True enough, if you ignore the rules which do not allow you to call a shot to an opponents eye nor to ignore his/her personal armor with a gunshot, then it doesn't really matter what the rules say about armor protection in general.

Back to the original situation: like Crusher Bob said, 4/6 for a firearm-related skill for an average ganger is way too high, unless this is some "elite" gang. Even if they handle the weapons constantly, unless they've trained extensively with them or use them in action all the time, I wouldn't give them higher than maybe 2/4.

Still, you can do some great things with 2/4. AK-97 + GV-2 + Laser Sight + Shock Pads + 2 mags of EX-Ex = ~3,000 Attacking the rushing troll with 8 dice against TN 4 and a Damage Code of 13S = priceless.

You've miscalculated the troll's armor, too. The armor rating of the Form Fitting suit is still halved, even though there's no QUI or Combat Pool penalties for it. A half-suit would only provide 1 point of Ballistic and no Impact in that set-up. He'd have Ballistic 7 (AJ 5, FF 1, TBL 1)/Impact 4 (AJ 3, TBL 1). Also note that the purpose of BOD rating in parentheses is to show the rating as augmented by magic/cyberware/etc, so I assume it should be written as BOD 10 (16) -- +1 from being a troll, +3 from Dermal Plating-3, +2 from Titanium Bone Lacing).

Now, those 3 attacks of 13S with an average of 4 successes behind them each are starting to look a bit worse. He'll need 10 successes per burst to stage them down to nothing with a TN of 6 for the Damage Resistance Test, and his Dodge TN is 5.

The morale of the story? Get Recoil Comp and make sure you know the rules better than any powergaming players.

When the troll rushes into the melee, is he attacking several of the gangers at the same time? If so, he takes a cumulative +2 penalty on every attack after the first (as per sr3.122-123), regardless of whether those opponents are effectively fighting back. If the gangers aren't effectively fighting back, though, you might not want to apply the Opponent Has Friends In Melee (+1/Friend) penalty. That's very debatable, though -- if he's attacking all 4 gangers at the same time, they're certainly all fighting back at the same time.

The troll is running in the Combat Turn in which he attacks the gangers, correct? He's then taking an additional +4 to the TN (+6 if on difficult ground, as per sr3.108).

Do the gangers have the Clubs skill? If so, they get to use their Rifle Butts as an improvised weapon with that, for a Reach of 1. I assume you are well aware of the fact that the SR Companion 'strongly' recommends the GM to consider carefully before allowing any character to have Aptitude in a Combat, Magical or Computer skill.

So, back to the TNs: If my assumptions are correct (troll was running, gangers have Clubs skill, and you do not give either the Friends In Melee bonuses/penalties:
Troll vs. Ganger #1: 4 + 4 (running) - 2 (net reach 2) - 1 (aptitude) = TN 5
Ganger #1 vs. Troll: 4
Troll vs. G2: 4 + 4 (running) - 2 (net reach 2) - 1 (aptitude) + 2 (second target) = TN 7
G2 vs. Troll: 4
Troll vs. G3: 4 + 4 (running) - 2 (net reach 2) - 1 (aptitude) + 4 (third target) = TN 9
G3 vs. Troll: 4
Troll vs. G4: 4 + 4 (running) - 2 (net reach 2) - 1 (aptitude) + 6 (4th target) = TN 11
G4 vs. Troll: 4

If you interprete it so that Friends In Melee counts, you get the following TNs (Troll vs Ganger, 1 through 4)
8 vs 2
10 vs 2
12 vs 2
14 vs 2
Unless of course some gangers die along the line, in which case the following TNs for the Troll drop by 1 per dead ganger starting from the first and rise by 1 for the gangers after 2 have died.

It's definitely the specialization if that is used for the test itself -- the wording is that it's up to the rating of the skill used for the test. The adept power Improved Ability is indeed limited by the base skill.

There are lots of penalties that aren't on the Melee modifier table. For example, sustaining a spell, or suffering the +2 from prior shock weapons. The penalty in melee for sustaining a spell is described in the section on sustaining spells. The penalty in melee for electrical shock is described in the section on shock weapons.

The penalty in melee for movement is described in the section on movement.

In the section on Astral Combat it describes that astral movement does not affect target numbers for astral melee. It wouldn't need to describe this exception if there wasn't a TN penalty for movement in regular melee.

