[Kato]

Hi Folks,

The group that I GM for has recently reconvened, but has had some relatively substantial turn over. About half the group has been replaced, including the decker and the rigger. Due to the new makeup of the group I've decided to do a couple of sessions of smaller side runs to let everyone get comfortable with their characters and to give me a bit of time to adjust to designing runs with new personalities involved in the group.

A major change is that the previous decker wasn't too interested in playing and was basically at the game just to hang out with her boyfriend. As such, I never really evolved the decker's involvement in the campaign. The player who replaced her as the group decker is very into the role, however, so I've found myself having to change the way I'm GMing. I'm perfectly fine with having to do this. One way I try to keep players involved is giving them a hook that is unique to their character and makes the game a little bit more fun to play. For instance, the new rigger is a specialist in building and piloting walker drones who also uses those drones for assassinations. The idea here is she can learn more about her character and rigging by designing unique anthro drones and then sending them on these crazy hits to see how they do. Shes gotten into it in a weird way; a lot of the drones she designs have the realistic features upgrade, but the features are all twisted in some way to make the drones appear monstrous. I thought it was kinda cool.

So where I'm having an issue is with the decker. I've got some general ideas but I haven't paid the decker much attention until now so I'm sort of lost for a hook. Any ideas that people have employed in the past that have worked?

[cantrip]

Decking has always been an area we struggle with, but occasionally have a player jump in and give it a go. Some ideas in no particular order:

*On the run from a powerful AI/free sprite
*The team only knows the player in the matrix, they never see them except in AR/VR - reason why could be up to the player.
*Decker is infected with CFD and has to deal with one or more additional personalities
*The decker thinks the real world is fake and that only AR/VR are real
*Runs with a local gang of deckers
*Missing time or past - gets occasional flashes of things that may/or may not have happened
*Robin hood complex - robs from the megas gives to the poor
*Virtual friends are going missing with no explanation
*Works at a local virtual bar under another name
*Still works for Corp/KE/LoneStar/etc.
*Owes a criminal org big!
*Was a past Otaku or (one of The Whites - see Renraku Arcology Shutdown) - this would take some GM hand waving to explain
*The decker hires the team to extract them from Corp/Research facility/suspended animation/etc.
*More GM hand waving - your rigger builds anthro drone bodies for the AI decker
*Decker is actually a middle school aged kid - is a hacking prodigy, but not so great with the real world experience
*GM approval - has a one of a kind deck that has pros and cons you'd have to figure out, someone really, REALLY wants it back. Extra amusing for you if it is headware or an internal deck.
*A free sprite or AI has taken interest in the decker - good, bad? Who knows! Though I like the idea of a curious AI/sprite
*Something is stalking the decker in the matrix - or their friends. Always, just out of view.
*Journalist in disguise; publishes the teams accomplishments to their AR channel. What happens when it becomes popular?
*Has a wacky VR persona, but also acts like that in RL
*Is secretly a/an....<fill in blank>
*Conspiracy theorist is always a good go to as well....

Have fun - and good luck!