[Singularity]

Alright, thanks for the head's up! I have a friend picking up a copy of the main rule book for me at the big convention next month (Gencon?), so I'll play around with seeing if I can make cyberware work for my decker/rigger character concept.

If they have a high essence cost for a Cyberjack, that may be a hard sell with a Control Rig. But, it sounds like it may be possible to get a Control Rig, then pick up both an RCC (for Data Processing and Firewall) and a Cyberdeck (for Attack and Sleaze).

Oops, missed this reply somehow! Isn't the cyberjack somewhat necessary now, if you want to be decent as a hacker, and thus I would need both a RCC and Cyberjack? My take on what has been said so far is that while you can still hack with a datajack (and cyberdeck, of course), you would be mediocre at best doing so.

[Michael Chandra]

You face restrictions, but they can consider risking it.

[Iron Serpent Prince]

Oops, missed this reply somehow! Isn't the cyberjack somewhat necessary now, if you want to be decent as a hacker, and thus I would need both a RCC and Cyberjack? My take on what has been said so far is that while you can still hack with a datajack (and cyberdeck, of course), you would be mediocre at best doing so.

I can't speak to 6th yet, so I'm only going off of 5e restrictions and limitations.

If all you are looking to do is be a drone bunny, any character willing to spend the nuyen can do it.  As long as 6th doesn't add in any restriction to the RCC, anyone can use it and anyone can use drones.  In fact, I have long argued that drones were written with Deckers in mind for 5e.  The only thing that Deckers miss out on - over a Rigger - is the option to Jump In to one drone at a time.  Potentially useful in some situations, but as a blanket option it isn't that big of a loss.

If your character idea is drone bunny who hacks, you just might be able to do that through Decker alone.  You only run into complications if you want the ability to Jump In.

[Banshee]

Hey Banshee, you mentioned this:

I ditched Master/Slave relationships just because they were overly complicating the system and didn't need it ... technically from an IT infrastructure pint of view they still exist but it just doesn't matter to the game mechanics. All you need to worry about now is "do they share a network?". Want to hack the camera directly, then do it, or do you want to access the the camera via the security guard station where you can have total overwatch too, then do it ... it is the same process either way because they are on the same network

I had a few questions on what you meant:

1. If master/slave relationships are gone, how do pans work?
2. When you say 'share a network' Does this mean 'on the same pan' or 'on the same host'?
3. If #2 is correct, can we still hack devices that are not on a pan/host?
4. Is direct connection still a mechanic?

I'm curious if hacking is just hacking the 'network' and don't have to hack individual devices anymore. If that's the case, deckers will be a lot more fun, and it would remove a lot of rolls so I don't have to send players for pizza to do the decker areas.

answers to #1 and #2 ... PAN's and Host's are mechanically the same thing, it's just that a PAN is personal and mobile (i.e. runs off of a commlink or deck, etc) where as a Host is not (runs off of a corp server for example)
anserws to #3 and #4 ... if a device is not connected to a network (a PAN or Host) then yes you can still hack it using just the device's own ratings. Yes direct connection is still a thing and is useful for negating some issues caused by distance but what is opposing your rolls depends on if it is on a network or not

in general as to your overall question ... yes all you need to do now is hack the network and not individual devices unless that device is not on a network

[Banshee]

ok, just some clarification for you all concerning the decker-rigger relationship

you can NOT combine a cyberdeck and a RCC ... they are not compatible ... a cyberdeck can not control multiple drones like a RCC and a RCC can not be used for hacking.

but you can combine a cyberjack (a cyberjack is basically a turbocharged modified datajack) and a control rig and then choose to use a cyberdeck OR a RCC depending on what role you want to focus on if you want to be able to do both decking and rigging

yes, anyone can still use a RCC to be a drone bunny, but you just have to rely on the drones pilot if you don't have a control rig and yes anyone can control a single drone via issuing commands via commlink or similar device

yes a rigger can provide matrix support and act as the team PAN protector by using an RCC since it possesses Firewall
and yes a rigger can attempt to control drones that are not jumped into but don't belong to them via matrix actions

