I don’t really run a lot of cyberpunk, but I’m all about subverting player expectations. The trick is usually to make them feel like they got something out of the skill, while also ensuring that they don’t circumvent the whole thing with a single check.

So say you look up the evil bad guy’s social media to find out where they live. Then you discover that they live in a hardened bunker only accessible from the private elevator of their corporate penthouse office. The knowledge of their whereabouts is useful, but it’s still going to require more strategizing to figure out how to penetrate it.

Or if they’re a major public figure, you might discover that their social media is being run by a botnet. You might not get your target’s exact location, but it gives you a chance to direct the players in an investigation at the botnet’s physical address.

Hacking the CCTV camera might determine that Joe did it. But maybe the assailant was disguised, or Joe got deepfaked, or your hacker discovers that someone has deleted / corrupted the footage. All of these scenarios have potential to turn the investigation in another direction.

If you have a hack-happy player then you probably want to do something to beef up the villains’ technological prowess. Ultimately you do want to reward the player for using their skillset, but you also want to challenge them too. Every hero needs a foil, after all.

It would probably be disingenuous to have every villain suddenly be a computer prodigy though. But it’s not unreasonable to have a few high-profile hacking antagonists or organizations. And if you’re the sort of villain who has the resources to wield a private army or a lavish ultra-rich lifestyle, it stands to reason that you’ve probably contracted out your IT needs

Hey, I’m just here after reading your edit, and I just want to say that you’re totally valid.

I have a big bushy beard and I wear dresses and skirts and such. I know that I’m definitely in the minority, but fuck it, life’s too short not to do what you want.

Ever since I was a kid I wanted a beard like my dad. Now that it’s come fully in, I haven’t shaved my face in a decade. It’s at least as much a part of my identity as my femininity, and the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Anyway, I don’t want to add to the pressure you’re feeling. You’re the only one who can say how you should live your life, and there’s no wrong answers. But I’ve lived in the closet for a long time, and while I was there it might not have been comfortable, but it felt safe. But now that I’m out, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Story time:

I had some trouble scheduling the group together, so I ran some one-on-one adventures with each member so they’d still get a chance to roll dice.

So the cleric is cruising around town one night when this man runs out of his house yelling for help. Some horrible goober (later identified as a bodak) snatched his son out of bed and absconded into the spooky cellar. The man can’t go far to summon the watch because his invalid father is upstairs and can’t be left alone, so isn’t it fortuitous that a locally well known adventurer happens to be strolling by?

So the cleric goes down into the basement to get the baddy. The bodak has the boy hostage and has a deadly gaze attack.

My expectation was that the cleric was going to Turn Undead and scare off the monster. The cleric’s expectation was that they were going to cast Pillar of Fire and cook that sumbitch.

Pillar of Fire is a cylinder with something like a 20 foot radius and 40 foot height. I ask if he’s sure, and he is, so the monster, child, cellar, first, and second floors burst into flames.

Realizing he’s toast if he stays here, the cleric leaves the cellar and bumps into the frantic man on the street. He asks if he got the monster and the cleric shrugs.

The man then agonizes over whether he should save his father or his son, and then plunges into the cellar. Moments later, the burning house collapses on itself.

And that’s how our cleric wiped three generations of a bloodline off the map with a single spell.