I have been playing SR since first edition. I learned way back then that i hated dealing with deckers. You basicly have to write a whole seperate adventure for the one decker, and on top of that you have to stop the entire group's fun and focus on just that one character off in virtua-land for about 15 minutes of every hour. I always just NPC the Decker and it has been fine up till now.

I have a player that REALLY wants to be a hacker. I tried to dissuade him, but he insisted. Seeing as it's our first game, and we are gaming at his place, I felt I couldn't come out and say no.

Anyone have some tips for running the matrix? ick.

There are a couple of threads (The Idiot's Guide for one) that can give ideas on how to do the Matrix effectively.

The important thing is to concentrate on the roleplaying aspect, and force the player to think about whipping out a needle to inject code rather than say "I use my Edit Slave Command".

I felt the same way until one of my players decided he wanted to do a decker. It's kinda fun, but you do have to figure out which corners to cut where so you don't get bogged down in the rules.

Of course, 4th edition changes everything around - I'll let the experts talk about that.

I make it clear that my games are "Matrix-lite". You can play a decker, but don't expect me to waste hours of everyone else's time running the matrix for you.

The way I handle almost everything is by just assigning a TN to a computer test and having the player roll. We practically ignore everything in the matrix section, and it works for us because although we're all rules junkies, we hate slogging through two things: matrix and vehicle combat.

SR4 makes it a lot easier for hackers to run with the team. They can either stay at home & run VR--the team can still talk to them & work with their persona via commlink, or they can go along with the team & work via AR.

We used to keep deckers as NPCs as well. I get to try a technomancer this time, so I'll let you know if it works, or if it's still easier to keep them NPCs.

At least I've got a face character ready to go if the techno doesn't work out.....

IMO, it seems the best way is to TRY to cut back and forth. It can be tougher than doing them one at a time, but Matrix(or astral) runs can get quite long sometimes...I guess for a quick, 5 to 10 minute piece it's alright...but anything longer, and there should indeed be some switching.

Im playing a Shaman right now, and did an investigation into the astral...and it's basically the same thing. We nicknamed these 'Queue Key Adventures' due to the nature. Pause game, let decker or mage play, resume. Much more fun to switch if the GM can keep them both straight at once.

I pretty much can't stand the Matrix rules, so the games I play in use a "Decker-In-A-Can" to get past everything. Basically it's a cylinder the size of a soda can with a datajack lead attached to it and three lights. The Johnson hands them out, and it's the team's job to get the sucker where it's supposed to be to extract the data.

The side of the DIAC has a label with the following:

That's awesome Prosper. I think my guys may end up getting a DIAC sometime in the near future.

The StarWars WEG system had "dataspikes" which did much the same thing.

Pre-programmed "floppies" that the PCs could slot and push a button. The GM then determined how successful the program was.

-Siege

Software like that isn't too far removed from real life either.

You'd be supprised what you can get into with a hand-coded boot disc or boot cd.

You can bypass hard-coded BIOS passwords, windows passwords, grab, manipulate basically anything in storage, then spoof communications from that PC.

Yep, I have used DIAC's before. Smart frames rock. "Simple, stick this chip in the I/O port, wait untill "The blinkinlights" stop, leave."

I have always loved running decking in my games. The thing that really helps is to remember that the matrix isn't just there for the decker to play in. Theres no reason not to bring the whole team along. I would be surprised if there was a member who did not log in on a regular basis. Only the decker needs a multi-million nuyen deck. Hell, the home telecom comes with a deck. The other team members can run interference or do all the talking. No system is going to be empty with only software running in it. Even the blackest, most secret project system will have some users. Give the other teamembers some nice one-shot attack progs to lay waste to the guards while the decker slips in. Have the face pretend to be an administrator while the decker resets alarms. It's just another run but one where the decker is the sneaky one. Clearly any real threats will be to much for the other team members. But as long as you plan ahead of time you can avoid traces and such. Keep in in mind that software is stupid, and will treat each event on a one by one basis. People working in the system have suspicious memories. They could let there guard down if they catch the "intruder". Thats how my payers do it. And everybody gets involved. It's no harder than planning the office building they all gota break into. And if the decker is sitting on overwatch, I just flip back and forth. I have a bigger problem with mages going on quests. I just ask them not to do it during the run if they can help it.

Bit of a run on here but I hope this helps.

Another way I consider to be a cool idea for a decker is overwatch. By the rules it's just not possible unless you've got a really good (better-than-Canon-chargen) deck, and it's more fun if you make the decker less fragile by using the optional Hacking pool to DF and HP to supress IC rules in Matrix, but you really can have the decker tag along in the cameras and various other systems while the adept is crawling in the air ducts and the mage is slipping through the astral.

The Infiltration Challenge thread has a great (and very long) example of someone doing overwatch. Note that you really do need that magic DF of 12+ or so to keep it up against decent-level systems, but it's a fun thing to do for a few runs.

cleggster, that post of yours triggers some excelent mental images.
nothing like some face sitting on a server and pulling a mitnik

If you really hate decking that much, social engineering works as well, so does breaking into the server room, then having complete control of the entire complex. which brings balance issues, but you can deal with those in a way fun for everyone.