Magic/Matrix runs, How do you handle them? Options

[DragonDecker]

So far as it effects this discussion, I run SR2.

I've only run one campaign, during which I banned Deckers after reading the line in the core book "you should set up a separate day to meet with the deckers player to perform the matrix runs", but now I'm curious how to pull this kind of thing off.

Both Astral Projectors, and Deckers have the same problem, that unless the other PCs are in the same catagory, they will end up with runs where they are alone, and the other players just have to sit back a wait, which is no fun from a gaming standpoint.

So the question is, how do you handle it? For starters with a team of (let's say) one mage/shaman/shiny-person-who-walks-the-astral-plane, one Decker, a rigger, and a street sam. Then whatever specialty team you'd recommend for the situation.



For myself, I would probably just use cut scenes where possible. If the decker is investigating the location of the run, I'd probably just cut to the actual run, and when we hit a spot where the decker would have found something, we cut to that scene to see if he did, and what happened while there, which also works for astral scouting. As for if it is something that is separate from the groups pursuits, like an astral quest for initiation, follow that character for a while, then cut to what someone else is doing (like meeting their fixer, or roughing up a contact, or even just hitting a club).

In the second instance, I might suggest all decker/spwwtap groups. Or following the advice in the recent Astral Planes thread, the other players might represent pieces of the spwwtap's psyche, or even NPCs in the matrix, though the latter would be harder to implement properly (depending on the group).

So how do you handle it?