[ryanstark1989@yahoo.com]

I've yet to play a decker, but I've played with and talked to a few and have made my attempt at one now. Character concept is a disabled (sort of) human, with a broad focus on hacking and assorted warfare.

Priority
A Resources
B Skills
C Attributes
D Metatype (human)
E Magic

Qualities of Overclocker and perfect time cost 10 karma; distinctive style, weak immune system, and creature of comfort (middle) give 25 karma. Spent 10 karma on nuyen resource to give 470k starting cash)

Attributes

Body 2
Agility 1 (2 from cyberware)
Reaction 2
Strength 1 (2 from cyberware)
Charisma 2
Intuition 5
Logic 5 (7 from bioware)
Willpower 6
Edge 5

Skills

Skill group Electronics 6 (5 points and 30 karma spent to max)
Armorer 6
Chemistry 4
Cybercombat 6
Demolitions 6
Hacking 6
Pilot Ground Craft 2

Bioware/Cyberware

Datajack (Used)
Cerebral Booster (Standard)
Muscle Augmentation (Used)
Muscle Toner (Used)

1.03 Essence consumed

Gear etc

Lifestyle Medium
Fake SIN rating 4 (Cyberdeck, Explosives, and Restricted Bioware Licenses at rating 4)
Renraku Tsurugi (Baby Monitor, Agent Rating 4, Exploit, Virtual Machine, Signal Scrub, Sneak, Stealth, and Wrapper)
GMC Bulldog Step-Van (Morphing License Plate, Spoof Chips (generic utility company), Chameleon Coating, and Smuggling Compartment (Troll).)


Perhaps needs specializations, also can buy assorted explosives I might plan on using, or cut back on karma spent on nuyen. have 42,565 nuyen remaining at this point so can really do several things. Thoughts?

[gradivus]

I don't play deckers but off the top of my head:

Microtrónica Azteca 300   cyberdeck   
Muscle Replacement [1]       
Cerebral Booster [2] Used      
CerebellumBooster {2] Used   {need restricted Gear}   
Datajack       
Antenae*3       

This leaves you with 100250 (no Karma Used for money) to purchase software, agent and gear.
It consumes 2.4ess.


Qualities: Restricted Gear, Overclocker, Perfect time, Jack of All Trades (eventually getting all the LOG based Skills at Rating 5 will make you, well, a jack of all trades)

get rid of the Pilot and invest in specializations to your cracking skills.

Last but not least you might consider dropping  to human (1) and gaining adept 2. If you buy the cyberware I suggested  you'll drop to Maximum Magic 3 and MR 0...in the Karma Step instead of purchasing  SG 6 for electronics buy MR 3. Now you can add Danger Sense [3] and Improved Ability: Hacking [3]

BTW Lower your WIL to 5 and raise your Body to 3: Same Stun monitor, incrases physical moniter & overflow by 1


I'm sure dedicated decker players would have better advice.

[Whiskeyjack]

Hard capping WIL is less good than hard capping INT.

I probably wouldn't start with a cerebellum booster. They're just too expensive.

BOD should be an odd number.

Muscle Aug is of no value to this character. Muscle Toner getting you AGI 2 isn't really doing anything noteworthy either.

Armorer is pretty low-value. I'd probably also just take Chemistry at 1 - your pool is going to be 8 still for something purely threshold. With Edge 5 this is fine.

No Perception?

Take some skill points and buy Hacking and Cybercombat specs.

No gun skill - decking in combat isn't very feasible. No initiative boost. What do you plan to do in combat?

I'd consider swapping Skills and Attributes. You could get more AGI perhaps. Deckers need minimal Software and a spec to handle Data Bombs but I get having nowhere else to put the group points. I would not waste karma getting the group to 6. And the group does deny you having specs.

[ryanstark1989@yahoo.com]

pilot does seem like a waste, but i've had a few runs where dedicated drivers being knocked out makes escape impossible without burning edge, which with my low pool id like to avoid. its still a sickly pool, but should at least get me out of a tight spot in the odd case i'm the best available driver.

I could up the cyberware stuff, cerebellum is appealing but pricey. maybe i can juggle some stuff

[ryanstark1989@yahoo.com]

oh, yeah body and toner stuff only exists for skill minimums purposes which ive tied into fluff. cerebellum is also pricey, yeah so  ill avoid it for now. body is even only because absolute minimum for an attribute is 2 as a house rule, otherwise id be at 1. can raise it to an odd number after a run or two. combat is going to be a last case scenario for this character, but unsure why i couldn't just try to brick guns if that was the scenario i found myself in? Figured deckers were beyond awful for combat but i could waste some points if need be for balance.

Perception i've gone with null before as a mage, replaced it with assensing, so figured matrix perception would be similar?

