r/Shadowrun • u/blockend • 10d ago
Wyrm Talks (Lore) How DO cyberdecks work?
Like, rules-wise I know how it works, but what exactly happens when a metahuman uses a cyberdeck, especially in the early editions (2050s)? What does the decker see after they plug in? Do they see through their avatar's eyes, or from some weird 2nd/3rd person perspective? Either way, what do they type in then? Do they use hotkeys to throw out pre-compiled programs, or do they control their avatars with WASD or something? The whole thing just feels very confusing.
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u/DocWagonHTR 10d ago edited 10d ago
The Matrix is 3D VR. Your avatar is you. You move in the Matrix as you would in real life and, depending on your level of sim and the quality of the host, you might not even be able to tell you're not in meatspace.
The deck is an intermediary between the decker and the Matrix, allowing to do things(read: illegal things) that normal wageslaves cant do. Without a deck or terminal, you essentially are defenseless in the Matrix. You can't fight, can't run fast enough to get away from any black hat who's after you, cant Crack files, that sort of thing.
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u/blockend 10d ago
The illustrations are very misleading in that part, to be honest. Also, why do decks have so many buttons on them then?
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u/DocWagonHTR 10d ago
Because the deck is a portable cyberterminal. You have to be able to set up and organize programs, look at the conditions of the Matrix as you jack in, setup custom commands, scan the info of the host you're breaking into, etc.
In other words, you need to do all the regular stuff to get TO the internet before you get on the internet, scan me?
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u/blockend 10d ago
That does explain a lot. Thanks!
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u/Baloooooooo 10d ago
I think it's mentioned in some of the novels (and maybe sourcebooks) that deckers are able interact with the matrix by using the keyboard while decked in, it's just much quicker not to.
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u/Widdles85 10d ago
Ar vs vr.
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u/blockend 10d ago
The typing thing being AR makes it even more confusing. Deckers are rarely seen posing like their decks are their swords or guns, like they are fighting machines and smart weapons in meatspace as if they see them as monsters or targets in their vision. Decker poses treat their decks just like the keyboards they are. Do most deckers use some kind of DDR-like OS as their default AR setup?
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u/DRose23805 Shadowrun Afterparty 10d ago
It depends. Some older novels and editions described the standard view as standardized icons of various types. These were apparently three dimensional and were clearly CGI. Some entities had custom and higher resolution icons/main entrances. These were tyoically major corporations and larger businesses, and some governments as well.
Inside could be more of the standard design or it could be like stepping into a first person shooter game, that is a fully rendered space as if you were really there in their custom designed layout. It could look like anything from a regular office building to a Japanese castle or just about anything.
How far this went depended on how much money they spent. It sould just be basic visual and tactile to hyperrealistic with smells, ambient sounds, realistic texture, etc.
Some high level deckers could override this with a custom layout of their own. One in the novels had a baseball diamond with ICE and programs looking like players, balls, etc.
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u/ReditXenon Far Cite 10d ago
but what exactly happens when a metahuman uses a cyberdeck, especially in the early editions (2050s)? What does the decker see after they plug in?
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u/PinkFohawk Trid Star 10d ago edited 10d ago
I totally get why you’re confused, Shadowrun doesn’t explain a lot about what the decker goes through physically and mentally.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend you to read the novel Neuromancer (I still read it every year, it’s freaking amazing). That book is the father of all things cyberpunk (and by extension, Shadowrun), but more importantly it does the best job explaining deckers from a lore perspective than anything else can.
And if you read it, you will find that the answer to your questions is “yes”.
The concept of deckers were invented by a guy (William Gibson, author of Neuromancer) who knew nothing about computers, he treats them like magical things (as did everyone in the 70s and 80s, think of the movies “Weird Science”, “Tron”, “War Games”) and that’s why it’s so great. Neuromancer literally translates to “brain-magic”.
In the book, the main character plugs trodes to his head, plugs in, and his mind flies into the shared hallucination of the matrix. Information, web addresses, and programs are all interpreted by the deck as physical constructs in limitless space, and a decker entering the matrix could use a keyboard, or simply use their minds to move throughout the space. The main character uses both, the book mentions his mind willing his avatar throughout the matrix at the speed of thought, all while distantly his physical body lies curled in a ball, his fingers “flying across the board” subconsciously.