Whether these rules reflect real-life is a different discussion. Whether people should house-rule a TN benefit for charging into melee is a different discussion. I'm just presenting canon rules.

Doesn't charging into melee give you a bonus in the form of +2 to the power level of your attack? I believe that is the rule given in CC, at least.

Right, but the troll is running, giving the gangers a +2 TN because hes moving.

Sure, so the troll still has effective 2 reach on them.

Well, now, with mine its:
Troll vs. Ganger #1: 4 + 4 (running) - 1 aptitude = TN 7
Ganger vs Troll: 4 + 2 (Troll running) +2 inferior reach = TN 8
Troll vs G2: 4 + 4 (running) -1 aptitutde +2 (second target) -2 reach= TN7
G2 vs Troll: 4 + 2 (Troll running) = TN 6
Troll vs G3: 4 + 4 (running) - 1 aptitude +4 third target = TN11
G3 vs Troll: 4 + 2 (Troll running) + 2 inferior reach = TN 8
Troll vs G4: 4 + 4 (running) -1 aptitude =6 (Fourth target) -2 Reach = TN 11
G4 vs Troll: 4 + 2 (Troll running) = TN6

With mine you get:
10 vs 5
10 vs 3
14 vs 5
14 vs 3

Of course, if you give the Troll a combat with a whirling maneuver, they drop down to:
8 vs 8
8 vs 5
11 vs 8
11 vs 6

Or, give them one with multi-strike, the mild reduction in power won't hurt the troll, and will drop TNs to hit the gangers by:
G2 -1TN
G3 -3TN
G4 - 5TN. Making it quite painful.

Obviously if the troll does it right, he can still make it rather nasty for the gangers, especially if he only attacked 2 instead of all 4 at once.

Even better, on the last gangers, he could do a knockdown attack rather than normal melee, its not likely he'll get many successes, but if he beats them, they'll garunteeable get knocked prone for the next round, making them almost pathetic.

I took that into account with the gangers' TNs to hit the troll in my first post.

Yes, and as you can clearly see from my numbers I took that into account as well. You just used it to increase the TN of the gangers, I used it to decrease the TN of the troll.

As for the running penalty for melee combat, I'm with OurTeam. The modifier is already considered to modify some actions for which it isn't specifically mentioned for. I rather think it's specifically mentioned for ranged combat to make that table as complete as possible. Running on sr3.108 says you get the +4 to TN for "any tests attempted while running", and, as OurTeam said, it doesn't say melee combat is exempted from this.

Eh? It's quite clearly written in the RUNNING section on page 108 of my SR3 (9th printing, and there's no errata). "Characters who are running take a +4 target modifier to any tests attempted while running (+6 over difficult ground)."

Looking back, no, you didn't. The gangers TN to hit troll is 4, when it should've been 6. or, later when you give friends in beatdown modifiers, 3. You obviously didn't take this into account.

"Target Running" or "Opponent Running" is not a TN modifier for melee combat. The +2 TN modifier is only there on the Ranged Combat Modifiers Table. There is no flat +2 TN for attacking a running character such as there is a flat +4 / +6 TN modifier for doing just about anything when you are running yourself.

If the troll uses the Net Reach modifier to lower his own TN, and you don't count in any Friends in Melee bonuses, the gangers' TN is 4, just like I said. If Friends in Melee bonuses are taken into account, it's 2 for all the gangers like I said. If the troll uses the Net Reach modifier to increase the gangers' TNs instead of lowering his own, just increase all TNs all around by 2 -- except for the gangers in the Friends In Melee Bonus scenario, that only rises to 3 (since the TN would actually have been 1 with the Friends bonus, but is automatically raised to 2).

The +2 TN was taken to account in my first post about attacking the troll with the AK-97s, however.

This is the exact same logic that you refuse to accept about the running penalty not being applied on the troll.

Argh... No, it's not. Try reading the RUNNING section on page 108 of your SR3. Notice how it says the +4 (+6 over difficult terrain) TN modifier counts for any tests attempted while running. There is no such rule for targeting the running character, the +2 modifier for that only appears on the Ranged Combat Modifiers Table.

To be a leader of a gang you're probably going to have to have at least a melee 3 and a ranged weapon 3, and quite possibly a four in one or the other. I don't know why everyone is getting into such a tizzy. I really doubt they worked their way to a management position by being good at pushing pencils.

Build them however you want as long as it challenges your players and doesn't challenge the believability of the game world.