Running a matrix/tech centric campaign Options

[Grand Inquisitor]

Because of some internal issues within the playgroup that I GM, 2 members of the group and I will be running a side campaign while others are away, and while talking about the basics tonight, the prevailing thought was it would be really exciting and fun to run a campaign set in Montreal with both characters matrix-centric. (one looks like he will go the Technomancer route and the other a hacker/cowboy)

Personally, I'm quite excited about the proposition - while I have never run a game with only 2 PC's (to be honest, I'm a very inexperienced GM and player - before 6 or 8 months ago, I hadn't played TTRPG's for at least 15 or 16 years - for whatever reason, after browsing through the SR corebook and the Pathfinder corebook my love of pen and paper games was rekindled and I'm absolutely in love with these games again) I feel like having a very small group will allow for greater character development and will offer unique opportunities for the players themselves to work together or alone to do some very specific things that just don't work for various reasons with a normal sized group.

That said, I wanted to petition the great oracle of Dumpshock to see what pitfalls I will likely run in to. Furthermore, while I have some basic ideas, I'm curious to see if there are any published adventures that are for hacker/technomancer parties. Also, I would be very curious and appreciative to hear any ideas or stories from anyone who has either thought about or made similar runs.

For whatever reason, I'm super excited about this run, and I really want to give my players an awesome play experience and give them the best time I possibly can. I have a really good group, and I appreciate them sticking with me as a GM and I just want to give that back by having this run be the kind that you think about all week in between game sessions.

[Dolanar]

One problem I can foresee in such a small group is balancing the capabilities that All runners generally need, Typically speaking a full runner team has a Face, a Hacker/Rigger/Techie, a Combat Monkey, Mage & often times a B&E specialist, these are some basic core roles that fit into the general Shadowrun Universe. Now, while its possible to combine many of these roles into combos that work perfectly fine for smaller groups, running with 2 players makes it even harder to fit the roles you will need from time to time.

I am not saying you NEED these roles in every game, nor do you need them all the time in the games you do need them, however certain roles are more difficult to substitute easily. Combatants can be hired as Bodyguards pretty easily, Faces you can possibly hire. But B&E specialists tend not to...advertise their services unless they come as a secondary to another role. So keep their core concepts in mind as you build your adventure for them,

[Makki]

you will have to come up with a lot of Data Thefts and Matrix Sabotage runs. Which is cool.
Sometimes your two PCs could have been hired as matrix support for another runner team, that does lack this expertise.