DarkKestral
First Post
Shadowrun is an interesting beast, because it SEEMS like ratings are low, but PCs can easily have dicepools of 15-20 dice at character creation in their areas of specialty. Don't worry about it, it's encouraged, and generally, most won't get much better than that, no matter how long the game goes. There are a few builds that can achieve 30+ dice in an area of specialty reliably, but they're obviously meant to stay JUST within the rules while totally violating the spirit of them, or require large numbers of xp. If anyone shows up with such a thing, just throw 'em out, unless everyone else does the same, in which case your party is likely to be balanced.
This tendency towards specialization is balanced by the fact that even ridiculous builds tend to have fatal weaknesses that are surprisingly straightforward to exploit. This encourages balanced parties, and so niche protection is surprisingly good, so smart players will rarely complain when the street sam picks up some hacking skills and some programs to support the primary hacker, or the mage picks up some stuff tom make 'em a better face, as long as they don't horn into another PC's specialty too much, because typically, they'll have decent ratings (around 10-12 or so) while the specialist will be significantly better (15-18 dice in their specialties, and perhaps somewhere around 22-24 dice in the things that they are best at), so the street sam in this example would generally remain secondary to the primary hacker, really only serving as backup in case of incapacitation, or helping out by focusing on something the primary hacker isn't well-equipped to carry out.
However, technomancers and adepts are kind of funky, in that they can outclass mundane hackers and street sams, respectively, but they have to really specialize to do so, and it only becomes apparent at high xp or when they're incredibly well-built. (I've heard varying statements about when this is, but it's at high enough numbers that most players wouldn't reach that level until a year or two of play, assuming standard xp rates) I personally think they're not the best character archetypes for the average starting player, if only because they aren't straightforward in how they play, so be willing to tell players that those archetypes are just a bit more fiddly than the others.
One last thing to consider when thinking about archetype balance is that due to changes in SR4 compared to prior editions, combining hackers and riggers in the same group can be a problem. In previous editions, they were fairly different mechanically. In SR4, they use a lot of the same skills, share similar mechanics, and use similar gear, and that's all intentional, so they can step on each others' toes accidentally. However, riggers should focus their money primarily on enhancing their drones and vehicles, and hackers should focus on upgrading their comlinks and programs. Technomancers can sort of blend the two roles, and often function somewhat like a rigger when "hacking", and like a hacker when "rigging" when played well, so be aware of that. I would try to have your players combine the two roles into one, but if they can't, try to tell those two players that avoiding stepping on each others' toes will have to be partly their responsibility, and that they may want to work out what is acceptable mixing of the roles between themselves, so both parties are aware of the limits and don't overstep them.
The other thing to consider is that your players should be allowed to have milk runs where the opposition are significantly weaker than the PC runners occasionally, because shadowrunners are somewhere between paramilitary forces and very highly paid thieves. The game encourages specialization to a high degree, and as such, well designed characters represent elite professionals in a tough field straight out of chargen, assuming standard bp at chargen or standard chargen karma rates. Assuming everyone else is even better is kind of like saying the PCs are average professional sports players, but everyone else they encounter is an MVP in the same sport, when pro sports players are fairly rare, and only a few MVPs exist in a sport at any given time, so they stand out even in a field comprised of pros. Really, they should wipe the floor with the average schlub who will have a rating of 2 or 3 in a attribute and a rating of 2 to 4 and maybe a specialization in the skills necessary to their profession, as those are the baseline averages in SR4. The only things many runners would face which should be equivalent or better than them are well-paid corp security, experienced rival shadowrunners, certain Awakened critters, insect spirits, cyberzombies, and Great Dragons. They should not meet these things too often, save the first two, because nearly all of the things on the latter part of that list are meant to be terrifying to experienced players, and for new players, they should be out of the question.
There's also a certain level of "Is this practical and/or sensible?" you should ask yourself before committing to having heavy security in an installation. The corps have lots of money, but it should be assumed that they try and go cheap wherever possible, just so they can maximize their profits. In other words, if it's not thought to be important, don't protect it like it's important.
Last but not least, let the players surprise you, and roll with the punches. If your players end up making a difficult run unexpectedly easy and there's no obvious reason to have a High Threat Response team or something similar show up to block them, don't have one show up just because. This is an extension of the "milk runs are OK" rule, which also covers "It's OK for the Johnson to not only not screw over the PCs, so much so that it's not a bad idea to actually have a helpful Johnson once in a while." Some of the best parts SR for players are when a run comes together just as planned. If they plan well, maintain stealth, and generally keep their heads together, they deserve a milk run. If they plan poorly, charge in, and lose their minds on a run, give 'em all you've got.
