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Message no. 1
From: zebulingod@*******.net (Zebulin)
Subject: Deckers in SR3 (WAS RE: A few answers regarding SR4)
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:56:58 -0800
Gurth wrote:
>
> According to Zebulin, on 28-03-2005 17:36 the word on the
> street was...
>
> > I cannot say that I agree with you or Gurth here. I found the SR3
> > rules to streamline decking so well that you could have
> deckers doing
> > their thing alongside everyone else. Now they aren't any more
> > distracting than, say, someone astral projecting.
>
> Glad to hear your game is different in this respect than mine
> :) Deckers always went off to do their own thing in a way
> that had no relationship to the rest of the group, and so
> they very quickly lost interest -- often, an astral magician
> is at least scoping out the area you're going into in the
> physical world, so paying attention will come in handy.
>

See, I have that problem with Mages, and yet, more people want to play them.
See, there's a stigma attached to playing deckers, and it has never gone
away. I tried to get some players to play a decker, but the rest of the
group doesn't want it, so they just give up without giving it a shot. I, for
one, love deckers, and always will. I think they're the coolest game
concept.

Zebulin

>From The Top 100 Things I'd Do
If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord

15. I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that
such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the
counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.
Message no. 2
From: zebulingod@*******.net (Zebulin)
Subject: Deckers in SR3 (WAS RE: A few answers regarding SR4)
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:05:37 -0800
Failhelm wrote:
>
> My players all but refused to play deckers, they felt
> overwhelmed by the rules.
>
> I was more speaking for when I played a decker, which I usually did.
> I'm an avid techno geek in real life and would take advantage
> of some powerful aspects of the decker. However, even though
> this helped the team out, it would still take time to do
> things. If more players were deckers or at least capable of
> decking, then that would help.
>
> Either way, the other players always complained that I was
> taking too long. Not sure what we were doing wrong or that I
> was being "anti-group", but trying to hack some systems just
> took a long while.
> The GM would needed to explain the environment, and I had to
> dice for my character and his various cronies.
>
> My own complaint with decker rules, were that it was your
> deck and your programs that made a good decker. Short of 5 or
> 6 computer skill you were hosed, and this seems at odds with
> the concept of a 5 or 6 being of exceptional quality.
>

You know what's funny? I took two players separately, sat them down and
helped them understand the Matrix rules. Then, we built a deck for each and
ran through a couple of example Matrix runs. Neither player had ever played,
nor wanted to play, a decker before. Both had preconceived notions of how
the Matrix worked, based on SR2. How long do you think it took to teach them
how to play a Decker?

You ready for this?

Thirty minutes.

That's right, it took less time to go over the Matrix rules and get a player
with no prior Matrix knowledge (beyond: "We need a decker? Frag, let's go
call an NPC!") to learn and be able to comfortably use them. It took longer
to go through physical combat!

Zebulin


>From The Top 100 Things I'd Do
If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord

15. I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that
such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the
counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.
Message no. 3
From: gurth@******.nl (Gurth)
Subject: Deckers in SR3 (WAS RE: A few answers regarding SR4)
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 11:29:27 +0200
According to Zebulin, on 29-03-2005 03:56 the word on the street was...

> See, I have that problem with Mages, and yet, more people want to play them.

Yeah, but mages are cool. Especially if they're elves ;)

