[The_Gun_Nut]

Deckers were incredibly problematic to run as PC's in previous editions.  I even tried it once and was disappointed in how the mechanics worked.

Ultimately, my group just went with the NPC decker, who got information based on his contact rating.  Much easier to deal with.

[Neurosis]

What happened to Deckers?

It's simple: William Gibson hates Shadowrun. : )

[Fortinbras]

We weren't has harsh to our Decker but our GM did give the Decker a sheet of rolls he had to roll (and a specific order to roll them) and when he was done he handed the sheet over to the GM and the GM would tell us what happened.  In the mean time we played without the Decker.  The isolation caused our Decker to eventually become a Security Hacker so he could get in on the fun.  But that is more of a failing of the old Matrix rules.  I much prefer the new Hacker rules (they are closer to what the Security Hacker (aka Security Rigger) were like).  It makes them more a part of the team, while not losing their effectiveness. 

That being said I still have NPCs in my games that call old Hackers, Deckers.  "Hackers are those n00b kids that wouldn't know their butt from an UV site."  (Grizzled old security Decker)

In our game it got to the point that no one wanted to play a decker, but some runs necessitated it. We used an NPC or a one shot player( a frined in town for only a day) and that person always died. So much so that it became a hard and fast rule, right up there with "When you are up, and someone asks, you must get them a Coke" and "Don't mess with another man's automobile."

[Julius Q Enderby]

Not claiming any ancient kudos by any stretch but I loved playing a decker! My intro to SR 1st edition was as a decker and it sold me on the game rather than the other way around. The only time we stopped playing decker rules was when I got the VR supplements and my GMs weren't enthusiastically jumping to learn yet more rules. I resisted against the appeal of cranial cyber"decks" because I just like the image of the decker even if it made no sense to have a keyboard with... keys... when the connection was purely neural. I still visualize that the keys are being played anyway, at times feverishly! I would play a decker again!

But I readily acknowledge that SR does make for a number of exclusive environments that can all require patience: decking, astral projecting, rigged vehicle combat. The rules demand that you "split the party" on a regular basis if you are to explore the setting to its fullest. It is both what I most like and don't like about the setting.

[Bull]

Or, if you're like some old-tyme Ork deckers* out there, you can build the deck around a modern commlink.

*Hey, Bull.
[/quote]

<grin>

Anyone who calls themselves a hacker is obviously a piker kid who don't know what they're doing.

[FastJack]

Or, if you're like some old-tyme Ork deckers* out there, you can build the deck around a modern commlink.

*Hey, Bull.

<grin>

Anyone who calls themselves a hacker is obviously a piker kid who don't know what they're doing.

Or, they're so old they were hacking before it was called decking.

[Outrider45]

I'm fairly sure that there are still some of the oldschool Deckers out there, laughing their asses off at how this new generation don't know jack nor frag about security.

Fastjack is still around, and i think Slamm-o is heading into that territory

And there are none as old, nay....ancient...as Fastjack. 

Keep telling yourself that.  I'm sure it makes his ego happy, but there are stranger things in the 'trix, omae...

Actually I doubt that was an inflation to his ego Wraith. I know FastJack in real life (my best friend in fact) and I was just ripping on his actual age. Freaky old.  No big deal. I keep forgetting that people don't know I actually know him.

[FastJack]

I'm fairly sure that there are still some of the oldschool Deckers out there, laughing their asses off at how this new generation don't know jack nor frag about security.

Fastjack is still around, and i think Slamm-o is heading into that territory

And there are none as old, nay....ancient...as Fastjack. 

Keep telling yourself that.  I'm sure it makes his ego happy, but there are stranger things in the 'trix, omae...

Actually I doubt that was an inflation to his ego Wraith. I know FastJack in real life (my best friend in fact) and I was just ripping on his actual age. Freaky old.  No big deal. I keep forgetting that people don't know I actually know him.

Freaky old?!? 

Anyway, the real FastJack is also "freaky" old at this point. Born in 1999, he's around 73-74 in the current books.

[Coldbringer]

They are serving long sentences in WYNACO federal  prison?  Or is that just my old decker?

[Loki]

I didn't deck till 3rd but I had no problem. I do like it a lot more now tho.

[hobgoblin]

Well SR3 incorporated the basics from the SR2 VR2.0 rules into the main book, so it was easier to play compared to SR2, and SR4 simplified even that.

[tbrminsanity]

The SR4 rules fall more along the lines of the Security Rigger rules from Corporate Downloads.  Maybe this is why when SR4 first came out it didn't have Riggers or Deckers.  I was a little miffed about that because I always loved the Rigger (since SR1).

[hobgoblin]

Well there was some degree of merging already back in rigger2/3 where they had a emulator module that allowed deckers to connect to security rigger setups.

So from a rules standpoint it is understandable that one want to fold those into each other as there was more and more of a overlap of capability of not specific rules. Especially once the matrix became wireless as the norm rather then exception.

[wraith]

I'm fairly sure that there are still some of the oldschool Deckers out there, laughing their asses off at how this new generation don't know jack nor frag about security.

Fastjack is still around, and i think Slamm-o is heading into that territory

And there are none as old, nay....ancient...as Fastjack. 

Keep telling yourself that.  I'm sure it makes his ego happy, but there are stranger things in the 'trix, omae...

Actually I doubt that was an inflation to his ego Wraith. I know FastJack in real life (my best friend in fact) and I was just ripping on his actual age. Freaky old.  No big deal. I keep forgetting that people don't know I actually know him.

And this is why I hate having forum accounts named after canon NPCs.  I was referring to the existence of other deckers in-world older than the character, not the guy using the name here.

[FastJack]

I'm fairly sure that there are still some of the oldschool Deckers out there, laughing their asses off at how this new generation don't know jack nor frag about security.

Fastjack is still around, and i think Slamm-o is heading into that territory

And there are none as old, nay....ancient...as Fastjack. 

Keep telling yourself that.  I'm sure it makes his ego happy, but there are stranger things in the 'trix, omae...

Actually I doubt that was an inflation to his ego Wraith. I know FastJack in real life (my best friend in fact) and I was just ripping on his actual age. Freaky old.  No big deal. I keep forgetting that people don't know I actually know him.

And this is why I hate having forum accounts named after canon NPCs.  I was referring to the existence of other deckers in-world older than the character, not the guy using the name here.

Hmm.... Check out page 90.

Just sayin'