This tendency towards specialization is balanced by the fact that even ridiculous builds tend to have fatal weaknesses that are surprisingly straightforward to exploit. This encourages balanced parties, and so niche protection is surprisingly good, so smart players will rarely complain when the street sam picks up some hacking skills and some programs to support the primary hacker, or the mage picks up some stuff tom make 'em a better face, as long as they don't horn into another PC's specialty too much, because typically, they'll have decent ratings (around 10-12 or so) while the specialist will be significantly better (15-18 dice in their specialties, and perhaps somewhere around 22-24 dice in the things that they are best at), so the street sam in this example would generally remain secondary to the primary hacker, really only serving as backup in case of incapacitation, or helping out by focusing on something the primary hacker isn't well-equipped to carry out.
However, technomancers and adepts are kind of funky, in that they can outclass mundane hackers and street sams, respectively, but they have to really specialize to do so, and it only becomes apparent at high xp or when they're incredibly well-built. (I've heard varying statements about when this is, but it's at high enough numbers that most players wouldn't reach that level until a year or two of play, assuming standard xp rates) I personally think they're not the best character archetypes for the average starting player, if only because they aren't straightforward in how they play, so be willing to tell players that those archetypes are just a bit more fiddly than the others.
One last thing to consider when thinking about archetype balance is that due to changes in SR4 compared to prior editions, combining hackers and riggers in the same group can be a problem. In previous editions, they were fairly different mechanically. In SR4, they use a lot of the same skills, share similar mechanics, and use similar gear, and that's all intentional, so they can step on each others' toes accidentally. However, riggers should focus their money primarily on enhancing their drones and vehicles, and hackers should focus on upgrading their comlinks and programs. Technomancers can sort of blend the two roles, and often function somewhat like a rigger when "hacking", and like a hacker when "rigging" when played well, so be aware of that. I would try to have your players combine the two roles into one, but if they can't, try to tell those two players that avoiding stepping on each others' toes will have to be partly their responsibility, and that they may want to work out what is acceptable mixing of the roles between themselves, so both parties are aware of the limits and don't overstep them.
The other thing to consider is that your players should be allowed to have milk runs where the opposition are significantly weaker than the PC runners occasionally, because shadowrunners are somewhere between paramilitary forces and very highly paid thieves. The game encourages specialization to a high degree, and as such, well designed characters represent elite professionals in a tough field straight out of chargen, assuming standard bp at chargen or standard chargen karma rates. Assuming everyone else is even better is kind of like saying the PCs are average professional sports players, but everyone else they encounter is an MVP in the same sport, when pro sports players are fairly rare, and only a few MVPs exist in a sport at any given time, so they stand out even in a field comprised of pros. Really, they should wipe the floor with the average schlub who will have a rating of 2 or 3 in a attribute and a rating of 2 to 4 and maybe a specialization in the skills necessary to their profession, as those are the baseline averages in SR4. The only things many runners would face which should be equivalent or better than them are well-paid corp security, experienced rival shadowrunners, certain Awakened critters, insect spirits, cyberzombies, and Great Dragons. They should not meet these things too often, save the first two, because nearly all of the things on the latter part of that list are meant to be terrifying to experienced players, and for new players, they should be out of the question.
There's also a certain level of "Is this practical and/or sensible?" you should ask yourself before committing to having heavy security in an installation. The corps have lots of money, but it should be assumed that they try and go cheap wherever possible, just so they can maximize their profits. In other words, if it's not thought to be important, don't protect it like it's important.
Last but not least, let the players surprise you, and roll with the punches. If your players end up making a difficult run unexpectedly easy and there's no obvious reason to have a High Threat Response team or something similar show up to block them, don't have one show up just because. This is an extension of the "milk runs are OK" rule, which also covers "It's OK for the Johnson to not only not screw over the PCs, so much so that it's not a bad idea to actually have a helpful Johnson once in a while." Some of the best parts SR for players are when a run comes together just as planned. If they plan well, maintain stealth, and generally keep their heads together, they deserve a milk run. If they plan poorly, charge in, and lose their minds on a run, give 'em all you've got.
