We just tried a Shadowrun one-timer, and it didn't go well. First, my friends like fantasy better, so that's that. However, one of them noted that the hacker, his player being very creative, simply took over everything and did everything. Not the fighting or the killing, but "table time" as it were. While the troll bounty hunter smashed things, the hacker had TONS of stuff to do out of combat while the others did very little.

We were playing by the basic rules of Food Fight, so the mage had less to do, but I guess it'll be the same for mages using the full rules. How do I avoid this?

The setting was a police station infested by a wendigo and his ghoul servants, with the power out. There was almost no matrix access to anything, and I can only imagine how bad it gets in normal runs.

What was the exact problem? What did the hacker do?

Hacking has always been like D&D's Grapple.

Use the following errata, published April 1:

Well, the dead policemen had commlinks. He hacked them, listened to audio feeds and watched video feeds, found out where every commlink was, opened locks, stuff like that. The rest of them just walked around, I guess. He doesn't have much to do in combat, but outside of combat he was god, and combat took very little time. So most of the session was actually the hacker doing stuff out of combat.



It's worse. We're playing Pathfinder regularly and grapple is resolved normally just like any other combat action. To Hit, CMB vs. CMD, effect.

Well, you can expect the hacker to do that. After all, that's his job.

If your problem was with the time it took to resolve all the actions, I'd advise to use a fast resolution mechanism.

Imagine that the policemen were alive and well and that the team's face was asking them questions. Would you have played all conversations, rolling for each and every question the face asked? No you'd probably have done it in a faster way. It's the same for the hacker.

If the hack is not very important and easy enough (firewall rating 3 or less for a competent hacker), consider it's a success. If it's not that easy just have the hacker roll an opposed logic+hacking (or hacking+exploit if you don't want to enforce the use of Logic for hacking) vs system+firewall test. Depending on the number of net hits he gets, let him have more or less data/control. You can also have him roll only once for a bunch of commlinks or cameras.

Pathfinder != D&D.
If you want to see really bad rules, find 3.0 or 3.5's grapple rules. Pathfinder really simplified it.

HAHAH...those rules are simple....go back ....faaaarrr back...into 1st Ed AD&D...and you will see the true horror of Grapple.

Beware however, if you do not have an elder rune you may go insane.


Edit: P.S. all farmers have 18/00 str when defending their daughters!

You have the unfortunate blessing of a through hacker. I too had a player who wanted every angle and node under his control. You just have to start getting creative with the rules yourself- After hacking the first commlink he "discovers a backdoor" that allows him into the other commlinks and doors and so on. Give the player as much info as you want, and then move on to another player. Encourage info sharing between the hacker and other players (subscriptions, tacnets), so that all the players can act on what is essentially an info dump of video feeds, sensor readings and location maps. This should get everybody interested.

This.

Just make it an opposed test of the Device Rating x2 vs. the hacker's Exploit + Skill, with the hacker's net successes determining what he gets. Simple. He gets to roll some dice, but it doesn't get bogged down in the details of the hacking system.

As others have said, no need to necessarily have him roll for each link, etc. Additionally, if he's trying to get more than just the video feeds and/or info about the station (i.e. personal details/info of the policemen) then you can always say "You'll be able to do that, but its going to take a while to crack the link," which should be a good cue that its something to be resolved later (potentially even via e-mail between sessions).

Introduce malware and spyware.

That lonestar commlink could include the following

Spyware: This little 'virus' sits silently and well hidden in a corner of the commlink and collects data on all incoming information including the entire hackign sequence the hacker used to breach the commlinks security and so on and so on.

ALL that information was then sent to lonestar who now has a data dump on how the hacker operated, what programs he used, method, OS etc to get a profile.

The same goes for every other action and commlink he accessed remotely and took over.

Oh, the moment Lonestar lost control of their patrol officers commlink they most likely told their officers via patrolcars to stop using them and reset them with new function.

Malware: All files includes tracking malware so any info the hacker uploaded to his commlink included this unless he scanned every data file he wanted a copy of.

Remember, Hackers are good, well paid Lonestar Hackers have access to AT LEAST the same skill and gear.

Thanks for all the replies, that was some good advice.

The Jopp, my problem was the hacker dominating the table not by being too powerful, but by simply doing all sorts of things ALL THE TIME out of combat, while the others get bored listening to me and him resolve his actions. The others got frustrated because their characters had very little time in the spotlight - sure, they kick ass, but that lasts for about 30 seconds of real time.

So the advice here was to use a one-roll resolution method if there's no other way to pace things without people getting annoyed, plus dropping narrative hints to the player. In combat everything happens at the same pace so there's no problem.

Another solution would be to keep getting them attacked non-stop, but after a while they'll stop giving me snacks.

I had one GM, when I wanted to hack a car for transportation to a meet (i.e. not urgent, not stressful, and in the end didn't really matter), had me roll a hack test, and the number of hits I got determined (arbitrarily) how nice a car I obtained. Unfortunately it was a bad roll (1 success), and I ended up with a 15-year old beater Jackrabbit. Quick, and was fun for me as the player.

I think there was a lot of good advice - especialy making simple single roll tests, to determine the outcome of one ore even several activities in a quick way (just don´t overuse it to the extend that the hacker actually never gets any real detailed chalange).

I think ppl also have to remember though, that every character can do stuff out of combat. If they build maxed out combat-mokeys they shouldnt complain that they get little else to do. They should find ways to apply their characters abilities and their own creativity outside of combat, too. Otherwise they will be bored most of the time no metter what the hacker does, especialy when its not a hack and slash dungeon crawl run.