version: If you know the scene from Aliens where the automatic weapon is set up in the air duct, blasting apart the oncoming bug-things--until, ominously, it runs out of ammunition—let’s just say I’m trying to make a scene like that.

Background: I’m running a one player campaign, with the core character (a shaman) and some NPC that are somewhat shared between myself and the player (tactically he controls them for the most part, but I make them available or not, give them their own agendas, and use them to make suggestions. In the midst of a flurry of mini-missions running from Christmas Eve afternoon through early Christmas morning, that group managed to sit down to exchange presents. The shaman bought the more-or-less Samurai a firing platform (ah, Christmas shopping at the Crime Mall….).

As soon as he chose that, I just knew I had to run something like that scene, where it is effectively guarding their rear….for a while. (Ultimately I want the mage to be forced to be casting spells on more than one front,

But in ShadowRun we are actually rather short on creatures that are:
- not too big/tough/fast (i.e. a light machine gun or maybe even assault rifle can mow them down)
- mindlessly aggressive enough to keep charging into automatic fire

So I’m looking for suggestions. I’m almost wondering about some excuse to use a swarm of self-directed drones? (or possibly AI directed, fairly disposable, drones, that it is willing to throw away to consume ammunition?) But if there is a critter type out there that would work for this, that would be great too. And for either the drone or critter example, any thoughts of places in/around Seattle that would work well for it would also be appreciated. (I’ve previously used devil rats driving swarms of regular rats, in the Orc underground. Turns out barrier spells work great against rats, so this time it needs to be something with a little higher damage potential, and probably not quite the same scenario—part of why I’m looking for outside input, to keep the encounter fresher)

Suggestions?

Bugs can provide plenty o cannon fodder.


Problem I see is if you got barrier spells handy, anything that can tear through these may well shrug off your autofire as well.

Devil Rats...

...possessed devil rats.

I tend to use feral ghouls for that sort of situation and then handwave the infection rules, which are pretty batty. You could also imagine an army of low grade drones controlled by an uncaring, insane or feral AI/sprite. That said, I think Devil Rats mixed with Demon Rats is a better solution in this case. Good call, Rad.

Thanks for the thoughts so far

As I'd mentioned, I had attempted a swarming before, with limited success. In full it was a ghoul aspected mage working with three demon rats who commanded some devil rats who commanded large numbers of normal rats. It was impressive how much damage a demon rat with complete surprise and a good dice roll could do to even an armored orc, but other than that a barrier spell plus a good sized spirit trivialized the encounter (although in all fairness, it was smart use of player character abilities which left the player happy, so it was all good in the end). Would have been different if I'd had the ghoul in more immediate support range.

Anyway, because of that I'm not sure I'd do a literal rat-swarm again just yet. But feral ghouls and low grade drones could both work. As for bugs.... insect shamans have rules in Street Grimoire, and they can summon insect spirits, and some insect spirits can possess people.... but do they actually have access to large, dangerous, bugs?

Possibly a little plagiarised, but what about a horde of frenzied kamikaze junkies, or chipheads on some sort of freakish bunraku baresark personafix?