--
Gurth@******.nl - Stone Age: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Kemen (keemde, h gekeemd): het spelen van computerspelletjes
-> Possibly NAGEE Editor & ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Site: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++(---) UL+ P(+) L++ E W--(++) N o? K w(--)
O V? PS+ PE@ Y PGP- t- 5++ X(+) R+++$ tv+(++) b++@ DI- D+ G+ e h! !r y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 4
From: failhelm@*****.com (Failhelm)
Subject: Deckers in SR3 (WAS RE: A few answers regarding SR4)
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 17:36:20 -0800
On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:05:37 -0800, Zebulin <zebulingod@*******.net> wrote:
> You know what's funny? I took two players separately, sat them down and
> helped them understand the Matrix rules. Then, we built a deck for each and
> ran through a couple of example Matrix runs. Neither player had ever played,
> nor wanted to play, a decker before. Both had preconceived notions of how
> the Matrix worked, based on SR2. How long do you think it took to teach them
> how to play a Decker?
>
> You ready for this?
>
> Thirty minutes.
>
> That's right, it took less time to go over the Matrix rules and get a player
> with no prior Matrix knowledge (beyond: "We need a decker? Frag, let's go
> call an NPC!") to learn and be able to comfortably use them. It took longer
> to go through physical combat!

Your lucky to have players that are even interested. It took me more
than 30 minutes to learn the matrix rules, but then again I was
explaining them to the GM 1/2 the time, which probably hurt Decker
playability :(

I love them personally, great character concept. I must say though
that I found the combat system much easier than matrix rule sets,
perhaps it was because I used the Matrix expansion rules, and not just
the Basic book.

Perhaps that was the difference?
Message no. 5
From: failhelm@*****.com (Failhelm)
Subject: Deckers in SR3 (WAS RE: A few answers regarding SR4)
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 17:50:53 -0800
On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:56:58 -0800, Zebulin <zebulingod@*******.net> wrote:
> Gurth wrote:
> >
> > According to Zebulin, on 28-03-2005 17:36 the word on the
> > street was...
> >
> > > I cannot say that I agree with you or Gurth here. I found the SR3
> > > rules to streamline decking so well that you could have
> > deckers doing
> > > their thing alongside everyone else. Now they aren't any more
> > > distracting than, say, someone astral projecting.
> >
> > Glad to hear your game is different in this respect than mine
> > :) Deckers always went off to do their own thing in a way
> > that had no relationship to the rest of the group, and so
> > they very quickly lost interest -- often, an astral magician
> > is at least scoping out the area you're going into in the
> > physical world, so paying attention will come in handy.
> >
>
> See, I have that problem with Mages, and yet, more people want to play them.
> See, there's a stigma attached to playing deckers, and it has never gone
> away. I tried to get some players to play a decker, but the rest of the
> group doesn't want it, so they just give up without giving it a shot. I, for
> one, love deckers, and always will. I think they're the coolest game
> concept.

When I first started playing SR, back in 1e, the mage was appealing
because it was the first system I had found where spell slinging was
less complicated that being the local tank.

Less rules, less complexity and I didn't want to deal with cybernetics
and keeping track of ammo, gear and all that jazz. Of course I'm
baised, as I love da' magic.
Message no. 6
From: sinbad@*********.net (sinbad@*********.net)
Subject: Deckers in SR3 (WAS RE: A few answers regarding SR4)
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 23:23:21 -0600
Well me and two other players one time played Identical tripplet
deckers,,with a deck that allowed each of us to do our special
part,,,Icon was Cerebus a three headed dog,,each of us separately had a
dog like Icon,,,but as Cerebus we ROCKED.*grins*..We also had some minor
rigging ablities.

Deckers do have there place.

Sinbad Sam
Message no. 7
From: weberm@*******.net (Ubiquitous)
Subject: Deckers in SR3 (WAS RE: A few answers regarding SR4)
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:45:21 -0500
At 11:23 PM 3/29/2005 -0600, you wrote:

>Well me and two other players one time played Identical tripplet
>deckers,,with a deck that allowed each of us to do our special
>part,,,Icon was Cerebus a three headed dog,,each of us separately had a
>dog like Icon,,,but as Cerebus we ROCKED.*grins*..

Go Voltron!
--
"Ted, sweetheart...somebody's left a wicker basket with a little baby in it
on our front doorstep."
"Just leave it out there on the stoop, honey. The cats'll get it."
- Red Meat http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/

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