Haven't bought the game, but I did play the pen-and-paper version for a single campaign once (played out over several sessions) and quite enjoyed it.

Now here was (and still is) my thing...I'm intimidated by the magic system and the techie characters, so I went with a Troll Enforcer (iirc the archetype) when I played the tabletop game. Just pure melee brutality, simple & easy to play. If I do that with the computer version, how detailed is it to run NPCs? Do I still need to know the magic system and techie stuff, or is it as simple as setting them on auto-pilot for combat & computer hacking?

Thanks in advance.

Honestly, the combat, magic, and related systems are so simple, that virtually any combination should be easy to run. You could go in as a mage and I don't you'd have a hard time at all.

That aside: to run your NPCs in combat, you basically have to know all the same things about their class and abilities as you would if your main character had the same class or abilities.

Oh, and AFAIK there is no auto-pilot for the NPCs.

its all pretty simple really.

it's extremly simple, but you could also just make the character you desire and recruit only street samureis for combat, and deckers when needed.