[Danny Montanny]

30 Karma on Electronics 6 is way too much with your limited supply.

The Azteca 300 with Quick Config, Perfect Time, and Overclocker is the new baseline if you ask me. Throw in a Vurtial Machine module and you're ready to rock 5 programs at once. You'll be able to completely configure for an attack with 9 Attack and then completely configure for defense with a 9 Firewall before you end your action phase.

I'd go Will 5, Logic 5 +2 Cerebral, and Intuition 6 +1 Cerebellum. Get some custom drugs that give +2 Will, +2 Logic and +2 Intuition for Host runs.

I go File specialization on Hacking and Devices on Cybercombat. I'd say 4 ranks in Electronic Warfare is fine.

[JmOz01]

why not get rid of toner and augment ang  get musle replacement.  Yes big hit on essence but you don't need it much...

[Whiskeyjack]

unsure why i couldn't just try to brick guns if that was the scenario i found myself in?

It's way too slow unless you always know you're about to get into a fight and can spend some non-structured time marking their guns in advance.

The best case in combat time is ejecting clips, and that buys you a simple at best.

Perception i've gone with null before as a mage, replaced it with assensing, so figured matrix perception would be similar?

I wouldn't think you can logically translate "several icons are coming this way" into "we're about to be attacked." Not to mention, if they're not running wireless-on, you got nothing.

[Glyph]

The character seems a bit hyper-specialized to me.  He can do hacking/techie stuff and that's about it.  He is like a street samurai who has nothing but combat skills, or a face who has nothing but social skills - characters like that can be boring to play any time their specialty is not applicable, and in trouble any time they have to function outside of their role.  Granted, decking can be used for a lot of things, but I would still be nervous playing a decker who couldn't sneak, or talk to people, or shoot a gun.  I guess it can still be a viable character, if the other members of the team give you good protection while you are taking care of the decking.

[ryanstark1989@yahoo.com]

ahhh, muscle replacement, good idea. and i like that idea a ton, danny. No clue how to create custom drugs in chummer, though. if i take the 30 out of that skill group i have karma and no idea what to spend on, unless i want to pick up some things and be a really basic rigger on top of this. Or I could look at some other potential build, I've seen some social infiltrator deckers which could be fun, but unsure what else I could realistically play in combo.

[ryanstark1989@yahoo.com]

decker/rigger combo also sounds viable since i have been told/observed that "van decker is best decker" so i might fiddle with that idea a bit and post a new layout here shortly

[Whiskeyjack]

The character seems a bit hyper-specialized to me.

That's the draw with deckers, really.

Sams can easily expand into a little social stuff. Faces can very easily be mages.

Deckers need a lot of money, and multiple high-ranked skills.

decker/rigger combo also sounds viable since i have been told/observed that "van decker is best decker" so i might fiddle with that idea a bit and post a new layout here shortly

Van decker this edition runs into the Noise issue.

The issue with decker/rigger is needing more high stats and more high skills and a metric fuckton of expensive gear.

[Danny Montanny]

Custom drugs are in Chrome Flesh. A lot of Deckers act as support or leaders with the Small Unit Tacticts from Run & Gun. First Aid is a good pick up. If you're going leader, pick up a few ratings of Mnemonic Enhancers.

For a solid base mundane Decker, I don't think you can go wrong with Sum to 10 A: Resorces and B: Attributes and Skills. It's only 3 Edge, but you'll survive. Bod:3, AGI: 3, REA: 4, Str: 2 (bought with Karma), Wil: 5, Log: 5 (7), Int: 6 (7), and Cha: 2 (Bought with Karma). Throw on a solid Cyberarm, and possibly some initiative boosting ware.

[ryanstark1989@yahoo.com]

i figure noise is usually some level of unavoidable, i think there is some piece of gear that takes off 1 point of noise, but i may just be thinking of a datajack as compared to trodes. otherwise 2-3 noise are probably the general penalties to expect unless some deckers actually jack in to whatever they plan on hacking (that would be super interesting but an infiltration decker would be hard to pull off i'd think)

As it stands right now with the decker/rigger combo, i just added a rigger interface to the van and a control rig, i still have a surplus of nuyen to get some tool stuff and other runner gear if i want to go that route. the skills will be rough though, as juggling the ones i've done so far gives me a paltry 8 dice for piloting groundcraft and no actual way of combating anything (thinking about gunnery skill, but ugh.)

Also I can only use priority build :/

Decker leader could be interesting, would've figured that'd be pure face domain, or sam. That last idea sounds like it could be fun otherwise

[Darzil]

There is more than one way to reduce noise :
1 from wireless datajack
1-3 from antennae (Chrome Flesh)
Rating (rating+1 wireless) for Fresnel Fabric (Run and Gun) if you know the exact meatspace direction of the target (I'd rule not usable against hosts as they don't have a location)
2 from Noise Reduction program
Satellite Link limits distance noise to 5.
On a Rig, RCC can do it, and there is also an RCC Matrix action to reduce it further.

And probably others I've forgotten.

With this sort of kit around, the real issue is not so much distance as it is things that might be in the way blocking signals.