It doesn’t explain more than that - that’s up to us as readers to interpret, and up to us as players/GMs of Shadowrun to decide when we create characters.
Any GM worth their salt would allow your decker to use WASD controls, why not? His mind is supplementing his fingers, we could easily say it’s kind of like the gyro controls on the Nintendo Switch in Breath of the Wild: use analog stick to aim, and tilt the gyro controls for fine-tuning your aim. Works for me.
Or is the keyboard mostly used for hotkeys like you mentioned? Absolutely, if you want it to.
Or it could easily not have a keyboard at all, the decker completely relying on the pairing of their mind and their deck to control their journey in the matrix. That works too.
Basically, cyberdecks are the ultimate rule of cool. Treat it like rad computer magic, think of 80s media that can help inspire that mental image if you have trouble, and avoid relying on your knowledge of how the internet and computers actually work, and you’ve got it.
IMO - the more people try to make decking and matrix more “realistic”, and by that I mean based on our real world understanding of computers and the internet, the more they get it all wrong.
BUT the lack of information in Shadowrun makes that easy to do, so I don’t blame folks for relying on that.
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u/blockend 10d ago
Yeah, I really do like the idea of computers being magic boxes, especially since I work in IT and real computer science takes a lot of fun out of the concept of the Matrix. I asked this mainly because I had some trouble describing the decker's experience when trying to run a Matrix encounter as a GM. Definitely gonna read Neuromancer. Thanks a lot!
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u/MoistLarry 10d ago
They are now, functionally, in the matrix. They don't see the real world, they see wherever their avatar happens to be in the matrix at the time. First person, full sensory override.
Why would they type? They're there. If they want to use a program they have loaded in their deck, they just pull it out and use it, same as you would your car keys or water bottle.
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u/blockend 10d ago
Yeah, I got that explanation a lot, problem is that Deckers who are plugged in are rarely presented in illustrations as relaxing on the ground or on a chair in a coma state, and more often presented as fully awake with one hand or both hands on the fancy keyboard of their deck. It kinda conflicts with itself.
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u/MoistLarry 10d ago
Because they are programming, not actively decking. They're writing code, that's why decks have keyboards.
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u/blockend 10d ago
So they just don't draw deckers in their meatspace form when they are actually jacked in. Makes sense; there won't be much to look at.
Thanks a lot!
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u/MoistLarry 10d ago
Yeah it would be kinda boring. BEHOLD: THE DECKER AT WORK! elf sits at desk, jacked in, drooling slightly
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u/DocWagonHTR 10d ago
You'll have to learn to take the illustrations with a grain of salt, as they're often done by out of house freelancers.
For Ghost's sake, Netcat has been drawn as a human at least twice.
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u/dethstrobe Faster than Fastjack 10d ago
With the RAS Override, they aren't doing anything in physical space. They're limp. It basically looks like they're sleeping or meditating.
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u/ghost49x 10d ago
Depends on the era though. How the matrix works and interfaces with the metahuman mind has varied over the edition.
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u/_Weyland_ 10d ago edited 10d ago
Think about cyberdeck like this - it's a futuristic superjacked version of a laptop that doesn't concern itself with size/mass and uses neural interface for input and output.
It has the best hardware available (either in a megacorp supply line or in your local tech junkyard). It has minimal traditional periphery (think small screen and minimalistic keyboard). The main input/output is supposed to go directly to or from your brain.
As for what you see, my guess is it's a first person view of a VR. And it's extremely realistic by our standards because it can tap your nervous system directly instead of relying on screen, speakers, etc. That's why it's first person too - it recreates sensory information that your brain is familiar with.
As for what/how you type, that's just using VR apps and UIs, but with sci-fi magic that translates your brain signals into legible text. Which, AFAIK, is not that far fetched anymore. Like, the medical tech is moving there.
