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Grunts

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Cantor

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« on: <09-01-11/1419:52> »
As the repertoire of Catalyst Shadowrun books grows year by year, I've seen players get better and better. Look at things like Form-fitting Body Armor, or new drones that simply trump ones from the core book. Great players have myriad options to get faster, smarter, better. All of this leads to bigger dice pools.

Now comes my caveat. What about the poor Grunts? They've been static since SR4A (unless I've missed something). What can we do to bring these poor schmucks up to speed?

Deliverator

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« Reply #1 on: <09-01-11/1424:56> »
What exactly is a "poor grunt"

CanRay

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« Reply #2 on: <09-01-11/1437:59> »
*Cough*  The same gear maybe?  Or stuff that Shadowrunners look at the Availability rating of and sob manly tears (Yes, even the women)?

EDIT:  All grunts are poor.  The pay at that level is horrendous!
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FastJack

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« Reply #3 on: <09-01-11/1449:35> »
I can appreciate what he's saying... Consider the poor Lone Star Corporate Guard, with his Willpower 3 and no mage around to give him a counterspelling bonus. How's he supposed to effective resist a Force 12 Stunball?

Deliverator

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« Reply #4 on: <09-01-11/1450:40> »
I can appreciate what he's saying... Consider the poor Lone Star Corporate Guard, with his Willpower 3 and no mage around to give him a counterspelling bonus. How's he supposed to effective resist a Force 12 Stunball?

huge amounts of luck?

CanRay

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« Reply #5 on: <09-01-11/1517:49> »
I can appreciate what he's saying... Consider the poor Lone Star Corporate Guard, with his Willpower 3 and no mage around to give him a counterspelling bonus. How's he supposed to effective resist a Force 12 Stunball?
Hey, what about the poor magician whose bleeding from the nose, eyes, and ears from the drain of doing that powerful a spell?

Doesn't he get no lovin'?
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Critias

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« Reply #6 on: <09-01-11/1530:02> »
I can appreciate what he's saying... Consider the poor Lone Star Corporate Guard, with his Willpower 3 and no mage around to give him a counterspelling bonus. How's he supposed to effective resist a Force 12 Stunball?
He's not.

The Sixth World is a bitch.

Deliverator

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« Reply #7 on: <09-01-11/1533:23> »
He is only there to observe and report... Maybe lone star should start issuing biomonitors set up to automatically send out a distress call when the guard is unconscious/dead

Cantor

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« Reply #8 on: <09-01-11/1536:36> »
He is only there to observe and report... Maybe lone star should start issuing biomonitors set up to automatically send out a distress call when the guard is unconscious/dead

I think this is a good point. Biomonitors aren't that expensive. Certainly less than cyberware to 'jack up your security detail.

CanRay

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« Reply #9 on: <09-01-11/1546:49> »
He is only there to observe and report... Maybe lone star should start issuing biomonitors set up to automatically send out a distress call when the guard is unconscious/dead.
I've already told my group they have these.  No one argued.

Also, it prevents the usual problem of security guards falling asleep while on duty, allowing those terrorist Shadowrunners doing whatever they want!
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Cantor

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« Reply #10 on: <09-01-11/1607:43> »
What exactly is a "poor grunt"

The poor Grunts are those NPCs on pp280-284 of SR4A who don't benefit from equipment upgrades at the same rate as players.

For example, I'm thinking of the Lone Star officer who was never issued that PPP Shin Guard. Even such a simple thing as a gun with a smartlink.

We spend all day optimizing characters, but nobody has optimized the NPCs along with them.

CanRay

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« Reply #11 on: <09-01-11/1610:16> »
Those are just suggestions, you can build them up or down from there.
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Deliverator

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« Reply #12 on: <09-01-11/1612:17> »
Notice that there are no ridiculously optimized characters pre-made by catalyst. All these optimized and stacked characters are made by PLAYERS and its the players and GM's job to make NPCs accordingly. All the pre-made NPCs are just a starting point to give you an idea of who/what these people are, it is entirely up to the GM to optimize them as he/she sees fit.

Cantor

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« Reply #13 on: <09-01-11/1634:43> »
Notice that there are no ridiculously optimized characters pre-made by catalyst. All these optimized and stacked characters are made by PLAYERS and its the players and GM's job to make NPCs accordingly. All the pre-made NPCs are just a starting point to give you an idea of who/what these people are, it is entirely up to the GM to optimize them as he/she sees fit.

Okay, so I need to move this conversation to a different forum. Is that what you're saying?

Deliverator

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« Reply #14 on: <09-01-11/1636:24> »
Not really, generally beefing up the NPCs is on a case by case basis. Most GMs have stopped using the pre-mades and just make their own all together. There are some NPC generators out there now if I am not mistaken.