[Belker]

I think there were a number of deckers vying for the title of "best decker" back in the 2050s. It's pretty clear that Dodger and Fastjack were among the best of the best, and likely that others like Valerie Valkyrie (one of Dr. Raven's crew) could be counted among that number. The differences between the people at the very top were likely much smaller than the differences between the elite and the rest of the Matrix-runners. I suspect they all had areas where they might edge out the others; for example, Dodger seemed to be the top dog when it came to knowing the Renraku systems.

Fastjack has certainly outlasted pretty much everyone else, at least at the highest levels, until very recently - as far as the shadowrunner population knows. I think it remains to be seen just what is up with Dodger.

In the metagame sense, I think Fastjack simply became a very popular fluff personage very early on, and he certainly appeared in the Shadowtalk much more frequently than any other decker other than the Captain, at least as far as my memory goes.

[Crimsondude]

Red Wraith was also a badass FastJack praised like a motherfucker in Aztlan. Then he had a bit of a, uh ... Career shift. He's still around; retired from running, but he's now a fixer in Brussels/Amsterdam.

There's also Priest, but he went missing. But, yeah. FastJack somehow became the go-to fave probably around the time of the Denver Box Set when he smacked around Bash in the Nexus so Perri could introduce the Otaku.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Well, 'Jack did knock Bash around good, and he did make it so Perri could be both uninterrupted and untouched, but they weren't happening at the same time.  The former was when he was talking about the Nexus' security. 

In regards to 'who's the best', Dodger was never considered 'the best'.  Very good, sure - and maybe even A Name.  I always got the impression that he went out of his way to slip in and out; his full name was 'The Artful Dodger', slipping in and out without a trace, but YMMV on that one.  Fastjack has a reputation, and build that reputation, and maintained that reputation.  IMO, he did - or must have done - a hell of a lot of things mainly to create and keep that reputation, for the simple fact that you can't get a reputation like that without tooting your own horn more than a little.

In my opinion, it's like gunfighters in the Old West.  There are those who become legends, and those who are incredible shots and wickedly lethal - and the two are not necessarily overlapping.  Look up the actual deadliest men in the west, and for every big, famous gunfighter - Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok - there's two or three others just as good or better, but not as famous.  Going by the same measure, for every great decker - Dodger, Sutherland (the ponce), Fastjack - there's two or three others as good or better but without the big rep.  Those are the smart ones, the ones you really want to hire, because though yeah, they'll still command top dollar, you won't have to worry about the run getting talked about even with the names changed ...

[Wakshaani]

Oh Sotherland. How I miss him.

[Angelone]

Yes, he might have been a traitorous snake, but he was a likable traitorous snake. Streak was my favorite out of the whole bunch.

[Crimsondude]

At least Sutherland was honest about being a whore.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Sutherland, likeable?  I wanted to shoot him from the first moment I read his writeup.  His appearances didn't make me like him any more, but considerably less, instead.  For two bent thermoplast nuyen I'd've finished the job the shotgun started ...

[Crimsondude]

What Wyrm said.


His honesty about being a sell-out made him even more insufferable.

[Angelone]

Serrin wouldn't have gotten anywhere without him, Sutherland basically bankrolled everything. So no roguish cocky charm for you two?

[Crimsondude]

Nope.


The operative word in roguish charm being charm, which he certainly lacked.

[Angelone]

So maybe an adventure with him as the target? 

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

I ... just cut most of what I think about the Sargent & Gascoigne stuff, but suffice it to say that I don't think there's anything worse written for the SR universe.  Do they have little gems, yes - but the works had a lot of the 'everything is better better badder and my people know stuff nobody else does' syndrome that, fortunately, most of the rest of SR stayed away from, or had only small parts being B³.  So ... Sutherland getting stuck as a Head of Matrix Security is wonderfully precious to me.

As for adventures with him as the target, well - everyone who hacks Wuxing is sticking a knife into him, which makes me giggle.

[Wakshaani]

So, what all books is Sutherland in, anyway?

[Angelone]

Prime Runners, Black Madonna, Nosferatu, Streets of Blood, and I think one of two more.

Edit- Maybe Target: Matrix?

[Nath]

Yes, Target: Matrix. That's when he became Wuxing head of Matrix security.

I like the character for really only one thing I think, that discussion in Black Madonna, which was something along the lines of:

- I can go in the field this night with you. I know how to shoot.
- How come?
- I grew up in New York. Shooting at night is the second thing you learn there.
- What's the first?
- Shooting at day.

Made all the more tasty (or insufferable, YMMV) by the fact Sutherland grew up in a wealthy family. Otherwise, I consider Sutherland is showing that shadowrunning is not the fasttrack to the top, and social determinism is still pretty much alive. If you're a punk, you'll stay a punk, the guys who will actually get the chance to became head of Matrix security in a megacorporation were already born in the upper class.