Hey peeps - after an epic DnD run with a few noobies, we're thinking of winding the clock back and hitting the mean streets of Seattle in 2050. This also means I might have to roll a Decker...and it's been years since I've done it.

What's got me bent is the deck programs - I know bigger=better and a sky-high stealth is always a good thing, but all I've got with me as a base-point is the rather terrible Orc combat decker build, who's program build looks like...
[4]Analyze Rating
[6]Armor Rating
[6]Attack Deadly Rating
[6]Browse Rating
[4]Cloak Rating
[5]Commlink Rating
[6]Deception Rating
[6]Decrypt Rating
[5]Killjoy Rating
[6]Medic Rating
[5]Read/Write Rating
[5]Relocate Rating
[4]Scanner Rating
[6]Sleaze Rating
[4]Spoof Rating

Now: As a Persona 7 deck, I'm assume I can't run programs righter than rating 7, so, what programs are must-haves? I've made a list, please let me know if it's along the right way or not. Oh and this is a stealthy decker type, not a cybercowboy, so no uber black hammer, not yours.
My list...Slim is good?

[6]Analyze Rating
[6]Attack Deadly Rating
[6]Browse Rating
[7]Cloak Rating
[5]Commlink Rating
[7]Deception Rating
[6]Decrypt Rating
{6] Evaluate?
[6]Read/Write Rating
[5]Relocate Rating
[7]Scanner Rating
[7]Sleaze Rating

Also, no
[]Armor Rating
[]Killjoy Rating
[]Medic Rating
[]Spoof Rating

Not sure how effective these were - we had a rather gung-ho attitude to using the last decker...more as another set of hands holding an uzi or screwing with cameras at the local McHughes...

Thank you,

Tir.

The combat decker load out is pretty good for a starting character. Though I d drop killjoy for cash and memory.

You want armour or your cyber sushi as soon as you trip IC. You will need spoof if you want to open a door, edit a camera ect.

Dont bother going for rating 7 utilities at the start. Yes there is a massive price hike from six to seven, but you need to save memory and cash and put it where it matters, utilites your going to need. also you restricted to rating six unless the ref is nice.

Its cheap to improve active and storage memory so do so, same with IO.

Evaluate is only good to find pay data outside of a run,and with that deck, rating 6 is a waste.

Scanner and cloak are for cyber combat and if you need them that high your already crashed. Keep them but tone it down and spend it on medic. that way you have a chance to heal if something gets in a lucky shot.

Keep sleaze and browse high. I would if memory allows pick up steam roller so when the ref envitable put a TAR BABY TO crash you attack utility you can get round it.

Higher is not necessarly better here. its all a balancing act between you deck memory, spectrum of options, budget, and intent of the character.

...Violet (who is more of a sneak and snatch decker) has the following Programme core:

[6] Analyse
[6] Browse
[6] Deception
[6] Decrypt
[6] Evaluate
[6] Read/Write
[6] Spoof
[6] Validate (important for creating fake system IDs)
[3] Mirrors (snagged from other deck)
[6] Armour
[6] Cloak
[6] Medic
[8] Sleaze (upgraded)
[6] Compressor
[6] Maser Link
[6] Attack (S) with Stealth 4

Deck: Custom designed MPCP: 8, 4/6/8/6 with DF of 8 and Hardening 4

First, you can get away with masking 6 sleaze 5. That leaves you with detection factor 6 instead of detection factor 7, but unless you need to suppress an IC by sacrificing a detection factor, that gives the exact same results.

Second, if you really need to free up space, you can sort of afford to drop cloak and masking to 0 - they are sort of an all or nothing deal in my opinion. They are useful, but if you don't have evasion you can afford a high sensors, bod, and masking. But, it depends on your decking style - evasion maneuvers can be really nice if you know how to use them. But if you weren't going to use them much anyway, losing them frees up a lot of space. And yes, you don't really need the evaluate program.

Third, you really really want a spoof and an armor program, preferably at 6. Armor doesn't just protect against killer IC, it protects against some kinds of grey IC by letting you logoff before damage is done, as some grey IC only hits your deck if it gets to dump you from the matrix itself. Armor can let you prevent that from happening in a single shot. And I just don't want to think about what would happen if you got hit by black IC without an armor program. Armor doesn't protect against the physical damage, but it keeps the icon damage part of the black IC from knocking out your Icon so the physical side can just kill your meatbody.

Spoof, well, you need that to mess with physical devices, which is often mission critical. Also, the cammo utility is rather useful even at rating 3 or so, which is really cheap. It can slow down trace attempts, even ones you didn't know about, which can come in real handy.

Fourth, I'd trade in decrypt 6 for decrypt 4 and defuse 4. Data bombs are a real possibility.

Lastly, you may want something that can mess with other deckers. The attack program works as a last resort,
but if you can squeeze in killjoy 6, that is much harder to defend against.