[Singularity]

ok, just some clarification for you all concerning the decker-rigger relationship

you can NOT combine a cyberdeck and a RCC ... they are not compatible ... a cyberdeck can not control multiple drones like a RCC and a RCC can not be used for hacking.

but you can combine a cyberjack (a cyberjack is basically a turbocharged modified datajack) and a control rig and then choose to use a cyberdeck OR a RCC depending on what role you want to focus on if you want to be able to do both decking and rigging

yes, anyone can still use a RCC to be a drone bunny, but you just have to rely on the drones pilot if you don't have a control rig and yes anyone can control a single drone via issuing commands via commlink or similar device

yes a rigger can provide matrix support and act as the team PAN protector by using an RCC since it possesses Firewall
and yes a rigger can attempt to control drones that are not jumped into but don't belong to them via matrix actions

Thank you for the clarification!

[Hobbes]

you can NOT combine a cyberdeck and a RCC ... they are not compatible ... a cyberdeck can not control multiple drones like a RCC and a RCC can not be used for hacking.

Cyberdeck provides A/S, RCC gives you D/F.  Seems like that should work fine if you want to Hack stuff and Pilot Drones.  You give up Matrix Edge Actions of course unless you have a Cyberjack or Resonance stat.  And no Jumping in unless you've got a Vehicle Control Rig.

But should be a functional Decker with A/S/D/F, and be able to AR Pilot Drones, or just issue orders and let the Drones roll their dice.

[Banshee]

you can NOT combine a cyberdeck and a RCC ... they are not compatible ... a cyberdeck can not control multiple drones like a RCC and a RCC can not be used for hacking.

Cyberdeck provides A/S, RCC gives you D/F.  Seems like that should work fine if you want to Hack stuff and Pilot Drones.  You give up Matrix Edge Actions of course unless you have a Cyberjack or Resonance stat.  And no Jumping in unless you've got a Vehicle Control Rig.

But should be a functional Decker with A/S/D/F, and be able to AR Pilot Drones, or just issue orders and let the Drones roll their dice.

Oh I know what it appears to be, and it is on the errata list of fixes ... we do have a bit in the rigging section that says a RCC can not run hacking programs ... the error we made (and it made it past proofing/editing) is that we did not specifically expand on it and say that you can not combine a cyberdeck and a RCC to get a full array

you can as decker own and operate an RCC just fine and pilot drones as you said ... but you can not combine the attributes together from a cyberdeck and RCC to create a persona

[Hobbes]

There you go, thanks again for the clarification!

[Xenon]

...but you can not combine the attributes together from a cyberdeck and RCC to create a persona

Should not really come as a surprise (as you can't do that in SR5, either). Shrug.

[Iron Serpent Prince]

...but you can not combine the attributes together from a cyberdeck and RCC to create a persona

Should not really come as a surprise (as you can't do that in SR5, either). Shrug.

Except SR5 didn't split the cyberdeck attributes across two different devices / pieces of gear like 6th has.  Double shrug.

[Michael Chandra]

you can as decker own and operate an RCC just fine and pilot drones as you said ... but you can not combine the attributes together from a cyberdeck and RCC to create a persona

*tch*

[Hobbes]

The general rule for 6th is that you can pull Matrix stats from any of your devices.  RCC/Cyberdeck would be the only exception so far.  Unfortunate that got missed is all. 

[Banshee]

The general rule for 6th is that you can pull Matrix stats from any of your devices.  RCC/Cyberdeck would be the only exception so far.  Unfortunate that got missed is all.

I will let you all in on a not so secret "secret" ... I didn't write it so "any" device could be used and I didn't change it. It was supposed to just be a commlink/cyberjack/cyberdeck and you could not swap attributes across devices

[Hephaestus]

So you can combine commlinks/cyberjacks/cyberdecks to make a full persona, but not an RCC. So what is to stop a savvy tech player from using a cheap commlink and a cyberdeck to make a persona for hacking, and a a control rig and an RCC for controlling/piloting/jumping into drones/vehicles?

The way things sound they would all be on the same network, and one person would just have two distinct personas. And I can think of some fun bait-and-switch tactics for nuking hostile deckers with that setup...