Even an Uncouth troll in full battlegear and with a Panther cannon has an easy time Intimidating a bunch of gangers. He could easily play that card.
As a GM, i'd let the player do that, and use the 'scary troll' way of working with people, getting bonus dice for roleplaying it(and waving that Panther around). It should be fun for the whole group (GM included - playing gangers scared shitless is fun).
Find ways to get keep players involved in secondary roles or concurrent scenes.
Good advice. If the Hacker/Technomancer/Rigger gets into VR, let the other players help him with their commlinks and AR. Even Computer, Data Search or simple program rolls could benefit the hacker, and give the rest of players a sense of accomplishment. Hell, they could even save the hacker's virtual butt in the process, or provide multiple diversions with disposable commlinks. Or you could just make the other players carry their team hacker around to avoid detection. Hilarity ensues, when the codeslinger wakes up stuffed in a supply closet with the troll tank.
Keep scenes short, so that sidelined players can jump back in faster.
I agree. Jumping from player to player is tough work for the GM, but worth it. You could always sketch the layout, and use colored dice, counters, or such, to show their position, with the hacker being on the same level (but for example, having two counters, blue and opaque, representing his meat, and matrix body), but operating on a different, wireless 'plane'. It gives the group a (false) sense, that he's still there, and dulls the game breakup a bit.
Also, short scenes in which you describe how the facility looks inside, and what happens there (like that patrol going by, unaware of the players being there, just at arms reach, or the late-working corp worker chica, who leaves one of the rooms obviously straightening up her clothes and smiling, just before a sec guard who's trying desperatly to put on his armor, and explain what the hell he's doing away from his post to his commander through the mic; you can always use these to give them a clue or two how to work the security system, for example, or illustrate the Proffesional Level of a sec. force)
Make the game more appealing to "audience" players.
What i wrote above, spiced with a personal flavor. While the hacker and mage both leave their meat bodies, let the rest of the team do something significant, something that they'd both be slightly dissapointed to miss. But not enough to be unhappy - just the same way that the others feel, when they are left out of the Matrix/Magic biz. This way you show, that everyone has their thing. And that's the other line. That dwarf samurai who loves to tinker with guns can find a small workshop for advanced guns, and convince the others to check it out. The Adept can find another Adept, a sec. force guy, who'd engage him in a 'duel', keeping his mouth shut after being defeated in a honorable way (because of his code). Or the Rigger can use a few cleaning drones for infiltration, along with the team's sneak. And you can always use the 'face in disguise' trick. That one never gets old.
The second one is tough, because even after months of practice, dice-heavy stuff like fights and hacking take us 1-2 hours to resolve.
There's only one way to fight that. If rolls bog you down, drop half of them. Use dice pools for successes with an unaware system, or sec force. Buying hits is one of the greatest tools the GM has in SR4 to do that. You don't have to deal with dice that much. And when only one side rolls, it's half the time wasted. I've even noted how many hits NPC's can buy by their stats, just to help with that.
And as for the troll again. He's Uncouth. That means that he's either not a people person, or just doesn't know how to work with them. He can always learn that. Let him save and 'adopt' a street kid (who'll be a great asset to the team, with his knowledge, skills, talent - he can be a fresh Awakened/Technomancer, or just very good with something, like having an Aptitude - or contacts), and learn to interact. Like in those cheesy family movies, where the 'monster' befriend the kid.
The second thing is Uncouth doesn't really leave him out, if he buys those skills. Sure, they'd cost him a lot, but when he has at least one point of each, he'll be a troll that may be a little awkward around people, but can work around that. And there are still emotisofts, and such ('so, that program say she likes
me?').
And the most important thing is to talk things over with the player alone, and then again with the group, when you have some issues. You'd be surprised how good that works.