Also, if you have killjoy, and especially if your decking style involves suppressing the first IC you get into a fight with by sacrificing detection factor, and you use hot ASIST with a decent hacking pool, you can save a little space by switching out deadly attack 6 for slow 6. Or, some decking styles make do without either attack or slow (in which case you probably want full evasion and cloak).

Echo getting a good Spoof program - a decker who can't mess about with Matrix wired-in techno devices, like say security cameras, is going to regret it. I likewise advocate acquiring good Sleaze and Deception programs - better to remain undetected than get into messy cybercombat and risk your expensive deck. Remember also that Deception works against Barrier IC which Sleaze doesn't.

Best line-up of programs is to catagorise your intent and then choose what will work best. First up is anything essential to access the Matrix/Host - the aforementioned Deception & Sleaze plus any other programs that are required for unusual Matrix running. I'm thinking Satlink if you've got Satlink uplink hardware and a transmission dish. (This also helps you harder to trace back to your jackpoint as well as enabling your decker to operate out of wilderness areas.)

Second-tier is any program that allows you to do tasks - the Commlink, Read/Write, Analyse, Decrypt, Browse & Spoof utilities are what are required here. Basically this is the stuff you need to actually do anything in a Host assuming you've made it in undetected - no point being there if you can't find what you're looking for or play about to execute your team's tactical plans.

Third-tier is combat programs. Always have a basic Attack program as sooner or later you'll need one and it pretty much works against everything. My personal reccommendation is to have some serious defensive utilities like Shield and Armour and a basic Medic as a backup to keep you online when you really need to complete a run. After that, if you've got the memory, get a nice whalloper of a attack utility fr those emergency data crash times. However, if you're any good as a decker and have the proper First-tier programs these are just precautionary back-ups. Unless of course, you plan to be a anti-intrusion attack decker - but those are normally NPCs, the corporate Matrix sentry guards so to speak. They can have high combat utilities because they have legitimate access to their own Hosts and thus don't need to waste memory on all the 1st and 2nd Tier programs you do.

Finally, you might want to have a few specialised programs that do a single particular task or work only against a particular opponent. I'm thinking stuff like Relocate and Defuse here. Stuff you'll only use infrequently, but will save your electron arse when it does crop up.

Oh, and as an after thought, remember that most 3rd Edition decking stuff is circa 2060. According to canon Black Hammer and Killjoy didn't make an appearance until mid 2050's. I'm currently running a campaign in 2055 but using 3rd edition decking rules because they work better than the 1st or 2nd. There is a huge discrepancy in program Memory Size and Nuyen cost however comapared to the earlier edition scenarios. Your GM will have to do some evaluation about any published scenario with decking that's pre-3rd edition.

Extra memory is so cheap and effectively uncapped that you will want "all of it." Also beware that tricky rule about starting with equipment with a rating above 6, because no one really knows exactly what Matrix sub attributes (if any) it was supposed to apply to. Depending upon your GM's reading of the rules, your starting MPCP of 8 may be against the starting character limit rules - despite the fact that you can get an MPCP of 8 within the starting character availability rules. So um, look out for that. Because it's really hard to make a workable Decker character with an MPCP of 6.

-Frank

Matrix p26 has some useful optional rules that are useful in maximising the effectiveness of detection factor.


BBB is mixing his matrices, Barrier IC was made redundant with Matrix 2.0 in VR2. Occassionally, his technomancers have program carriers. ;)

If your GM limits starting MPCP to 6 consider setting some persona ratings at 0 as quoted above

I'd forgotten about that rule where you can use hacking pool to boost detection factor. That is mostly because I've never seen anyone let you use it - now that I think of it, it lets a dedicated decker maintain a detection factor of 10 or 11 possibly even the practically invincible 12, at least for the early stages of a run.

But, perhaps more interestingly, it lets someone with an mpcp below 6 get the critical detection factor of 6 if they are running hot ASIST, which you would need to be doing anyway to break into moderate security matrix hosts. That lets someone spend as little as 250,000 on the decking side of the character and be able to deck convincingly while not taking too many resources away from one's primary role. This, I think, would be good for the game, given the complaints some people have about deckers requiring a whole game session on their own. Only being able to break into moderate security hosts, but being able to do that well enough, as well as being able to hold one's own at another role, would go a long way towards integrating a decker for a GM that was having problems with that.

Post Questor and GM here,

Firstly, thank you for the varied and valuable hints and kicks to memory and game play here.
Between reading through here, and what I'd tossed together out of some half-remembered habit and then having NSRCG glitch out on me and having to restart from scratch... Things went quite well.

The Evaluate..and sheesh, Lock On have been dumped, Spoof loaded and Defuse as well...

...But I had to make do with a Fuchi Hyperdeck-6 (It's 2050 ) with a ton of extra memory, IO, etc....
(I simply ran out of cash for my build.)

This allows the character to act as emergency decker, sometime gopher and last-chance hotshot until she's able to beg/borrow/lift something jucier, but as she's already managed to find 37K lying about in an abandoned triad off-line network, while looking for the damn floorplan layout of the target run, well, things are looking good.

Thank you all, again.

Tir.