[belaran]

Ok, a bit of context first : if you have been playing shadowrun for as long as me (or more) - which means since 2dn Ed, you know that handling matrix scene has always been an issue. Focus is drawn to one player, other got bored, and even the decker player ended up being feeling bad or just not so into it because of the feeling of "i play alone".

It got better and with the introduction of augmented reality, hackers have been able to be more relevant in action scene. But the issue of the "divided" during a matrix scene (go fetch data, reckon and so on) is still there. (even if matrix scene are far more shorter than they used to be).

In Data Trails, a program called Hitchhacker was introduced to allow other PCs to join in a trip in the Matrix Foundation. Presumably because game designers immediatly saw that adding a new "deep layer" to the Matrix will isolate even more hacker player.

Anyway, I misused a bit this program to allow an other player to join the decker in a matrix scene. Technically, Hitchhacker are not designed to be able to do anything in the "real matrix" (only in the  Foundation) - if I understood right, but I gave its icon the ability to move separatly and do some Matrix Search and Perception test. And it worked like a charm !

I could, for once, see the other player really engage in the matrix scene. So I thought I'd shared that here as other GM may be interested by this approach.

[Kirito99]

Nothing prevents non-decker to do some matrix search , usually players are fixed to the idea of spotlight so they don't bother to help matrix legwork  to cut gathering information time. It seems that your non-decker players didn't realize this unless you tweaked hitchhiker program.
Fifth edition cut the borders - there are drugs and spirits power that let you do astral voyage , there are mods that let non-decker with high intuition decent matrix legwork , group deep runs with hitchhiker and so on.

[belaran]

My tweak is more on Matrix Perception. By allowing hitchhikers to do that and also separate their Persona and explore the node, I gave him the ability to looks at icons while the decker was doing some heavy lifting (crack file / fight off IC). When I talked about Matrix Search I meant it searching the current node for data, not just do a simple matrix search...

[Shaidar]

As far back as 1st ed there have been ways to include non-decker PCs in the Deckers escapades. They were a hardware add-on to your deck called Hitcher Jacks.