I encounter players on a weekly basis who want to play deckers and know nothing of shadowrun yet alone the matrix. As this is an online game and I am not the GM I cant just tell them "no decker for you go read matrix and target matrix."

I would appreciate some comments on what characters of various backgrounds would know about the matrix, would they have ever jacked in on their own, decked a host, been on the seattle RTG? these are to inform the player of some possible options they have, problems they may encounter and get a feel for the matrix through their character's eyes.

To Start i've written up some samples of how I envision people of various backgrounds.

1. Little uninquisitive Bobby. Bobby is 10 years old and is more likely to be found wearing trodes playing Dawn of Atlantis with jimmy than riding his bike or playing in the same room as jimmy from accross the hall. he has a computers skill of 2 (specialized in Dawn of Atlantis 4) has spent extensive time on the PLTG of his corporate enclave but has not been alone on his city's LTG

2. Inquisitive Jimmy is 10 years old and is wanted in 4 corps for matrix breaking and entering and vandalism, and his parents have barely avoided serious debt related to his purchases of giant teddy bears, a fairlight excalibur, and a truckload of icecream for him and bobby. luckily for him he is ten his Allegiance Sigma is only cold asist and he lives on renraku territory. he has a computers skill of 4 and a few utilities he picked up from older kids.

3. the sheltered wageslave turned runner. this is probably what I deal with most. Raised in a corporate enclave to just high enough position to have been sold out and forced into the shadows for fear of conviction this is bobby 15 years later he has decided to run away to Seattle in hopes of finding this shadowland he heard rumors of and because their LTG was easier to connect to from the UCAS west RTG than Denver was. hopefully with his 6 ranks of computers, CMT Avatar, random selection of utilities Jimmy left him as Jimmy was out on bond he can find some local paydata and a databroker to sell it to without hitting harsh grey IC.
Or being found by the authorities.

Well, the Seattle RTG was suggested to have some of the "best" accessible iconography (compared to the awesome but inaccessible PCC) - from the Mitsuhama Paradoga to the Fuchi Star, and a few other choice spots. I imagine lots of kids went on "tours" of various RTGs in their computer classes as "field trips".

And now on to the brunt of the questions.

The Matrix is, for children of 2050, the schools, the playgrounds, the malls, the clubs, the parks, the sports arenas; in short it is everything that outside is to us. Now, how many children have snuck out of the house?

The thing that's different here is that the key they need to sneak about isn't sitting in their parents pant pocket... However they must, they will get a hold of a passcode that allows them to "escape" their locked box. The harder corps make the keys to find, the more kids will switch to hacking the codes rather than finding them. Also, every kid will find these codes; a future face would sleaze his teachers while a future decker will sleaze the IC, and only one kid per group needs the skills to find the code, since she can share for the most part.

How deep these delinquents go is a matter of degrees. Some kids will sneak out to the "adult" club, and a select few will sneak out to the beetle club. And so on.