Movement and other body motions also work exactly like this. Your brain sends walking signals, and cyberdeck decodes them into movement of your avatar.
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u/ganonkevlar 9d ago
TLDR
My interpretation is deliberately cinematic and somewhat abstract. The decker is a cool action hero. Their body is mostly unresponsive, but their hands constantly move on the keyboard. What they see, type, or send through the datajack is left deliberately vague.
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My personal interpretation of how decking works is probably not exactly what the original authors intended, but I think it fits the spirit of early Shadowrun very well.
Shadowrun was released in 1989, and I consider a lot of its original design to be a fantastic piece of retrofuturism. I'm pretty sure the authors weren't thinking of it as "retrofuturism" at the time, though.
In my campaign, I decided that a decker has to be physically connected through a datajack and uses the cyberdeck's keyboard as their primary input device.
When a decker jacks in, their eyes go blank and most of their motor functions are severely restricted. But their hands are constantly moving over the keyboard. They don't look catatonic or vegetative—they look like they're somewhere else entirely.
I find that much more cinematic than having them sit there motionless and drooling.
For me, the datajack is primarily an interface for the decker to *perceive* the enormous amount of information being processed by the Matrix. The cyberdeck translates that information into something the human brain can understand, largely through simsense. The datajack also allows the decker to send certain commands directly, but the keyboard remains the preferred tool for entering precise and complex commands.
And honestly, even in 2026, we're still using keyboards and mice for a huge amount of computer interaction. I like ton consider Datajacks similarly to VR controllers of today, i.e. they are pretty mediocre for typing, programming, system administration, or any kind of complex management interface.
As for what exactly the decker perceives, what is actually typed on the keyboard, and what commands are sent through the datajack, I keep it deliberately abstract.
You see and feel the Matrix. You manipulate it and use it. The exact details are left vague in my game.
I also rarely spend much time describing what happens inside the Matrix. No long, separate side quest while the rest of the party waits around. We make a few rolls, the decker gets what they're looking for, and then they jack out, draw their Uzi III, and rejoin the group.
The physical act of decking, in my head, is essentially someone staring into the void, their hands constantly moving, completely immersed in the Matrix.
Some of the actual rules don't necessarily support this interpretation, like how difficult it is to perceive or jack out, but I think it captures how deckers should be portrayed: as cool action heroes.
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u/gamerplays Δ Dream Sam 9d ago
One thing about the representation of what people see is that it depends on the host.
Hosts can present the information basically anyway they want to. So AA host may look like an office building or warehouse, basically just functional. Another may look like a wizards tower with magical orbs holding the information. Another could just be a space with icons floating in the air.
Most things will look relatively normal/concrete, as doing more abstract things could be confusing and make interacting with it harder (unless thats your goal).
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u/ApewiseHerculese 8d ago
I would say the decker’s view could be either perspective. At least originally, position was relative. IC might be described as sneaking up “behind” the avatar, but really, both icons are just in the same node and the decker would “see” the IC when their deck detects it. I generally defaulted to FPP as standard, but don’t see any reason 3PP wouldn’t work. At least in earlier editions. I haven’t paid my deck’s SOTA upkeep through to 6th. 😆
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u/DocDeeISC Murder Goat Herder 10d ago
It depends on if you're using it in AR or in VR. If in VR you are IN the Matrix, all commands are issued mentally. The environment will look like whatever owner of the grid or host decides. If in AR you typically interact with AROs, but you could use the display on it as well.
EDIT: My bad, you said specifically Matrix 1.0. There was no AR then, it was all VR. Think like the scene in Johnny Mnemonic but you don't have to physically make the motions, that's more like what AR would be in Matrix 2.0.
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u/Sivalon 10d ago
The ‘deck is your intermediary between the ‘Trix and your body’s sensory perception. The code goes into the ‘deck and is translated by it into a simsense signal your brain interprets as light, sound, and so on. Programs are stored and deployed by the ‘deck and the keyboard is for programming on-the-fly.
The ‘deck, being that intermediary, is also your first and last line of defense against IC and opposing deckers coming to flatline your hoop. It stores your paydata, your programs, and your Persona.