My DC Online league has decided to start an iTabletop game of Shadowrun, and I am running it. One player is a decent Hacker, and another is a Technomancer. In all the years of SR I have played I have really only done Drone Riggers, and havent had a serious hacker play under me yet. One player has a few usefully decked out drones, the other is a cybered up char with a nice deck and hacking skills. I am not so worried about the cyber character... he will have plenty to do once the bullets start flying, but not so sure about the Technomancer. I really want to provide the full SR experience for him, but I am not sure what all Technomancers (or hackers for that matter) are good for.
I know they can hack comlinks (all of my players are constantly trying to hack each others phones, so we know the rules for that), but I am more concerned with the Technomancer saying, 'Yeah, I wanna break into the target building's system and take control of the cameras...' etc. I am going to be doing something new as a GM.
So here are my questions:
What useful things can Hackers do besides hacking phones and drones?
Does anyone have a sample system setup with nodes/IC I could use for my first go?
How feasible is it for a hacker to participate in an infiltration run via the matrix, and work side by side with the runners without interrupting game play?
I recall when I first played SR (back in 2nd edition) when the hacker of the group wanted to do something it would often mean the rest of the group had to sit and twiddle their thumbs while the GM soloed the hacker through their matrix junk for an hour. I really want to avoid that.
Also, what does a technomancer need to be good at his job? I am trying to help the player create a good technomancer and want to make sure I did not miss anything.